TL;DR Summary:
- Modern Day, Fantasy Setting
- The highly feudal system of governing among magic users has persisted despite the centuries of change in humanity because of the power of the mage lords.
- Within the system, each magical being owes fealty to their feudal overseer who in turn owes allegiance higher up the chain. They pay taxes upward for protection and law and order.
- Human magic users are considered favorable under a system established, initially, to keep magic users' existence a secret from the rest of humanity, applying that law on other magical beings -- they either disguise themselves in the open or stay out of sight. Other races have power, but lack the numbers of human magic users, who dominate the system.
- Despite the changes over the centuries, the system has not changed -- taxes are generally onerous and there is less and less accountability at the top. For those that wish to start a business of any sort dealing with the outside world, they have to pay a premium to their lord and his minions.
- The territory of Philadelphia is held by Lord Monroe Wallace, who has recently sent his knights and other retainers out to North Carolina to put down a riot among the lower classes within the East Coast Principate.
- While the cat is away, the mice will play -- other kingdoms and holdings are rising up, so why not Philadelphia? And where better, given its place in American history?
- Characters will be part of the community in Philadelpia; some may be part of the establishment in some way, others might be at the very bottom of the pyramid. No one is particularly happy with the way things are run -- something has to change, if they can manage to agree on what.
- The highly feudal system of governing among magic users has persisted despite the centuries of change in humanity because of the power of the mage lords.
- Within the system, each magical being owes fealty to their feudal overseer who in turn owes allegiance higher up the chain. They pay taxes upward for protection and law and order.
- Human magic users are considered favorable under a system established, initially, to keep magic users' existence a secret from the rest of humanity, applying that law on other magical beings -- they either disguise themselves in the open or stay out of sight. Other races have power, but lack the numbers of human magic users, who dominate the system.
- Despite the changes over the centuries, the system has not changed -- taxes are generally onerous and there is less and less accountability at the top. For those that wish to start a business of any sort dealing with the outside world, they have to pay a premium to their lord and his minions.
- The territory of Philadelphia is held by Lord Monroe Wallace, who has recently sent his knights and other retainers out to North Carolina to put down a riot among the lower classes within the East Coast Principate.
- While the cat is away, the mice will play -- other kingdoms and holdings are rising up, so why not Philadelphia? And where better, given its place in American history?
- Characters will be part of the community in Philadelpia; some may be part of the establishment in some way, others might be at the very bottom of the pyramid. No one is particularly happy with the way things are run -- something has to change, if they can manage to agree on what.
In Character Info:
The system has existed since the Fall of Rome, when so much chaos came to be as well as a centralized church that hunted magicians and beings of the spirit world, that viewed them with superstition and fear. It is intended to keep a secret from the outside world, and requires upkeep to maintain that secret. The system has lasted for centuries, matured, ossified. It groans under the weight of tradition and conflicting laws, cases in the courts brought in dispute of this point or that. The governing system of magical creatures has become riddled with loopholes for those that can pay protection or otherwise use the system to their advantage, but it crushes others and hampers them unnecessarily.
It is hard to say anymore what is worse -- the system itself, or the thing the system is designed to protect against. But it is not an either-or choice. But with the wealth the Mage Lords have accumulated, they have managed to build armies of spirit beings enslaved to their will, war-genies and other things never revealed. These things, enslaved against their will, form a corps of slave-soldiers used to crush uprisings. This has been the way of it for centuries.
Mage Lord Monroe Wallace rules with an iron fist like the rest of them, but the rumbles of revolt are heard throughout the magical community. When Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill rises up, Lord Wallace sends down his battle mages and their retinue army of lesser mages and beings conscripted into service as well as war-genies.
They are defeated, and Wallace is thrown back with the remanants of his force, left to rebuild his forces in Philadelphia. He starts to conscript more and more beings into his retinue, forcing them out of their lives to serve, to save, him from what seems to be starting.
It is not a popular move. And then, by providence, the ritual that managed to unshackle the war-genies from their bonded servitude, the magic that freed North Carolina, shows up in Philadelphia... The rumors point toward an uprising on Halloween.
It is hard to say anymore what is worse -- the system itself, or the thing the system is designed to protect against. But it is not an either-or choice. But with the wealth the Mage Lords have accumulated, they have managed to build armies of spirit beings enslaved to their will, war-genies and other things never revealed. These things, enslaved against their will, form a corps of slave-soldiers used to crush uprisings. This has been the way of it for centuries.
Mage Lord Monroe Wallace rules with an iron fist like the rest of them, but the rumbles of revolt are heard throughout the magical community. When Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill rises up, Lord Wallace sends down his battle mages and their retinue army of lesser mages and beings conscripted into service as well as war-genies.
They are defeated, and Wallace is thrown back with the remanants of his force, left to rebuild his forces in Philadelphia. He starts to conscript more and more beings into his retinue, forcing them out of their lives to serve, to save, him from what seems to be starting.
It is not a popular move. And then, by providence, the ritual that managed to unshackle the war-genies from their bonded servitude, the magic that freed North Carolina, shows up in Philadelphia... The rumors point toward an uprising on Halloween.
Out of Character Info:
This RP will be not only about a revolution, but decisions made in that revolution. Characters can be from a variety of backgrounds -- human mages of a lower caste that aspire to somethig better or chafe under the onerous taxes that prevent them from doing much in the way of business without paying a mage lord out the nose, or some other being, suspected by the mage lords, carefully crushed and discouraged from doing much of anything besides serving in the system.
There is not only a question of how to deal with the Mage Lords, but how to deal with humanity and the wizarding world's place in it.
There is not only a question of how to deal with the Mage Lords, but how to deal with humanity and the wizarding world's place in it.