A Fantasy setting/campaign [PEACH]

[Astromancer]

This setting rifts off the strategy game Sorceror. Basically, six high magic universes are in contact with a low Magic universe. Each universe has its own Manna. Each different manna empowers a different magic style/system. Humans perceive these magics as having color and they magics seem to work somewhat like colors on a color wheel.

The standard GURPS Magic system, for which this whole world is a Low Manna setting, is called The Grey Art. It works the same way everywhere in this setting.

Each of the Color magics, which are named for different gems (Ruby, Opal[FireOpals], Topaz, Emerald, Saphire, Amethyst) are high manna in their dominant areas or in white areas. Color magics are weaker in areas that aren't either White or Dominant their color. Example: Red Magic has High Manna in Red areas, Normal Manna in Violet or Orange areas, Low Manna in Blue or Yellow areas, and No Manna in Green areas. All the other color magics follow this pattern. Color magics function as low manna in "Grey Areas."

Grey areas are the normal state of this realm/universe when other realities don't impinge on it. White areas are where all six other areas equally intrude on this world. Twenty percent of this realm is "Grey." Two percent of this realm is "White." The six colors have 13% of this realm each.

More later.

[Astromancer]

More on the Magics of this realm.

As I said before the native magic of this realm/world functions almost exactly like Standard Gurps Magic and is called The Grey Art. The realm functions as Low Manna everywhere for these magics. The differences are that certain spells aren't available (More on that later) and Recover Strength works as it does in a Normal Manna area. Which means the spell, which is normally not functional in a Low Manna setting is available and functional.

All of the Color magics are syntactical magics. Each of these uses the same verbs but different nouns (or the nouns cover different things). The verbs are, Create, Destroy, Transform, Control, Perceive. Thus if you have a noun for fire, you could create, destroy, transform, control, or perceive, fire.

The Ruby Art is based on understanding the microcosm, the self. Practitioners of this art tend to be warrior/healers.

The Opal Art is the crafting art. Practitioners of this art tend to be enchanters.

The Topaz Art is literary and verbal. Incantations and Runes are the heart of this art.

The Emerald Art is based on the idea that the plants of the world are natural runes and Herbal Lore is the basis of magic.

The Saphire Art is Theomancy. Practitioners create teraphims(note: I'm using a renaissance period take on the teraphim). Teraphims are artifacts that are part of a god. Thus a teraphim can embody an aspect of a god's power or being. Thus a spinning wheel that is a Teraphim of Athena would give large bonuses to spinning skill and to the quality of the thread. A statue that is a Teraphim of Athena would place a defensive enchantment around a community. A battle helmet that is a Teraphim of Athena would give bonuses to skills of command and tactics, while a crown teraphin would give bonuses to Wisdom and jurisprudence. Note: the gifts fit the personality as well as the duties and myths of the deity.

The Amethyst Art is based on Music. The verbs are keys and the nouns are tunes. This is a quick and potent art, but consorts are needed for big jobs.

White magicians are seen as evil. Mainly because of the high risk of insanity involved in learning more than three colors of magic True White Magicians can use realm magic. These are generally the most diabolic wizards. Certain children born to White Magicians can also use realm magic. These beings almost always seek to defend the world and its people from the Evil White mages that either sired or gave birth to them. These champions are called the Black Magicians.

[Refplace]

Sounds interesting.

[Astromancer]

The realms that overlap this realm have highly regular areas of influence. If properly mapped on a sphere, the pattern of color manna and uninfluenced realm would resemble a hexagonal grid with each hexagon being just a little less than 520 square miles in area (regular hexagons ten miles on a side, yes I know this doesn't work on a sphere, no one is going to get near the poles).

Hexagons have become a holy symbol. Angles wear black and yellow robes and have bees wings, honey and mead are sacramentals. Demons are visualized as wasps.

Any area of Colored Manna touches either a grey (normal) area, a White area, an area of the same color, or a complementary color area. Thus a Blue area could touch a Grey area, a White area, a Blue, Violet or Green area.

To make the color wheel simpler. There are three primaries (Red, Yellow, Blue) and three secondaries (Orange, Green, Violet). For Primaries, a complementary color is always going to be a secondary that contains the primary, Non-complimentary colors are the other primaries and the secondary which does contain the primary is the opposite. For secondaries, the two primaries the secondary color is a mix of are its complimentaries, the other two secondary colors are non-complimentary colors, and the primary that isn't part of the secondary is its opposite.

[Astromancer]

This world is roughly like the Earth, i.e. the continents are in about the same areas islands are normally in the same places as are most geographical features. But nothing is in exactly the same place. Although I plan to keep a lot of the same cultures they will be altered in many ways, the presence of Magic not being the least of the changes.

In many ways, this setting is a romanticized take on the 1680-1760 period. Some features will seem to belong to later or earlier times. While this isn't going to be as random as The Company of Wolves this isn't Earth and it didn't develop in exactly the same way. The PCs will start in a British Isles analog which has a larger area but is composed of a largish group of small islands with a fantasy Anglo-Celtic cultural matrix with many gradations (yeah it is a print the legend take on the British Isles with the major cultures of those islands wildly blended to my whim). The Isles are further out away from the "Europe" analog continent and thus have a more Martine climate.

The non-magic Tech level is an early TL5 with some elements (like firearms) at TL4. Orange Magic and Grey Art Alchemy can like the Weird Science skill exceed the Tech Level. But these things are rare and expensive.

[Astromancer]

The key skills for using the Colored Manna to cast spells are Thamuthurgy(color) to know what you can do, and Ritual Magic(Technique) to perform the spells. With some types of Colored Manna, other skills replace Ritual Magic. Examples: Musical Influence is needed for Violet manna and Rune Lore for Yellow Manna.

Although both Thamuthurgy(Grey Art) and Ritual Magic(Grey Art) exist, and can benefit the user, neither is needed to work spells in the Grey Art. You have to be born with Magery(Grey Art) to have it. You can gain further levels, but you can only double what you have. So if you have Magery 0 that's it, twice zero is still zero. Whereas if you have Magery 3( Grey Art)(which is the most you can be born with) you can buy three more levels.

Because there are areas of High Manna for each type of Color Magic practitioners of these arts don't need magery. Once one of the Color Magic Magicians has learned enough of their type of Thaumaturgy and Ritual Magic (when they have more than five points in the two skills for one type of Manna, they can buy Magery 0) the Magician can become a Mage. No one is born with Color Magic Magery, but once they have Magery 0 in a given Color they can buy up to IQ/2 (rounded down) levels of Magery in that color.

People with GURPS IQ as low as nine can cast Color Magic spells, it's rare but possible. No one with less than GURPS IQ twelve has ever cast a Grey Art spell. No one with Grey Art Magery can learn Color Magics. If Someone has Magery 0 in any Color Magic they can get Magery 0 in any other Color Magic. Knowledge (actual skill points spent) of more than three types of Color Magic brings insanity. This is represented by requiring those that have four types of Color Magic Skill or Advantage to buy at least Mental Disadvantages that represent weakened or lost sanity (Delusions, Megalomania, Bloodlust, etc) costing 25% of the points invested in Color Magic skills or advantages. If the PCs has skills or advantages in five types of Color Magic, then it's fifty percent. If they have skills or advantages in six types of color magic they must have mental disadvantages equal to all of there points in Color Magic skills. They can then buy the disadvantages off, but most don't.

Intelligent ambitious people are drawn to the Color Magics. Such people often have more drive than caution. There are many noble and decent Color Mages, but fools still try to achieve White Magery in spite of the traps. Grey Mages are seen as odd. But they are seen as respectable. Many of the more powerful Color Mages call them Hedge Mages but rarely to their faces.

[Astromancer]

This world's equivalents of London and Winchester are in Grey Areas, which is seen as good for political stability.

Both Grey Art and Emerald Art are used to aid agriculture. Crop yields are almost always optimal and then some. Many plants have been acclimatized to this area by magic that either weren't grown in this area until far later or never at all. Given the disruptions of life in the Color Manna areas (mainly larger numbers of magical beasts and events) Grey Areas are both more urban than early TL5 normally are and have more agriculture too.

Color magic areas are always more rural than they would be otherwise.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by Astromancer

This world's equivalents of London and Winchester are in Grey Areas, which is seen as good for political stability.

Both Grey Art and Emerald Art are used to aid agriculture. Crop yields are almost always optimal and then some. Many plants have been acclimatized to this area by magic that either weren't grown in this area until far later or never at all. Given the disruptions of life in the Color Manna areas (mainly larger numbers of magical beasts and events) Grey Areas are both more urban than early TL5 normally are and have more agriculture too.

Color magic areas are always more rural than they would be otherwise.

This doesn't actually make sense for me, unless magic is a net negative, and I'm just not seeing that being the case. It takes a lot of oppression to cancel out the pure economic bonuses of magic, not to mention access to things like healing magic. Why are magical areas less desirable.

I also think that colored magical areas would be more stable than grey areas. When preparing to defending your city, you train colored mages who are extra useful in defending your city, but not in assaulting lands of a different color.


EDIT: Oh, I see, magical beasts and events make these areas more dangerous. That actually makes me wonder if the areas wouldn't end up with the same cities but fewer rural areas: a village is much more vulnerable than a city. Though that will depend on exactly how dangerous the beasts and disasters are.

[Astromancer]

Originally Posted by ericthered

This doesn't actually make sense for me, unless magic is a net negative, and I'm just not seeing that being the case. It takes a lot of oppression to cancel out the pure economic bonuses of magic, not to mention access to things like healing magic. Why are magical areas less desirable.

Part of that is a leftover from the original game I'm rifting off of. Magical areas were more dangerous.

I also think that colored magical areas would be more stable than grey areas. When preparing to defending your city, you train colored mages who are extra useful in defending your city, but not in assaulting lands of a different color.

Certainly, the mages of the local color have a big advantage. But armies would know that and bring mages of the right color with them.

EDIT: Oh, I see, magical beasts and events make these areas more dangerous. That actually makes me wonder if the areas wouldn't end up with the same cities but fewer rural areas: a village is much more vulnerable than a city. Though that will depend on exactly how dangerous the beasts and disasters are.

This is a really good insight, That would mean this world's Color areas would be like reading Lord of the Rings. You visit cities but not farms, outside of Bree and the Shire you don't see farms in LotR. Why? Because farming isn't safe. Magic would make it possible to transport food to fortress towns in this setting the Grey areas would be the farmlands. The Shires that have farms.

Ports, mines, extractive reserves, and other resources, would also create towns and small protected gardens etc.

[Astromancer]

The Colored Mannas have effects on living things from the base world. The most notable effect is that the colors of living things often change. Example: The colors of the flowers and butterflies of a Color Manna area normally match or complement the color of the dominant manna. Strangely changed animals of other kinds are known. Many animals change to reflect some but rarely all folklore about them. Certain things tend to sort of rhyme or chime with the nature of the local color manna. Example: Yellow Manna is channeled through speech and runes and talking animals are more common in Yellow Manna areas.

Human reproduction is negatively affected by the Color Mannas. If we say that any given sex act between two fertile people has X chance of leading to conception. Then in a Color Manna area, the same acts have a 0.8X chance of leading to conception. In a White Manna area, the chance of the same acts leading to conception is 0.5X. The first, in a TL5 or lower society, guarantees population decline. The second guarantees a rapid population decline. Chances of miscarriage are double in a Color Manna area and five times greater in a White Manna area. Birth defects aren't as dramatically increased, but it is a serious problem.

Humans have shorter lifespans in Color Manna and White Manna areas. Mages are an exception. Grey Art Mages generally add about ten years to their lifespan for each level of Magery. Color Mages living in an area of Color Manna that is their own or complementary to any of their types of Magery add about five years per level of their highest Magery. Thus Edgar of Wessex, who has Red Magery 3, Orange Magery 4, and Yellow Magery 1, gains twenty years to his lifespan. In White Areas Color Mages gain ten years to their lifespan per level of their highest level of Magery.