Fantasy Voyage To The End [OOC]

[Scaleless]

Finally posted Cicero, although it is still a WIP.

Personality and magic is all done, so the feel for the playstyle is there. I'll be delving into gear and history more tomorrow after I get some sleep. If anyone would like to brainstorm any character-relationships then please ping me~

Brother, I love his arsenal of spells, they’re so creative. Personality is very well written as well. Shaping up to be an amazing character!

Thank you!! Just making mine up as I go along! Working out pretty well so far. Lol probably spent a little too long playing with AI to get a pic though.

I still got work to do on magic mostly. And gear, depending on if you just want our mainstays or everything in our pockets. But mostly I just got to think up a couple specific magic spells and stuff, and maybe get a bit more info on the royal family elemental magic.


As for siblings! I had some loose ideas. Maybe a picture. But nothing that I really needed to be any specific way. Would fun to discuss!

Do you use novelai or waifu diffusion for the images? They look very good. For the siblings I was thinking they could be the opposite of one another. The sister being the most gifted in magic and combat, but more of a lone wolf and the brother fairly weak other than some parlor tricks that allow him to slip away—instead hiring a force of very skilled and experienced fighters.

 

[Scaleless]

D. Rex Forgot a bit again. Soo for the gear, just the important stuff you don’t need to document every random thing. Just don’t pull out an enchanted bomb or smthing out of nowhere.

The family magic techniques is using various elements in conjunction. Like using a fire and electric spell to trigger an explosion. Or water and electricity to create a wave of charged water. Water + fire to create mist, that kind of thing.

 

[Echocoa]

Got up the bones for Ghowgaa's sheet, which I'll keep updating obviously. I love blending this world's magic into my love for blue mages/mimics and I think it'll be really fun to play around with in-world ^^

 

[Kloudy]

Got up the bones for Ghowgaa's sheet, which I'll keep updating obviously. I love blending this world's magic into my love for blue mages/mimics and I think it'll be really fun to play around with in-world ^^

Love the character, very interested in your use of desire/intention regarding magic and presence. Love the theming too, your orc really works well with how I've been imagining orcs to be based on prior discussions here.

Only the tiniest bit concerned about the concept of copy-magic, as that can be perceived as a little heavy-handed at times. I would also argue that the "Spark" that confers the magical activation is not the sole component to learning magic, as I believe there should be an element of physical or "energical" conditioning one would do to "train" casting certain spells. Y'know, one doesn't simply think how to cast a spell and therefore it works, it takes time to learn how to cast it itself. Theory versus practice, as it were.

I also love blue mage stuff, so I really don't want to come across as telling you what to do and it certainly isn't my place to do so. Just don't want to have my mage have mastery in certain magicks only for him to be easily copied by someone who can essentially mind-read his spells. If I've misinterpreted all this, I am so sorry and please correct me!

 

[Echocoa]

Love the character, very interested in your use of desire/intention regarding magic and presence. Love the theming too, your orc really works well with how I've been imagining orcs to be based on prior discussions here.

Only the tiniest bit concerned about the concept of copy-magic, as that can be perceived as a little heavy-handed at times. I would also argue that the "Spark" that confers the magical activation is not the sole component to learning magic, as I believe there should be an element of physical or "energical" conditioning one would do to "train" casting certain spells. Y'know, one doesn't simply think how to cast a spell and therefore it works, it takes time to learn how to cast it itself. Theory versus practice, as it were.

I also love blue mage stuff, so I really don't want to come across as telling you what to do and it certainly isn't my place to do so. Just don't want to have my mage have mastery in certain magicks only for him to be easily copied by someone who can essentially mind-read his spells. If I've misinterpreted all this, I am so sorry and please correct me!

No no that's a totally reasonable worry, and one I did think about but really did a poor job of making clear in how I worded things.

First, I realized my wording does make it sound like the "Spark" is all that is needed for the effect to be activated and that it just comes into effect with no or little effort, and that was my fault. What had been more going through my head was that the Spark was essentially what you're describing as the learned component while practice and understanding of the effect/s it generated was still necessary and would likely take time, especially if the effects took a considerable amount of energy to produce or were very precise. Essentially a Spark lets you replicate the base effect of the magic used by, to use an analogy, manually setting the magical variables to be the same as what the creature had when they produced the magic, or for a non-magical attack using these variables to create a functionally similar effect assisted by magic. This doesn't override having to learn how to effectively utilize those effects it in a body they obviously hadn't been intended to originate from. Does that make some sense? Basically a Spark is the learned spell/attack, but because it's foreign it still needs to be shaped into something that works for the new caster which takes experimentation and practice. I could have explained that in far fewer words >-<

Second, and more minor, it might be arbitrary but I was definitely intending for Sparks to only be learned from non-humanoid creatures, as well as not directly replicate spells cast by humanoids. Whether or not I'll be able to come up with a way of explaining that IC I haven't figured out yet. Maybe because humanoids don't originate from the abyss and thus fundamentally utilize magic in a different manner, I'm not sure. But regardless I never intended nor wanted to copy Cicero's expert magic spell for spell with no effort, and I would avoid doing anything related. Additionally, stronger magic and more powerful effects/attacks would certainly still require increasingly large amounts of energy to power. Magic or effects/attacks learned from strong creatures (such as Remus or the serpent "deity", as the most obvious examples) would be highly draining to execute, and would take extensive training to shape into a form more functional with Ghowgaa's body and spirit. No popping off freeze breaths left and right to trivialize everything. I want this to be interesting and adaptable, but no stronger than anyone else's character. Their abilities still have limitations and costs and I want to avoid those worries about going so heavy-handed as to make things unenjoyable for everyone else.

Edit: I went back and changed/added some wording to hopefully make what I was thinking a little clearer. It's harder to put into words than I was expecting ^^;

 

[Kloudy]

No no that's a totally reasonable worry, and one I did think about but really did a poor job of making clear in how I worded things.

First, I realized my wording does make it sound like the "Spark" is all that is needed for the effect to be activated and that it just comes into effect with no or little effort, and that was my fault. What had been more going through my head was that the Spark was essentially what you're describing as the learned component while practice and understanding of the effect/s it generated was still necessary and would likely take time, especially if the effects took a considerable amount of energy to produce or were very precise. Essentially a Spark lets you replicate the base effect of the magic used by, to use an analogy, manually setting the magical variables to be the same as what the creature had when they produced the magic, or for a non-magical attack using these variables to create a functionally similar effect assisted by magic. This doesn't override having to learn how to effectively utilize those effects it in a body they obviously hadn't been intended to originate from. Does that make some sense? Basically a Spark is the learned spell/attack, but because it's foreign it still needs to be shaped into something that works for the new caster which takes experimentation and practice. I could have explained that in far fewer words >-<

Second, and more minor, it might be arbitrary but I was definitely intending for Sparks to only be learned from non-humanoid creatures, as well as not directly replicate spells cast by humanoids. Whether or not I'll be able to come up with a way of explaining that IC I haven't figured out yet. Maybe because humanoids don't originate from the abyss and thus fundamentally utilize magic in a different manner, I'm not sure. But regardless I never intended nor wanted to copy Cicero's expert magic spell for spell with no effort, and I would avoid doing anything related. Additionally, stronger magic and more powerful effects/attacks would certainly still require increasingly large amounts of energy to power. Magic or effects/attacks learned from strong creatures (such as Remus or the serpent "deity", as the most obvious examples) would be highly draining to execute, and would take extensive training to shape into a form more functional with Ghowgaa's body and spirit. No popping off freeze breaths left and right to trivialize everything. I want this to be interesting and adaptable, but no stronger than anyone else's character. Their abilities still have limitations and costs and I want to avoid those worries about going so heavy-handed as to make things unenjoyable for everyone else.

Okay, so I understand what you're going for a bit better now. Effectively it's similar to the Sharingan from Naruto, if you've seen that show, with a few more steps. I take your point about replicating the state of mind just before casting, but it's of my opinion that there should at least be a negative effect on the copier for attempting to channel magical energy in a format they are certainly not accustomed to or conditioned for.

An example would be casting fire magic, then getting physically burned across one's body internally for having no control over the flame arcana coursing through your veins as you've only been able to activate its effects. You could indeed train to use it over an arbitrary amount of time, but surely the damaging trial and error in the meantime would be inefficient compared to simply finding a teacher?

I am very relieved to hear that it does indeed only refer to non-humanoids in its entirety, although I am unsure where the distinction is made IC-wise. I do still wonder at the longevity of copy-magic to begin with though, as you would still be able to subvert all prior magic-users with rapid spell-power growth and versatility. Even if you don't copy my magic, I'll be quickly outdone as you gain more and more abilities that may even perform my playstyle similarly. Not to say that I wish to be more powerful than anyone, but as you mentioned previously I don't wish to be trivialised either.

I guess what I'm saying is that there needs to be some kind of quantifiable cost or limit so that you don't have the option to simply snowball into the next Kyserias halfway into our journey. I hate shutting peoples' ideas down so I won't simply say "don't use copy-magic", but I must admit that copy-magic in of itself is a difficult concept to get right in a collaborative setting.

Sorry for all the pushback, I really do like your character concept I swear

 

[Scaleless]

Echocoa Kloudy

If I am understanding this correctly, she can permanently learn magical abilities from monsters? Perhaps the more it is used the more bestial traits she develops. It would set a soft limit and discourage her from learning too much to quickly. The more magic she would amass, the less she would be like herself.

To elaborate, if she were to copy a sentient mushroom’s Poison Magic, she would take on some traits of that creature, mentally and physically. She would begin to feel strong a pull to avoid humid places for then on, have drier skin and feel a strong urge to avoid bright lights.

May not be to your tastes though Echo—as it will result in changing your intended characters personality or appearance over time. Would create some hesitancy and choice on picking who it is used on and whether it would be worth it.

 

[Kloudy]

Echocoa Kloudy

If I am understanding this correctly, she can permanently learn magical abilities from monsters? Perhaps the more it is used the more bestial traits she develops. It would set a soft limit and discourage her from learning too much to quickly. The more magic she would amass, the less she would be like herself.

To elaborate, if she were to copy a sentient mushroom’s Poison Magic, she would take on some traits of that creature, mentally and physically. She would begin to feel strong a pull to avoid humid places for then on, have drier skin and feel a strong urge to avoid bright lights.

May not be to your tastes though Echo—as it will result in changing your intended characters personality or appearance over time. Would create some hesitancy and choice on picking who it is used on and whether it would be worth it.

My suggestion would be to either go the route of temporary damage on each spell-use, discouraging the spamming of unpracticed arcana for fear of self-destruction, or working around "slots" that Echo can load certain Sparks into.

I personally prefer the latter idea, as it would have less of the spell-pokemon element and it would mean that Sparks echo wishes to eject in favour of another would be lost until they come across that monster again. This would encourage the prioritisation of keeping certain Sparks one views as important or particularly useful.

And through training, one could increase the amount of slots they have.

 

[Echocoa]

Honestly I might just throw out the idea since realistically I've just been ignoring how hard it is to make it balanced and reasonable without tons of extra rules that take away from play. I'll look at other ideas.

 

[Kloudy]

Honestly I might just throw out the idea since realistically I've just been ignoring how hard it is to make it balanced and reasonable without tons of extra rules that take away from play. I'll look at other ideas.

I'm really sorry for making this difficult for you! I do think the whole slots idea would be fully viable for the setting and we wouldn't have to worry about the stuff I was talking about previously. Again, I apologise for taking the fun out of your initial concept.

 

[Scaleless]

Echocoa Nono, it’s completely fine! Just needs some fine tuning for the long term. Let’s go with Kloudies idea, let’s say that they can only take on up to 3 sparks at once. Needing to replace one to learn another when she is at 3. You will unlock more slots as she gains experience, on top of that.

Furthermore, rather than taking on the full physiology of the creature, let’s say you can only get a single trait from one creature.

Ex: If you use it on a goblin, you get nightvision.

Ex: If you use it on a sentient mushroom you can summon a poison cloud, but don’t gain any of their other traits or powers.

Hope that is still true to what you envisioned with the character. It is a really fun idea to have our kind of Kirby lmao.

 

[Echocoa]

I'm really sorry for making this difficult for you! I do think the whole slots idea would be fully viable for the setting and we wouldn't have to worry about the stuff I was talking about previously. Again, I apologise for taking the fun out of your initial concept.

Echocoa Nono, it’s completely fine! Just needs some fine tuning for the long term. Let’s go with Kloudies idea, let’s say that they can only take on up to 3 sparks at once. Needing to replace one to learn another when she is at 3. You will unlock more slots as she gains experience, on top of that.

Furthermore, rather than taking on the full physiology of the creature, let’s say you can only get a single trait from one creature.

Ex: If you use it on a goblin, you get nightvision.

Ex: If you use it on a sentient mushroom you can summon a poison cloud, but don’t gain any of their other traits or powers.

Hope that is still true to what you envisioned with the character. It is a really fun idea to have our kind of Kirby lmao.

It isn't you all's fault, these are valid problems that seem to come up every time and end up miring the whole thing. It's okay. It'd be better to find something simpler anyway. Sorry for causing some drama, I'll just think about it.

 

[Kloudy]

It isn't you all's fault, these are valid problems that seem to come up every time and end up miring the whole thing. It's okay. It'd be better to find something simpler anyway. Sorry for causing some drama, I'll just think about it.

You have nothing to apologise for, there's no drama - I likely just came across more argumentative than I had intended. If you'd like any help with brainstorming in any way, please let me know.

 

[Scaleless]

It isn't you all's fault, these are valid problems that seem to come up every time and end up miring the whole thing. It's okay. It'd be better to find something simpler anyway. Sorry for causing some drama, I'll just think about it.

I honestly really liked it and was having fun thinking of things I could throw at ya! I understand if you wanna try something else though. It really fit your character thematically.

I assume you want something to do with monsters still? I could toss out some ideas as well if you didn’t have something else you were considering.

 

[Echocoa]

You have nothing to apologise for, there's no drama - I likely just came across more argumentative than I had intended. If you'd like any help with brainstorming in any way, please let me know.

It's alright, I didn't think you were being argumentative and I've heard those things before times when I've wanted to use some form of blue magic in other settings, which similarly always fell apart due to complications. What you say makes sense and I don't really have anything I can say to fix an idea with too many holes. We can keep talking about ways to plug them or I can just get a different bucket. I've found something else before and if I think for a bit I'm sure I will again, and probably the next time unless I finally stop trying like I probably should.

Also apologies since I know I have a habit of sounding melodramatic and I worry that's coming out since I'm feeling frustrated with myself. That's what I meant by causing drama, I guess. So sorry, again.

 

[Ayama]

Y'all can bring all the drama into IC- that way my derps can diffuse things with their ridiculousness ;P

 

[Echocoa]

I honestly really liked it and was having fun thinking of things I could throw at ya! I understand if you wanna try something else though. It really fit your character thematically.

I assume you want something to do with monsters still? I could toss out some ideas as well if you didn’t have something else you were considering.

Sorry to take that fun away, but I'd probably then just start from scratch since Ghowgaa is a bit too attached to that idea to feel right annexed from it. I don't know.

 

[Echocoa]

To take things back to some form of productive thought, while I'm not sure what my next direction will start with, I know that the thing I so far find most interesting about this world/system is the nature of its magic, so I might use that as a starting point, vague as it may be. I'd love to hear any thoughts you all have about possible directions since you might have ideas about what would might bring more fun to the other players and GM o.o

 

[Kloudy]

I-If I may be so bold, perhaps a combination of analysis magic (true sight /lie detection kind of vibe) and physical enhancement? It would still work with your orc idea in terms of theming and would make for an interesting + reliable skillset for our team.

You could also throw in specialised magic-analysis, allowing you to fully understand spells that have been cast at us?

 

[Echocoa]

I-If I may be so bold, perhaps a combination of analysis magic (true sight /lie detection kind of vibe) and physical enhancement? It would still work with your orc idea in terms of theming and would make for an interesting + reliable skillset for our team.

You could also throw in specialised magic-analysis, allowing you to fully understand spells that have been cast at us?

Maybe, and that definitely fits what I did just ask, but it doesn't really excite me much, I suppose. I know I still like the idea of being a speedster or supporter type role like I mentioned at the very beginning, so if I could find a way to blend one or both of those with magic-analysis/enhancement/augmentation then I think that's be a hit for me. Though I'm not sure the direction I would want to direct that.

Taking a step back from the last idea and focusing less on personal power, helping other characters shine, especially in a highly collaborative environment like this, is really cool to me. So two thoughts include my very first idea for a trickster-type character that utilizes various debuffs and reveals/opens up weak points for others is a possibility. Alternatively, being a walking meta-magic conduit that can enhance the spells and effects created by allies would probably lead to lots of fun collaborations and explorations of the other players' abilities, so that's an idea too. Or something completely different, who knows.

 

[D. Rex]

Brother, I love his arsenal of spells, they’re so creative. Personality is very well written as well. Shaping up to be an amazing character!




Do you use novelai or waifu diffusion for the images? They look very good. For the siblings I was thinking they could be the opposite of one another. The sister being the most gifted in magic and combat, but more of a lone wolf and the brother fairly weak other than some parlor tricks that allow him to slip away—instead hiring a force of very skilled and experienced fighters.

I use Novelai. I'll use another image for a general shape or pose or color scheme then work from there until I get something completely different. And thank you! It still has a number of imperfections. Been having fun refining the results. I love making AI art of things. Even if I'm not always good at it. (So anybody wants any AI art, even if out of curiosity, I'm happy to provide! )


I actually had a similar idea with them. So I could be down for that. Works out pretty well! Let's me skip straight to the fun part of picture hunting too.

D. Rex Forgot a bit again. Soo for the gear, just the important stuff you don’t need to document every random thing. Just don’t pull out an enchanted bomb or smthing out of nowhere.

The family magic techniques is using various elements in conjunction. Like using a fire and electric spell to trigger an explosion. Or water and electricity to create a wave of charged water. Water + fire to create mist, that kind of thing.

Pretty simple for gear then! I can get behind that.


As for magic, that will be a pretty cool angle to follow. Really let's one get creative with the spells. But! I think its versatility will always play really well with the prince's balanced magic knightness.

 

[Scaleless]

To take things back to some form of productive thought, while I'm not sure what my next direction will start with, I know that the thing I so far find most interesting about this world/system is the nature of its magic, so I might use that as a starting point, vague as it may be. I'd love to hear any thoughts you all have about possible directions since you might have ideas about what would might bring more fun to the other players and GM o.o

Hmm. If that is the case you could do something like an anti-mage. In a way overpowering or dampening magical effects in the way of having a stronger will. To build off of what Kloudy suggested, perhaps the more they analyze a skill, the more they understand the intent behind the one who used it—what they thought and what they wished for.

One spell could tell you mentally what ‘intents’ or thoughts went into crafting a spell, the more complicated the spell analyzed, the more intents you will need to know to counter it. Let’s say someone asks for ‘heat’ and envisions ‘destruction’ when using a fireball spell. It would take 2 casts of this spell to be able to counter their fireball.

Another spell is the one that actually does the negating. The more you understand the intent of the spell you are negating, the more effective this one is. You counter the fireball by basically asking for the opposite of what was intended, instead ‘cold’ and ‘creation’ for our fireball.

Perhaps enhancing ally spells even, by building on their intents they used when crafting their spells.

Perhaps that’s even more complicated than your last idea though XD. It does heavily rely on this worlds magic system though.

 

[Spoiled Bread]

To take things back to some form of productive thought, while I'm not sure what my next direction will start with, I know that the thing I so far find most interesting about this world/system is the nature of its magic, so I might use that as a starting point, vague as it may be. I'd love to hear any thoughts you all have about possible directions since you might have ideas about what would might bring more fun to the other players and GM o.o

May i introduce you to the concept of my drill knight
Fully plated warrior with comically large lance that is also a drill that will pierce the heaven. I was going to use either this or the shovel mage but go with the latter.
My other concept of this RP is pure explorer with gadgets, Tomb Raider style. Grappling hook, spellslinger gauntlets with switchable spell disks and add-ons and many more.

 

[Echocoa]

Hmm. If that is the case you could do something like an anti-mage. In a way overpowering or dampening magical effects in the way of having a stronger will. To build off of what Kloudy suggested, perhaps the more they analyze a skill, the
more they understand the intent behind the one who used it—what they thought and what they wished for.

One spell could tell you mentally what ‘intents’ or thoughts went into crafting a spell, the more complicated the spell analyzed, the more intents you will need to know to counter it. Let’s say someone asks for ‘heat’ and envisions ‘destruction’ when using a fireball spell. It would take 2 casts of this spell to be able to counter their fireball.

Another spell is the one that actually does the negating. The more you understand the intent of the spell you are negating, the more effective this one is. You counter the fireball by basically asking for the opposite of what was intended, instead ‘cold’ and ‘creation’ for our fireball.

Perhaps enhancing ally spells even, by building on their intents they used when crafting their spells.

Perhaps that’s even more complicated than your last idea though XD. It does heavily rely on this worlds Magic system though.

Honestly that gets at a lot of the things I was just thinking actually ^^; Although I do want to avoid stepping on the counter magic the others have already described. But reading what would essentially be the "sparks" I was describing earlier and causing synergistic or antagonistic effects with them sounds really cool to me. More about diving into the magic system than just picking magic that sounds cool >-<

 

[D. Rex]

I-If I may be so bold, perhaps a combination of analysis magic (true sight /lie detection kind of vibe) and physical enhancement? It would still work with your orc idea in terms of theming and would make for an interesting + reliable skillset for our team.

You could also throw in specialised magic-analysis, allowing you to fully understand spells that have been cast at us?

Go druid/Pokémon master. Wear the blue magic is harnessing the inherent magic of the level within the spirits of that levels inhabitants.

So rather than a fire-breathing being "sasuke fireball jutsu", rather she summons an ethereal spirit head of a level 99 dragon to perform the a spell tied strongly to that creature.

And, to keep it simpler, to keep things from being OP. Not only does she have to acquire the spirit, but the spirit can't operate on lower levels where the magic is weaker. Lvl 99 dragon can be summoned on level 150 for potent results, but can't be used on level 98 since the magic isn't potent enough in that level to sustain it.


And if one wants, rather than "summoning spirit" it can instead be considered as "adopting an aspect", so to use goblin magic, she casts "goblin aspect" and it grants her goblin abilities. It wrapping her up like an aura or cloak.