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Apollonian · 11-09-2019, 10:53 PM

It'd certainly have some interactions with the Youth and Steal Youth spells.

I'd put into a game in one of two ways. First way, it's literally sapping your vitality - biologically actually advancing your cellular clock. Going this way, you do age, and suffer the game effects of advancing age, and if you're clever you can counteract it with proper healing magic (for example, Steal Youth).

Second way seems more interesting, in that you've cut a deal with the Fates or the Norns; you're voluntarily shortening the thread of your life for magical power. You don't age, but the day of your death gets closer. The form of your death might change, too; a wizard originally fated to die peacefully in bed might have spent so much of his life that now he's doomed to a back alley murder or a plague fit. Evading the fates, of course, is the kind of stuff stories are made of.

As for longer-lived races, I'd make it a percentage charge instead of a day charge; maybe one percent of your total lifespan gets you 250 points of energy. Or maybe not; longer-lived races just have more energy to burn, which is why they live in fantastic magical palaces and humans don't.

For extra fun, you can knock off age and store it externally as a potion, and then it can be stolen or given away. Maybe really ruthless mages keep a stable of peasants they harvest of time and turn it into mana...

11-09-2019, 10:53 PM	#5
Apollonian Join Date: Aug 2004 Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)	Re: Burning Time [Thaumotology] It'd certainly have some interactions with the Youth and Steal Youth spells. I'd put into a game in one of two ways. First way, it's literally sapping your vitality - biologically actually advancing your cellular clock. Going this way, you do age, and suffer the game effects of advancing age, and if you're clever you can counteract it with proper healing magic (for example, Steal Youth). Second way seems more interesting, in that you've cut a deal with the Fates or the Norns; you're voluntarily shortening the thread of your life for magical power. You don't age, but the day of your death gets closer. The form of your death might change, too; a wizard originally fated to die peacefully in bed might have spent so much of his life that now he's doomed to a back alley murder or a plague fit. Evading the fates, of course, is the kind of stuff stories are made of. As for longer-lived races, I'd make it a percentage charge instead of a day charge; maybe one percent of your total lifespan gets you 250 points of energy. Or maybe not; longer-lived races just have more energy to burn, which is why they live in fantastic magical palaces and humans don't. For extra fun, you can knock off age and store it externally as a potion, and then it can be stolen or given away. Maybe really ruthless mages keep a stable of peasants they harvest of time and turn it into mana...