[OOC] ArrowFell: The Wizard Queen's Court

[The Otter]

This is in part because I think it's very funny if Callum has to keep piggybacking off of others to get anywhere super quickly.

[Click This]

I think it's funny if the varying levels of teleportation remain restricted to the more adept mages or to those at the top of society (or just really rich).

@The Otter

This, for the most part. Get fucked, peasants

Though Mirie's seed is somewhat less useful relative to the others' teleportation, aside from the scrying.

[Estylwen]

@Click This You are welcome to adjust your seed in light of this minor change.

I'm considering having all PC dukes and duchesses having teleportation capabilities. However, they will be fixed to teleporting close to the ground. I would ask everyone to refrain form using teleportation that would result in an insta-kill for anyone else, like shoving someone into a portal that opens into the sea.

You can have your mages have an 'aha!' moment if you like, or get your hands on the blueprints of teleporting. This will make it easier so I don't have to skip ahead by a week to account for all the different ways of travel to get to any place.

What does everyone think?

[Donut Look Now]

Nyx will truly be the peasant TnT I hope Rhinecliff is ready for her to piggyback his teleporting

(In all seriousness, I like the idea though!)

[The Otter]

"Oh, hell, late again. It's like they forget I have to walk everywhere."

[Izurich]

Kronos:

[Click This]

@Click This You are welcome to adjust your seed in light of this minor change.

I'm considering having all PC dukes and duchesses having teleportation capabilities. However, they will be fixed to teleporting close to the ground. I would ask everyone to refrain form using teleportation that would result in an insta-kill for anyone else, like shoving someone into a portal that opens into the sea.

You can have your mages have an 'aha!' moment if you like, or get your hands on the blueprints of teleporting. This will make it easier so I don't have to skip ahead by a week to account for all the different ways of travel to get to any place.

What does everyone think?

@Estylwen

If we go with teleportation being standard for all dukes and duchesses, would it be a more standardized type of spell?

[Estylwen]

@Click This That's exactly what I was thinking. Magic, not a seed. Like I said, if you want to adjust or replace your seed, you can.

[Donut Look Now]

And I suppose I better start making NPCs finally (Which will probably be exclusively working in Nyx’s spy network. Maybe I’ll throw in some changeling family members for Rhinecliff to extort I mean hire)

The Changeling’s Crows (Aka Nyx’s spy network)

Rose

Rose Torehahk

143 | Female | Dwarf

Description: Rose decided that she would run a tavern and inn when she first encountered one and met an interesting changeling. Nyx and Rose quickly became friends after trying to drink each other under the table and the dwarven lady decided that if running a similar establishment could lead to more friendships such as theirs, it would be a worth endeavor.

It was by pure coincidence that the bubbly and stout Rose chose the location of Hathforth but it felt like fate when her and Nyx crossed paths again. As someone who’s always felt like she’s had a heart too big for the world, she vowed to help the changeling in their plight for revenge on the Wizard Queen.

When she’s not serving alcohol and food to the citizens of Hathforth or setting them up with a room at the Rose Inn, she’s helping Nyx maintain her spy network by recruiting others to the cause or smuggling information that might prove useful.

While she has a knack for reading people that some might call ‘magical’ but she swears it’s just her intuition. She knows what signs to look for when someone is lying and has carefully developed this skill over time. She does not possess magic or a seed.

Lemme know if this passes ^-^

[Estylwen]

@Donut Look Now It looks great! I'll add it to the list!

So another spy network similar to Lunar's?

[Donut Look Now]

I would think so! Since Lunar is the spymaster for the Wizard Queen, right? So this spy network would be for Rhinecliff - I think that’s what we ended up choosing Nyx to be since I was late to join :P

[Estylwen]

@Donut Look Now Ah, I wasn't even considering myself. Yes, similar to Psykers' and Lunar's spy networks.

Wonderful! I'll keep this in mind for future hijinks!

[Crusader Lord]

@Estylwen Have a few character concept ideas and such so far, and thought I'd present one off them to you to see if its any bit viable (of if i overthought this thing to death already). Life's been busy irl otherwise, and I've gotta head to bed after posting this due to the oncoming work week I have. (@_@)

Just want to see if it's viable for now though, juggling joining properly or not otherwise for the time being for a few personal irl reasons.....but, in the meantime, I at least want to see if some potential character idea or two might work or not juuuust in case.

Character Concept #1 - The Homunculus

Long, long ago, an ancient artifact was wrought in a quest for immortality....only for that success to end up being a horible curse. Bound to a peculiar and seemingly indestructible sphere, the individual inside lived for some time before eventually wishing to end it all. In this quest, and after many tries to find the death he eventually sought for, he tore out the magical core containing him from his latest body and flung it deep into the ocean. Here in the depths he would slumber unawkaened for an untold amount of time, before being found covered in softly glowing microorganisms on the shores of Athius by a young elven girl whose wealthy family hailed from Aethera. This girl would gain an interest in learning magic from the artifact, itselff covered in arcane runes and so forth, but for all anyone knew it was simply a cool-looking sphere that did nothing.

Centuries later, given elven lifespans, the girl has become an alchemist whose life's work was to study the 'mysteries of life and its creation' and had long moved on from the artifact save for keeping it around her family's estate. Yet when a dog that wandered onto the premises slipped in an open door and eventually swallowed the artifact from where the elf had kept it, she noticed it take pause....and its eyes faintly flash with a light glow. It was as if something else was there instead of the dog, or someone else, and after killing the dog to get the artifact back she felt a burst of inspiration as she came to realize or at least theorize something about the artifact. She would work to craft a homnuculus body to place it in, then, a vessel that would bear it and hopefully allow her to discern its secrets at last.

Yet after doing this, the individual inside of the artifact awoke in a new body for the first time in ages....and he was angry. Angry for being awoken again somehow, and yet his awakener was the opposite and was thrilled beyond belief at his existence and awakening. He did not give her all her answers, but he would end up becoming her lab assistant of sorts and advisor as he witnessed her growing obsession with studying life. Even as the elf's parents died of old age, her own husband died of illness, and she at times used her kids or servants for experiments while placing them otherwise in the care of this valued homunculus himself she continued on. And as she continued on and worsened, the homunculus himself increasingly became distant to her and stopped helping. In her he saw his mistakes, his follies, and in the end the elf would herself eventually die of strange and sudden yet seemingly normal mundane circumstances.

Taking stewardship of her children and wealth, as she'd left everything to him in her will without so much as thinking about the matter, the homunculus sells the estate and most of its contents before taking the two kids and the wealth and leaving Aethera. He moves farther west, seeking distance from the elven ancestral home, and ends up moving as far as Hathforth and eventually becoming a professor at the College of Hathforth and broadening his knowledge between what he took of his maker's life's work with him but also taking the time to spend time with his basically adoptive elven kids at this point. Delves into known and secretly the forbidden in terms of magic, but it mostly ranges around alchemy, necromancy, and stuff like animating trees or statues. Or his magical leanings could be a bit more varied. Concept is flexible in this respect.

Eventually the titular Ludwig II comes to power and moves to unite Arrowfell, and this leads the homunculus to decide that he could do with a second home for retiring at some point or another. So, after having cultivated wealth from investments over time and banking up his income from teaching at the College, he manages to get ahold of a noble title of sorts and retires from the College to another location or town/city to relax for some time. Still keeps up his personal studying of magic, building his personal treasury/income, and maybe even pays for his own high-clase teleportation stuff, but ultimately in the end he moves far from the capital of Hathforth and its court dramas for the most part for some peace and quiet.

Maybe he moves to an already known place, or maybe into someplace like another trading town/city that arose along the Fey River near the fork in the river to the north. Etc. Whatever the case, he becomes known as a human-looking individual who has a growing pool of wealth and some local connections in Arrofell due to business dealings outside of his teaching job over the years. The elven kids of his former maker have grown up enough to not be little kids for sure by this point, and yet live on the same estate as him like family. Could be he got up to somthing or another otherwise in this time period too, depending on if people wanted to have backstory connections or otherwise, but overall the general gist is things are peaceful enough for him in this era.

....That is, they are until the Wizard Queen comes to power and the Glasic Fields erupt into existence. It shocks him as a mage/scholar for such a thing as the Glasic Fields to emerge, and while he wasn't some friend of Ludwig and just made bank and got a title from doing things underneath his rule in the past it is a shock to hear the guy who brought about a 20 year peace is dead so suddenly and so soon at least.

From here, this character's potential involvement in things can vary a bit depending on what you'd want. Perhaps he is called back to work at the College out of a desperation for teachers, and has been working these last two years while 'commuting' from home via teleportation. Perhaps the Wizard Queen wants his expertise in her court in some capacity and to test his potential loyalties after getting word of him via the College. Perhaps some wily Duke or Duchess wanted his servies, or sees him as a potential asset to support or work against the Queen. Etc, etc.

[Estylwen]

@Crusader Lord I love the concept! There's just a few points I wanted to discuss.

1. It would make more sense that the elvish lady who found the core/homunculus would adapot him, thereby imparting all her titles and wealth to him upon her passing. This would make his nobility and knowledge on how to teleport more feasible. As the duchess of Athera is already claimed, he could have inherited the title of Count. Would that work?

2. I would like him to have done work for King Ludwig II, of an alchemical/arcane nature. It would have been top secret at the time, and would impact the story generously. If you are interested, we can discussion more in PMs.

3. I take it he is more of a resercher? You will need to give me examples of his exact nature of work. Depending on his specialities, thr Wizard Queen will want to speak to him sooner rather than later. I have a plan in place for this character concept to include you, if you roll with it. I think it'll be fairly entertaining. :)

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I am working on the time skip post. It has a number of collabs in it so it will be a little bit before it is ready. I will keep you updated!

[ERode]

Aaaaand that's a wrap for muh collabs. What else is left on your end, Est?

A couple things to note in your direction as well, @Crusader Lord.

itselff covered in arcane runes and so forth, but for all anyone knew it was simply a cool-looking sphere that did nothing.

If the core is literally covered in arcane runes, and a child can learn magic directly from it, why would anyone else be oblivious to the fact that it wasn't just a cool-looking sphere? As well, to note, Althius is specifically a portion of the ocean, not a portion of land. I'm guess you meant the orb to have been found on either the Grand Banks or Agrovia then? Might wanna figure out why an elf was so far away from home, when Arrowfell as a province was never at peace and Aethera is on the other side of the map.

Might be good to clarify as well just how old elves can even be. You've mentioned centuries, but on the other hand, elven advisors from Aethera are literally only 30 years old, with Safina being the oldest known elf at 146. Also should probs have a ready answer for why he didn't just kill himself after being free of his 'master'. It was only in the last 22 years that there was peace in Arrowfell, so prior to that, it's fairly likely that a potent caster like himself would be thrust into the battlefield or find himself in a position to train kiddos to be sent off into the battlefield.

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And I guess since its a yapping day today, I'll toss up my own thoughts on teleportation:

Teleportation can only be utilized on willing targets in most cases. Exceptions are made for Mirie's Seed, Kronos (because lolPC), and the undead (they don't die from getting their MP bars drained to non-existence). This is mostly used because even teleportation near the ground is pretty fatal. Think about any situation where you just teleport an armored person into the ocean, or a swamp, or literally anything that you plan on teleporting people on top of to kill them.

Teleportation mana cost and spell complexity ramps up exponentially as you try to include more people into it. Set it to an upper limit of 10 people, for practical purposes, so no group of mages is out there teleporting armies into capitals and all that. Due to that same complexity, one can say that it's fairly easy to ward a place against teleportation, so you don't have people teleporting bombs into bedrooms for a quick laugh, unless you specifically use Mirie's Seed.

Portals are more costly to maintain than singular instances of teleportation spells, and in almost all cases, are simply not worth it. I'd say it'd make sense to have it be that portal magic only exists via using Dremora's Shade as a medium, meaning that unless you're Melisande (Kronos-assisted hijinks means the side effects are bypassed) or Evelyn (Seed bullshit do be like that), opening a portal is inviting in the demons. The advantage of portals, ofc, is that you can remotely send magic through it, and you can look through the portal before you step into it. Due to associations with Dremora's Shade, church magic can fairly easily break it to bits.

The nobility of Arrowfell have had access to teleportation magic for the last century or so, but its been fairly finicky and there's always the chance of teleporting to the other side in bits and goopy pieces. Only recently (within the last ten years) has it been useful enough to utilize for transportation by the nobility, but while you can teleport somewhere instantly, the mage doing so would be unable to teleport you back until a day later...and, ofc, that mage needs to be with you in order to do so. As such, when matters aren't pressing, it's more likely the case that nobles would travel to a location via carriage, while keeping a teleportation mage (call em a 'porter') on hand to teleport them back home, if there's any possibility of danger.

Guess in terms of rarity, you could say that the number of mages capable of actually performing feats of cross-province teleportation are more rare than Seeds at this rate, and it could be deduced that Ravenfell's deathlessness allowed them to work around the usual costs and difficulties of learning teleportation magic.

[Estylwen]

@ERode I agree with your thoughts on teleportation. I'll include it in the OOC post.

I am currently working on the timeskip post, which has a few collabs in it. So @The Otter is waiting for me, and Im waiting on @Donut Look Now and @Irradiant. I'll give a timeline for it in a couple days. Besides that, there's just Sev's execution. I think I'm mainly waiting on your input for that, @ERode.

Very excited for us to arrive in Athius, and for Rhinecliff's treasure to be discovered. >:)

[The Otter]

So The Otter is waiting for me, and I'm waiting on Donut and Irradiant.

@Estylwen

i am the strongest soldier

[ERode]

What kind of input did you want from me for Sev? I thought we were gonna be doing it ICly?

[Estylwen]

@The Otter 100%. Absolutely. xD

@ERode Oh yes, that's exactly what I mean. ICly input. The collab sheet is ready and waiting. :>

[The Otter]

thanks mom