Illumination

Presence

The surge of Illumination can create convincing illusions, both visual and auditory. This ability is commonly known as Lightweaving, though Lightweavers and Truthwatchers can both use this surge.

Illumination Surge

Radiant Orders: Lightweaver, Truthwatcher

Activation: ▶

To Lightweave an illusion, spend 1 Investiture or more to infuse it into thin air in a space within your spren bond range. This illusion can't exceed the surge size for your ranks in Illumination (see the Surge Scaling table at the beginning of this chapter).

Lightweavings typically take the form of a three-dimensional hologram representing a character, object, or phenomenon you're familiar with. This illusion is composed of light, complete with animation and accompanying sounds produced by the vibrations of your bonded spren.

Simple and Complex Illusions. If the illusion depicts a simple object with no sound or animations, the infusion uses 1 Investiture every 10 minutes. If the illusion depicts a character or more complex object, it instead uses 1 Investiture each round. For the duration, the illusion remains active even if you move out of range. You can move and control a complex illusion, as detailed in "Controlling Illusions."

Disguising Yourself. Alternatively, if you have 1 Investiture or more, you can use Illumination to create an illusory disguise on yourself without spending Investiture. This disguise lasts until you end it as ▷ or run out of Investiture.

Deceiving Characters. If your illusion is a simple object or a disguise on yourself, it automatically convinces characters unless they have a reason to be suspicious. If you create a more complex illusion (such as disguising another character), the GM might require you to make an Illumination test against the Cognitive defense of any character who passively observes the illusion; on a success, your illusion is convincing to them.

A character might decide to Use a Skill to scrutinize your illusion, especially if you fail the above Illumination test or if you or your allies roll a Complication on a related test. In this case, make an Illumination test opposed by the character's Perception test. If their test result exceeds your own, they notice the illusion (see "Detecting Illusions" for the effects).

You can make these tests to deceive characters even if that illusion is currently out of your spren bond range.

Using Illumination

In addition to the basic surge rules above, this section provides more guidance on using or interacting with this surge in your game.

Imagining Illusions

Lightweaving is easiest when replicating something you're familiar with. If you have a great memory or if you reference material you created (such as a sketch, a painting, or a written passage) you might be able to Lightweave something you've only encountered a few times—but your Illumination tests to deceive onlookers will probably gain a disadvantage.

It's very challenging to Lightweave something you've only seen in drawings or imagined yourself. It's up to your GM how difficult this is, but you might face challenges such as a reduced surge size, an additional Investiture cost, a focus cost, an increased DC, or a disadvantage on your d20 roll.

Controlling Illusions

You can control all of your complex illusions that are within your spren bond range. Each illusion can pretend to interact with its environment; for example, you might make an illusionary tree bend with the wind, or make an illusionary child try to catch a ball (but intentionally miss it). However, your illusion has no senses of its own, so you can't give it tasks that require senses or knowledge you don't have.

An illusion can move up to your movement rate on your turn in a manner reasonable for that illusion. You can use ▷ to have one or more of your illusions perform simple, mindless tasks like walking across the street or shouting a phrase. You can use ▶ to task one of your illusions with something that requires your careful attention, such as convincingly conversing with someone.

If you move out of range, your illusions can only perform whatever simple, mindless tasks you last gave them, such as gazing thoughtfully at a bookshelf.

Maintaining Illusions

When your illusions begin running out of Stormlight, you can seamlessly maintain them by feeding Investiture from your own supply. You can use ▷ to infuse 1 Investiture or more into any illusions of your choice within your spren bond range (spending separate Investiture for each illusion).

Detecting Illusions

A failed Illumination test or an unfortunate Complication can cause a target to recognize that an illusion is artificial. However, when this happens, the illusion itself persists, and it might even continue to conceal something else in the right circumstances. For example, if you Lightweave a boulder around yourself, a successful Perception test may alert an enemy that something is amiss, but they still won't be able to see inside the boulder. (However, you can't see through your illusionary boulder either!)

Tests aren't the only way to detect an illusion (or to become suspicious of one). If one character detects an illusion, they might alert their allies that it isn't real. And if a physical object passes through an illusion, a white blur appears at the intersection, and a character familiar with Lightweaving might recognize these telltale signs. Such events can betray the presence of Lightweaving, and any character wishing to determine the boundaries or source of an illusion can make a Deduction or Perception test opposed by your Illumination.

Illumination Talent Tree

Illumination Talents

The following talents, presented here in alphabetical order, appear in the Illumination talent tree for the Lightweaver and Truthwatcher paths.