Fantasy Reckless Kings Lore

[AtlannianSpy]

This is a repository for all kinds of background information, history, arcane mechanics factions and anything else relevant to your escapades in New Atlantis. If you're not sure about something it's always worth checking here to see if it's been covered. If it hasn't been covered I probably need to get off my butt and write something about it!

Contents

• Principles of Mana and Magic
  
  
• Core Skills of Mana Manipulation
  
  
• The Grand Schools of magic
  
  
• Lesser Schools of magic
  
  
• Spell Casting
  
  
• The City of New Atlantis
  
  
• The Silencers

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Principles of Mana and Magic

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Properties of Mana

Mana is sometimes described as substance without substance, it is weightless, invisible, odorless and has no qualities measurable by conventional means. Despite this some 1% of the population are sensitive to mana and can detect and potentially manipulate it. Mages often describe sufficiently dense mana as having a particular appearance often a brightly coloured, unnatural light but this is not quite accurate, the eye and the visual cortex of the brain are not sensitive to mana at all. It is in fact the human soul that reacts to mana, just as mana is responsive to the soul, the soul reacts to sources of dense, potentially dangerous mana and subtly manipulates the visual cortex to display this information visually.

Generation

Mana is widely present all over the world though often in low density. constantly generated by millions of small processes that collectively result in the massive quantities present in the world. Mana is generated by plants, minerals and but the majority is created by animals who have probably evolved to unconsciously produce it thanks to its beneficial effects on the body. Humans in particular generate large quantities. Healthy ecosystems where many creatures are living and dying are usually very rich in airborne mana and pleasant to be in however some mana rich environments are very remote and devoid of life, it is suspected that mana from other places tends to drift towards these "loci" from elsewhere though the reason behind this is not fully understood.

Mana tends to naturally drift apart, spreading itself around the air and becoming thinner unless attracted by a locus or some other effect. Unnatural concentrations of mana such as those emitted by many organisms dying at once or a battle between powerful mages, tend to fade into the background after a few hours, making it possible to tell when such events occurred by judging the dispersal of the remaining mana.


Mana and the Human Body and Soul

Mages understand the human form as being a triple entity consisting of the physical body, the information and cognitive processes stored in the brain and the human soul, a source of energy or impetus sometimes characterized as 'the will to live'. Though theoretically a human should only need the brain and a functioning body every case of a body having its souls removed has resulted in death.

Soul waves

The soul remains tethered to the body and subtly influences it through a phenomenon known as soul waves. soul waves are subtly different for each person but they are always understood to direct the body in line with the instinctive desires of the souls, the soul usually wishes for survival so the wavelengths it emits enhance the body's functioning to ensure it survives. Because it is so reactive, mana takes on the shape of the waves emitted by the soul enhancing their effectiveness. This is the reason why the soul instinctively generates and cycles mana through the body, the passive levels of mana increase psychical performance across the board two or three times, or to describe in more vivid terms if someone were to have the mana currently in them removed by some means they would be two or three weaker in every aspect, not only would they be weaker, their reactions, brain activity and even passive functions such as the heartbeat and breathing would all be weaker. Being drained of mana in this way is actually quite dangerous, if combined with physical activity it can often result in unconsciousness and it greatly lowers resistance to disease and pre-existing conditions.

Perhaps more interestingly, while removing the mana from a human will weaken it, increasing the amount present in the body will have a corresponding increase in all sorts of areas. Reaction time, muscle power, cognition, recovery time, stamina even durability can all be improved by increasing the amount of mana present in one's system. There are however risks associated with this practice, matching or exceeding ones capacity for active mana can have deleterious effects on the body, damaging organs and vital areas of the body and in extreme cases producing thousands of tiny ruptures as excess mana forcefully bursts out of the body. This is known as mana sickness. The other risk is simply exhaustion. Just as they body is dependent on the soul, the soul draws energy from the body which it uses to produce mana and producing too much will drain it of its reserves, leaving the mage tired and vulnerable.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Core Skills of Mana Manipulation​

Through training, mages can learn to temporarily increase the amount of of mana in their systems and manipulate it in a number of useful ways. These techniques are not technically spells, they require no incantation and are universal to all mages. Collectively these skills are known as mana manipulation and can be priceless as they form a reliable means of attacking, defending and evading. In all there are five core skills.

Striking: Striking involves releasing a small, but dense burst of mana. It's usually thought of as an offensive skill that can turn a simple punch or kick into a devastating weapon. Striking can also be used as a maneuvering tool, bu pushing off with a burst of energy from a particular surface such as the ground one can gain a sudden burst of speed useful for dodging or closing in on an opponent.

Hardening: Hardening is the skill of fortifying a part of the body or an object with mana, making it more durable and able to resist all kinds of damage. Hardening is the simplest and most reliable means of withstanding any kind of magical attack however it can be inefficient when faced with a formal offensive spells which will rapidly burn through a defender's mana reserves.

Agility: Agility is the skill of enhancing the body's muscles and nervous system to improve flexibility, dexterity and reflexes, making one overall more nimble and responsive, useful in hand to hand combat or simply to avoid danger or move around the environment.

Perception: Perception is the skill of enhancing the bodies natural senses with magic, in particular improving one's ability to detect and analyze magic and mana. Perception can allow one to recognize particular magical signatures at a distance, even through solid objects. Though there are spells and techniques designed to obfuscate things even from enhanced perception the more skilled one is the less likely these are to succeed.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

The Grand Schools of Magic
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Magic as a whole is divided into five categories, known as the Grand Schools. Each school focuses on a different area of magic and knowedge from one school doesn't tranlate to the others, forcing them to be studied seperately. A mage's level of skill with a particular Grand School is known as their affinity and governs how efficiently and quickly they can cast spells from that school. The Grand Schools are traditionally depicted as part of a pentagram, shown below. Some mages hold to the idea that certain personality types are more suited for particular grand schools however many others dismiss the idea as superstition.

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Each school is said to have a sympathetic relationship with the two schools next to it and an opposing relationship with the two opposite. Sympathetic schools can be more easily combined within a single spell, while effect from opposing schools tend to be more difficult. Furthermore those mages who associate personality traits with particular schools usually believe mages of sympathetic schools get along better with each other while those of opposing schools will tend to dislike each other.


Red Magic: The Red school governs energy such as fire, electricity, light, kinetic force and even more esoteric effects like magnetism or gravity. In general Red spells can be highly destructive and are difficult to match for raw power but can be difficult to use for defensive or utility purposes. Red Magic is associated with Aggression, spontaneity, creativity and recklessness.

Blue Magic: The Blue school governs information and holds sway over illusion, detection and mental abilities such as empathy, mind reading and even mind control at the highest levels. Blue spells tend to lack direct impact but excel at controlling the battlefield by gathering intelligence for allies and sowing confusion among enemies. Blue Magic is associated with flexibility, curiosity, deceptiveness and unreliability.

Green Magic: The Green school governs life able to manipulate, influence and even create life and organisms. Green spells are often potent in a support role, able to heal or enhance the bodies of allies however they can be used to transform and enhance the caster themselves to take a more front-line role. Green magic can also be used to create or manipulate plants and creatures for various purposes, allowing a wide variety of potential roles to be filled. Green magic is associated with empathy, savagery, extroversion and naivety

Black Magic: The Black school governs matter, solids, liquids or even gases of all sorts, allowing users to create and reshape them or even alter properties such as weight or durability. Black magic excels in a defensive role, allowing the creation of solid barriers to ward off all manner of attacks, however one should never underestimate the offensive potential of a solid object in motion. Black magic is associated with calmness, loyalty, stubbornness and conservatism.

White Magic: The white school governs all dealings with spirits and the a spirit world, a mysterious realm whose structure and denizens are composed entirely of mana. By offering their one's own mana in trade white spells can be used to speak with, seek aid from or even summon spirits to our world as temporary allies. Spirits can have all kinds of abilities so white magic has access to a variety of effects but they can also be fickle and treacherous making white magic somewhat unreliable potentially. White magic is associated with contemplation, shyness, mysticism and obtuseness.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Lesser Schools of Magic
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Sometimes called the building block of the magical world lesser schools are it's most important social unit and understanding them is vital to understanding how mages interact with each other and with society at large. Mages have always tended to congregate in order to study, preferring to hand down knowledge from generation rather than reinvent the wheel.

A lesser school is essentially a specific tradition of magic. Each Lesser school has a repertoire of spells unique to it, usually centered around a particular specialty. Perhaps more importantly, each their own philosophies and traditions both for magic and for life in general. Each Lesser school is like a microcosm of culture and family unto itself.

Friends with Benefits: The advantages of School membership

For much of history lesser schools were the only way to learn magic at all and the vast majority of mages worked only within the bounds of their school, expanding and refining its work over generations. In the modern era it's much more viable for mages to mix and match spells from multiple schools, crafting their own unique approach however the vast majority of mages still center their personal magic around a particular lesser school.

Compared to working alone, a lesser school has many advantages to offer a mage, most notably spells tied to a lesser school will inherently be more efficient, through their teachings and culture a lesser school essentially provides a theoretical framework that allows a mage to override their own disbelief and achieve the state of mind necessary to cast properly.

In addition to that, a Lesser School offers a wealth of experience and knowledge on the practical application of magic, especially in combat. Tactics, strategy, these are handed down just like magical knowledge and can easily mark the difference between victory and defeat when properly applied.


A History of Lesser schools

The general decline of polytheistic attitudes in the middle ages and the rise of influential groups dedicated to undermining the political influence of magic forced many schools underground and wiped out many others, a process that eventually spread into Asia and the New world during the Colonial Age. Known as "The Silencing" among mages, it was this external pressure that shaped magical schools into the form they had up until the Nexite wars, highly secretive, tightly knit groups fiercely loyal to each other and usually intensely hostile to the anyone else.

Hierarchies and social structures vary from school to school but at minimum there is always a grand master and students. The master is usually the most powerful, experienced or learned mage, succession is usually via appointment by the previous master but can vary. Schools are extremely selective about who they admit into their ranks, many only accept the children of the families that already belong to them and are much like clans while others search out unrelated students, usually picking people with few attachments to society at large such as orphans or runaways who are unlikely to be noticed should they withdraw from society.

During the previous era clans were highly secretive, taking various means to isolate themselves from society and the watchful eyes of the Silencers. The most common was simple geographic isolation, lesser schools tended to settle in extremely remote, dangerous eras that would keep away outside eyes and fortify them via magical means. Lesser schools were (and often still are) extremely distrustful of outsiders, especially rival schools. Since it was extremely difficult to assault the headquarters of a school these rivalries rarely ended in one school's destruction and instead usually simmered over centuries. Many of these rivalries continued up to the present day and are a prime influence in the inter gang rivalries in New Atlantis.


Lesser Schools Post Nexite Wars

After having retreated from the world at large, magi were dragged back into the spotlight centuries later during the earth shaking events of the Nexite wars. Nexite, an incredibly valuable source of energy tends to appear in areas where lesser schools were hiding. The geographic isolation and magic were sufficient to keep idle investigators away but these measures were unable to deflect the full attention of the world on the ground beneath their feet, especially once these areas become full blown battlefields during the heights of the Nexite wars. Hundreds of thousands of mages were unknowingly killed in bombing campaigns targeting nexite mining operations and many others were misunderstood as enemy troops or spies and fired upon. Early reports of mages defending themselves were misinterpreted as experimental weapons taking advantage of the incredible power of nexite and mages remained unknown until thousands simply began turning up on the borders of neutral countries.

A coalition of some of the largest and most powerful schools banded together to announce their existence to the world in a historic event known as the Dublin Broadcast. Civilian governments the world over were thrown into a panic when they began to realise the sheer number of displaced peoples and early attempts to organise normal measures for refugees such as camps and resettlement frequently resulted in violence. Disaffected mages, especially younger ones reacted with intense frustration to inadequate facilities, abysmal conditions and resentment and suspicion from local population. Many inexperienced mages knew little of the outside world and identified the mundane population as a monolithic entity that had driven them from their homes, killed their fellows and now refused them even running water. A string of deadly riots flared in magical refugee camps the world over, usually ending with the armed forces suppressing magic wielding rioters and resulting in heavy casualties in both sides.

The situation was well past crisis point when the Silencers stepped up and proposed a radical new solution, the construction of a massive, floating city intended to house the world's entire magical population. Although the Silencers were ostensibly the enemies of magi they were the only large scale organization with extensive knowledge of and experience with mages. With few exceptions world governments leaped at the chance to throw money at the problem and make it disappear and most leaders among the magi had begun to acknowledge that co habitation in mundane communities looked unattainable. Construction began on New Atlantis in 2046 not long after the armistice of the Nexite Wars, the bill footed by a combination of the US, China, The EU, Russia and India, the entities that had emerged in the best shape from the war. by 2050 limited settlement of New Atlantis and by 2056 99% of the magi known to the mundane world resided in New Atlantis, beginning a new chapter in the history of the magical world.

The transition from hidden, rural esque populations to refugees to urban residents profoundly shook up the lesser schools. Many had had their leadership structures decimated via attrition. Angry at the world and the passive policies of their elders, younger magi began dissenting and creating new power structures to try and care for their interests in this radical new environment. This would be the beginning of the gangs that are now prominent in New Atlantis. Once tight knit schools found themselves fracturing to various degrees. Some schools survived by collectively diving headfirst into the new gang culture, seeing New Atlantis as little more than a battleground to conquer and while not all of them were successful five of them utilized their existing organization and discipline to control vast swathes of territory, the so called Old Kings who are the most powerful gangs in the city currently.

Overall Schools now exist as a complex web layered over the top of the more prominent superstructures of the gangs. While members of the same school may not treat their elders with the same deference and act as a single unit they still trust and rely on each other. Most real business in the city is conducted through a web of schoolmates who introduce each other and secure positions or opportunities for each other, even in the gangs which cross school lines there often sub groups or cliques of same school mages who operate as faction to protect each other's interests. The masters of the schools are increasingly seen as out of touch or ineffectual, some have resigned themselves to their diminished influence, choosing to focus on preserving their arcane knowledge to pass on to future generations while others continue attempting to assert control over their disciples, trying to marry their ancient beliefs and practices with modern life in New Atlantis.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

Spell Casting​

Magic is the principle of using the highly malleable entity known as mana to manifest some kind of notable change in the world. Though present all over the world mana is only about 1% of the population can detect it and a much smaller percentage of that 1% receive the necessary training to actually use it to cast spells.

A spell can be thought of as the process of shaping mana by applying information to it, mana is such a reactive substance that sufficiently precise and detailed thought alone is sufficient to cause it to take shape. This phenomenon means state of mind is of critical importance to a mage, uncertainty about the effects of the spell produce the uncertainties themselves, distraction or a lack of focus can cause dangerous malfunctions, in general a firm belief in the principles of magic is necessary to cast magic. The more one casts a particular spell, the easier it is to override any self doubt, making it more efficient and reliable to use.

Spells commonly fall under one of the five Grand Schools, but some, particularly more advanced spells, can combine the effects of two.

Each spell, from the simplest cantrip to the mightiest ritual requires three distinct steps, though they can appear in different forms.


Drawing

Drawing is the act of extracting or drawing out mana from a particular source and preparing it for use in a spell. The most commonly used source is the soul of the caster, though external sources of mana such as plants, minerals or other living creatures are common, drawing manner out from these sources can take hours or even days, compared to the scant seconds needed to draw from one's own soul. In the case of external sources this process can itself take hours, but it is usually a matter of seconds when drawing from the caster's soul, making this method far preferable for combat scenarios. The more mana that must be drawn the longer this process will take.

Drawn mana is easily visible as a bright, light the color of which matches the school of magic being used, a canny opponent can notice this and prepare an appropriate counter measure in some cases.


Incantation.

Once the mana is drawn out it must be shaped into a usable form, this is accomplished by incantations. Despite the name incantations can also be performed via physical movements or written symbols, technically any method of transferring information should be theoretically capable of being used to perform incantations as long as the caster is actively present and involved.

The incantation is essentially a system of thought that instructs the mana, telling it to form a certain shape or act in a certain way when certain parameters are met. However because mana has almost no structure to begin with and intense amount of information is required to properly shape it, leading to the primary limiter on spell power, incantation length.

Incantations are typically measured in tomes, a standard unit of measurement which describes an incantation written down in a large book. Even the most basic spells that are likely to be of use in combat, hurling a baseball sized fireball or summoning a normal bat to harass one's foe for example, usually require about one tome's worth of incantation and more advanced spells can require dozens of tomes' worth of incanting.

The greater one's affinity for the Grand school associated with a spell, the quicker they can complete the incantation, allowing the spell to be cast more quickly.

It's also important to note that the more pressure one is under the harder it is to perform incantations. Being involved in melee combat, or having to run around or avoid danger can greatly slow down incantation speed and its possible prevent an opponent from casting spells by pressuring them enough.


Execution

This is the simplest and most visible stage of a spell. During execution the spell is targeted and its effects play out, fireballs hurtle through the air, wounds heal, illusions appear. Some spells have active executions while others execute in a pre-set and unalterable way. Active executions have the advantage of precise control, but they make it more difficult to cast new spells while they are in effect, slowing down the caster's incantation speed until they are resolved.

Internal vs External effects

There exists a special category of spells known as "internal" spells. Internal spells are usually designed to be used on humans and are distinguished because the magic is willed into existence within the target. This has the advantage of circumventing the skin and muscles to directly target important organs, healing magic is very often Internal for example, as are some forms of illusion or communication magic that target the brain directly.

However Internal effects are very easy for the target to disrupt, simply by gathering mana in the targeted area of the body (a common technique known as hardening) the magical processes can be interfered with, preventing the spell from taking effect. Internal spells can still be a useful part of any mage's arsenal but if targeting an opponent it is critical to wait for the right opportunity. Wear down the enemy's mana reserves over the course of a fight or wait for them to commit most of their mana to a powerful attack or spell.


Exceptions to the Rules: Rituals

Rituals are special spells with extremely long incantation times, but they can make use of external sources of mana such as crystals and are used to create permanent effects known as enchantments. Enchantments can stay in operation as long as they have a source of mana to draw from, making them invaluable for defensive purposes, though sourcing the mana required can be expensive in the modern age.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

The City of New Atlantis

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First proposed at the tail end of the Nexite war and, some twenty years later still technically an ongoing work, New Atlantis is indisputably the single most ambitious construction project in the history of the human race. The immense, floating city is 750km2 in total area and home to over thirty million people, ranking it among the most populous cities in the world. The precise cost of New Atlantis is classified, but outside experts put the number somewhere over 200 billion dollars, split between the US, EU, Russia, China and India. Situated in the North Atlantic Ocean in international waters, New Atlantis is roughly equidistant between New York and Lisbon and despite it's young history it has already become a vital shipping point, featuring ten ports and importing from and exporting to ports all over the world.

New Atlantis was proposed and constructed with the explicit purpose of harboring the world's magical population, who had been displaced from their homes by the Nexite war and the subsequent fortification and exploitation of Nexite deposits. It is home to an estimated 99% of the world's mages and houses significant populations from every continent on the planet, making it one of the most diverse cities in the world. New Atlantis is administered by the Silencers, an international organization of some 1.5 million members originally dedicated to keeping the existence of magic secret and now devoting itself to the smooth running

Despite it''s massive population and economically useful location New Atlantis has struggled to achieve the economic footprint one might expect. Business is hampered on both the micro and macro scale by endemic crime, poor relations between the Silencers and the cities population and massive variation in education level, languages and values. The city is not yet self sustaining though it is intended to become so in the future, and relies on funding from the original sponsors of it construction to maintain solvency.


Design

Despite it's enormous size, New Atlantis is actually free floating, it is supported by a complex system of over 500,000 pontoons and anchored in place with billions of thick cables. The advantage of the pontoon system is that each pontoon can be detached and floated to the surface for repairs, the city can remain afloat with only 25% of its pontoons in action and is designed to comfortably survive even the harshest conditions. In 2052 Hurricane Ignacio passed over the city, despite significant damage to residential areas the city's major systems remained largely unaffected.

New Atlantis is designed around its wards, five immense floating platforms that host the majority of its residents. The wards are named after the most populous cities of their patron nations, there is Berlin Ward, Moscow Ward, Mumbai Ward, New York Ward and Shanghai Ward. The wards were originally intended to hold refugees from the regions they were named after but difficulties in the resettlement process and movement between the wards has rendered demographics more homogeneous. In the middle of the wards is CENTRAL, a large, multi story, heavily fortified central district that houses the city administration and certain other vital functions as well as housing most of the city's Silencers. Separating the wards and stretching from CENTRAL to the city's perimeter are the arms, long, densely packed facilities run by the Silencers that include power plants, desalination plants, hydroponic farms, sanitation centers and recycling plants. Like CENTRAL the arms are heavily fortified and, after a series of high profile sabotages employment in the facilities has been restricted to Silencers and heavily vetted, imported labor. In normal operations each arm is intended to service one ward, with Central having its own dedicated facilities located underneath it but output can also be shifted around to compensate in the event of equipment failure or some other emergency.

The Arms extend from CENTRAL and terminate in the Enclaves, small hexagonal districts that function somewhat like miniature extensions of CENTRAL, handling law enforcement and other issues where at the outer areas of the city where it would be inefficient to handle them from CENTRAL. New Atlantis's ten ports are located next to the Enclaves so that officials can safely and easily monitor the city's imports and exports as well

Though not officially, in informal discussions the wards are usually divided into an inner and an outer district. New Atlantis experiences powerful sea winds and severe issues with salt damage which are exacerbated in the outer wards due to less protection from the elements. The inner areas are more protected and as a result the city's wealthier residents usually reside their, resulting in an overall higher living standard. The inner wards are also closer to CENTRAL, meaning gang activity is markedly less pronounced than in the outer wards and crime on the whole is lower.

There is an unofficial third section to each ward not depicted on official maps. Referred to as the wharves or the floats by locals these are unauthorized, often magically produced additions to the original boundaries of New Atlantis. The wharves are the most developed at the points of each ward, at the furthest points from the Enclaves that might try and dismantle them and sometimes extend two or three kilometers out from the official borders of the city. The purpose of the wharves are mainly small scale fishing and seaweed farming operations, there is widespread distrust among New Atlantis' mages of the city's officially produced food so many prefer to subsist on what they can produce themselves. The wharves are also home to unauthorized housing, these are range from hastily constructed but warm family houses to massive complexes that are little more than slums, they are not connected to New Atlantis' arm facilities and reliant on magic for any amenities they have. The wharves are also the host of a significant underground shipping industry. The imports and exports from New Atlantis' official ports are highly controlled and there is great demand for contraband, particularly spell components. The wharves have been a consistent problem for New Atlantis' administration but dismantling them has so far proved impossible, the wharves are hives of gang activity, the residents of the business owners pay rent directly to the gangs and disputes over territory are frequent. Expeditions by Silencer patrols into the wharves have met with fierce resistance and heavy losses much of the wharves is magically fortified and extremely dangerous for those with hostile assault. Without resorting to bombardment or some similarly heavy handed solution removing the wharves is probably impossible.


Culture

New Atlantis is perhaps one of the most diverse and vibrant cities in the world, with large minorities from almost every corner of the globe and millions of different social groups proudly bearing their customs and history. Culture tends to vary wildly, not just from ward to ward but from neighborhood to neighborhood, the magical population often places great importance on visual displays and entertainment, graffiti and sculpture are frequent sights and demonstrate the rich symbology of the city's various groups. As a demographic, mages often have less experience with electronics and mass media although this is less prominent among younger generations but a great emphasis is still placed on physical entertainment such as dance and athletics, martial arts is also extremely popular, often integrated into magic teachings. Basketball, once considered a novelty is now highly popular all over the city, thanks to the simple requirements in terms of facilities and the possibility to modify it by allowing magic and martial arts to be integrated.

In the more affluent inner districts culture tends to be more influenced by the outside world, the population there is more skewed towards non magical residents, emigrants tempted by low property prices and the prospect of exploiting new markets. These residents tend to be business people or highly paid professionals and the inner wards are host to universities, art galleries, museums and other markers of high culture.

Cuisine in New Atlantis is also highly varied, with demographics bringing recipes and favored ingredients from all over the world often combining them in unlikely ways. The city's most distinctive cuisine is probably its street food especially on the wharves where the bland officially sanctioned food is shunned. Shark bites, a typical dish, consisting of an enormous pot of seasoned broth kept boiling to which chunks of flake or similar fish are heavily seasoned, wrapped in seaweed and boiled in the broth as customers order. The bites are then fished out and served in a bowl with broth and optional extras such as roe, vegetables and less commonly eggs or other meat. Shark bites are one example but the dishes usually on offer change from ward to ward.

Economy

Despite its size the economy of New Atlantis has been historically underdeveloped. Official trade revolves around the CENTRAL credit or CENcred, a currency minted by CENTRAL and accepted around the world roughly equal to a US dollar. CENTRAL employees and the non magical businesses that serve them deal exclusively in credits, using them to import the many luxuries that can't be produced locally.

Mages by contrast tend to avoid using credits to minimize CENTRAL's control over their lives, preferring to either barter goods or deal with mana shards, small crystals charged with mana that can be used to restore one's own mana or sustain ongoing enchantments. Shards are smuggled into New Atlantis from the mainland but once used they can be recharged by spending some time channeling mana into them, many lesser schools bring in vital goods by having their younger members recharge empty shards as the charged crystals are worth more.

In the middle are the lower class, non magical population.These are mainly factory, sanitation workers or farmers brought in by CENTRAL but their ranks have been growing rapidly as of late to match the skyrocketing demand for labor in industries such as service, retail and entertainment. This middle class is paid in CENcreds and uses them to purchase imported goods which they trade to the magical community for magical goods and services which are generally cheaper than their conventional alternatives, essentially forming a bridge between the two economies.

This bridge is also beginning to be reinforced by mages becoming interested in the market economy. Younger mages, especially those with lower magical potential are increasingly willing to apply for conventional jobs, be paid in CENcreds and acquire mundane items. There is some amount of resentment towards this class among the magical community, much of the interest in magic is as novelties and status symbols for the rich, which many mages see as a betrayal of their proud history and traditions. Nevertheless it seems the opportunities on offer are tempting enough to risk ostracisation as this class only continues to grow.


Law Enforcement

New Atlantis has a full justice system and a branch of The Silencers called the enforcement unit dedicated to carrying it out but have met with extremely limited success. In the wealthy inner wards the enforcement unit can respond to incidents quickly in full force and can usually count on the cooperation of citizens to support them by reporting crime and providing statements. In the outer wards it's a completely different story. Most mages don't trust the Silencers or view them with outright hostility, the majority of lesser schools have spent time fighting against them at one point or another and most of their lives hiding form them. Standardized education is also practically non existent among mages, who prefer to teach their children within the school and pass on their values and wisdom so most mages don't even know what the official laws of is, relying on their own values to tell right from wrong and their own strength or the gangs they pay protection money to to settle disputes. Enforcers can't even safely enter the outer wards except in large numbers, while one on one enforcers can subdue inexperienced mages and are match for the average mage small groups of enforcers tend to be ambushed and annihilated thanks to the advantage in information and knowledge of the area the gangs enjoy. The Enforcement unit sometimes carries out large scale patrols through the outer wards as a means of showing strength but they aren't really frequent enough to assert any real control. By the same token, the gangs don't really have free run of the city, the closer one is to Central or the Enclaves the easier it is for the Silencers to respond with the necessary force and the headquarters themselves are practically fortresses, totally unassailable by any normal gang.

While information on Silencer personnel is carefully guarded, it is known that enforcement unit members are classified both in terms of rank and overall power and at least a few elite members are extremely dangerous, likely a match for the strongest mages in the city.


Gangs

The gangs of New Atlantis have captured the eye of the public and arguably come to define New Atlantis for better or worse. There are, by some estimations over 20,000 gangs in New Atlantis the precise number fluctuating constantly and the vast majority using magic to commit crime or assert control over their territory. Gangs vary hugely in terms of their structure, methodology and motivations to the point where some have questioned how useful the term Gang actually is. Some Gangs are based around lesser schools, their traditional leadership using illegal means to secure revenue or defend their perceived territory. Others are literally the opposite, consisting of mages who are outcasts or at conflict with the leadership of their schools and seeking a new social group, many are somewhere between, operating outside of traditional schools but receiving tacit approval and support from connected schools. Some gangs emphasize a geographical area, perceiving it as their territory and defending it from outside threats to collect protection money, sometimes even altruistically. Other gangs focus on many making ventures and have fronts or businesses scattered throughout their ward.

The five most powerful gangs are unarguably those lead by the Old Kings, these five gangs are centered around powerful, ancient schools of magic that were well regarded or infamous even before the Nexite wars. Since moving to New Atlantis these schools used their raw strength, connections with other schools and keen perception of the new environment to establish powerful criminal networks. Whether by mutual agreement or simply due to the natural difficulties involved in operating between wards each of the Old Kings controls one ward.


Vital statistics

Roughly 750 km2 in total area

Roughly thirty million residents

rough pop. density of 40000 per km2

divided into five wards and central (administration district)

each ward carries between 5 and seven million people and is supported by two docks and one "arm" a massive, fortified facility that includes water purifiers, nexite power plants, food production and processing and sanitation to cater for the population's needs.

each ward also has one enclave, a fortified outpost for the Silencers to administer and patrol that ward from

Each ward split into an outer and inner section, outer sections experience difficulties with harsh sea winds and salt damage while inner wards are more protected and more upper class.

New Atlantis home to an estimated 1.5 million Silencers, residing either in the Enclaves or in Central, a heavily fortified central district that serves as the nerve centre of New Atlantis. Access to Central is highly restricted.

 

[AtlannianSpy]

The Silencers​

Rivaled only by the Nexite wars, the Silencing is arguably the single most influential factor in the history of magic. As late as the early 1200's the vast majority of magical schools practiced their art openly, often times wielding great political influence. This changex drastically however in the Middle Ages, with stunning rapidity mages were driven from power, then society altogether, retreating and becoming the secretive, tightly knit schools of the modern age thanks to the coordinated efforts of the group that came to be known as the silencers.

Often portrayed by mages as a vast global conspiracy, the silencing is in fact a case of many different groups developing in tandem and gradually recognizing their mutual aims. The two most prominent Silencer groups were the Inquisition, originally born out of the Catholic Church and the Hashashin originating from Ismaili Islam but there were many other groups that developed around the same time independently. Originally wholly separate, they were united in identifying the open study of magic as a threat to the established social or political order. Some, particularly the Inquisition, identified magic as blasphemy and sought to curtail magical influence on religious grounds.

Regardless of philosophy, from about 1300 Silencer groups began taking various actions against rival schools of magic, recognizing that eliminating them was probably impossible they instead focused on forcing them out of the public eye, mages of political prominence were ousted or assassinated and pogroms and other forms of persecution were organised amongst the lower classes. Though Silencers groups were greatly outnumbered by the combined schools of magic few were able or willing to ally against them, allowing Silencers to target schools consecutively, at times taking advantage of inter school rivalries to divide and conquer.


Unification

The nature of Silencer groups changed abruptly and permanently in 1256 when the Hashashin, the second oldest and most powerful of the Silencer groups had their strength nearly shattered by the capture of their fortress at Alamut. The desperate assassins found safety in the most unlikely of places when Nicolo Avicci, the Inquisitor General at the time, extended an offer of shelter to them. It is unknown how exactly but some time around 1245 Avicci had begun corresponding with the leader of the Assassins, probably due to mutual concerns over the mongols who openly employed mages in their campaigns. While some of the assassins made preparations to retake Alamut the bulk of the remaining leadership took up Avicci's offer and smuggled themselves into Rome to take up residence with the Inquisition. The Inquisition by this time had long since split from the catholic church and the official inquisition to better pursue their prey and were less concerned than one might think to share living quarters with Muslims. The two orders found they had much in common, particularly their extreme hatred of mages and their concern over the mongols, who had conquered vast swathes of territory and employed mages to do it, who threatened to return the heretical craft to prominence in the eyes of the people. Both the assassins and the inquisition were greatly diminished in strength, the assassins by their disastrous campaigns against the mongols and the inquisition by their split from the church and its immense wealth and manpower and resolved to join forces, culminating in the successful assassination of Mongke Khan in 1259.

This successful cooperation was a revelation to both orders. Despite their religious differences they acknowledged a common enemy in mages and had just experienced first hand the effects their combined resources and expertise could produce. Avicci, ever the visionary, saw this as a base for further expansion, by reaching out to and incorporating other groups opposed to mages the orders could extend their reach many times over, driving magic even from the societies of heathens and barbarians and extinguishing it forever n the minds of the people. This moment was probably the birth of the modern Silencers, who steadily morphed into a vast web of cells that controlled via infiltration untold wealth and influence, directing it all towards silencing magic.

The Silencers were never foolish enough to try and seek out the heavily fortified strongholds of mages, attacking such strong points would have been costly and risked demonstrating the power of magic to witnesses, instead they focused on removing mages from political power and drove them out of cities by stirring up the lower classes against them. By only focusing on prominent mages the Silencers ensured they always had the advantage in numbers and power, in many cases the targeted mages were unwilling or unable to ally themselves with other schools and often didn't completely value the place in society or influence they were being driven away from, adopting the stance that it would be better to withdraw and focus on perfecting their art then endure a society that hated them. Additionally most mages probably didn't comprehend the scale of the Silencers arrayed against them, who were careful never to deploy their full strength in any one encounter.


Expansion

The Silencers continued their campaign against magic while also expanding their own influence in society by infiltrating political structures and investing carefully in companies and various ventures, often times seizing the property of mages for themselves or siphoning away funds from the governments they ostensibly worked for. By the Colonial age the Silencers controlled a vast empire of shadows, their influence stretching across Eurasia and North Africa. In addition to directly targeting mages, they promoted ideology and doctrine that discredited the very idea of magic, pushing the works of rationalists and enlightenment thinkers. The Silencers were well placed to expand their operations into Africa and the New world and profited immensely from the exploitation of those resources and managed to dampen the overt use of magic there too, though not to the extent they had managed in Europe and Asia thanks largely to the difficult terrain and uncooperative locals. The Silencers probably reached their peak in the late 1800's, when their infiltration of the Colonial empires of countries like Great Britain and France as well as their good relations with factions inside countries as far east as China and Japan gave them unimaginable wealth and influence almost all over the globe.


Setbacks

The fortunes of the Silencers were dealt a serious blow by the advent of WW1. Although they had spread all over the world most of the Silencer's wealth and power was based in Europe and they had been heavily involved in attempts to keep the continent running smoothly, peacefully and profitably, going so far as to assign elite operatives to guard archduke Franz Ferdinand. The were ultimately unsuccessful and Europe was plunged into a war that saw the Silencer's lose many carefully built up operations and valuable agents. Though they weathered the war still a force to be reckoned the Silencer had difficulty reclaiming their former strength, the war had seen sharp advancements in espionage that made it hard for them to infiltrate governments to the extent they once had, governments began to be aware of the Silencers although they never understood their purpose or their true extent and the colonial empires that had fueled them were slowly beginning to be dismantled.

The Silencers were still a force to be reckoned with but increasingly they were forced to operate outside of existing power structures, relying on smaller cells of dedicated but undermanned operatives to maintain a watch over vast swathes of territory. Fortunately for the Silencers their work was now largely been done for them, the tides of culture had changed to rationalism and science and the mages, probably not fully aware of how diminished their ancient enemy had come to prefer isolation and their own company, if mages did display their power it was dismissed as trickery or hallucination. An uneasy equilibrium was gradually established over the course of the twentieth century, with little open conflict as both Silencers and mages saw the benefit in keeping their affairs secret, this period even saw (extremely limited) cooperation between Silencers and mages to keep the world at large ignorant of magic.


Nexite Wars

It's contentious how much The Silencers had to do with the Nexite Wars. Mages often contend that the wars were instigated in some way by the Silencers to ultimately eliminate all magic from the world but this is doubtful. More knowledgeable figures point out that the Silencers had little influence over world governments by this point and in any case the Nexite wars ultimately ended with magic being revealed to the world, literally the opposite of their intended goals. What is indisputable is that shortly after mages revealed themselves to the world the Silencers did so as well, petitioning themselves as experts on magic and magical culture that could help the governments of the world deal with the ongoing crisis of magical refugees.

The Silencers proposed the concept of New Atlantis and volunteered to administrate it once it was created, including law enforcement which was an issue no one else at the time had a viable solution for. Policing magical populations via conventional means had proven both ineffective and extremely dangerous so the Governments of the world took up the offer. Currently the bulk of the order resides in the fortified administrative district, seeing to the daily concerns of New Atlantis and attempting to assert some kind of order on its districts with little success. The enforcers conduct regular patrols of the outer districts but are forced to travel in large numbers for fear of attack and don't assert much effective control, especially in areas with high gang activity.

Tensions between the magical community and the Silencers remain at a high peak, with most considering them outright enemies it's difficult to imagine a a path to reconciliation and effective governance of the city. the official stance of the Silencers is that Keeping magic contained in New Atlantis is currently the most effective way to minimize its harmful impact on society but many privately wonder if the Silencers don't have some kind of ulterior motive for taking on the dangerous task and largely thankless task.