[OOC] Spells in the Dark: The Shadow Queen (18+ For dark and suggestive themes)

[Ellion]

@Dark Light I feel like we are agreeing.

A human with no training would be destroyed by a witch. But hunters have the training and the tools that is what makes them witches equals.

An ellion that needs to go to beds base idea for hunter/witch relationship. Better details to come.

[Bright_Ops]

@Ellion@Dark Light

I'm inclined to believe that it's somewhat... situational. Witches and Hunters aren't exactly the kind of people who would go into a one on one fight with each other unless there was no other choice. I see most witch hunts being something of a deadly game of cat and mouse in which both sides are a cat until another cat gets the drop on them.

[Dark Light]

@Bright_Ops
Ehhhhhhhhh

Cat and maybe a rat, or perhaps some other large rodent. But a cat/cat implies it's even. I think once both parties are aware of the others intentions a witch has a much larger repertoire of things they can do to prepare.
They can do everything the human can do but more.

So far we have only seen/dealt with a witches natural 'powers' but I still believe they can all cast spells/curses, scry, do rituals and sacrifices.
(Maybe even a little voodoo, I wouldn't let them have any hair just to be on the safe side.)

I still reckon if you chose hunter you have deliberately chosen the underdog.
Only wise hunters live long enough to become old.

Look I could be wrong, it's not my game, and it also depends on the witch in particular. But that's how I would play it.

[Bishop]

Actually hunters are always the cat. God damn it why are they called hunters then?

@Ellion Also, how does magic work here? Is it found all around us and witches use the magick in the environment? Or is it within them and they just draw it not relying on outside sources? Is it connected to their spirit?

[Dark Light]

@Bishop
Yea a man can also hunt a bear, if that's what he's trying to do. But I don't like his chances if he stumbles across one by chance.
Generally it would involve knowing what he is after, preparing, tracking, sneaking and taking it by surprise.

I imagine hunters know a witches location through tales and stories wich gives him the advantage of choosing when and how to strike. I'm just saying without circumstantial favour the hunter would lose a heavy majority.

I wouldn't call it cat and mouse, more like a sharp knife and a Swiss Army knife, with a timer attachment,
And a compass
And binoculars
And can fly,
And fire lasers.

Yea it's like that!

XD

[Whoami]

On another note! I am currently writing my 2spooky4you post! It will introduce the dreaded Black Knight and the threat it brings to Seren's Folly and beyond~ >:D

[13org]

@Ellion
Oh~ but Herr Ellion, i am but simply dancing according with the music!
In fact, i was Esther preoccupied on my First "action" with Shai. I thought that it was... Well... Too powerfull.
But i simply felt i needed to do something.
Neither one of the Hunters nearby had any means to perceive the Poison, and if i hadnt made anything... Well... Probally one of them would have turned into snake food.

Also, as i said, think on Shai's Abilities as mostly defensive. The only exclusively offensive Abilities she has até Both the dices and the "falling star" (which has more to do with RAW arcana energy than AM actual star... A pilar of RAW arcane energy crashes down on the Target with a mighty impacto and scorching him... Or something like that...)

The gravity would be used mostly to create "gravity Fields" either immobilizing others with it, rendering them impossible to move (or at least very hard and sluggish), OK... It can be used to crush someone under their own weight too, but something that i wont do is creatina Black holes... (Its totally possible, but its ridiculous...). The time shift thing has a good potential. Mainly i would use to turned someone's Actions and perceptivo of the world nearby into slow motion or fast forward, compressing the time around them. And thats basically it. Well, i can "stop" the time in a bubble too, but its not something i would do or abuse. This particular ability doesnt have any offensive potential.

[13org]

@Bishop

Well, If you read my character's sheet you can get some ideas on how it May work.

If Ellion wants, i can continue writing that parte of the CSS and create a more detailed work on how magic, arcane nodes and the arcane Network Works, creating laws and rules for that.

PS:yeah... Fck autocorrector.

Ps2: someone do something regarding Hestia and all the Cray shit at the Woods.
Shai is a very kind girl, but she doesnt like to be insulted like that. If things keep going, Shai wont be only defending herself.

[WeepingLiberty]

I'll be back in roughly 7 1/2 hours to read through all this monkeying around you guys saved for after I passed out. XD

The dreaded worday has arrived yet again.

[Whoami]

@Bishop

Well, If you read my character's sheet you can get some ideas on how it May work.

If Ellion wants, i can continue writing that parte of the CSS and create a more detailed work on how magic, arcane nodes and the arcane Network Works, creating laws and rules for that.

PS:yeah... Fck autocorrector.

Ps2: someone do something regarding Hestia and all the Cray shit at the Woods.
Shai is a very kind girl, but she doesnt like to be insulted like that. If things keep going, Shai wont be only defending herself.

@13org

Well~ The events in my upcoming post might be enough to inspire everybody to run for the hills! It would all depend on how nearby you want to put yourselves to this madness! ;P

[Ellion]

Concerning Magic and Hunters

On Combat

Tiers of power:

Novice

Hunters: A little luck, a good plan, and the high ground brought you here. The long night is just beginning hunter, wet your blade, hone your instincts, and hope you don't become prey before your time.

Witches: So you've cast a few spells? Have some control over your gift? Well done, but that's just the beginning. Magic is intoxicating isn't it? Find yourself a coven quick sorceress, lest you find yourself alone in the dark.

Acolyte

Hunter: Welcome to the long night, hunter. You can finally number yourself amongst the ranks of those that run towards danger instead of away from it. This is a dangerous road you walk, check your pride boy, if you want to live another night.

Witch: True control is gained here. You're beginning to understand the basics of magical theory, but you're still mostly in the dark. Every old nightmare started here sorceress, but not many made it any further.

Disciple

Hunter: Well done, you've made it to the heights of what most hunters will ever accomplish. If you hung your blade up and started a family no one would blame you, the taverns know your tales by heart anyway. Maybe that's not enough for you? Is it because you're mad? Or does something pull at you? Blaze your way through the blood and dark hunter, you're beginning to understand.

Witch: How many sacrifices did it take to get here? Do you control your own little coven now? Maybe you've retired from black magic and became a medicine woman? Old tomes no longer have anything of value for you, words are not power after all. Seek the old ways, the dark ways. Close your eyes against the bitter wind, push on witch.

Adept

Hunter: Your form is nearly peerless, and you know more about the beasts that stalk the night than most hunters alive. People recoil from you in fear. Why? Is your killer instinct really so obvious? False friends fade, and tavern tales turn to dark whispers. Did you really think you were just human? Maybe you still do, hopefully you'll never live long enough to find out.

Witch: You're a walking nightmare. Spells pile up at the back of your long memory as quickly as the bodies of rivals and hunters do in your wake. You bloodline's gift speaks to you, offering up even more power readily. The outer planes echo with your power. No one makes it this far without delving into the dark arts, and they're called dark for a reason witch. Can you really stand any more?

Master

Hunter: Welcome scion of the hunter's moon. You're among the most powerful killers in the world. How does it feel at the top? Knowing you have more in common with the beasts you hunt than your mortal counterparts? Somewhere along the line something inside you spread its terrible wings, pushing you to transcend mortal capacities for violence. Are you awaited in heaven? Valhalla? Or does the pit eagerly watch for your fall? Stand alone against the deep dark hunter, no one else can.

Witch: When did you leave your humanity behind? When did it become so easy to sell yourself for power? Welcome bringer of the great dark. Your descent is now complete, you've completed your magnum opus and left the world behind. Or did you? Why do you still linger here Wise One? Did you leave something behind? Maybe you didn't like what awaited you at the end of your long journey. Reality buckles against the weight of your transcendent will, what great work awaits you next?

I am reposting the different levels just as a reminder to kinda how your character should be based on your selection of their level.

magical hoo-ha

'Kay, I am going to start this post with my theories on Magic. Now I took this roleplay over from someone else and we didn't really discuss this as length. These are just observations compiled into what I think are the laws of the universe of this roleplay. (I know I am the GM and could change them, but I like the limits they place). Also I am not an expert on magic or physics (mathhhh on the other hand)

Magic: Chaos centralized. At its core, magic is the acting force that works to derail the natural order of the world. Similar to anti-matter (I think)

In terms of witches, no one can just become a witch. Everyone is born with a predisposition of their ability to affiliate with chaos. There are also different levels by which it affects each and every person. A weakly affected person is really the only person who has a true choice on if they become a witch or not. They could ignore it their entire lives, they do have an awareness to it, they just chose to ignore it, even if they don't know that they are. I kinda see that hunters generally are at this level of affiliated. It helps keep them aware of the situation--alive. Hunters without this vague sense of chaos either die very quickly or never face anything of importance. And it is kind of why they become hunters, because being around magic has a sort of rightness feeling to it. Even if they don't notice it, on some level it makes them happy but they don't know why. #drug

Now for those who do become witches. Some are born to witches and they have the potential utilize from the second they are born and know no other way. Some are born with a particularly strong affinity for it in a none magical house hold. Depending on the culture they are born into they are either looked on as gods and worshipped or as monsters and killed. The fourth type: those that have the potential, but it takes a catalyst to bring it to fruition. -see wendango-

Magic: It always has a cost.

Witches are human in some sense. Maybe that human element was lost years ago, but humans were not meant to successfully endure magic indefinitely (Unlike demons). It has less to do with the body, which may experience some changes, usually good ones, and more to do with mind. Chaos eats at the brain and it might take years and years and years for signs to occur, but the more powerful the magic is, the quicker the insanity comes on. And I am not saying they go crazy, each witch is effected differently. Some become highly logical and slowly lose their ability to understand compassion and suffering. Connections to other living creatures becomes difficult. Some become reckless and impulsive and some lose the connection to reality and live in the moment because they are incapable of living outside of it: years last for a seconds and minutes can go on for an eternity.

Taking on magic also has physical effects for the witch, while most of them are good--Making them more long lived is one of them-- there are some downsides. They become deadly allergic to lavender if it is consumed. A brand new witch might just get violently sick with a lethal dose, but anyone who has worked with magic for longer than week, dead. They also have a less sever--but not good-- reaction to silver, gold and wolves bane, but they don't have to eat it to be effected. I also see hunters, mostly older hunters, develop something similar to hay fever around these objects as they spend more time around magic.

Magic Drains and Powerful Magic takes time:

Sure with practice, certain spells become much easier for witches, they get better about knowing exactly how much energy needs to be used to get the needed effect. But, witches are using chaos to fight the laws of nature, nature pushes back so it take energy to cause the catalyst that makes things happen. Like swinging a sword, combat magics drains. You become physically tired. I think of all combat magics as anything that can happen in an instant, it took no forethought or planning to cast a fireball and you pay for it physically. (power surges, healing, anything automatic)

The above covers most types of magics I think we will see in the roleplay. But the other type takes time.

Seers: It takes time and quiet to look into the future. Typically, if a seerier is going to battle, they spend days if not MONTHS looking to the future to see how it'll play out for it to be useful.

Creature Creation: It takes time to unwrite the dna and recode. Hours for something simple, years for something difficult.

Runes/summonings: Some of the harshness of the magic can be lessened by using magical tools, such as runes, but you have to have these things ready for them to be of any use. It also usually costs something too. Usually blood, which is highly energized.

Hunters vs Witches.

Witches have weaknesses, and they usually are all the same. Hunters know this and exploit them. Without their tools most hunters would die, but they have their tools and that is what makes them more equal to the witches. Hunters also are willing to work with each other as equals, which helps. Witches tend to develop hierarchies that most of them instinctually want to be at the top of, which makes them a little less fluid at the teamworking thing

Wellll, those are wayyy to early Ellion thoughts. I'd like to hear your guys. Because if we all want different rules of magic and can all agree to them, I am more than happy to make edits ^^.

[Rune_Alchemist]

@Ellion

All of that sounds pretty good to me, and was really sort of what I was already assuming on some level.

Just for future reference:
Celia is a Novice (Probably fairly weak even for them, honestly) and Phoebe is somewhere between Acolyte and Disciple. She's been doing this for a few years.

[13org]

@Ellion

That works well for me.

Especially the seer thing. About Shai's divination though, quietness and time would be necessary to more detailed and long term divinations, but for the tarot one (basically functioning as a "sixth sense") would it be ok? Its not terribly overpowered... it can reveal only small parcels of information (contained on someone's post).

About Shai, she is a rather... unique witch. Due to her affinity with the arcane, the reactions she has to lavender, silver & etc would be far worse than normal witches (I'm assuming that these substances interfere with the flow of magic around them.).

Due to the fact that she is basically an unending fountain of mana, she wont get tired by casting multiple magics (bigger magics will still take time to be performed. That is a no brainer. At least one post "preparing" to cast a bigger magic.). Her body is highly resistant to "magic overloads / outburns" (due to not being human at all) but it can still happen, and in her case, when it happens its more severe than normal, often leading to her hands / body being burned by raw mana, forming big, purplish blue wounds and very often rendering her unconscious. She has access to healing magic, but in order to the flow of mana passing through her body be normalized again, it would take some time (while she is still unconscious) and healing these magical wounds can only be done with magical power. If she doesn't receive "first aid" and basic medical care while unconscious after an Arcane Outburn, she will probably die. A normal witch can use magic to heal her, but it would be very consuming to the witch.

Oh, and about her being an Arcane Node, I think that it would be very interesting, making Shai a strategic "possession" to each one of the parties.

Witches would have an unlimited access to Arcane Energy, drawing directly from a Node. That would allow them to cast bigger magics without exhausting themselves.

Hunters would greatly benefit from Shai's ability to make the witches less powerfull.

Well, I'm not saying anything, but if someone captures Shai, using her as an "amulet" to boost nearby witches powers....

Or maybe a hunter who earns her trust and admiration (or perhaps the good and old torture) to make her use her ability...

Well.. Those are only thoughts too :-D

I don't play to Shai to be a "predator" by any means. All of her abilities will be used mostly defensively. The dices and the star fall are the only exclusively offensive abilities she has.
My idea was to her fulfill a strategic role on the rp.

Both witches and hunters want her for her powers. How they will get her is up to them.

[Ellion]

I'll have a post for the forest and all involved here in a moment. I just need some creative process time (aka, I'm going to dance around my kitchen for a while ^^)

[13org]

@Ellion

But please tell me what do you think about my plans for Shai.

[Ellion]

@13org
I would say...that for the tarot cards, if the information is semi-instant, the information needs to be very vague and simple. Such as "Danger" or "Run" and it doesn't alway come in time to be useful. AKA, I assume that if she did get the word 'poison' it would be only be a minute or so before someone without the power could have worked it out on their own. AKA "So thats why I can't feel my legs". I would also see the tarot cards not being able to say "Hey that snake lady is the cause of the poison" So unless Hissy gave another sign about who was causing it, Shai would just know that somehow someone was using poison.

There is a lot I like about her as a whole, but I do want to keep things fair.

As for her mana reserve. I would say yes...but there are some conditions. First, I would say that she has to be willing for herself to be 'open' in either way. Like, unless she is activating the 'portal' for mana, perhaps no one can us it. And maybe it has to be open in some sense for her to use magic at all. I also think that having a lack magic overloads / outburns should cause her negative effects in the moment, such as pain anytime she uses magic.

I am not saying these are your have tos, but I am wanting to hear your thoughts.

[13org]

@Ellion

Actually... I planned for magic overloads / outburns to happen some times to her. You can say that her body IS resistant to magic, but the magnitude of the magic she uses is also higher than usual, so she is prone to magic outburns if she doesnt mind her own magic usage.

As for the mana thing, she doesnt have any control about it. She doesnt "control" an arcane node, she simply IS a node. Limiting the magic is a conscious action, of course. As for her, limiting other witches' magic is indeed very tiring for her. Shai is currently breathing heavily, knelt down on the forest floor. For the time being, she is too tired to get up (Running, casting a powerful time shift and a ward to limit its effective range, placing a limiter on the magic flow around the area... Although it would still take, at least 2 big scale magics to an Arcane Outburn to happen, her body IS physically tired due to everything that happened.)

[Dark Light]

Aww can Arden go to the 'dark side' and train with death?

[13org]

Basically every spell she uses is a high tier spell.
The only things she can use that aren't that demanding to her body and mind is mild time / gravity magic. Gravity / time shifts with a moderate intensity (nothing that completely stops someone or makes them unable to move), using her Tarot deck to both gather information / make a protective barrier and using the dices as projectiles / active barrier. EVERY other spell she has is highly demanding to her body, making her tired and if she uses more than 4-5 of these high-magnitude spells in a short period of time, she will suffer an Arcane Outburn, being potentially dangerous to her life if someone (hunter OR witch) doesnt help her in time.

[13org]

@Dark Light

That would be a nice plot twist XD

"IM TIRED OF THAT DAMN WIITCH! now I'm the bad guy!"
*starts playing smooth criminal and he gets out of the room moonwalking*