Benediction of Archgenesis

Cost: 40 motes
Target: Area

Within herself, a Solar Circle sorcerer holds a living power to compare with the fury of a tsunami, the force of an earthquake—or the still, quiet resilience of an ancient forest. As she chooses to give herself to the land around her, the Solar grants it all the bounty and vitality of her own Exalted Essence. Whether a stinking, rotting swamp or a barren, rocky plateau, any land may be remade, lush and arable. The benediction covers up to (Essence x 100) square miles of consistent terrain—all desert, all mesa, all marshland or the like.

At sunset on the new moon of Ascending Water, the character begins casting Benediction of Archgenesis from the geomantic center of the domain she wishes to revitalize. Shaping this spell is a dramatic action that lasts until sunrise. The sorcerer cuts her bare feet so that her blood falls upon the ground. From then on, she walks in an expanding spiral, pouring her life into the earth drop by drop, sacrificing five levels of aggravated damage. At sunrise, clouds gather overhead and release a soft, warm rain to wash the sorcerer's blood into the land.

The effects of the benediction become apparent to the naked eye just after the rain stops. Any snow or ice on the ground has melted completely, and for a few days thereafter, any flowering plants already in the region will bloom. By Resplendent Earth, all the plants throughout the region grow larger and healthier. Animals come to nest and play. By summer, the place is transformed. Desert becomes soil; bogs drain. The Blessed Isle never saw such lush growth. The weather is more temperate, the days blessed only by the briefest of showers. Both local animals and people bear unprecedented numbers of healthy offspring. This effect reduces the difficulty of all Survival rolls in the region by one and increases the typical Compassion of extras from that region by one dot. Transforming wasteland into land where people and wholesome creatures can easily live is a Shaping effect.

Only Adamant Countermagic can disrupt the new environmental harmony if someone uses it for that purpose within the first year. Otherwise, the place remains a lush and fertile land. Although the region's initial, supernatural fecundity will not continue after the first year, the blessed region will remain arable forever, with proper care.

Gaia's gifts have limits, though. Using Benediction of Archgenesis on land that can already be farmed gives one year of frenzied, hyper-normal fertility—followed by 10 years of deadly famine from the exhausted earth.