Fantasy Randalla Academy of Perils [OOC]

[SilverFeathers]

Rules:

• 2-6+ paragraphs (Assuming 100 words minimum per paragraph) per post.
• You may only post again if at least 2-3 people have posted before your last post.
• One post every five days minimum, counting from the last significant GM post. This overrides the above ruling, if need be.
  • I don't care if your posts drop in quality, as long as you can meet this. I'm not expecting everyone to be inspired all the time or have time to think up amazing ideas.
• My word is law, I have the right to reject ideas/characters/players.
• Be available for DMs in case I want to plot things, secretly. (You can opt out of this if it bothers you lol)
• Have good spelling and literacy. Minor typos are fine, but one every sentence is too much. Also capitalize and use punctuation.
• Typical roleplay etiquette, such as no godmodding, being nice to each other OOC, etc.

Sometimes, valuable info can be found in this thread, that has yet to be added or fleshed out in lore. These posts will be threadmarked, for easy access. Click on the Index drop-down menu at the top or bottom of each thread to find these shortcuts.

 

[SilverFeathers]

Only question I have is, what elements are there?

Fire, water, earth, air, nature, metal, thunder, ice, light and darkness, are perhaps the main ones. These are what you should pick from for your character's elemental affinities.

Things like: life(healing), death(erosion), solar/lunar, summons, space, sound, or a second one of the above elements, can be branched into at a later date.

 

[SilverFeathers]

Hello, I answered someone's lore questions and thought I'd leave all the answers here too. I will find time to incorporate the answers in the lore thread at a later date.

Spoiler: Q&A

- While people have a specific elemental affinity, is it possible to learn other elements and the affinity is just the easiest element for them to learn, or is it a hard-and-fast people only have a single element they can learn?

All people are born with a single specific elemental affinity, which they can wield magic with innately. They cannot wield other types, at least, at first. A certain degree of proficiency and understanding with their innate elemental affinity, will allow them to branch into other elemental types, or non-elemental types, in the future.

Think of a character's elemental affinity as the 'trunk' of their magic journey. It can branch into many others, or not at all, but the 'trunk' is fundamental for any branches in the first place. A character with many branches is not neccessarily stronger than someone without any, as well.

- Did people not know magic before the Hero of Aralis showed up and began teaching people, or did he simply revolutionize it somehow?

Aes Aralis has always known magic, it has been a part of them since the dawn of time. The arrival of the Hero of Aralis simply revolutionized it, in the sense of understanding and application. Many of the more obscure branches, such as space, life(healing), death(erosion), sound etc, only became proper magic branches under his guidance.

- Was his academy the first, or were there many before it?

Since magic has always been around, his magic academy certainly wasn't the first.

- Do people know he helped set up the academy? If so, wouldn't it be fairly prestigious just from the fact that it's his academy?

People know that the Hero of Aralis helped setup the academy, but in the end, the academy isn't his. It may have been quite novel at first, but in the end, Randalla Academy is quite outlandish.

Despite being situated in Vorracian territory, it is located right near the border's edge, and accepts students from all over the continent. Naturally, the nobility and royal family of Vorracia do not really want to fund/sponsor such a place, that acts as if it is neutral to every nation. Therefore, despite bearing the Hero's name, the academy isn't very wealthy.

Nowdays, the academy is a bit more stable and well-off, due to its reputation of rearing incredible battle mages, as well as undertaking various missions from around the continent.

- What's the average level of technology?

Think medieval fantasy, with no steampunk. No guns, trains, etc. Main methods of transportation are horses, carriages, and perhaps other tamed fantasy beasts. Crossbows and bows exist.

- Do people have to have an innate talent to be able to learn magic, or is it something that can be learned by anyone like any other trade skill?

All people are born with an elemental affinity. Whether they choose to pursue magic or leave it dormant forever, is entirely up to them.

- Do mages need to specialize in a certain mage type, or can mages learn weapon/armor/quick cast/slow spells in whatever way best suits them? I guess a relevant secondary question would be: are the techniques used for the different types of mages different enough that trying to learn multiples ends up significantly hindering their progress in learning either (jack-of-all/master-of-none), or is learning a new spell more or less a case by case and there's no real underlying techniques mages learn?

Specializing is heavily recommended, because as you said, the techniques going down each pathway differ greatly. Learning how to condense magical knowledge, and being able to release them with a flick of the hand, will be very different to writing out every detail of a magic circle to ensure that enough mana flows through the entirety of the spell without exploding.

I may not be able to explain it very well, because I'm not that big brain, but I hope you can understand that I want each mage type pathway to not be interchangeable.

- How do other academies feel about Randalla Academy?

Well, this varies from academy to academy, naturally. The Royal Academies of Quidor/Auveyles/Vorracia/Ruiyol will likely look down upon Randalla Academy and its brutish ways, perhaps often seeking to downplay them in competitions. Other academies may look up to them with respect/fear, it depends on the headmaster and such really.

I may need to come up with rival/friendly magic academies in the future for the roleplay, so I don't want to strike out any ideas here.

- Is it possible to request some more lore on one of the nations, or even create some to run by you?

'I will most likely lay out some rough world/geographical lore with kingdom outlines, but I expect you to add to this in your character's backstories. Free to make up cities/towns/villages/forests/mountains and whatnot. If you want to make the capital of ____ widely known for their clown displays and circuses, go for it. Would love to see how I can somehow get a diplomat of said kingdom to visit and show off some tricks...'

Absolutely. If you want me to come up with more lore on a nation because you don't have ideas, that's perfectly fine. But I would love it if we could all flesh out the world together, using my kingdom skeletons. I totally made up the map and the kingdoms on a whim so, everything is subject to change. If you want me to add a terrible canyon, and draw that in there, I can do that for you.

When I go over and accept characters, I will likely edit the map with locations and such accordingly anyway.

- Are the Revelos completely killed off, or just mostly killed off?

Mostly killed off. Wouldn't if be fun if on one of our characters first missions, they encounter one? I wonder what they'd do?

- Are there any "evil wizard" organizations (something analogous to the Death Eaters or similar)?

I'm sorry to say I have never watched or read Harry Potter (blasphemous I know), but evil mage organizations certainly exist. You can create one if you want, I do need to figure out where to put Organizations in my lore thread. Should I add an adventurer's guild? Heh.

Please bear with me if my lore continues to appear a bit flimsy, I come up with much of it on the spot/whilst writing, since I like collaborating with others. Feel free to keep asking questions, so that lore holes can be filled when they can.

 

[SilverFeathers]

Mire Zufaix Spoiled Bread kasigi Your characters have been accepted and added to the roster.

Mire Zufaix If you would like to write a snippet of lore to be added about the capital cities they lived in, feel free, and I will add it to the lore thread.

kasigi Please give me a location on the map for the Nachtigall Domain. I understand that it is much smaller than say, a town/village and whatnot. But it would be nice to know if we pass by it on our characters' adventures.

Though Stern Lululu will not be participating, we currently have eight characters on the roster, and one WIP character sheet. There is one additional person who I am personally reserving a spot for, because they've DMed me extensively, but other than that we are at max capacity.

Despite this, if you really want to participate still, and have a passionate idea for a character. You may inquire about possibly extending the list.

If not, the character sheets thread is now closed. Do not post more, or I will delete them.

 

[SilverFeathers]

Hello, I once again answered someone's lore questions and thought I'd leave all the answers here again.

Spoiler: Q&A

- Are there any major religions?
I can imagine there being many spread across the continent, and I will likely brainstorm one for Professor Helios, but I have yet to come up with anything concrete. You can come up with one if you wish.

- Are our characters fairly unique in not learning any magic until we've become adults, or is it the cultural norm to hold off on teaching minors any bits of magic?
It is indeed a cultural norm to hold off on teaching children/minors magic. There is nothing wrong with learning theory work and the concepts behind it early, but actual practical applications of it should be learnt when of adult age, a bit like a university degree.

Magic can be incredibly dangerous, and if not taught reliably, can just kill the user outright. Adult intelligence, sensibility and such is recommended to avoid such fates.

- Does casting spells require a focus of some kind like a wand or staff? Do foci even exist or is spellcasting all technique?
Some may prefer a wand/staff to help visualize and focus things, such as magic circle drawing and/or runes, which is more common for Devastation Mages, but most don't usually require one at all.

There are magic artifacts that can be discovered and utilized however, and perhaps even made in the far future, but that will be a discussion for later.

- Can you describe what a Revelos might look like?
'These creatures, later to be named Revelos, grew exponentially in strength as they hunted and ate other beings, quickly becoming a threat to all of humankind. Their powers, abilities and forms vary greatly, but the one thing they had in common was their bright red skin, dyed the colour of blood. Most had poor, beast-like intelligence, but those that had eaten thousands of humans began to show the intelligence of a child, an alarming feature to a land already struggling to survive.'

Uh, you can likely imagine any sort of monstrous entity, give it bright red skin, and I will probably accept it as a Revelos. They can range from appearing similar to classic beasts, such as wolfs and tigers and such, to being bipedal tentacled monstrosities. Up to you really.

 

[SilverFeathers]

Is Randalia a lone academy in the middle of a mountain or its actually surrounded by regular settlements?

Originally, closer to its founding, Randalla Academy was very isolated due to its dangerous location, and poor habitable conditions. The nearest settlement was at least three or four days worth of travel away, taking into account the steep, treacherous mountain landscape.

But due to the academy's growing success, as well as its natural determent of monsters/beasts due to its mages, a few small mountainous settlements have been set up nearby. Though, even the nearest is an hour away at least, since Randalla Academy is built into the mountain side of one of the tallest mountain peaks.

One of the most popular locations for students, is a growing town located in a closeby valley. As the closest 'big' settlement, it sells a much wider variety of things compared to the minute mountain villages, and has things like inns, bars, proper shops, restaurants, etc. The travel time is steep, taking at least 2-3 hours just to get there, but fortunately its inn prices are quite affordable.

(Since this kinda stuff will be introduced IC, I may tweak this again beforehand)