Fantasy Arcane Epistles: A Fantasy Worldbuilding RP

[Idea]

Maybe the spell can be cast only if multiple mages(and player characters) agree to participate in a ritual? Like, only if everyone agrees, and there's some kind of "event" going on?

I could maybe see that if it's kind of massive thing like a whole army of mages, but even then that wouldn't solve the issues I pointed out That being I did later realize there was something I thought was written there which turned out not to be, which led to:

Now in fairness since it wasn't as strong as I had the impression of I think with some tweaks this could be added as some kind of forbidden spell nobody is allowed to access or even know about due to the catastrophic impact it had in the past, and there might still be signs of the devastation (though this kind of spell would probably never be published in an arcane studies for obvious reasons, making it so it could only be around if we all collectively agreed to not have a purple spell of that mana value at all and only find signs of its use).

So there could in theory be such an event, where not players but some kind of evil NPC organization tries to get the secret spell (or I guess it could be a player if they don't mind their character getting wiped from the map), though even that I'm not sure is super appropriate for this RP, because it's not really the kind of RP where you follow a singular plot or go for a collective player event, it's kind of built around not doing that. There's more indirect interaction, but the article-based posts don't strike me as intending for there to be much direct interaction (players still interact with each other but more indirectly).

Yeah, that makes sense, since another part of Orange's entire motif is: I can't explain it, I can't comprehend it, but it works. It's very much in line with the scientist vs mad artist theme I suppose. They're opposite(literally), and wholly contradictory since Orange is pretty much "if it works, it works" while for Blue there's more or less a reason why it should work. I would imagine there's little rhyme or reason to why Orange works, it's just chaos, and energy and forces made from whacky laws that shouldn't exist, it follows no rules but its own, whereas for Blue, you can like..."harness" it in automatons and stuff.

Yep, absolutely.

And as for the lich thing, maybe all quiddities can become "immortal" in some sense? Ex. Blue for Automaton, or ascending into an eldritch horror for Orange, living on through imagination and thriving off of chaos, green means mastering nature to the point your cells no longer age and purple = lich?

There might even be multiple ways to become immortal via quiddities, especially once you start taking into account combinations. It's probably less "here's the quiddity kind of immortality" (as I feel that would diminish the value/achievement/mystique of it if everyone of a certain proficiency in a quiddity would be able to do it) and a combination of natural forms of immortality for the quiddity's theme (purple's immortality would obviously bring about undead-type immortalities) and those based on a creative application of existing spells (Obsiniam's mind transferring into precisely crafted automaton hosts).

 

[Sunsmiter]

On a related subject, though, one idea people might want to keep in mind is modifying spells to get yourself access to it. You can only cast spells that have at least one point of your quiddity in them, but it's fine to throw a single point of your quiddity into an existing spell to create a variant that's slightly altered so that you can get access to it. They should be noticeably different, but "I want that spell, how would it change if my quiddity were added to it" is a perfectly good prompt for a spell so long as you take it somewhere interesting and distinct from the original. For example, I have in mind a 3R/1B spell that's some kind of stabilized fireball, which doesn't explode in your face after a few minutes the way the standard kind does, but probably with some kind of material cost to them so that they can be stockpiled at all, but not infinitely. R/P might have a version that explodes into toxic gas that withers and rots everything it touches, R/Y might be a blinding flashbang kind of thing.

Ah yes, the 3R/1O version of fireball: You toss a live, screaming, flaming eldritch horror at the direction of the target. It's still a fireball, except it's sentient, on fire, and screaming the name of L̴̢͊'̴̟̓A̷̛̦V̷̞̇È̸ͅL̸̹̇Š̶̻Ȟ̶͍'̷̻̄A̶̜̍Ą̵͂ ̵̮̀T̶̪̒H̸̜̄E̵̼̿ ̶̛̯G̷̬̓R̷̅ͅE̸̘̅A̴͉̓T̷͈̂,̸͚̈́ ̷̢̽S̸̘̑H̸̤̏Ë̵̖́ ̷̻̌Ẁ̷̜H̸͇̽Ó̵͙ ̷̳̀B̸͓͆Ü̷̟Ȑ̶̮N̷̪͆S̶̡̃ ̴̼̓I̸̜͒N̶͍̏ ̸͚̉Ṭ̸͒H̸̱̋Ĕ̷͇ ̵̍͜Ȧ̴͎B̸͖̏Y̷̼̿S̵̙͂S̶͒͜ ̶̘̐O̷̲͝F̵͎̅ ̷̹̂S̶̥̿T̷̳̎A̷͔̾R̷̩̓S̶̖̓-̸̖̅-

I want to keep the academy's structure simple, so while there would definitely be an informal pecking order between newer professors and older ones as well as academic turf wars between different colleges within the academy, I don't want to split things up into detailed ranks. There's not especially likely to ever be more than maybe ten people playing at once, and I don't want to end up in a situation where we have nearly as many ranks as people who hold them.

Half the science wing's about to hate the newest Orangeprofessor, let's go!

Assuming it works like a Death Note where you kill people from unlimited range as long as you can identify a target, then I very much agree, that's an I-Win button so powerful that once it exists, the whole setting and story pretty much has to center on that. On the other hand, if it's supposed to be like a Ray of Death where it kills anything it touches but only works out to bowshot range, then it seems pretty underwhelming for the 9th-level slot. Probably 6th-8th somewhere, or maybe a 9th-level dual-quiddity, since it's a pretty hard counter to a lot of the mega-monsters I would expect Green or Orange to be creating, but Fireball kills most things and that's only a 3rd-level spell.

I think it's workable to have lichdom come from multiple different spells as long as each of those spells is still usable by itself, like, maybe to be a lich you need to be able to cast the 9P spell plus all the 8P/1X spells, so a lich necessarily has access to pretty much the entire purple spellbook, but all five of those spells still need to be worthwhile high-level spells on their own.

Also, as long as we're throwing out suggestions for purple/green, I would guess a lot of it is stuff related to fungi and maggots, living things which eat decaying flesh.

Aye, I second allat, but I think Orange's "ultimate" might be actually legit be summoning, or even some "ascension ritual" to become the horror thing you're summoning(fits into distorted organics and eldritch artist themes)

 

[Sunsmiter]

There might even be multiple ways to become immortal via quiddities, especially once you start taking into account combinations. It's probably less "here's the quiddity kind of immortality" (as I feel that would diminish the value/achievement/mystique of it if everyone of a certain proficiency in a quiddity would be able to do it) and a combination of natural forms of immortality for the quiddity's theme (purple's immortality would obviously bring about undead-type immortalities) and those based on a creative application of existing spells (Obsiniam's mind transferring into precisely crafted automaton hosts).

Like every quiddity can perhaps be "applied" in a way to induce immortality? That would be cool as hell, ngl.

 

[ChamomileHasWords]

Oh huh. I thought 'You point at thing in range and it dies.' was kind overpowered.

The easiest counter to a Ray of Death is three goblin archers: One to get vaporized and the others to double-tap the wizard before they can cast again. The Ray of Death also doesn't do anything to protect you against stealth attacks, isn't especially more helpful than any other lethal single-target spell when it comes to fighting in areas with cover or with fast and erratic movements (even if it's a speed-of-light hitscan attack, you still have to aim at the target), and just because it kills whatever living thing it touches doesn't mean it can't be intercepted by other magical defenses. An instant death spell is a hard counter against kaiju but is barely more effective than a bow and arrow against everything else.

It does appear that non-human lifespans are a lot more common in this setting than most, if our characters are anything to go by.

Not by as much as you'd think. The fact that there are mortal professors at all, and that at least one of the immortals is still well within a regular human lifespan (possibly two, depending on how old Obsidiam is), means that wizards with indefinite lifespans are either well under 1% of the wizard population or else they tend don't tend to survive much longer than a mortal lifespan despite their immunity to aging.

Maybe the spell can be cast only if multiple mages(and player characters) agree to participate in a ritual? Like, only if everyone agrees, and there's some kind of "event" going on?

Still no. Wizard are not gods. When I said that characters meant as independent agents can be more powerful than characters expected to work in a team, that was not an invitation to make characters who can literally destroy all life everywhere in the entire multiverse, no, not even if three or four of them are working together.

 

[CommanderNecro]

I see a wall of words. I already have ideas for purple spells fyi.

 

[Sunsmiter]

I see a wall of words. I already have ideas for purple spells fyi.

I already have ideas for Orange, and this may or may not be because I got my hands onto Call of Cthulhu: Spells.

 

[CommanderNecro]

I already have ideas for Orange, and this may or may not be because I got my hands onto Call of Cthulhu: Spells.

niceeee

 

[ChamomileHasWords]

Alright, we now have a lore thread where the spells and hexes are tracked and a main thread where people can post.

 

[Idea]

ChamomileHasWords so ti be clear, we can already start posting in the main thread?

 

[ChamomileHasWords]

ChamomileHasWords so ti be clear, we can already start posting in the main thread?

Yes, everyone who's put in a character sheet can go ahead and start posting. The epistolary format means it shouldn't be a problem that the other characters aren't finished yet.

 

[Sunsmiter]

How's things? Just got back from surgery, did I miss something?

 

[Idea]

Yes, everyone who's put in a character sheet can go ahead and start posting. The epistolary format means it shouldn't be a problem that the other characters aren't finished yet.

why didn't I get a notification for this

 

[Idea]

How's things? Just got back from surgery, did I miss something?

Welcome back. I presume it went well?

 

[Sunsmiter]

Welcome back. I presume it went well?

Well, I'm still talking to ya, aint I?

 

[Idea]

Well, I'm still talking to ya, aint I?

Exactly why I 'presumed' instead of asking if it went well XD

 

[Sunsmiter]

Exactly why I 'presumed' instead of asking if it went well XD

It went well, in fact! I have yet to die!

 

[Idea]

It went well, in fact! I have yet to die!

There's always a first time!

 

[Sunsmiter]

There's always a first time!

Hold up-

 

[Sunsmiter]

Done! And posted. The angel has stolen all of their brain cells, oof.

 

[Sunsmiter]

pov: when you roll a 5 on your deception check