Difference between revisions of "Origins of magic"

Revision as of 04:04, 14 June 2014

A few decades ago it was discovered that implanting gems harvested from terrifying creatures could allow people to cast spells or power specially designed items. The discoverers were not particularly eager to give up their knowledge, and while the essential gem power is now easy enough to uncover for those who have time or money to investigate, the natures of particular spells or items are often jealously guarded secrets.

Technology

Being set further in the past than the default setting, there are significant limitations on the technologies available.

Mundane Technologies

Not all of the things in arms and armor have been invented yet. Existing weapons are: shortbows, slings, blowguns, throwing knives, spears, javelins, massive axes, massive hammers, longstaves, flails, maces, nunchucks, small objects, large objects, battering rams, and oil cauldrons. Thick hides and shields are the only invented armors. Magic forms of weapons that haven't been invented yet have also not been invented.

Ships and zeppelins haven't been invented yet either.

Spells and Magic Items

Advanced spell theory has not yet been developed, making it difficult to learn more spells by gaining levels in classes like apprentice. You cannot learn a spell using a class that you have never watched being cast before. It takes a DC 15 Items check to craft a magic item if you have not closely examined a specimen of that item, and failure means that you cannot try to craft that item again until you have examined such a specimen.

Civilizations

Desert Tribes of the East

Population is heavily concentrated around its two major rivers, lake, and ocean.

The exotic equatorial deserts and oases of the east are populated by various tribes, some of them most civilized indeed. The most powerful of these tribes ascribes to the philosophy of "Necrotic Animism": they believe that the essence of peoples' beings continues to reside in their bodies after death. Sultans and wealthy merchants among them pay necromancers to have their bodies puppeted about, exposed to things they never got to experience in life. The less well-to-do simply have anesthetic and preservatives soaked into their bodies before burial.

Word of research into the nature of the soul and how it leaves the body after death has reached these people, who variously dismiss it as either lies, blasphemous lies, or merely an observation about some less important element of a person's psyche than their Essence.

Forest Hunters of the Northeast

Cults

Way of the Dragon

Founded by monks in the mountains of the north, the church of the way of the dragon has a special spire for dragon landings. When members or enemies offend the abbot, they are offered one chance to redeem their honor: remain calm and collected as a dragon eats them alive. The church accumulates new orange gems by trading live human food for eyes the local dragons collect from their rivals; needless to say, the local dragons are cruel and vicious reptiles.

The members of the Way of the Dragon have discovered a small number of Orange spells, and have named them with poetic language:

Terrains

Toxic Forest

The verdant greenery of the Toxic Forest is produced by the vivid green color of the toxic fumes emitted by stone columns.

Generating a 200 x 200 meter map:

1d6 hills, curved areas 5d10 by 5d10 meters in size, 2d10 meters tall at the peak.

2d10 stone columns, 6 meters wide, with a 4 meter wide hole leading to a cave filled with toxic waste. The columns are 4d10+10 meters tall, and rising from the hole at the top is a 100 meter diameter, roughly spherical cloud of toxic fumes.

Approximately 4000 trees, twisted and bubbling with flesh.

1d8 points of interest, roll 1d10 for each one and consult this table: