Tuesday 11 February 2014

Going camping with "the guys" - in this case: "the nerds!"

This weekend (7th - 9th) I went camping with the guys (and girl) of our local "geek's"-club here in my hometown. It was basically a way for the club to "pay" the volunteers for their hard work during the past year - a great way to reward voluntary work imho.
We went up north to a big luxury hut, with indoor, heated pool, spa and sauna. Rooms for about 40 people, of which we only used 25, so LOTS of room for fun.

Before going on this trip I had planned to get some oppinions about Elrahna, the sundered realms, from people I don't usually involve in this project. I had planned to speak to them about the setting in general and if we had enough time, move on to a few other, more in-depth systemic subjects.
Honestly, I got WAY more than I bargained for! The guys were amazing in bombarding me with input and ideas for pretty much anything I chose to bring to the table.

I started off by showing Rasmus (R) my ideas for the paths of magic, in an attempt to make him name the paths I'd failed to mention. R didn't feel anything was missing initially (after I explained why I had deliberately left out the art of divination) so we just talked a bit about how I wanted it to work and how magicians would work in the setting. After a few more beers and alot more talk, Kåre (K) and Daniel (D) joined in and we actually started a great debate about the paths of magic in the setting. So good was this talk, that I actually ended up (at 5.30a.m.) with a completely new and revised list of magical paths, perfectly described and explained and to be quite honest I was feeling the proverbial "writer's high" at 5.30 in the morning, but we had to get some sleep at some point!
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Magica Paths in Elrahna, the sundered realms

Enhancement - Enhancer

The practice of enhancing mundane items. This path is able to strengthen or otherwise better, mundane items in order to gain more out of them than naturally possible. This practice is more of a preparatory practice in a sense that most of the spells require lots of time to etch into the target item. These spells are short-term blessing that lasts for a set amount of time, determined at the time of casting. This practice is popular with craftsmen and artisans, who better their skills and products by blessing the process.

Illusions - Illusionist

The practice of creating illusions both in the physical world and in the minds of ones enemies. This path allows the mage to create visionary, sensory and auditory illusions, as well as creating ideas in the minds of a target. This practice is regarded in two ways depending on its usage: 1. The use of illusions – regarded as tricks, made by a harmless entertainer. 2. The use of mind-altering images – regarded as evil in its basest form. The ability to control another person’s mind is frowned upon to say the least.

Nature - Naturalist

The practice of manipulating natural laws and inhabitants. These spells focus on manipulating animals, controlling and calling different types of weather and gathering information concerning herbs and natural remedies. Often employed in rural areas, but very rare in civilized areas as these practices are regarded as heathen and in some areas even as being evil.

Necromancy - Necromancer

The practice of controlling and manipulating life and death. These spells are NOT evil in and of themselves, yet the fact that many of them deal with the Undead and the course of life and death often confuse the public and often cause the general public to pass judgment on the practitioners even before their abilities are fully known. Some of these mages are able to raise the dead and although this should never be confused with the Priests of Arranhar’s ability to revive a dead person, this ability is merely an animation of dead flesh and in no way affects or even considers the deceased’s soul. The Priests of Arranhar gain their ability to ressurect directly from Arranhar, the Lord of Life and Death

Coremancy - Coremancer

The practice of using raw magical force to imitate other’s powers and spells. Coremancers start by imitating the powers of other casters and learning how to counter and unravel magical spells and abilities. Coremancers are also capable of affecting the casting of spells in the moment of casting, modifying the parameters of a given spell to fit the Coremancer's wishes.

Entimancy - Entitist

The practice of summoning entities and binding them to the caster’s will. Affectionately called "Binders" by the general public. The entity is always hostile towards the Binder. This relationship requires the binder to constantly force the entity to obey. The strain on the Binder is so enormous, that the bond between the two must be constantly maintained. The practice is applicable in numerous situations, both for adventuring parties and to the general public. The Binders are often highly appreciated by the common folk, although some Binders have made a name for themselves in a rather negative way, due to their relationships with extraplanar beings.

Shaping - Shaper

This path grants the user the ability to shape his own form. What that means is, that the magician is capable of boosting his own attributes in all manner of ways. Usually a shaper is merely a "gifted individual", a soldier with uncanny reflexes and keen senses, an unusually precise cartographer, an incredibly strong dockworker, etc. Ultimately, the Shaper gains the ability to completely change his form to that of another sentient being, gaining the abilities, special qualities and appearance of this new form.
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Honestly I'm extremely excited about these new paths. I think they are MUCH more appealing than the ones I had originally planned. I think these are original, innovative and they cover all the aspects of magic I had originally planned, so much better than I had imagined.

Thank you, guys! Kåre, Rasmus og Daniel - you completely blew me away with all your ideas and you've helped me much more than I could've ever hoped for!

As always, remember to follow @ramucorp on Twitter, for (nearly) daily updates :)

1 comment:

  1. Both the shaper and the entitist was not on the table in the form you describe them when I went to bed, but I recognice some elements of what was discussed previously in the evening, and I love the end result, especially the naming which turned out much better than the "rocks" I was throwing at you :-).

    Necromancy could still use another name to reflect the "life" element better I think, but I have only rocks for you there.

    Side-effect of this weekend; you got me hooked on keeping up-to-date on this project of yours.

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