Designing Movements
A Movement is not a button. It is a promise you make to the referee about what your Aidolin is capable of — and a contract you are then held to.
What a Movement is
During Symphonize you teach your Aidolin a named ability for 25 Harmonic Fragments — roughly two duels’ worth, since a win pays 12. You give it a name and one to three sentences of description. That description is handed to the referee at the start of every exchange, alongside your Prime Chord.
Nothing forces you to use a Movement, and there is no penalty for never invoking one. What a Movement buys is a piece of vocabulary the referee already accepts as established and in-character. When you write “I open the Slipstream beneath their advance,” the referee is not deciding whether your creature can plausibly do that — you already settled it, in writing, before the duel began. That saved argument is where the value is.
Energy cost is assessed, not chosen
When you finalise a Movement, its description and your Prime Chord are read and an energy cost from 1 to 5 is assigned: 1 for something small and subtle, 5 for something sweeping. You see the number before you commit, and you can rewrite the description and have it reassessed for free until you accept it.
You may notice the obvious exploit and it does not work. Describing a devastating ability in deliberately modest language to win a low cost only means the referee holds you to the modest version: when you invoke it, the impact it can plausibly achieve is measured against the description you wrote. Understate your Movement and you get a cheap ability that accomplishes little. The description is simultaneously the definition and the limit.
When invoking a Movement pays
Efficiency is one of the five scored axes — least energy for greatest effect. Ordinarily that is a judgement call. When you clearly invoke a Movement by name, half of that judgement is replaced with arithmetic: the impact you achieved, divided by the cost you declared.
The consequences are worth internalising:
- A cheap Movement placed at exactly the right moment scores better on efficiency than open improvisation usually can. This is the single most reliable way to win an exchange.
- An expensive Movement fired for a small effect scores worse than improvising would have. Big Movements are not for opening exchanges or for pressure you could have answered with a sentence.
- A Movement that does not fit the moment damages coherence too, not just efficiency — and coherence multiplies your whole score. Invoking your signature ability because it is your signature, rather than because the moment called for it, is a real and common way to lose.
The referee only counts a Movement as invoked when you clearly name it. Vaguely gesturing at something Movement-shaped is scored as ordinary improvisation — which is fine, but do not expect the efficiency anchor.
A weak Movement and a strong one
Ultimate Destruction — Unleashes maximum power in a devastating attack that destroys everything in its path and cannot be blocked or countered by any opponent.
Unbounded and unconditional, so it will be assessed as expensive — and every time you invoke it, the impact it actually achieves will be measured against that enormous claim and fall short. It also fits any Aidolin, so it adds nothing your Prime Chord did not already say.
Courtesy of Angles — Offers a polite, glass-bright surface exactly where a blow is already travelling, so the force continues past its intended end into something the attacker must now deal with. Works only while they are still committed to the motion.
Cheap, conditional, and unmistakably the product of one particular creature. The condition (“while they are still committed”) tells you exactly when to invoke it, which means when you do, the impact is high and the cost is low — the precise shape the efficiency blend rewards. It also creates a rhythm an opponent can learn to bait, which is the good kind of problem.
Building a tree, not a shelf
Trunk
One or two cheap Movements you can invoke almost every exchange. These define your aesthetic and carry most of your efficiency scores. If you learn only one Movement ever, make it a Trunk.
Branches
Two or three mid-cost Movements that are specialised applications of the same idea — the Trunk aimed at a specific problem: an opponent who has gone patient, an opponent who has committed everything, a bar that has drifted against you.
Crown
One expensive signature Movement. You will invoke it perhaps once a duel, at a moment you chose. Crowns are optional; a complete Trunk and Branches beats a Crown you never find the right moment for.
Movements in the same vein compound, because they teach the referee a consistent picture of how your Aidolin solves problems. Five unrelated Movements bought in five different moods read as a shelf of gadgets, and the coherence scores show it.
Revising later
You can rewrite a Movement’s description after purchase for 25 Fragments — the same as learning a new one — and the energy cost is reassessed. The price is deliberate: free revision would let everyone cost-optimise after watching the results. Write it properly the first time, and rewrite only when your creature has genuinely changed.
Movements grow out of the Prime Chord, so start there: Writing a Prime Chord.