![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
SETTING FAQ
 SETTING FAQ Looking to make a native OC or AU into the setting but intimidated by the wall of text on the wiki? Need a refresher but feeling the same way? Well. Here's... a less impenetrable but still hefty wall of text. I am so sorry. Jesus. It's not meant to be a full replacement for the wiki, but it'll hopefully translate some of the babble there into something more coherent. It's essentially a Sparknotes version of the information there, to help people that are less familiar with the setting or its mechanics with character creation or AUing, or just to give them fun ideas. The longform is all available here; most of the terms I've used here are the same as the terms used on the wiki, so you should be able to search pretty much anything if you want more info. General FAQ (General concepts and Mystic Eyes - Nonhumans - Psychics - The Holy Church) What is the World? The world is the world! It's Earth - the physical world you can interact with - but also applies to things like mental worlds and the spiritual planes of existence that you can't interact with (without a lot of work). But for our purposes, let's just think about Earth. There's our world, and a plane beneath ours where the laws of the Age of Gods are still intact, still rife with supernatural creatures. They can interact with us, but we can't interact with them; this is called the Reverse Side of the World. The Root is thought of as being outside of and completely separate from any other world. What is the Root? Oh boy. The Root is a location that exists outside of concepts of time or place - any possibility that has happened, is happening, can happen, will happen, or won’t happen is stored there, from information to universes to souls themselves. It’s comparable to the idea of the Akashic Records if you’re familiar with that, just like. More extensive. The Root is a metaphysical location that stores everything, ever. So it’s kind of a big deal. If you touch the Root you can uncover all the secrets the universe has to offer, making whoever reached it like God, in a sense. This is why many magi are so obsessed with it and devote so much time to attempts to reach it! How do you reach the Root? It depends. Different magi have tried different things - one that was able to manipulate time tried to accelerate it to view the end of the universe and see the Root that way. Another believed the human inability to reach the Root was related to genetic diversification, so she attempted to recreate the human body. Another with a martial arts background tried to touch it by reaching enlightenment, but all have failed. Has anyone done it successfully? Yes, but it’s very, very rare. Most examples we’ve been given are people that were born with the connection, or had a connection within them opened through very particular means - or are practitioners of True Magic, who draw directly from the Root for their spells. What happens when you touch the Root? You just like. Stop existing. There are a number of theories as to why this happens - because this is where souls come from, making direct contact with it sends the soul “back to where it came from,” or maybe people who’ve touched it become God and don’t need to come back. Or maybe they can’t, even if they want to… Either way, if a magus or magician has left their name in history, even if they’ve reached the Root, they probably haven’t actually touched it. No one’s done that and lived to tell the tale, basically. Sorry what's this about the will of the planet It has feelings too, you know! Essentially, the world, in wanting to protect itself from threats, created an immune system known as the Counter Force. At its most basic, that's all that this is - the will of the world as a whole to survive. Despite being called a "will," it's automatic and emotionless - the Counter Forces are just energy that either influences beings in a way that helps them save the world or acts directly to that same end. There are two types of Counter Force - Gaia and Alaya. Actions taken by the Counter Force can be as small as nudging a person to defeat someone that's endangering the planet or as big as sinking a continent. What is Gaia? Gaia is specifically the earth's desire to live. This is what is usually meant by "will of the planet" - Gaia interacts with Earth through the use of nature spirits and nonhuman creatures found within folklore and legends (these are called Phantasmal Species), and uses them to protect it. Gaia, being a Counter Force, does nothing but respond to threats - so, as humans begin to be a threat to the existence of the planet, it begins to employ events that are good at killing or subjugating humans - or creatures when it has to intervene directly. These are Phantasmal Species and the Transcendent Kind, and things born of the earth in general (except humans). Thanks to this Counter Force, it's impossible for anyone native to the earth to destroy it - even Noble Phantasms capable of destroying a planet can't do it. What is Alaya? Alaya is humanity's collective unconscious desire to live, as a species. Since humans are animals that live on earth, Alaya used to be a subforce of Gaia, but now that they've grown more independent, the two are separated and can come into conflict. Alaya tends to intervene by directing or empowering living people so that they can eliminate a threat, but when it's forced to take direct action it has its own agents too - Counter Guardians are humans that pledge their eternal service to Alaya in exchange for power during their lifetimes. Alaya tends to eliminate its threats using whatever's around - to use an example that isn't a person, it's theorized that Atlantis sank based on Alaya's actions. Alaya operates on the principle that humanity must exist for as long as it possibly can - any worlds where humanity either does too poorly and dies out or does too well and stagnates are unacceptable, and will be struck from the record by humanity's collective desire for the best survival possible. Any individuals that are close to reaching the Root are determined to be a threat by Alaya's standards, so any invested Magi might do well to hide their shit as best as they can. What is a Magus? Magi are humans that practice Magecraft - this is distinct from Magicians that perform Magic. More on that later. What are magic circuits? Magic circuits are the thing that qualifies someone to be a magus! They’re a sort of nervous system that converts life force into energy for Magecraft; you can’t do Magecraft or Magic without them. They’re called circuits because of their appearance, but what you see on the body is just a physical representation of them - they come from a magus’s soul, and sometimes will continue working even after the body’s ceased functioning. So only magi have them? Yes and no! First of all, magic circuits aren’t natural in the first place. Activating them is always a little bit painful or causes a little bit of numbness and alterations in body temperature. A tip for you tech-loving magus hunters: thermal goggles! Secondly, not every person who has magic circuits is a magus, though they could be - since that’s all that’s needed to do magecraft. The number you have is determined at birth and can’t be increased or decreased through normal means. That’s not to say you can’t, just that it’s very difficult and very painful - converting nerves into magic circuits, fusing your mind and body with another magus’s to transfer Circuits, and so on. In general, it’s easier for a family to just try to produce heirs with lots of them than it is to give someone a bunch artificially. Thirdly, it’s very very rare, but sometimes mutations will occur where a person develops Magic Circuits after being born. And that's why this goes under general information. It's not something that would be widely known, but you could totally have a character with magic circuits who doesn't live as a magus, or vice-versa. What are Mystic Eyes? Mystic eyes are eyes that produce a magic spell of some kind when activated by magic energy. They can occur naturally via mutations in the magic circuits around the eyes, or be artificially created - which happens sometimes, because they're valuable! A good quick spell that's easy to conceal when it isn't in use. Not that we recommend messing with the circuits around your eyes or anything. Only Binding, Charm, and Whisper can be artificially produced, but instances where people are born with Mystic Eyes are extremely rare anyway. That said, the mutation is often hereditary. What sorts of Mystic Eyes are there? The most common ones are Binding, which casts a crippling suggestive spell upon eye contact. Other common types are Charm, which distorts the target's perception so they see the user as someone attractive, Whisper, which allows for coercive suggestions, or Enchantment, which is the next level up from that - they're capable of high level hypnosis. Think about vampires. More extreme examples include the ability to turn people to stone on eye contact, or to perceive the death (or general end) of something in the form of lines and points; these more powerful ones can be difficult to deactivate, so it's possible to attain glasses - called Mystic Eye Killers - to suppress them. There are also Pure Eyes, which are unique to humans with high spiritual power (saints often have them) - and allow the user to see things that can't typically be seen, such as emotions or heat. Um, are there vampires in this setting? There are so many nonhumans in this setting. The ones most likely to matter for play are homunculi, vampires, and various phantasmal species and nature spirits - oni, succubi and the like. Most things that we know from folklore probably exist in some capacity, or did once. There's your shorthand. There are also a lot of aliens. Ok but I asked about the vampires Ok. The blanket term for anything that uses blood for nutrition is "bloodsucker," but when we're talking vampires - enemies of the church that can turn other people into vampires and enthrall with their eyes etc - that is referring specifically to Dead Apostles. Among other things that aren't appearing in this universe for ease of simplicity - Anyway, Dead Apostles are individuals that have become vampires either through magecraft (this is rare), or by being turned by other vampires. They are vampires and function more or less like you would expect - they can regenerate from wounds, but this is tied to the phases of the moon (they're strongest during a full moon and weakest during a new moon and speed of regen changes accordingly), and need to drink blood to prevent their bodies from degrading. They generally have superhuman abilities, but this is not something inherent to their vampirism and tends to have more to do with age - while they can eventually develop unique special abilities (it's older vampires that can can enthrall with their eyes, for example), a person who could live as long as a Dead Apostle could do most of the same things as them. Each and every one of them is unique, with only two caveats - they're unable to cross bodies of water on foot, and the degradation process is greatly hastened by sunlight. Even then, some very powerful vampires can move around during the day, and any of them can bypass the water issue by just. Getting on a boat or a plane. It's ok if you're riding. Also, contrary to popular belief, they can be killed by conventional weapons. It's just faster if it's blessed. What kind of blood can they have? Are animals ok? Animals are totally fine! The older a Dead Apostle gets the more energy they require to maintain themselves, so that's like. A lot of animals? Or a lot of people? But it's totally ok. You can't just not drink blood, though - a Dead Apostle's body is constantly slowly turning to ash from the moment they become one, and the only way to stop it is by using blood to stabilize the process. I don't want to hunt though! You can use a familiar if you want! Whether it's a corpse or animals or whatever, as long as the blood gets to you somehow it's all good. I want to turn someone else into a vampire! Well, that depends on them. Not in a consent way - people that are drained by vampires just like, die. It's extremely rare for this not to occur - the individual would need extremely high physical potential and a really good soul to survive that, and in that case they wouldn't turn at all. So how do you turn someone? You let them die. The corpse can be used as a familiar by the vampire responsible for their death, but if this isn't done then after a few years as a corpse they'll reanimate as a Ghoul - which is basically just a zombie. They're completely mindless and need to eat flesh to reconstitute their own bodies. After a few years of this, their brains are restored which allows them to regain their soul, memories, and intelligence - and then they become a vampire. After this they're required to serve time giving the blood they get to their sire vampire, but once they start to give their blood to humans and make their own followers, they're fully matured. This usually takes decades. You have to be willing to play the long game. Very rarely, when a person has extremely high potential, this whole process can happen in a matter of months, weeks, or even days. What are spirits? Lots of things! "Spirit" is just kind of a blanket term for a variety of different kinds; they tend to be brought into existence through people's belief in them going unrefuted - even though there are a ton of people who don't believe in ghosts, for example, ghosts exist because someone believed in them once and it's not possible to prove that they don't exist. A main commonality between them is that, for the most part, they can only be perceived by people with spiritual sensitivity. Being spirits, unless they have solid forms they can't be hurt by physical attacks. What are Elementals? This has also been used as a blanket term - in general, Elementals are a sort of spirit whose foundations can't be replicated through the use of Magecraft. These are things like nature spirits and animal spirits - the most basic definition is that they're sensories the will of the planet uses to interact with the physical world, but apart from that you also have guardian spirits, which are artificially created. What are nature spirits? Nature spirits are spirits born from elements of nature - plants, soil, water, jewels and ores, and so on. These things all accumulate power as they age, and grow stronger the older they get. Their spiritual bodies are formed by the will of the planet and they gain power from nature itself. There are some nature spirits that may be selected by the planet to assist it against the Captain Planet villain-esque tendencies of humans that can be given a flesh and blood body. These are called the Transcendent Kind and include dragons, oni, divine spirits, and similar things. What are animal spirits? Animal spirits are the spirits of dead animals. They linger in the world due to grudges, regrets, or other similar unfinished business. They tend to look the way they did in life! Animal spirits, as with most things in the larger setting, can consume the souls and minds of humans or other animals for nourishment. What are guardian spirits? Guardian spirits are spirits that are artificially created by merging the soul of an animal spirit or nature spirit with the soul of a human. This under no circumstances happens naturally - it's something only humans can produce. They have to be bound to an object or a place in order to remain in the world, and it takes them a while to develop their own forms and control over themselves after this. When mature they require immense amounts of magical energy in order to materialize themselves to be seen by anyone other than the person that's contracted with them (the owner of the object or place that they're bound to, usually). A guardian spirit and its contractor can also communicate psychically. What about ghosts though? What about ghosts indeed! The souls of dead people, called wraiths, linger in the world of the living due to grudges, regrets, and other such unfinished business, so they tend to haunt places or items or people that are related to those things. Because they're spirits, it's difficult for them to interact with the physical world directly, so they have to bring physical objects under their dominion via possession or similar means to do so. In general, their existences are ephemeral and they tend to disappear after a while, but this is variable - the very first wraith (that we know of) probably still has about 200 years left in him. They're generally shapeless, and can eat the minds and souls of people for nourishment. There are also apparitions, which are closer to ghosts as we tend to think of them; fragments of a soul that's already moved on that have coalesced into a shape, with no thoughts except for the desire to live, or memories held within a place or an object projected into a shape that functions the same way. They can only be seen by and interact with people who have strong spiritual abilities, and have been known to try possessing people, but it's easy to resist them with a strong will. What are oni? Oni are, well, demons. They're distinct from humans in terms of their strength and mentality, and tend to be associated with heat for whatever reason. For more information, please reference Japanese folklore. That said, they're notable here because there was a point in history where interbreeding with oni to create powerful children was common - they enjoy various superhuman abilities or psychic powers as a result, but consequently are in danger of losing control of themselves to their demon blood and going mad - the thicker the blood, the better the powers, but the worse the risk. This is called the Inversion Impulse, if you just like having jargon handy. There is an organization in Japan specifically for hunting down demons and half-demons that lose to their blood. What are succubi and incubi? They're like vampires but not dead and without any of this nonsense about turning - that is to say the only similarity is they can get energy from people, in this case via sexual intercourse. They can regenerate themselves, enhance their strength, and manipulate dreams. Succubi and incubi are most notable for leaving behind descendants - individuals descended from this sort of demon can gain varying levels of energy through sex or consumption of bodily fluids, and may have proficiencies in magecraft or magic (if they're that old). What is a daemon, then? Daemons are not the same as demons. It really sucks how limited vocabulary affects translations, honestly - they're often called demons and calling them that is fine, but for the specific purpose of delineating the differences I'm going to use an alt spelling here. Daemons, unlike the two types of demons listed above, don't really exist in a physical space. They're on another plane of existence entirely - born from the thoughts and wishes of humans, for the most part they just exist to grant the wishes of people - if in a distorted fashion. They can materialize either through possessing a physical body or by being given a name. Naturally, these are the ones that result in most western-styled cases of demonic possession. This is different from instances of possession by things like kitsune or inukami, where a spirit seeks to control the body - possession by a daemon corrupts the body from inside-out. How does daemon possession work? The first signs are changes in behavior, caused by a gradual loss in human reasoning. If left alone, the daemon possessing the individual will proceed to imprint themselves over the human body, changing its shape - this is subtle at first, but culminates in wholesale mutation of the flesh into a form that suits the daemon. It goes without saying that this is usually both unnatural for a human and biologically impossible. And hideous. Or charming? Your call. The host usually dies before the daemon can fully mature, and even then it's highly uncommon for their psyche to endure the strain of possession for this long; the most common result is the suicide of the host, which disperses the Daemon elsewhere. Possession only affects the person that's possessed, but over the course of a possession the spiritual space around the victim will also be disturbed. This can range from small things like the presence of rapping noises where there shouldn't be any, to larger events like manifesting poltergeists. Naturally, these can have ill effects on the people around the possessed, even if they can't be possessed as long as the victim is holding the Daemon within their body. If you or someone you know has been possessed by Daemons, please contact your local exorcist. Are there other sorts of daemons? There are also True Daemons, which exist on a separate plane entirely - entirely separate from human thoughts, wishes, or existence - and don't need to be named to incarnate. Information about these is limited; for accuracy and ease of explanation, please consider them similar in existence to the cosmic horrors of HP Lovecraft's mythos. Not all True Daemons are Horrors, but most if not all Horrors exist along similar lines to True Daemons, so they help to illustrate the concept. It is additionally possible for humans to become like daemons - through their sins or worldly preoccupations, they may lose their humanity and be recategorized similarly to a daemon. These are called Fiends. What are psychics? Psychic abilities are, uh. Psychic abilities. It's a mutation within a regular person that allows them to perform feats outside of what people would consider normal to humans, or perceive things that normal humans can't perceive. It's distinct from magecraft in that it's unrelated to the quality, quantity, or even existence of magic circuits, though true psychics are obviously rare. Psychic abilities include your standard fare like precognition, retrocognition, and pyrokinesis, but also things like the ability to share energy, steal heat, crystallize one's blood, use a person's bodyparts as your own after eating their flesh, or, um. Having the presence of daemons nearby... be displayed on your body as a wound... that one's not great... yeah... What is the Holy Church? The Church is an international religious organization modeled after the Roman Catholic Church. It isn’t part of the Mage’s Association, and any relationship they have with them is dubious to say the least, but they do have their own form of Thaumaturgy in the form of sacraments. Their main interest is the destruction of heretics and vampires. Ok. Why do they hate them? It’s basically just because they’re vampires. Vampires are unique among nonhumans in that most of them were once humans - because they can “infect” other humans, the church treats them like they’re a disease. This view is actually relatively recent within the church, only coming up when a vampire hunting subdivision was created, but as is often the case with these things, their aggression escalated out of need to affirm the importance of their position. What subdivisions are there? While there are others, the most notable ones are the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, the Burial Agency, and the Executors. What is the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament? The Assembly is a special agency charged with the investigation, capture, and management of holy relics - things like the blood and burial shrouds of saints, or any tools related to the crucifiction of Jesus, including the Holy Grail. If it’s real they retrieve it, if it’s fake they refute it, basically. They’re named because they follow the Eighth Sacrament - permission to stray from the rules of their religion so long as the name of God stays honored and protected. Does this play into the Holy Grail War at all? Yes! The Grail War always has a neutral party available to supervise, and this person always comes from the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament. They’re aware that the Holy Grail used in the War isn’t really the one that held the blood of Christ, and most members of the Church have no interest in the Root - but because the Holy Grail really can grant wishes, it’s dangerous, so they prefer to keep an eye on it. What is the Burial Agency? They’re inquisitors, basically. All that they do is hunt and kill what the Church deems “inconvenient” - whether this is a demon, a vampire, or a heretical human. As long as someone has the will and the ability to destroy these things proficiently, they’re allowed to join; though all members are baptized, faith in God is completely secondary to that. They’re known primarily for their bloodlust. They are just really into killing. Most members work alone and refuse to cooperate even with unrelated demon hunters; there are only six of them discluding their leader and their reserve member, but they’re constantly swapped around because they die like, constantly. They're called the Burial Agency because they were founded for the specific purpose of hunting vampires. So why join them? Privilege! Members of the Burial Agency enjoy a ton of influence within the Church - if it’s for a job, they can go against its wishes and even kill fellow Church members with very little pushback. The rumors aren’t good, needless to say. Who are the Executors? They’re also inquisitors, but more generalized and less extreme than the Burial Agency - even then, just having the title of “Executor” has some connotations about your willingness and ability to commit murder. Executors range from individuals that hunt heretical magi to demon hunters to vampire slayers to exorcists. Like the Assembly of the Eighth Sacrament, they follow the Eighth Sacrament - they can stray from the rules of their religion as long as the name of God remains protected. The Church is so violent! How do they do it? The Church has the best technology in the world. You could even play RoboPriest if you wanted. RoboCop’s a cyborg right. Not an android? Whatever. Among their wares are a number of weapons enhanced by magecraft to enforce concepts upon the world; most common is a series that can forcibly baptize vampires or demons, turning them to ash - in the case of vampires, by altering the structure of their physical body and forcing them to return to their original form, if they were Christians before turning. The effect varies as the Christianity does, but when it’s there it’s very effective. Regardless, wounds inflicted on demons/vampires by these weapons are a hard heal. As far as regular humans are concerned, these things can still slice through concrete, so… Are these the fabled Black Keys? Yes. Or Black Keys are an example of this type of weapon, anyway. ( Magecraft and Magus Biology - Magus Families and Society - Mage's Association ) Ok, so what’s Magecraft? Magecraft is the systematic and artificial reenactment of miracles and unexplained phenomena. In less fancy terms it’s the supernatural recreation of things possible through science. Practitioners of magecraft, using formulas and processes that require magic energy, reach outcomes that aren't necessarily impossible by slightly bending the known laws of the world. In the least fancy terms, it’s magic but not as good. All types of magecraft are inferior to magic from the Age of Gods (2000+ years ago), but the only limit is the human intellect! What’s Magic? Magic - also called true magic or sorcery - is magecraft but better. It consumes magic energy and then ignores the laws of the world entirely. Feats done with magic are impossible to fully reproduce, even with an infinite amount of time or resources - to do so would be the ultimate accomplishment of pretty much any magus. That said, there are only five instances of true magic left in the world, and only five practitioners. How many kinds of Magecraft are there? Lots! The general term for modern schools of Magecraft is Thaumaturgy. This includes things like alchemy, elemental manipulation, kabbalah, runes, curses, and healing - many of which you might notice are definitely older than 2000 years. Modern magi have just adapted them for their purposes as time has gone on. You can read more about the different types of spells here. Is it good to have a lot of Magic Circuits? It’s definitely not bad, but quality is just as important. Every family and every person is different - some lineages are known for having very few Circuits, but each of them remains high quality. Others are known for having a ton that are low quality. Planning is very important. Why is that? A lot of reasons, but most prominent is that Circuits can be inherited! Sort of. In typical families of magi, the head of a generation will take some of their own Magic Circuits and most (if not all) spells that they’ve learned over the course of their life and forge them into a part of a Magic Crest located somewhere on their body - just like their predecessor did before them, and theirs, and so on. What is a Magic Crest? The Magic Crest is a series of Magic Circuits given a more stable form so it can be more easily referenced for Magecraft - like I said earlier, it’s passed down from generation to generation, but with a few catches: First of all, in most cases, only one person can inherit the crest. It’s like transplanting an organ. Second, it can only be transferred to someone it’s compatible with. It’s like… transplanting an organ. Even when people are related by blood, there’s still a possibility that it might be rejected. Because of both of these things, transplants - and so, choosing heirs to inherit the family name - are typically started when the heir is young, and done over a long period of time so the child can get used to it. By the way, Magic Crests can survive without being attached to a body, and there are institutions with technology for extracting just the Crest and storing it - and there are some people who will pay a good amount of money for a Crest sans-body. Just saying. What if a magus has more than one child? Well, tough shit. How that’s dealt with depends on the magus. Conflicts over which child inherits the Crest - among all members of the family - are definitely not unheard of. It’s half the reason there’s a trend of only having one heir. There are some families that will marry off extraneous children, or give them to other families in hopes that they can have good lives as magi elsewhere, but that’s not always the case. So why don’t they just teach it to them? Well, it’s faster like this, first of all. And there are gaps in what you can teach - is probably what someone would say. It’s just The Way Things Are™. Magi sound kind of shitty. You don’t know the half of it. In general, the world magi live in is predicated heavily on lineage-based hierarchies, productivity, and results. Everything is about lineage and results, to the point that magi who feel conventional love for their children are considered a little bit odd, frankly. Having fewer than ten generations in your family is a good way to get yourself laughed out of an organization like the Clock Tower. The ideal magus is just a stepping stone on the path to their family’s ideals - whether that’s the Root or something else. What is the Mage’s Association? The Mage’s Association is an international organization formed entirely of magi. It’s supposed to transcend nationality and style of magecraft, but that’s more or less only on paper - as these things tend to go. The Association regulates the education of magi as well as the development and concealment of magecraft - by and large, no one cares what awful things you’ve done as long as you don’t let non-magi know about magecraft. The Association can be broken down into three main branches: the Clock Tower, the Atlas Academy, and the Wandering Sea. What is the Clock Tower? Now we’re getting into factions! The Clock Tower, located in London, is the headquarters and main branch of the Mage’s Association; it’s existed for about 2000 years at this point, in some capacity or another. It’s fitted with different departments for education in Magecraft as well as workshops for its more prominent members to operate in. They also handle the organization of patents for Magecraft and disbursement of royalties for those patents. It is basically like, the epitome of the above-mentioned magus shittiness. Almost anything you’d like to know about that can be exemplified in this section. Oh boy. The Clock Tower is controlled primarily by members of Magus aristocracy (who are typically powerful people in the normal world, too) - people with long lineages and lots of money, and then their parasites and ladder climbers. It’s not uncommon for lesser Magi to seek sponsorship from more powerful ones, for example. These members are broken up further into factions, all of which have different opinions on how to govern and none of which like each other. In short, they’re extremely elitist - established Magi at the Clock Tower are frequently racist against anyone east of Europe, but even within their own communities there are issues of status. There are some forms of Thaumaturgy that are highly looked down upon (Runes are unpopular while Witchcraft isn’t taught at all), and the aristocracy has been noted to not care for Magi that do dirty work like enforcing Sealing Designations. What are the factions? There are a ton, but only three that are notable - the Barthomeloi faction believes in governance based on aristocracy and social status, while the Trambello faction believes in democracy. These two are opposed, while the third, the Meluastea faction, is neutral. What is a Sealing Designation? If a Magus develops a Magecraft that’s considered especially notable or useful to the greater good of the Association, it’s not uncommon for the higher-ups to try having them cloistered away. If it’s something that’s difficult to reproduce through study that person is seized and secured in order to preserve them at their present quality forever. Like bacteria cultures or animals in a zoo. If that sounds bad as-is, they’re not allowed to continue their research either - so it’s an honor to get one, but. Well. What is a Sealing Designation Enforcer? Exactly how it sounds! Most people who receive a Sealing Designation understandably tend to flee, which is why people who “enforce” them exist - Magi who can take in Magi with Sealing Designations by force. But it’s rare for Designations to even be handed down, so most of them spend their time hunting down Magi that have gone too counterculture in the Association’s eyes. Well… Ok…. I still want to join though. Cool! You need to either pass entrance exams or get letters of recommendation from someone that already goes there, or be the successor of a prestigious line of magi. If you’re outstanding in any of those fields, you get special privileges - your own dorm room, or the ability to bring your apprentices to school with you. They don’t have to pay tuition, but they won’t be considered members in their own right either. What can I study there? Everything other than witchcraft can be studied there to a certain extent - and of course, they look down on any eastern forms of Magecraft pretty heavily. There are twelve departments: General Fundamentals (common knowledge and mechanical things like leyline and mana studies, these are equivalent to your core classes), Individual Fundamentals, Spiritual Evocation (summoning), Mineralogy (mystical properties of minerals), Zoology, Anthropology, Botany, Astronomy (astrology, divination, planetology), Creation (aesthetics), Curses, Archaeology, and Modern Magecraft Theories. There is also a Policies department for those interested in politics, but it’s more social science than magecraft. What is the Atlas Academy? Located in the mountains in Egypt, the Atlas Academy is an institution comprised mostly of alchemists, interested primarily in the aggregation and analysis of information. Like most Magi, they’re highly invested in uncovering the mysteries of the universe, but they’re much more extreme, on average - as long as nothing created within the walls of the institution leaves them, there are no taboos whatsoever. It’s more concern over people leaving than it is concern over visitors. How does Atlas interact with other groups? The Clock Tower tends to steer clear of them, and they’re explicitly on bad terms with the people of Wandering Sea, who have much more old-fashioned alchemists in their ranks, but of the organizations making up the Mage’s Association, Atlas is the most independent! Their relationship with the Church is unique to them too - they’ve been known to lend alchemists to them from time to time. That’s cool but what is their like, deal? To the Atlas alchemist, the typical goals of alchemy are pretty passe. Transmutation of base metals into gold is just a boring transformation of matter - they’re more interested in events, with a focus on the human ability to gather information, analyze it, and use the data to solve problems. The typical Atlas member sees their body less as something controlled by the brain and more as an appendage that lets the brain - the only part of the body that really matters - function to the best of its ability. The whole body, soul included, is just a tool for problem solving. Why so hyperfocused? The first director of Atlas once predicted the end of the world, so all subsequent alchemists there have devoted themselves to discovering a means to prevent it. What is Atlas’s alchemy like? Most alchemists at Atlas are very unskilled at standard varieties of Magecraft because of issues with their Magic Circuits - either in number or in quality, but they in general have no interest in being strong themselves; they’re more invested in creating things that are strong. They’re more open to the use of technology than other magi are, and most notably use scientific methods to implant magic circuits within their homunculi. As far as individuals are concerned, their specialties all relate back to self-improvement - thought acceleration, thought partitioning, and augmentation of the five senses. They also have a machine that they claim has successfully record all events that have occurred throughout time. What is the Wandering Sea? The Wandering Sea is the third major branch of the Mage’s Association, itself made up of minor institutions of magi; their headquarters takes the form of a moving mountain range and is typically out at sea, hence the name. The Wandering Sea was the original HQ of the Association - needless to say most of them aren’t terribly pleased at Clock Tower taking their place, and there is some notably bad blood between the groups. What is their magecraft like? As a general rule of thumb, members of the Wandering Sea are traditionalists: they’re only interested in Magecraft from the Age of Gods. The Prague Association is only interested in traditional alchemy, and the Thule Society (yes that’s really its name) studies runes using the original runic scripts. (General Knowledge and Classes - Servant Abilities and Physiology - Your Servant and You) What is a Servant? Servants are Heroic Spirits or Divine Spirits that are summoned by the Holy Grail to assist Masters in the Holy Grail War as familiars. Unlike a regular familiar, Servants are typically much stronger than the person that summons them, bolstered by the perception of their deeds in life. What is a Heroic Spirit? What is a Divine Spirit? Like said on the way shorter FAQ, Heroic Spirits are ghosts - the ghosts of figures from history, folklore, and mythology who, for good or ill, made such a great impact on the world they've been recorded in its history forever. The place that they're recorded is known as the Throne of Heroes - if they have a significant amount of divinity to them they're called a Divine Spirit, but for our purposes it's all the same. We won't split hairs. Like daemons, it's impossible for a Heroic Spirit to exist in our world without a body unless the world itself wishes for it, and the Grail can't provide them with one, so the Servant system exists to fit them with containers. These are your classes! Does the Grail do anything else? It gives them general knowledge of the era they're summoned into so they don't stick out too badly. What are the classes? Servants can fit into seven base classes: Saber (swords), Archer (projectiles), Lancer (spears/lances), Rider (riding), Caster (magic), Assassin (killing), and Berserker (if you just like flew into a rage once. you can also be forcibly summoned as a Berserker if your Master adds additional lines to your incantation). Many Heroic Spirits qualify for more than one class, and their strength and personality can be altered by differences in class, so summon carefully! There are also a few irregular classes and classes that only exist in special circumstances, but for the most part we won't be dealing with those. What about them though? For our purposes, there are only two that are important to remember: The first is Ruler, which is a neutral arbitrator summoned by the Grail in the event of an abnormal occurrence during the war. Typically, to be selected as a Ruler you must be impartial and have no desire for the Grail yourself, but if you're forcibly summoned into the class none of that matters. That can happen, by the way. Other than that, the Ruler class represents order within the war. The second is Avenger, which has only ever been forcibly summoned in a standard war, so it's a little difficult to determine what circumstances would lead to the Grail choosing to summon one, but they're essentially the opposite. They represent the disorder inherent to the war, and the corrupted contents of the Grail; an Avenger-class Servant, like a Berserker, tends to be very angry but it's a little more specific- rather than having flown into a rage, Avengers are those that have been wronged to such a degree that they're subsumed by their malice. There is also MoonCancer, which is a class cheated into the supercomputer on the moon, Alter Ego, which is a class specifically for offshoots of larger beings, and Foreigner, for individuals that have come into contact with eldritch beings and evil gods that have attempted to possess them and remained themselves - either through holding on to their integrity through that madness or by consuming the madness itself. Andddd you see why we aren't using those three! But if you really want to play an Alter Ego or Foreigner-class Servant, please hit us up privately and we will work with you! Is there anything else that can influence a Servant? Plenty! Strength, personality, temperament, and even appearance are all things that can change depending on various factors. For ease of explanation, imagine some macaroni in a bowl: the macaroni is the Heroic Spirit, the bowl is the Throne of Heroes! Every single possibility for what this Heroic Spirit was, was considered to have been, might have been, or could possibly be is recorded in the Throne. Then you take that macaroni and you dump it into a colander or some other kind of filter. It's a little oddly shaped, so some things make it through while other things don't - using one with a different shape lets other kinds of macaroni through. That's how summoning can change a Heroic Spirit - they can be younger or older or their looks can be different or their personalities can be strange, all depending on various factors. So what are those factors? Class is one, like mentioned earlier, but there are two others that are important to consider: location and how the Heroic Spirit that became this Servant was perceived by people. Servants are strongest when they're close to the site of their legend, and their form etc can be influenced by how they're regarded in that area or by people at large. To give some examples: Vlad III wasn't really a vampire, but because vampirism is so heavily associated with him, it's possible to summon him as one. Also, he gets a crazy power boost if your war happens to take place in Romania. These aren't hard and fast rules, but it's something fun you can play with. Basically when creating a Servant you have free reign to extrapolate as far as you want as long as you can connect it back to their story. No one can stop you. Servants can also be stronger or weaker depending on the strength or weakness of the Master - a good Master will bolster their Servant's stats, while a subpar one will tank them a bit. What is a Pseudo-Servant? Being ghosts, it's possible for Servants to possess human bodies - a Pseudo-Servant is a Servant that has manifested using a human as their vessel. The resulting being is not really entirely the human or entirely the Servant, but a combination of both people and their abilities to create something new and. Probably wonderful. The thoughts and personality of a Pseudo-Servant can conform to either the human or the Servant. What can Servants do? Like I said before, they're extremely strong. Masters contracted with Servants gain a special clairvoyance that allows them to see the stats and abilities of their own Servant and others' for strategy's sake, as well as the ability to communicate with their Servant telepathically. Specific abilities will vary from Servant to Servant, but all Servants have a few things in common: their bodily composition and their ability to use a Noble Phantasm. What are their bodies like? First, they can shift between a spiritual body and a material body at will. When in spiritual form, they're invisible - it's impossible to detect them with the naked eye, difficult to do it with methods like scrying, and they're no longer impeded by physical objects. They can pass through walls, like uh. Like ghosts. Because... they are ghosts. Magic ghosts. The catch is that they're unable to carry anything in this state (weapons connected to their existence as a Servant are ok!), and they can only feel spiritual sensations - they have to materialize for normal senses. It's also harder for them to damage physical objects in spiritual form, so they have to materialize for combat. While they bleed when hurt, the only part of their body that actually matters is their Spiritual Core, which is inside of the material body you see - from the moment they're summoned, it gradually degrades, and if it retains sufficient damage the Servant will disappear entirely, "dying." Degradation of the Spiritual Core can be accelerated through damage to the material body though, whether that's physical or curse-related or whatever, so don't forget to take care of your Servant! What is a Noble Phantasm? Noble Phantasms are a Servant's special skill, trump card, and desperation move all in one. They're special skills or weapons that are tied to the Servant's "mystery" - that is to say, it's a special ability that connects back to their identity in some form or fashion. To use an illustrative example, King Arthur's most famous Noble Phantasm is Excalibur! Which would also. Let everyone know that that person was King Arthur. If they used an ability called Excalibur. Like you'd imagine, it's poor strategy to use them recklessly specifically for this reason - if enemies are able to learn your Servant's real name, they can also learn their weaknesses and anything else about them. Fire carefully. The number of Noble Phantasms varies from Servant to Servant, and the types have even more variety than that - there are a ton that do damage, but there are also a good handful that just buff up allies or construct fortresses or debuff enemies in some way. The sky's the limit. There are also instances where a Servant will be given a Noble Phantasm that has nothing to do with them or their legend, just because their form has been influenced by popular conception of them. How do I summon a Servant? It depends. You can either have a catalyst - a relic with some relation to the Heroic Spirit you want to summon - or just let your personality do the heavy lifting for you. Results may vary. Servants are pretty strong. Why would they ally with Masters? A Servant receives energy from its Master - either naturally or through bodily fluids or through eating people's souls or flesh (there are many avenues when you are a hungry magic ghost) to sustain their existence, and in exchange the Master is given three Command Spells, each of which represents a binding order they can enact. The Servant's spiritual core will degrade without energy from the Master, and the Master is basically powerless in the war without the Servant, so it's good for them to get along. How do Command Spells look? They're a series of tattoos that are typically printed on the back of the left hand (though they can be anywhere on the body) - they're proof of a Master's participation in the war. Like I said earlier, they represent a binding order applied to the Servant - the more specific, the stronger it is - but receiving Command Spells is painful. And so is using them. And after they're gone there's no reason for the Servant to stick around, so it's good for you to get along. Can I get more Command Spells? No and yes. The amount generated by the Holy Grail is the maximum number of participants multiplied by 3 - everyone gets 3, only. Even if you form a new contract with a new Servant, you still only have the Command Spells you have. You can use them between two Servants now, but you don't get more. The only was to gain more Command Spells are as follows: 1. Steal someone else's and graft them onto your skin (you can also steal their Servant like this) 2. Ask the supervisor of the war, who will give them to you under special circumstances (they also have the right to decrease your Spells) 3. Make fake ones, if you're a really good magus, know a really good magus, or get on a skilled Caster's good side. In addition to disappearing when they're spent, Command Spells will also all disappear when your Servant is lost, except in rare circumstances (if you're a member of one of the families that created the Grail War system, or if the Grail itself decides it wants to see what you can do). From there, they return to the Grail and are redistributed to new contractors who take on a Servant that's lost their Master, with priority going to people it previously selected. This is why it's good to kill, not incapacitate! This is also why the church will take in Masters who've lost their Servants, as a neutral party. Who is the Supervisor? The Supervisor of the Holy Grail War is a member of the Holy Church that is dispatched to arbitrate proceedings as a neutral party. Like said before, the Church is pretty well aware the Grail isn't the real thing, but because it actually can grant wishes, it's dangerous so they prefer to keep an eye on it when it's active. The Supervisor has access to any excess Command Spells from previous wars, and may give them to participants, renew their lost Spells, or even decrease the amount of Spells a participant has. They have other uses, but that's what they're for. If Servants have so many other ways to get energy, what's stopping them from killing their Masters and going to war on their own? It's good for you to get along. If you have any further questions or things you'd like clarified, or if I got something wrong, please reply to this post and I'll do my best to accommodate! Main Community | OOC Community profile by tricklet |