Merry Christmas dears!

@deia876lat to you as well.

I will post as quickly as I can. I am currently travelling for New Year's

good posting. I will try to post soon. also, if Merlin is ready to post he can. After all, I am sure that Arn and Eilis will have other times to talk lol.

I've actually been meaning to post for a while, but it seems I've hit a bit of the old writer's block. Idk whether it's because of the break or if 1 week just wasn't enough, but whenever I try to write it's like my mind goes blank and an hour passes without me making any progress. I'm going to make a serious effort to power through it today though, so fingers crossed.

Yet another incomplete post... Well at least it's a start. I'll try to finish it by tomorrow and add a section for Nena's interaction with Tyr.

Edit: I should seriously stop making promises I can't keep.

ok, so I feel I have to bring up the question. What is the ration of those born with magical aptitute to normal citizens in either Belasio or Viem. The reason I am asking is because the whole premise of the Shooting starst is that low born mages are basically expendable. However, if the number of those born with magic is very low then such a practice might be too expensive and detract from the over all military might. Also, as @deia876lat state in his Eilise post, what are the advantages in either country? finally, is there actual "healing" magic?

Well, thinking logically for a moment this is a world with magic.
So it wouldn't be completely uncommon, however I don't believe everyone should just be able to simply do magic.
I would consider the magic in this world 'sleeping'.
Like its all around you, except only a select group of people is awake enough to interact with it. With Ki users it being the same thing.
I believe we already established that we are essentially a conduit for the magic. Like the pipe holding the water as it is passed through us and directed by us. We have a tap added to that, we can open or close the flow of magic.

Now your Shooting Stars idea still is possible if we take in account how certain groups fight.
Also Belisio might not really have focussed on that since they have their Knights and in an attempt to set themselves apart from Vaim they chose to focus on that. Forcing the mages to more or less 'earn' their place.

We know Vaim is loosely comparable with the Roman Empire and Belisio is your typical Medieval Kingdom (A monarchy certainly since it has a king) we also know that Belisio is when compared to others after Vaim the second largest player and from what I understood from TheMerlin Belisio has more natural rescources, such as precious water.
This world was quite literally a Mad Max sort of place according to @TheMerlin.

As for 'Healing Magic', again with us acting as conduits Healing magic in itself wouldn't exist.
What it would be is either transferring life force or to go the complete opposite and let it be more something like speeding up the body's own cell growth and thus (basically stopping the bleeding of wounds, stitching the skin back together) ofcourse in case of broken bones they might just put you to sleep and set your bones before superglueing them together and walking around with a cast to make sure the dumbass can't manage to break it again before its healed completely.

As for Vaim's society structure well as @TheMerlin had the idea to have resemble the Roman Empire I just went with that.
Rome had a layered society too:
https://www.hierarchystructure.com/ancient-roman-hierarchy/

With Eilis the case is eventhough she was born a mage and mages are more respected by the Vaimese Empire there is still such a thing as class and usefulness separating it all.
First Eilis was born to Farmers > Plebs and worse her father was not Vaimese. Resulting in them being poorer than most, it is a duty to serve the Empire and report mages to the Empire.
Thus Eilis's parents upon discovery that Eilis had powers reported her and people came to check up on the claim and take her away.
The family were 'paid' for their services to the Empire and believed Eilis would be able to make a name and a better future for herself.

Upon entering the Coven Eilis starts off as an initiate, meaning she doesn't get the full approval of the Empire yet, her skills has to be honed and she has to be useful to them.
Whilst she is reported and thus documented; meaning even if she ever attempted to run away or hide the Empire can track her down they leave her be for most of her 'school days' for her education. That is until the rite of passage and adulthood arrives.
Mages that pass that 'rite/exam' more or less are allowed to follow their own path in the Empire.
However the Coven of Eilis steers their students away from this, because the Coven has motives of it own.
As mentioned The Empire also has influential nobles, wealthy powerful people who might offer their patronage for the right price.
Eilis and the other students are told that to be granted a patronage is the highest she in her position could possibly rise at first.
Since the students themselves loose touch with one another when passing the rite.
Several options would be open for them:
They could aquire a patronage and join a noble house as a sort of semi-slave a bought employee who's completely dependant on their patron's good will. They would be allowed to study at the Arcane Academy or so the tale is told to them.

They would be allowed to go into the world, but they would have no support system, nothing to help them get started except turn to the Empire's officials as mages and potential soldiers.
Sell their Magic to anyone that would buy it from them, but again unless you have a plan you'll be more likely to join the pits.

Or go even lower than that and sell yourself off into slavery.

With Eilis turning Refugee she basically is similar to a runaway slave.

(@TheMerlin if this isn't what you had in mind, my apologies then for misunderstanding.)

Ill try to post soon. I was wondering if @TheMerlin wanted me to try and bring Leo into the narrative. I mean, don't get me wrong I am very much enjoying the parley with @deia876lat but I dont want it to seem like we are not at a stopping or interrupting point.

Apologies for the silence, I've been intentionally avoiding the ooc thread to try and break through my block, but it seems like tonight's not going to be any different. I'm honestly kinda bummed out about it, but as long as you guys are still posting then I won't give up. I might be the gm, but you two are the ones breathing life into the roleplay and as far as I'm concerned, your ideas are just as valid as mine. That said though, there are a few things that need to be cleared up that and while deia explained a lot of it better than I could have, there's a bit I'd like to add.

@Omni5876 first off, don't worry about Leo for the moment. I'm not exactly sure what I want him to do or say yet (probably part of what's causing my block), so it's fine to edit that bit about him out and continue as is.

Now to answer your questions, I'd say that whether in Belisio or Vaim, mages are quite rare though I'm not sure what would be a good number exactly. I guess they'd be fewer than ki users, who are themselves also quite rare among the average citizenry. I think a suitable analogy would be comparing the number of those who are naturally talented vs those who acquire skill through great effort. Imo both kinds of people are few and far between, but maybe you or deia have a different perspective? In any case, I'd say there'd at least be enough mages for your Shooting Stars idea to work.

As for the advantages of either country, deia already explained it but I'll just make a minor correction. It's not that Belisio has more natural resources, they just have a higher concentration of it. Vaim has more territory and resources overall, but a lot of its land is just dry rock so they must expand for its growing population to prosper. Not any different from how it was pre-cataclysm really, they just don't have the Sorcerer King to rely on anymore.

Militarily, I'd say that Vaim has the advantage in numbers (in men as well as airships) and more powerful mages, but Belisio's knights and soldiers are an equal match for the Empire's troops, and they'd be more highly motivated in defending their homeland than the Vaimese invaders trying to take it. There's also the fact that the Vaimese are far from home, so they'd be vulnerable to a war of attrition.

Now to clarify on what deia said about healing magic, yes it does exist but it'd be a ki ability, not mana so mages can't use it. That said though, healing magic can be used on them and in a pinch, they could use fire to cauterize wounds or water for cooling burns. Not exactly healing magic, but it helps.

I'd also like to talk a bit more about magic in general, but that'll have to wait as I seem to have run out of time for today. All I have to say is...

(if this isn't what you had in mind, my apologies then for misunderstanding.)

If it wasn't before, it is now. No need to apologize.

aw shit, the dad walked in....

I will try to post something soon. I hope I am not making this too cliche but I like the character development that seems to be happeing in just he last hour or so of Arn's life lol.

Enjoy it while it lasts...Let's just say only time will tell if you continue to like it.

Trouble will linger on the horizon.

Girls are always trouble...poor Arn just dont know lol

I know this is a bit sudden, but how do you guys feel about making new characters to participate in the battle at Presper?

technically only Arn is out of commission, Leo too I guess. I mean, I could RP the Shooting Stars. Maybe even give you a quick facts about them Or do you want us to have new characters?

Just checking to see how you feel about the idea. I'm thinking that now would be a good time to make new characters if anybody wanted to, but that's completely optional.

Also, finally posted. I know it's not much, but hopefully it'll get the ball rolling for me to get back into the groove again. Starting to see some cracks in that writer's block.

I dont mind making a new character. I just did not know if you needed them as canon fodder or if they would be permanent. I mean, I can totally flesh out Tobi as new character.

Also, me and @deia876lat spat some lore in our talks. I mentioned that the Ship was named after a hero of the war against the Sorcerer King and Dei mentioned another hero who had been instrumental in taking him down. Do you have any guidance on that?

Also, a calendar. If I read the lore correctly, it is about 100 years post cataclysm. so is the dating sequence starting since then i.e. 100PC. Do the months have names? How many days in a month? What are the days of the week named?

Also, the Mage's rank structure. The way I see it, they are kinda like a monastic type of situation. would they have a rank structure similar to Pope>Cardinals>Bishops> etc? I mean, I know that we established their power rating but I was not sure if we had cemented an actual structure. I assume the Archmage is the bid daddy and they have a seat in the King's court.

Is there a Joint Chief possition for the Knights?

Not trying to make it confusing but I was just wondering.

@TheMerlinI know this is a bit sudden, but how do you guys feel about making new characters to participate in the battle at Presper?

I'm not sure whether your intentions are to replay the battle through different eyes or whether to see and play through the other defense and attack upon the Hearthguard. Can you explain a bit further?

I have no problems making new characters especially if it helps you with your writersblock.

Also posted, giving you @Omni5876 an inkling in what may follow...

@deia876lat I just read the post. just so you know Arn is not afraid to slapaho lol. Poor Eilis she whishes she was no one of interest as do all who are.

Ill try to post something tomorrow.