Hestrine is a world in which magic is a free-flowing part of everyday life. Most every person has some sort of magical power flowing through them, but each type of magic is similar to a type of personality. No two magic types are exactly the same. Even everyday tasks tend to involve magic in some sort of fashion; from cooking and cleaning, to operating machinery, to exploring. However, with the rampant abundant of magical energy, the world is over-run with monsters, demons, and the like. To help the everyday citizen acquire goods or deal with monsters, various groups of people banded together into organizations, known as Magic Guilds. This is a story about one of those guilds…
1. Everyone needs to play nice.
2. No God-moding.
3. Respect other people
4. Keep out of character talk in its proper section
5. Have fun
6. Be semi-active. If you know that you will not be available for an extended period of time, let me know.
Continent:
The Brivald continent, which is mostly located within the southeastern hemisphere, is a mass of land that is about 60% covered in mountains. However, due to a few inactive volcanoes in the region, the 40% that is not mountain is very fertile land. The Cartile River, which snakes its way from the north to the southeastern coast, is the main form of transportation for many countries of the region due to impassible mountains.
Country:
The country of Natel is centered within the Brivald continent. It is nestled with the Kyltron mountains to the south, the Wastrine mountains to the northeast, and has the Cartile river flowing right between them. Natel is bordered be three other coutries: Juklar in the north, Gyros to the southeast, and Phitolaska to the southwest. Natel is run from its primary city of Kolknor, mainly due to its ease of access to other nations. Natel is a democratic nation in which the governing body is decided every 6 years from amongst its people. The people of Natel hold local elections in each of the villages, and send a representative of the people to Kolknor to deal with foreign politics. There is no set religion within Natel; however, religion itself is not persecuted either.
City:
Nestled between the Cartile River and the southern mountain range on the Brivald continent lays the city of Kolknor. Kolknor originally started out to as a small fishing and farming village, but grew to metropolitan size when fur traders from Juklar traded their furs for the fresh fish and vegetables. Eventually, trade ships from far and wide used the Cartile River as a major hub for many of its trade services.
Kolknor is pretty much divided into four main districts: Industrial, Docks, Residential, and Marketplace. The Industrial district is where many of the current technology that the people of Kolknor tend to enjoy, from blacksmithing to industrial plants. The Docks district is where foreign traders bring in good, and local traders can store their goods before shipping them out. There are an abundance of warehouses scattered throughout the district. The Residential district is where the middle and upper class population lives. The Marketplace district is the main district of the city. It is where the farmers bring their crops to sell, traders trade their foreign goods, and fishermen to sell their fish.
Guild:
Within the city of Kolknor, a group of mages gathered in order to assist the common citizen with any task that they may need completed. This group of mages founded the magic guild called “Griffonclaw”. The current guild master, Pinola Bejore, is the fourth in the series of guild masters since its creation. Griffonclaw is a well-known guild throughout the region; in both their ability to complete their requests, as well as their unorthodox methods to complete the requests. The guild is situated in the southern part of the Marketplace district, a short distance from the entrance to the Docks district.
Foreign Politics:
Magic Council
In order to maintain a sense of control over the various magic guilds spread throughout the continent, the mage guilds created a council was created. The members were chosen from amongst the magic guilds throughout the continent for based on their control over their magic power, as well as their wisdom. The council is solely used for control over the guilds and has no say to each countries policy. The council for the Brivald continent is located within the capitol of Gyros.
Gyros
Gyros, the country to the southeast of Natel, is a republic ruled by the Grand Assembly. The officials that represented by wealthy land owners.
Juklar
Juklar, the country just north of Natel, has a monarchial government. Juklar is currently ruled by King Wreskol.
Phitolaska
Phitolaska is mostly ruled where each village rules in a tribal form of government. However, these villages have also formed a non-aggression treaty amongst themselves to defend against foreign invaders.
Technology:
The region’s technological development is roughly similar to the Renaissance age. The quality of these technologies, however, is superior due to the fusion of magic during the crafting process.
Religion:
Within Hestrine, the practice of religion is free. It has no formal religion; however, several missionaries from other continents occasionally make their way to Kolknor to spread their words. The two main religions present in the region at the present time are Terish and Vuklom. Terish is a monotheistic religion where the god, Terin was the original god or creation. Its followers practice their beliefs through various acts of prayer, a weekly sermon, fasting, and other such deeds. Many of the leaders in the religion are referred to as Teriks or priests. Vuklom is philosophy based religion dealing with a person seeking enlightenment to break free from the Huriv, or cycle of rebirth. Some of the forms that many Vukla commit them to enlighten them are through the acts of mediation, as well as various forms of martial arts.
Magic:
History
The magic in the world of Hestrine has grown throughout the decades. It is to the point where most everyday life could not be done without the use of magic power. However, this had not always been the case. Magic, as the legends been past done, was discovered by Gyvani Terverse many centuries before the current day. Gyvani had been a shepherd tending to his sheep in a nearby field some miles from the nearest settlement. While he was about to sit down to a quick mean of sheep milk and biscuits, he heard the sound of one of his lambs bleating nearby. Leaving his food behind, he went to see where the lamb wandered off to. A few minutes later he discovered a small tear in the earth. A few days before there had been an earthquake and he guessed that the quake is what caused the tear. He listened for a few moments, until he was sure that the bleating was coming from within the tear, proceeded to lower his self down into the depths of the earth. Climbing down, what seemed to be half an hour, he discovered a small cave that was surprisingly well lit for how far down he was. Exploring the cave, he soon found the missing lamb stuck beneath a small boulder. Gyvani shoved the boulder aside, freeing the lamb. But in doing so he noticed a small alter with some strange writing around it. Unable to actually read the writing, he began to investigate the alter when a voice seemed to echo within his head. “Ye who hath cometh to this sanctuary long forgotten, beware! A vast evil lurketh within.” Unsure what to make of the words, he proceeded to let his curiosity lead him. A stones throw away from the alter, he noticed a large door, with a similar script as to what was around the alter was written into it. Upon reaching the door, once again he heard the voice echo within his mind. “Beware young fool, for time shall reverse once the deed hath been accomplished. Great power lurketh within, yet also great evil.” Gyvani ignored the words and proceeded to try to open the door. Though he pushed with all his might, he could not budge it. Giving it one last go, he grasped what had appeared to be a handle and gave it one mighty heave. The door moved a smidge, but that was all that was needed for the chaos to be unleashed. From the crack in the frame, dark mist began to poor out filling the room. As the room filled, the mist seemed to form the shape of hands. A few of the hands grasped the handle Gyvani had been grasping to this point, and a few seemed to grasp his arms and legs. The hands that grasped the handle wrenched it open, while the hands that grasped onto Gyanvi’s limbs lurched him within. As the darkness began to surround him, he heard the fearful sound of bleating as the lamb attempted to escape from the danger within the cave. Then silence befell him. For the next decade, mist continued to pour out of the tear, taking shapes of foul beasts and monsters. The people who breathed the mist soon discovered that a great power grew within. Some of the children of these people also seemed to retain some of the magical essence that their parents held onto, whereas some of the children’s magic seemed to evolve beyond that of their parents. As the centuries unfolded, the mist diluted into the atmosphere, no longer giving off its ominous visions. However, monsters now roam the world above, which gave the people a sense of terror. Many countries began to experiment on the magical energies, which now was more common than in the years past, and soon discovered a way to harness it into energy. As technology exploded throughout the world, it too, was powered by the power of magic, which was now abundant. Lights, vehicles, and various other machines all ran on magical power. And thus began the Magic revolution.
How magic works within to world
While most people are capable of using magic, a majority of the population’s capacity for magic is not very strong. The most that the average person could muster would be just enough to get technology to work the way it is supposed to. However, there are some people who happened to manifest stronger magic power, beyond that which is needed for everyday life. A majority of these people began to form themselves into a variety of guilds throughout the planet. But all magic is not equal. However, magic seemed to fall within a number of different schools: beast summoning, item storage, enhancement, and elemental manipulation. These are not the only schools of magic, but a majority of mages seemed to excel at harnessing one of these. Within the main schools, there are a number of sub schools that some mages seemed to specialize with.
Beast summoning evolved into several sub schools based upon how the beasts were summoned to the earth. Some mages uses mystical objects to bring forth certain beasts, where as others use symbols to bring forth the beasts. In either case, knowledge of the beast summoned is necessary before the beast can be summoned forth,
Elemental manipulation is broken down into the various natural elements within the world: fire, ice, water, air, earth, lightning, and metal.
Item storage is a unique form of magic that allows the mage to store many items within a subspace around the mage. Some mages even mastered it to the point that they can even swap out their currently equipped magic items for something else in a split second.
Enhancements tend to follow the magic of enhancing the abilities of the caster, or even to other individuals. Some increase speed, and some others increase body mass.
While these are some of the magic, many mages in to world can harness, they are not limited to only these. Magic changes from person to person, giving variations and diversity. The world of magic within Hestrine is ever expanding. But when harnessing magical power, it has a taxing effect on the caster. The more powerful the spell, the more it drains upon the caster’s stamina. And thus is the mages balance.
The player characters are all humans. While we will be battling monsters and whatnot, the general population of the planet is human.
Looking for a bit of creativity with magic powers. But if you are going to have a skill, it needs to be in your character biography and approved by me before it can be used. The schools of magic are only a template for a starting point; however, your character needs to be specialized in one particular form of magic. While they may use some other form of magic, they won't be able to excel in it. Also, if your character has a powerful spell, there needs to be a major draw-back in using it (i.e. a major magic power drain, can't cast for a day, inflicts major damage to the caster). I don't want to see people using extremely powerful spells at the drop of a hat.
With exception with my character, all other characters that are going to be added will be just joining the guild fresh, and thus need to accomplish a "test" to join. This is part of the plot.