Fantasy Arcane Epistles: A Fantasy Worldbuilding RP

[Idea]

Dazzum, this sounds interesting as hell, mind if I hop in?
(But I do have a lot of questions though, so please bear with me!)

I believe we were still missing one player (for the orange quiddity, not that you are forced to take that one)

 

[Snow]

is it okay if I join? just so you know ive never done magic in roleplay. i hope thats not a problem, i will try though

 

[Sunsmiter]

I believe we were still missing one player (for the orange quiddity, not that you are forced to take that one)

Sure. I won’t mind! I was thinking of a sun-theme for some reason too!

 

[Idea]

Sure. I won’t mind! I was thinking of a sun-theme for some reason too!

Sun, you say. In that case it might be best for you to take green as in the current layout (not set in stone, just what's been thrown around between the players so far. Adapted from CommanderNecro 's post) that's where the Sun would best fit.

Quiddity	Themes	Opposite Quiddity	Themes
Purple	Death, decay, necromancy	Yellow	Truth, Restoration
Red	Industry, Urbanization	Green	Nature, Weather, Growth
Blue	Abstraction; Crafting	Orange	(undefined)

What some of these entail:
truth - divination, prediction, combating lies/exposing truth
restoration - healing, curing, preservation of form
industry - large scale and quality production
nature- plants, animals...
crafting - mechanisms and complexity, design
abstraction - fundamental or unseen and intangible forces, such the mind or metamagic



If you're aiming for a Sun-themed character, Green's Weather is probably the most fitting.

 

[CommanderNecro]

Sun, you say. In that case it might be best for you to take green as in the current layout (not set in stone, just what's been thrown around between the players so far. Adapted from CommanderNecro 's post) that's where the Sun would best fit.

Quiddity	Themes	Opposite Quiddity	Themes
Purple	Death, decay, necromancy	Yellow	Truth, Restoration
Red	Industry, Urbanization	Green	Nature, Weather, Growth
Blue	Abstraction; Crafting	Orange	(undefined)

What some of these entail:
truth - divination, prediction, combating lies/exposing truth
restoration - healing, curing, preservation of form
industry - large scale and quality production
nature- plants, animals...
crafting - mechanisms and complexity, design
abstraction - fundamental or unseen and intangible forces, such the mind or metamagic



If you're aiming for a Sun-themed character, Green's Weather is probably the most fitting.

Looking pretty good

 

[ChamomileHasWords]

It's Monday, and kind of late in Monday, even, so I'm going to toss out an idea for orange quiddity. Since blue quiddity is the quiddity of abstraction and thought and one of the limitations established is that it can't create living things, orange is the quiddity all about bodies and organic matter. Orange has straightforward buffs to strength and speed, but it's also the quiddity of growing extra limbs, or gills, or of growing cancerous masses and chaotic chimerifications. It's the quiddity of spikes and shoggoths. Orange/green would do things like transform people into animals or merge animals together into owlbears, orange/purple probably has lots of piles of reanimated viscera and Frankensteinian abominations stitched together from multiple bodies, orange/yellow is probably where most of the physical buffs come from, making something more of what it already was without significantly altering its shape or nature, and orange/red merges flesh with metal to create creatures with iron spikes or other forged bits embedded into their body. Orange is no one's quiddity in particular (although we have some new players, so if someone wants to claim it right now that is an option), so the main question here is whether people are okay with the multi-quiddity crossovers here. I feel like the orange/red cross is actually the weakest one, so I might revise that one later.

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot my quote.

Some follow-up questions about the world. First, I'm assuming this isn't Earth but some generic fantasy world we'll be building collaboratively, right? Second, is there a reason the world is a mystery to the wizard, and why now all of a sudden they've decided to go explore it?

That second one might help with character motivations, if they want one.

Idea is correct, the setting is a secondary fantasy world, not Earth, and the local realm is already familiar to the wizards. It's all blank on the map because we haven't made it up yet, but our characters know what's out there. So when you have a travelogue to a hex in the local realm, it's probably going to be something like "I went to check in on the trolls of Lakeview and this is what they're up to lately" or "I've been doing some experiments on the fadeshrooms in Horrorterror Forest," and that will add Lakeview or Horrorterror Forest to the map, not because your character discovered it, but because no one had mentioned it before in-character.

However, distant realms (whether faraway places or entirely other dimensions) being explored is also meant to be a thing that wizards do sometimes (maybe only a little, maybe a whole lot, we'll see).

 

[Idea]

Question ChamomileHasWords before I go to sleep: Even if a character can’t use a quiddity, would they be able to use, say, a magical item that someone with that quiddity made with effects of that quiddity? So in this case mostly thinking of opposite quiddities.

 

[ChamomileHasWords]

Magic items being used by people of whatever quiddity is fine, but they should generally be created by or replicate the effects of an existing spell. If someone wants to have a Wand of Manufacturing to get some red spells onto a green character, that's cool, but I don't want people using magic items to ignore the spell system.

EDIT: And it just occurred to me that I should probably tell the people who are asking that yes, you can still join. So.

Dazzum, this sounds interesting as hell, mind if I hop in?
(But I do have a lot of questions though, so please bear with me!)

is it okay if I join? just so you know ive never done magic in roleplay. i hope thats not a problem, i will try though

Yes, and yes. At least one of you and probably both of you will have to take an already-defined quiddity, but that shouldn't be a big deal. The character sheet thread is here.

 

[Sunsmiter]

Sun, you say. In that case it might be best for you to take green as in the current layout (not set in stone, just what's been thrown around between the players so far. Adapted from CommanderNecro 's post) that's where the Sun would best fit.

Quiddity	Themes	Opposite Quiddity	Themes
Purple	Death, decay, necromancy	Yellow	Truth, Restoration
Red	Industry, Urbanization	Green	Nature, Weather, Growth
Blue	Abstraction; Crafting	Orange	(undefined)

What some of these entail:
truth - divination, prediction, combating lies/exposing truth
restoration - healing, curing, preservation of form
industry - large scale and quality production
nature- plants, animals...
crafting - mechanisms and complexity, design
abstraction - fundamental or unseen and intangible forces, such the mind or metamagic



If you're aiming for a Sun-themed character, Green's Weather is probably the most fitting.

Not very nature themed, but more sun-themed as in the most literal way(astrology, astronomy, plasma, etc).

 

[Sunsmiter]

It's Monday, and kind of late in Monday, even, so I'm going to toss out an idea for orange quiddity. Since blue quiddity is the quiddity of abstraction and thought and one of the limitations established is that it can't create living things, orange is the quiddity all about bodies and organic matter. Orange has straightforward buffs to strength and speed, but it's also the quiddity of growing extra limbs, or gills, or of growing cancerous masses and chaotic chimerifications. It's the quiddity of spikes and shoggoths. Orange/green would do things like transform people into animals or merge animals together into owlbears, orange/purple probably has lots of piles of reanimated viscera and Frankensteinian abominations stitched together from multiple bodies, orange/yellow is probably where most of the physical buffs come from, making something more of what it already was without significantly altering its shape or nature, and orange/red merges flesh with metal to create creatures with iron spikes or other forged bits embedded into their body. Orange is no one's quiddity in particular (although we have some new players, so if someone wants to claim it right now that is an option), so the main question here is whether people are okay with the multi-quiddity crossovers here. I feel like the orange/red cross is actually the weakest one, so I might revise that one later.

EDIT: Oh, and I almost forgot my quote.



Idea is correct, the setting is a secondary fantasy world, not Earth, and the local realm is already familiar to the wizards. It's all blank on the map because we haven't made it up yet, but our characters know what's out there. So when you have a travelogue to a hex in the local realm, it's probably going to be something like "I went to check in on the trolls of Lakeview and this is what they're up to lately" or "I've been doing some experiments on the fadeshrooms in Horrorterror Forest," and that will add Lakeview or Horrorterror Forest to the map, not because your character discovered it, but because no one had mentioned it before in-character.

However, distant realms (whether faraway places or entirely other dimensions) being explored is also meant to be a thing that wizards do sometimes (maybe only a little, maybe a whole lot, we'll see).

AYYYYY AMAZING-
I now like orange quite a lot now(how did ya know astrology/eldritch stuff was a current fixation of mine? mate, you psychic?)

 

[Idea]

Not very nature themed, but more sun-themed as in the most literal way(astrology, astronomy, plasma, etc).

Can you give me an example of a spell for this? Preferably one that doesn't involve predicting the future (as this would probably step on yellow's truth domain) or dimensional magic (as this is related to blue's abstraction).

Just trying to see if there is a way to integrate the astrological theme you want with the orange suggestion from ChamomileHasWords .

 

[Sunsmiter]

Can you give me an example of a spell for this? Preferably one that doesn't involve predicting the future (as this would probably step on yellow's truth domain) or dimensional magic (as this is related to blue's abstraction).

Just trying to see if there is a way to integrate the astrological theme you want with the orange suggestion from ChamomileHasWords .

Taken from a DnD homebrew I made(with stats removed)

Radiant Veil:
A sickening, eerie radiance, with all of the sun's hunger and none of its warmth.
The surrounding area feels as if it has been burned, scorched by some ancient planetary eye. Aside from the heat, creatures within the radius begin feeling either nauseous, sickened, or exhausted. For some time after the casting, the radiance persists, creating an area of lingering radiation. Creatures who remain in the area are at a higher risk of sickness and take additional damage from all physical sources. Upon extended exposure, organic creatures may mutate, become infertile, or contract sicknesses.

(Themed around radiation itself)

Dreamer's Infusion:
The caster's hands glow with an eerie, luminous light. This light counts as magical, and can pierce through objects. Creatures within a certain radius centered around the caster must make a Constitution saving throw. On a failed save, the creatures begin to rapidly mutate, gaining or losing physical features. These mutations can affect abilities, movement, or appearance. At higher levels of upcasting, the caster may control the mutations and the radius, to varied effect. The caster is not immune to the effects, unless shielded.

(Themed from eldritch mutations)

 

[Idea]

Taken from a DnD homebrew I made(with stats removed)

Radiant Veil:
A sickening, eerie radiance, with all of the sun's hunger and none of its warmth.
The surrounding area feels as if it has been burned, scorched by some ancient planetary eye. Aside from the heat, creatures within the radius begin feeling either nauseous, sickened, or exhausted. For some time after the casting, the radiance persists, creating an area of lingering radiation. Creatures who remain in the area are at a higher risk of sickness and take additional damage from all physical sources. Upon extended exposure, organic creatures may mutate, become infertile, or contract sicknesses.

(Themed around radiation itself)

I see... In that case, I could see the contrast with blue (the opposite of orange in this roleplay) being that while blue tries to be controlling, meticulous and complex, manipulating forces at a fundamental level, orange might deal deal with raw energy harnessed from its astrological side (as energy is the simplest breakdown of things) and in particular with chaotic energies of unpredictable results, which would be in line with that eldritch bent you seem interested in.

 

[Sunsmiter]

I see... In that case, I could see the contrast with blue (the opposite of orange in this roleplay) being that while blue tries to be controlling, meticulous and complex, manipulating forces at a fundamental level, orange might deal deal with raw energy harnessed from its astrological side (as energy is the simplest breakdown of things) and in particular with chaotic energies of unpredictable results, which would be in line with that eldritch bent you seem interested in.

Yep, that is very much in line with the eldritch stuff I had in mind! A lot of mutations, calling upon ancient powers from beyond the stars itself, and just messing around in general. If there's anything you want me to change or add, just let me know!

 

[Idea]

Yep, that is very much in line with the eldritch stuff I had in mind! A lot of mutations, calling upon ancient powers from beyond the stars itself, and just messing around in general. If there's anything you want me to change or add, just let me know!

As far as I'm concerned, I think you're good. The only thing I can think of with this way of handling it is to try and not let the "ancient powers from beyond the stars" step on too many toes, but that's a matter of execution of the spells themselves I think. (Edit: Also, while I'm being active in this discussion, I am not the GM, so it's ultimately not up to me to make the final decision about any of this. If at any point you feel I'm overstepping my bounds ChamomileHasWords , please let me know)

By the way, seeing as I'm aiming for a blue quiddity character and you're aiming for the opposite color, I was wondering if you'd like to discuss a possible dynamic between our characters? If so, my PMs are open.

 

[Sunsmiter]

As far as I'm concerned, I think you're good. The only thing I can think of with this way of handling it is to try and not let the "ancient powers from beyond the stars" step on too many toes, but that's a matter of execution of the spells themselves I think. (Edit: Also, while I'm being active in this discussion, I am not the GM, so it's ultimately not up to me to make the final decision about any of this. If at any point you feel I'm overstepping my bounds ChamomileHasWords , please let me know)

By the way, seeing as I'm aiming for a blue quiddity character and you're aiming for the opposite color, I was wondering if you'd like to discuss a possible dynamic between our characters? If so, my PMs are open.

o7, don't pull a psyker from Warhammer, got it. I'll see ya in the PMs!

 

[Snow]

what quidities are there? also what if you wanted your character to be a student?

 

[Idea]

Snow As per the character sheet thread, you can explicitly be a student. You can make a teacher NPC that approves your publishings. Or you could talk to one of the players not making a student and ask if they could be your character's guarantor.

As for quiddities, here's the full list of what's been discussed between the players:

Quiddity	Themes	Opposite Quiddity	Themes
Purple	Death, decay, necromancy	Yellow	Truth, Restoration
Red	Industry, Urbanization	Green	Nature, Weather, Growth
Blue	Abstraction; Crafting	Orange	Distorted Organics, Astral Energy, Chaos

What some of these entail:
truth - divination, prediction, combating lies/exposing truth
restoration - healing, curing, preservation of form
industry - large scale and quality production
nature- plants, animals...
crafting - mechanisms and complexity, design
abstraction - fundamental or unseen and intangible forces, such the mind or metamagic
distorted organics - chimerism, eldritch creatures...
Astral energy - pure energy, drawn from astrology

 

[ChamomileHasWords]

Also, while I'm being active in this discussion, I am not the GM, so it's ultimately not up to me to make the final decision about any of this. If at any point you feel I'm overstepping my bounds ChamomileHasWords , please let me know)

No worries, it makes sense for you to be invested in the conversation. You're the only blue mage (at least right now), so I can throw a red dot into anything orange is doing to get in on it, but you can't. I'll intervene to make a final decision when people disagree or if it's something that might affect the balance of the whole wheel, but if people work things out for themselves, then that's usually great. Orange being organic matter and chaotic intuition opposed to blue's abstract thought and logical order makes sense to me if it works for the two of you.

what if you wanted your character to be a student?

As Idea said, this is an option explained more in the character sheets thread, but I want to add a strong suggestion that you make a professor to go with a student character, rather than pairing up with another player's professor. You don't need to make a separate character sheet for the professor if they're mostly just serving as a background NPC who justifies your student's submissions to the magazine, and having an NPC professor means that you aren't glued to the same research project that another player's character is undertaking.

 

[ithinkcat]

I'm fine with divine beings being associated with Yellow.

Some more questions.
- Does the order of mana matter? Ex. 1Y/1O vs 1O/1Y
- What is the title of the head position over the academy? Headmaster? Arch-Wizard? Grandmaster Wizard?
- Can there be multiple spells with the same cost? For example: 1Y Cast a small radiant orb of light that follows you; and 1Y Your hands glow and mend minor wounds of a living creature you touch.

Promise I'm working on my gal. Not gonna be finished tonight because I'm super busy tonight and because I'm flip-flopping between her being rich or poor (and the implications of each). Sounds like a lot of people are going the nobility route, but I like the idea of her being from a family of adventurers and her grand-pappy slayed a dragon and the family is stupid rich from the treasure hoard it had. Something like the academy actually borrows or buys a lot of their magical artifacts from her family's treasure vault. Thought it would be interesting, but we don't got any scrappy underdogs, yet. And I love me an underdog.

 

[Sunsmiter]

I'm fine with divine beings being associated with Yellow.

Some more questions.
- Does the order of mana matter? Ex. 1Y/1O vs 1O/1Y
- What is the title of the head position over the academy? Headmaster? Arch-Wizard? Grandmaster Wizard?
- Can there be multiple spells with the same cost? For example: 1Y Cast a small radiant orb of light that follows you; and 1Y Your hands glow and mend minor wounds of a living creature you touch.

Promise I'm working on my gal. Not gonna be finished tonight because I'm super busy tonight and because I'm flip-flopping between her being rich or poor (and the implications of each). Sounds like a lot of people are going the nobility route, but I like the idea of her being from a family of adventurers and her grand-pappy slayed a dragon and the family is stupid rich from the treasure hoard it had. Something like the academy actually borrows or buys a lot of their magical artifacts from her family's treasure vault. Thought it would be interesting, but we don't got any scrappy underdogs, yet. And I love me an underdog.

Looking forwards to see your gal! I'm debating if I wanted to change Astrophel's position back to student, or if she can just be the resident Indiana Jones(except with explosives) professor who probably scored lower than her own students.
P.S. if you do make an adventurer, I wanna see.

 

[ithinkcat]

She's an adventurer for sure. Mostly was planning on doing travelogues. Original concept for her was Lara Croft seeking the Philosopher's Stone...but with spells instead of guns.

 

[Sunsmiter]

She's an adventurer for sure. Mostly was planning on doing travelogues. Original concept for her was Lara Croft seeking the Philosopher's Stone...but with spells instead of guns.

Behold! My powerful Red Quiddity spell!

 

[Sunsmiter]

Oh yeah, I had this saved, so I made a meme.

 

[Idea]

ithinkcat ’s characters could have inspired Sunsmiter ’s adventurous spirit, maybe be someone the trifling really admires or even them both ending up treasure hunting together (and Obsina needing to wipe the mess that ensues)