“The name is the thing, and the true name is the true thing. To speak the name is to control the thing.”
- Ursula K. Le Guin, The Rule of Names
The idea that names are a source of power is an old one. Socrates (via Plato) wondered if they were purely a human invention or an intrinsic reflection of their object. Gematria, isopsephy and cryptography are all based on the idea that hidden meaning and power is to be had by understanding and manipulating referential symbols. Restricted use of the tetragrammaton was considered sacrosanct after the Babylonian sack of Jerusalem. The real name of the city of Rome was kept secret so that its enemies could not curse it. Rumpelstiltskin was undone by hearing his.
In Unknown Armies symbols and secrets have genuine power and nothing is as symbolic and secretive as a true name.
Obtaining a True Name
It’s a lot more complicated than looking up tagged photos on social media. Yes, you can use that as a component in a gutter magick hex but knowing what someone is called it isn’t a true name. A combination of painstaking research, stalking, applied semiotics and divination distilled down into describing the very essence of a thing in a scant few syllables that hurt your throat to pronounce? That’s a true name. There’s no one big secret or singular method to creating one, you learn how to do it the same way you learn how to do gutter magick. It does take a lot of work though and for that reason is handled as an objective.
The complexity and cosmic weight of a target determines the amount of effort required: roughly speaking a person is a local objective, an entire cabal or small organisation is weighty and a large organisation (say Ordo Corpulentis or Mak Attax) or an archetype is cosmic (trying that last one is also a great way to get hit by a bus). Maybe you could do something bigger like a country (piecemeal?), maybe not. Ask your GM.
Identities like Kabbalist and Numerology Enthusiast provide good set dressing for what milestones can look like but aren’t exhaustive, other examples might include:
- Analyse all census data dating back to a target’s creation with a combination of neural-network pattern recognition and sacred geometry. Wow, that’s a lot of string.
- Accumulate enough waste products (garbage, hair, dryer lint, skin flakes, etc.) from the target to build a life-sized effigy, burn it in an act of gutter magick and sift the ashes for clues.
- Build an accurate microcosm of the target’s life and live in it for a month a la Synecdoche, New York, using automatic writing to journal each night and discern the next syllable.
- In a ritual involving a week-long fast in the desert and the burning heart of a godwalker, commune with the statosphere for insight.
Alternatively you could get one from someone who already has it figured out. I’m sure they won’t mind you piggybacking on all that hard work, right? Be prepared to pay through the nose or steal it, genuine true names are strong currency in the occult underground.
Using a True Name
What can you do with a true name? Oh man, what can’t you do?! Okay, so on its own the true name won’t do much, but if you combine it with some other form of magick it’s like rocket fuel. Provided it still fits the intended target, of course.
True names don’t actually describe a thing. They describe the sum nature of a thing at the time they are created compressed into a tiny wad of symbolism. If that nature changes then the symbolism drifts out of alignment with whatever you’re throwing a whammy on, making the name less powerful.
Drift is measured by significant changes, for example a person would accumulate a point of drift for: radically altering their appearance, gaining/losing a relationship, adopting a significantly different lifestyle, gaining/losing five notches, finishing an objective, gaining/losing a disorder, changing an obsession or passion or something equivalent. Drift also tends to accumulate naturally over time, on average a person will accumulate a point every year or two unless they’re living a very chaotic or consistent lifestyle.
Drift doesn’t always scale well, a change in leadership for an organisation might completely reorient it or be business as usual. Assess the effect of changes on more complex targets on a case by case basis.
When using a true name in an act of magick apply the following to the roll:
True names are also great for beefing up objective milestones. Using a one in good shape that is specific to your purpose is enough to lift a reality bruising action from petty to intense on that objective's scale.
Interfering with True Names
Oddly enough weirdos obsessed with magickal power like their privacy. Powerful weirdos obsessed with magickal power like to keep the playing field as uneven as possible so the proles can’t climb up and knock them down. The following tactics are available to magi who want to put the kibosh on their true name getting out.
Quick & Dirty: Oh no! You’ve been blindsided and your enemies have already put your true name on the open market! In this case the simplest fix is to accumulate drift: wreck your marriage, get some therapy, gain 80 pounds, make that career change and move to Canada. The more you alter yourself the less that true name represents you and the less power it holds over you.
There is another more temporary solution for the mystically inclined, proxy rituals. It’s pretty flimsy against the gravitas of a true name but they still work for deflecting magick and each proxy created after the true name is minted counts as a point of drift. The downside is that if someone throws true name magick at you and hits a proxy instead the connection pops and you lose the drift.
Muddying the Collective Unconscious: Okay, you’re better prepared than the last guy and want to deal with the potential problem before it becomes a reality. That’s fair, you lock your door at night for the same reason. You could chaff a bunch of false leads and info about yourself on the internet, magickally scour your connection to the statosphere or bind a demon to mess with anyone who starts building your true name.
Make an objective out of it, the same level as it would take to true name you (or whatever you’re protecting). If you succeed then the weight of an objective to figure out that true name goes up a level. If someone was in the middle of figuring the true name out when you do (and for some reason you didn’t scrape out their percentiles with yours) they can choose to upgrade their objective to the next level and keep half their progress.
Tree-felling in the Forest of the Mind: You want to piss in the punchbowl for everyone? Wrecking the concept of true naming is a cosmic objective, if you pull it off the difficulty for ALL true naming objectives goes up a level. Maybe this has already happened once, word is that true names used to be more common and evidence suggests that this isn’t the usual “back in my day” bullwinder.
True names don’t actually describe a thing. They describe the sum nature of a thing at the time they are created compressed into a tiny wad of symbolism. If that nature changes then the symbolism drifts out of alignment with whatever you’re throwing a whammy on, making the name less powerful.
Drift is measured by significant changes, for example a person would accumulate a point of drift for: radically altering their appearance, gaining/losing a relationship, adopting a significantly different lifestyle, gaining/losing five notches, finishing an objective, gaining/losing a disorder, changing an obsession or passion or something equivalent. Drift also tends to accumulate naturally over time, on average a person will accumulate a point every year or two unless they’re living a very chaotic or consistent lifestyle.
Drift doesn’t always scale well, a change in leadership for an organisation might completely reorient it or be business as usual. Assess the effect of changes on more complex targets on a case by case basis.
When using a true name in an act of magick apply the following to the roll:
- Drift 0: The result improves by one step. Matched failures become regular failures, regular failures become successes, etc. Fumbles remain unaffected.
- Drift 1: Your choice of a +30% shift or the ability to flip-flop, chosen before making the roll.
- Drift 2/3/4: +20%/+10%/+0% shift respectively
- Drift 5+: -20% shift. At this point you’re throwing sand into the gears.
Additionally at 2 or less points of drift knock a charge off the cost of any ritual or adept magick (minimum cost of 1. However a cost of 1 significant charge becomes a cost of 9 minors, which puts some significant rituals into the reach of a lot more would-be Merlins).
Notably demons accrue very little drift since they’re so hyper-focused and unyielding (maybe a point or two, ever) which may be why the idea of using names to bind them is so popular. They really hate it when people do that.
Notably demons accrue very little drift since they’re so hyper-focused and unyielding (maybe a point or two, ever) which may be why the idea of using names to bind them is so popular. They really hate it when people do that.
True names are also great for beefing up objective milestones. Using a one in good shape that is specific to your purpose is enough to lift a reality bruising action from petty to intense on that objective's scale.
Interfering with True Names
Oddly enough weirdos obsessed with magickal power like their privacy. Powerful weirdos obsessed with magickal power like to keep the playing field as uneven as possible so the proles can’t climb up and knock them down. The following tactics are available to magi who want to put the kibosh on their true name getting out.
Quick & Dirty: Oh no! You’ve been blindsided and your enemies have already put your true name on the open market! In this case the simplest fix is to accumulate drift: wreck your marriage, get some therapy, gain 80 pounds, make that career change and move to Canada. The more you alter yourself the less that true name represents you and the less power it holds over you.
There is another more temporary solution for the mystically inclined, proxy rituals. It’s pretty flimsy against the gravitas of a true name but they still work for deflecting magick and each proxy created after the true name is minted counts as a point of drift. The downside is that if someone throws true name magick at you and hits a proxy instead the connection pops and you lose the drift.
Muddying the Collective Unconscious: Okay, you’re better prepared than the last guy and want to deal with the potential problem before it becomes a reality. That’s fair, you lock your door at night for the same reason. You could chaff a bunch of false leads and info about yourself on the internet, magickally scour your connection to the statosphere or bind a demon to mess with anyone who starts building your true name.
Make an objective out of it, the same level as it would take to true name you (or whatever you’re protecting). If you succeed then the weight of an objective to figure out that true name goes up a level. If someone was in the middle of figuring the true name out when you do (and for some reason you didn’t scrape out their percentiles with yours) they can choose to upgrade their objective to the next level and keep half their progress.
Tree-felling in the Forest of the Mind: You want to piss in the punchbowl for everyone? Wrecking the concept of true naming is a cosmic objective, if you pull it off the difficulty for ALL true naming objectives goes up a level. Maybe this has already happened once, word is that true names used to be more common and evidence suggests that this isn’t the usual “back in my day” bullwinder.
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