I just want cool powers.
<Snipped quote by Blizz>
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 the choice between these affinities and the D&D schools would largely hinge on one of two viewpoints in deciding how magic is built fundamentally.
1) the utility and general effect of a person's magic is intrinsic, and they learn to express that form through various elements or "lenses." (D&D system) Someone born into Evocation would be able to utilize that through blasts of fire, lightning, ice, force, sound and so on, but night need training to branch out to Conjuration before they can summon anything.
2) the flavor of one's magic is intrinsic, and how they refine it to specific uses is learned (your original system and mine). Someone born of pyromancy can shoot blasts of fire and summon fire elementals, but might need training to branch out and perform those same blasts or summons for lightning, ice, force, sound and so on.
Personally, for a non-stats non-dice rp, I prefer the 2nd method.
Hmmm... So I'm considering a simplified version that combines my ideas with some of Light's:
The Aetherscape is a giant energy bubble around the Mortal Planes and is split into four quadrants - the Elemental Planes of Air, Earth, Water, and Fire - and in the center between them is the Infernal Abyss, where all dark magic is pulled from. Beyond the outer edges of the bubble is the Cosmic Void, where magic pertaining to space, time, and gravity is pulled from. Any character can learn to harness any kind of magic with the right training, but they are born with a natural affinity to one of the Elemental Planes.
The actual classes at the Academy focus on different methods to use the magic. So, for instance, the Professor in Evocation class would teach students how to evoke blasts and such of their attuned element, the Enchantment Professor would teach them how to enchant items, the Runology Professor would teach them the various runes of the Ancient Tongue, etc.
What does everyone think?
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I like this approach. It's open ended in picking what kind of magic we use, and it only makes sense that there would be teachers that instruct students how to do certain things with it. I'm just double checking that you did intend for us to only start with one affinity this way then (and only from among Air, Earth, Fire and Water), and we'd have to learn others as we go?
Hmm, so if I wanted to keep the casting illusions and telekinesis, what plane would I go with?
<Snipped quote by Crimson Flame>
Telekinesis would be covered by Universal Magic, and you could flavor some of the elements to cast illusions, such as using water vapor/moisture in the air to reshape the flow of light through the atmosphere around you, kind of like casting a rainbow. Or you could use air itself to reshape the light. Or you could have that covered by Universal Magic as well by using mild telepathy similar to the original idea for Cerebromancy.
That system sounds interesting. I’m fine with that, as long as I can keep my character ideas lol.
Also, now that we’ve got a bunch of people interested in this, do you think we should get everyone into a discord server? Might be easier to talk back and forth between each other that way