New Dawn and Etc Magic and Monsters System

Time for me to start developing a public Magic System, so that there are not any hilarious misunderstandings later along the line, and so I can get some input and commentary.

To start:

Mana and Spell Cores

There are two forms of Mana in my novels.

Internal Mana, or Soul Mana as it is called in series several times, and External Mana, or Natural Mana as it is called in series many times.

Typically, a Mage can only make use of internal Mana, as External Mana is difficult to control. You might expect from forces shaped by the environment. If there is an Earthquake, and someone is using External Earth Element Mana, then there could be a dangerous power spike which could kill the Magic User and destroy a lot of stuff around him.

Thus, most Mages are stuck with using their Internal Mana, which can be boosted by the use of a Spell Core. In ages past, Mages had more capability in terms of Internal Mana and so, a Spell Core used to not be quite as necessary.

These Spell Cores are, fundamentally, weapons, as they were used in then old days. Rather than Internal Mana boosters, much more powerful Cores were in use for the purpose of furthering agendas, most of which were not benign in the slightest.

By today, most of these Vesper Cores are either destroyed or vastly diminished from overuse. It is a heavily punished crime to try to create a Vesper Core.

Well, at any rate, as I can tell, you are confused. But Matthew can use External Mana, and he suffers no ill effects! His Holy Artifact is the Lance of Longinus, the great spear of destiny. Due to its effects, his biological limiters are removed and thus, his mind and soul can subordinate the natural mana around him.

There are other Holy Artifacts with this effect, namely:

Yasakani No Magatama, which resides with the Blue Cross Knight Terumi Shinnei, a knight of integrity and chivalry who fights Oni which are currently causing some...problems...in Japan. This Holy Artifact blesses the user and causes extreme damage to all unnatural creatures. It can also conjure an aura, which can protect the user from attacks.

The Book of the Dead, which resides with the Head of the Egyptian Meister Society, Saya Runebelt - Strider. This is essentially why she is the most feared Mage in the world. This Artifact allows communication with the dead (more useful than it sounds), cuts her Mana use for any spell to almost nil (exactly as broken as it sounds), and makes the user immune to curses.

And The Voynich Manuscript, the Occult Papers in the possession of the Exiled Meister of Gestrada Mage School, Zera Leifest. In combination with his formidable Death Magic, which does exactly what you expect, it would essentially allow Zera to become the perfect Evil Overlord, were it not for the fact Zera exiled himself, cutting out his own right eye, which had the power to kill everything it looked at. This "Holy" Artifact allows for the summoning of any Eldritch Abomination you please and forces it to be perfectly obedient. Also, life force of everyone around it, except Zera, is slowly sapped away.

Our Vampires Are Different

Now, here is where it gets tricky.

It is crucial that you differentiate between people who obtain Vampiric qualities via Spell Core, such as what Zera accidentally did, and the actual Vampires.

Why are these so dangerous?

Well, to start, while Vampires absolutely cannot touch External Mana, as The Earth itself would be tainted by their Virus, to recompense for this, all Vampires have HUMONGOUS stores of internal mana. As they get older, it gets more and more humongous.

However, to keep all this, they need to drink the blood of humans, and add to it, if they don't, they start losing internal mana.

Now, Matthew again. Can anyone tell me what would happen if this person with a Holy Artifact which allows him to use External Mana was bitten by Vandes? It would result in a Vampire able to use External Mana and NOT infect the world due to the relationship between Holy Artifacts and The Earth. Vandes would get his hands on the single most powerful being in existence.

Most vampires are the descendants of two Patriarchs. The First Estate, made by Cain, consists of the oldest vampires.

The Second Estate, accidentally started by Judas, is the mainly heard-from house nowadays, as the First took a lot of damage in wars with the Meisters and their Esper allies. However, the First's 50 Lords still reign supreme, though some of their number have changed out.

I could draw some comparisons to a Two House Parliament.

Who are these 50? They call themselves the Fifty Greater Kings, and boy does Authority EVER Equal Asskicking.

They have, as a rule, much greater powers than the lesser kings of the second house, and each can come in freely and veto any plan made by a particularly ambitious secondary house King, but this has not been done very much.

• Vampiric Powers:
  • Mind Controlling Eyes: A Vampire can control a regular person with its eyes. Vandes finds this ability distasteful.
  • Super-Strength, Super-Speed, Super-Toughness: All vampires have this, in varying levels based on their Age and Power Level. When one becomes a vampire, you can think of Strength to defeat enemies, Defense to outlast and recover from attacks, or Speed to quickly strike. This causes increases and decreases in the formula.
  • Super Smoke: Vampires can turn into smoke to evade conventional weapons and even dodge a fatal staking. This ability needs concentration. Vandes is known for being hilariously bad at it.
  • Familiars: A Vampire can summon Familiars during battle, or outside battle if they wish to send a message to someone. These can be anything from bats to wolves, ravens, and big cats.
  • Healing Factor: The strongest of them can heal from close to anything, except for damage to the heart. Impaired by the presence of Incense or Garlic.

• Vampiric Weaknesses
  • Stake or cross like weapons: If a weapon is in the shape of a cross or stake, or if a spell summons one, a vampire can be killed. They cannot super smoke a Spell Created Stake Type Weapon. Especially if its Lightning Persecution, which could kill anyone normally, but to vampires, its especially deadly.
  • Garlic: A severe allergy to vampires, as in, its often used as a poison for assassinations.
  • Sun Light: Drastically diminishes their abilities, A weapon which uses this can do horrible damage to a vampire. Some, though, are Daywalker Types which can stand sunlight.
  • The Infamous Entrance Inquiry: A vampire has to ask before it can enter your house or estate. And no, he cannot just nuke you with his big magic.
  • Holy Icons: if something is holy, and used as a weapon or some such, then it can cause heavy damage.
  • Incense: burns and irritates their skin, causes some ugly stuff until they leave the area.

Our Werewolves Are Different

There are not very many werewolves out there, but the ones that are, are quite deadly. They are mostly assassins and hired killers, preferring to work for themselves.

They do not war with the vampires. That would be pointless, according to their current Pack Leader.

They have a public identity as "Astark Private Defense Corporation."

Werewolf Abilities:

• Complete Immunity to all forms of death except for Silver Based Death: They can just heal from damn near anything that isn't silver in some way.
• Six Forms: A human form, a humanoid form, 1/2 human 1/2 wolf, more wolf than human, a wraith-like huge wolf, and then a four tailed wolf beast which is amazingly powerful. (the eldest werewolf in his four tailed form can go toe to toe with Cain.)
• Super-Strength, Super-Speed: very strong and very fast. These guys can even be stronger than the above vampires. They can also kill them via an old technique.
• Super Smoke: Of a different type than the above. This is purely teleportation, and no action can be taken immediately before teleporting and immediately afterwards. While in this state, they are even more vulnerable to silver.
• Force Palm: A sufficiently trained wolf can hit the air and "strike through the aether", hitting the enemy even from a long while away. Combined with the above, this is very deadly and only taught to the worthy.
• Frigid Night: Some wolves can be An Ice Person, letting them unleash frigid blasts of ice.

• Werewolf Weaknesses:
  • Wolfsbane: When rubbed on a weapon, it can cause more damage and be more difficult to heal off.
  • Silver: A silver weapon can kill a werewolf very easily. As a result, many of them fear Matthew very much indeed.
  • Holy Weapons: these have a similar effect to silver.

Our Souls Are Different

Souls in New Dawn and other stories are very powerful things. One could theoretically divide a soul and place its pieces into a weapon or item. This is how a Black Blade is made. With these soul pieces inside, the Black Blade becomes unbelievably powerful. Due to the immorality required to make one, though, very few of these exist.

A Soul can be badly strained if too much Mana is burned in a single series of moments, as we shall see.

The Various Cool Swords.

There are a few ways for a weapon to get enough power to cause serious harm to one of the higher tier characters in New Dawn.

1. The Black Blade approach, which although rather amoral, has its proponents among Well Intentioned Extremists. A Black Blade's properties usually include enough sheer magical might to cause devastating Sword Beam style blasts with a strong enough strike, sheer brute force enough to shatter most foes' ability to negate the attack, and usually an Anti-Magic ability which can negate an opponent's magical attacks and defenses.

2. The Legend Weapon approach. Outside Matthew's Spell Core, there are few ways to obtain a Legend Class weapon. These weapons exceed even the Black Blades at times in terms of sheer destructive power. Most users need to carefully control power output. These weapons have absorbed enough Dormant Mana over the years so as to have power comparable to the old Vesper Cores. Among them, the strongest are: Kladenets, a blade of black plasma of forbidden power, Excalibur, an old, majitek-ish looking sword made to kill Eldritch Abomination's in large numbers and virtually anything else, and Totsuka no Tsurugi, which is made for killing Gods and deals wounds which cannot be repaired.

3. The Majitek approach. The most recent and easily accomplished way of creating a sword, by blending technology, magic and some alchemy in there, you can create Majitek Blades. These are typically the weapons the Esper Organization uses, and are in great numbers nowadays. There are some famous Majitek Weapons, which are known for their power.

Our Demons Are Different

Thankfully, the demons present on Earth are very different than the ones on Gaia. The ones on earth are all either of the Youkai Variant or Oni Variant. These creatures were born with a larger concentration of Internal Mana and certain racial abilities, but they cannot utilize Spell Cores.

There are a number of Youkai allies to the Esper Organization, most of them situated in the Japanese area, due to the frequency of activity there due to the nativity of the legends.

There is a general classification system in place when dealing with threats of this nature. A Class VI Oni is typically just The Brute and will appear in large numbers next to any Class III.

Class V is slightly more intelligent and stronger and more well armored than a Class VI. These will also likely be able to set up an Energy Array so as to drain the Internal Mana from large numbers of humans.

Class IV is a jump forward in intelligence, but they are not as strong as a Class VI or V, and are more suited toward planning and scheming. These creatures typically do work as Mauve Shirts for the last three Classes.

Class III are deadly monsters capable of the occasional Xanatos Gambit, most of these Was Once a Man and either became a Tragic Monster Death Seeker, or embraced its monstrous appearance and is now making a bid for control of the situation in Japan.

Class II is rare, almost as rare as Class I. But when these superpowered juggernauts surface, they are a force to be reckoned with. Almost like living Spell Cores, they have vast stores of Mana and can rip new Mana from normal humans around them, even drawing on Soul and Life Energy. These usually keep the above monsters in no short supply.

Class I is exceedingly rare, and the last time one of them surfaced, Kyoto was plunged into darkness for a week as Jikotsu Shikane rose above the city and almost killed everyone in the city. Luckily Terumi killed Jikotsu before any fatalities ensued.

Class 0 has numbers which can be counted on one hand, but are borderline Reality Warper level antagonists. When Jikotsu reversed time to escape Terumi, Touma Kyouda, local ditzy cop, revealed himself as a Class 0 and messily dismembered Jikotsu for his failures. Terumi was forced to fight Touma before he could end the world.

Our Ghouls Are Creepier

A Ghoul is definitely one of my eeriest monsters, these creatures were once humans who were twisted into flesh devouring demons by "twists" in their Internal Mana caused by bad External Mana use or "Stagnation", which causes any Mana in an area to go really bad. They are essentially The Heartless, and when a human becomes a Ghoul, all of their repressed personality traits, things they were not willing to do normally, become part of their outward personality. This strain usually results in Ax-Crazy monsters.

Hector Gibbs is a Half-Ghoul, having all of their strengths and none of the weaknesses to Holy Weapons.

As a Ghoul ages, there is the distinct possibility it might become worse and worse, one in one hundred thousand Ghouls may well ascend to become vampiric eldritch abominations of very surreal existence. Number 15 King Aoboresh Terelt, a sentient tower filled with lesser Ghouls attached to the floors and walls by their own flesh, is one such creature.

A Ghoul's powers are not set in stone, and depend largely on the personality type of the person who turned to a Ghoul.

Our Genies Are Different

Only one Genie in this setting, and he happens to be the black cloak clad Seer. A formidable evil entity bound to "neutrality", this monster will grant all of your wishes, whether you say them or not.

The Seer is the Big Bad of much of the series, though there are three entities more powerful than him.

His magic works by making new reality by a basis of someone's wish and desire. He cannot use this ability on himself, or we'd all be dead already.

edited 15th Sep '12 6:48:20 PM by NickTheSwing

This should be moved to Worldbuilding.

Ohh, okay, my mistake. I thought this was the appropriate forum for this.

Can someone move this to world building?

edited 24th Oct '11 6:26:52 PM by NickTheSwing

Just, uh, checking in.

So, how does this get moved to World Building?

Either holler or PM a mod. Probably PM, but I'm not sure.

I PM'ed Madrugada.

Okay, now that its been moved here, any thoughts?

Edited, more added to certain areas.

...bump

Everything is trying to kill everything else. I'm surprised humanity has lasted as long as they have. Although, seeing as how this is a novel series and most of these creatures seem to be more for background details than anything else, I don't see a problem with it.

How does Andalia fit into all this?

I take it the Sword of Heaven is a Legend Blade.

Nice to know that I can give Brìghde a more powerful sword later on in the RP.

By and large, because the Esper Organization are actually good at their jobs.

Andalia might or might not be canon, I have not settled on it yet. But if it is, then its one of the many alternate worlds.

The Sword of Heaven is a Legend Class Blade, akin to a Holy Artifact.

edited 7th Nov '11 7:50:04 AM by NickTheSwing

• More Info:

• The Blessed Tear: The Blessed Tear is a very, very strange magical anomaly. It is reborn into the physical world when one of two things happen.

1) the appointed hour occurs. Based on Stars of Fate, which are Celestial Mana constructs Seers and Gazers can perceive, this could mean an End of the World scenario, or a great change, based on whichever side triumphs in the inevitable conflict.

2) Enough Soul Bound Mana accumulates from people dying violent deaths to bring the Blessed Tear to Earth. This is usually done in order for The Hero of the age to fix things if there is a large enough crisis.

These tasks are accomplished with a seemingly impossible use of Mana. This being turning Desire and Idea into Reality, an impossible task even with Magic. Mana simply cannot be spontaneously forced into the Physical Form of something truly alive. This rule is broken by the merest presence of the Blessed Tear. This also results in Mana being forcibly purified by forcing the pollution of Stagnation out and into other areas. This results in a single, very pure zone, and many, many other zones where Stagnant Mana constantly gives birth to terrifying Ghouls.

The Blessed Tear can be described as a location of such pure light that it purges any "unwanted" or "bad" traits from people who partake in its energy too much. While this can result in quickly healed wounds and the departure of mental disorders, this also results in people who are not used to such a sudden change in the mind going Ax-Crazy. As a result, attempting to form the Blessed Tear is a dire crime in the magical world, and even the most diabolical criminal would scoff at the idea of making the Tear as "utter insanity".

• Law=Rune Spaces: Strange barriers formed around areas to keep unwanted individuals out, stating which sorts of individuals are wanted inside of the Space, imposing a magical law upon the area via runes to create such an effect. Some truly drastic effects can be imposed, and as such if a military party is able to set up a sufficiently advantageous Law=Rune Space, and the enemy cannot dispel it, the battle will very quickly end. Magic Users of this type are rare, but are usually very talented besides the Law=Rune Spaces, and are valued people. As a rule, Law=Rune Spaces cannot do what Queen Anathema's did, which was have an effect that would kill Ordinary People outside of the Magical World. Anathema's, though, was created by her magic, called the Heavenly Law, which subverted this rule.

• Witches: A Witch is a certain species of Magic User who is most often female, though some males do exist. These have powers which most often come into being as manipulating the natural forces around them and using natural force to do magic, being capable of using External Mana rather than Internal Mana to do spells. They most often summon Familiars en masse. They are uncommon these days due to persecution. Amongst Witches, the most feared are called the Py'rach, and have abandoned their physical form, using whatever they had the most kinship with as a new physical body. These are, as a rule, One-Man Army's, and act like Eldritch Abomination type things.

• Shapeshifters / Skinwalkers: Are very strange looking monsters in their natural form, and pride themselves on getting bodies that fit their sense of aesthetic. They are very bloodthirsty, and can only survive on human innards. Most of them are crazy due to this diet. They get their bodies by devouring a person. They have a huge Healing Factor, and can only be destroyed by a sufficiently powerful spell like Aura Rave. There are some forbidden artifacts and potions which can grant humans Shapeshifter like powers called Extaziacs. Most of the Shapeshifters are involved in corporations, unsurprisingly enough, and as a rule usually have sociopathic traits.

edited 12th May '12 12:41:08 PM by NickTheSwing

• Reincarnation Realization: If a character in New Dawn is a reincarnation of someone, and received a large enough amount of Soul Mana through the reincarnation, then if said person was famous and had a certain amount of magic or myth about them, then said character can obtain a certain measure of traits from who he / she is reincarnated from and mythical magical traits associated with said person. This is a strong form of Magic that affords its user vast stores of Internal Mana.

• Chimera: A type of monster that has appeared several times in both New Dawn and several derived forum RP's on this site, a Chimera is a magical lifeform made of at least three others fused together by one of two spells. The first, Dark Merging, unless done well, usually results in a mindless monster - and when defeated, the individual "parts" expire. The more dangerous and Mana-Intensive Dark Combination results in a much more intelligent monster, the dominant mind being whoever inside the being is the "strongest" component piece. In this case, when beaten, the individual pieces are left simply incredibly drained.
  • Creating a Chimera is a very serious crime in the magical world, and is usually made by individuals who work left of the law. These creatures are incredibly powerful, and have a natural disposition toward Dark Element Spells.

• Artificial Humans: Despite the thought on clones in the modern day, in the magical world, there are many ways of creating artificial humans, some legal...some most definitely not. The most common is a simple conjuring that creates a homunculus or simulacrum, its will is its creator's will. It has no thoughts of its own. A much more dangerous technique is the method used by users of certain sects of Druidic Magic, taking a certain spirit and putting it within an automaton-like being. The danger here being that these beings are by their very nature inhuman, and cannot fathom human customs or thought. And the most dangerous and incredibly illegal is called the Mandrake Method. This calls for the plant, a large amount of the user's blood, and a construct called a "Dead-Heart", which is made using Demonic Magic. This results in a mostly human being...except for one thing. Should anyone pry into this being's origin, or certain sensitive information, they go into a robotic state. The Mandrakes are not human. They look like humans, but they are often confused by emotions, and cannot feel pain.

• Regional Magic Types:
  • Kabbalah-Derived / "Holy" Magic: Calls upon representations of heavenly beings based on the Sefirot to battle, usually, though, this takes a long time. Most often, these Magicians imbue certain traits of the heavenly into themselves. As an analogy, think the God's Right Seat from A Certain Magical Index, but toned down a fair bit, and with much more variety present. The current head of this branch is Michael Skye, a teenage boy and the grandson of the prior head, known for being incredibly gifted for his age. He can create a flaming sword to obliterate enemies and enemies alone.

  • Druidic Magic: Calls upon the forces of the earth, usually entailing a Beast Master type skill set, or having a Green Thumb, in the most powerful cases involving drawing out incredible power from the earth and internalizing it or shooting it at foes. They have very good anti-poison spells, largely done to combat Ein Woe's predecessor, Aiberle Graves. The current head of this branch is Antoine Reyva, a strange man who has a connection to a world outside our own.

  • Shinto-Derived Magic: Basically the Onmyodo-type magic, used to drive out evil from an individual, or inflict heavy damage upon an evil thing. Currently not in good order due to all the activity going on in Japan. Current head is Terumi Shin'ei, "The Sword That Will Not Fail". Terumi is known for being incredibly hard to find, and that simply being close to him tends to destroy lesser evil spirits. This skill set employs mostly barriers and energy blasts of a sort.

  • Demonic Magic: Brought out of the realm most mortals call Hell, this is a strange form of magic. Mostly derived from classic demonic abilities, including "to corrupt, to infect, to destroy", and numerous others, this dark school is not exactly all evil. Certain demons have joined Phantom Claw, though the "goodness" of that group is up for debate. There is no head of this group, though there is a ranking system according to Feudalistic Aristocratic Rankings of who is the strongest. Currently, there is no clear answer.

  • Offering Derived / "Aztec" Magic: The second name for this school is only street style short hand for this dangerous school. Using chiefly Cast from Hit Points style spells, this school usually teaches its students to cherish victory and life, as most people involved in this one do not last longer than thirty years tops. The current head is a youth named Gregory Nilhain, one of the most capable individuals in this order. They have a history of front line combat, and were on the front during the Mage - Vampire Wars.

Psychic Powers in New Dawn come in three varieties. All of them consume a certain amount of Internal Mana and Internal Mana alone.

• Telekinesis: Simply moving things. A greater amount of energy is required to move living things, usually, so much so that it becomes impractical. Greater beings, though, do not have this restriction, and can freely move anything around them by will alone. Telekinesis is heavily involved in German Style Alchemic Magic, usually used to array materials in the proper alignment to "shift" them and get the proper alchemic reaction.

• Warping the Aether: This is a vastly more dangerous version of the above, and is mostly used in combat, and has very few peace time applications. Using this type is considered heavily morally questionable, and its currently being voted on whether or not to ban it. Warping the Aether lets one reach out with Internal Mana acting on the Mind's "vision". One can warp, distort, slash, crush and degrade with this type of Psychic Powers. The main issue with it is that this type directly warps the space which is targeted, causing permanent structural degradation and a Wound That Will Not Heal, outside of a more Fey type of healing magic.

• Heaven Law: Mostly used by manifestations of a divine willpower, this type of Psychic Powers bends the "laws" of the world, and its inhabitants and structures, being able to take control of structures and individuals on a much more powerful level than either of the above. Heaven Law is difficult, borderline impossible for anyone to achieve, due to its nature being anathematic to human understanding. There have been a few people who've accomplished it, namely, a few of the Ten'ou.

Other Races:

• Elvish Race: They are a rather more isolationist people, ever since the middle ages. The Elves are actually a Proud Warrior Race Guy group, deeply enjoying swordsmanship and magic tournaments, and before the event that led to their isolationist party becoming dominant, they would fight to the death for the sake of national friends, even individuals. They are largely led by the Council of Sixteen, a group of elite Magi who are chosen by the people in terms of their magical might. While there is a King, he has less power than you'd think, and due to him lacking his Ancestral Spell called World's Law, he is regarded by some more right wing Elves as not being a true King of their people. Currently, they are sending out students to Magic Side Schools to try to rejoin the world, and have about early 2000's level technology. If you show an Elf an android mobile or iPhone, he will be mystified by the "great magic of the applications inside this phenomenal device." Despite living closely with nature, hunting is in their culture deeply. Its a tradition of theirs to take a twelve year old boy to hunt a "Deep Forest Wyrm of average size." They have very, very advanced Runic Magic, and usually make use of Earth manipulating magic. They have vastly more Internal Mana than humans do, but it needs to be used sparingly. Despite a view by some human mages that the elves are elitists, they are deeply astounded by our world, and admire our societies a lot.

• The Mer Society: A rather secretive society of humanoids who live underwater. Some look like humans, others resemble antropomorphic fish, squids, and even eels. They are usually led by one strong armed leader, having a society with a rather strong fascistic feel to it. They prefer not to be involved in the human world at all, largely considering Man invasive and "ugly". They conceal their underwater cities in small pocket dimensions to avoid the probes and submarines. There has been rumor of an ambitious new dictator who wants to take over the surface world. They mainly use magic that manipulates the water around them, and "magical martial arts" that are likewise based around pressure and controlling water.

• The Beastmen: Despite the traits often associated with the name, the Beastmen are largely not war-like people. Rather, they are close allies of the elves, and often live in human society using illusions and glamors to conceal their appearances. They are a society that deeply enjoys exploration and adventure, and some of the foremost investigators and archaeologists of Ancient Magical Ruins are Beastmen. Just a random note; they mostly have a big red Berserk Button in human society's portrayal of them due to a few bad seeds, and just saying "Masters of the Universe" is enough to make pretty much any Beastman launch into an angry tirade. They also make really good wine.

edited 3rd Feb '13 9:14:59 PM by NickTheSwing

Magical Power Structure

Each area in the Magical World has its strongest Mages / Meisters usually assembled into a sort of ranking system or power structure, each individual usually has people who gravitate toward them for the sake of power or security. These powerful magic users usually amuse themselves either with battles against the Vampires in a lukewarm stage of the Cold War between the Association and the Esper Society against the Vampire Court.

In Europe, each of the Five Kings maintain a structure within their "Kingdoms" called a Pledge System. In exchange for greater spells and magic weapons, you are pledged in service to one of the Kings. Sectarian fighting between them is extremely common, and some might even argue they like all the fighting going on, as most of them are around a century old by now. It seems their magic has slowed their aging process.

The Five Kings are:

The Golden King, Xant King Milo. Known for his esoteric and strange nature, he resembles a Monster Clown of a jester clad in golden, gaudy armor, with empty voids for eyes, a face composed of a white and black mask, one side smiling, the other side frowning. He claims to collect special people, which can be anything from people with unique magic to "the most beautiful men and women." He is infamous for human rights violations occurring in his realm, with him only allowing homosexuals and "other such special people" (in his words) to exist in his "Gold Collection Circus". None of what happens in this Circus of Fear is very good.

He does have a moderate Pet the Dog in that he is extremely pragmatic in combat if it would save his troops lives. Nothing is too low for him to go to make sure his people live. Kidnap the enemy king's daughter and torture her on TV for the enemy to see? Okay. Use tricky illusions, spells and backstabbing in an honorable duel? Sure!

He reigns over the Magical Side of Spain and some of southern France.

The Azure King, Kail Durian. He is, at first, a Nice Guy who presents himself very sympathetically, and his Knights of the Blue Rose are all very nice seeming people. Until you see how he treats any race other than humans, and what extents he is willing to go to to combat Queen Anathema. Apparently, she kidnapped one of his brothers and brainwashed him. He takes his paranoia, xenophobia, and vitriolic hatred of "nonhumans" to positively shocking levels. His Knights? Trained to hunt down and kill anyone who isn't human in his domain. And they have...ways...of telling. Its very telling that the likes of Halnef (specifically, Halnef is the second in command to Ein Woe) refuses to go to Azure King's domain.

His demesne is mostly the Ex-Russian Territories, and he spends the majority of his time trying to threaten his fellow Kings into helping him permanently kill Anathema.

The Jet-Black King, Shadow. Succeeding the terrifying and abusive former Black King, Shadow is the most secretive of them. Some say he is a Magitech...thing...while others accuse him of nebulous crimes related to the abduction of children and young adults. Shadow has not confirmed, nor denied, any of the rumors about him. Very little, generally, is known about him, other than the fact he has contacts in the Esper Society, and has done some good-ish things.

His domain is immediately next to the Azure King's domain, namely, in Poland and a little bit more further south. He seems lax in governance, but responds to aggression harshly.

The Blood-Red King David Arketh. Known for his ferocity in battle, Blood-Red King is opposed in all regards to the Azure King, being a half-elf himself, and a rather curt and course individual. He uses the powerful Magitech Weapon Dragon-Tooth, a two and a half meter long greatsword that also has a shield fashioned on the front. He wears Powered Armor that is as red as his hair. He has a lot of nicknames, many of them related to his prowess in battle.

His domain is France, Belgium and Luxembourg.

The Silver King, Scatha the Endless Wyrm, is a dragon who was given his rank as thanks for his help against the vampires mentioned earlier. Scatha traded in his scales for immortality, resulting in a ghastly, very frightening appearance. He is more of a Dracolich, his Soul Jar being the Crystal Heart that has replaced his actual, physical heart. He mostly deals in sciences and the arts, filling the Silver Palace of Eternity with everything that he considers art. He has a seriously bad case of Blue-and-Orange Morality, having standards that are so bizarre and hard to fit to reality that they seem almost incomprehensible.

Being a disturbed Mad Scientist, some have spread rumors that he inspired Josef Mengele to some of his more gruesome experiments. Unlike other rumors about the Kings, this one is fact. There are other unpleasant things only recently coming to light.

His domain is Germany and the Czech Republic.

edited 13th Jun '13 4:27:20 PM by NickTheSwing

Regalia and Superbia

The twin "Legendary Magics", these ancient forces are passed down family lines and usually incarnate particularly strongly in one person. It doesn't matter if its adopted family or family by marriage, somehow, these powers end up in such people.

The two of them originate from Old Terra, where Legacy, an even more powerful type of spell, split into two, with the Light "Defensive" "Counterattack" Spell being Regalia, and the "Darkness" "Devours" spell being Superbia. There are many, many permutations within these spells as to how they're cast, usually prefaced with a sub-spell being announced as Regalia / Superbia: X, fill in the X with whatever permutation spell is being used.

With Regalia, it mostly functions by turning the foe's own power against them by counterattacking at a specific moment after deflecting an attack or even taking one yourself. It can also be used to deal a lot of damage to foes who are stocked up on Mana in their person. Regalia can be used to heal people.

Superbia, on the other hand, is the purest incarnation of Dark Is Evil out there, beyond even the Erebus Spell Circle spells. It mostly functions as a vampiric spell group, leeching energy from enemies en masse, transforming them into strange creatures rather like vampires, but at the same time lacking a number of their weaknesses. Superbia is extremely addictive, and most of its Holders go mad with power and try to be Omnicidal Maniac's. It can also crush, destroy or even "delete" things / people with some of its spells.

Superbia works by calling Stagnant Mana in an area into your control, subordinating it and making it yours. This results in Superbia Holders and people "Turned" by Superbia being viewed as "rulers" by the Ghoul abominations, to the extent that ghouls can sense the will and desires of the Superbia Holder.

The current holder of Regalia is Liam Eckart, with a weaker portion of it also being used by Shane Calston.

The current holder of Superbia is one person and one person alone; ancient energy vampire Karina Edelhardt, who is thought of by the major forces currently at work as a terrifying threat, even though she is a Broken Bird herself, and plays Card-Carrying Villain in a tragic way; she actually thinks of herself as evil because so many people throughout her life have told her she is such.

The Line of Vonh

The Line is a heroic lineage going back, off of the Earth, to the incredibly ancient planet of Terra, wherein a Legendary Hero-King named Vonh Seillund-Rubrenor united the Kingdoms of Jerdia and Seillarch, fought off the fearsome Bael The Necromancer Lord, and then united the world behind him to defeat the formidable Viseilians, gigantic mechanical lifeforms that had previously been The Dreaded to the entire planet of Terra, and then led the people of Terra off of their planet on "mythical majitek creatures", and to the planet of New Terra, where they settled.

However, Vonh did not live long past defeating a local, exiled Jerdian Technomage, and perished, leaving his powerful Kingdom to his three sons. The firstborn son was known as Aevon, the second born son named Kaevan, and the third son being Jevon. As you can see, most members of this lineage adopt a name that incorporated some of Vonh's name into it, or is a version of or reference to his close relative Caelan.

Jevon and Kaevan spread the Line to Earth due to the resurfacing of Bael, now called Balmunc, having moved from New Terra to Earth using Hazard Gates, one of the first recorded uses of these magical gateways. They established The First City of Atlantis, long before the Greek Age Atlantis you are probably familiar with. This city was largely composed of immigrants from New Terra and their descendants. However, soon, the Viseilians returned due to the actions of Qord, a maniacal magician who some said remembered all of his past lives in great detail and who was thought of previously as a "holy man".

In the process, it seemed the Line went extinct for a time...until proper native human society built itself up, and the Line resurfaced in some places, oddly enough. There is no real explanation for how this came to be.

In the present day, the naming conventions still persist, but few remember any of the old legends. Indeed, most people think of the cult that sprang up around the Lineage as a truly crazy cult, and while some of their membership are misinformed and indeed quite insane, some are stewards of the old legends.

Build Effect

A very strange magical effect, wherein people who are connected, either by the Initiation Network present in Book II or the Neural Networking Site Vesper Core or other methods, can affect the outcome of a spell or action. With enough people's beliefs unified behind the strongest mind either naturally present or assigned within it, a spell that summons a tiny lighter flame will instead summon a mighty fire blast.

However, there are dangers in this type of spellcraft. Namely, the presence of a natural Belief<->Reality Effect, which means that any desire the Optimum Mind has will become realized in some way. Regardless of how the "wish" need be interpreted according to the Laws of Magic.

Build Effect is a type of magic strictly forbidden, with the penalty for its construction being quite severe. It is also why Malevolent Mind Magic is a crime; because if someone forms a network of minds with themselves controlling others, the Build Effect Threshold will be passed sooner rather than later. The only thing someone in that situation needs to do is establish Chain Magic to tie the lesser portions of the Hive together in a proper Hive Mind.

One of the most devastating instances of this was the student named Sieg Allinde's plan to take himself from a low level Mage to displacing Matthew as one of the School's strongest, in order to take what he felt was justice for his years of bullying due to his low potential. However, his dreams and desires ran rampant once he got a taste of success, and his desire for a child with his love interest really did take on a life of its own.

Numerous Types of Spell Circles

Here, I outline numerous types of Spell Circles;

• Chalk-Drawn Circles: Anyone with Internal Mana can use this; drawing on a minimal amount of Internal Mana to outline an effect and an element in a rune drawn on the ground, for a "trap" effect, or on the walls, to affect residents of the house. For example, there are several types of Healing Runes that can be placed inside rooms to grant a quickened healing rate to those sleeping inside.

• Vampiric Runes, which take something from one person and give it to another. Their chief users are, as you might imagine, vampires. However, they are not the only ones to use these spells. For example, in Book I, Matthew himself uses a Vampiric Rune to siphon sickness out of Presea and send it into himself, wherein his Holy Artifact healed it out of him. These can be very useful for sabotaging a foe.

• Thaumaturgical Circles: Painting a certain invocation around the symbol of an element, this type of circle increases the effect of a spell of the same element while decreasing the effect of a spell that is the opposing element to the spell being cast, at least within the area of effect, which depending upon the skill of the user, is either within the radius of the spell circles, or a large, multi-mile radius.

• Defensive Circles: These circles protect a chosen residence from harmful attacks or outside forces, and shield the denizens within from curses or Geas effects. Usually placed in the four cardinal directions on a home, more complicated and stronger ones require more study into the field. Aleister Crowley, the local "good" Chessmaster opposing Anathema and Seer, utilizes almost twenty trillion of these on his home.

• Offensive Circles: Usually drawn into buildings, these increase a Mage's Firepower offered on an occasion with a small injection of Mana; in doing so, the Mage can shoot a certain projectile based on the Element of the Circle enscribed, and the amount of Mana put in. This Circle is like a Chalk-Drawn, but can usually only fire in a single outward facing area. These can be synchronized to a Mana-Producing Spell Core for continuous bombardment options, so long as the Core keeps functioning.

This is cool.

Just felt like sharing that.

Thanks, I'll make sure to keep information on the verse coming out with some regularity. Maybe it'll help make any events in my Roleplays on this site make sense, as well as providing a vast background of information to use for characters.

• Further Spell Circles - Erebus, Penumbra, Pallordia, and Grandis
  • Erebus Spell Circles: First seen in the Morimune High School RP, the Erebus Spell Circle is one of a very dark nature, and usually an extremely complicated one. It takes a lot of time, usually, to create these powerful spell circles of a dark nature, and usually they are involved in Dark Element spells of the highest level in the categories of Mass Destruction and the subcategory of the Projectile Category called "Large Blast". They are extremely difficult to learn, and Quickcasting them has a tendency to, unless you have an affinity for these, blow up in your face spectacularly. If these are laying around in the open, it is needless to say that you should not step on them - they function very well as barriers due to the fact that stepping on an Erebus Spell Circle basically results in the spell circle eating some of your life force to replenish the Mana keeping it around.

  • Penumbra Spell Circles: A close relative of the Erebus Spell Circle and a relatively recent invention - created by the figure of fear and despair, the Black King, the Penumbra Spell Circle is a much harsher, more close range combat based Spell Circle, and while Erebus primarily deals with ranged attacks, these Spell Circles are usually involved in close quarters magic, which with these, usually takes the form of the Boring, but Practical Shade's Lance spell, which sends a large number of arrow shaped spearhead-like blasts at a single foe. Penumbra Spell Circles are comparatively more basic, but finding anyone willing to or able to teach them is a struggle in and of itself, due to the negative reputation and deeds of the Black King. Over time, this Spell Circle was associated with him and his forces.

  • Pallordia Spell Circles: Relatively little is written about them, and are the Light counterpart to the Erebus Spell Circles. Usually used by beings of an angelic nature or those who have taken on an angelic feature or element to themselves or those who are a part of a religious order, Pallordia Spell Circles draw on higher order Sacred and or Celestial Mana, which results in the spells used with these being very, very good at Demon Slaying or just plain dealing damage. A spell used with these types of Circles will often have bizarre effects based on personal beliefs and convictions. A spell used with this will often have a basis in Biblical or Torah based parables or ideas.

  • Grandis Spell Circles: Even in comparison to the Pallordia Spell Circles, less is known about these Circles. The only one that appears in New Dawn's first novel or the short stories is a Spell Circle used explicitly called a Grandis Circle that sealed off a Church and destroyed the zombies who had snuck inside to try to attack a wounded Matthew and some nuns. Apparently, these spell circles are involved in defensive magic, but again, they are very poorly understood, but this was not always so.

• Vesper Cores: What is the Big Deal?
  • Vesper Cores: As covered, creating one is a very heavily punished crime, of a scale almost at the level of terrorism in western society today. People are really, really scared of Vesper Cores, and after what J-Antonio pulled in New Dawn I with one, who can blame them? But really, what's the big deal? Nebiros' Dragon's Core didn't really seem that much stronger or different than any other Spell Core; it just kind of blotted out the surrounding area and caused a Zombie Apocalypse of sorts. When Necromancers are an accepted group of Mages, this...kind of loses its fright value. The truth is, that guy barely knew what the Core did, or else, if he did, Matthew's finishing blow on him would not have worked. A Vesper Core is fundamentally different from a Spell Core in that while a Spell Core pulls on your Internal Mana along with a small, daily replenishing reserve of its own Mana, a Vesper Core generates massive amounts of Mana in and of itself, creating Reality Warping effects on the surrounding areas based on the Core - that the Mana takes on the effect of warping the surroundings is already a big uh oh. Conventionally, it'd take a whole boatload more Mana to accomplish that, rather than just a casually activated effect. The Vesper Core also allows people to do things that you just cannot do with normal Cores or spellcasting. For example, the Vesper Core "Advance Neural Network", as a normal spell, would've required a hell of a lot of Runes set around the target location. Instead, this Vesper Core allows for the integration of minds together with a "System Administrator" whose desires guide the course of the pooled Mana Supplies. As you can see, a Vesper Core in the wrong hands is a seriously dangerous proposition. In fact, most books inevitably involve some nutbar coming to possess one and playing King of the City with it. Considering one of this overwhelmingly powerful Core's aftereffects is With Great Power Comes Great Insanity...

edited 12th Dec '13 10:10:23 PM by NickTheSwing

Phantasmic Beasts and Ripple-Proof Memory

In Ends of Terra, as well as in Knights of Gaia, much is made of the ability of Phantasmic Beasts to "remember even when reality would not like them to". For example, during the mother of all Reset Buttons, the kinda sorta but not really except when he is villainous Shadow Shadofang is the only member of the cast to remember what exactly happened on New Terra. Much, much later, he went on to become Jet-Black King Shadow, which means he is one of the only people - for a certain value of the word - to remember what all happened in regards to Terra.

This is because he is what is called a Phantasmic Beast. A certain species of being, these beings have mythical or fairytale based ancestors or are such themselves. Not exactly among the Fair Folk, nor are they demons, these creatures exist in their own special category that also includes the likes of Parallaxus. They are frequently associated with misfortune, but simply have a sense of where it will occur, rather like a certain Pokemon.

These beings include the villain Zachaia among their ranks due to her mother's father being descended from one, and the genetic ability passed itself down to her, rather than her mother. This caused Zachaia no limit of trouble, especially after her Basic Memories were "negated", and she became a "new Zachaia". In Tri-Age Cataclysm, it caused the worlds to slide back together, and in New Dawn V, it almost caused a Time Crash of the same sort that gave birth to Shamshalg.

The explanation given is quite simply that these creatures are so esoteric and alien that their brains do not follow reality's logic.

Urban Legends, Mythology and Monsters

A large number of urban myth monsters are well and truly real, hidden safely behind the Masquerade most of the time. Most of the time. Most of these alien creatures are Phantasmic Beasts, mentioned above, and constitute a dangerous threat - indeed, the thought of these things getting loose of the Masquerade and attacking people is one of the main worries in Books II and III.

There are a large number of them, and their interpretations vary...

• Jersey Devil: Born of a woman who wished her thirteenth child would be a devil, this creature was born, shapeshifted into a horrid form and then murdered its family. Rather oddly intelligent for a Phantasmic Beast of a feral nature, and keen on gorging itself on livestock even when its not hungry. It seems to behave like the dragons mentioned below in some ways. It is one of the first of the Masquerade Breaking creatures, and was effectively contained in Book II. It demonstrated incredible speed, a resistant composure, and a very powerful jaw and claws.

• The Servitors: Better known by their American given moniker "The Greys", The Servitors are worker creatures created by Wolfang Richler for his depraved magical genetics experiments. They primarily try to manipulate familial lines and experiment on people in their Master's directions. Servitors mainly do as their master commands, having little or no will of their own...outside the ones Wolfang personally augmented. These behave more like administrators, and can actually speak English and communicate...though what they say is usually very unpleasant.

• The Death Worm: A cryptid that is actually the larval state of an even more deadly creature kept in fortress-like areas the Esper Organization calls "Containment Cells", the Death Worm devours as much biomaterial as it can before it goes into a deadly pupal state that draws in and absorbs the biomass of anything nearby foolish enough to touch the cocoon. What emerges is called the Death's Head Giga-Moth, a giant, flesh-eating black moth that stuns its victims either with a surge of electricity, or a spore that forces its victims to relive their most horrifying and depressing memories, and then quickly devours them.

• Reptids: If you believe David Icke, these reptilian shapeshifters are working in the highest levels of government. The reality is that they are basically the Psychos For Hire of the Magical World - they have an innate love of bloodshed, they can smell battlefields, and mainly use serrated weaponry, combined with the fact that their scales can No-Sell bullets. Absurdly tough and hard to kill, they resemble grinning alligator monsters.

• Wendigo: A Cannibal Spirit that is extremely common in icy places, they inhabit and alter the bodies of those who partake in cannibalism. Driving them slowly Ax-Crazy, the Spirit never truly takes control, it just guides its human host to more and more cannibalism, speaking to them of justifications and excuses for more of the behaviour. They resemble, at full form, shapeless white masses with a gaping, vertical mouth full of teeth, huge, wicked claws coming from the ends of the arms, and feet with no toes. Usually, they are positively smeared with blood.

• The Dragons: These creatures come in a number of varieties, the Fire Drake is most common in Europe, and has the classical appearance, a large, powerfully built body, bat-like wings, its claws are spears, and its breath...death. Livestock eaters who used to do far worse, The Fire Drake is feared and viewed as a symbol of power unrestrained by morality. The Lightning Wyrm is unpredictable, and resides in cold, eastern lands. Larger and with vestigial wings, its howls are mistaken for thunder claps. While incapable of flight, the Lightning Wyrm tunnels under the earth and hoards anything it deems interesting. The Ice Wurm is longer, has short limbs, larger wings, and a snake like jaw filled with cruel teeth. They reside in southern icy areas, and have a breath that freezes short of anything. Vicious and sadistic, the Ice Wurm often raids north simply for entertainment.

More on Demons

Elaborating and expanding on an earlier post about these creatures, some of the strangest unique quirks is their "magic". Rather than standard human magic, it seems that Demons make use of their own style, though there is some overlap. Almost uniformly, Demonic Magic is more destructive, and harder to control. This is directly in reference to the fact that it is in their own natures that they desire to constantly wage war and fight, regardless who it is they would fight against.

Despite their mercilessly destructive actions, some demons take on the names of humans they were close to during their activities on Earth. For example, in one short story, a demon haunting a house took on the name Annelise, even though the demon itself could be called male. Mainly because it had been close to Annelise, the daughter of the previous owner of the house.

It is also made clear that there are some among their number who despite their possession of a Rank, would become a Demon Slayer, and it says a lot about their ah, values, that they would not only allow this, but welcome it.

It is also known that the original Dark Lord whom holy books refer to as "Satan" is not only gone, but has been gone for a very long time. Hence why the current arrangement of Princes has been established. The Prince of Demands, one of the few demons old enough to know what happened, is not interested in explaining this strange occurrence.

The Heavenly Host

Much like their enemies in the Dark World, the Angels have a strange form of government. There are many accounts of what God truly is, or where he is, but the day to day administration is currently handled by the Queen Anathema Faction, which won out over the other political groups due to the actions of the mysterious cloaked "Seer". Anathema currently wages war against the Espers and the Mages of Earth for the Holy Artifacts, which she hopes to use to establish "Eternal Utopia".

However, despite the nature of things, there are a number of Angels who refuse to adhere to Anathema's tyranny. Chief among them Archangel Michael, who fought prominently against Anathema's forces during the Grand Schism, as it was called. These events become extremely important later in the series, wherein Matthew helps fight to liberate Heaven from Anathema.

The Queen herself was once a simple outcast who was not well liked before, for her behaviors and attempts to return to Earth "for one man's sake", without regard for the fact an Angel going to Earth and coming back would cause Earth a lot of damage. She gathered others to her, and slowly began to make her move. However, at first, she seemed defeated. She was then contacted by the mysterious "Seer" who offered her power in exchange for her backing his own ambitions. Not questioning what these ambitions were, she agreed.

The tide turned when the Seer granted her warriors a portion of his own power. However, on the day after her victory, her King's heart was ripped from his chest and cast down to Earth, placed into the body of a human boy, and lacking his own memories. The Seer told Anathema she could reclaim him if she gathered the Holy Artifacts. Once again, she followed the Seer's advice...