Kravenwood School of Magical Arts (OOC)

[The Jeffinator]

This game is about students in their final year at the Kravenwood School of Magical Arts. It takes place in my own version of Avalon, a parallel world to our Earth. We will use their last year at school as a method for developing our characters and the world in which they live. As they approach their graduation, events take a dark turn, forcing them to rethink their futures.

My version of this world is an endless ocean with one giant island and scattered smaller islands. The Eura Mainland, or just Eura, is a long landmass that stretches from the southern tropics to the artic north. Each smaller island has it's own Regent, but Eura has eight Regions, and thus has eight Regents:

Braska, the land of snow and ice
Dragonspine, a long mountain rage along the western coast and the surrounding area
Faewood, a large forest
Vanderaust, an area with rolling hills and many lakes and rivers
Kansa, a region with great plains and dangerous winds
Sunara, a large desert south of Kansa but north of Jyrasil
Jyrasil, a vast jungle
Kalida, a long stretch of beaches along the eastern coast

The primary government of Avalon is called the United Republic of the Avalon Magistry, or often just "The Magistry" for short. It has many offices and departments and is headed by the White Court, which consists of the Nine Magisters and a staff of Submagisters. It is located in Vanderaust, in Dalgon City.

The only military held is a sort of army/police force. With all of Avalon under one government, war is non-existent. The only battles are against criminals, gangs, mobs, etc. So, we have the Guard Rangers. Their ranks are: Private, Corporal, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Colonel, and General. There are teams of Rangers that vary in size from just a few (small towns) to hundreds (huge cities). Each Regent has a Captain assigned to them, and together they decide how the distribute the teams among the Region. Majors and Colonels, along with the General (only one) work at the Magistry directly. The General of the Guard Rangers answers directly to the White Court.

[The Jeffinator]

While there are many magic schools out there, Kravenwood is considered the best. Its campus sits along the eastern bank of Vander Lake, which is just south of Dalgon City.

The late summer/early fall after one turns 13, they may take the Entrance Exam if they seek enrollment. Usually, a child will begin attending Learning Lessons at their local library between ages 5 and 7. Here they learn reading, writing, mathematics, etc. Once they pass the regulars (usually around age 10), they can take Advanced Studies. This is usually required if they hope to get into a good school when they turn 13. It's possible for them to learn magic from a parent or private tutor, but this is not common.

When a potential student takes the Entrance Exam, they have yet to learn any actual magic (usually), but they should know about spellcasting from their Advanced Studies courses. Magic comes from Mana, the energy of life.

A wizard attends Kravenwood for seven years. They usually graduate the same year they turn 20, which is the legal age of adulthood in Avalon.

Classes:

History of Magic: A study of magical history.
Herbology: Caring for herbs and brewing potions
Dragon Runes: A study of ancient Draconic symbols and scripts.
Conjuration: The art of making or summoning things
Abjuration: Usually the art of protection magic
Illusion: The technique of producing figmentary images, or otherwise bending that which is seen.
Evocation: The magic of sending forth elemental or other energy into the world.
Destruction: The opposite magic of Conjuration, this banishes, or unravels things
Divination: The magic involving the art of prophecy or locating items
Transmutation: The art of changing the physical properties of an item or person.
Enchantment: The art of charming a person or object to act a certain way or bestowing additional properties upon the person or object, magical and otherwise.
Psionics: An advanced course of study into the nature of the mind and its psychic energies. Reserved for only the brighest wizards. Seventh Years only.

(Forbidden Art) Necromancy: The magic of raising the dead, or (traditionally) reading the bones or entrails of the dead for means of divination.

In their final year, students learn even more complex spells, and begin dueling each other. In the last few months of the year, they take the Graduate Selection Tests (GSTs). In the First Exam, students take a written test.

In the Second Exam, they must search through Faewood Forest for special badges. One is required to guarantee a spot in the Third Exam, but there is a limited number of badges, so some may have to duel to protect theirs or acquire someone else's. There are magic eyes in the forest to watch and record as the test unfolds.

The Third Exam is a dueling tournament at the Dalgon City Stadium. Here there are many recruiters from different employers, and most of them will review your results from the first two exams and watch the third with their own eyes. If you're good, they may remember your name when you are job hunting after graduation.

Wizards tap into their Mana to use magic by sheer will. They use Dragon Runes and keep spellbooks, but that's just to focus the spell mentally. They envision the spell in their Mind's Eye, it sees the Runes and guides their Mana. They keep the spellbooks and study them regularly to keep the Runes fresh in their memory.

Mana does not wear out or run down -- the body does. Smaller spells do almost no damage, but magicks with bigger effects leave you more exhausted. If you do a spell that is too much for you or hold onto the flow of magic for a long period of time, it will wear down your body. Like, if you send off a barrage of large fireballs, you are going to be out of breath afterwards, but you'll recover within a few minutes. Now let's say you keep going before you can recover. Now you are barely able to stand and really heaving. But you want to keep going, so you send off one last massive fireball, determined to destroy all your enemies on the battlefield. Now you are so exhausted you fall to your knees and can't even focus your mind enough to cast another spell as the survivors of the fireballs surround you. Maybe, if you're lucky, you can focus enough to send out a ring of fire, but you will die along with them.

Depending on the scope of the spell, you can recover in as little as a few seconds to as many as three days. Throwing up shields and other defensive spells wear you down as well. The ONLY kinds of spells that do not wear you down are healing in nature, or things that have been enchanted in advance, like potions or amulets. If the wizard who shot off the fireballs had an Amulet of Healing, he could activate it at any point to heal him to normal, and thus he could keep fighting longer, but once an amulet has been used, it must be enchanted again to benefit from it a second time. Potions can be sipped or gulped depending in the severity of the injury or exhaustion, but obviously, when a bottle is empty the potion is gone, and having too many of these makes agility a risk factor in a battle.

[The Jeffinator]

As for the story, I was thinking over the course of their last school year, they begin to hear about a group of pirates and bandits rebelling against the Guard Rangers in the southern tropical islands. Everyone thinks this will end quickly like other crimes in the past, but as the months pass by, things get worse.

By the passing of the New Year, these outlaws have become known as the Deathmongers, and led by master necromancer Lord Calsuphur, they continue to conquer small islands. By the time the characters graduate, the Deathmongers have made it to Eura, and there is a war brewing all along the southern islands and the jungles of Jyrasil. Maybe our chars all agree to join the Guard Rangers and they participate in the Kinslayer Wars?

Or perhaps our characters are all genius wizards who meet in their Psionics class, and the Magistry asks them to join a special department and become agents?

[Drakkwall]

I think the Genius part sonds like fun, but geniuses who still joi nto fight with the guard, no need for special treatments. Can we learn all the arts of magic or are there restrictions?

[knight713]

i think necro is forbbiden for a student to take

for this idea have it where Magistry choose the best students to fight or become special agents

[The Jeffinator]

Yeah, just do whatever magic you want, but make sure you don't overdo it. Have them get tired after big spells or whatever. be fair. No need to say anything out loud, we'll all just assume they have the Dragon Runes in their mind. Like, you can just be like:

John gathered his Mana into his palms, focused his thoughts, and unleashed a wave of fire heading towards the horde of enemies, charring the grass along the way and engulfing the crowd of bodies. The air was filled with screams and the scent of burning flesh, causing John to fall over, partly from exhaustion, partly from nausea at the horrid odors filling his nostrils and lungs.

Sorry, went a little overboard, lol.

As for the war thing, I was thinking they could, as special agents, assist the Rangers. Kind of like the FBI helping cops or the CIA helping the Army or something. Like, the Psions are the most elite of the Magistry's forces. Like, Aurors from Harry Potter helping regular Magical Law Enforcement.

[knight713]

i like your discription

i haven an idea for a powerful spell but dont know if it would be forbiden

[The Jeffinator]

What spell is that?

[knight713]

fiend of night, power of darkness i summon you from the niether relm bestow onto thy right hand the power of darkness. fiend of day, power of light I summon you from the void bestow onto my thy left hand the power of light. fiend night, fiend of day, power of darkness, power of day. go forth and destroy my enemy, Heavens forbbiden flame.

it is a powerful spell that may kill the caster, its a dangerous spell that few can use,

there are other variations which they are not as powerful

[The Jeffinator]

Well, summoning from the Netherworld is Necromancy, which is forbidden and illegal, :P. However, manipulating shadows and light is okay. Though, technically speaking, shadows and darkness just represent the absence of light. But yeah, he can use shadows and light so long as it does not dip into Necromancy.

[knight713]

so will this work instead.

fiend of night, power of darkness i summon you from bestow onto thy right hand the power of darkness. fiend of day, power of light I summon bestow onto my thy left hand the power of light. fiend night, fiend of day, power of darkness, power of day. go forth and destroy my enemy, Heavens forbbiden flame.

[The Jeffinator]

Well, he wouldn't have to say it out loud, just think it. But I'm curious -- how does the spell damage the foe? Light could burn or blind an enemy, but what would shadows do? They'd have to take some kind of physical form to cause damage, kind of like Shikamaru does on Naruto. Focusing on both shadows and light at the same time might be tricky, especially if the light overshines the shadows, making them vanish. I'd say a better combo would be using the light to blind the enemy and then make shadow ropes to grab him or something. But that's just me.

[knight713]

it kind of looks like a black flame the body is dark while the edges are white

for the shadow idea i had the idea of shadow lance,

[Drakkwall]

I got an idea for a high level Transmutation spell.

Thick crimson scale harder then the shell of birth! Sharp fangs that pierces flesh and crushes bones! Brimstone flames flows from thy throat and scorches the earth! Thy claws split the world asunder and so does thy horns! Thou be thee and as thee be thou and let thee bear thy power on! Let two become one for the battle to come! And let all thou enemies feel the wrath of the Red Dragon!

Each type of dragon you transform into hasa different type of chant but they al lend with Feel the Weath of the [insert color/type] Dragon!

[The Jeffinator]

Yeah, you could make your body take the shape of a dragon, but using fire would be Evocation, not Transmutation. However, if you want to mimic a dragon's strength as well as his size, hanging onto the transformation for more than a minute or two would kill you. You'll have to focus a lot of Mana in order to emulate it and maintain it.

A smarter choice for your wizard would be to grow claws, fangs, and maybe tough scales covering his skin. This would remain active until you release it, as it does not require much Mana to maintain, only the initial transformation. He would still remain normal size, and he could still get a strength boost by willing his Mana through his body; he could control the Mana flow better instead of having the strength locked in as part of a Transmutation spell.

[Drakkwall]

So I should make it a set of progressive spells? Partial transformation, half transformation and complete transformation?

[knight713]

so would calling upon armor of rock, plant and so be considered

[cats]

I have a character concept I've been wanting to use for a long time now. I am wondering if it is possible in your world.

The original concept was a sort of martial artist, perhaps a monk from a Buddhist temple in china. Not relevant any more but it lets you know where I am coming from with this concept. The idea is the monk has tattoos of key objects at key places to augment her prowess. A cloud at the bottom of each foot lets her take a step on the air with each, if only for a split second. A tattoo of granite around one of her wrists lets her parry steel like she was stone. A tattoo of wave on her other hand lets her hit with the crushing force of water.

Needless to say this all falls under the enchantment school of "bestowing additional properties on to a person." But you previously stated once a magic item was used it had to be re-enchanted. That is a large hindrance to this character concept. Can I say since these effects are short bursts that they are powered by mana from the characters body and that the tattoos are dragon runes for enchantment and thus are not discharged? (Or some such.)

[The Jeffinator]

Even if you took several spells to become a full dragon, it would still draw too much Mana to maintain all three spells.

As for the armor of rock or plant, that would not take too much Mana, so long as you made it from your environment. Like, let's say you stand by a bunch of rocks and cast a spell to make them turn into armor and attach to your body. This would take a lot less power than to summon the rocks from nothing.

[The Jeffinator]

Originally Posted by cats

I have a character concept I've been wanting to use for a long time now. I am wondering if it is possible in your world.

The original concept was a sort of martial artist, perhaps a monk from a Buddhist temple in china. Not relevant any more but it lets you know where I am coming from with this concept. The idea is the monk has tattoos of key objects at key places to augment her prowess. A cloud at the bottom of each foot lets her take a step on the air with each, if only for a split second. A tattoo of granite around one of her wrists lets her parry steel like she was stone. A tattoo of wave on her other hand lets her hit with the crushing force of water.

Needless to say this all falls under the enchantment school of "bestowing additional properties on to a person." But you previously stated once a magic item was used it had to be re-enchanted. That is a large hindrance to this character concept. Can I say since these effects are short bursts that they are powered by mana from the characters body and that the tattoos are dragon runes for enchantment and thus are not discharged? (Or some such.)

As for that, you could say spells were cast as she was tattooed, and so yeah, she can use them at will, but they still drain her Mana. You could also say the ink was enchanted and she can use them at any time simply by channeling Mana to the tattoo.

The items that can only be used once don't use your Mana at the time of casting because the Mana was already stored in them. These are for the times you are too weak to use any more Mana. Like, the Amulet of Healing. You store Mana in it in advance to use when you are weak. It heals your body, thus using up the stored power. So you have to re-enchant it to use it again. Or rather, store more Mana in it. I guess they could also enchant food items to heal, kind of like Senzu Beans from Dragon Ball Z.

[cats]

And that was exactly what I was hoping to hear. I'll write a detailed description later.

As for plot, I wouldn't mind taking the exam you outlined. Perhaps the Rangers or maybe even a Major is on hand for the final exam and recruits the promising students into battle against the pirates.

Or if we want a school theme perhaps we could have an internship with the Rangers and just sort of fall into the plot despite not being "full wizards" yet.

But them all being geniuses has its merits too.

[knight713]

are students allowed to challange other students in fights or is arrange formally

[Drakkwall]

I think so or there wouldn't be a tournament. Anyhow, what kind of character sheet should we except?

[The Jeffinator]

Yeah, students can duel each other as long as they play safe. As for characters, just create whatever. I'll have mine along in a few days.

[knight713]

cool mine will be down somtime in a few hours or so