Fantasy A College For Mages

[Moolock]

Apologies. By the snowflakes I'd been referring to the utensils (which had been mentioned to each be unique in design) so I'll fix that. Also, with the tables, I was being vague- (meant a place among the first years as seating wasn't specific to exactly who was sitting with who). I wasn't sure where exactly the first year tables were and without that, Alexandra is the kind of person who would want to stay out of the center of things.


Thanks for the heads up, I'll edit my post as needed

 

[AAndroidD]

All good


The utensils ending up with a fractaly ice-like pattern is fine - they're basically random in combination of the 4 materials so I'm actually glad (with that clarity) that you've used it to express your character. Was interested in general to see what people would do on the freedom of design there.

 

[Dhuum]

I apologize @Dhuum, your character sheet will need tweaking before it is accepted but its partially my fault for not expressing how various "conventional" (that is, magic common to other systems as opposed to this RP's version) in the magic descriptions, and raises a good point of information I should elaborate on. I will be doing a sort of brief, 1 sentence explanation as to how each general form of magic you might see elsewhere slots into the categories this world has. Oh yeah and with nature magic, the sun making his magic useless would not apply. Nature magic has to do with, well, nature. And Nature flourishes in the day. As covered in the Overview, it works by harnessing spirits of nature and effectively commanding them to do your 'magic' for you. That's not to say the concept of sunlight dampening magic can't exist, but Nature magic and Wizardry really just aren't the place for that - that's more of an effect to be had on Faith and Sorcery.
Because I need to make these changes to the magic system, you will need to hold on a little bit before making any changes, and it will really just be to bring your character in line with the existing magic system, which currently he falls a liiitle bit outside. Another minor qualm is on his half-elf unknown age and appearance...


It's okay to state the age as unknown but I feel it would be best to give some sort of estimate range. With characters ages here ranging from late teens to almost three-thousand, it's important to know just how much of history he has experienced to within some general margin. Additionally, and this is less a change to be made and more of a word of caution, but the historic lore of the world is being written and worked on between myself and Silent Justice. This will factor in several points so if you do want to take the historically knowledgeable and quick-to-correct route then I recommend making sure you stay up to date with any information that Silent Justice or I release to make that element of your character really work as opposed to possibly accidentally putting in some wrong info about history yourself!


In the meantime, take a look at Overview to familiarise yourself with the history and current details on magic. It was the idea of aligning your character with both nature magic and necromancy. At first it confused me, but it opened me up to this oversight in how I've approached detailing magic.


Also, you mentioned divination, and unfortunately I will have to say that as the current magic system exists, divination exists in only three ways (and this is stuff I will be expanding on later, once I get more things sorted out with Silent Justice)


1: Outside of magical application, but rather by observing and deriving a future from that, based on a knowledge (not application) of various magical systems. As the magic history details, magic spilled into human, elf, and dwarven use by the acts of the gods, and their rule impacts the future.


2: Sorcery. Sorcery is basically our go-to for anything that doesnt slot well into other magic systems, and has basically no restrictions as to what you can have, though the power will obviously need to have weaknesses and strengths in some way. if that happens to be Divination, then it can take almost any form you can imagine in terms of magically determining the future, but I would say limit it to a few specific methods, maybe 3 at max, ideally similar ones (just as an offhand example, someone with sorcery in divination may be able to tell the future via dice rolls, card draws, and coin flips in a fortune themed future telling, or for a nature themed divination, perhaps seeing the future in the ripples of water and swirls of smoke and steam - though your imagination would be the limit here)


3: Faith. As Gods brought magic to the world, so too do they influence it. The freedom to choose a deity reigning over anything also opens up the ability to have a deity that rules the future (Such as Janus, the Roman God of the Future - though in this case you will be making up your own deity OOC to represent this). Through worship, they may be granted visions of what is to come, some way or another. You could also creatively relate it to a different god, say a god of dreams and sleep granting the faithful prophetic dreams, or a god of the harvest granting a faithful knowledge of the weather to come to help prepare farmland appropriately.


Nature magic, in the system it exists in for the world here, would not work.


hopefully this will be more clear once I lay out the proper info so you and everyone else can have access to it.


To be honest, and this is just an outside critique, your character seems very suited to be a Faith mage. Specifically, one that serves a god of SOMETHING thematically appropriate, I would say deception would actually be a very nice choice. As a God of Deception, magical spells granted could be very varied. Necromancy by deceiving the dead into acting as the living. Shadows, I believe, are inherently deceptive by nature - you can go crazy on that one and it fits very well. As for divination, the god grants the gift of future sight for sake of allowing Dhal'Um to deceive others with that knowledge, spreading the god's influence. Ultimately it's up to you, but with some good thought you have the bare bones of what could be a very unique faith mage. The raven you've mentioned in the backstory could even well be an agent of said god, deceiving his captors and leading him under the god's care. It's ultimately up to you though.


If you'd like to spend some time detailing your character and tweaking it one on one, throwing ideas back and forth to keep to your vision whilst in the constraints of the RP's rules, I'd be happy to do that with you! just start a conversation with me in the site (If you aren't sure of how to do that, you can just click my profile pic, then on the little pop-up of me, click "Start a Conversation")


Sorry for the long post! I can get a bit messy with my thoughts sometimes, do feel free to ask for clarification on anything you're unsure of

Hmmm...I like the idea of being the prophet of a god of deception. The ravens name will still be Rhea, though. I can change the nature of my magic to faith, and yes, I like the idea of being a faith mage serving a god like one of deception (I will need to figure out a name though). As for age...I thing being around 2000 years old will kinda suffice? And me being "young" in the story would mean me being around 200 at the time. And yes. Whenever you make a new point in history I would like to know. Also, I would like to know which class to teach. I was thinking, now, I could teach Tactics and Stealth class, but also adding some magical twist as to how anyone could use their particular magic to become stealthy in a way. I don't know...but I like the world you are building.

 

[AAndroidD]

Just added in some info regarding some basic magic types and how Nature magic and Wizardry apply them in the overview. As Faith magic is near unlimited as it is bound only by the worshipped gods themselves and Sorcery is all about having no restrictions in what it can be, I've only covered them when specifically relevant.


Starting us off here is Pyro-, Cryo-, Necro-, and Electro-mancy alongside Blood Magic. I will expand as more specific types of magic that require some personal address are brought to my attention, but those 5 seemed like the best to start with.

 

[Moolock]

@AAndroidD Based on this I assume character sheets may be edited as needed (with re-approval) to better fit the rp lore?

 

[AAndroidD]

@AAndroidD Based on this I assume character sheets may be edited as needed (with re-approval) to better fit the rp lore?

As the magic system becomes more clearly developed, some minor changes will need to be made - though it varies. This should only affect nature mages and those using wizardry, but I'll be sure to have a check through and individually contact the players that need to modify their player sheets at all. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.


Edit: The new magic info may also bring players to want to adjust their magic area, as the understanding of exactly what set each apart was less clear beforehand - so if they would like to make changes for those reasons I will also have a quick check and re-approve. Magical use hasn't really taken root so currently you're free to change as much as you'd like. I'd basically, as a general rule, state that once you've used magic IC, that effectively locks you in.


That's not to say you can't change if IC has been posted, but you cant change in a way that contrasts what you've done already. If someone, for example, claimed to spawn water magically, they would be locked out of choosing wizardry as the source of that power as wizardry cannot create matter - only manipulate it.


Edit 2:


After review of the magic mentions in everyone's profiles, noone seems to be in need of any changes!


however @Moolock It would be nice to have specification over exactly what four elements you mean. It's fine to be an elementally focused nature mage, and in fact works quite well with the state of nature magic, but it would be good for clarity to know precisely what four to avoid an issue in understanding later.

 

[Moolock]

@AAndroidD I think I'm going to take out use of four elements and keep it to ice as far as that goes, however I might be grasping an idea or two wrong but I'd like to keep Alex as an "arcane" mage (aka using raw magic rather than a specialty branch). I'm not sure if this is clearly in the lore or if it's flat out impossible here but the idea of using unrefined magic was exhibited earlier while she was out in the hall. Does this need tweaking or should I just make it more specific as to exactly what her abilities are?

 

[AAndroidD]

@AAndroidD I think I'm going to take out use of four elements and keep it to ice as far as that goes, however I might be grasping an idea or two wrong but I'd like to keep Alex as an "arcane" mage (aka using raw magic rather than a specialty branch). I'm not sure if this is clearly in the lore or if it's flat out impossible here but the idea of using unrefined magic was exhibited earlier while she was out in the hall. Does this need tweaking or should I just make it more specific as to exactly what her abilities are?

The issue here is that the magic system here has no real concept of "Raw" Magic. A diverse specialist would work, but magic in this world is based upon Deities that control it (Faith Magic), manipulating the spirits that are present in all things that bring life or are living (Nature Magic), using gifts inherently bestowed on the spirit of the individual (Sorcery), or learning to harness one's mind in a telekinetic manner almost - in what is more like a Science than magic, simply giving weight to understanding (Wizardry). The source of Wizardry isn't well explained because even IC it isn't well understood, but its best thought of as a side effect of the introduction of magic by deities during the Cross of the Divines from the magic history article.


In that way, Wizardry itself is the closest thing to a raw form of Magic, as it grants control over what you can understand on a scientific level, and is linked to that understanding. Keep in mind that Wizardry requires channeling, but takes effect instantly - so requires channeling for sustained effects only. If one is able to understand and manipulate matter quickly, very quick effects can come into play without much focus - the magical elements will simply not be sustained otherwise (this is a point relating to your character sheet's combat style).


Sorcery, as inherent abilities, are also a form of 'raw' magic, but are kept in check from becoming overpowered by being limited by the individual, with no room to expand upon when going further.


If you would like to stick to using raw magic, I suggest choosing between Sorcery and Wizardry.


The problem I see with true Raw magic, as you seem to describe, is that it is by nature limitless - which I believe can lead to overpowered situations and was part of the draw to this RP. Whilst I know it can be done right, the magic system here restricts it as a failsafe. One option you have is to have your character have some abilities in Sorcery to cover the limitations of wizardry, with her studying both.


Just an idea, but you can stick with the light ball idea by sticking to Wizardry as the source of magic (which works well with your decision to stick to ice) in addition to a Sorcery ability to create invisible magical barriers that take on properties at will - keeping things of choice from passing over the barriers, with size and strength manipulating at will. Working off of your light ball, I could see that occuring as a result of one of such barriers being made over a spherical portion of air, which via wizardry was simply energised at an atomic level to trigger stimulated photon emission (Basically, give energy to electrons, then make the electrons lose energy and emit light as a photon, which can energise other atoms in a chain reaction if high enough). By reducing the threshold for this to occur in all air atoms within the ball, you would effectively have created a light ball that would slowly dim over time. In general, these magical barriers could interact in many ways with wizardry to allow a lot of new things to occur via combination, and give you the most freedom to have something similar to a raw arcane mage you might see in more conventional magic systems.


Wizardry can be a bit complicated to intuitively do because all of its more complex abilities might involve very simple concepts of physics, chemistry, or biology, and are limited to your application and understanding OOC as to what you can come up with IC, based on your character's knowledge.


This is just a suggestion though! you are free to take whatever path you feel is best for your character. All 4 walks of magic are open, just modify the use of magic based upon it, and if you have any further questions, shoot them my way! I'm happy to work with you to help you visualise a magic application within the system presented that best suits your desires.

 

[Moolock]

I understand so far, thanks for clearing that up. I'll tweak Alex's character sheet to reflect the studying of wizardry with a bit of sorcery mixed in, as you mentioned. To address the possibility of use of raw magic becoming overpowered, I would have roleplayed it to be taking emotionally, physically, and particularly mentally, thus leading to her combat style being to hit hard, fast, and get things over with, rendering sustained spells nearly impossible for her. That was just my thinking but I will be editing my character sheet anyway thanks to your eye-opener. In the future regarding using wizardry, apologies in advance if my science isn't completely correct (I haven't taken chemistry or physics yet).

 

[AAndroidD]

That's absolutely fine! noone knows everything perfectly, - and its mostly about creativity in application. Also it is magic, so we are giving quite a bit of room for leeway in this kind of thing. If you've got any doubts about magic use, feel free to shoot it by me or Silent Justice (But I'm around a bit more often, so likely me) so we can give you the go ahead. Focus on what you want to happen first, and if you cant think of a way to apply it through wizardry + your sorcery ability, then bring it to others to help! but also keep in mind your character's knowledge and what they have learned as well.

 

[9forgotten]

yikes, I missed a semi a lot xD Uhhh hm okay, wellp, I think i'm caught up, I'll go read and post when I can today in the thread, been butt tired lately and totally forgot

 

[Dhuum]

@AAndroidD Have you overlooked my new CS? Sorry I come off as a bit annoying, but this is my first RP, and I really like the whole setting of this one...

 

[AAndroidD]

Sorry! Been a tad busy this weekend. Long weekend holiday here in Aus and had some family matters to attend to.


Anyway, all good apart from the tiny detail that Faith mages aren't "Prophets" of a god. Whilst the abilities of a faith mage are indeed the gifts of a god, the prophetic aspect would just be another part of those powers. unless you had a different meaning for prophet in mind. No need to really change it, just a point of clarification - the character sheet is clear enough on what Dhal'um does.


Regardless, much more fitting! @Silent Justice read that over first if possible to confirm it fits with the world they want, so 'til then I'd say be a bit sparing on the daggers' usage IC (which should be fine, since I wont be initiating any combat on the teacher side of things up until basically the point I'd give up on Silent Justice momentarily for the sake of keeping the RP running - at which point I would also release the info on enchanting.)

 

[Dhuum]

Sorry! Been a tad busy this weekend. Long weekend holiday here in Aus and had some family matters to attend to.
Anyway, all good apart from the tiny detail that Faith mages aren't "Prophets" of a god. Whilst the abilities of a faith mage are indeed the gifts of a god, the prophetic aspect would just be another part of those powers. unless you had a different meaning for prophet in mind. No need to really change it, just a point of clarification - the character sheet is clear enough on what Dhal'um does.


Regardless, much more fitting! @Silent Justice read that over first if possible to confirm it fits with the world they want, so 'til then I'd say be a bit sparing on the daggers' usage IC (which should be fine, since I wont be initiating any combat on the teacher side of things up until basically the point I'd give up on Silent Justice momentarily for the sake of keeping the RP running - at which point I would also release the info on enchanting.)

Thanks, I'm gonna go into the writing right away...

 

[Kattz]

Thanks, I may end up waiting a bit due to college stuff and trying to get that out of the way first. We'll see.

 

[9forgotten]

RIP i forgot to reply xD are we just in the mess hall?

 

[AAndroidD]

RIP i forgot to reply xD are we just in the mess hall?

Yes. Basic summary: staff have had seated first years at predetermined seats at circular tables, our current 7 PC students are all at or coming to the same table by these prechosen seats. Food ain't out yet.

 

[AAndroidD]

@DerekMess i won't bother making you edit your post cause it's a minor detail, but I do want to point out that for now, first years had assigned seating as detailed in the scene setting post.


Also, @Tetro not sure about Dhuum, but I believe you misunderstood my use of 'who' in my post. Keep in mind it was all kept to Morund's thoughts exclusively. To make more clear what's happened, Morund doesn't care about tone or expression - the fact that Krotus said that he "mastered wizardry long ago" and the statement that the old sorcery teacher retired because of him seem in themselves to be a display of ego with a lack of social finesse or humbleness - regardless of whether it truly is a display of ego or not.


He kind of sees it as an "All talk" kind of thing right now, which I tried to hint at in those thoughts Morund had.

 

[Tetro]

@AAndroidD That seems like a deep thing to read into if all he was going off of was simply the words spoken. It just confused me because the way Krotus would be speaking would be very plain and hard to be perceived as him having an ego. Ego is sort of something where the person needs attention from others when it comes to that thing they are talking about, involving themselves. But I get where you're coming from.

 

[AAndroidD]

@AAndroidD That seems like a deep thing to read into if all he was going off of was simply the words spoken. It just confused me because the way Krotus would be speaking would be very plain and hard to be perceived as him having an ego. Ego is sort of something where the person needs attention from others when it comes to that thing they are talking about, involving themselves. But I get where you're coming from.

Tbh my view was that being completely stoic is easy to mistake for a cool act. Being stoic for the sake of presentation. But yeah confusion is reasonable here.


Again, perceived by the character.

 

[Wrath Of Athena]

I am very sorry everyone, but I will be retiring from my role as active GM. I have not been proven able to handle it, so I am passing full control over to @AAndroidD

 

[Tetro]

@AAndroidD


xD Stoicism is VERY VERY NOT a cool act. It is the absence of that "coolness" or even emotional expression entirely. "indifferent to the vicissitudes of fortune and to pleasure and pain" is a quote from the definition of stoicism. I didn't think anyone could perceive it as anything but that. Your character is pretty damn interesting so far. Kudos to you

 

[Dhuum]

@AAndroidD @Tetro


I find both of your characters incredibly interesting, and the possibility for interaction is endless. (Btw i am kinda glad you got the GM rights Android)

 

[AAndroidD]

Thanks yo both of you Dhuum and Tetro!


Also, what i meant by that was that someone puts up a facade of stoicism to appear inexpressive for the sake of getting attention. You know, the whole Cool kid who doesn't talk to anyone and doesn't show their feelings stereotype. Of course, this can be hard to distinguish from genuine stoicism.

 

[AAndroidD]

Enchanting info now up in Overview