Magic in Eave, Part II

It was nearly a hundred years before another human was given the privilege of learning the art of magic.  For hundreds of years the eladrin have known of the human connection to their world and as such it was a matter of time before a human would pick it up on their own.  The Tulath have done so in their own right, learning how to craft magic, so magic was the eladrins fate alone.  The humans have been fascinated with magic for centuries.  However as it turns out, they did not have much of a choice.  In the Barony of Stormtonne there was born a set of twins.  Alana was fair and strong as her brother Edam was astute and wise.  Edam danTaven proved to be magical, for at six years of age he was creating illusions of beasts the lived in the forest for Alana to “slay.”  Edam is the first recorded natural caster among the humans and he needed a teacher.  The eladrin of Galadon argued that the human should be slain for the good of Eave.  Sorica Faleath, a longtime eladrin friend of the danTavens took it up herself to teach the young human.  The twins could not be separated however.  It was learned that Edam’s magic grew weak the farther his sister was away from him.  The eladrin were familiar with this concept, and they called it dual spirits.  So while Edam grew up to be a great mage, following in the footsteps of Keri, Alana grew up and learned to be an eladrin knight, so she could protect her brother.

Sorica loved the twins like they were her own and she was first to argue that not all humans were bad.  The danTavens have kept every single word that they have made to the eladrin and their own kingdom.  After Edam was trained, Sorica set out among North Realm, to search for more children.  Other eladrin followed suit and so magic was brought to the Kingdom of Danaan.

The eladrin were two-fold in teaching those that they found.  It was toward the Age of Expansion that they started to teach the humans of Danaan.  They were in contact with the other eladrin kingdoms and knew of the serious dangers that the Tulath could bring.  The eladrin knew that the Tulath had learned the dwarven magic and their numbers, science and military might could bring the entire continent under their heel.  They needed a counter and that is where the humans of Danaan could be of use.

There are several schools of magic in North Realm and numerous single masters both eladrin and human.  Most schools are small and teach one or two score of students at a time.  There is the Royal Academy of Danaan Tir that teaches both magic and sciences.  The Arcane Conservatory in Stormtonne and the Colleges of Danaan in the Maarke teach magic along with all the other courses of study that they offer.  The greatest mage of North Realm is a woman by the name of Ladeline and she is currently teaching three students magic.

Magic in Eave

Magic in the world of Eave is wondrous and wild and quite varied.  This treatise on magic will discuss how the Tulathian and Danaans use the magic that suffuses the world in which they live.  As already stated, Tulathians use magic to bolster what they have.  They have institutionalized magic to make it work for them and they have made an excellent job of it.  The Danaans have embraced magic in all its forms and can work the mightiest of magic on par with the eladrin.

That is dichotomy of the two forms of magic.  Those Danaans that have learn to use magic can cast on the fly.  Tulath cannot.  They can craft and enchant on such a large scale but do not know how to cast the spells like the Danaans do.  The eladrin will not teach them, in fact, it took the Hanali hundreds of years before they would even teach those of Danaan.  They ended up teaching them much to consternation of the other eladrin kingdoms.

That first human caster was a young woman by the name of Keri danTaven.  She, along with a few others of her house where allowed to go to the Hanali capitol, the first time humans were allowed too to set up an embassy there.  She was enthralled by what she saw.  A city built amid the great trees hidden from the view of those that flew overhead.  She had always been enthralled with magic and here she was in the heart of it in the North.

It is said by the eladrin of Galadon that she was a witch who charmed the great elven mage Tairen Velithu into teaching her magic.  It is not known if the two of them ever consummated the love that they were both said to have but in the end, Keri proved to be a most valuable student, despite what the other eladrin would say.  She learned to sing with the winds, talk to the great tree Elonvor, tame the toshurs to ride and commune with the great beasts that lurked in the woods.  Taerin was surprised at the speed in which she picked up the magic, learning it in years what took some eladrin decades to learn.  Unfortunately it would be almost a hundred years before another human student would learn magic for Keri made a vow never to teach what she had learned.

Part II coming soon!

The Church of Man, Part III

Science is not a forgotten lore to the Empire if Tulath.  Magic is mainly just used to bolster the prevailing science.  Like the trains that use the superheated metal to create the steam required.  In fact, the factories were dirty affairs but have cleaned up significantly.  This was found out after the Church of Man discovered that magic failed to work when it got 143.62 kilometers above the surface of the planet.  Nothing could change the fact that everything stopped working when it got to that height.  If they wished to return to the stars, they would have to use science.

The Tech-Priests have done a lot of for the Empire of Tulath.  They have saved their society from barbarism and strengthened it to be a dominant force.  That is not all the Church of Man does however.  They have terrible weapons of mundane, magic and science-make within their vaults.  They are now searching the world for the portals that brought the eladrin here from a distant planet, thinking that if they could recreate the journey that eladrin took, they could find their way to Terra and eventually home.

DnD Next

This is just some of my notes for my DnD Next game.

Characters:

• Kade of the Ten Blades (halfling male, rogue)
• Iona Raven's Daughter (human female, cleric of The Raven Queen)
• Otto (human male, mage)
• Ervan (elf male, cleric of Corellon)
• Streng (human male, barbarian)
• Thonkil (dwarf male, fighter)

The small town of Copperwood is going into battle with goblinoids from the south being displaced from the Empire of Rothes.

Copperwood

Population: 500 with more coming every day

Government: village elder is Sormen.  He is aided by two men, named Corwi and Rade.

Defense: a simple watch of about twenty men and women of the watch.  The number increases to fifty militia in times of need.

Inns: there are only two inns.  There is a large rambling inn called the Silver Frog and The Cold Comfort not nearly as big but more expensive.

Taverns: The Copper Dragon is the largest tavern.  There are two other taverns.  The Dancing Wench, a low class tavern and The Sad Devil a somewhat pricy establishment.

Supplies & Trade: Darvan Trading Coaster maintains a small tradehouse here.  There is the Vorkann Trade House.  There is an armorer and a weaponsmith but they are totally busy with orders from the mercenaries

Temples

·         The Moon House, a temple to Sehanine.  It is run by  Holmis (half-elf male) a devout man

·         Coins and Shield, a temple to Erathis and Bahamut.  It is run by Corine of Erathis.  Young woman who is beset by the rigors of the being head priest when the old one died.

·         Shrines to all the other gods set up around the gods.

·         Firena is the herbalist of the town.  She has pet goats.  Because of the impending goblin attack she is offering healing potions for 35gp instead of the 50gp.  She will have six the first time the party approaches her.

o   She offers money for various critters!

§  Feathers of owlbears, harpies, griffon and the like 1gp each

§  Carrion crawler head with all eight tentacles 10gp, or 1gp for each tentacle.  Weighs approximately 20lbs

§  Green slime are 5gp a jar.  Cubes, slimes and jellies gain 5gp for the nucleus in a jar.  Jars cost 5sp each.  A filled jar weighs approximately 1lb each

§  Shriveled wight heart: 15gp

§  Putrid zombie heart: 2gp

§  Ogre heart: 10gp

§  Set of ghoul fangs: 5gp each

§  Poison glands from spider or snake: 5gp each

§  She will buy magic items, but has a 500gp maximum.

·         Wanted posters:

o   Henstock the bandit.  80gp for his head.  120gp to bring him in alive, collect in Copperwood.  He is known for using traps.  In the company of a band of bandits

o   Mysterious figure only known for a tattoo on his back, three hashmarks done in a triangle.  This is the one Streng been tracking.  150gp for the body in Copperwood.  500gp in Moonsilver alive, 250gp for the body.  Wanted for murder.

Items for sale: Items for sale: things over 500gp are kinda rare.  Anything 499gp or less can generally be bought.  500gp is about all that they can do at any one time.  Any object will take roughly two weeks.

·         The armorer is a Halfling named Corol (cousin of Elo in Mirewood).  He has a suit of medium sized white dragon leather, a suit of small sized white dragon studded leather and a medium sized suit of white dragon scale.  The white wyrm Gerigos was slain about a hundred years ago.

·         The weaponsmith is a human named Fash.  He can make silvered weapons.

·         The ferrier is a fat man named Orio.

o   Mules: 20gp each.  6 left

o   Light riding horse: 60gp.  2 left

o   Pony: 40gp.  2 left

o   War dogs.  2 left, equal to a wolf.  Need handle animal, otherwise will only know the commands: attack and heel.  50gp each.  Food for them cost 1gp a day.

·         Darvan Trading Coaster and Vorkaan Trade House are two competing merchant family who are running regular runs to Copperwood because of the impending goblin invasion.

·         Liselai Autumnbloom has a variety of scrolls for sale

o   1^st and 2^nd level spells for 50gp/level

o   Buys magic items up to 750gp

o   Potion of climbing 50gp, potion of water breathing 100gp, oil of etherealness 100gp

Troops currently in Copperwood

·         From Moonsilver.  They have taken up residence in Dragonspear Castle

o   Lead by Naikel of the Moonsword (half-elf female), the newly formed head of the Knights of the Moon.  Rides a griffon

o   15 Knights of the Moon

o   80 infantry

o   40 cavalry

o   20 archers

o   10 Acolytes of the Moon

o   5 engineers

o   50 builders

o   20 camp followers, cooks

·         50 Bloodtalon mercenaries lead by Lexihara Bloodtalon (dragonborn female).  Bloodtalons are the largest mercenary companies on the continent.  A good twenty of them dragonborn

·         100 various mercenaries.  Many of them are going out to claim the bounty on goblins

·         40 Imperial Flameshields of Rothes, infantry and 10 Imperial Doomhammer minotaurs, led by Niss of the Blood (human male)

·         50 guard/militia of Copperwood

·         20 elves of Courvale.  Archers

·         Liselai Autumnbloom (elf female, mage) and two apprentices

The Church of Man, Part II

The Church then spent many a year on supporting the fledgling Empire.  One thing that they pondered long and hard on were the ancient dwarves that lived in the cities that they now occupied.  What they found was magic and it both freighted and fascinated them.  They collected as many of the ancient dwarven arms, armor and miscellaneous items that bore and enchantment that they could get their hands on.  They then began to study them and were baffled at what they had found.

Magic was locked away from the people of Tulath for over four hundred years.  It was not until a young smith by the name of Thom Nakamura paved the way.  It was Thom Nakamura that uncovered what was needed for the Tulathians to understand what was needed. He worked the forges for many a year making some fine weapons and armor because that is what the Chruch of Man told him to do.  He wanted more.  He wanted to make a weapon that could shatter a gate, blow away a stand of men or be hurled the length of a hundred paces and return to the hand that threw it.  Thom Nakamura found an eladrin that could speak the ancient and now dead language and forced it to teach him the language.  He figured, correctly, that the chants of ancient power were needed to forge the arms and armor.  He then forged a weapon using the forbidden words spoken in dwarvish.  The first weapon he ever made was a dagger that to this day, by the Emperors of Tulath.  It is said that the Dagger of Nakamura can cut though any metal put to the test.  It has never lost its keen edge and cannot be destroyed by any means.  It was then that the Tulathians has a renaissance of dwarven engineering.  They began to understand the myriad of ancient dwarven items that they had in their vaults.  The next part of their plan was to figure out a way to incorporate the ancient magic with their fading technology.

The Tech-Priests of the Church of Man soon became even more powerful and the only way to make the enchanted items was to learn dwarvish and the only way to learn dwarvish was to be initiated into the Church of Man.  The Tech-Priests have made great advancements in not just arms and armor but also public works, transportation and materials.  They have made the incredible trains that goes though there lands using their magic to continually heat a piece of metal to incredible temperatures to replace the use of coal.  They have made incredible public works such as open gates to an incredible source of water for drinking and sanitation.  They have made the Grand Imperial Palace nigh impregnable to attack my magic or science.

Stay tuned for Part III

The Church of Man, Part I

The Church of Man

The Church of Man started out as a club of various Captains, Admirals and the like within the United Terran Navy.  This club, Unified Man, came about choosing their members from the best and the brightest of the eugenically and genetically engineered human of the Navy and they espoused greatness of the human body and mind and as such housed many great minds of the time.  Admiral Nerimath was one such leader of Unified Man and the current Church of Man revere him and the defense of the UTN ship Tulath as a saint.

Unified Man has changed a lot in the thousand years since Tulath crashed onto Eave.  Disbanded after Admiral Tulath’s death because Antor Koromikos was afraid of them staging a coup, they still lived on in secret.  The people were disillusioned and breaking up into petty states in the years after they had fled Tulath for the mountians.  They needed a strong leader so Unified Man began to secretly take in orphaned youths to train them in the ways of combat, the pursuits of the mind and honor of leadership.  When they had a proper candidate who was trained in the right way they approached Antor Koromikos in his last year (he lived until he was ninety-six), a bitter and broken man trying to hold the remnants of his people together.  They proposed a deal, one that Antor could not refuse.

Three things happened.  Antor “found” the last remaining child in the line of Tullson Nerimath, never mind the fact that his wife was on the world of Terra, the capitol of United Terra.  Soon after Tullson II was proclaimed the leader of all those who had fled Tulath.  Finally the Church of Man was fromed.  Over half of the petty warlords flocked under Tullson II banner and those that didn’t where quickly conquered by Tullson II.  He reorganized those families that supported his claims as Dukes, Counts and Earls and those that he had to bully into submission he made into Barons.  He soon afterwards declared himself Emperor of Tulath and promised the people that he would lead them to victory and prosperity.  He did not disappoint.

Remnants of the Spartan Project on Eave

Spartan Project

The ancient Tulathians of United Terra began a eugenics program to create a better man.  The project was successful and gradually the whole society was using eugenics to breed their entire population.  The eugenics program eventually lead to the Spartan Project in which they began to use more serious genetic engineering to create super-soldiers.  Slowly the governing of the nation was being taken over by a line of genetically bred and engineered tyrants, for lack of a better word.  They were good and bad leaders of the United Terra and they built a great and somewhat successful Empire.  But like the emperors of old, they wanted more and so they started a war with their galactic neighbors.  The war lasted for close to a century as they gobbled up all their neighbors.  The Earth Directorate was the only power that was great enough to stop them and even though they outnumbered United Terra by at least three-to-one, they did not have the brilliant minds such as Admiral Narimath, Admiral Coe and General Itanshi.  Through incredible skill, luck and sheer brilliance, The Earth Directorate soon found itself on the losing end of the war.  The end of the war is not known…

Not all of the genetically engineered folk where of the mind to conquer and many of them defected to the Earth Directorate during the war.  The most famous of them Patrick Gael who lead the defense of the Aldeberan Prime and the evacuation of Titus Five.  They were two major victories for the Earth Directorate.  Other genetically engineered warriors joined the Earth Directorate and created families.  On Eave they include the danGael, Chan and Kray.

Tulathians are a hearty race.  Their average height for a man is six-four and woman are five-ten, compared to the average height for a Danaan man is six feet and a woman five-six.  The Tulathians were bred for this and the eugenics program made for people sound in body and mind.  Those family lines who have proved themselves were qualified to be genetically engineered.  On Eave they are the Veklo, Coryaku, Travati and Tonn.  There are many other families that have the Spartan blood in them.

After many generations on Eave, Spartan blood has weakened.  They have taken it upon themselves to marry into others that have the Spartan blood, a eugenics program in itself!  The families listed above are those that have held on to their Spartan heritage.