Circling around 3 character concepts right now- deciding between the 3...

1. Grumpy/Delinquent on the outside, softboi on the inside, spear-chucking geomancer, probably a chip on his shoulder

2. Tomboyish and athletic electromancer, surprisingly well adjusted

3. A friendly satyr from another plane, an aero/ecomancer from an enclave of druids/hunters- blissfully ignorant of human culture

Character I have in mind now is dragonborn-esque eco/cryomancer. Going to think more about him on my drive tomorrow

I’m not sure what my character’s secondary would be, but I’m open to suggestions lol

I don’t know what Taeral’s secondary arcane would be. That’s what they’re in school to learn.

@CaptainManbeard Given everything you said, and the ideas floating around from other players, I don't think the idea I had in mind would work too well, and rather than try to fit a square peg in a round hole, I'll return to the drawing board for a new concept. I want to make something that doesn't step on the toes of others, so I'm feeling out what people gravitate towards before I throw my two cents in.

No rush, but I'm particularly waiting to see what @vietmyke decides on as well.

Circling around 3 character concepts right now- deciding between the 3...

1. Grumpy/Delinquent on the outside, softboi on the inside, spear-chucking geomancer, probably a chip on his shoulder

2. Tomboyish and athletic electromancer, surprisingly well adjusted

3. A friendly satyr from another plane, an aero/ecomancer from an enclave of druids/hunters- blissfully ignorant of human culture

Sounds good!

Also, I'm thinking the freshman classes in the Academy center around the different ways to use magic, so that they can apply to anyone regardless of affinities. For instance, there could be a Battlemancy class that is kind of like gym class and focuses on teaching them to implement magic into basic self-defense/martial arts forms similar to Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra. Anyone who wants to join the Stormhawks Battlemancer team will find that useful.

There could be seven Core Classes everyone takes: Battlemancy, Alchemy, Runology, Enchantment, Arcane History, Abjuration, and Evocation, and then Specialized Classes for each specific Arcane Art. Additionally, there could be electives and advanced classes that become available in their junior and senior years.

When the main thread goes up, I'll include a list of spoiler tags in the first OOC post, each one containing various aspects of the RP world, including everything we've all discussed here and more fleshed out stuff. I'm thinking a large component of magic could be the runes/ Arcane Tongues, though I think I want to change an aspect I had written before - instead of having multiple ones, it might be easier for the RP to just have a single spoken Arcane Tongue that has multiple runic writing systems engraved into the Aetherscape (so that if anyone wants to include images of their Conduits with runes on them, we're not locked into one style). Anytime we need a character to actually say any part of the Arcane Tongue out loud, we can just write it in English and wrap it in triple brackets, like: "I want you to know," he said, then grinned and switched to the Arcane Tongue, {{{"I have more power than you'll ever know!"}}}

As for how it sounds when spoken, we can just say it has similarities to Quenya (one of the Tolkien Elvish languages):

@CaptainManbeard Given everything you said, and the ideas floating around from other players, I don't think the idea I had in mind would work too well, and rather than try to fit a square peg in a round hole, I'll return to the drawing board for a new concept. I want to make something that doesn't step on the toes of others, so I'm feeling out what people gravitate towards before I throw my two cents in.

No rush, but I'm particularly waiting to see what @vietmyke decides on as well.

Feel free to throw some ideas around, or you can also PM me if you'd like to discuss some ideas more directly XD.

So, other than me, we have a total of eight people (unless I'm missing anyone) that have shown interest in the RP:

Crimson Flame
Jarl Coolgruuf
Lunafreya Miku
Vietmyke
Blizz
Light
Aladdin Sane
PrankFox

Assuming some of us play multiple characters, we should be able to get a well-rounded team with quite a few Primary/Secondary Arcane Art combinations.

I want one of my characters to be a Native American Cryomancer/Aeromancer named Winterhawk, and he's got a tattoo of wings on his back done by his village's witch doctor that can grow out into actual white-feathered wings. As a Battlemancer, he will likely take flight and then fling ice spears from the sky XD.

Two other character ideas: Someone with a powerset similar to Luck from Black Clover, combining Electromancy and Cerebromancy; and a guy who used Ecomancy and Pryomancy to create green flames that heal people.

One thing I want to remind everyone - because there are so many potential uses for each combination, please don't worry about having too many people with similar powers. If someone else has already shown interest in two Arts you wanted to use, it's still fine for you to use them, just make your application of it unique.

<Snipped quote by Light>

Feel free to throw some ideas around, or you can also PM me if you'd like to discuss some ideas more directly XD.

It's ok, I had a pretty specific idea in mind but it just doesn't seem like it'd work- given the time scale of where our characters are supposed to be at this point in their lives. Don't worry about it, I'll fill in the gaps for party composition once people have settled into their ideas.

I want one of my characters to be a Native American Cryomancer/Aeromancer named Winterhawk, and he's got a tattoo of wings on his back done by his village's witch doctor that can grow out into actual white-feathered wings. As a Battlemancer, he will likely take flight and then fling ice spears from the sky XD.

Two other character ideas: Someone with a powerset similar to Luck from Black Clover, combining Electromancy and Cerebromancy; and a guy who used Ecomancy and Pryomancy to create green flames that heal people.

One thing I want to remind everyone - because there are so many potential uses for each combination, please don't worry about having too many people with similar powers. If someone else has already shown interest in two Arts you wanted to use, it's still fine for you to use them, just make your application of it unique.

Oh now this gives me a weird idea.

Necromancy paired with electromancy... Magic cyborg who's permanently at death's door but magical stops the door from opening with some magic stuff. How that works when necromancy is taught under strict circumstances... I dunno but ideas go brrrr

I think I'm gonna split the difference with my character, sort of mixing all the ideas: I have a plan for a character that's the daughter of a pair of shrine keepers, maybe with ties to the other planes. She's in her rebellious phase and a bit rowdy, but otherwise well adjusted society-wise. Probably going to use a combination of electromancy and pyromancy. I think I have some suitable character art for her too!

Current working idea is the son of a famed warrior mage (more martial than mage) who himself comes from a long line of such men and women. Despite his many siblings, this boy was the only one to "turn out right" in his father's words. He's always shown great promise from a young age and though he enjoys his position as the clear favorite, always knew his parents' love and support only stayed with him because of his continued success. His siblings are bitterly jealous of him despite his efforts at reconciliation and his parents' words and actions only serve to widen the gap.

He often grapples with the pride he feels in being the perfect son and the knowledge he is only loved because he is perfect and this often leaves him conflicted about decisions he makes in order to advance himself and his family name.

Magically I'm thinking of a knight or general fighter type who supplements their martial prowess with magic (he's not very good at it so far but just good enough to starve off the ire of his parents). This will also play into the fact that for the first time in his life he's not the best at something, or at least close to number 1.

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

Oh now this gives me a weird idea.

Necromancy paired with electromancy... Magic cyborg who's permanently at death's door but magical stops the door from opening with some magic stuff. How that works when necromancy is taught under strict circumstances... I dunno but ideas go brrrr

Haha, yeah, sounds like a cool idea, but certainly the students would not have access to Necromancy unless they did it in secret, but if they god caught, they'd instantly be expelled from the Academy XD.

Hmmmm... Okay, that actually gives me an idea. I think one of my characters will have parents who are secretly members of the newly-recruiting Cult of Tiamat, and they want their child to recruit other student to take part in secret dark magic classes. So, anyone who wants to play a dark character, feel free to choose a Forbidden Art as a secret Tertiary Arcane Art, but they won't actually learn anything in that field until the secret dark magic classes start. So, even for dark characters, still pick from the eight approved Arcane Arts to start. As for how the secret class works, my character will lead any interested students through a hidden tunnel system under the mountains around the Academy. Members of the Cult were secretly part of construction crews who were refurbishing, repairing, and updating various parts of the Academy over the Summer, and they often stayed late to work on building the tunnels and the Secret Arena after everyone else went home for the night.

When the students/aspiring villains come to the Secret Arena, they meet five members of the Cult, each one a master of a specific Forbidden Art that they will teach. The leader of these is an older woman who is very similar to a Sith Sorceress, having specialized in Cerebromancy and Electromancy during her youth, and then Psychomancy after she joined the Cult. She is wise but has a sharp tongue and issues a warning to the students: "You will see things during your time in this Arena that are not for the feint of heart, but I do not tolerate cowardice. If you want to leave now, I will wipe the memory of this place from you mind, but if you commit and then betray us later, your exit will be considerably more... violent. Are we clear?"

I think I'm gonna split the difference with my character, sort of mixing all the ideas: I have a plan for a character that's the daughter of a pair of shrine keepers, maybe with ties to the other planes. She's in her rebellious phase and a bit rowdy, but otherwise well adjusted society-wise. Probably going to use a combination of electromancy and pyromancy. I think I have some suitable character art for her too!

Azula, nice! If you decide to have her go to the Secret Arena mentioned above, she would make a perfect apprentice for the Psychomancy instructor XD.

Is there any capacity for people to learn magic beyond the kinds they are naturally attuned to? I'd assume it's possible, else how would the black mana arts have been discovered to begin with? Unless I'm mistaken and that an individual can be born with attunement to a kind of black mana.

Is there any capacity for people to learn magic beyond the kinds they are naturally attuned to? I'd assume it's possible, else how would the black mana arts have been discovered to begin with? Unless I'm mistaken and that an individual can be born with attunement to a kind of black mana.

Yeah, people can learn more than their naturally attuned Auras, it's just that those are the focus when they're first starting out at the Academy.

Hmmm... Now I'm wondering if maybe I should switch up the magic system to instead give every character ten experience points to place in the different Arcane Arts. Like, they could have a Primary Arcane Art that automatically starts out with five XP, and then they have ten additional XP to use for various Secondary Arts or further amplify their Primary. Then they can train to earn more points over the school year, signifying their magical progress. If we do that, it would give everyone a lot more freedom and I can make a list of various spells and magical effects and the points required to use them.

What does everyone think?

Gonna stick with cryo but trying to decide if I want to go with maybe electro as the pairing in some way. Still trying to figure out, but that feels kinda fun to me.

Definitely interested in playing a darker character, I haven’t gotten to do that in a long time and I love the idea of blood magic. Might go with that route in some capacity and mixed with cryo/electric feels fun.

As for the XP, it would make it feel a lot more video gamey, but I’m open to the idea. Would it be similar to a a PbtA game where you have a list of abilities that are accessible and you spend the XP to get them? Or is it you need a certain number of points to unlock an ability?

<Snipped quote by Light>

... What does everyone think?

If I may, I'd like to suggest a bit of a simplification to the system, mostly just a condensing of schools into categories that capture more under one umbrella, so people can pick more freely and still play into niche power fantasies. The core idea is the same- give people the ability to pick schools and still have the freedom to express how their character uses that school, potentially differently from others. I just believe that with less schools, we can achieve that "unique expression" even more, and have less edge cases of "I want to use a certain kind of magic but there isn't a school that really captures/allows it."

There are 7 schools/attunements/affinities this way: Air, Cosmic, Earth, Fire, Occult, Radiant and Water.

Air, Earth, Fire and Water would be the central schools, focusing on manipulation of the world around us. Air would take on the responsibilities of electromancy. Earth would be the unions of geomancy, metallurgy and the magic of nature's plant and animal life. Fire is mostly unchanged, as it's a well-established archetype that needs little more than heat, flames, embers and smoke. Water would inherit cryomancy as well.

The remaining three schools of Cosmic, Occult and Radiant would take on the job of more esoteric magics, with perhaps Radiant still being allowed as a non-forbidden school.

Occult represents most of what you'd consider forbidden magic. Hellish or eldtritch rituals, illusions and mental manipulations, and of course all forms of dark life-exchanging magic such as sangromancy/hemeomancy, osteomancy and fully fledged necromancy.

Cosmic would be a fringe case on how/if its use is allowed. As likely the least undstood school, Cosmic reaches deepest into the void to control space and time with telekinesis, chronomancy, and teleportation. Cosmic would also be responsible for "null type" magics such as force, kinetics and sound.

Radiant is the closest one could analog to divine magic. Still a scholarly and learned art, it would encompass light (both illumination and hard-light objects), order, and most other magics you could associate with prototypical clerics and paladins from other fantasy settings.

I want to point out that I did not attribute healing to any of the schools here, any school should be able to interpret their magic in a way that allows them to heal in some way.

Edit: my phone can't spell Cosmic apparently, and thought I was still talking about Occult.

Gonna stick with cryo but trying to decide if I want to go with maybe electro as the pairing in some way. Still trying to figure out, but that feels kinda fun to me.

Definitely interested in playing a darker character, I haven’t gotten to do that in a long time and I love the idea of blood magic. Might go with that route in some capacity and mixed with cryo/electric feels fun.

As for the XP, it would make it feel a lot more video gamey, but I’m open to the idea. Would it be similar to a a PbtA game where you have a list of abilities that are accessible and you spend the XP to get them? Or is it you need a certain number of points to unlock an ability?

I just meant using XP to signify how well a Magi knows a specific Arcane Art, which each spell/effect requiring a certain proficiency in that Art to use that spell/effect, but I understand how that may seem a bit too video gamey. Instead of using XP/numbers, we could use terms to denote proficiency, like Untrained, Initiate, Novice, Intermediate, Adept, and Master. For instance, someone would need to be an Adept in Pryomancy to use an Adept-level spell.

I'm also wondering if I should separate the colors from the specific Arcane Arts so that everyone can just pick whatever colors they want and say their Auras and magic are that color regardless of powers. For instance, right now, I have Pyromancy as Red Mana, but what if someone wants to be a Pryomancer with blue flames or purple flames or any other color? If we do end up changing the magic system to allow more freedom, we could just have White Mana from the Inner Core of the Aetherscape and Black Mana from the Outer Void, and each one is tainted to a specific color when channeled by a Magi. To allow more freedom, we can just say the color is just a personality trait and has no effect on how the magic works. So, you could have a Pryomancer who lobs purple fireballs or an Electromancer who unleashes blue lightning or a Hydromancer who summons tentacles of pink liquid.

As for how the magic physically works, we could say there are genetic factors in Magi bloodlines that allow their brains to reach out into the Aetherscape like a wireless router and channel Mana, which is then refined through a Magi's Conduit and/or Arcane Tongue/Runes into specific effects. But all this is quite a big shake up from what we all were already discussing, so before I finalize the magic system, I want to know everyone's thoughts. What are some aspects you'd like to see? Any preferences? I want to use everyone's input to refine the magic system into a final form that everyone will enjoy XD.

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

If I may, I'd like to suggest a bit of a simplification to the system, mostly just a condensing of schools into categories that capture more under one umbrella, so people can pick more freely and still play into niche power fantasies. The core idea is the same- give people the ability to pick schools and still have the freedom to express how their character uses that school, potentially differently from others. I just believe that with less schools, we can achieve that "unique expression" even more, and have less edge cases of "I want to use a certain kind of magic but there isn't a school that really captures/allows it."

There are 7 schools/attunements/affinities this way: Air, Cosmic, Earth, Fire, Occult, Radiant and Water.

Air, Earth, Fire and Water would be the central schools, focusing on manipulation of the world around us. Air would take on the responsibilities of electromancy. Earth would be the unions of geomancy, metallurgy and the magic of nature's plant and animal life. Fire is mostly unchanged, as it's a well-established archetype that needs little more than heat, flames, embers and smoke. Water would inherit cryomancy as well.

The remaining three schools of Cosmic, Occult and Radiant would take on the job of more esoteric magics, with perhaps Radiant still being allowed as a non-forbidden school.

Occult represents most of what you'd consider forbidden magic. Hellish or eldtritch rituals, illusions and mental manipulations, and of course all forms of dark life-exchanging magic such as sangromancy/hemeomancy, osteomancy and fully fledged necromancy.

Cosmic would be a fringe case on how/if its use is allowed. As likely the least undstood school, Cosmic reaches deepest into the void to control space and time with telekinesis, chronomancy, and teleportation. Cosmic would also be responsible for "null type" magics such as force, kinetics and sound.

Radiant is the closest one could analog to divine magic. Still a scholarly and learned art, it would encompass light (both illumination and hard-light objects), order, and most other magics you could associate with prototypical clerics and paladins from other fantasy settings.

I want to point out that I did not attribute healing to any of the schools here, any school should be able to interpret their magic in a way that allows them to heal in some way.

Edit: my phone can't spell Cosmic apparently, and thought I was still talking about Occult.

Thanks for the input! You make a lot of good points there! I'm going to wait to make any final decisions until everyone speaks their mind, and then I'm gonna hop into a blank Google Doc and spend a few days writing out the finalized magic system. Another idea I have is to just use the Schools of Magic from D&D5E (Abjuration, Transmutation, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Illusion, Evocation, and Necromancy) and classify everything under those. I'll wait and see what everyone thinks.