Appendix — Quick Reference

The one-page-ish cheat sheet for the table. Every number here is drawn from the chapters; where you need the full rule, the parenthetical points you to it. Merretia runs on the standard d20 core (SRD 5.2) — this appendix lists only what is ours.

1. The Colour Law

Faith is the substrate of all magic; to shape it you run it through one of nine channels on a single spectrum from purest Order to purest Chaos. Order channels emit (lit from within, bloomed). Chaos channels absorb (matte, inked-in, never a glow). When you cast, your eyes flash your channel’s colour — everyone can see it (see §7).

Discipline	Side	Colour	Emit / Absorb	What it does
The Binding	Order	yellow	emit	structure, oaths, seals, contracts; can bind even light
The Weight	Order	blue	emit	gravity, density, mass, foundations, permanence
The Current	Order	cyan	emit	electricity, plasma, lightning; the most versatile reach
The Unmaking	Order	orange	emit	fire, rust, entropy, dissolution
The Growing	Chaos	green	absorb	life, body, vitality, healing
The Knowing	Chaos*	magenta	absorb	mind, pattern, fact, memory, illusion (*sits on the divide)
The Heart	Chaos	red	absorb	emotion, will, bond; the self reaching outward, moving a crowd
The Dream	Chaos	indigo	absorb	the unconscious beneath all selves; the deep, transmuting current

Off the spectrum:

Unshaped Faith — gold. Pure substrate, no channel; the miracle anyone can spend (§3).

The Hollow — voided black. The forbidden tenth way. Eyes go empty — not a colour, a hole. Costs you nothing you can see; the bill is paid by the world. Always the wrong answer.

White / Black are reserved for the Archons (Order = all four Order channels at once as white; Chaos = all four Chaos as black).

2. The Cost of Magic at a Glance

You do not track spell slots. You track two clocks, and which half of the spectrum you channel decides which one fills.

	STRAIN (Order)	FRAY (Chaos)
Paid by	the body (heat, nerve, spent tissue)	the self (vitality, memory, identity)
Filled by	Binding · Weight · Current · Unmaking	Growing · Knowing · Heart · Dream
Cap	10 + (proficiency bonus × 2) — so 14 at 1st level	same: 10 + (proficiency × 2)
Short rest	clears completely	does not clear
Long rest	(already cleared)	heals half if the rest is genuine, still devotion; a quarter if broken

How a cast bills you. A Working costs its Tier in points (Tier = legacy spell level; cantrip-tier is free). Roll your Faith Die (§3) and subtract it — you always add at least 1 — then add the remainder to Strain (Order) or Fray (Chaos).

The four thresholds (identical shape on both clocks):

Event	STRAIN (Order)	FRAY (Chaos)
Pass 75% of cap	next Order Working also costs 1 level of exhaustion	next Chaos Working triggers a d6 vs your Loss Menu
Would exceed cap → Overchannel or stop	Overchannel = cast anyway, take 1 level of exhaustion	Overchannel = name, on the spot, one small permanent thing your character loses (no roll)
Push past Overchannel → the Break	collapse at 0 HP and start dying	an Unraveling — the GM removes a defining trait, no save

The Loss Menu. Every Chaos caster writes six small, specific things their character could lose their grip on (a name, a taste, a fear, a scruple). You author them at creation; the dice only decide when they surface. “Chaos does not damage you — it spends you.”

ACCESS vs COST. Your Calling sets the highest Tier you can attempt; your Conviction sets what the attempt costs you. Two different dials — never collapse them.

3. Universal Rules

Save DC (for your Workings / features) = 8 + proficiency bonus + [the relevant ability modifier].
Faith Die is set by Conviction (1–5): 1→d4 · 2→d6 · 3→d8 · 4→d10 · 5→d12. Roll it and subtract before you write to a clock. When a Working sits dead-center of your Tenet (your one-sentence belief), roll the Faith Die twice and take the higher.
Conviction does NOT rise with level or training. Everyone starts at 1 (d4). It rises only when the GM judges you held your faith at genuine cost. Belief is earned in the story, not bought on the sheet.
Unshaped Faith — the everyone-gift. Anyone, caster or not, may spend 1 point from either clock to grant a creature they can see advantage on one roll OR one extra Hit Die of recovery. No Tier, no roll, no failure. No one in Merretia is magically mute.
Ability Score Improvement or feat at levels 4, 8, 12, 16, 19.
Path (subclass) chosen at 3rd level; Path features at the levels each Calling names (most: 3 / 6 / 10 / 14; some martials run 3 / 7 / 10 / 15 / 18). Capstone at 20th.
Proficiency bonus: +2 at 1st, +3 at 5th, and up the standard ladder.
Caster Reaching curve (max Working Tier): 1 @ L1–2 · 2 @ L3–4 · 3 @ L5–7 · 4 @ L8–10 · 5 @ L11–14 · 6 @ L15+. Half-Reachings run one band lower. Player Callings top out at Tier 6 (Tiers 7–9 are legendary/story-tier).

4. Skills

Merretia uses the standard eighteen skills, each tied to an ability. You gain proficiencies from your people (Chapter 3), your origin/background (Chapter 5), and your Calling; a proficient skill adds your proficiency bonus, and a passive score = 10 + the modifier. A handful carry world-specific weight, noted below.

Skill	Ability	In Merretia
Athletics	STR	climbing the Spire ladders and deep shafts, forcing a grid-door
Acrobatics	DEX	rooftop runs over the Warrens, footing on a pitching deck
Sleight of Hand	DEX	cutpurse work, palming a sun-cell, planting a writ
Stealth	DEX	moving unseen in the tunnels, the frontier, a House’s halls
Arcana	INT	the disciplines and their Workings, focus stones, buried-sun tech — the “how magic works” skill
History	INT	the Founding, the Great War, House and guild lineages
Investigation	INT	reading a scene, a ledger, a Working’s residue
Nature	INT	biomes, beasts, weather, the frontier’s dangers
Religion	INT	the Eight, the Zar’ir cosmology, the Temple, the Heralds
Animal Handling	WIS	drays, coursers, and the beasts of yard and wild
Insight	WIS	reading intent — load-bearing in a debt-and-oath city
Medicine	WIS	mundane healing, distinct from Heart/Growing Workings
Perception	WIS	the watch you keep; noticing the seam-cold in time
Survival	WIS	the Waste-Lands, the deep, tracking, finding safe ground
Deception	CHA	the con, the false face, the covered lie
Intimidation	CHA	the enforcer’s lean, the guild threat
Performance	CHA	the stage, the crowd, the Heartstring’s trade
Persuasion	CHA	the envoy’s work, calling in a debt, moving a room

Expertise (from some features and the Master’s Hand feat) doubles your proficiency bonus in one skill. Tools & kits (tinker’s, thieves’, a trade kit) work the same way but aren’t skills.

5. The Thirteen Callings

Seven hold a Reaching (they cast, on the two-clock economy); six stand on their own steam (no weaker for it).

Calling	Die	Plays like	Reaching (discipline)	Signature engine	Type
Vowbound	d10	Paladin	the Binding	Oaths & Sealing Strikes (Sealing Charges)	caster
Hearthwarden	d8	Druid	the Growing	Vitality Dice	caster
Cindermarch	d8	Sorcerer	the Unmaking	Heat (a boil-over gauge; any discharge = +1 Strain)	caster
Cipherwright	d6	Wizard	the Knowing	Threads & Filaments	caster
Zar’ir Adept	d8	Cleric	a paired half-Reaching (Order + Chaos)	Consecration (pooled devotion)	caster
Heartstring	d8	Bard	the Heart	Heartstring Dice	caster
Stonewright	d8	Artificer	half: Current or Binding (choose at L1)	Field-Settings (from Schematics)	half-caster
Duelist	d10	Fighter	— none —	Form Points & maneuvers	martial
Ironclast	d12	Barbarian	— none —	Grit (Grit Points)	martial
Verge-Tracer	d10	Ranger	half: Current or Weight (choose at L1)	Quarry Dice & Quarry Strikes	half-caster
Warrens-Runner	d8	Rogue	— none —	the Clean Line	martial
Relic-Bound	d10	Warlock	— (a relic, not faith)	Relic Charges + the Debt Clock (0–6; Overdraw to opt in)	relic-pact
Hollowmarked	d8	Monk	half: the Dream	the Wound Die (fuels Edge-Surges; steps up each Draw)	half-caster

Twofold Faith — holding a Reaching in both an Order and a Chaos discipline — is the prophesied cross. Not available at creation; only via the Twofold Faith feat-chain, along one of four canonical pairings (Binding–Knowing, Weight–Growing, Current–Heart, Unmaking–Dream). The Zar’ir Adept is the one sanctioned, pre-paired, half-strength version taught as doctrine.

6. The Eighteen Guilds

Each holds a charter over one industry and rules one of the eighteen provinces (and its mirror Quarter in Sulamir). Every member swears the Universal Guild Oath.

Guild	Sphere
Alum-sidek Alliance	the magnerail — inter-provincial transit & rail
the Masons	construction & building
Emphemere	high-noble society
Torrus Ectos (the Red Octopus)	shock enforcement, brawler markets
Order of the Blue Cross	death rites & dying-care
the Red Dragons	the martial academy
Temple of the One	religion — the one guild that cannot fuse (authority from ordination)
the Iron Coin	banking & the sovereign currency
Multani	diplomacy
Abyssal Fires	intelligence & archives
Bavit-vita	medicine & agriculture
Alyu’amare	marriage & alliance-brokering
the Core	mind disciplines & mediation
the Sulamir League	civic memory
Prodigus Group	engineering & logistics
Order of the Spider	espionage & sanctioned assassination
the White Legion	entertainment & celebrity
the Hand	luxury trade & high-wealth finance

(Two outlaw orders operate outside the Council. A guild’s three officers are the Leader, the Right Hand, and the Left Hand.)

7. The Great Houses & the Government

Sulamir’s politics run on three stacked layers:

The Senate of Great Houses (public, sovereign) — ~36 seats, each held by a House head for life; issues edicts, taxes, treaties, armies. This is “the government” to a citizen. A two-thirds vote can strip a senator or call an OCTA probe of any institution.
The Eighteen Guilds (public, operational) — run the visible economy (§5).
The Council of 18 (secret) — the eighteen senior guild figures, coordinating as a shadow government; officially dismissed as conspiracy.

The fusion / Fused House. For seventeen of the eighteen, the guild’s ruling line is the House’s ruling line — same people, two names, two audiences. A head who bundles guild Leadership + the province’s dominant Senate seat + the Council seat is a Fused House. (The remaining ~19 Senate houses are affiliate Rival Houses.) The Temple of the One is the deliberate exception that cannot fuse — the wild card.
The Absent King. The whole government is built around a permanent vacancy of the crown. After Zar Valareth (the Last Zar) fell, the Senate refused to appoint a new monarch, so power is split across eighteen suspicious hands. Publicly reaching for that crown is taboo — proven, it unites the other seventeen against you.
OCTA — the Office of Containment and Threat Assessment (“octa,” funded by the eight temples). Empowered across all eighteen provinces to hunt Hollow practitioners; its Readers can assay a person/stone/site for where a Working’s cost fell, and it may execute without trial once Hollow practice is confirmed. Also a favored political weapon — it burns legitimate dreamwalkers as often as it catches real cultists. It is the crown’s orphan: chartered under the ancient Zars, temple-staffed, uncheckable.

Named Great Houses (each fused to its guild): Corveliss (Alum-sidek / Tonja) · Stoneheart (the Masons / Hakkar) · Vartiovaara (Abyssal Fires / Nolekkelon) · Esteban (Order of the Blue Cross / Antodinera) · Asantewa (the Hand / Bolanbi) · Mihran (Multani / Sahthan) · Summer (Emphemere / Yisk) · Bilegt (Order of the Spider / Udlimill).

8. Conditions & the Bespoke Clocks

Standard SRD conditions apply as written — grappled, prone, restrained, frightened, unconscious, and the rest are unchanged (use the core rules). Frightened is worth flagging as central: in a world where a stranger’s eyes going bright can end a fight, fear is a weapon, and several disciplines and peoples wield it directly.

Merretia-specific states (the extensions to the ladder):

State	What it is
Strain	the Order clock (body). Cap `10 + prof.×2`; clears on a short rest (§2).
Fray	the Chaos clock (self). Same cap; does not clear on a short rest; long-rest stillness heals half (§2).
Conviction	belief depth 1–5, sets your Faith Die; rises only when the story earns it (§3).
Overchannelled	you cast past your cap — took the exhaustion (Order) or named the loss (Chaos) (§2).
Broken	you pushed past Overchannel — Order: dying at 0 HP; Chaos: an Unraveling, a defining trait gone, no save (§2).
Corroding	from Unmaking effects — a stacking −1 to AC as rust eats gear; cleared with a short rest’s maintenance.
The eye-flash (the tell)	casting flashes your channel’s colour in your eyes — bright, gone the instant it lands. A watcher gets advantage to identify what you’re about to do and may react (ready, dive, interrupt). To cast unseen: break line of sight, cast from cover/dark, or wear an eye-shroud. Hollow-work flashes voided black — the most feared thing on a battlefield, and always the wrong answer.

Per-Calling clocks you may also see at the table: Cindermarch Heat (discharge = +1 Strain) · Relic-Bound Debt Clock (0–6) · Hollowmarked Wound Die (steps up each Draw) · Zar’ir Consecration/Communion. Each is detailed on that Calling’s sheet (§4).

Not a condition, but table-relevant:Coil-jam — fire an arc-lock more than once on your turn and each shot after the first jams on a natural 1–2 (an action to clear). A focus stone can be sundered as a called shot, dropping you to cantrip-tier until you rebond one over downtime.