[OOC] Essence of the World: The New Age [CLOSED]

[Wind Wild]

Right, well, I'd suggest you start exploring the magic question on the first post in the OOC. That's a basic summary of the magic. From then on, read the other academy kids CSes (Ian and Samantha) and after you adapt your notion of magic to our main basis - essence - post it here and me and my co-GMs will check it out and see if you made any grave mistakes and deserve execution or not. :p

The IC you could read but don't need to in order to start building your character. Also, no problem with you having a bard or anything. Mmmm orcs are a bit iffy in this universe but if it's an orc-like demon it's easy to do. And yeah, there's plenty of ways we can fit you in with out characters. ^ ^

[Themerlinhawk]

Lucius Cypher said
Well, right now the idea is that my guy is a Bard, like, fantasy DnD type, you know? Support spellcaster with a penchant with music.

Read Lazarus CS you will recognize the schools of magic, they are D&D inspired. I address some of the magic stuff in my Q&A with Wind (Thank you btw Wind) but given that Wind's section on magic is purposefully non specific (Is my understanding, smack me if i'm wrong wind) you may have to come up with some of your own stuff. Other than that Wind is right look at the academy student CSs

[Lucius Cypher]

I found Samantha, but who's Ian? LucIana? I don't mind making up my own magic, I just sort of wanted to get a gauge of what the Academy life is going to be like and than try to pit my dude into it.

Also here's the current spell list for my Bard, but I haven't quite gotten around to adjusting the fundamentals of the magic I had in mind to this universe.

Spells

Telepathy - The simplest and likely first spell a Psychomancer will pick up. Telepathy is basically reading the mind of someone. the mind is a fickle thing however; rarely does it actually speak in complete and understandable phrases. Indeed when a novice first uses Telepathy for the first time, they may find that everyone's thoughts are usually rambling run-on sentences. But with enough time, even a novice can begin to make sense of someone's thoughts, translating it into something with meaning. This is especially helpful for communicating outside of languages, more so once the novice begins to learn how to speak to others using their Telepathy. Instead of words they can translate their own thoughts into others. Sometimes they end up a rambling mess, but again, training allows them to fine-tune it into a more understandable messages. However, Telepathy has a range dependent on their level of ability. Most novices don't have a range further than a ten-yard radius of their current position, and only within eyesight. But as they become more skilled, they can read minds at a further distance in every direction.

Illusions - For more educated mages, many would associated Psychomancy with primarily Illusions, and while there is correlation, Illusion is simply another trick up Psychomancer's sleeves. Illusion is also known as "Perception Manipulation", as they are not merely image tricks. Most Novice Psychomancers will begin learning Illusions first by using a spell that will save their lives many time in the future: Invisibility. Basically, they will use their magic to manipulate a person's visual perception, causing the mage to disappear from their sight. This works well on most creatures who use sight as a their main means of finding people, though creatures using different means would need to be affected by different spells. But illusion allows the mage to do that; a advance illusionist can do more than turn invisible, they could make it so that their entire existence disappears. their scent, gone, the noise they make turns to silence, even their touch no longer registers. Thanks to Illusions, a psychomancer could potentially do anything, and leaving none the wiser. But there is a flaw; for all their potential, illusions ultimately do nothing at all. No matter how powerful the illusion, now graphic or detailed the illusion is, it is ultimately nothing. Some can be creative and cause the enemy to cause more damage to themselves using Illusion, but Illusions themselves do no physical harm, and even the mental damage can be recovered from.

Pathokinesis - Also known as Emotion Manipulation. Pathokinesis is essential to a Psychomancer, as it allows them to control not only their enemies, but also their own emotions. Certain emotions allow for a better efficiency with their magic, while others will debilitate it. Pathokinesis can also be used to cause the enemy to become reckless or turn against each other, or to bestow confidence in your allies and alleviate their fears. Pathokinesis is considered one of the more controversial magics in Psychomancy, and while it can still be officially taught, many in the world will be uneasy to know that you could potentially control their emotions against their will. The effects of Pathokinesis are usually temporary, but they can provide a spark to cause someone to succumb to a pattern of emotions thanks to the caster's manipulations.

Doppelgangers - A variant ability of Illusions, however Doppelgangers have the advantage that they can be used on opponents no matter what level their wards are since the spell is targeted at the caster instead of their opponent. Doppelgangers allow a mage to create multiple copies of themselves or others. Like illusions, these doppelgangers are incapable of causing any physical effect, though with enough Essence one can emulate the effects. Doppelgangers are easy to dismiss, but also easy to see through; typically a solid blow will cause the Doppelganger to vanish unless the mage constantly pumps energy to maintaining the illusion, but each doppelganger requires a constant upkeep of energy, as well as the base cost to cast the spell. A weak doppelganger to last a few minutes won't take much energy, but more realistic doppelgangers for longer time is a skill largely reserved for advance Psychomancers. Psychomancer themselves can discern Doppelgangers using telepathy, as doppelgangers do not have any thoughts.

Precognition - Considered the pinnacle achievement for mages who are skilled Wide Concentration magic. Precognition is a telepathy variant that allows the mage to detect their opponent's subconscious; those subtle cues that the mind sends to it's body before the body reacts. Precognition allows the mage to be able to understand instinctively what their opponent is about to do, from combat to the poker table. Precognition occurs when the Psychomancer is Synchronized with their opponent, meaning that their thoughts are one. Synchronization is achieved mainly when a telepathic link is created between the mage and the target long enough that the mind of their opponent is assimilated into the mage. This intimate connection is often achieved between close individuals, but Emotions play a large part of how one's Precognition occurs. To be the source of one of the mage's basic or hybrid emotions allows for a greater chance of Precognition of the emotion itself is in it's highest form. Thus there needs to be a certain understanding between the mage and their target, an understanding that requires an open and accepting mind, but at the same time the mage must be capable of manipulating their own emotions appropriately to use Precognition to it's fullest.

Scry - Considered the Pinnacle achievement for mages who are skilled in Focused Concentration magic. Scry is a unique spell that allows the mage to be able to create what is known as an Astral; their own minds freed from the restraints of their body. A Scry is capable of using their Astral to go into places their bodies cannot, and in their Astral form their Psychomancy power is increased exponentially. Scry can also be used to see and find something in the world regardless of location; often scrying will be used to find lost artifacts or people. But Scry has it limits. While the Astral form is powerful, it must be near it's body; without it's mind the body is an empty defenseless husk. Should the body be "killed", the Astral form will be trapped, and without a body to feed energy off of, the Astral will fade. The Astral form itself derives energy from the willpower and mage blood of the body, as well as the Astral's spells. The more spells the Astral uses, the less time they have to remain in that form before they must return to their body; if they run out of energy before they reach their host body, their Astral form is destroyed, as is the mind that created it. Even Scrying is not safe; the further away an opject is, the more energy needed to find it. Scrying as a form of searching itself uses much more energy than an Astral projection does, causing the scenes found during scrying to be come short, more so the better hidden the subject is.

Dominance - Unlike Pathokinesis, Dominance is an almost illegal variant of Psychomancy. It is more commonly known as memory manipulation; it allows a mage to manipulate the memories of their target, either by diving into their minds and discovering information kept hidden in their thoughts, to to alter and hide memories to change their personalities entirely. Dominance is a powerful ability of master mages, requiring a godly amount of Concentration, Willpower, and Training. But with enough of the three, Psychomancer can potentially puppet any sentient mortal being. Even if the Dominiance does not take over for any reason, the power of Dominance itself is enough to shatter any Ward, leaving the victim exposed to further attacks. It's power has it's own drawbacks of course, such as the Essence required to cast and maintain the spell, as well as the fact that Dominance can only occur in close physical relation to the target; further ranges require additional energy for an already high-energy spell. Dominance Mages must be closely guarded, and apostate Dominance Mages are often hunted down and executed before they use their magic for evil.

[Themerlinhawk]

Im gonna go out on a limb and say Dominance might prick Wind's ears but then again I dont actually know. And Ian is on page 11 of those OOC XD

As far as magic goes Ian and Samantha aren't really hard line magic users. Hell Ian's only magic is his Fragment abilities. So those CS's are really only for the fragment abilities

[Lucius Cypher]

Well, Dominance is a High Level spell. Even I wouldn't have my dude use it without earning it in the IC, or something. Plus, he also still has his instrument which makes me wonder what he can do with it. I'm thinking of giving him some Buff/healing abilities with it. But I also want to give him some normal weapons too. Mainly a staff that can be separated into two batons.

[Themerlinhawk]

Read Ian's cs. We can practice together XD Ian is trained in advanced Filipino stick fighting techniques

he prefers the Asp over the baton though

[Lucius Cypher]

Escrima!? :D

Originally I wanted to go for tonfas, but when I looked at my bard, he didn't quite have the physique to really handle the more up-close and personal fighting style of them, but with Escrima sticks, he can still get a melee option while keeping out of arm's reach. With a bit of fancy tech he can combined them into staffs (The sticks aren't collapsible). Back when I took martial arts, fighting against a stick was harder than a knife. At least you know the effective distance of a knife; too close. Three feet of wood is all the difference between being able to land a hit on your enemy and eating a face full of stick. Repeatedly. And the jabbing!

[Themerlinhawk]

You are my new best friend. Yes Escrima! And thank you for using the martial art term for a nightstick. And yes fighting against a stick is a giant pain, although if you get clock you don't necessarily die as opposed to a knife, someone falling down can kill you with a knife. The weapons guy I work with is a big fan of stick and knife combat so I get a lot of that. What style did you study?

[Lucius Cypher]

It was Carucado, though the class itself was rather small. It was a sort of family business thing, except it wasn't a business, just a hobby for the teacher and his friends who learned from his father, etc. We didn't have a dedicated weapon teacher but mines did do escrima to get his Third Dan. I played around with staffs, tonfas, sticks, knives, and at one point wondered if I should learn how to use a coil of rope as a weapon. You know, weapons that I could "Improvise" in everyday setting. Staffs from brooms, sticks from a broken broom, tonfas from broken chairs, rope from my belt, etc. We didn't really emphasis swords and spears because that's not something you'd find just lying around. Though we did have some "hafted weapons" like hammers. If I had stayed around, I was thinking that my weapon form would be axes/hatchets.

[Themerlinhawk]

Im a big fan of the staff myself but I really do like Escrimas too and knives

[Lucius Cypher]

MASTER THEM ALL!

That's what I want to do one day, anyways. Though I'd settle for just learning how to use a vaguely stick like weapon; Escrima can be surprisingly versatile in that regard. I've always had a thing for axes, and i find that escrima synchronizes with them nicely. You don't just put your whole body into an attack like some barbarian. Even the simply staff has an intricate fighting style that makes it seem as complicated as using something more archaic, like swords.

[Themerlinhawk]

Oh I can tell you right now our sword forms are way less complex than our staff forms are, Infact I can count nine staff forms in our system while all total there are maybe 13 sword forms across four different swords that we teach. Eight of which are Wazas from the Toyama Ryu system which are all between three and four motions a piece. so realistically there are maybe Five forms between three different swords. And let me adjust that, nine higher level staff forms there are three lower level staff forms I teach as well.

[Lucius Cypher]

I like knives, but I can never really get the hang of swords. And I don't me those show prop ones either; I actually got to handle a real katana. It was cool, but it felt odd. Did a few moves with them but I wouldn't be confident with it. But maybe that's just because when I was going through the ranks, we had this sort of weight-on-a-stick that my teacher would make the older students use. You had to go through these various strike forms with a ten pound weight at the head, but you can't over extend but also you need to go at full speed. Very difficult work, but now I can hammer stakes into the ground like a John Henry. Plus when that teacher with the katana taught our class, he emphasized that the katana shouldn't be used to slash with all your strength, due to it's fairly delicate design. Of course, I'm sure he meant "Delicate" in his own way, as it cut through some logs fairly well for itself. I imagined that it would be hard to do much damage with a blade that couldn't stand up to a bad hit.

[Rtron]

Mary's up. Cue Lazarus.

[Themerlinhawk]

Rtron said
Mary's up. Cue Lazarus.

yay!

Lucius Cypher said
I like knives, but I can never really get the hang of swords. And I don't me those show prop ones either; I actually got to handle a real katana. It was cool, but it felt odd. Did a few moves with them but I wouldn't be confident with it. But maybe that's just because when I was going through the ranks, we had this sort of weight-on-a-stick that my teacher would make the older students use. You had to go through these various strike forms with a ten pound weight at the head, but you can't over extend but also you need to go at full speed. Very difficult work, but now I can hammer stakes into the ground like a John Henry. Plus when that teacher with the katana taught our class, he emphasized that the katana shouldn't be used to slash with all your strength, due to it's fairly delicate design. Of course, I'm sure he meant "Delicate" in his own way, as it cut through some logs fairly well for itself. I imagined that it would be hard to do much damage with a blade that couldn't stand up to a bad hit.

I rock Katana i love it

[Lucius Cypher]

Neh, long blades just aren't my thing. Closes I've gotten is a staff fighting variant were I use a piece of wood something akin to a long sword. But it has to be too long to use as a stick, but too short to use as a staff. About three or four feet.

[Themerlinhawk]

gotcha. honestly the katana is more of a stylistic thing as opposed to a practical thing.

[Lucius Cypher]

Nothing wrong with style. A wise man once said:

"Only two things matter: Force in as great a concentration as you can manage, and style. And in a pinch, style can slide. "

[Fallenreaper]

Naturally, I enjoyed that scene in my head almost as much as I enjoyed the result. Alright, Part one of Emmet is up and Wind, when you have Zi arrive, Emmet will likely answer the door fully dressed and drying his wet hair.

[Wind Wild]

Hahahaa lovely post! xD Nothing like a nasty dose of utter humiliation~. x3