Mithradites

My word! Looks at the questions! The love! The hate! The comments! Some full of anger, some full of glee! Some show confusion justifiably! Interest, questions, most clever and curious, Does not leave this writer feeling at-all dubious! So now I shall give your comments my two-pence! (Except for yours Booklight, they were far too dense. ;-;) (But do not believe your words have no sway,) (I'll simply answer upon another day!) I've noticed a lot of questions like this (just using yours as an example, Leo. But your refusal to unquestioningly agree with me is taken utterly, utterly personal, you fiend.) which I am not sure I agree with. There is nothing stopping you from learning multiple schools of magic, what you -are- being stopped from doing is being a 'master' of each and every school. I knew this could impact people's current RP (I myself am multi-magic'd on my main character) and please, allow me to give my reasoning for this. I was originally interested in writing up this idea after I read a comment by the enigmatic Lagomorphia on this thread (https://www.lordofthecraft.net/topic/123075-bring-back-magic-apps-a-new-system/page-2) I won't put the little quotation box around it so it isn't confused with the rest of the quotes on this rather too-large post. "As for the Tiering, like any leveling system, it exists on a clock until such a time as everyone starts hitting T5." (Sorry if I am quoting you out of context or you aren't interested indirectly helping me, Lago) That is a very good point. All magic is essentially on a clock until ultimate power is reached. Then what? Everyone's brilliant, and then no-one is. Variation and dynamism is lost, and interest wanes. It's an Incredibles Syndrome argument (The character of 'Syndrome,' not an 'incredible syndrome')! The way I figured to stop the inevitable peaking of magic is to make the average/mediocre magic an attractive choice. Tier 3 good! It's an advanced magic-user! Tier 2 is the average, and it ought to be fine too! As a tier 3 you can learn an accompanying tier 2 school or two tier 1 schools. As a tier 2 school you can learn a second tier 2 school, and an extra tier 1 school, or three tier 1 schools! Tiers 4 and 5 are for people who wish to be specialised in their school, and be 'the very, very best,' because I wanted it to still be an option for those willing to dedicate themselves to that degree. And that's fine too! But they needed disadvantages to balance it out and make the average still attractive. I feel it makes a lot of sense, and I feel it justifies losing abilities characters have spread out over other schools. In such a case, consider what you might gain from following a single school as well. Maybe it'll dull the pain somewhat? As for the creativity argument, as in, this idea limiting you ability to perform creative magics in (alone or in conjunction with one-another), I completely disagree again. Firstly, to begin with a Sesame Street level argument, the only person limiting creativity is yourself (sorry). You'll still be able to do plenty of things yourself at mid-tier. As I didn't really put a definitive list of which abilities would accessible in which tier (purposely, I might add) there seems to be a fear that I'm going to limit you to worm-conjuration or tiny plume-of-flame-evocation. I am not trying to take away your toys. I personally want most things accessible at mid-tier, though you might not be able to perform to the same degree as you do now...? Does that sound like a condom-ad to you guys as well? Even if you're incapable of being your interpretation of creative, how often are you actually doing these creative things? Once a month? Or maybe I'm wrong. I dunno. Write some examples down here, and I'll try to calm your fears! :DD By that I assume you mean that the extra things I propose for that school can all be performed with alteration. I agree, they probably can. Doesn't anyone else think it's odd that to do most things in a subtype of magic, it requires you to have skill in another? Just me? I gave my reasoning for parts of this question previously. If you are a tier 5 mage and you are being attacked in close-quarters--Not having them charge at you from 20 metres away, but right at your throat--then you are likely going to lose unless you have back-up. This is how it's always been been, and should still be so now. As for elves being restricted being illogical, yes, I can completely understand the reasoning behind it. It does make sense, but in the spirit of fairness, I don't believe I should limit magical development based on race. Furthermore, I give a reason why elves are limited to the same constraints as humans in the fluff paragraph before the graph. Furtherly furthermore, a school contains more than one of the current subtypes, not like how it is currently. And also, thank you! :DD I answered the first statement before. To the first question, yes, more or less. Because they fit with my set out sorcery theme, and because most of them are essentially the same magic. As for the second statement, I am unsure. I don't recall that ever being a thing, but if it is a thing, I very much doubt I'd leave it like that in my version. I have never grouped the mind-magic and telekinesis subtypes myself, though I've never really considered a role for the protypical psychic dude. Though it's still possible to be so, just not at a masterful level. The reason I kept the five-tier idea is because it gives a little more wiggle-room in regards to setting out levels of skill. Changing it to a three-tier system likely won't have any effect, other than making the system less detailed. :P And why would we let everyone learn every skill to an average level? That means all mages will be able to know every arcane magic! Which kind of defeats the point of doing this in the first place. THANKS Obama!!1 Only because conjuration is so unique in arcane. It's also probably the most interesting subtype, in my opinion. I'm all for super-buffing this school to be in line with the others, don't worry! No tier-4 small bears for me! That sounds more in line with tier 2 in my brain, anyway. I tried to find the lore on Blood-magic, but I didn't manage to track it down. If you wouldn't mind throwing me a link, I'll see if I can tickle away those woe-frowns of yours! I am not seeing how either of those are borked, Kala. They both seem easily possible within my Wizardry school. If it's about combining something outside of it, and necessitating a singular individual knowing two vastly different magics to do it, and using more than a single person simply wouldn't work, then I suppose it is borked, yes. I didn't see anything like that, though, but do give me some examples, and I'll try to belay those fears! As for that "Bring Back the Magic App" thread, glancing through it, you appear to be the only person who was negative towards tiers. Most people didn't mention it, or seemed more interested in keeping away any form of application. Which I am not suggesting here. Golemancy is its own beast within magic, and not even within arcane. I wouldn't dare try to touch it. Seriously. There are attack-dogs chained to it and everything. I expected this comment from you, Kitten. :P I originally put arcane shielding/evocation in the Sorcery school because Arcane evocation is an evocation, and because I felt, since the sorcerers were very fighty-fighty, I'd give them a method to keep the sword-guys at bay with arcane shielding. My Wizardry school is themed around study, slow wisdom, and change, in which direct combat feels out of place. I mean, telekinesis can be used to fling stuff, but it doesn't feel like a battle-magic to me. I could be convinced to put arcane shielding into Wizardry, but I could never be convinced to have arcane evocation anywhere but sorcery. Sorry, dude. :( Sorcery sounds cool. Sorcerers are cool. Evocation sounds dumb. Evokers sound like a type of Slovakian shrub. That's pretty much my only reasoning. I hope my answers were at least semi-satisfactory, guys!!

You call it restriction, I call it 'attractive variance.' What is the end result of learning magic? To be the best, like no-one ever was? Arcane magic is an onwards trek to be super-awesome at everything you get your hands on. Something that's missing (and has always been missing) from arcane is the perpetual 'okay' magic user. In my proposal, these people are the types who want a lot of options, so they keep themselves to more basic levels of magic, and won't actually hobble themselves. On the other hand, you have a guy who wants to be amazing at everything, but realises he can't! So he builds his abilities in one school to crazy levels, and then joins up with a mage of crazy skill in another school to co-create his dreams! He can't do it alone anymore, which kind of sucks I guess, but it does get him out and about making friends! And I think that's the most important thing! Are you feeling me, man? Are you hip to my jive? Are you down with the sickness? D'y'know what I'm sayin'? I sure don't! And does it really kill a massive amount of creativity? You can still get powers in other branches of magic. You just can't have it all as a tier five. You might have to restrict yourself to lower tiers! You might not get to be the best! You might have to come up with creative solutions to your problems. Does it damage lore? I didn't think of anything game-breaking here when I was writing it, so I really would appreciate knowing what's broken. That's a very good point about the primordials. I suppose it would certainly be difficult for a Thaumaturge (I'll call them my names for now. Let me live my dream!) to do so without knowledge in sorcery, but who is to say he wouldn't? He could have tier three in Thaumaturgy and tier two in sorcery, and get them, but that's assuming they would have access to that ability at tier three, which is information I quite purposely left out of this. If they don't have enough knowledge to do so anymore, they could always invite a happy sorcerer around to help! And then create and bind the **** out of that primordial, man. The answer to the luxomancy question is really the same as the first. You can always limit yourselves to lower tiers (though again, I am not yet aware which skills will land in what tier) or you could become really good at it, and just never be seen at all! And hey, lack of popularity? Not a problem. That just means the ones who do go to the effort to learn it will feel darn special. And rightly so! 1. I quite purposely left the abilities of the magics more to the wayside, and instead concentrated on the plausibility of joining them together in general. Though you do raise valid points about lightning evocation, that's not really a question I feel needs to be answered at this draft-stage. :P Maybe if it gets a little further than that. 2. As far as I know, that's not strictly true. I am sure any clever enchanter can study fire to the point of enchanting things with it. If it is true, though, grab yourself a sorcerer! Friends in need are friends indeed! Hmhm! 3. I did! I made a handy-dandy chart that does that thing you said! (Merged them all together for you!)

Reorganizing Arcane Magic The Arcane school had never been so actively practiced in all of its long history. Those using it were proficient in many schools, and many mastered the deepest aspects of their chosen craft--summoning beasts of great power, conjuring plumes of fire with a thought, and pouring power into deadly enchantments. It truly was a time for Arcanists to flourish and reveal every mystery of the void. But little did they know that the void had secrets unknown to even the most studious mage. The great number of minds creating and pulling within infinity bore an unnatural weight to the realm of nothingness. The void was not a conscious thing, but it had a nature, much akin to the wind directing a cloud, or the changing in the ocean's tide. A change was coming--no, not a change really, but a tremor. A ripple that would shift all that was known about the arcane schools. The void had no mind, but it would adapt. Something I wanted to do near the end of my time in the MAT (and near the end of the MAT in general) was to reorganize/combine arcane subtypes, and also define the limits of void-based physical weakness. Now that arcane is basically free-for-all with everyone able to learn everything, I figured I'd try to put some easier, definable limitations on arcane, as well as making arcane more convenient to learn. Many of the arcane branches have very similar functions, and have no business being separate subtypes (looking at you, five fundamentally similar evocations). What I want to accomplish is to give a reasonable suggestion for a single, reformed archetype of Arcane, with four subtypes: Sorcery, Wizardry, Thaumaturgy, and luxamancy. I'd also like to add extra abilities for some schools that are a tad sparse, but we'll see how much support this 'mission statement' gets first before we make knitty-gritty decisions like that. Sorcery (http://nahelus.deviantart.com/) Those that seek raw, undulated power look to the many skills of the sorcerer. Though all arcane magii are studious, those within the schools of sorcery are less inclined to learn from grand, dusty tomes. They learn through hardship, experience and above all, the continuous application of their power. Fueling their array of destructive forces with chaotic emotions and overwhelming willpower, they are individuals to be treated with caution. More-so, when they are in great numbers. Current Subtypes Tossed into this School -Electrical Evocation -Fire Evocation -Water Evocation -Earth Evocation -Wind Evocation -Arcane Evocation -Arcane Shielding Possible Additions: -Group-based super-spells: E.g. creating Blizzards, tornadoes, lightning-storms etc. -Combination spells: Fiery boulders, electrified water etc Wizardry (http://tira-owl.deviantart.com/) The slow and contemplative sect of Arcanists, the wizard is a bulwark of knowledge and study. They are beings of learning, who would more likely be found deep in a cavernous library studying the deeper mysteries of their art, rather than adventuring through the lands. Their skills lie mostly in the manipulation of the world around them, rather than the more direct route taken by the others schools. Wisdom and intelligence define this school, and those who are proficient are afforded great respect. Current Subtypes Tossed into this School -Transfiguration (includes enchantments, transmutation, and wards) -Telekinesis -Void Translocation Possible Additions: -Group-based super-spells: Teleportation, enormous wards, etc -Combination spells (though already possible in lore, greater afforded fluidity): Floating towers, larger things lifted, etc. Thaumaturgy (Thaw-mah-ter-jee. Shut up, I liked the name!) (http://mysticaldonkey1.deviantart.com/) Though arguably as studious as a Wizard, the Thaumaturge can be seen, often unjustly, as more sinister. Skilled in the study of life, these fringe-magii focus not on destruction, change, or trickery, but on creation. Preferring quiet laboratories to explore the workings of living beasts, they use their considerable arcane power create their own. For what purpose they do so is unknown. Perhaps such is why they are feared? But more likely because others would not understand. Current Subtypes Tossed into this School: -Conjuration (including morphons, primordials, and perennials) Possible Additions: -Binding creations in existence with a permanent slice of mana taken away from the user (unless the creature is de-summoned) -Non-existent, custom-designed creatures for higher tiers (so long as their biology is logical) -Attracting and trapping spectres, then binding them to their will. -Group-based super-spells: creating larger creatures with the combined mana of multiple Thaumaturges, summoning void-creatures and binding them to this world. Luxamancy (http://shininmysticice.deviantart.com/) More secretive than even a Thaumaturge, the Luxamancer heralds the school of manipulation and trickery. The school itself has a poor reputation, if only due to the individuals who are attracted to it. A Luxamancer is not one to be kept in the confines of a library or laboratory, and actively seeks subjects to test their power upon. They are devious and manipulative by their nature, and will rarely tell the whole truth in any situation. They ought to be considered dangerous, but you wouldn't have seen one anyway. Unless, of course, they wanted you to. Current Subtypes Tossed into this School -Light Illusion -Mental Magic -Cognitism Possible Additions -Group-based Super-spells: Grand illusions, invisible houses, memory rewriting. All the things written in here (especially the expansions and group-abilities) are all up for debate, and are hypothetical along with all other suggestions, here. This entire concept is, after all, a rough draft, so don't get too upset about decisions I made! Another important note that you may have noticed is that I have left out a number of arcane subtypes, notably bardmancy, beardmancy and the two Fi’hiiran anti-magics. This is because I couldn't find a place to put them (and because some of them are too silly). And even if I did, they were too out of place with the other ones. Better in my opinion to keep them separate, or remove them entirely. I wouldn't be opposed to joining the two Fi’hiiran magics together, though. More importantly, the simplification of the subtypes allows for a more concise management of the main arcane weakness (That is, physical weakness) and also allows another weakness to balance out their power-boom. It furthermore makes arcane magic more convenient to learn--finding a teacher for four different fiddly evocations can be painful. As an Arcanist grows in power, they will inevitably find themselves drawn to the schools that interest them most. In many situations, of course, they will also delve into the studies of other arcane schools. Though the more advanced they become in their preferred school, the more other schools will feel... wrong. Mana doesn't flow as it should. Sometimes it is painful to use their secondary abilities, other times disastrous. These other schools in turn seem to stop mages from advancing further in their preferred school--those magics contradicting and prohibiting one-another. There are only two options for a mage at this time; to accept the limitations of their powers, or abandon these 'lesser' schools. There can no longer be total mastery of all magical schools. This means there will always be a varied number of 'average' mages, and also those of greater power. The two weaknesses can be summed up in this handy-dandy chart I threw together in MS Paint. Tiers are just a placeholder for whatever magical ability is measured with nowadays. (By the way, I didn't mention this before, but I feel that household magic ought to be the pre-beginner's magic. Just to have new folks ease into it, y'know? It's still non-combative) So, that's basically the rough draft of my idea. If you have any suggestions about implementation, or subtypes I have missed, or you're just a big complainer, or you dislike hamsters, or you think mince pies are delicious please comment, and throw you idea-pies in my face! You know you want me to! Remember that all names, combinations and abilities are not final! And there is no tl;dr you can bloody read it.

How can your character be three different alignments? They cancel each other out. I mean, he could be just insane and evil so his personality tends to jump all over the place, but wouldn't that just make him chaotic evil? Or, if he's totally insane, wouldn't he just be chaotic neutral?

Replace mana with prune-juice. Replace void methane with regular methane. Fart conventionally. Look at those around you cringe in disgust, and/or confusion. Profit?

I have heard of the 10-15 year rule for elven births, but I have never seen it confirmed. I do not believe it is a rule, nor ever has been. However, if you want a decent way to represent elven infertility, here is a few superior methods-- a) If you are in an elven community, don't ever have a child when there are other children around. b) If you are an elf in a non-elven community, don't have children (as there will likely be plenty around anyway). c) Just don't ever have children! Want lotsa babbies? Make a human, dwarf, or orc! If you wish to be a nigh-immortal creature with the wisdom of centuries, be an elf! You shouldn't have both, dawg!

But the thing is, do we need another group of evil murderous things? We already have necromancers, shades, the Harbingers (at the moment), and the various raiders and bandits. I'm not against the idea so to speak, but I feel they'd be a little redundant.

Updated with marriage hoo-hah!

Wasting away in the refugee camps were the remnants of the pure citizenry. The strange and mysterious tremors that rumbled beneath Lin'evaral had driven away even the most steadfast of its people. The graceful powers that pierced the sky now crumbled back into the earth. Books, experiments, and property were left for looters brave or mad enough to venture into the ruins. So much had been lost, aside perhaps for their dignity. So once again, the Mali'aheral found themselves huddling against one-another out in the chilling nights. What little they had left was stockpiled in a communal tent, and shared among their fellows as best they could. Strangely, violence seemed rare in the camp, despite the reputation of New Malinor being quite the opposite. Living once again with the lesser creatures took its toll quickly on the refugees sensibilities. Bewilderment over their strange social norms, frequent copulation, and constant fighting made it difficult to acclimatize. Some found relief in the presence of old friends, and some retreated to remote outposts long forgotten by the old Enclave's citizens. Upon the fall of the High Council and the ascendancy of the new "Conclave of Malin," many of the Mali'aheral ventured to it, hoping for a new beginning, and perhaps some form of reconciliation with their cousin Mali. In truth, many found what they sought, and wallowed in their new-found egalitarianism. But others were not so satisfied. These traditionalists banded together, and devised a solution to their problem. In this time of uncertainty, disastrous wars, political upheaval, and horrors beyond counting, a research facility was constructed in a remote mountain valley, far from the disruptions of the world. There they would work for their people... ... or they would leave.