Jump to content

[✓] [Magic Lore] Life Evocation


LoTC's Next Top Model
 Share

Recommended Posts

“It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn; and whether it was the outward substance of things or the inner spirit of nature and the mysterious soul of man that occupied me, still my inquiries were directed to the metaphysical, or in its highest sense, the physical secrets of the world.”


 

Since antiquity, frightful whispers and old wives’ tales of the horrid miscreations created by wizards in their grand spires have served to plague the good name of magic the world over. Men in dark robes filling empty vessels with stolen life, maniacal geniuses creating complicated contraptions to redeem the dead at lightning’s bid, and branded cultists making dark bargains with creatures from beyond the fold to gain power over lesser creatures from their realm.
 

This, however, is none of those tales. This is the story of Life Evocation, known to many by the most common and well known of it’s archetypes, ‘Conjuration’, and while not free of the blemishes of corrupting knowledge, is a comparatively jovial and neutral nature of the art of Conjuration has kept it in a state of general disregard and disinterest by the magical community at large, for better or worse. Regardless, those few who strive to learn the inner workings of life, whether it be out of adoration or some darker intent, tend to find the twinned freedoms of ignorance and opportunity a great boon.

 

From would-be druids desiring to be free of the politics of the circles, biology teachers seeking the absolute most perfect representations of life, and carnival side-show workers seeking perfectly docile exotic animals that may be controlled on a whim, every practitioner of Life Evocation has their own unique reason for mastering this oft-overlooked school of magic. Due to these many paths, the methodology by which the conjured beings enter is similarly heavily varied. Whether it be opening a benign portal to the void from which the beast steps out fully crafted, to having a creature assemble piece by voidal piece in front of him as the conjurationist sternly stares on, each Life Evocationist has a particular and generally unique summoning ritual. These diverse techniques have lead to a highly varied selection of applications, each taking the simple fundamentals of drawing life from the void and applying them in novel ways, several of which remained unknown outside of reclusive cabals prior to recent nights. Surely, this means further developments are merely waiting to be discovered.
 


Life Evocation - Conjuration

 

“The natural phenomena that take place every day before our eyes did not escape my examination.”

 

Certainly the most well known discipline of Life Evocation, so much so that it became its colloquial namesake, Conjuration is the most straightforward of the practices Life Evocationists practice. To conjure a creature is to generate a puppet facsimile of within the void, before bringing the entity to the physical world and filling it with purpose.

 

Conjuration can be cleanly sorted into four separate categories, which are as follows;

  • Terrestrial Conjuration: The process of summoning replicas of living fauna. Anything that a layman could reasonably consider an ‘Animal’ would apply (Including humanoids.).

  • Perennial Conjuration: The process of summoning replicas of living flora. Anything that a layman could reasonably consider a ‘Plant’ would apply (Including natural alchemical regents.)
  • Disjointed Conjuration: A lesser form of conjuration, where incomplete organic components of creatures are summoned separately from the full body they would normally be attached to. A bizarre secondary effect of this method is the velocity from which the conjuration is forcibly shunted from the void, enough to function as a macabre projectile.

  • Chimeric Alteration: Archaically known as ‘Hybrid Conjuration’, Chimeric Alteration is an advanced modification of the summoning ritual involved in Conjuration, whereby the Conjurationist takes the base ‘Frame’ of one creature and imparts additional features and bodily modifications to it, whether that be a wolf with the serrated triangular teeth of a shark, or a bear covered in scaly hide, a sparrow with the elongated tongue of a toad, or a land-capable shark with the legs and respiratory system of a man.

 

General Conjuration Mechanics
 

Spoiler
  • Any use of feet as a measurement system acts under the assumption that three feet is equal to the length of a single minecraft block. An unrelated clarification, all emote counts include the emote required for voidal connection.
  • The process of creating life is a difficult one, beyond what standard mages could normally accomplish, and so conjurationists utilize a ‘shorthand’ (elaborated later) of shortcuts and optimizations in order to enable them to even create life in the first place. While the conjured life is functionally unharmed by these shortcuts, fine control of the aesthetics of the creature are largely out of the conjurationists control, though they fall in line with the standards of the species in question. Functionally, this means it is impossible for a Conjurationist to mimic an existing creature, such as a childhood pet, or (in the case of summoning a humanoid) a clone of a person.
  • Another side-effect of the mystical efficacies lies within the control of the beasts summoned. In order to make the control of living beings into a task which is reasonably completed by a fellow of average mental capacities, several layers of automation are weaved into the ritual to cast a spell. Complex biological functions, such as respiration and circulatory functions in animals, or photosynthesis within plants, are automated thoughtlessly by the spell itself, with only the vaguest control by the Conjurationist. The Conjurationist can override these automations with excessively simple commands, such as causing a beast to howl out, hold its breath, or even outright stop it’s heart (irreversibly). These overrides need to be extreme and simple, however, and vocalization is perhaps most heavily limited by this. While grunts and whimpers may even come automatically from a creature in combat, and screams or howls are easily forced out in any general scenario, any form of speech (whether by mimicry, such as from a parrot, or from proper speech, such as a humanoid) is beyond the complexity of what a conjurationist can handle. Unfortunately, the original methods of conjuring beasts without the Conjurer’s Shorthand has been lost to time, never to be discovered again. As a result, these limitations are absolute.
  • When a conjured being, plant or animal, is killed (or otherwise finds it’s death), the conjurer intuitively knows the moment it happens, and generally chooses to allow the spell to fizzle out and stop wasting his energy. This is not a necessity, however, and a conjured corpse can be maintained for as long as the Conjurationist has both the energy and the will to keep it around, whether it be for intimidation value or to teach an anatomy lesson.
  • In order to summon a living entity, the Conjurationist must have an intimate understanding of that entity. In order to obtain such an understanding, a Conjurationist generally requires weeks, even months, of studying the behaviour of the creature in question, how their limbs move and bend, the gait with which they sprint, dietary habits, and general lifestyle. In addition to the logistics and pathos of the creature, they require a detailed understanding of the inner workings of any beast they wish to summon. Generally, this requires a few butcherings, to see how the organs are laid within the body, how tendons and muscle wrap around bone, the skeletal structure itself, and so forth. (ooc note: this is largely based on the honor system, since there’s no real infrastructure for logging the expeditions and anatomy self-teaching your character progression (unless you decide to put a gallery of character magic progression in your character card, which is above and beyond the call of duty and would make you a cool dude). However, Conjuration has a unique method of power scaling, and that would be the fact that character knowledge directly influences your available options, and therefore power level. Because of this, and because both metagaming and powergaming are against the rules, I’d suggest keeping evidence, at least for exotic creatures you’ve studied. For the sake of categorization, non-exotic creatures would be those one can easily find in abundance and pose little threat (such as squirrels, pigeons, rabbits, most fish, deer, and other similarly benign and overpopulated species.), as well as creatures which exist within minecraft itself.  Exotic creatures would consist of the latter, though these are not an exhaustive and total list;
    • Anything easily capable of causing harm to a person, such as naturally feral and territorial creatures, and any other creature that would pose a challenge to kill in the first place.
    • Creatures which are uncommon to find, such as anything from a Savannah, Arctic creatures, life native to deep jungles, creatures from the very bottom of the sea, and so forth.
    • Any creatures which don’t exist in the real world.
    • Bears.
    • Plants which pose risk of health to handle.
    • Particularly difficult to dissect or study creatures, such as insects and crustaceans, or creatures with toxic or barbed skin.
  • Different Conjurationists summon creatures in different ways, whether it be forming a portal that slowly grows with time until the conjured creature walks out on it’s own from within the fully formed portal, forming a cloud of smog which slowly condenses until becoming the intended creature, or summoning a skeleton upon which muscle, fat, tendons, and skin coalesce over time (Or even something else fantastical and interesting. Be a cool weird guy, friends.). These differences are purely aesthetic, however, and must follow the same rules;
    • Conjuration rituals are blatant and apparent, and very clearly magical to anyone with direct line of sight(although quiet enough not to be heard through walls).
    • Conjuration rituals cannot take place in occupied space, and will fizzle if occupied for more than a moment (such as the area of the ritual being walked through).
    • Conjuration rituals are intangible until complete, no matter the method of generation.
    • Conjuration rituals may incorporate light, though only dim lights, and cannot actually light darkness an area in any notable way.
  • Conjured life requires food, drink, with the same diet and hunger as a standard member of its species. However, conjurations rarely exist long enough for any of this to factor.
  • While they are living, conjured beings do not have minds of their own, and are not connected to nature. Sensory Illusion, Mental Magic, and anything else that would prey on directly affecting a creature’s mind or senses would be entirely ineffective. Druids would be unable to commune with conjured beings, although this failure in itself is enough to tip off a druid to the creature’s unnatural origin, if they were not previously aware.
  • Enchantments made for Conjured Creatures must specify in the description whether they are for combat or not.

 

General Conjuration Redlines

 

Spoiler
  • The most important redline: If you’re unsure if you’re allowed to do something, remember mechanical default. That is to say; If it requires breaking mechanical rules of the game in order to accomplish, you probably can’t do it (obviously as well, if it requires breaking the rules of the server itself, it cannot be done). This lore is self-contained and it’s abilities are limited to what is described within this lore itself. Consequently, if it breaks no mechanical rules nor the rules of the lore itself, the actions themselves would be wholly allowed (at LT discretion).

  • Conjured creatures are wholly useless and unusuable when it comes to nutrition (Conjured plants and meat would fizzle into nothingness as they’re chewed, the mushy substance hard to maintain concentration on), arts & crafts (Conjured plants and animal byproducts similarly fizzle out when being processed, whether that be through attempting to make a potion of a conjured mandragora or tan a hide off a conjured elk, or anything in between.), and magical rituals (Conjurations are beings made of mana and void, fundamentally. They have no usable genus (and are otherwise wholly non-interactive to Blood Magic of any generation), and any usage of conjured life within any other form of magical ritual would see the being, alive or otherwise, fizzle during the ritual, causing any other used materials or energy expenditure to be irreversibly wasted.)

  • Creatures that are poisonous/venomous lose these properties when conjured.

  • While conjured creatures do have full sensory ability, they cannot meaningfully transfer any information or awareness to the Conjurationist, and the Conjurationist cannot perceive through them.

 


 

The Conjurer’s Shorthand

 

There exist a handful of rumors and legends, propagated largely through word of mouth and the inevitable distortions of history that comes with it. Whether the stories are based in truth, or an out of control inside joke among Conjurationists to mock the ambition of their students, none can say. Whether truth or myth, certainly all may agree that Conjuration started somewhere, and for lack of a better belief, many choose to feed the rumor mill.

 

The stories have a few traits in common, chronologically; A small number of powerful arch-mages became fixated on the godlike power of creation, and began experimenting tirelessly to attempt and find their own bastardized version. After decades of excruciating, perilous, and often immoral research, they became the first Life Evocationists, though that’s a modern term. The title they personally claimed for their dynasty were ‘Conjurer’. Their powers were great and impressive, massively surpassing that which mages in the modern nights can only attempt to emulate; Beasts the size of dragons, entire armies of men, entirely unique species fabricated entirely through their mind, and even the capability to make these beings permanent.

Despite the great power and novelty, however, the Conjurers eventually became aware of the unwieldy nature of their spells. Even miniscule efforts took a great many minutes, and the stress of manually controlling great being, or massive swathes of lesser beings, became a great burden on their mind and body. And so, they got to work with fine-tuning. New methods to forgo power for efficiency, reduce trivial complexities down to self-automated measures of the spell, ignore the need to define aesthetic characteristics, and whatever other trite they grew tired of dealing with. Thus came about, the ‘Conjurer’s Shorthand’.

 

From there, the fairy tales diverge. Whether they took students to stroke their ego while only teaching on the optimized and comparatively minimized versions of the spells, safe-gaurding their ultimate powers with a zealous greed until their dying day, or they simply lacked the ability to define in words (or ancient tomes) the means by which their most extreme methods of creation may be replicated (or some other truly exorbitant tale), one thing is certain: These mythical powers, whether they ever existed, are certainly beyond what any mortals on the present realm would ever be able to learn. 

 

So, with origin story out of the way, what does the ‘Conjurer’s Shorthand’ actually mean for Conjurationists? A multitude of things. Firstly, it vastly simplifies the process of creating life. The Conjurationist need not focus on the aesthetics of the creature, as such things are defined (with some variance) by the spell during the summoning. The drawback of such is that the Conjurationist also may not decide such ‘irrelevant’ features on their own. Secondly, all integral processes of life are handled within the spell itself, from respiratory to circulatory, so that the Conjurationist need not constantly focus on the organs of the creature, and can instead focus on directing it. Thirdly, the Conjurationist may elect to let ‘instincts’ take over the creature, although their pattern of behaviour is similar, no matter what the creature is. Individual species may inherit specific quirks related to their typical behavioural parameters, such as pruning feathers or panting. Beyond these simple little traits, their general behaviour would remain heavily docile and non-explorative (regardless of how a standard member of the species would react to stimuli), not drifting farther than thirty feet from the conjurationist at any given point.

 


Subsection I: Terrestrial Conjuration

 

After days and nights of incredible labour and fatigue, I succeeded in discovering the cause and generation of life.

 

Every art has it’s most iconic tool, whether it be a fireball or a paintbrush, the first thing an aspiring learner would perfect, and often the most used within the field. For a Conjurationist, this would be Terrestrial Conjuration, to summon a pseudo-animal to accomplish whatever goals you can set your mind to.

 

There are many possible uses of conjuration, and the cleverest Conjurationists may accomplish great tasks in a mere fraction of the time it would take another, given the Conjurationist’s innate ability to create underlings upon which they may delegate tasks. Whether it be simple tasks of hauling great volumes of material, ferrying off a letter, or a more complex task along the lines of fine manipulation (assuming the creature has the requisite limbs, gripping capabilities, and motor function to do so). One may even, if they so desired, simply maintain a small troupe of animals to keep them company, although this would be the magical equivalent of playing with dolls.

 

General Terrestrial Conjuration Mechanics

 

Spoiler

 

  • Firstly, the summoning capabilities of a Conjurationist are not unending; Even at the pinnacle of the art, summoning a creature greater than the stature of a common grizzly bear. Any larger, and the strain of commanding such a large mass of complex systems and musculature is too much to bear, and would cause either a spell failure, or cause the Conjurationist to outright faint. Attempting to summon a great many creatures results in similar outcomes, and so a rough approximation of weight classes of various creatures has been discovered through trial and error by various Conjurationists, which is used to gauge the approximate number of creatures of each size they may summon. The categories are as follows;

    • Miniscule, smaller than a rat.

    • Small, greater than or equal to the size of a rat, smaller than a housecat.

    • Medium, greater than the size of a housecat, up to the size of a wolf.

    • Large, greater than the size of a wolf, up to the size of a bear.

      • And the maximum summons are as follows (assuming tier five);

        • Miniscule : Twenty

        • Small : Ten

        • Medium : Five

        • Large : Two

  • There is a curious side effect of summoning multiple creatures, however. While the Conjurationist always remains in direct control of the creatures, those commands can get muddled when being spread out amongst a large crowd. Up until five summoned creatures, the animals maintain general autonomy, and can be ordered to perform separate tasks (so long as they remain within the Conjurationist’s line of sight, elaborated below). From five to ten creatures, the beasts can no longer follow individual commands, though still remain as fully functional creatures. Greater than ten concurrently summoned conjurations, and things get a tad weirder. The beings become somewhat slower in terms of response times, tend to ‘trample’ over one another, and occasionally lose control of minor portions of their body for a brief moment (assumedly the result of the ‘signal’ being picked up by the wrong creature). Furthermore, they are no longer suited to complex tasks, and can do little other than the simplest, most brute-force esque actions (not that miniscule creatures are particularly brutish in the first place).

  • The creature must be summoned within a two block radius of the Conjurationist, within line of sight. After being summoned, it must remain within general line of sight of the conjurationist, or be fizzled out at the end of the Conjurationist’s next emote without maintaining line of sight. While not seeing the conjured creature, The conjurationist still maintains complete control, although it cannot be controlled to do anything requiring precision (anything greater than swinging around randomly, moving around randomly, holding position, and other similarly simple commands would be beyond what the conjurationist was capable of, and merely being a few feet away from the conjured being would be good enough to nearly ensure safety from it.) would be absolutely impossible. Popping one’s head out every other emote is not enough to maintain concentration, and would also cause the spell to fizzle; this two-emote break between seeing the creature is an absolute limit per summon. (‘Line of Sight’ is a term used for ease, gaseous opaque material such as mundane smoke would not qualify for breaking line of sight, though would render the creature to the same limits of blind fighting previously outlined. Transparent solid material, such as glass, also would not break line of sight. Fully opaque solid materials, whether wood, stone, curtains, or a mask over the eyes, would break line of sight, obviously so.)

  • Summoned animals have the same limits as an average, mundane member of the species, albeit one mind-controlled by a (hopefully) significantly more clever being.

 

Terrestrial Conjuration - Non-Combat Variant - Non-Combat / Enchantable* / Dependant Summon*

 

Spoiler

There are a great many possible uses of conjuration, ignoring the most blindingly obvious (we’ll get to that later), ranging from the simple: Making your loyal beasts into haulers or mounts, to the complex: Having a couple rat-sized creatures clean underneath the strings of your grand piano, or setting a crack team of mosquito agents to fix the mast of your ship-in-a-jar.

 

While the applications for such an ability are nearly infinite, the limiting factor comes down to the simple adage: “Bring the right tool for the job.” A goat, with it’s hooved feet, would not be capable of fine manipulation. However, they’d be naturally quite adept for climbing a sheer cliff, to kick over a box at the edge of a higher ridge.

 

Mechanics

 

  • The emote counts for summoning are as follows; Two emotes for up to ten miniscule creatures, up to three small creatures, or a single medium creature. Three emotes for more than ten miniscule creatures, more than three small creatures, up to three medium creatures, or a single large creature. Four emotes for more than three medium creatures, or two large creatures.

  • Any tasks delegated to materialized minions must be within their physical capabilities to perform in order to have successful results. Furthermore, the conjurationist themselves must be aware of how to properly complete a task in order for their commands to have successful results (if a conjurationist doesn’t know how to build a birdhouse, they can’t properly force a conjuration to build one).

  • While normally a creature must remain in direct line of sight in order to be maintained, a Conjurationist may command a single creature of no greater than small size to travel to a location the Conjurationist has previously been to, and is aware of how to reach from their current location. The Conjurationist must maintain focus on the creature for the entirety of this time. Functionally, this allows the Conjurationist to create minute messengers, so long as the creature summoned is summoned specifically for this task. If they choose to send a letter with the creature, the writing of the letter must be done separately from the emotes to summon it, resulting in a minimum of four emotes before sending it off.

  • Due to the mystical self-sufficiencies weaved within the spell, non-combat conjurations can be summoned for a staggeringly long, functionally indefinite amount of time. However, if maintained for a period of greater than a single real life hour, the Conjurationist’s mind would begin to grow hazy, the constant back and forth with the conjured being having begun to put noticeable stress onto the mind of the mage. Similarly, the body would grow fatigued, and the mage would be at notable risk of simply falling asleep from the combined side-effects.

  • While maintaining conjured non-combat creatures, the Conjurationist’s moveset is limited, though not quite so much as while in battle. Any significant harm that befalls the Conjurationist will fizzle out the spell, and they still may not cast any other magics while under concentration. However, some degree of their focus may be diverted to other activities, such as reading, running, or making a sandwich.

  • Summoned creatures count as Dependant Conjurations.

  • All general Conjuration mechanics.

Redlines

 

  • All general conjuration redlines.

  • If the Conjurationist becomes involved in combat while non-combat summons are maintained, the heightened stress and energy of the situation exceeds the simpler limitations of the spell, and causes the creatures to immediately fizzle.

 

Terrestrial Conjuration - Non-Combat Enchantment

 

Spoiler
  • Creatures summoned through an enchantment require three emotes to summon, no matter the creatures inside.

  • Conjured creatures created through enchantment follow somewhat different rules. They are as follows;

    • The limitations of enchantment as opposed to the convoluted nature of conjuring a creature results in a lower ceiling of complexity for summonable creatures. An enchanted conjuration can summon the following; Up to ten miniscule creatures, up to five small creatures, and up to one medium creature.

    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations, unlike other conjurations, instantly fizzle upon death. This consumes the remaining time for the enchantment until it is restored (This process must be listed on the item or taught/displayed to the recipient of the item, and if questions arise the creator of the enchantment is held responsible to answer them (within reason)).
    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations cannot stray farther than thirty feet (ten blocks) from the holder of the enchanted item.

    • If the owner of the enchantment enters into battle while their creature is conjured, it immediately flees to the edge of it’s available radius, and fizzles out.

    • If the enchanted item leaves the summoner’s hand (or otherwise their possession), the conjuration fizzles.

    • Conjured creatures must be commanded verbally, and the commands must be fairly simple.

    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations can exist for no longer than an hour.

    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations count as independent summons.

 

Terrestrial Conjuration - Combat Variant - Combat / Enchantable* / Dependant Summon*

 

Spoiler

Of the great many possible uses of conjuration, the most blindingly obvious (told you we’d get to it) would be of combat. Ferocious beasts capable of reducing men to scraps in moments are a great boon in any battlefield, although the time to summon and comparative vulnerability of the summoner necessitates some degree of tactic, picking correct fights, and knowing when it’s just best to use your blade. Nonetheless, whether it be a semi-intelligent dive-bombing pelican or a bear to act as a mobile wall to block arrows and fire for yourself and comrades, a cunning enough Conjurationist can rake a good time (if not a victory) from a proper melee.

Combat, however, poses a certain handful of limitations that non-combative conjurations are not subject to. Firstly, in order to override the typical animation of Conjured Creatures (Granted by the aforementioned ‘Conjurer’s Shorthand’) to such a degree that their fight-or-flight response is overwhelmed by your will and intent, a near constant concentration is required. Due to this, the Conjurationist can scarcely move greater than a jog, or cast any other spell. As well, the limit to summoned creatures is cut roughly in half from the increased mental strain.

Beyond this, the means of summoning and controlling the conjured creatures is generally identical to the non-combative variant of the spell.

 

Mechanics

  • All general Terrestrial Conjuration mechanics.

  • The size categories remain as previously described, for posterity;

    • Miniscule, smaller than a rat.

    • Small, greater than or equal to the size of a rat, smaller than a housecat.

    • Medium, greater than the size of a housecat, up to the size of a wolf.

    • Large, greater than the size of a wolf, up to the size of a bear.

  • The emote counts for summoning are as follows; Three emotes are required for a single miniscule or small creature. Four emotes are required for multiple miniscule creatures, multiple small creatures, and a single medium creature. Five emotes are required for multiple medium creatures, or a single large creature.

  • The mental degradation accelerates at double the rate, as well. Summoning a mere five creatures renders the entire swarm down to ‘Token’ autonomy, the entire ‘swarm’ of creatures unable to perform any degree of individual action or thought, unable to be separately ordered or controlled. The swarm would move as a single unit, performing the same task when they reach their destination (which must be the same), albeit at different locations, climbing over each other if need be.

  • Summoned creatures may exist for a maximum of twenty emotes (in combat, resetting one IRL hour after combat ends.) The emotes required for summoning factor into this.

  • Conjured creatures count as ‘Dependant Summons’.

Redlines

 

  • All general conjuration redlines.

  • The Conjurationist themself can’t perform any feats of great physical effort, whether that be swinging a weapon, swimming (although the act of maintaining position within a still pool of water is calm enough of action not to be forced out of conjuration), climbing a ladder, taking any hit to the body rougher than a punch (although consecutive repeated punches would end concentration), taking any notable hit to the head, being on fire, being frozen, being suffocated, attempting to pull back the drawstring of a bow (a pre-loaded crossbow would be fireable, though reloading would be impossible without dropping the conjuration), breaking into movement greater than a light jog, being electrocuted, becoming winded from what limited actions you can make, and death. This is not an exhaustive list of what can not be done, anything of similar calibre or greater to anything described within this section would be equally disruptive to focus.

  • Reasonable armour and clothing, including heavy armour, would not disrupt focus, from underwear to full-plate. If one were to, for some bizarre reason, wear an article of clothing specifically meant to cause harm and discomfort, would prevent casting whatsoever if it extends past the bounds previously defined.

  • The motions and disruptiveness of riding a mount is enough to cancel out the focus required to maintain a summon, even if the mount is something you’ve summoned.

 

Terrestrial Conjuration - Combat Enchantment

 

Spoiler
  • Enchantment-based terrestrial conjurations require four emotes to summon, no matter the creature/swarm within.

  • Conjured creatures created through enchantment follow somewhat different rules. They are as follows;

    • The limitations of enchantment as opposed to the convoluted nature of conjuring a creature results in a lower ceiling of complexity for summonable creatures. An enchanted conjuration can summon the following; Up to ten miniscule creatures, up to five small creatures, and up to one medium creature.

    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations, unlike other conjurations, instantly fizzle upon death. This consumes the remaining time for the enchantment until it is restored (This process must be listed on the item or taught/displayed to the recipient of the item, and if questions arise the creator of the enchantment is held responsible to answer them (within reason)).

    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations may be summoned for up to ten emotes. This includes summoning emotes. This resets the following day, in other words, twenty four hours after combat concludes.

    • Enchanted terrestrial conjurations cannot stray farther than thirty feet (ten blocks) from the holder of the enchanted item.

    • If the enchanted item leaves the summoner’s hand (or otherwise their possession), the conjuration fizzles.

    • While enchanted creatures don’t require focus to be maintained, the level of control the summoner has over them is limited. Commands must be made in either loud verbal shouts, usually paired with obvious physical gestures (such as pointing one’s entire arm in the direction of a target.)

    • Enchanted conjurations count as independent summons.

 


Subsection II: Perennial Conjuration

 

“It was the most beautiful season; never did the fields bestow a more plentiful harvest, or the vines yield a more luxuriant vintage: but my eyes were insensible to the charms of nature.”

 

A lesser used capability of the conjurationist is to bring into the world miniature groves of plantlife. While the capabilities of such are certainly limited, and practically a mere parlor trick in comparison to the rest of the spells at a Conjurationist’s disposal, one should never underestimate the value of even the simplest tools they’re given.

 

Perennial Conjuration - Combat / Enchantable*

 

Spoiler

Mechanics

 

  • All general conjuration mechanics.

  • Perennial conjuration requires suitable ground to cast. Soil, sand, muck, water, whatever it is the plant would normally require to root itself in. This land does not necessarily need to be arable, however, and salted earth works just as well as the freshly fertilized.

  • Rather than size categories, as Terrestrial Conjuration has, Perennial Conjuration uses an area measurement system to define emote counts. With 2 emotes, one may summon a simple flower (or other plant) in hand, or a patch of plants in a 3 foot (1 block) radius. With three emotes, this raises to six foot (2 block) radius. With four emotes, this raises to nine foot (3 block) radius. This radius is spherical; instead of creating a patch of clovers, one may create a single citrus tree.

  • Plants may be conjured centered on a point within eight blocks of the caster, so long as the caster has direct line of sight and no blockers between themselves and the target area. The casting is evident, and it would be obvious to anyone looking upon the soon-to-be plants that something is happening, even if they can’t discern what.

  • If  the space plants are intended to be summoned is occupied, whether that be by furniture or living beings, the plants would grow around said objects. If the plant is dense enough, this is enough to cause minor disruption and impediment to those within, though an emote of half-dedicated action would render them freed from the plants. The remaining terrain may cause further inconvenience, though not necessarily so much as to cause a significant combat advantage.

  • Plants grow in density and size standard to their species. Trees come solitary, though moss would cover the entirety of the terrain summoned upon, albeit not much higher than a fragment of an inch.

  • All summoned plants must be of the same species, though individual plants within the patch may be aesthetically different as common for the species, such as variably coloured tulips.

  • Casters do not have any overt control over their plants after they are manifested, though they also require much less focus to maintain.

  • Plants maintain any properties they naturally hold, whether it be numbing or irritation, up to a limit. The effects cannot surpass a moderate itching, which naturally fades when the spell ends, as the irritants fizzle from the victim’s skin.

  • Conjured plants count as neither Dependant or Independant summons.

Redlines

 

  • All general conjuration redlines.

  • In order to negatively impact others in combat, perennial conjuration must be charged for at least three emotes.

 

Perennial Conjuration Enchantments

Spoiler
  • Perennial Conjuration enchantments cause plants to grow around them, though in ways that can be ‘coded’ into the item. Whether this be a sword hilt which encircles itself in roses, a nice cape which coats itself in moss for warmth, or a planterbox that manifests it’s own topiary.

    • Perennial Conjuration enchantments require three emotes to activate, and the ensuing plant matter can take up a space no larger than three feet by three feet.(one minecraft block).

    • These enchantments are purely aesthetic and add no combat capabilities to the item in question.

 

 


Subsection III: Disjointed Conjuration

 

“I need not describe the feelings of those whose dearest ties are rent by that most irreparable evil, the void that presents itself to the soul, and the despair that is exhibited on the countenance.”

 

Once there were a slacking student, whose lack of focus during the finer points of his mentor’s drolling lectures resulted in a cataclysmic expulsion of a bull’s head directly into and through a lab table, destroying hours of carefully prepared tinctures and salves. Rather than a great and terrible disciplinary hearing for his mistakes, the clumsy lad was surprised to see his teacher elated and stunned at the student’s display, for through his gross negligence a loophole in standard summoning procedures was found, which allowed the first truly combatative function of conjuration.

 

Due to its discovery during the Conjurationist’s Renaissance, Disjointed Conjuration is a rough and imprecise science, even in comparison to its sister-disciplines. However, the comparitvely low effort and strictly required knowledge involved in Disjointed Conjuration render it a perfect first step for a neophyte in the art. 

 

Simply put, Disjointed Conjuration allows the capability to summon individual organs or limbs, which are then capable of being launched as projectiles during the summoning, though not afterwards.

 

Disjointed Conjuration - Combat

 

Spoiler

 

Mechanics

 

  • Pre-iterated for clarity, non-projectile summoning requires two emotes. Projectile summoning requires three emotes.

 

  • The Disjointed Conjuration can be conjured in one of two (and a half) ways; Either directly in the hand (or otherwise within the immediate radius of the caster), where it functions as a mundane version of the conjured organs. If a Disjointed Conjuration is created in this manner, it cannot be later launched as a projectile. Conjuring in this manner requires a uniform two emotes.

  • Disjointed Conjuration may use either Terrestrial or Perennial Conjuration as a base, with the same requirements of study as otherwise.

  • Alternatively, one may summon the Disjointed Conjuation in the form of a projectile. If summoned this way, it is thrown either straight forward or in a similar manner to an underhanded lob. Conjuring in this manner requires a uniform three emotes, as well as the following properties;

    • Unlike most voidal projectiles, the summoned bodily parts hold both weight and physical mass, and their range is inversely proportional to their weight. Under ideal conditions, a Disjointed Conjuration fired as a straight projectile can reach sixty feet before losing velocity and hitting the ground, and a lobbed projectile can reach it’s maximum impact distance at half that range. (Twenty and ten blocks, respectively.) The larger a Conjured limb is, the lower this range becomes, ranging from the listed values at approximately the mass of a human femur, scaling down to half the listed values when nearing the mass of a standard fifteen-pound bowling ball.

    • The vast majority of conjured objects would be wholly and totally useless for the purpose of launching at enemies. Most organs and limbs are simply too fleshy and malleable to hit with any particularly damaging impact. Under ideal conditions, using a particularly pointed, narrow, and light object (such as the aforementioned human femur), the maximum wounding damage a Disjointed Conjuration can perform is roughly equivalent to an arrow lobbed from a shortbow under similar conditions. Other organs and body parts may deal damage as expected of an object of the size and properties the item has, at the discretion of involved parties.

    • A projectile conjuration may be held indefinitely for as long as the caster remains focused, floating and bobbing alongside them in a manner that is highly evident and unable to be hidden. If the item in question is interacted with, such as being smacked out of the air, it loses the ability to be used as a projectile and falls to the ground as expected, becoming a baseline representation of whatever was conjured for as long as the caster maintains focus on it.

  • The maximum size of a Disjointed Conjuration is roughly equivalent to the size of a bull’s head.

  • Summoned bodily parts, be they organs and/or limbs, can be summoned in diverse forms as follows: branchs made out of flesh, giant floating eyes (adhering to the maximum size listed above), a drizze of rain-like blood, etc. These creations however, as mentioned, cannot be used to the extent of projectiles and instead can only serve as an aesthetic representation of such component. Utilizing conjuration in this manner is strictly noncombative.

    • Conjured organic material is not "alive", but it can show simple facsimiles of life. For instance, one could make a twitching eye, beating heart, or writhing limb, but one could not conjure a grasping limb, a head able to form complex sounds, or any such thing.

    • Organic material is generic to whatever species it was conjured from.

    • Unique aspects of multiple organism cannot be combined until the conjurationist reaches tier 4. For instance, conjuring a floating goat's head with a lion's mane would not be possible until then. Unlike other applications of chimeric conjuration this has no effect on emote counts.

 

Redlines

 

  • All general conjuration redlines.

  • Disjointed Conjurations exhibit no signs of life under any scenario, and are always conjured ‘Dead’.

  • Particularly exotic properties of an item are lost when conjured. For example, bile loses its digestive properties when summoned in this manner. Furthermore, anything gaseous, flaming/exceptionally flammable, poisonous, of an extreme temperature, or otherwise directly harmful lose this property when conjured.

  • Summoning bodily parts/organic material (as mentioned in the latter points of the paragraph above) is strictly noncombative given they cannot be used as projectiles.

 

Disjointed Conjuration Enchantment
 

Spoiler
  • The primary application of a Disjointed enchantment would be to grant an item a projectile attack, similar to the projectile function of the spell. An enchantment created in this way requires four emotes from front to end to fully conjure and eject the projectile, which cannot be ‘held’ in the manner the original spell can.

  • The secondary application of a Disjointed enchantment is to create some form of emission. A blade that soaks itself in mysteriously apparating blood, a hilt that manifests a bone club made of a femur and a skull, a coat that fills itself with fur to keep its wearer warm. These manifestation enchantments take a uniform three emotes from start to finish, and may have a duration up to one hour.

  • The third and last application of a Disjointed enchantment is to create a similar form of emission, though rather gore-y and grotesque. Common examples are blades or otherwise armaments that look as though they are made out of pulsing flesh, vestments with human/animal eyes scatterred across and into the fabric, etc. These enchantments, however, are permanent and serve as a way to make flashy and mostly aesthetic objects, though the effects have a duration up to one hour- after which the item becomes normal and must recharge like any other enchantment.

 

All of these enchantments (except the first, which would start as potent) follow the redlines of Transfiguration lore and thus are considered lesser enchantments, player-signed, unless enchanted with an active spell (like the conjuration of i.e; a creature, or another spell from one of the other voidal magics).

 


Subsection IV: Chimeric Conjuration

 

Accursed creator! Why did you form a monster so hideous that even you turned from me in disgust?

 

There comes a time when a conjurationist has intimately familiarised himself with the innards of all that walks beside him, and grows bored with the mundane. When this boredom hits, and it always does, the conjurationist has an out; Through careful experimentation (and quite a many miscreated abominations), a conjurationist may learn how to properly splice aspects from one living being over another. Alternatively, a conjurationist may decide to ‘improve’ upon god’s creation, and malform the proper version of a creature into something a bit stranger. However, even ‘gods’ make mistakes, and it is a frequent occurrence that conjured hybrids are strictly worse than the sum of their parts.

 

Chimeric Alteration - Combat / Non-combat

 

General Chimeric Guidelines

 

Spoiler

Closer to a modification than an entirely new spell, Chimeric Alteration carries over the redlines and mechanics of whichever form of life it is being used to alter. However, there are a few new redlines and specifics specific to one form, and a handful that apply to both.

 

General Chimeric Mechanics

 

  • Chimeric Conjuration is not a precise or elegant practice, and so minute additions are unable to be done. All additions are clear and apparent from the instant it’s summoned.

  • Chimeric Alterations are, for all intents and purposes, a natural part of the creature. Damage wounds the creature as it would an original limb, as does the loss of such alterations.

  • Chimeric alterations may be composed of both plant and fauna matter, whether that mean creating a rose that bleeds or a hawk with leaves in place of feathers. Whether a Terrestrial or Perennial chimera, this takes one alteration slot. This is purely an aesthetic change, and may not give creatures any new abilities.


 

General Chimeric Redlines

 

  • All General Conjuration redlines.

  • No more than three species can be merged together.

  • Chimeric Alteration cannot create wholly unique beings that don’t exist in any form, and must be composed entirely of species the Conjurationist has studied.

  • Possession of the traits or anatomy of another creature does not strictly mean that the hybrid is better off. Similarly, possession of a limb does not inherently mean that it is properly usable. Even when usable, it is extremely rare that an addition comes without some other loss of functionality. For instance, summoning a wolf with the wings of an eagle does not create a flying wolf, as the wolf is too heavy for the wings to support it, as well as the fact the wolf does not have any particular ‘ports’ to sprout wings from which would be conducive to flight. The creature can, however, use the wings as separate additional limbs, capable of knocking things off shelves, or spreading out as an intimidation tactic. The loss of functionality would be increased weight on the wolf, lowering it’s speed. As well, it would shift the wolf’s center of gravity, and negatively impact it’s balance.

  • Despite the name, this process does not allow one to alter existing life, summoned or otherwise. It is, rather, an alteration to the ritual of conjuring life, and can only affect things as they are being summoned.

  • The complex, fleeting, and inherently non-replicable process of Chimeric Alteration is beyond the limitations of what a normal enchantment can store. Chimeric enchantments can be made, however, with an accepted Mart.

 

Chimeric Terrestrial Guidelines

 

Spoiler

Chimeric Terrestrial Mechanics

 

  • All general Conjuration mechanics.

  • All General Chimeric mechanics.

  • All Terrestrial Conjuration mechanics relevant to the combat status of the conjuration.

  • For Terrestrial Conjuration, Chimeric Alteration can take the following forms;

    • Addition of limbs or other bodily features, which must be connected to the creature and integrated into the ‘ecosystem’ of its body. That is to say, bones must be properly connected to the skeletal structure, blood vessels in the new limb must have a connection to the heart of the creature, and so forth.

    • Replacement of existing limbs or bodily features with those of another species, which would affect their capabilities as expected.

    • Full-scale replacement of any features that cover the skin of the creature, whether that be scales, hair, or chitin. Replacing hair with scales or chitin would decrease the flexibility and mobility of the creature’s limbs and body as a whole, though replacing chitin/scales with hair does not do the opposite.

    • Full scale alterations to the skeletal structure of the summoned organism, with or without inspiration from another species. Generally, this is done for either training or aesthetics. Strictly speaking, this only makes the creature worse at most tasks, as its body has become more convoluted.

    • Addition of horns, antlers, and other such protrusions to the body. Impact on the creature’s abilities range from negligible to severe, dependant on where on the body the protrusions are summoned.

  • Chimeric Alteration adds one to the required emotes of the summoning ritual. If the creature is excessively modified (three or more alterations), it instead requires two additional emotes, and can no longer be used in combat.

  • If summoning multiple creatures (following the standard rules for multiple conjured terrestrials), all must have the same alterations.

  • Chimeric Alteration requires great focus and energy, even in comparison to standard conjuration. Chimeric combat summons have their max duration reduced by five emotes. Chimeric non-combat summons have a max duration of one hour.

  • Chimeric Alterations cannot be so major as to increase or reduce the size category of the creature.

  • Chimeric Alteration cannot be used to copy exceptionally exotic features, such as projectile spit or detachable tails. These traits require too much bodily infrastructure for Chimeric Alteration, which is a comparatively hacksaw and experimental process.

 

Chimeric Terrestrial Redlines

 

  • All general Conjuration redlines.

  • All Terrestrial Conjuration  redlines appropriate to the combat status of the summoned creature.

  • All general Chimeric redlines.

  • Chimeric Alturation cannot be used to directly increase the muscle mass of the summoned creature.

  • Chimerical Alteration cannot create extremely unique or complex creatures, and the summoned creature’s base species must be easily identifiable. If asked for clarification on what the creature is, you are obligated to elaborate, although not to explain any weaknesses the creature might have. You may not keep Chimeric Alterations hidden out of character. This is not a free card for people to metagame, however, and players must act in character with the information they have available to them. This redline is purely to ensure good faith in conjuration interactions.

 

Chimeric Perennial Guidelines

 

Spoiler

Chimeric Perennial Mechanics

 

  • All General Chimeric mechanics.

  • All Perennial Conjuration mechanics.

  • Chimeric Perennial alteration may take one of the following forms.

    • Exchanging the outer texture of a plant, such as making the stem of a dandelion woody, or a tree with watermelon skin for bark, albeit this will affect the flexibility of the plant.

    • Substantially altering the colours of a plant’s flower, bulb, or leaves to virtually anything the caster desires (which they have formerly studied). Any other purely aesthetic changes would fall under this umbrella.

    • Merging multiple plants wholesale, such as a tree sapling which ends in the massive head of a rose, or a set of mushrooms growing straight from the cap of another, larger mushroom.

  • Chimeric alteration adds one to the emote count of a Perennial Conjuration casting.

 

Chimeric Perennial Redlines

 

  • All general Conjuration redlines.

  • All general Perennial Conjuration redlines.

 


Life Evocation - Jing Artificery

 

“Thus strangely are our souls constructed, and by slight ligaments are we bound to prosperity and ruin.”

 

While it may be ancient, the practice of Jing Artificery has only recently entered the general consciousness of Life Evocationists at large. With cloudy origins and no direct attributes, rumors of the progenitor of the esoteric art of Jing is as wild and non-informative as that of it’s sister-practice; Conjuration. Whether the founder be a druid pariah seeking to reform his connection to nature under his own terms, or a blue-cloaked traveler dripping sweet little secrets from Beyond-The-Stars, the point is moot. The process exists, bizarre as it may be, to render quasi-permanent life from the void.

 

Thus, rises a question; ‘What are Jing in the first place’? Simply put, Jing are small charms and items of jewelry specific to the creator, which act as focuses for the Life Evocationist who created them. Generally, Jing are made from bones, feathers, leaves, and other similar small natural materials, in conjunction with tiny gemstones, strung up with twine of plant fiber. The exact shape and size of the Jing varies based on the application it is being created for, though they’re generally vaguely band-shaped, as to fit comfortably around various portions of the body.

 

Now, while anyone can string together a bunch of stuff they found in the woods, an interested magician would need to spend a period of time attuning the craft to their spirit, mind, and body. Generally, this is done as part of the process of making the item, when the Life Evocationist has plenty of time alone with the components. The ritual to bind a Jing to one’s self is a largely meditative process, through which ones expends a portion of their own mana into the charm while focusing on the task one wishes it to accomplish, and forming a personal connection with the item which allows such tasks to be carried out, with it’s aid. A Jing does this by acting as a conduit, through which a Life Evocationist can expend energy to maintain various effects with minimal concentration.

 

General Jing Guidelines

 

Spoiler

General Jing Mechanics

 

  • The ritual required to bind Jing to oneself is lengthy, though also largely uneventful. As a result, fabricating Jing may not be done in the heat of combat, and unless otherwise stated also don’t require explicit rp to create. (Though that is encouraged.) The process of creating Jing itself takes around five to ten minutes.

  • Jing require mechanical items to represent them, which must be held in the inventory to be used. These mechanical items follow all standard rules for item enchantments, with the added caveat that the name of the creator (mcname or rpname) must be listed somewhere in the description, in order to ensure one is using Jing they themselves created. Additionally, as enchanted items, they require ST signature.

  • Jing, while small, are also fairly fragile. If severed, smashed, burned, or otherwise visibly broken, the magics within escape and the item becomes inert and unusable.

  • Activating Jing counts as activating an enchantment for all intents and purposes, including in regards to the maximum uses of enchantments per fight.

  • For Jing which affects the caster’s body, there is a limited range of which they can affect. The regions a single Jing may affect are; Left Leg, Right Leg, Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm, and Head. Jing may only be used over natural limbs, and both prosthetics and outright missing limbs mean a Jing bearer has less options with which to use.

  • Jing may be used as an Arcane Focus, following the rules and redlines any other Arcane Focus would. Additionally, A Jing may be used as an Eminant’s Affection. Jing used in this way may not be used for any other Jing ritual.

General Jing Redlines

 

  • If an individual currently using Jing-based magic expires, the flow of mana is halted, and all Jing-based effects instantly fizzle.

 


Subsection I: Beastmelding

 

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.”

 

Legends speak of those who would take on the aspects of animals, spending the entirety of their lives to sow chaos and derision in the world of men. Unrelated, surely, though possibly an inspiration to those whom first discovered the founding school of Jing Artificery; Beastmelding. 

 

Beastmelding itself is a curious process, performed (as expected) with Jing. Wearing the charms over specific portions of the body, a Life Evocationist may create limited conjurations overlayed atop their body. While this doesn’t grant the strength or physical capabilities of whatever it is they may steal the features from, superficial traits such as claws, teeth, and fat work exactly as well as one might expect. However, an ability such as this is likely one a civilized magician would think twice about employing in the center of town, as making one’s self appear monstrous may have disastrous social consequences. Another interesting side-effect; As the ‘shapeshifting’ doesn’t directly alter the physical capabilities of a creature being copied, in order to make the absolute most of Beastmelding, one needs a body of adequate physical capabilities, thus rendering a dedicated void mage of many disciplines a less functional Beastmelder than his neophyte student of a single art.

 

Beastmelding - Combat / Jing / Empowerment

 

Spoiler

Beastmelding Mechanics

 

  • All general Jing mechanics.

  • Beastmelding doesn’t replace any existing features, instead being conjured over the area being modified. As a result, the physical prowess of the mage in question is what dictates the impact and capability of Beastmelding. Similarly, as it is conjured over their body, shallow and surface level damage may be absorbed wholly by the conjured flesh, though deep cuts and blunt force trauma would still get through to the mundane flesh of the mage beneath.

    • An extension to this, Jing cannot create additional limbs, as it cannot conjure over limbs that do not exist.

  • Jing meant for Beastmelding must be worn over exposed flesh, and cannot be used with armour overtop. Sufficiently open or loose clothing (robes, a gi, pajamas, a t-shirt) would not hinder the usage of Beastmelding. Armour may still be worn (if possible), just not over limbs intended to be transformed.

  • Anything the Jing user knows how to summon is eligible to be beastmelded onto their body. However, in order to actually use the summoned, the limb it’s summoned over must have the same general shape. For instance, the hand, the most flexible portion of the body, may be used as a bear paw (flat hand), a goat hoof (balled fist), or a canine’s head (shadow puppet). So long as the same general shape may be made, it’s a valid (though not necessarily useful or good) option. 

  • Beastmelding requires two emotes to begin activation of up to two jing. This is the same if you activate one or two. For each additional Jing being used after that, one extra emote is required. Up to four jing may be activated at once through this method, totalling five emotes. After the first two have been activated there can be a delay in-between emotes, to do peform action or cast another spell.

  • Multiple instances of Beastmelding must affect different body groups. Each body group may be a unique alteration.

  • Beastmelding does not require direct concentration to maintain, and so may be used in direct combat. However, being significantly wounded, knocked unconscious, deprived of mana, or having the limb currently undergoing Beastmelding be amputated all end the effect.

  • Beastmelding does not connect the conjured flesh to the Life Evocationist’s, and is instead closer to an extremely tight form-fitting glove. As a result, any conjured eyes or ears do not convey any information back to the caster. They can, however, feel dullened versions of touch and pain through the conjured skin, due to how form-fitting and tight the conjuration is.

  • In a similar vein, one must be careful when choosing what it is that they conjure over themselves. With regards to the head, anything which covers the eyes would blind the user, anything over the ears would deafen, and anything over the mouth and nose would suffocate. With regards to joints in general, anything sufficiently stiff conjured over the limbs would prevent proper articulation.

  • Similarly to Chimeric Alteration, one must keep in mind that possession of specific bodily traits does not inherently confer the ability to effectively use them. For example, summoning a webbed membrane between the arm and torso does not allow one to fly as a bat would.

  • Outside of combat, one may maintain any number of Beastmeldings (to the normal maximum of four) for up to one hour. Inside of combat, the unusual (for a mage) added strain of direct physical combat lowers this time to a mere fifteen emotes.

  • The animal limbs summoned must be of an animal that the Life Evocationist can summon through Terrestrial Conjuration. 

 

Beastmelding Redlines

 

  • All general Jing redlines.

  • Beastmelding may not be used as a perfect disguise kit to make oneself look like a specific person. Any alterations instead appear similar to baseline mundane species of whatever is being mimicked.

 


Subsection II: Reconstruction

 

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.”


 

One day, a practitioner of Beastmelding had a thought; ‘If I can create flesh without, perhaps I may create flesh within’. Thus began the bloody path to Jing Reconstruction. 

 

Jing Reconstruction itself, is the process of using conjured flesh to patch over wounds. A fairly ramshackle process, Reconstruction is the medical equivalent of smothering plaster over a hole in drywall, and cannot do particularly much more than repair flesh wounds. Damaged organs, infection, disease, poison, broken bones, and so forth are all far beyond the capabilities of reconstruction, although if you’ve found yourself with a hole in the gut a merciful Life Evocationist may very well be the last bulwark between yourself and the end.

 

Reconstruction - Non-Combat / Jing / Healing

 

Spoiler

Reconstruction Mechanics

 

 

  • All general Jing mechanics.

  • Creating a Jing meant for reconstruction requires a ritual taking four emotes in which a Jing is crafted and bound to a specific individual. This Jing successfully heals an area conforming to the bodily region list used by other bodily affecting Jing, listed for posterity below. There is a level of flexibility; A cut from collarbone down the right arm could be handled by a Jing just for the right arm, for instance.

    • Left Leg, Right Leg, Torso, Left Arm, Right Arm, Head.

  • A secondary result of being created ‘In-the-moment’, Jing meant for Reconstruction may be manufactured for individuals other than the creator, including non-mages. All other redlines and mechanics, including occupying enchantment slots and inability to cast other forms of magic still apply.

  • Wounds are functionally healed by Reconstruction, though the process generates notable fatigue, and a dull phantom pain remains in areas of reconstructed flesh until the healing process is fully complete. This process takes a total of three IRL days, and if the Jing are destroyed or removed before this process is complete the wounds will re-open as they were. After this time period, the Jing are rendered defunct, and may be removed without harm.

  • Unlike other Jing spellcasting, Jing meant to be used for Reconstruction rituals may not be made in advance, and are instead made to fit the situation and injury they are meant to overwrite. As a result, they may not be manufactured or utilized mid-combat, and must instead be created in the aftermath if one desires to create them at all. 

  • Reconstruction may only be used to ‘heal’ wounds (‘Wound’ referring to cuts, stabs, slices, and fileting. As a general rule of thumb, any injury resulting from a sharp or pointed end), and any other form of injury (including blood loss that may have resulted from the wound itself) may not be repaired by the process.

  • The skin of flesh generated through Reconstruction is noticeably different from the rest of the body, whether that be due to discolouration or scarring. This cosmetic malformation is permanent, and one who frequently abuses the process may one day find themselves resembling a patchwork quilt. 


 

Reconstruction Redlines

 

  • All general Jing redlines.

  • Rrequires signature of the conjurationist player.

  • If a Life Evocationists creates a Jing meant for Restoration for anyone other than themselves, they hold no ability to alter or control the Jing after the ritual for creation is completed. They may still remove or destroy the Jing through mundane means, as usual.

  • Reconstruction may not be used to repair significantly grievous or fatal wounds, nor does it restore function to otherwise dead life.

  • If the Jing maintaining the Reconstruction is removed, destroyed, or otherwise dispelled, all wounds closed by reconstruction are immediately re-opened. However, there are no other side effects or increase of scale in the damage, and one may even wish to willingly remove the Jing in a controlled environment in order to pursue other avenues of healing.

  • While the Reconstruction is in progress, the Jing centralize mana in the body over the wounded sections of flesh. Combined with the energy required to maintain the conjured flesh, one would have so little free mana in their body to be incapable of spellcasting.

 


Subsection III: Binding

 

“The more I saw of them, the greater became my desire to claim their protection and kindness; my heart yearned to be known and loved by these amiable creatures.”

 

The pinnacle of the Conjurationist’s art, Binding requires a combination of the use of Jing, as well as the fundamentals of conjuration, in order to create a quasi-permanant form of life, bound to the Life Evocationist who brings them into the world.

 

This process is naturally very difficult, and requires a complete and total understanding of the entirety of Life Evocation’s other capabilities to even begin creating. Through a ritual of binding a pair of Jing to each other, as well as to one’s own self, followed by conjuring the desired animal in such a way that they form around one of the freshly christened Jing. If performed correctly, the resulting conjuration will be intrinsically bound to the Life Evocationist, powered by the linked Jing. For as long as this Jing is on the Conjurationist’s person, their chosen companion will be with them. If their companion is slain, the ritual may be repeated in order to bring about a duplicate of the original companion.

 

Binding - Combat / Jing / Independant Summon

 

Spoiler

Bound Mechanics

 

  • All general Jing mechanics.

  • All general Terrestrial Conjuration mechanics, as well as Combat Terrestrial Conjuration mechanics, excepting any regarding emote counts or duration.

  • All Chimeric Terrestrial mechanics.

  • The ritual to create the Bound Conjuration cannot itself be performed in combat, as it is a lengthy and tiring process, involving the creation of two sets of Jing, the binding to said Jing, as well as conjuring a creature. If done in active roleplay, this process would take a minimum of five emotes. This process requires more mana than a single mage could feasibly provide, and as such must be performed at a Mana Obelisk (or fitting substitution, i.e. voidstalker).

  • Up to two chimeric alterations may be made to the summoned animal bound by the Jing. These are permanent, and decided when the item is created.

  • The bound conjuration may be manifested or demanifested at the creator’s leisure, albeit with a brief three emote cast time for both. Demanifestation in this manner is considered ‘safe’, and does not bring about any additional consequence.

  • If the bound creature were to die by any means, however, this would result in an ‘unsafe’ demanifestation, dropping the jing piece the creature held wherever it dies, possibly irrecoverably. If safely recovered, it may not be reused until performing a ritual to ‘re-activate’ the piece, once again requiring a mana obelisk.

  • A bound conjuration must be between small and medium size; Large creatures are too complex and tiring to maintain such constant energy dispersion, and miniscule creatures cannot fully contain the requisite Jing within themselves.

  • If one has their Bound Conjuration with them, it must be actively emoted. No surprise ‘I had a dog with me the whole time!’ allowed. If the animal is not sufficiently emoted or described and combat breaks out, the Life Evocationist must act as if the Jing maintaining the Bound Conjuration were inactive, and the animal is not engaged.

  • While the Bound Conjuration is active, it permanently occupies an enchantment slot.

  • Like other Jing, a mechanical item is required to be with the player in order to cast. In addition to normal descriptions of the item and requisite MCName of the creator, a brief description of the creature to be summoned as well as any alterations it possesses must be provided.

  • Due to the communion between the pair of Jing used in the ritual process, Bound Conjurations effectively ignore the range limits of standard conjuration.

Bound Redlines

 

  • All general Jing redlines.

  • All general Conjuration redlines.

  • All general Terrestrial Conjuration redlines.

  • While Bound Conjurations don’t halt the use of magic entirely as other Jing do, the constant subconscious commanding of the Bound Conjuration is mentally taxing enough that Terrestrial Conjuration, Perennial Conjuration, and Chimeric Alteration are not usable in combat while the Bound Conjuration itself is also in combat.

 


Life Evocation - Progression Outline

 

Lore over, let’s talk business. Life Evocation is a more complicated magic than most, especially other voidal magics. As a result, it has a somewhat longer learning progression, split into two sections. The Conjuration subsection of Life Evocation progresses as a standard five-tiers voidal magic, granting availability for a TA at tier five, over the standard period of four months. Jing, however, is much less a science that can be taught, and is rather learned over a two month period of experimentation and self-discovery. In total, Conjuration requires a full six months to fully learn. The learning increments are as follows.

 

Spoiler

Tier One

 

  • This is the starting point from which everyone begins the magic.

  • The abilities a conjurationist has at tier one are heavily limited, moreso than most magics. This stage, as well as the time before learning the magic, are largely dedicated instead to learning proper procedure to fully and entirely study a creature, both it’s habits and it’s anatomy.

  • Due to the comparatively simplistic nature of plants, they are the first life any novice conjurationist tends to summon. A tier one conjurationist may summon a single plant no larger than the size of a single daisy.

  • Forming simple non-living organs is much easier than complete systems. As a form of training, many novice Conjurationist attempt repeated disjointed conjurations, in order to ensure knowledge of the fundamentals. A tier one conjurationist may use Disjointed Conjuration at half efficiency; Using half the standard limits and capabilities of Disjointed Conjuration.

 

Tier Two

 

  •  A Life Evocationist reaches this stage if they’ve received frequent lessons and personal study for two IRL weeks.

  • At this stage, a conjurationist is able to first perform the most iconic it’s disciplines; Terrestrial Conjuration. They are, however, very limited in this regard; They may summon up to one small creature, or three miniscule creatures, following standard rules for each those size categories otherwise.

  • The progression of Perennial Conjuration occurs swiftly. A tier two conjurationist may use Perennial Conjuration up to half the standard limits of Perennial Conjuration.

  • At this point, summoning the base parts of life becomes second nature, and Disjointed Conjuration is functionally mastered, able to be used to the fullest extent as described in the lore.

 

Tier Three

 

  • A Life Evocationist reaches this stage three IRL weeks after Tier Two, and five total IRL weeks after first learning the magic, assuming reasonable lessons and personal study.

  • At this stage, one has made great strides in Terrestrial Conjuration. One may summon up to one medium creature, three small creatures, or five miniscule creatures, following standard rules for these creatures.

  • At this point, Perennial Conjuration has reached its peak; A Life Evocationist at this stage may use Perennial Conjuration to its full extent, and has effectively mastered it.

  • Generally, by this stage of learning, a Life Evocationist is practiced enough to begin meddling with life’s theory. A tier three Life Evocationist may perform a single change while performing Chimeric Alteration, though nothing involving the addition of aspects from other species.

 

Tier Four

 

  • A Life Evocationist reaches this point five IRL weeks after reaching tier three, and ten total IRL weeks after learning the magic, assuming reasonable lessons and personal study.

  • At this stage, a Life Evocationist may make enchantments of spells tagged with ‘Enchantable’, following standard rules for both enchantments and the rules specifically for enchantments described in each applicable spell. This still requires an outside means to actually enchant items.

  • At this point, there is no life that can escape the study of a practiced Life Evocationist. Terrestrial Conjuration may be used to summon one large, three medium, five small, or ten miniscule creatures.

  • The success of gently nudging the typical blueprints of life would generally embolden a learned Life Evocationist; Chimeric Alteration may now be used to perform any of the listed alterations, though still no more than a single alteration.

 

Tier Five

 

  • A Life Evocationist reaches this point six weeks after reaching tier four, and sixteen total IRL weeks after learning the magic, assuming reasonable lessons and personal study.

  • A Life Evocationist at this stage has wholly mastered all aspects of Conjuration, and may use the fullest extent of both Terrestrial Conjuration and Chimeric Alteration.

  • At this point, a Life Evocationist may begin to study and develope Jing.

 

Jing Progression

 

Spoiler

Tier One

 

  • A Life Evocationist reaches this point two weeks after reaching Tier Five in Conjuration, and eighteen total IRL weeks after learning the magic, assuming reasonable research and personal study.

  • At this stage, much of the work is learning how to specifically attune Jing to one’s self.

  • A single Beastmelding Jing may be used at any given time, following the standard rules.


Tier Two

 

  • A Life Evocationist reaches this point two weeks after achieving tier one in Jing, and twenty total weeks after learning the magic, assuming reasonable research and personal study.

  • At this stage, Jing Beastmelding may be used to its fullest extent, and is functionally mastered.

  • At this stage, Jing Reconstruction may be used to its fullest extent, and is functionally mastered.

 

Tier Three

 

  • A Life Evocationist reaches this point four weeks after achieving tier two in Jing, and twenty four total weeks after learning the magic, assuming reasonable research and personal study.

  • At this stage, one has reached the absolute pinnacle of Life Evocation, and may perform the ritual of Jing Binding.

 


Life Evocation - Credits

 

Spoiler
  • Italicized fluff quotes: Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’.

  • Design outlines & direction: Joel, Flam, Mystery, Emma.

  • The concept of Jing and original ‘Beastmelding’ feat lore writer: Zarsies

  • The rest: probably me, alex

 


Life Evocation - Final Words & Changelog

 

Spoiler

 

I’d like to say some things, in no particular order

  • I took way too long to write this lol. In my defense it’s been done for like four weeks, and i’ve just been waiting for input from a few particular people this whole time.

  • It is my hope and intent that Life Evo remains a fairly bad combat magic, but fairly good utility magic, and top-of-the-line flavour magic. Depending on how people end up using the magic (assuming it’s accepted) I may likely push edits to the magic to better fit that scope.

  • In terms of combat, in general terms, you simply don’t have time to stand around doing nothing for five emotes to summon a bear, and then stand still for the rest of combat while it moves around and /maybe/ does something. I don’t /really/ expect anyone to use Terrestrial Conjuration in combat, at all.

  • Ditto for Perennial Conjuration, except it’s also just way less useful in combat.

  • Disjointed Conjuration is something I added specifically because I felt bad about removing Primordial Conjuration and not adding anything. I see it as the only actually viable in-combat Conjuration ability, though it’s still balanced to be about middle of the road in power level.

  • Chimeric Alteration has the same problems that either Terrestrial or Perennial Conjuration has, depending on the form, except it requires even more emotes to summon.

  • There are seven total spells in all of Life Evocation, Terrestrial Conjuration, Perennial Conjuration, Disjointed Conjuration, Chimeric Alteration, Jing Beastmelding, Jing Reconstruction, and Jing Binding. If one considers the Combat and Non-Combat variants of Terrestrial Conjuration as two spells, and the two forms of Chimeric Alteration as two spells, that instead totals nine spells.

  • The full changelog between this version of the magic and the last are as follows;

    • Conjuration as a whole; Extended rules for study & learning of animals, to help prevent metagaming and further encourage roleplaying learning. Removed ‘Instant desummon if summoned creature dies’ redline. Clarified that Conjured life can’t be used to power any other magic, craft any items, or be consumed as food.

    • Morphon Conjuration; Renamed to ‘Terrestrial Conjuration’. Added emote counts for spells. Added size categories for animals. Added hard limits to amount of summons allowed at once. Added general usability and clarifications. Increased max number of summoned creatures at once for smaller creatures, in exchange for lowered usability of swarms (as per new summon lore guidelines). Added description of how creatures are/can be summoned. Added combat and non-combat variants; Non-combat is largely identical to original conj in limits, while non-combat has much more lenient limits.

    • Perennial Conjuration; REWORKED. Added emote counts for spells. Added ground-based summoning. Elaborated on rules for enchantments. Perennial Conjuration was heavily underused, to the point some Conj users legitimately didn’t know it was a spell. Due to this, I have kept the former primary method of summoning (in the hand), while also adding ground-based summoning. The ability to summon an area of plants has interesting flavour and combat implications, and grants an actual chance that it might be used.

    • Hybrid Conjuration; Renamed to ‘Chimeric Alteration’. Added non-species based alterations. Added emote counts and limits for alterations. Added alterations for Perennial Conjuration.

    • Primordial Conjuration; REMOVED. The reasoning; Literally the first thing the LT/ST asked me about conj was if I was removing primordial conjuration, the day the lore games started. Over time, I realized just how abusable Primordial Conjuration was, and how making it balanced would require a lot of rules and redlines until the point that it’s basically only a cosmetic difference as compared to normal Conjuration. I didn’t feel that that added any value, and that it rather detracted from the general life-and-blood theming of the rest of Conjuration by making it only good if it’s just another elemental magic. Because of the difficulty to balance, the general low use-rate it has among conj users, the detraction from flavour, and the general idea of having a spell require a different magic entirely to use leaving a poor taste in my mouth, I have decided to remove Primordial Conjuration entirely.

    • Disjointed Conjuration; ADDED. Added as a replacement to Primordial Conjuration, both in terms as the go-to combat method and as a better in-theme ability. Plus, dumping blood buckets on people will be totally rad.

    • Jing; ADDED. Formerly part of a feat for Conjuration, it has been added to the base magic and further expanded upon, lore-wise. Made a more personal and spiritual object rather than a bunch of enchanted stones. As a sidenote, this is one of the two reasons that Conjuration is ‘Life Evocation’, now, as a: jing doesn’t really fit the mold of ‘conjuring things’, and b: fitting a naming archetype with the rest of voidal magic.

    • Jing Beastmelding; ADDED/REWORKED. Added into the base magic, rather than be a seperate feat. Expanded usability, redlines and capabilities.

    • Jing Reconstruction; ADDED. From the outset, I wanted to include Jing into the rewrite, and further expand on them. As well, voidal healing is something that doesn’t exist elsewhere. Being given the greenlight conceptually by lore ST managers, and making it appropriately weak, I feel it fits the archetype of Life Evo as a weird pseudo-support mage.

    • Jing Binding; ADDED. As a capstone to the entire magic, I wanted something big and character-important. Making a single permanent manifestation of life, as well as one that you can alter to fit your character’s needs, is the logical conclusion of what someone generating life would be after. As well, it has a cost (in permanently losing an enchantment slot), and isn’t /too/ effective in combat scenarios (as a sidegrade to just having an animal hanging out with you already, which doesn’t require a magic in the first place). I anticipate (perhaps through wishful thinking) that people will use this to create some type of character-specific animal companion that will actually be a meaningful part of their character, and not some excuse to have a god animal kill all their enemies (and I hope I balanced well enough that that’s not feasible, though I could always nerf it in the future).

  • The strange progression system was recommended to me by flam himself, as I wanted life evo to take a bit longer to learn so that each individual spell could be fleshed out through learning a bit more. Rather than having a standard six month learning cycle, as I originally had in mind, having two seperate learning tracks totalling six months is apparently the way to go.

  • Life Evo might seem a bit strange as a magic to some people now, even bordering on **** dark magic would normally do. That’s /kind of/ my intent, though not directly. Conjuration as a magic, to me, always reeked of mad science. Butcher animals, learn their innards, then make horrible chimeras perfectly suited to very specific tasks.Now with Disjointed Conjuration and Jing, I feel that it pretty wholly completes that vision of mad science, while not disallowing people from flavouring it in different ways. Wood witches, normal mages, whatever you wish. Ultimately player expression is the most important part of Conjuration, and I strived to maintain it at every oppurtunity.

 

 


Life Evocation - Relevant Links

 

Spoiler

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

Beautifully crafted Conjuration submission. Turned a magic that was like 2 pages prior into something 30+ pages long, which is important for such a freeform magic.

+1

Link to post
Share on other sites

10/10 lore but i cant get over the name “life evocation”

i saw the title and thought some idiot made voidal necromancy, my bpm went up to 200

Link to post
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, Ducklingator said:

10/10 lore but i cant get over the name “life evocation”

i saw the title and thought some idiot made voidal necromancy, my bpm went up to 200

 

conjuration is basically conceptual necromancy regardless

Link to post
Share on other sites

Ping me when formatted correctly. I also agree with BnK. Just name it conjuration.

Link to post
Share on other sites

4 hours ago, Ducklingator said:

10/10 lore but i cant get over the name “life evocation”

i saw the title and thought some idiot made voidal necromancy, my bpm went up to 200

I’m so glad I’m not the only one I was like Ohh noo, I’m gunna have to read all the comments of everyone just crushing some new guys soul after he comes up with life evocation lmao. Definitely should be called conjuration though just so people can find it. . . But nice curve ball.

Link to post
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, LoTC's Next Top Model said:

 

What formatting is incorrect?

 

Black text on a dark background. That formatting. Plus, everything is bolded, just seems copy pasted without format fixing.

Link to post
Share on other sites

23 minutes ago, MeteorDragon said:

It took way to long to read... but damn it, if I said I didnt enjoy it, I’d be lying

 

Thanks mate, that’s more or less the exact reaction I was hoping for. Unfortunately, to have freeform magic, you really need to outline the limits so that it doesn’t get exploited.

Link to post
Share on other sites

lol let me disgrace your lore because my two brain cells can’t sit down and stand to read this bolded text

Link to post
Share on other sites

Nice. 

Though you really should change the font colors as well as make everything not in bold print. 

Link to post
Share on other sites

 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    No registered users viewing this page.



×
×
  • Create New...