CaptainManbeard

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

And I'm thinking towards the end of the school year, members of the Cult of Tiamat can infiltrate the Crimson Cup Championship, which sets in motion a huge climactic conflict to wrap up Volume I. Maybe our Dark Acolyte characters can use glamour charms to steal the identities of a Battlemancer team from a different school, and then while the Paladins' attention is on the chaos arising from that, the other Cultists can invade the Academy to break into the Headmaster's Vault, which is normally under powerful protection magic. Any attempt to break in triggers an alarm, which is why they needed to wait until they could have a giant distraction for the Paladins before making the attempt. And during that invasion, the Monster Club and their familiars could defend the school, thus tying all three Side Stories into the Main Story.

By the time we get to that point, my Battlemancer's abilities will probably be similar to this:

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

Been working on stuff and trying to finalize what characters I want to use, and I was wondering if I should add in a third sub-plot for those who want to have the option for a character that doesn't join the Secret Arena or the Battlemancer League? One idea I have for that is something similar to Care for Magical Creatures from Harry Potter or the non-combat side of Pokemon, wherein students learn the biology of various magical creatures, how to breed, raise, and care for them, what environments they thrive in, etc. Perhaps at some point the students in that class are given special magical eggs that they have to care for, and when they hatch, an ectoplasm-based creature is born, who then morphs into an animal familiar for the Magi who cared for it. The exact creature each familiar turns into various from Magi to Magi, so for anyone wanting to use this option, just pick whatever. You can even use an actual Pokemon if you want, and we can just say the familiar took form based on the personality and memories of it's keeper.

So, if we go with that, then we would have three sub-plots that would feed into one main plot at the beginning:

The Main Story: Volume I - Progressing through the school year, experiencing various holidays and events, and facing the growing threat of the Cult of Tiamat and the increasing presence of the Paladins of Bahamut at the Academy.

Side Story: Stormhawks - The students who join the Qrowdell Stormhawks and participate in the Battlemancer League.

Side Story: Monster Club - The students who enroll in the elective class Aedrazoology, also affectionately referred to by the students as Monster Club, which teaches the study of various creatures who have natural affinities to the Aetherscape.

Side Story: Dark Acolytes - The students who join the Secret Arena and learn dark magic from members of the Cult of Tiamat.

If we do that, then I'm thinking each Side Story will sort of "unlock" a separate aspect for those characters.

Stormhawks: They gain influence, fame, and glory as a result of their public League matches.
Monster Club: They gain the foundations for pursuing a career as an Aedrazoologist or similar field.
Dark Acolytes: They gain access to Infernal Magic and the less-ethical side of Cosmic Magic.

I will probably play three student characters, one for each Side Story. Everyone can feel free to do the same.

My Stormhawk guy will be attuned to the Elemental Plane of Air and similar to Izuku Midoriya from My Hero Academia, using green lightning, superspeed, and powered-up physical attacks.

My Monster Club guy will be attuned to the Elemental Plane of Earth and focus on speaking with animals and controlling plants.

My Dark Acolyte guy will be attuned to the Elemental Plane of Fire and focus on destructive blasts and effects. Since he is the son of secret Cultists and from a long line of dark fire wizards, his Aura and flames are naturally dark purple with black wisps. However, to avoid drawing suspicious glances from people, he was trained from a young age to suppress his dark nature when in public. Because of that, he can shift his Aura and flames from their darker forms into a brighter, happier purple when in the presence of teachers or non-villains.

What does everyone think?

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

If you miss anything, don't worry. I'm gonna include something akin to a Player's Handbook when the main thread goes up, which will have a list of spoiler tags containing various categories of info on the RP. My goal there is to have all the necessary information for the RP within that single post for ease of access.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

This reminds me of an old idea I had for a dnd character once and I can probably adapt it to this

A warforged built by a cultist to server his god. He was found just before the machine was officially set loose upon the world, and the robot was put in a coffin or some other hidden compartment, and found way after. This machine was "coded" for lack of a better term to have forbidden magic up its sleeve, but doesnt really know how or why.

All he knows is that he has a weird innate ability to use these forms of magic, but for some reason he can't use any others. Likely because hes a literal robot and shouldnt have magic abilities anyway.

How viable is something like that?

@Blizz

That would not be viable at all for a freshman student at the Academy, but if you want to play a student who, like one of my characters, has parents in the Cult, then you could say the warforged was first built by a follower of Tiamat centuries ago, was placed in a coffin like you said, probably by followers of Bahamut, and then was somehow forgotten about. Centuries later, members of your character's family discovered him and now he's like a guard who is usually posted outside the Cult's secret headquarters. But when the five dark instructors go to the Secret Arena, they could bring him along keep an eye on the entrance and maybe help train the students.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

When the main thread goes up, I've decided the name is going to be changed slightly to: The Secret World of Arcanum: Qrowdell Academy. The part of their story that centers around them as students will be considered Volume I, and then once they graduate and the story moves away from their lives as students, I'll change the subtitle from Qrowdell Academy to whatever the title of Volume II ends up being, probably something like Civil War or Infernal Doom. Then Volume III might end up being called Vestiges of the Platinum Dragon. But that's a ways off, so we'll see XD.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

So for aspiring villains can we pick initiate in the infernal arts or do we need to wait until the secret classes start?

@PrankFox

That depends on whether or not they have a relative or previous mentor who is part of the Cult of Tiamat. Since one of my characters is going to be the child of cult members and doing the initial recruiting for the Secret Arena, they will be an Initiate in Infernal Magic. Though, since not everyone will be taking place in the dark magic class, that progression is separate from what I mentioned for the Academy-approved magicks. So, regardless of whether or not one is going to learn Infernal Magic, they still get the same starting options with the approved magicks.

And to give something extra for the non-villain characters, we could have those be the ones who join the Battlemancer team. So, in addition to what is learned in classes, the hero-leaning characters get combat experience in the Battlemancer League and the villain-leaning characters get combat experience in the Secret Arena, where the students are forced to fight each other, monsters, the dark teachers, etc. For that part, we can have some generic NPC student villains that each of us can control when writing the combat scenes. Sound good?

So, assuming we're all in agreement, I'm going to be less active on here for a few days while I focus on getting everything written and ready for the main thread. I don't have an exact ETA, especially with the upcoming week being fairly busy due to family stuff and Thanksgiving, but I'm hoping to have everything ready to go by Friday.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

Oh, and I realize overlooked something in my other post about magic levels: Universal Magic would be at Intermediate for everyone since that's basic every day stuff.

So, everyone should be at Intermediate for Universal Magic and one of the four elemental magicks, and then either Novice for one other or Initiate for two others.

As a reminder, Infernal Magic is forbidden at the Academy, so only those who attend the secret dark magic classes or were secretly trained before the Academy will know them. Innate Sorceries are purely elemental and universal, meaning only from the Elemental Planes of Air, Fire, Water, and Earth and basic Universal Magic. Cosmic Magic cannot be used innately and requires an Arcane Conduit, as does the more advanced abilities from the elemental magicks.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

I am going with the race of elves that can shapeshift. Apart from that, they mostly use their universal magic/cosmic magic. Telekinesis, projecting illusions to mess with people, telepathic communication, potential teleportation at some point.

In Pokémon terms, Taeral is a Psychic type. xD

@Crimson Flame

What were you thinking for the elemental affinity? I would suggest Air, because then they could eventually fly around as they're teleporting that would also pair well with telekinesis.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

<Snipped quote by CaptainManbeard>

He* is definitely going to need to reach that power fantasy later on as a goal both for himself and me. I think it will start out more of flavoring pyromancy as solar flames/heat rather than warping reality right out the gate. I think his initial/signature ability beyond the most basic pyromancy will be setting beacons of light that deal fire damage, and connecting them together with superhot lasers. Maybe he can have them orbit his body like a star system.

@Light

Yeah, totally! What we can probably do is play out their freshman year, go through all the holidays and classes and stuff, have the secret dark training for aspiring villains, and then have an epic climactic finale towards the end of the school year. Then, we can time jump to their graduation three years later and begin delving into a giant magical war brewing that sees them develop faster than average, ultimately culminating in them gathering the Vestiges of Bahamut to channel Chaos Magic and temporarily become like SUUUUUPER overpowered, LOL. To keep it under the Qrowdell name, we can say that once the war starts, the Academy is used as a secret headquarters for an organization similar to the Order of the Phoenix from Harry Potter.

Qrowdell Academy (magical school RP)

So, to make everything simple and give everyone a clear idea of how basic or advanced various magical effects are, we'll go with this:

All abilities are split into three categories - Racial Traits, Innate Sorcery, and Arcane Arts.

Racial Traits: Biological functions tied to one's racial bloodline. Similar to mutations in X-Men.

Innate Sorcery: Lesser magicks from the four Elemental Planes that one can command at will like an extension of their body. Similar to Bending from Avatar: The Last Airbender and Legend of Korra.

Arcane Arts: Advanced disciplines requiring the use of runes from the Arcane Tongue to clearly define more complex magical effects and channeled through an Arcane Conduit, such as wands, rings, amulets, etc. Basically any item that you can engrave runes into marking it as a Conduit, or magical runic tattoos done with enchanted ink.

So, with that, the characters won't actually need the Conduit for the Innate Sorcery, only the Arcane Arts. As for levels of difficulty with magic, we'll just go with this:

Unlearned: No experience in this type of magic.

Initiate: Only recently began studying this type of magic.

Novice: A very basic understanding of this type of magic.

Intermediate: Considerable understanding of this type of magic.

Adept: Greater understanding of this type of magic, typically requires at least several years of formal education.

Expert: Advanced understanding of this type of magic, typically requires post-graduate training with specialized instructors and several years of real-world experience beyond just formal education.

Master: Complete mastery of this type of magic, typically requires many years of real-world experience using Adept-level spells beyond just formal education.

To keep us all on a similar level, I'm think everyone is an Intermediate in one of the four elemental magicks, whichever they are attuned to, and then they can be a Novice in one other magic or an Initiate in two other magicks. As for what type of abilities fall into which levels, I'll work on that and get back to you, lol.