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Setting
Unbeknownst to much of the human population of modern Earth, there exist many parallel universes that occupy the same space at different vibrational frequencies. They are colloquially known as the Mortal Planes, and travel between them is possible through a variety of magical transportation methods. Many of these realms participate in two primary unions called the Planar Republic and the Commonwealth of Arcane Universities - the former for political discussions and alliances and the latter to oversee schools of magical education.
One such institution is Qrowdell Academy, where the main characters are about to start their freshman year. It is located on Feywood Island, which itself sits amidst the Endless Sea, an artificial subplanar realm that loops back on itself if one ventures too far from land. The environment is enchanted to simulate weather, climate, and a night and day cycle based around Greenwich Mean Time at the Royal Observatory in London on Earth.
The plot will follow three Side Stories that thread into the Main Story of Volume I, which will center around the characters at the Academy and their involvement within three distinct groups.
Side Story A - Stormhawks
The Intercollegiate Battlemancer League is a combat sport association composed of dozens of participating schools who compete in Battlemancer Matches wherein two teams of sixteen players each try to score goals with small handheld rubber orbs called Mancerballs. They take place on Feywood Island, in the underground Battlemancer Arena.
When the referee blows the whistle to start a match, they throw a Mancerball into the air in the center of the Arena, and a team has to try and grab it before the other. Once they’ve secured it, they hand it to their Tank, the player who guards the Mancerball and runs to the nearest Charging Station. These are runic circles on the floor lined along the outer perimeter of the Arena, and there are three Red, three Blue, and three Green. Once a Tank steps into one, the Mancerball begins to charge up that color, and they must charge in all three colors and then run past the Goal Line at their end of the Arena to score a Point.
The Mancerball is synced with the Display Board overlooking the Arena, showing which team has the ball and the progress on charging. The Tank must stand in a Red Charging Station, a Blue Charging Station, and a Green Charging Station for sixty seconds each to have the Mancerball fully charged and ready to head past the Goal Line. The order in which they do this does not matter, but if the other team manages to get the Mancerball away from the Tank and makes it to a Charging Station, the first team’s progress on that charge is lost and overwritten with the other team’s progress.
So, that means that if all three colors are charged and the Tank is intercepted before they can make it to the Goal Line and an Interceptor from the other team manages to get the Mancerball to their Tank and then to a Charging Station, the first team loses all three color charges. Additionally, each team has six Defenders who guard the Tank, as well as six Attackers who engage in magical duels against the other team’s Defenders in an attempt to create an opening for their Interceptors to steal the Mancerball from the Tank.
Each team consists of a single Tank, six Defenders, six Attackers, and three Interceptors, for a total of sixteen active players for each team in the Arena. However, there are usually reserve/back-up players who can be called upon should an active player need to step away.
This Side Story focuses on the characters who join their school’s team, the Qrowdell Stormhawks. They play matches against other teams within Branch One over the course of the school year, with the goal of earning a Silver Cup, of which there are eight (one for each Branch). These eight winning teams then compete in Elimination Matches to earn one of four Gold Cups, which grants them passage to the Crimson Cup Championship on Battle Island. On this separate landmass within the Endless Sea, the four Gold Cup teams start at four separate Starting Zones around the island’s shore and must spend up to three days trying to locate the seven Super Mancerballs spread about the island.
The island is filled with underground dungeons, winding tunnels, and wizard towers with dozens of chests spread about. Sometimes they are mimics, sometimes they hold potions or helpful items, or sometimes they hold an actual Super Mancerball. Once a Tank has all seven held in their Mancerpurse (small pouch with a Bag of Holding enchantment), they need to head to the center of Battle Island, where there are three Super Charging Stations - one Red, one Blue, and one Green. The Tank must stand in each for sixty seconds with all seven Super Mancerballs, and then once they are fully charged (the Super variants have displays on the actual balls), they polymorph together and take the shape of a huge red goblet - the Crimson Cup.
At this point, if at least one member of the team can make it back to their Starting Zone with the Crimson Cup in tow, their team wins the Championship. However, the other three teams can intercept the Cup regardless of which team actually unlocked it, and whoever gets it to their Starting Zone first wins.
But things do not go as planned at the Championship, which leads this Side Story into the Main Story.
Side Story B - Monster Club
Qrowdell’s eccentric Creature Keeper, Samronious “Big Sam” Digglebone (son of Headmaster Addamarius Digglebone and Grand Maester Isabelle Digglebone), has recently become the Aedrazoology Professor as well, an elective class that focuses on the biology of magical beasts, caring for them, what natural environments they thrive in, etc. The students who join this class affectionately refer to it as Monster Club, and eventually each get a magical egg that hatches into an Ectomon, a slime-like shapeshifting being.
The Ectomon bonds with the first Magi it sees upon hatching, forming a psychic link and becoming that person’s familiar. It uses their personality and memories to shapeshift into something from their mind, and this becomes their new base form. So, for instance, if a young Magi is partial to Pokemon, their familiar may end up becoming a Pikachu. The Ectomon may be naive and infant-like at first, but over their first few months of life they learn and grow, eventually developing the same level of sentience as their partner and the ability to speak telepathically and/or out loud. Their abilities are largely based around the imagination of their partner at the moment of their hatching.
During the course of this Side Story, the students learn about various magical creatures and go on field trips to dozens of locations around the Mortal Planes. Same as the others, this ties into the Main Story towards the end of the school year.
Side Story C - Dark Acolytes
Unbeknownst to the rest of the school at first, a new freshman named Zack Silvador is the apprentice of a sadistic sorceress who goes by the alias Speaker Storm, a member of the Chromatic Council of the Cult of Tiamat. This dark organization was thought to have been wiped out centuries ago, but has persisted from the shadows. They have infiltrated a number of militaries, governments, and corporations, and intend to set in motion a series of events with the goal of returning the dark dragon goddess Tiamat to the Mortal Planes.
Zack Silvador is a vital component of that nefarious scheme, and has been instructed to stealthily recruit fellow freshmen to learn Dark Arts at the Secret Arena, a pocket dimension hidden inside a music box that works similar to a Room of Requirement. The Dark Acolytes are pulled in amidst a swirling tornado of magical lights, where they meet astral projections of Speaker Storm and several other instructors.
Member
Crimson Flame
Chronic
Guardian Angel Haruki
Duthguy
Damo021
BigPapaBelial
Kiyomi
Half Pint
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