Aspiring Emperor Quest Lorebin #2

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Aspiring Emperor Quest Lorebin
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This pastebin will contain all lore that your character gains during Aspiring Emperor Quest.

Note: Although you may find this information useful, it is not requisite to know all of this to participate. The QM will still answer questions about things that are answered in this document.

POV: This document is usually written from the perspective of the PC (Talon York) but sometimes can be written in a slightly meta-perspective for ease of reading. Regardless, treat any knowledge in this document as IC knowledge. Other characters may also add some info (e.g. "Maloric Says: ") and anything they leave out is either because they didn't want to tell the PC or they (or the PC or the QM) didn't think it was important.

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OTHER EDITIONS
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This is the Thread IV edition of the lorebin of AEQ.

A master pastebin with links to all editions for all bins is below.

http://pastebin.com/6Su7M3fh

NB: All content added since the most recent edition has a #NEW# tag above it. Use Ctrl+F to find new content this way.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. Setting
1.1. General Info
1.2. Barrier of Marie
1.3. Religion
1.4. Anachronisms and Other Deviations from Medieval Expectations
1.5. Rough Timeline (Pre-Quest)

2. Major Factions
2.1. The Three Great Lords
2.2. Magi League
2.3. Royal Seraphi Kingdom
2.4. Darlesia
2.5. Vitria
2.6. Taour
2.7. Mage Guard
2.8. Order of Malataine

3. Major Organisations and their Structures/Purposes
3.1. Mage Towers
3.1.1. General Info
3.1.2. Tower Politics
3.1.3. Mage Ranks
3.2. Knightly Orders
3.2.1. General Info
3.2.2. Order Politics
3.2.3. Knight Ranks

4. Races
4.1. Humans
4.2. The Gods
4.3. Elves
4.4. Dwarves
4.5. Archangels
4.6. Dragons
4.7. Vampires
4.8. Infernals
4.9. Elementals
4.10. Mystic Foxes
4.11. Revenants
4.12. Faeries

5. Magic
5.1. General Concepts
5.2. Sorcery
5.3. Spiritual Magicks
5.4. Astral Powers
5.5. Familiars, Champions and Other Summons
5.5.1. Familiars
5.5.2. Champions
5.5.3. Others
5.6. Enchantment and Items of Power

6. Terminology

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1. SETTING
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///1.1. General Info

The quest takes place on the continent of Gauron. Although its land mass is roughly the size of Europe, the northern half of the continent is currently inaccessible due to an enormous magical barrier that cuts it off. This barrier is known as the Barrier of Marie, and prevents all access, whether by land, sea or air, to the northern half of the continent - it also prevents anything from getting out. Gauron itself is rather lush and is composed largely of grassland and forest. To the far west there is some more arid land and in the south-west is a large wasteland bereft of life. There is one other continent in the world that you know of called Pharos and it is to the far west. You know little of it.

///1.2. Barrier of Marie

Approximately 150 years ago, an unknown monster race eradicated life on the northern half of the continent and was only stopped long enough by the combined forces of the southern half to form a large barrier to wall them in. That barrier itself starts just a little north of the Magi Line mountains (which are supposedly man-made mountains from the Golden Age of Magic ~600 years ago) and apparently extends into the sea around the rest of the northern-half of Gauron.

The barrier itself is said to be created by the archangels, though some tell it differently. Either way, whatever created it was in the league of demigods. The barrier itself is supposedly impenetrable, but given that leagues of soldiers are sent to the fortress' lining the north of the mountains every decade makes one wonder about the truth of that.

#NEW# 1.3. is new.

///1.3. Religion

For the most part, religion is not tremendously widespread amongst humanity. Or, more accurately, organised religion is not terribly widespread. Most people have beliefs, many of which are shared, about the origin of the world and the role of the fantastic beings that shape it so much more than humanity in general. These typically revolve around archangels, magic, the gods and sometimes the infernals.

As for organised religion, there are only four of decent size. The Order of Malataine (which is also a nation); the Disciples of Theros; the Grand Church of the Maker (the 'Cult of Death', colloquially); the Gathering of Immortal Humanity (the 'Cult of Life', colloquially). Malataine is about pacifism and is very widespread (if not widely supported), though also maintains a powerful militant arm in its home city (see 2.8.). The Disciples of Theros worship the angels and believe the Barrier of Marie to be symbolic of their sacrifice as it was humanity's reckless pursuit of power that caused the monsters to emerge. The cults of death and life are as ancient as they are underrepresented - they date back to the Cataclysm, supposedly, and have a great deal of influence despite their small presence.

#NEW# Added the last paragraph. This is a slight elaboration to the answer to a player's question.

///1.4. Anachronisms and Other Deviations from Medieval Expectations

NB: This section is completely OOC. It's mostly for interest.

This is a very high magic setting. Mages are everywhere. That little dirt farm down the road? A mage visits there every growing season to make sure crops are growing properly. High-quality metal is everywhere, quality steel can be smithed easily and magical enchantment is common in cities. Horseless carts and plows, clothes that grant levitation, magical stoves - the list goes on. Basic literacy and numeracy is high-ish (60% or so) and books are everywhere.

With that said, the level of magitech present anywhere is variable. Farming villages may have quality tools, plows and a local agricultural mage but they don't have magic stoves, tractors or anything like that. In terms of food production, productivity is close to the 17th-18th century UK (around twice that of 15th century France). More food means more people; high productivity means more heavily populated towns and cities and a thriving mercantilist culture. The largest cities have more than a million people, and the average city size is around 200,000 and towns around 8,000. (A city is any settlement of more than 15,000 people here. A town any settlement with more than 1,000.) There's probably a mage for every 500 people, though maybe 20% of those mages would be allowed membership to a mage tower (the rest aren't that talented - it's not hard to summon water, heal small wounds or rejuvenate crops).

Taxation and nobility also works a little differently. Royal families or ruling councils tend to act more like centralised bureaucratic systems as magic makes it easier to communicate and high levels of literact mean villages can be trusted with their own finances etc. Taxation varies between areas, but higher food productivity and lower likelihood of bad crops (magic can fend off drought pretty well) means that villages are less likely to live lean. Standards are living are rather high, historically speaking, even in your average dirt farm.

As for polygamy and monogamy, the general expectation is of monogamy in most areas for societal reasons rather than religious reasons. Nobles often have mistresses however and the ramifications of these are more about faithfulness to their wife. Mages tend not to marry (though they may have a household with significant other and children) and so tend not to care so much. As such, although monogamy is the standard in Gauron, polygamy is still practiced in many mage-run cities and polyamory is relatively rampant (particularly among mages, who may have a significant other, a female humanoid familiar and other interests).

///1.5. Rough Timeline (Pre-Quest)

BC - Before the Cataclysm (descends as time passes like our BC)
PC - Post-Cataclysm

Years are largely approximated. Some events are excluded or not elaborated on because the PC doesn't have that knowledge.

Current year: 1952PC

3000BC - the emergence of angels, demons etc into the world. These otherworldly races are referred to as divine races or beings.
0BC - a near apocalypse, known as the Cataclysm, due to a war between the divine races. Afterwards, humanity, elvenkind, the dwarves and dragons found themselves without masters for the first time in known history.
900PC-950PC - The Great Fae Marches. The mages say that the faeries nearly conquered Gauron, until the Great Mage Kushan pushed them back. Some knightly orders claim that they trace their founding back to this great war.
950PC-1100PC - The Great Mage Kushan's reign of terror. He nearly conquered the entire continent of Gauron until he was stopped by the three Great Lords (who emerged at this time). Also, supposedly discovered evocation, which is the main method mages use now to cast sorcery.
1200PC-1400PC - The Golden Age of Magic. 200 years where magical discovery and technology went unhindered, to hear the mages tell of it. Never bring it up around them because they'll never shut up. Supposedly, the Magi Line mountains were created during this period. The Golden Age ended with the emergence of the Mage Guard, who broke up the old Magi League, killed countless mages and restored many of the royal lineages that found themselves dethroned during the whole mess and modern magic still apparently hasn't recovered to this point yet. Safe to say, the mages and the Mage Guard don't get along very well.
1600PC-1620PC - Not sure if this era has a fancy name, but almost every knightly order refers to this as either their founding period, their blooding or just a grand olde time. The Three Great Lords apparently picked a fight with the rest of the continent, to hear tell of it, and were barely fought to a draw. If there's an ounce of truth to it, then it's to not pick a fight with the Great Lords.
1800PC - The Barrier of Marie is erected. Also, all Sources were sealed up around the same time. The events are almost certainly related.
1830PC - Darlesia declares independence (not sure from who) and anoints its royal lineage.
1912PC - Harrowmont begins construction
1913PC - Harrowmont is abandoned shortly before construction is finished.
1928-1931PC - The Royal Seraphi Kingdom wipes out the Farloun - one of the few remaining magocracies. All hell breaks loose. Half the mages in the east revolted. They were bloodily put down, though magic has become so vital to society that it was limited. I grew up in this period. Darlesia came upon hard times during this.
1944PC - Grand Magister Alyce of the Tower of Stars, also known as Alyce of Lyss nowadays as she supposedly came from there, declares the formation of the Magi League and claims Ahm, one of the largest cities in the world and filled to the brim with mages, as her capital. She exiles the royal family, and crushes all opposition around her. Darlesia well and truly began to fall.
1948PC - Alyce of Lyss is the first new Archmage in a century or so. It's an honorary title that basically tells everybody you're one of the biggest, baddest mages around. Given that Alyce excels at mass combat evocation, that's probably very literal as she could probably single-handedly destroy a modern army.
1951PC - The King of Darlesia is killed in his sleep. Culprit never caught. Taour, a former vassal of Darlesia, declares war.
1952PC - Taour captures Darlesia. The story begins.

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2. MAJOR FACTIONS/RACES
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///2.1. The Three Great Lords

The Lords of Ember, Steel and Air are also known as the Three Great Lords. They are the greatest of the Gods, as they think of themselves, and rule much of the western third of the continent. They once picked a fight with the rest of the continent and walked away with a draw. They segregate their society into three strata: the Gods themselves, the mages and the peasants. They were unimpacted by the mage rebellions.

///2.2. Magi League

The Archmage Alyce's great Magi League. It covers a sizeable part of the centre of the continent and are probably the most powerful faction around aside from the Great Lords. I've never really understood their reason for rebellion - all the tower mages I've met love the idea of magocracy but have never really been what I'd call do-gooders. Alyce has either found an untapped well of altruism or there's something else at play.

///2.3. Royal Seraphi Kingdom

The oldest and most powerful royal lineage. Quite possibly the last one standing, though not for lack of trying on behalf of the mages. Supposedly the royal line has a divine blessing that grants them great power and immortality. Supposedly, you can only kill a royal (and there's a lot of them) if they've wronged you. Given how arrogant they are, that's a rather long list of people - though I hear that the main reason the current King slaughter the Farloun was because he thought he'd somehow wronged the whole race. Fantastic reason for genocide. I fought for these guys against the Magi League and some other smaller rebellions a few years back. I've stayed the hell away since Alyce has been earnestly fighting them though.

#NEW# Added the last sentence.

///2.4. Darlesia

Formerly, a powerful royal city and nation. Since the mage rebellions started though, their grasp over power has been shaky and collapsing. Collapsed completely now given the entire royal line is dead and the last soldiers loyal to them now fight for me. The city itself lies to the east of Harrowmont and the Darlesian region we are in lies between the RSK and the Magi League's new territory. There may be some relations to the royal family still alive, but they are almost certainly in hiding or under Taour's control.

#NEW# Some detail added at the end about the noble houses.

///2.5. Vitria

A moderately sized port city to the west of Darlesia. A city of much splendor, wealth and arrogance. Apparently the rich nobles that own the place now (formerly a Darlesian vassal) have had a lot of the city redesigned to look like the port cities to the far east. Strictly speaking, Harrowmont is in Vitrian territory. The main advantage I'll have over them will be that the nobles who rule appear to spend more time fighting each other than trying to rule the city together. Vitria's four ruling noble houses are Oaln, Hawkins, Tabeth and Rorek - Hawkins was historically the most powerful of the four houses with Oaln as second and Tabeth and Rorek maintaining an alliance to match the other two. There are numerous other noble houses, all but a few generally draw their power from a ruling house.

///2.6. Taour

A large city to the north of Darlesia, it was a former vassal of Darlesia, but has since been taken over by a council of vampires. About a dozen daywalkers, from the looks of it. Having fought one before, I can say that one is a pain, a dozen will be hell. They've conquered Darlesia itself now, though that says more about Darlesia's weakness from the mage rebellions against royal lines than it does about the quality of Taour's troops. Once I take Harrowmont, I'll need to deal with them.

///2.7. Mage Guard

Despite the name, these guys have more interested in killing and imprisoning mages than guarding them. Or perhaps it's just an ironic name how they're going to protect mages from themselves? Either way, they hold a large amount of large near the Barrier of Marie to the north and aren't exactly pushovers. They have Inquisitors that travel around the place, being annoying bastards. Oddly enough, they don't seem to have a problem with men like me who use sorcery as a tool - it's the researchers they have problem with. Luddites?

#NEW# Added some commentary by Maloric.

///2.8. Order of Malataine

Apparently this is both a pacifist religion that believes that nobody should fight at all and one of the most militant and heavily armed religious orders on the continent. The priests I've talked to say they don't have much to do with the main order in Malataine over to the far south-west, though that just seems silly. Given they believe sorcery and non-humans are the major cause of conflict, they must be rather tough to survive on the borders of the Great Lords. Almost certainly using a lot of sorcery themselves then - or perhaps they're more talented at spiritual techniques.

Maloric Says: "Sorcery. Malataine priests aren't spiritualists, just preachers. Their knight's armor is very heavily enchanted - Knight-General Lysander's armor is said to be an item of power. Whoever is enchanting and/or forging their armor is a very highly talented mage."

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3. MAJOR ORGANISATIONS AND THEIR STRUCTURES/PURPOSES
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#NEW# This entire section is completely new.

///3.1. Mage Towers

NB: This section is a mix of info from Talon and Maloric.

/////3.1.1. General Info

Mage towers are organisations that provide for the best mages as their members. They are schools, homes, workshops, forums and military bases to their members. As a member of a tower, a mage is provided a room and workshop inside the tower (the size of which reflects their station), access to the tower library (and those of allied towers), cheap resources for their research and, most importantly to many mages, military and political protection. For many mages, their tower is their life - they live there, they work there, all of their friends are also in the tower, they spend their free time there and all their enemies are their tower's enemies (and vice versa). The average tower is around one hundred mages and there is one tower per 50k people (in cities), though mage-run cities can have towers of several times that size (and many more smaller towers too, as they feel less threatened).

/////3.1.2. Tower Politics

Ever since the Golden Age of Magic ended, and most magocracies were deposed from power, mages have been a secondary but powerful ruling force. There is no nation that does not have a powerful mage tower (or two or three) working closely with the ruling class. Although the nobles and royals may run the city, they do so with the aid of the mages and there is a lot of politics around that. Ever since the mage rebellions started, this alliance of rulers and mages has been closely tested. Many towers have sensed weakness and then seized power (like the Tower of Stars did in Ahm) whilst many nobles have sought to tighten the noose around the towers in their nations.

The other political issue is that of the tower alliances - many towers form alliances or friendships with many other towers. The networks can stretch across the continent, providing errant mages with a safe place to rest. They are also what caused the mage rebellions to flare up in the first place - the Tower of Stars has always been an influential tower and had close alliances with many towers across Gauron and it leveraged these in its rebellion.

/////3.1.3. Mage Ranks

NB: These terms will be used as both a reference for rank and for the general level of capability a mage may possess (e.g. Sarah is not a member of a mage tower, but she is still a journeyman-class mage).

Apprentice - individuals (typically children) who are still learning magic. Most people who would identify as a mage, but not as a member of a tower, would fall under this rank simply due to their lack of talent in comparison to the 'true' mages (as the tower mages think of themselves). Apprentices are not members of a mage tower, rather they are sponsored by members.

Adept - the lowest level of tower mage. Adepts are still reasonably talented magic users but they are only beginning to realise their talents. Adepts get their own room and workshop but are still expected to spend a lot of time aiding higher ranked mages with their work.

Journeyman - the most populous rank of tower mage. Journeymen are the stereotypical mage - ardent researchers and highly capable casters. They are expected to begin teaching apprentices and to start presenting regular research.

Magister - the elite of the towers. Magisters are the most talented mages of a tower and act as the face of the tower. Although they spend a lot of time researching, they are expected to represent the tower externally and manage its internals. A magister is the highest rank most mages will reach. Combat magister is a colloquial reference to mages that attain this rank through their combat abilities rather than their research and, despite their ability and power, are looked down upon by many of their colleagues (even those they outrank).

Grand Magister - the head of most towers. This rank signifies the greatest of mages, and some smaller towers without talented enough mages do not appoint a GM as their head, instead appointing a regular magister (and using the title Archmagister of the Tower). A grand magister is a master of their field, and many other fields. As they make good targets due to their influence, most grand magisters are highly proficient in combat. Only a fool would ever take a GM lightly, even if the GM appears to be nothing more than a pompous prick.

Archmage - an honourary title for a grand magister to indicate the level of respect all mages hold for this mage. Although not a formal position with formal requirements, this position is generally considered to be conferred when a very large number of towers confer it simultaneously (to a mage who is likely not a member of their tower). There is maybe one archmage-level mage born each century and they are not to be trifled with.

Mage Errant - typically referred to as their <RANK> Errant (e.g. Magister Errant), these are wandering mages. Although mages are researchers, sometimes their research requires them to travel far and wide. Other mages simply like to explore the world or do some adventuring. There is no real promotion potential from being an errant, though what a mage gains from their time as an errant may speed things up once they stop.

///3.2. Knightly Orders

/////3.2.1. General Info

Knightly orders are organisations that represent knights. In order to be considered a proper knight (i.e. the noble rank) you must be a member of a knightly order. Many nations maintain their own knightly orders, but may also recognise some of the multinational orders, and recognise the nobility of members of any of these orders. The nobility and influence of knightly orders is the main point of difference between knights and mage-knights - the latter being mere soldiers despite the two having very similar combat capabilities and equipment.

/////3.2.2. Order Politics

Many orders are integrated into their local bureaucracy and so the politics of the order can be entangled with the politics of the nation. The grandmaster of the order may be an advisor to the king and the order goes to war with foes of the nation alongside the regular army. Some orders may still prize their independence despite being maintained locally, and multinational orders have strict rules around knights taking on positions of authority outside the order itself.

The politics of the orders hasn't gotten too much complicated with the mage rebellions. Local orders have transitioned to supporting the new magocracies if necessary, though the lack of status they have in these new nations is grating on the knights somewhat. Multinational orders have so far refrained from fighting for either side unless they feel there is a strong need (e.g. one side is engaging in what they feel to be war crimes or criminal acts).

/////3.2.3. Knight Ranks

Squire - aspiring members of a knightly order are squired to a knight of the order. Once they are deemed capable, they are tested by their order and if successful are offered to a local authority (e.g. a king) to be knighted. Squires often use mundane or lightly enchanted equipment, except in times of war where they are expected to wear a full suit of magical plate.

Knight - fully-fledged members of the order and nobles in any nation that recognises the order. Being a knight is not a high-status position, even in influential orders. Knights that were commoners can hold no land in most nations, but their children will be born nobles. Knights that were nobles often use the position as a status symbol to vie for a better position in the nation. The status of knights within an order is distinguished by their length of service and how they have represented the order, typically represented by various service awards.

Knightly Lord - knights that are offered land and title by a nation. A knightly lord is a member of an order and a land-owning noble with allegiance to a nation external to the order. Multinational orders and some orders do not allow knightly lords to attain service awards or ascend to the rank of master or higher (and may require them to step down should they accept such a position).

Knight Errant - travelling members of the order. They represent the order far and wide and are expected to espouse the values of the order. Many orders require knights errant to travel in groups or to have a certain number of service awards.

Master - the masters of an order manage and represent the order. A master is one of the most senior and well-respected members of the order. They are also typically some of the most dangerous and your average master is capable of some impressive combat sorcery. Talon has been offered a position of master in at least one order, though he refused it.

Grandmaster - the head of an order, grandmasters are typically both wise and powerful.

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4. RACES
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///4.1. Humans

The most populous race on Gauron - though I remember some mages saying that was more because Kushan wiped out a lot of the elves, dragons and dwarves. We're also the only race that can use evocation, which combined with our numbers, mean we probably have more mages alone than there are non-humans on the continent. Or not - I'm not big on demography. Aside from the Gods, the rest of the races seem happy to leave us to our wars. Humans can either use sorcery, or with a lot of training, spiritual magicks. The latter seems restricted to some of the monks you find around the continent.

#NEW# Added some commentary by Maloric

///4.2. The Gods

The superhumans that are the true subjects of the Three Great Lords. They're bigger than a normal man. Some of the god-knights used to visit my home city when I was young and living near their territory. I haven't met one since as they don't seem to travel far from home. Supposedly they hate non-humans. Not big sorcery users themselves, but the Lords apparently defeated Kushan, so maybe they're powerful spiritualists? Also, calling them gods is ridiculous - don't they have some less arrogant name?

Maloric Says: "They use astral energy - that's the reason they call themselves gods. Humans shouldn't be able to directly draw on and control astral energy but they can somehow - or at least the three Lords, and possibly their Great Knights can. From what I hear, aside from the Lords whose origins we don't know, the gods were once humans but are 'uplifted' through some arcane process. As for a different name, there's a few colloquial ones, but you could just pick one and see if it sticks.

///4.3. Elves

Isolationalists. Supposedly there's some in forests to the south-west, near Malataine but I've never been there. Never met one.

///4.4. Dwarves

Hardy creatures of industry. They don't participate much in the happenings outside their underground citadels, but they certainly love to trade. You bump into one in settlements from time to time, and they maintain some trading posts near their mountains. There's a large city of theirs in the mountain range in the midst of the RSK and one of them told me they've got a smaller city not that far north of Darlesia, closer to Ahm. There's probably other cities elsewhere. Magic isn't exactly common for them and what they have is supposedly more like transmutation than evocation.

///4.5. Archangels

Supposedly there aren't regular angels anymore, just archangels. Not sure what that means. In any case, legends say there's two of them - Raphael, the Archangel of Life, and Samael, the Archangel of Death. They don't really have territory but they apparently watch over the Barrier of Marie. The most powerful of astral beings.

#NEW# Added Undine's commentary.

///4.6 Dragons

These huge, scaly bastards are around but rather rare. They're big, have powerful breath weapons, can use sorcery and supposedly all of them can transform into a humanoid form of some type. Not sure about that last part. The Great Wardragon also deserves mention - Lairos is apparently the biggest, baddest dragon around. He likes to show up in major wars and just obliterate one side for the fun of it. I haven't met him, but I've met a few veterans who saw him when he turned up during the recent mage rebellions.

Undine says: "There are actually four breeds of dragon, though only one is still even remotely populous. Regular dragons, which are just beasts, are mostly extinct and are incapable of magic. Great dragons are what Talon is talking about, and are sapient and capable of magic, but have been struggling to survive since their kingdom was destroyed at the end of the Golden Age of Magic. Helldragons are dragons (the unintelligent kind) modified by infernal sorcery - they are incredibly powerful, but there are only two remaining today. Feldragons are great dragons that have used their own sorcery to strengthen and empower themselves and their doing so was the cause of the civil war that nearly destroyed their race. Lairos is one of the few remaining feldragons, and the only active one. All dragons, barring feldragons (who are an unknown), are capable of reproduction with other races, though they create pure dragons from such couplings (not half-breeds)."

#NEW# Added info on thralls

///4.7. Vampires

There are two types of vampires. The regular, nocturnal kind who die in sunlight and the rare daywalkers. The former aren't that tough - they can regenerate, are strong and fast but die easy enough if you chop of their head or hit them with some sorcery. At a full moon however, they take on a more bestial form that is immune to anything except serious sorcery. A common mistake is thinking that the bestial form are werewolves - they're just vampires during that time of the month.

The daywalkers however, are seriously dangerous. Supposedly they're as strong as a normal human but they have access to some unique vampiric sorceries that can let them regenerate even their head, claw through magical plate or teleport in shadow. I've fought and killed one before, but it was a close thing.

Maloric Says: "Vampires also have thralls. The nightwalkers turn anybody they feed on into one but the daywalkers can be more picky. Thralls are not so much mind-controlled as they are easily influenced by their masters, and otherwise appear as a regular human. They gain no additional power or abilities, they are merely easier to control by their masters. Nightwalker thralls tend to take on a more... decrepit appearance of the night, though. I am not entirely certain how daywalkers enthrall mortals, so best to be careful around one."

///4.8. Infernals

Demons and devils are collectively known as infernals. They're different but I don't know how. I've never met one, but they ran rampant during the Golden Age. Different to the monsters that overran the north of Gauron. Powerful sorcerous beings.

#NEW# - Added Undine's commentary

///4.9. Elementals

Non-humans that have a close connection with the land and magical flows. They come in different varieties based on nature - fire, water, earth etc. There's a variety known as pure elementals that are humanoid and also tough as nails from the sounds of it.

Undine says: "Pure elementals are the most powerful and rare type of elemental. There are only three or four pure elementals of the four main elements alive at any one time (this excludes myself, as I am not truly connected to the land now). The world itself, through the flows of magical energy, tries to have at least one unbound elemental of each type to stabilise the connection between the magical and physical planes. This means that as elementals perish or are bound by mages as familiars, the world will create new pure elementals a necessary.

"Furthermore, elementals have 'siblings' - though the nature of our creation means this is not the most accurate term. When creating new elementals, they are usually anchored to previously existing elementals of a different type (with earth elementals typically coming first). This anchoring ensures a fast maturation of new elementals. Anchoring can only involve one of each type and should one of the anchors perish, a replacement cannot be made. This means new elementals are occasionally create without anchoring, and they can take decades to mature."

///4.10. Mystic Foxes

Funny looking divine beings originally native to Pharos but they came across a few centuries back. They're basically humanoid foxes with multiple tails. They like to lurk around monasteries here in Gauron, as they use spiritual magicks like the monks do. Supposedly the number of tails shows their spiritual power - the one I met had five and said that was pretty normal for an adult fox.

#NEW# Added Undine's commentary.

///4.11. Revenants

When a person dies, their soul apparently lingers after death before being absorbed into the astral plane. During this time, according to legend, a divine being such as an angel or infernal may bind them to the physical plane. Revenants are very rare now - I only hear legends of them, but they were apparently common before the Barrier of Marie was erected and not necessarily evil. What they look like seems to vary in the artwork - some have skeletal warriors, other suits of empty armor; one even had some strange rabbit looking warrior.

Undine says: "Revenants take on the form that their sponsor (the divine being who raised them) chooses - most simply use the being's former remains, which decay over time. More powerful sponsors may create a powerful sorcerous body. These undead warriors have fallen out of fashion of late, though the angels maintained a large number of them prior to the Barrier of Marie, and one of the archangels supposedly still has one."

#NEW# Added Undine's commentary.

///4.12 Faeries

Strange non-human astral beings that exist in another world and yet can sometimes travel to ours. I've never met one but I've heard countless legends. The Great Fae Marches more than a millenium ago nearly resulted in the faeries conquering Gauron according to some mages.

Undine says: "If you encounter one of the Fae, please do not engage them in battle. If you truly must, ensure you battle them away from their intrusions into our world. The closer you are to their world, the stronger they are and the more reliant you will be on sorcery. In their world, you might need to use sorcery merely to move your muscles and create air to breathe."

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5. MAGIC
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///5.1. General Concepts

Magic is ubiquitous in Gauron. Magical energy is life itself and is ever-present. Without magical energy, life cannot exist. There is also astral energy, which is the stuff of souls. The only beings that can use astral energy directly are astral beings such as faeries and archangels. For humans and other races, astral energy can be manipulted indirectly using spiritual magicks. All manipulation of magical energy is usually referred to as sorcery - the term magic is used interchangeably in-universe to refer to all magic (including astral) and just to sorcery. The QM will attempt to use sorcery as much as possible for the latter to minimise confusion for players.

Generally, spiritual magicks have an advantage against sorcery and sorcerous beings but are ineffective against astral powers and beings. Sorcery can affect everything if you know how to use it, but the sheer power of astral powers and beings can make this like fighting the tide. Astral powers are effective against everything.

#NEW# Added Undine's commentary.

///5.2. Sorcery

Sorcery is the most common form of magic. Humans, elves, dwarves, dragons, infernals, vampires, elementals - the list goes on of races that use sorcery. Each race has a slightly different type of sorcery, and I'm not all that aware of how they use them. Humans, however, split their sorcery into evocation and transmutation.

Evocation is, to hear my old mage friend Maloric Reegan tell of it, the art of instructing the world to move that magical energy how you want it. The gestures, magic circles and incantations are all ways of communicating to the world your wishes. By doing this, humans are able to use a much larger amount of magical energy than they are otherwise capable of manipulating. You evoke the response of the world. The downside is that there's certain things that are difficult to do. Permanent changes to the world are hard - most evocation centers around ephemera, which is where the magical energy comes into the world and leaves shortly after. Personally, I find all this a bit strange - when I use sorcery it certainly doesn't feel like Mal described. Apparently that's normal for instinctive sorcerers.

Transmutation is something I know little of. It's the direct manipulation of magical energy by force of will, rather than by action. It's faster and can do permanent changes easier, but the talent is rare and having enough raw magical potential to do little more than turn sand into glass is even rarer. Supposedly the dwarves use transmutation in their smithing.

Undine says: "Elementals manipulate magic in a similar way to how you humans use transmutation, the difference being we do not need to impose our will on the magical energy, for our element is our will - manipulating the magic naturally present in our element is like moving an arm or a leg. Our strong presence in the magical plane also enables us to create our element without much difficulty. Some elementals, particularly earth elementals, can manipulate magical flows in such a way to disturb the ephemera that human evokers so love and there is my own speciality of imitating human evocation through moving magical energy in very similar ways."

///5.3. Spiritual Magicks

Spiritual magicks are very precise and old. It's to astral energy what evocation is to magical energy. The difference is why - astral energy is potent, so for non-astral beings to use it requires great care. Trying to use astral energy ad hoc is liable to get yourself killed, along with everybody near you. Spiritualists specialise at fighting sorcerous beings like most monsters or dragons, though their talents also make them good against mages.

#NEW# Added Undine's commentary.

///5.4. Astral Powers

The stuff of demigodly beings like faeries and archangels. Your average astral power is to normal sorcery like a bushfire is to a campfire. Other than that, I don't know much. Souls are apparently astral energy - does that mean archangels are powered by souls? Or do they just have really potent souls? None of the mages I've met have really been certain. Good way to start a fight though - every mage has an opinion on this subject.

Undine says: "Unlike magical energy, astral energy is never native to this world (for the record, not all magical energy is either, but most is). As astral energy is itself divine (i.e. otherworldly), local entities are meant to be unable to use it safely, so only divine beings such as angels, who are themselves composed of astral energy, can use it. How 'The Gods' can use such energy is beyond me... Nevertheless, due to its divine nature and potency, astral energy can easily warp reality and achieve things that are impossible even with the most powerful and complex sorcery."

#NEW# Both 5.5. and 5.6. are completely new

///5.5. Familiars, Champions and Other Summons

(This section is a combination of Maloric's and Undine's notes)

Familiars, Champions and general summons are all very similar in nature but different in what they are used for, how mages summon them and what powe ris maintainin them.

/////5.5.1. Familiars

Familiars are magical companions to mages. Any mage with the knowledge can summon and bind a familiar to them. Generally, a mage will create a standard ritual circle for familiar summoning and simply rely on the ritual to summon one that suits them. The familiar that responds to such a ritual will depend on the mages magical affinities, his personality and his power. Though this means that older and more experienced mages tend to summon better familiars there are known cases of apprentices summoning very powerful familiars. A talented and knowledgeable mage can also use more complicated rituals to 'target' the summoning in an attempt to summon a particular type of familiar, or even a particular individual who they want as their familiar. The less likely their target would be to respond to them normally, the less likely this ritual will succeed as a familiar cannot be forcibly summoned. Mages can summon and bind any number of familiars, so long as they are willing.

The actual beings that familiars are varies somewhat. They are all sorcerous beings but not all of them are natural. Natural familiars comprise elementals, sprites, djinni and other magical beings naturally created by the world. Mages can also create their own familiars, known as constructed familiars, but this is rarely done. Constructed familiars do not become available for resummoning and binding as familiars should their master perish. Some mages believe that astral beings can also be bound as familiars, though I am unaware of historical examples. Magical being such as elves and dragons can also be bound as familiars, though I am unaware how. The best known example of this is Archmage Alyce's familiar Mercenie, an Aefir.

/////5.5.2. Champions

Champions are, at their simplest, familiars that are bound by a Source rather a mage. This means it is not the would-be-master of the Champion who determines the resulting summon, but the Source itself. The other difference is that a Source can only have up to seven possible Champions available at any one time. Each Source is connected to seven Places of Power, and it is only by attuning to one of these that a Champion becomes summonable after death. Should a new individual attune to a Place of Power, then they will replace any Champion from that PoP once they die. And, of coruse, that is the final difference - a Champion is an individual who was dead before being summoned. Familiars must be alive. This also means that a Champion is completely reliant on the power that the Source and the connected Places of Power provide them.

/////5.5.3. Others

There are two types of ordinary magical summons - ephemeral summons and patterns. Ephemeral summons involve a mage using magic to temporarily bring an unnatural magical being into the world. The power of the ephemera, its duration and its loyalty to its summoner all depend on the power and capability of the mage. Generally, summoning is a rarely used talent as good summoners also make good enchanters, and enchanting is more rewarding due to the sheer difficulty in summoning powerful beings or even lots of weaker ones. Large scale summons can be done with the aid of magitech and complicated rituals, but are not for casting in combat.

Patterns are permanent summons, that involve creating a very powerful unique ritual circle (the pattern) and a physical shell that it will go into (which must be unique to the pattern) and then using magic to bind the two together. A lot of work must go into the creation of the pattern and shell, and then very complex rituals are required to create the summon(s) from the pattern. Patterns were very popular in the Golden Age of Magic, and a lot of comprehensive research was conducted on them - patterns are even regarded as the ultimate synthesis of magical theory, due to the amount of complexity and knowledge required to create truly great ones. Of course, although many magisters enjoy researching and creating patterns, few actually create the summons as they lack the ability. Even Maloric, who has the affinity for it, says he would have difficulty creating a high level pattern summon. It's largely the domain of transmuters. Interestingly, Kushan supposedly made extensive use of patterns in conquering the world.

///5.6. Enchantment and Items of Power

Enchantment is the process of imbuing magical power into the physical plane, of using ephermal magic to create permanent effects - as Maloric says "The poor man's way of creating lasting sorcery." Essentially, by binding ephemeral magic to a physical object (typically using runes or something similar) you are able to prevent the ephemera from leaving the world as it normally would. This means that the diverse range of evocation spells can be used by people using magically enchanted items. The downside of this is that the magic will still erode over time and use.

The quality of an enchanted item is often determined not just by the strength of the enchantment but by how often it needs to be renewed. Too much exposure to magic through enchantment will cause any physical item to turn to magical energy in a rather violent process. Transmutation and very complex evocation can also make a mundane item magical (or outright create a magical item from energy) using permanent magic but is too difficult and time consuming to be done often.

Items of Power are magical items (not enchanted) whose magical presence is incredibly great. This presence means these items can have an effect on the world greater than the magic that created them (and possibly even greater than the type of magic used to create them). With few exceptions, these are created by divine beings due to the power required to link a physical object with the magic plane. The most noteworthy exception was the creation of the Anti-magic Blade during the Golden Age by mages - the sword is said to repel even astral energy, something that should not be possible.

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6. TERMINOLOGY
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Source - a huge font of magical energy that is tied to the land. They were all sealed 150 years ago by the archangels for some reason. All Sources can be used to summon a Champion.

Champion - term used to describe the powerful mystical being that can be summoned using a Source. Supposedly, powerful creatures or heroes that were close to the magical plane can become Champions after death. I'm not entirely certain what that means, but it's probably that any Champion I summon won't be human.

Knight - can be used to refer to mage-knights, members of knightly orders (who are also nobles) as well as warriors such as myself that outperform mage-knights without all the fancy equipment.

Mage-knight - used specifically to refer to modern soldiers that wear magical equipment to give them their fighting ability. Usually found wearing heavy magical plate, the armor can give them many abilities - flight, at-will spells cast with a gesture or verbal command, silent movement, great strength or speed... The main difference between knights such as myself and mage-knights is that I'm still a killing machine without some magical equipment - these guys are just regular soldiers (usually). Note that most mage-knights are not nobles and are typically not members of mage-towers.

God-knight - the giant knights of the Three Great Lords are called this. They wear huge, resplendent armor and are said to be nigh invincible.

Mage - a term used either for any magic-user or more specifically for members of mage towers. Mages tend to be scholarly types, though some specialise in combat. There's a lot of agricultural and healing mages, though most of them aren't members of towers - an easy way to earn a living in a village is to be able to summon water, heal wounds or disease or enhance the life in plants.

Battlemage - Any mage who has enough talent at combat magic to actually lend a hand in a battle. Although most mages could kill a man with magic, few have the mettle to do so regularly and under pressure. There are adepts that could defeat a magister on a battlefield due to this.

Combat Magister - different to a battlemage, combat magisters are the elite enforcers of mage towers. Many towers only have one - but one is all they need. A combat magister specialises in death and destruction - typically they've started learning this since they were an apprentice. They are exempt from the research requirements of other magisters in the tower.

Monk - monks are quiet, dutiful people. They live in monasteries and create good brew and herbs. Their local villages provide them with food with no hesitation. This is because every monastery seems to be dedicated to monster eradication and has some dedicated warrior monks. They maintain their independence, though they assist local militaries if their goals coincide. Warrior monks are typically capable of some spiritual magicks which centre around binding and dismissing divine and magical beings and they're usually not bad in a regular fight. They can't fight faeries as spiritual magicks can't affect astral beings, but are capable of warding them off regardless.