Falcos
2015-03-21, 07:47 AM
Hi all! First of all! I am trying to build an entirely new setting for 3.5, and would appreciate help on both the story and mechanical side of things.
So in short, I'm here to ask for any feedback anybody has to offer on my worldbuilding notes for what I am creatively calling "The World of Magic"
(Yeah, I need a new name, too, if anybody's got one)
Nearly a thousand years ago, a young human named Arkis took the teachings of Divine magic that were commonplace, and decided to see if there were a way to change the world around her without using the power of the gods. She spent her life studying the powers her god granted her, until one day, without calling on her deity first, she attempted to cast Light on her own… And succeeded.
This discovery sparked a string of further ones, and Arkis went on to discover more and more spells, eventually abandoning divine magic altogether as she mastered what later users of the art would dub “Arcane Magic”, in honour of its discoverer.
When she was in the twilight of her life, she decided that the smartest thing to do would be to allow her art to be perpetuated, and gathered six students, teaching them all she knew, and charged them with building a school where anybody who wished could learn magic, without being subservient to the then-ubiquitous churches of various deities.
On her deathbed, Arkis put all of her thoughts and experiences into a phial and allowed herself to fade away, knowing full well that her legacy would live on.
The six, titling themselves “The Six Masters”, opened a school, which they called “The Great Academy of the Arcane”, and began taking in students. Over time, they gained more influence with the governmental powers in the area, and the churches slowly lost influence, as it became known that one in three children could master the Arcane arts, rather than the one in fifty who could become a clergyman or paladin.
Now, nearly a millenium on, The Academy, as it is colloquially known, is the greatest superpower in the discovered world, the governments now all looking to it for advice, the churches all forbidden from practicing magic without the Academy’s permission, and several schools of magic outlawed for various reasons.
Physically, The Academy began as a small building that taught a small handful of students, but over the years, it has become a large, flying city, suspended by magic, towers and spires decorating it everywhere. Underneath The Academy is farmland, able to function by grace of light and rain spells from the above city, run by the non-mages.
Most importantly, attendance to The Academy is now compulsory for all people with magical talent. Agents of The Academy roam the continent and test all people aged ten and above for magical potential, recording the results in books that automatically update with a master copy in The Academy. Anybody who has tested positive and is not attending The Academy, on their way to The Academy, or graduated The Academy is automatically deemed a criminal and captured, to be sent to the prisons in The Academy.
The continent is large, and about a third of it has been explored and documented… Unfortunately, there is a large mountain range blocking off the rest of the landmass that nobody has successfully returned from crossing. This mountain range is inventively named “The Barrier Mountains”.
The Academy doesn’t deign to lower itself to deal with non-magical crimes, but magical crimes are dealt with harshly and swiftly, a simple series of divinations cast upon the suspect to verify guilt or innocence, and if they are found guilty, they are punished, often without speaking a single word. Many crimes involving magic carry the death sentence, as the only way to dissuade renegade mages.
The Academy uses a system of identification called “Icons”, wherein before their graduation ceremony, each student seeks the aid of one of the six Masters in creating a magical item, unique to them, which is then bound to their magical essence, and theirs alone. This Icon will then forevermore serve as flawless identification, and it is impossible to purchase certain magical items that are deemed too dangerous for non-mages to handle without producing an Icon as ID. Additionally, the Icons allow The Academy to track the movements and position of the possessor, even if the Icon has been lost or discarded. Each day at dawn, the Icon will return to the position of the owner unless restricted from doing so by a spell that is known to none but the six Masters. Finally, the Icon is considered proof that The Academy has deemed the owner responsible enough to cast magic at their own discretion, and anybody found casting magic without an Icon immediately has a squad of mages dispatched to find them, excepting extenuating circumstances.
Students at The Academy are all issued a Book that acts as a sort of student-Icon, proof that you are studying at The Academy, and can be instilled with a magical rune showing that the student is journeying and has permission to use magic, as long as they are supervised by at least one Icon-bearing mage. Additionally, the Book can be used as a spellbook, and students are encouraged to use it as a journal, even after graduation.
There is a hefty reward posted by The Academy for anybody who can return the Icon and/or Book of a deceased mage, in hopes of tracking down the cause of their demise and recording their knowledge. The Icon acts as a memorial of sorts, entombed in the event that the body cannot be retrieved for burial.
Three categories of magic are banned: Magic involving the dead, as it is deemed impure and desecration, magic involving living souls, as it is deemed dangerous and immoral, and magic involving time, as it is deemed too powerful. The Masters may, upon a majority vote, overturn these bans for specific cases, such as a student dying in a class, or the Icons themselves, which involve soul magic.
The six Masters are the rulers of The Academy, administrators, teachers, and scholars, and by proxy, de facto leaders of the current government. The Masters are a position passed down to the most promising Icon-bearing mages at the time the old Master dies, chosen by the living five (or less, in case of more than one dying at once). The titles they hold and their circles of expertise are all unique to each generation, with the exception of the Master of Crafts, who is a position that has existed since the days of Akcis’s first students.
The six current Masters are as follows:
A Raptoran Stormsinger, known as "Master of Sky" - Patient and kind with new admissions, is the Master who interacts most with non-specialized classes. He is the youngest of the current Masters, and the one who greets incoming classes, and became a Master after his best friend (and alleged lover) was killed in a magical accident, and the Masters of the time voted against resurrecting them. His Icon is a set of pipes, and he has a hawk familiar.
A Spellscale Truenamer, known as "Master of Names" - Studious and careful, she is the Master in charge of admissions and keeping records on every student, past, present, and future. She also runs the library and is very careful with all of her books. Is also the keeper of the master copy of the book that roaming mages use to track the results of the magical tests given to all civilians. She became a Master to gain access to the vast wealth of writing forbidden from the general population’s eyes, and to gather more knowledge using her influence. Her Icon is her Book, the only mage in history to do so, and she is currently the only Master to lack a familiar or companion of any sort.
A Kobold Wu Jen, the "Master of Metal" - Stubborn and unyielding, he is the Master who has held his position for the longest of the six. As the senior Master, he has the tiebreaker vote in cases where there is a stalemate on matters of importance. He believes firmly in an established hierarchy and a clear chain of command. Has been a Master for so long that nobody but him remembers how or why he became Master, and has certainly led The Academy to a very prosperous time under his tenure. His Icon is a pendant shaped like a stylized star made of rough and twisted steel, and his familiar is an Iron Cobra, so old that most of its body has been replaced multiple times with newer metals.
A Dwarf Artificer, who holds the legacy position of "Master of Crafts" - Taciturn and thoughtful, she is the Master who assists new graduates in crafting their Icons, and spends her days experimenting with various magical items, seeing what she can create. She is also the one who fills odd niche requests and commissions from Icon-bearing mages, or makes items that are needed for a specific purpose. She became Master to try to truly understand how magical items function, a goal she has not yet attained. Her Icon is a cloak that shields the wearer from the heat and sparks of the forge, and in place of a familiar, she has created an army of golems to aid her in the forge and do general physical labour around The Academy.
A Tiefling Shadowcaster, with the moniker "Master of Shadow" - Quiet and humble, she administers the Graduation Exams to potential graduates while the other Masters watch and evaluate. A master of illusion and trickery, is capable of shaping the shadows around her into anything. She became a Master in order to learn from the omnipresent shadows, aware of the fact that shadows reach everywhere, and are impossible to completely eradicate. Her Icon is a small mirror on a chain, and her familiar is a Shadow.
Finally, a Hobgoblin Abjurant Champion - the "Master of Arms" - Boistrous and loud, he is the Master who teaches classes on survival, as well as the Master who teaches students who wish to be more physical in their magic. He became Master in order to teach mages the importance of physical defense in addition to their magical skill, and he is always up for talking or laughing with his students. The most lenient of the Masters, he is considered soft by his students, but if it came to it, and The Academy was under attack, he would be the Master who defended it. His Icon is a large and ornate axe, and his companion is a Dire Tiger, which he can ride in the event that mobility is needed.
Mechanical Information:
Arcane casters in this world must either be graduates, students, or criminals.
Divine casters are exceedingly rare, and therefore generally unavailable for play.
Bards only exist in the Divine variant.
Jesters only exist in the setting in quantities so small that they cannot be played by players. They are also changed, similarly to Bards, to be Divine.
Factotum do not exist in this setting.
Sha’ir are criminals only, as they are not accepted by The Academy, but are still considered casters enough to be criminals.
Most racial requirements for Arcane Prestige Classes have been waived, due to the proliferation of race-neutral teachings.
All graduate mages MUST have an Icon. No negotiation. You will have a 50% discount on the Icon, to a cap of ten thousand gold pieces. This is also the only item permitted to be a homebrewed item, obviously subject to DM approval.
Non-criminal mages can have at most two levels of a non-caster class before they take up their arcane studies.
Graduation generally happens at level ten, with exceptions in various situations.
Dragons as a whole are unfriendly to lesser races in this setting, and as such, draconic-themed classes such as Dragon Shaman and Dragonfire Adept are exceedingly rare, and not permitted without very extenuating circumstances.
Spells involving Death (including resurrection), Souls, and Time (including teleportation) are banned, and may not be learned while at The Academy. They may be learned afterwards, with a heavy warning that if The Academy discovers that you have used them, penalties will be harsh.
Most pseudocasters are considered non-mages, and while watched heavily by The Academy, are not permitted entry. There are several exceptions to this rule:
Truenamers are considered Arcane casters.
Meldshapers are treated as if they were using soul magics.
Warlocks are considered to have “stolen” magic and are watched more heavily than most other pseudomages, with the slightest toe out of line warranting life imprisonment at the very least.
Dragonfire Adepts are cast under immediate suspicion due to the above note about dragons, and are allowed to be affiliated (but not enroll unless they have seperate magical talent) with The Academy if they prove themselves trustworthy despite this fact.
Shadowcasters are considered Arcane casters.
Other pseudocasters may be added to this list as they are brought to the DM’s attention.
The spell Anti-Magic Field and Disjunction are not available to players, spoken of only in hushed rumours in quiet corners of taverns.
Aside from the above school bans, Wish is also banned on a separate clause.
The first caster, Arkis, was a Sorcerer. All spontaneous casters are descended from her, rather than from dragons. This changes nothing other than lore.
.
So, feedback, thoughts, advice, etc? I am entirely open to criticism, questions, whatever.
(In case I update it without updating this thread, here is the google doc of this concept: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qelz5E-G8HpLfqyFx7NrWZ-TE6Xus9B0cKan7wtG_WY/edit?usp=sharing )
So in short, I'm here to ask for any feedback anybody has to offer on my worldbuilding notes for what I am creatively calling "The World of Magic"
(Yeah, I need a new name, too, if anybody's got one)
Nearly a thousand years ago, a young human named Arkis took the teachings of Divine magic that were commonplace, and decided to see if there were a way to change the world around her without using the power of the gods. She spent her life studying the powers her god granted her, until one day, without calling on her deity first, she attempted to cast Light on her own… And succeeded.
This discovery sparked a string of further ones, and Arkis went on to discover more and more spells, eventually abandoning divine magic altogether as she mastered what later users of the art would dub “Arcane Magic”, in honour of its discoverer.
When she was in the twilight of her life, she decided that the smartest thing to do would be to allow her art to be perpetuated, and gathered six students, teaching them all she knew, and charged them with building a school where anybody who wished could learn magic, without being subservient to the then-ubiquitous churches of various deities.
On her deathbed, Arkis put all of her thoughts and experiences into a phial and allowed herself to fade away, knowing full well that her legacy would live on.
The six, titling themselves “The Six Masters”, opened a school, which they called “The Great Academy of the Arcane”, and began taking in students. Over time, they gained more influence with the governmental powers in the area, and the churches slowly lost influence, as it became known that one in three children could master the Arcane arts, rather than the one in fifty who could become a clergyman or paladin.
Now, nearly a millenium on, The Academy, as it is colloquially known, is the greatest superpower in the discovered world, the governments now all looking to it for advice, the churches all forbidden from practicing magic without the Academy’s permission, and several schools of magic outlawed for various reasons.
Physically, The Academy began as a small building that taught a small handful of students, but over the years, it has become a large, flying city, suspended by magic, towers and spires decorating it everywhere. Underneath The Academy is farmland, able to function by grace of light and rain spells from the above city, run by the non-mages.
Most importantly, attendance to The Academy is now compulsory for all people with magical talent. Agents of The Academy roam the continent and test all people aged ten and above for magical potential, recording the results in books that automatically update with a master copy in The Academy. Anybody who has tested positive and is not attending The Academy, on their way to The Academy, or graduated The Academy is automatically deemed a criminal and captured, to be sent to the prisons in The Academy.
The continent is large, and about a third of it has been explored and documented… Unfortunately, there is a large mountain range blocking off the rest of the landmass that nobody has successfully returned from crossing. This mountain range is inventively named “The Barrier Mountains”.
The Academy doesn’t deign to lower itself to deal with non-magical crimes, but magical crimes are dealt with harshly and swiftly, a simple series of divinations cast upon the suspect to verify guilt or innocence, and if they are found guilty, they are punished, often without speaking a single word. Many crimes involving magic carry the death sentence, as the only way to dissuade renegade mages.
The Academy uses a system of identification called “Icons”, wherein before their graduation ceremony, each student seeks the aid of one of the six Masters in creating a magical item, unique to them, which is then bound to their magical essence, and theirs alone. This Icon will then forevermore serve as flawless identification, and it is impossible to purchase certain magical items that are deemed too dangerous for non-mages to handle without producing an Icon as ID. Additionally, the Icons allow The Academy to track the movements and position of the possessor, even if the Icon has been lost or discarded. Each day at dawn, the Icon will return to the position of the owner unless restricted from doing so by a spell that is known to none but the six Masters. Finally, the Icon is considered proof that The Academy has deemed the owner responsible enough to cast magic at their own discretion, and anybody found casting magic without an Icon immediately has a squad of mages dispatched to find them, excepting extenuating circumstances.
Students at The Academy are all issued a Book that acts as a sort of student-Icon, proof that you are studying at The Academy, and can be instilled with a magical rune showing that the student is journeying and has permission to use magic, as long as they are supervised by at least one Icon-bearing mage. Additionally, the Book can be used as a spellbook, and students are encouraged to use it as a journal, even after graduation.
There is a hefty reward posted by The Academy for anybody who can return the Icon and/or Book of a deceased mage, in hopes of tracking down the cause of their demise and recording their knowledge. The Icon acts as a memorial of sorts, entombed in the event that the body cannot be retrieved for burial.
Three categories of magic are banned: Magic involving the dead, as it is deemed impure and desecration, magic involving living souls, as it is deemed dangerous and immoral, and magic involving time, as it is deemed too powerful. The Masters may, upon a majority vote, overturn these bans for specific cases, such as a student dying in a class, or the Icons themselves, which involve soul magic.
The six Masters are the rulers of The Academy, administrators, teachers, and scholars, and by proxy, de facto leaders of the current government. The Masters are a position passed down to the most promising Icon-bearing mages at the time the old Master dies, chosen by the living five (or less, in case of more than one dying at once). The titles they hold and their circles of expertise are all unique to each generation, with the exception of the Master of Crafts, who is a position that has existed since the days of Akcis’s first students.
The six current Masters are as follows:
A Raptoran Stormsinger, known as "Master of Sky" - Patient and kind with new admissions, is the Master who interacts most with non-specialized classes. He is the youngest of the current Masters, and the one who greets incoming classes, and became a Master after his best friend (and alleged lover) was killed in a magical accident, and the Masters of the time voted against resurrecting them. His Icon is a set of pipes, and he has a hawk familiar.
A Spellscale Truenamer, known as "Master of Names" - Studious and careful, she is the Master in charge of admissions and keeping records on every student, past, present, and future. She also runs the library and is very careful with all of her books. Is also the keeper of the master copy of the book that roaming mages use to track the results of the magical tests given to all civilians. She became a Master to gain access to the vast wealth of writing forbidden from the general population’s eyes, and to gather more knowledge using her influence. Her Icon is her Book, the only mage in history to do so, and she is currently the only Master to lack a familiar or companion of any sort.
A Kobold Wu Jen, the "Master of Metal" - Stubborn and unyielding, he is the Master who has held his position for the longest of the six. As the senior Master, he has the tiebreaker vote in cases where there is a stalemate on matters of importance. He believes firmly in an established hierarchy and a clear chain of command. Has been a Master for so long that nobody but him remembers how or why he became Master, and has certainly led The Academy to a very prosperous time under his tenure. His Icon is a pendant shaped like a stylized star made of rough and twisted steel, and his familiar is an Iron Cobra, so old that most of its body has been replaced multiple times with newer metals.
A Dwarf Artificer, who holds the legacy position of "Master of Crafts" - Taciturn and thoughtful, she is the Master who assists new graduates in crafting their Icons, and spends her days experimenting with various magical items, seeing what she can create. She is also the one who fills odd niche requests and commissions from Icon-bearing mages, or makes items that are needed for a specific purpose. She became Master to try to truly understand how magical items function, a goal she has not yet attained. Her Icon is a cloak that shields the wearer from the heat and sparks of the forge, and in place of a familiar, she has created an army of golems to aid her in the forge and do general physical labour around The Academy.
A Tiefling Shadowcaster, with the moniker "Master of Shadow" - Quiet and humble, she administers the Graduation Exams to potential graduates while the other Masters watch and evaluate. A master of illusion and trickery, is capable of shaping the shadows around her into anything. She became a Master in order to learn from the omnipresent shadows, aware of the fact that shadows reach everywhere, and are impossible to completely eradicate. Her Icon is a small mirror on a chain, and her familiar is a Shadow.
Finally, a Hobgoblin Abjurant Champion - the "Master of Arms" - Boistrous and loud, he is the Master who teaches classes on survival, as well as the Master who teaches students who wish to be more physical in their magic. He became Master in order to teach mages the importance of physical defense in addition to their magical skill, and he is always up for talking or laughing with his students. The most lenient of the Masters, he is considered soft by his students, but if it came to it, and The Academy was under attack, he would be the Master who defended it. His Icon is a large and ornate axe, and his companion is a Dire Tiger, which he can ride in the event that mobility is needed.
Mechanical Information:
Arcane casters in this world must either be graduates, students, or criminals.
Divine casters are exceedingly rare, and therefore generally unavailable for play.
Bards only exist in the Divine variant.
Jesters only exist in the setting in quantities so small that they cannot be played by players. They are also changed, similarly to Bards, to be Divine.
Factotum do not exist in this setting.
Sha’ir are criminals only, as they are not accepted by The Academy, but are still considered casters enough to be criminals.
Most racial requirements for Arcane Prestige Classes have been waived, due to the proliferation of race-neutral teachings.
All graduate mages MUST have an Icon. No negotiation. You will have a 50% discount on the Icon, to a cap of ten thousand gold pieces. This is also the only item permitted to be a homebrewed item, obviously subject to DM approval.
Non-criminal mages can have at most two levels of a non-caster class before they take up their arcane studies.
Graduation generally happens at level ten, with exceptions in various situations.
Dragons as a whole are unfriendly to lesser races in this setting, and as such, draconic-themed classes such as Dragon Shaman and Dragonfire Adept are exceedingly rare, and not permitted without very extenuating circumstances.
Spells involving Death (including resurrection), Souls, and Time (including teleportation) are banned, and may not be learned while at The Academy. They may be learned afterwards, with a heavy warning that if The Academy discovers that you have used them, penalties will be harsh.
Most pseudocasters are considered non-mages, and while watched heavily by The Academy, are not permitted entry. There are several exceptions to this rule:
Truenamers are considered Arcane casters.
Meldshapers are treated as if they were using soul magics.
Warlocks are considered to have “stolen” magic and are watched more heavily than most other pseudomages, with the slightest toe out of line warranting life imprisonment at the very least.
Dragonfire Adepts are cast under immediate suspicion due to the above note about dragons, and are allowed to be affiliated (but not enroll unless they have seperate magical talent) with The Academy if they prove themselves trustworthy despite this fact.
Shadowcasters are considered Arcane casters.
Other pseudocasters may be added to this list as they are brought to the DM’s attention.
The spell Anti-Magic Field and Disjunction are not available to players, spoken of only in hushed rumours in quiet corners of taverns.
Aside from the above school bans, Wish is also banned on a separate clause.
The first caster, Arkis, was a Sorcerer. All spontaneous casters are descended from her, rather than from dragons. This changes nothing other than lore.
.
So, feedback, thoughts, advice, etc? I am entirely open to criticism, questions, whatever.
(In case I update it without updating this thread, here is the google doc of this concept: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qelz5E-G8HpLfqyFx7NrWZ-TE6Xus9B0cKan7wtG_WY/edit?usp=sharing )