Magic Academy ~ The Early Years

Set thirty years before the present day in the other Magic Academy RP (thus, in 1992), this RP is set to explore the darker past and background events present in the first RP in detail. Think of this RP as a Silmarillion of sorts. Its tone would show a world wherein the early 90's day's inventions are still present in a pseudo-medieval "new, magical world."

There will be two "Generations" of characters in this RP, in a certain way, in that, deep into the RP, there will be a ten year time skip.

Information on the setting:

• Europe: Has been shattered in an event called by some "The Calamity", others "The Dark Wrath", and still others "The Breaking". Whatever the name, what all remember is that Europe was broken into many different landmasses, and is currently embroiled in a Forever War, and that its "The Dark Lord Blackmore"'s fault.

The most prominent Kingdoms of Europe include Valkase, which was made of mostly France and Germany, with some of Finland roughly conjoined.

Another is Attonite Britain, currently ruled by the "Sons of Atton", a dynasty of Kings who've kept the Normandy Coast - Belgium - Britain mash up together through a combination of force and clever diplomacy. They...don't have good relations with Valkase. At all.

The Grandese Empire is made of Spain and some of the African coast of Morocco. It is not one of the larger kingdoms, almost paradoxically so, due to its size. The southern half is mostly a "Land of Death" that manages to be unbelievably cold in the east half and hotter than hell on the other half, with the rest of the Kingdom barely comprising Northern Spain. They have a bad rep for siding with Blackmore when the UN wanted to extricate him from the country when he was at his weakest, thus guaranteeing the war did not end. Their King at the time was manipulated into doing so, due to his daughter being kidnapped. She was returned to him afterward a mentally broken shell.

There are numerous other ones, but these are the ones who will have big plot significance in terms of the conflict with the Evil Overlord.

• America: All is not well in the main proponent of a fight against the Dark Lord. The current president is H.W. Bush, who is balancing the Middle East in one hand with the European Issues in the other. There is a split in the country between Mages and the Non-Magical, with the religious believing that using magic is unholy, with some strong prejudice existing. There was a fairly recent, very, very unfortunate invasion of Southern Grandese territories by American troops. None of these troops returned home but three, and all three are incurably insane from what they saw.

• Note: Some of what is going to happen will include one of Mobius' more infamous acts, which will take place in Israel / Palestine. Leave the politics at the door. Nothing that happens reflects on my, or anyone's, political views.

• Character Sheet

• Name:
• Age:
• Gender: (male, female, mix of the above)
• Race: (includes human, Elf, and others detailed in the New Dawn World Building Thread, or even a Velke)
• Appearance (Present Day):
  • Appearance (Ten Years Later):
• Personality: (Detail is good)
• Biography: (Detail, I repeat.)
• Magic Type: (Consult this, or see the original post of the Magic Academy RP's sign ups)
• Other: (any other information I might need to know?)

• World Building Thread for the ND-Verse here.
• Generally, consult the original Magic Academy Sign Ups here

This RP interests me, but also confuses me somewhat. Why is the world in a Forever War state? About the most prominent countries, what do they have of special? I'd really like to have some more info about them. What's the so called Dark Lord doing to make the world stay in a Forever War state? A RP with vague backstory makes it hard to imagine a character that may fit in the universe.

The world, well, mostly just Europe and some of the surrounding area including North Africa, are in a Forever War because the continent of Europe was split by an event called the Sundering, some call it Mobius' Error, but that is the most consistent name for what happened. After it, Europe was plunged into war by Blackmore's agents, as covered below. In addition to the prominent countries listed, there are many smaller, lesser ones that are fighting madly over limited magical resources and artifacts.

In as far as what the prominent countries have that is considered special, Valkase has an order of Magic Knights, which while powerful, is also known as basically a league of professional puppy-kickers (as in, they're mostly really, really nasty people).

Attonite Britain is known for its Majitek, which mostly takes the form of sending in troops in armor with Tron Lines and 40K style chainsaw swords. Their royal family is basically a clan of Action Survivor's. They have a problem, though, in the form of a slowly encroaching troop shortage.

The Grandese Empire is known for its airships and superweapons. They are very fond of pouring resources into impractical monster-ships and magical artifacts to supplement a large number of troops.

This Dark Lord is perpetuating the Wars by sponsoring terrorist cells and rebellions, and actively using men disguised as agents of one country or another to ruin any chance of a decisive victory, as well as stoking hostility, as well as making it seem like the recent "fantastic monster problem" would be the fault of one country or another.

edited 8th Feb '13 7:14:13 PM by NickTheSwing

This sounds awesome! I can't believe you didn't post about it on the Discussion page over on the current Magic Academy!

I'd definetly love to join.

Would it be required to have previous information of the other RP, or will this mostly stand on its own?

Mostly, this will stand on its own. All that you need to know has been posted here.

Thanks, I was a little worried nobody was interested in the idea. I had always wanted to do an RP based on the early years of this continuity, mainly because there is so little we know.

For Artificial Humans, are there only the three types or are there mages that develop their own breed? Furthermore, are Artificial Humans capable of magic?

Some Mages can develop their own variations of the types I listed there on the worldbuilding page.

Are Artificial Humans capable of magic? Very much so.

Does Demonic Magic involve Necromancy, and could someone create an Artificial Human by imbuing a constructed body with life? Are people restricted to one type of magic, and could Aztec Magic be used to imbue said bodies with life? Are some types of magic incompatible with each other, and are Humanoid Chimeras possible?

If its anything like current Magic Academy, then no, you can't only use one type of Magic. Generally, people choose one to specialise in, but can still use other types as well.

• That is what creating an Artificial Human involves. Gathering materials and creating a "shell" and then using incredibly complicated spell circles and interworking spells to create a somewhat living - somewhat not being.
  • Aztec Magic could...but it'd require a large sacrifice.
• People can use many types of magic with appropriate study. See the character Leonard in the original RP.
• Demonic Magic is a vastly darker field, basically confirmed to be evil in nature, and used by the races of the "World of Darkness" that the Eight Gods of Darkness come from. These races are simply called demons because it was what most humans thought when they first saw them.
• No, not many spell types are incompatible. One Esoterica villainess named Aramis Zenobia uses both Fire and Water Magic together to create Steam Magic. Its way deadlier than it sounds.
• Humanoid Chimeras are possible, but in this verse, Chimeras are...not very friendly creatures. They are created by very, very illegal spells that merge different living things together.

Mh, I might be interested, but I'm not confident that I can deal with such a developed world.

I can help guide you through it, if you would like.

Could someone construct an Artificial Chimera like one would for making Artificial Humans? I was thinking sewing multiple different animal parts onto a human-like body, and having no controllable magic as a trade-off for physical abilities and short bursts of minor magic manifesting in some physical way. Like fire-breath or tactile telekinesis equal to the physical power it could output.

I'll come up with something later regardless if the above works or not.

Kkut: Maybe just make a profile?

Chimeras are a completely different matter to Artificial Humans, and cannot be artificially created. They're more or less Fusions of three or more different things.

What if someone created a Chimera, butchered it and then magically bond the parts onto a human-frame? I was aiming for a mix-n-match sort-of undead creature. But if that way doesn't work, I'll figure something else.

Post #13, Yeah, that might help some.

That would not work either. Chimerae, when slain, have No Ontological Inertia. They boil away...or just as easily explode.

Either you're going for Dark Is Not Evil or you want to make something controlled by an Esoterica Mage.

What kind of questions do you have?

edited 29th Mar '13 6:34:18 PM by NickTheSwing

I'll get back to you on that by tomorrow. I only skimmed through the material the first time around, since I was already having doubts whether I'm up for something like this or not. I'd have to peruse it properly. I'm also actually more worried about keeping in line later on, since I don't have much experience with RP. So, yeah.

Okay, that is fine with me. Any time you feel you are ready. And if you have any questions mid-RP, do feel free to ask me if there's anything you're unclear about.

Hmm... I didn't see anything mentioning Esoterica Mages, so I might of missed that. Anyways, is there a way to set a Chimera towards boil or explode upon death? I was thinking making a mass stock of small Chimera, set them into small spheres that instantly kill them and use them as organic grenades. Also, to what extent does Magical Weapon Creation goes to?

No, there is no such way to set a Chimera toward boil or explode, though you can tell what's gonna happen when its dying.

And merely using them as organic grenades would be...wasteful, to say the least. Dark Merging, the spell used to make them, costs a ton of Mana, and they're really useful at blowing things up or causing a lot of damage.

Magical Weapon Creation goes toward making magitek weapons that have technological and magical looking features. Think a long blade protruding from a sphere of condensed blue mana, with a chainsaw blade and a gun barrel that fires mana blasts. That kind of thing.

• Name: Gareth Dainns
• Age: 23
• Gender: male
• Race: Half-Elf
• Appearance (Present Day): A rather rugged looking young man with some hair dotting his chin, but an otherwise rather teenage appearance that makes him seem like a kid running around with the adults. He has dark gray eyes, black hair he has to constantly tie back into a ponytail, and a very angular look otherwise to his face. He is tall and somewhat lanky, having a wiry build that meant that while he was growing up, he was a rather clumsy teen, well until he got used to his steadily increasing height. He has a massive scar running from his right shoulder to his left hip, and a whole bunch more scars across his upper body that show he has received a disproportionate number of injuries.
• Appearance (Ten Years Later): Gareth ten years later is slightly more muscular, though he has a slight bit more weight to his frame from drinking. He wears a strange looking eye patch over his left eye that covers not just his eye, but a good portion of that side of his face.
• Personality: A rather serious young man, yet prone to bizarre accidents around women, he seems to be trying to be overly serious to compensate for the fact that he worries he has not grown up yet. He tends to drink heavily, mostly because his heritage makes actually getting drunk very difficult. As long as he remembered, he wanted to be in the US Marines, and go fight Mobius. He was allowed entry to the Marines not four weeks after the catastrophic deployment that decimated troop numbers. He steeled his determination, and even though he himself was absolutely horrified by the very thought of fighting Esoterica, that one of his friends was driven irreparably insane made the whole thing personal. He has a particular Berserk Button toward someone who ironically came from the same small town as he; Grauf Mordes, a figure within Esoterica. He views Grauf as a traitor, largely for what Grauf did to enter Esoterica and get that name.
• Biography: As mentioned above, both Gareth and Grauf, his current archenemy, come from the same small town, and they even came from the same orphanage. While Gareth was adopted into a loving family, John Saufmann (Grauf's original name) remained in the orphanage due to being "creepy". Gareth grew up in a middle class family, and he loved both of his adoptive parents very much. It was during high school that his dream of becoming a Marine and hunting down the "Evil Wizard" began. And ultimately, while he applied numerous times, he was only accepted four weeks after the deployment to Grandese that saw the previously powerful United States Army and Marines decimated. Gareth then received orders to investigate a rumored Esoterica Cell within United States soil, and he tracked it all the way back to his old home town. There, he discovered John - his old friend - was now a freshly inducted Esoterica Wizard. Gareth's lack of magic prevented him from saving around twenty people from being sacrificed by the Cell, and he ended up seeing John personally killing two of the people he cared for, resulting in him pushing John into the "Primordial Mud". The result was that John became the horrifically disfigured Grauf Mordes, his archenemy. Grauf, however, chose a tactical retreat after seizing control over the Esoterica Cell. Following this, Gareth learned magic from a strange young woman, leading to him being put into the first "Spelcraft Unit".
• Magic Type: Gareth specializes in Fire of multiple types, though he is also skilled at Tracking Magic and the use of Mana to amplify his physical abilities.
• Other: Do not say anything flattering about Grauf near him. It won't end well.

Well, seeing as how most of the RPs I'm in are mostly dead and buried, I have the time to give this a shot. Let's see what we can do!

• Name: Lloyd King
• Age: 21
• Gender: Male
• Race: Human
• Appearance (Present Day): Somewhat long, bushy black hair (about shoulder-length), a small mustache and goatee, brown eyes, relatively tall. He looks relatively trustworthy and casual, and is only slightly muscular despite his actual physical strength. He usually wears warm colors such as brown, green, red, and yellow.
• Appearance (Ten Years Later): His facial hair has become a full-scale beard. He has shifted to darker colors for his clothing. He appears more muscular. Not much else has changed, aside from growing slightly taller.
• Personality: Calm, easygoing, and fairly happy to just let things happen. He's very sociable and outgoing, and generally prefers nonviolence, though he is not above fighting if he has to.
• Biography: Born in the western parts of America to a middle-class family, he got by pretty well, managing to avoid the conflict between normal people and wizards due to his relatively discreet powers. He grew up not letting his parents find out that he was a mage until he was sixteen, when an attempted mugging forced him to use one of his weapons to fight back.
  
  He knew they hated magic, so he then fled. His grandmother, the only tolerant member of the family, tracked him down and give him some supplies and plane tickets to East Africa. From there, he traveled around, doing random jobs so that he could afford to keep moving towards Kenya. Since he had to travel slow to get money for transportation, it took him two years to get there.
  
  
  Then, once in Kenya, he joined the academy and stayed there. He began to train particularly in defensive spells, preferring to use them to block magical attacks long enough to bring him within melee range.
  
  
  Eventually, he came to think of the academy as his home and now treats it mostly as a lifestyle, with no particular plan to leave. Sure eventually he was going to use up all the courses, but until then, might as well do everything he can to master all varieties of magic, eh?
• Magic Type: Magical Weapon Creation
• Other: He has two pet rats. He uses primarily a double-bladed sword, the blades of which are extremely hot to make them cut better and to leave burns that will distract through pain, but his backup weapons are a bow that shoots magic arrows designed mostly to distract (they'll hurt, but not kill usually) and to pierce barriers. His emergency weapon is a knife that conjures electricity, allowing shorts blasts and making it rather effective at causing damage to enemies at close enough range. The actual power of these can vary depending on what seems reasonable. He may make more weapons as time passes (I'll note it in my post if he tries to make one) and I'll list them here.

edited 1st Apr '13 1:33:23 PM by Speedchesser