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Gelgarin said
That raises an interesting question - I've been thinking about what role something like siege equipment really has in a world with with a bunch of mages running around. Is it worth building and transporting a bunch of mangonel when there's a bunch of people who can achieve the same effect just by waving their arms in the air? It's not very relevant for me, since I'm the only character disconnected from the world of incantation, but how widely disseminated is magic? When push comes to shove, what percentage of the general population can lob balls of fire or something equivalent?


Mages are used to supplement seige equipment, not vice versa. Sure, maybe a geomancer could lob a decent sized boulder capable of killing a man, but in no way could any geomancer throw a boulder far enough nor hard enough to cause any real damage to a castle wall, at least not while being outside of arrow range. Same with the other elements, the amount of concentration and strength required to throw any kind of elemental projectile comparable to a lob from a catapault just isn't feasible under seige conditions. Sure, if a group of mages worked together to throw a boulder they could do some pretty serious damage at a greater range, but most mages, even when working together, arn't capable of outranging seige equipment. Because for every mage you add to the equation the spell becomes more difficult to control, and it only takes one mage to slip up for a backfire to happen. It's hard enough learning how to control your own magic, but for every mage you add to the frey you have to keep their in check as well. You could have a group of highly trained mages accomplish this, and possibly outrange seige equipment, but it's just not worth the hassle especially when considering it takes a group of mages to accomplish the same thing a wooden catapult could do. Not to mention how tiresome it would be for the mages whilst the catapult can fire as long as it doesnt break or has ammo.

Theoretically a single earth mage could wreck some pretty serious havoc on a castle wall if he gets close enough, he could bore a hole straight through the wall, but there will also likely be mages defending the wall, and the moment that mage gets to work on the wall he would make himself a target for every defender on the wall, and it would only take a single mage to repair whatever damage he could of done. If mages were expendable it could very well be considered a valid tactic, and essentially just try to out-mage your opponents, but considering the rarity of magic weilders there just arn't enough to throw away each battle.

Essentially it all boils down to mages are too rare and valuable an asset to risk when wooden seige equipment could do the same job in a more cost effective manner. With all that said, covert operation utilizing mages is a fairly common strategy.

As far has what percentage are mages, probably around six out of every thousand. In this universe, at this time, an army of 3,000 people is a moderate size army (so not LOTR style with tens of thousands), then when you consider which of the mage populace are serving you as opposed to some other faction, an army of 3,000 would probably only have around seven or eight mages with them if they were fortunate, then when you consider you generally want to keep them alive from battle to battle, you tend to use them sparingly. Throughout the RP, when you see that a nation has a seemingly indefinite number of soldiers to throw away or there always seems to be a feral mage popping up, it's for the sake of keeping you guys on your toes.

When you consider the Tower of Mages is essentially a haven for mages, you'd consider their numbers to be quiet large, but in all actuality the Tower probably only has around 300 or so mages (fluxating depending on current events). In terms of mages, that's a MASSIVE number, but in the grand scheme of numbers it's quiet small. With all this talk of how valuable mages are, that's part of the reason Tower Mages swear to politcol neutrality, because literally every lord is gnawing at the chomps to get some more mages in thier service. Really, that's why Ferros, Valaria and Kain all stopped sending mages to the tower when they relocated to Valeal, because they would be sending extremely valuable assets to a country they despise, and they saw it as the Tower choosing to align with a kingdom (when in actuality they were just homeless and well, wanted a home).

Also when you consider that the tower regularly puts their higher ranking mages at risk to deal with feral mages, it's kind of stupefying to the outside world. With all this talk of how much mages are prized, it's important to not overlook how persecuted they are. Typically the common folk fear mages. Period. Nobles and Lords want mages for thier cause, but they also have the mentality: If you won't serve me, you won't live to potentially serve anyone else.

Tis a dangerous world for a mage.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Rayn Night
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Oh wow... That means, Guardians must be valuable as hell in this world if they can't be touched by any kind of magic O.O That changes the perspective a lot. I would imagien there are very few number of Guardians if there a little number of mages like that.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Gelgarin
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If they only come from the tower, and the tower stands at ~300 mages, then yeah. An in demand resource certainly.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by vietmyke
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If such were the case, I imagine the Guardians number no more than 50ish members, at most 100
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Gelgarin
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Follow up question: this might be answered in the intro, but I couldn't find it.

Where do mages come from? I don't mean in the 'when a mommy and a daddy decide they love each other very much' sense, but rather, are some people randomly born with a natural magical affinity, or is it something that has to be learned through study and dedication?
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Feisty-Pants
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Rayn Night said
Oh wow... That means, Guardians must be valuable as hell in this world if they can't be touched by any kind of magic O.O That changes the perspective a lot. I would imagien there are very few number of Guardians if there a little number of mages like that.


Indeed....and I'm sure Guardians are insanely loyal to either the Tower or their Charge. As Kotori is devoted to Alaric.

Only 50 to 100 Guardians? Whoa....that be crazy.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Feisty-Pants
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Gelgarin said
Follow up question: this might be answered in the intro, but I couldn't find it. Where do mages come from? I don't mean in the 'when a mommy and a daddy decide they love each other very much' sense, but rather, are some people randomly born with a natural magical affinity, or is it something that has to be learned through study and dedication?


Maybe. When a mommy and daddy love each other very much, they occasionally produce a random freak of nature by a very rare chance. Mages are like shiny pokemon.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Headphones
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Loving the conversation so far, guys XD Especially since my class specialty is biology and chemistry.
I don't know about you all, but I think magicians have a gene or a set of genes, which can be classified as magical or simply responsible for their magic, and one of those genes ( or just the gene ) has to be "unlocked", in order for someone to have magical abilities. I favor two possibilities:
1. A child has to have two recessive "magical activator" genes, in order to have magical abilities.
2. A child has to have a despiralised ( aka active ) gene, in order to have magical abilities.
The first option allows genetics to play a good role in this, whilst the latter - genes and a bit of luck maybe.

Both of Skye's parents were magicians, so I'm safe either way =P

By the way, what season will it be when we begin? Autumn?
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Gelgarin
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Personally I favor it being at least partially a learned ability, just since it adds more of an interesting class element to the proceedings. If magic requires study then Joe the farmer is probably never going to become a mage, because he's too busy farming so as to not starve. It's hard to devote years to the study of incantation when you can't read, can't afford a teacher and have to get up at sunrise every morning to milk the cows.

Magic is going to be limited to those powerful enough to devote time to its study, either through wealth, rank or family - which offers a somewhat more human reason for normal people (read:me) to resent magic users.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Rayn Night
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Gelgarin said
Personally I favor it being at least partially a learned ability, just since it adds more of an interesting class element to the proceedings. If magic requires study then Joe the farmer is probably never going to become a mage, because he's too busy farming so as to not starve. It's hard to devote years to the study of incantation when you can't read, can't afford a teacher and have to get up at sunrise every morning to milk the cows.

Magic is going to be limited to those powerful enough to devote time to its study, either through wealth, rank or family - which offers a somewhat more human reason for normal people (read:me) to resent magic users.


Totally agree with this ^

Edit: A good mix of an inner talent thing that has to be taught and controlled by learning and studying is probably the best.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Headphones
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It also makes Skye's reasoning all the more right and, believe me, you won't like it when he's right XD

Since magicians are smaller in number, am I to assume that there will be a time when there will be a ban on making magician characters? It seems quite reasonable to try to even out the numbers at some point. Also, can we really switch between calling magical users magicians and mages? I agree that the two words are synonyms, but what is more commonly used in the kingdoms or does it vary from country to country?

And another thing, could you tell us what kind of culture all the kingdoms come close to? Ferros is a bit Nordic and Kain is a bit Arabian. What about the rest? Can I try providing some pictures for them?
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Headphones said
It also makes Skye's reasoning all the more right and, believe me, you won't like it when he's right XD Since magicians are smaller in number, am I to assume that there will be a time when there will be a ban on making magician characters? It seems quite reasonable to try to even out the numbers at some point. Also, can we really switch between calling magical users magicians and mages? I agree that the two words are synonyms, but what is more commonly used in the kingdoms or does it vary from country to country? And another thing, could you tell us what kind of culture all the kingdoms come close to? Ferros is a bit Nordic and Kain is a bit Arabian. What about the rest? Can I try providing some pictures for them?


No, there won't be a ban on making magic characters. I want players to be able to play the characters they want. Mages and magicians can be used interchangeably, and people will understand what your talking about. Correct about Ferros and Kain. Valarian culture is akin to Slavic culture, with Valean resembling a more western European culture. I'm not even sure what Gorgon would resemble. As to the time of year, it's spring.

Concerning where mages come from, I favor what Gelgarin said, with genetic playing a role in how easily someone can pick it up, but it is ultimately a learned skill. I think that would be a nice approach to take.

The IC will be kicking off tomorrow night (after my classes, so it may be quite late [Eastern Time]). I don't think I should be expecting a CS for some of the other players who expressed interest, so I would like to pick up three more people to give us twelve players (not characters). I want to try to keep the groups as evenly distributed as possible while adhering to your characters ambitions, so twelve players could give us an even four per group. Plus I feel bad that I turned down some people with perfectly acceptable CSs because I reserved a spot for someone.
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Headphones said
Can I try providing some pictures for them?


Sure.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by vietmyke
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Holy freak-rainstorm-of-doom....

It appears that I am in the hospital. (thats like... the third time this year... I should consider life insurance...)

Since the IC is starting tomorrow, which is when I should be getting out, that should be no real big problem, but if I'm gone for an extended period of time, I have likely died- Or have had my phone confiscated by the disapproving nurse. More likely the latter.

Also note: These different countries remind me a bit of Mount and Blade, yay? nay?
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Feisty-Pants
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Judging by how we're going to start off...

I think we're going to have a rough time of it, m'lord. =_=

Well, maybe not. Tegan is a Guardian too!

That aside, this is essentially how Kotori moves: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSf3R8TwvJA style and all. ^_~ About 2:33 is when she appears. ;D
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Free Faller
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Personally, I thought Kain as more early Sassanid era Persia, if only because I imagine them being closer to Zoroastrianism than Islamic beliefs. That and I may or may not know a metric butt-ton about Persian culture... so I'm a little biased. And Gorgon sounds straight up like Game of Thrones: Swamp Edition to me, lol.

Feisty-Pants said
Judging by how we're going to start off...I think we're going to have a rough time of it, m'lord. =_=Well, maybe not. Tegan is a Guardian too!

Not only that, but she's a battle hardened veteran who was fighting wars while almost everyone else was still toddling across the floor, you little whipper snappers. :p

Oh, and I'm currently Pacific Time.
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Free Faller said
Personally, I thought Kain as more early Sassanid era Persia, if only because I imagine them being closer to Zoroastrianism than Islamic beliefs. That and I may or may not know a metric butt-ton about Persian culture... so I'm a little biased. And Gorgon sounds straight up like Game of Thrones: Swamp Edition to me, lol. Not only that, but she's a battle hardened veteran who was fighting wars while almost everyone else was still toddling across the floor, you little whipper snappers. :p Oh, and I'm currently Pacific Time.


I look forward to working with you in protecting m'lord. Are you a more upfront fighter?
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by Rayn Night
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Free Faller said
Not only that, but she's a battle hardened veteran who was fighting wars while almost everyone else was still toddling across the floor, you little whipper snappers. :p Oh, and I'm currently Pacific Time.


I know what you mean :P
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Feisty-Pants said
I look forward to working with you in protecting m'lord. Are you a more upfront fighter?


Of course. Tegan uses a very precise, agile style of swordplay that utilizes leverage, her advisories' own momentum, and conservation of her own energy.

Rayn Night said I know what you mean :P

Your character might as well have one foot in the grave, haha.
Hidden 9 yrs ago Post by PhantomSekai
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Hey, quick question. I was browsing some of the character sheets, the tower mages mainly, and a thought occurred to me. All of the tower mages (viet, headphones, and saltwater) are all about the same age, so would they know each other? I mean if they're all tower mages, or at least spent some time in the tower, then they probably would've at least interacted once or twice.

Of course I could be completely wrong, as I stated before, due to my schedule keeping me in a state where I'm bound to miss a few details on the slightly slow skims I do for each character. Haven't had a chance to sit down and actually read them in depth yet.
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