Memory of the Wardens
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Acylenn
Acylenn
Admin
Posts : 48
Join date : 2019-09-01
Age : 27

Character sheet
Name: Myra
Race: Human
Combat Stats:

Character Creation Guides Empty Character Creation Guides

Sun Sep 01, 2019 5:46 pm
Here you will find all things relevant to the immediate creation of your character, such as playable races, the functionality of magic, as well as the internal workings of the kingdom.
Acylenn
Acylenn
Admin
Posts : 48
Join date : 2019-09-01
Age : 27

Character sheet
Name: Myra
Race: Human
Combat Stats:

Character Creation Guides Empty Human Mages

Sun Sep 01, 2019 5:47 pm
No one is quite sure how, but there came a point in the distant past, where a new, entirely non magical race came into being, seemingly out of nowhere. Their, comparatively, extremely short lifespan bringing with it a strong reproductive drive, this people, naming themselves humans, grew rapidly and soon vastly outnumbered the magical races predating them. Not long after, contact with the ya'ari, added a rather strange magic strand to humanity, a type of mage, theoretically capable of using the ya'ari's school of magic, though far weaker, and requiring another mage to unseal their potential before they are able to make use of it.

These mages could have easily grown to be quite an impressive force, had it not been for one fateful event, roughly 100 years ago. It was then, that the current human king was made painfully aware of the sheer amount of power held by the ya'ari, that was passed down to the mages of his kind, as one of the wardens, through an accident, sunk the entire city of Rosewind Harbor into the ocean, killing thousands, an event that humanity has since convinced itself, was of malicious intent.
Not wanting to wait for the possibility of this power one day turning on them, the king declared war on the ya'ari people, heralding years of bloodshed, eventually forcing the remainder of their civilization into hiding to avoid further loss of life.
In a step to rebuild after the great war, and to avoid another Rosewind, magic was strictly outlawed, putting in place the Inquisition, a branch of the armed forces trained specifically to deal with magic users. Those found still practising are since then to be put to death without exception, leading to what few human mages remained taking on a nomadic lifestyle to avoid unnecessary contact with the kingdom, a task not made any easier by their bodies naturally converting the usually harmful parts of sunlight into magical power, making them unable to tan or sunburn.
The only safety remaining for them is the mage sanctuary, Micha, a city put under a powerful protective spell by the wardens, unable to be located or even accidentally stumbled into by those without magic abilities. Here they continue to pass down the magic teachings of the ya'ari, the people their powers originate from, though among themselves they lack the tools to train mages capable of applying their power to combat, as the upper limit of a mage is not quite what would expect. While the extend of their power can effectively be considered infinite in most situations, the magical energies running through them can put an immense strain on their bodies. Comparable to the warmth of a fire, using small amounts of power is barely noticeable, while large amounts can be excruciatingly painful to experience, quickly leading to loss of focus, and as such control, for anyone unprepared, making combat one of the most difficult situations to use magic in, as it not only often requires far more power than more casual applications, but also often makes it night impossible to predict the exact amount of power needed.

Despite all of this there is a variety of schools, of which each human mage falls into one they have a talent for and are mastering, though learning the essentials of others is entirely possible.

Force Magic
Likely the first school one would think of, Force Magic, describes the art of projecting ones physical strength over a distance. Since this power is ultimately limited by the maximum capabilities of one's own muscles, those who chose this school most often build their physical strength, resulting in Force Magic users making up most of the warriors among mages. Additionally, though they ultimately use only their own muscles to move objects, create pressure waves, and the like, it does often seem as if their magic was physically stronger than their bodies, since through it, they are able to make use of every single one of their muscles towards the same goal, making them appear much stronger.

Spiritual Magic
A much more subtle application is the use of magic as what is essentially a sixth sense. One will often find spiritual mages acutely aware of their surroundings, as they very naturally sense the flow of magical energies and the life force around them. With experience they will be able to distinguish familiar auras, allowing them to locate others, and eventually reach out and imprint on the spirits of others, transferring simple thoughts or impressions and, at it's most extreme, creating minor illusions, though these require an incredible amount of focus and are easily broken through close inspection or even the awareness of the person affected.
Much easier to influence though are animals, allowing resourceful spiritual mages to calm or agitate most normal animals they encounter, or rudimentarily communicate to them.

Healing Magic
While it does technically fall under spiritual magic, by far not every mage can become a healer. The ability to bypass another's body's defences against unfamiliar magic is incredibly rare, yet inherently required for healing magic, as it functions by injecting one's own power into another's body to amplify their healing process, which also makes it impossible to heal oneself, leaving them reliant on other healers, or the slow subconscious self healing all mages undergo to make use of their excess power. Additionally, this functionality means that magical healers are entirely unable to purge poison or disease, and are forced to manually remove anything unwanted from a wound, lest it will simply close around it.
Though it seems a rather useful ability, even masters of magical healing use their powers only in miniscule cases, or when they are left with no other option, as for this particular school, the target of their abilities is also affected by the strain put on them by the healer's magical energies, which, in addition to them being forced to feel their own flesh, blood, and bones regrowing at an unnatural speed, which has often been described as comparable to reliving the injury itself, can easily lead to death for someone already in critical condition.

Mattersmithing
Quite a fascinating use of magic is the art of creating physical objects out of pure magical power. These objects are under the direct control of the mage and can be moved without the need to touch them, as well as reshaped and dissolved at will. It is one that a lot of mages of other schools seek to grasp, as it's practical uses are only limited to one's imagination, though it is an incredibly difficult art to learn without the natural predisposition, which is not exactly common.

A few rules remain consistent throughout all the schools of magic.
For one, no mage is capable of focusing their power through their mind alone. The single best way of stabilizing the direction of one's magic found so far is through hand motions, which is how all mages are taught. With one notable exception, no one has yet succeeded in finding an equally safe and practical replacement.
On a separate note, it is important to be able to roughly know how much power one will be using for a given task. Essentially there is only two relevant factors in this, with the energy lost to thought inefficiency being entirely negligible. The most obvious part is the amount of power needed for the task itself, for example the exact force needed to move an object through force magic, or for an object created through mattersmithing to absorb a blow without shattering. This force is then exponentially increased by the distance over which the mage attempts to apply his magic. The only school exempt from the rule of distance is healing magic, as using it requires skin contact, automatically making the distance it is used at nonexistent.

One last thing remains to be noted, that thing being wizards.
Wizards, simply put, are those that use magic through means other than their own natural source of power, often without even having been born with one. This can be achieved through the use of magic infused objects or runes, which draw power from any source given to them and do exactly as they are written out to.
Users of both these arts are nigh impossible to find, as they are not only banned in the kingdom, just as mages are, though being caught possessing these abilities won't necessarily lead to immediate death, but also frowned upon heavily among mages, in the case of runes, while magic infused objects are simply incredibly hard to come by, given that the knowledge of how to create them has been lost long ago.
Equally rare, though for vastly different reasons, are an entirely unique category of wizards, known as shadow casters, a name given to them, due to their unique ability to use shadows to their advantage. While they may appear to be able to use normal magic apart from this, their power stems not from their own, but a lost spirit trapped in their body, making their creation entirely non voluntary, as it requires the spirit to infuse an infant and have the natural barrier that shields their body from magical intrusion build around it. While they could rival mages in magical power quite easily, these wizards are driven insane, typically already in their early childhood, as the spirit, itself not sane, instinctively fights for control over their body at all times.
Acylenn
Acylenn
Admin
Posts : 48
Join date : 2019-09-01
Age : 27

Character sheet
Name: Myra
Race: Human
Combat Stats:

Character Creation Guides Empty Daemar

Sun Sep 01, 2019 5:49 pm
Known in folklore as “Changelings”, “Werewolves”, or simply “Animal Spirits”, the daemar are largely thought to be creatures of pure fiction, a fact they are very content with. Having always been secluded in nature, they have only withdrawn from human civilization more, after witnessing the fate of the ya'ari, and the human mages after them, interacting with humans sparsely and only displaying their abilities in the presence of their own kind and those they trust deeply.

What makes their continuous status as mythological creatures all the more impressive is the nature of their magic, which is not quite as versatile as that used by other races, rather their abilities are limited to transforming them between their humanoid and animal form. Further complicating the issue is the fact that they retain certain animal characteristics, though also partially the advantages, while humanoid.
The exact features possessed in their human shape depend on which of the several families of daemar they are part of.

Cats are largely found in grasslands. As excellent hunters they have an incredible sense of hearing, which their human form is also capable of, likely due to the catlike ears that, together with a fitting tail, give them away as daemar.
Bears similarly keep their animal ears, though for them it stops there. Additionally they may use a portion of the strength they possess while in their natural shape.
Birds prefer to keep to mountain areas, though they will avoid venturing into the icy landscapes of the north. They are often thought of as one of the more unsettling families to look at, mostly due to their bird eyes which do appear quite out of place in a human face. While this is mostly cosmetic, they, more usefully, also retain their wings, which, while somewhat impractical at times, allow them to glide short distances.
Rodents, while mostly native to islands, often feel themselves drawn towards cities, which isn't terribly surprising, given their actual similarity to humans, with the only features carried over being their short claws. Besides this small detail, they tend to be far smarter than other daemar.
Snakes mostly made their home in the great desert of the south, though they have become so rare, it's entirely possible they have gone extinct. Similar to birds, you will find their human form to have the eyes of a snake, as well as poisonous fangs, though outside of their snake shape, said poison is barely capable of causing brief unconsciousness.
Dogs can be found nigh anywhere, but they do tend to enjoy coastal areas the most. Not unlike cats, their human form retains ears, as well as their tail, however their talent doesn't lie in their hearing, but rather in their sense of smell.
At this point it should be noted that daemar in the shape of wolves do exist, though the remaining six of them form a pack that keeps to itself at all times.

Though their culture does differ greatly with the distance between them, a few things stay the same between all of them.
Given the fact that their clothes are entirely unaffected by their transformative abilities, they prefer to keep clothing to a minimum, sometimes going as far as omit it entirely when surrounded by their own kind. For a similar reason they also tend not to carry weapons.
Acylenn
Acylenn
Admin
Posts : 48
Join date : 2019-09-01
Age : 27

Character sheet
Name: Myra
Race: Human
Combat Stats:

Character Creation Guides Empty The Inquisition

Sun Sep 01, 2019 5:50 pm
Many changes were made in the kingdom, after the great war, all put in motion by the ban on all things magical. Most importantly, a new wing of the military was founded, simply called the inquisition. Equally well trained as the king's personal guard, though far more specialized, the inquisition operates under the command of the High Inquisitor, a position currently held by a woman named Alyssa Natalya Greywolf, who's power in the kingdom is overshadowed only by the king himself.
The inquisition's responsibilities revolve entirely around finding, detaining, and eliminating magic users. They may not be called to respond to every single mage found, since in most cases normal soldiers are perfectly capable of handling the situation, though every city has one of their units stationed in them, with the city of Syra holding their headquarters.
With the hunt for mages not being nearly the task it once was, most resources are now spent on the search for the mage sanctuary of Micha, which forms the single most common reason, the high inquisitor may request a prisoner to be moved to her stronghold.

While most soldiers are given basic information, for example that entirely restricting a mage's ability to move their hands will leave them nigh unable to use their magic, inquisitors receive intensive training on more detailed techniques, as well as additional tools, such as a small dagger with an amethyst blade that will emit a light glow when cutting a mage, to give them a further advantage. After all, inquisitors are expected to take mages in alive whenever possible, for them to be possibly questioned and finally burned at the stake, as is tradition.

For instance, while restraining a mage is well and good, it is just as possible, and much safer, to drain their magical power, though this takes a rather long time. The easiest and most readily available way of achieving this is to simply keep their head under water until the crystal blade no longer detects magic from them. This is due to their natural self healing process, in which any excess power their body produces is used to slowly repair damage, being put into an emergency state, redirecting all available magic to keep the mage alive at all costs. To ensure they will not recover their abilities while detained, every inquisitor will also carry a set of shackles, infused with crystals, similar to the blade, that, when breaking through the skin on application, not only draw in any more power the mage might generate, but also hinder the casting of spells far better than simply undermining hand movement.

A lot of mages are quite easy to spot, due to their inability to sunburn or tan, given that their bodies convert sunlight into magical power, rather than forcing their skin to deal with it. Beyond that, when encountering them, the various kinds of mages will typically behave differently according to their abilities, which may change the way they should be approached.
The easiest to spot are force mages. These will not only often appear noticeably physically stronger than others, they will also most likely be rather confrontational as they, especially when not combat trained, will be far more effective up close. It is, due to this, advised to stay at a distance until they can safely be restrained.
Mattersmithes, while having the next strongest theoretical combat potential, are not nearly as dangerous. They will similarly be at their strongest at close range, however they will usually be far less direct about this, rather staying on the defence, waiting for someone to come close enough to strike. Though because of this it might sound counter intuitive, the best course of action is to simply engage them immediately. It is important to remember, that a human mage will not be combat trained, so putting them on the defence will keep them from striking and put them at their limit rather quickly, as they will be forced to use their abilities to cancel out any blows that would otherwise hit them. It should also be said that they are never to be put in normal shackles used for non magical prisoners, as they have been shown time after time to be able to simply create a lock pick and free themselves almost instantly.
While spiritual mages may not pose an immediate threat through their powers, their cunning is not to be underestimated. They are easily recognized by their tendency to stare at their target rather intensely, as they require immense focus in order to affect someone in a way that will be useful to them. In their presence, one's eyes are not to be trusted when given the chance, some of them are able to cause hallucinations, though these should not be an issue, as on second glance they will not be perfectly realistic, and can easily be destroyed by simply breaking the mage's focus.
The last category are healing mages. They are entirely non threatening and will be unable to use their abilities retaliate. Additionally they may only heal others directly and require skin contact to do so, so simply keeping them away from any other prisoners will effectively render them useless.
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