Was drifting off and this just struck me: the game I need to hybridize with Blades in the Dark is Ars Magica. Take that whole mini game around getting Tass or essence or whatever it’s called and rather than make it academic, make it CRIME.

Well, that’s going to be rattling in my brain for a while, but I have said it aloud so hopefully I will be able to sleep.

I was thinking through the addition of Ars magic to the existing BitD setting (vs a new setting) and decided that if it's based on the fall of the god emperor and the return of days, the new Powers That Be will 100% be called the Solargarchs

I think the whole thing leans on mana being handled in a manner roughly like Coin in straight blades, albeit with a different spending model, which takes into account things like colors (no small amount of M:tG influence here)