Mokley

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

_{art by Ullbors}

The Magician's Guilds

Magic, unlike science and medicine, cannot be learned in a university setting -- not that this fact hasn't prevented said universities from offering courses and degrees in enchantment and divination. A structured magical curriculum, in the words of renowned magician Ezora Oovakey, "is just fine for the casual layperson or researcher, but no one may call themselves a magician if school is their only experience." True magicians, in professional opinion, hail from the Magician's Guilds.

Basic Structure of Magician's Guilds

In almost any Magician's Guild you'll find a simple hierarchy of members, which reflects that of guilds of any other trade:

APPRENTICE
A new recruit -- usually a youth -- will join a guild as an apprentice. Apprentices are each assigned a mentor (or are adopted directly by a ranked guild member) and are given trivial tasks and mundane responsibilities to perform as compensation for the privilege of accompanying the magician.

JOURNEYMAN
When an apprentice is deemed ready, the mentor will recommend the apprentice for full membership into the guild. A ceremony is held in which the recruit is officially bestowed the status of magician. As a journeyman, the new magician is qualified to conduct business in their own name, respond to public commissions, and train apprentices of their own. A journeyman's ultimate goal is to contribute an original masterpiece -- a new application of magic or an exceptional and defining feat -- to the field of magic.

MASTER
The council of masters operates and oversees the guild. A journeyman with a high reputation who has completed their masterpiece may be considered by the council to join the rank of Master. The masters of Mages' Guilds are highly sought after for their experience and intellect, and their names are famous (and sometimes infamous) among the general public.

GRANDMASTER
Each guild may only have one grandmaster at any time. The grandmaster is considered to possess the highest knowledge and experience, and acts as the final authority on guild decisions. The council of masters, by popular vote, has the authority to appoint one of their own as grandmaster, and to demote a sitting grandmaster.

CHAPTER
The guild is divided into multiple Chapters, each of which has its own guild hall presided by a single Master. One guild may have numerous chapters that extend to the farthest reaches of the world.

FULCRUM
The meeting place of the guild masters -- and the place of authority of the Grandmaster -- is the Fulcrum. If the guild keeps artifacts or knowledge of importance, they are usually located within the fulcrum.

A List of Guilds in Operation

The following list is by no means comprehensive -- guilds are founded and disbanded every day -- but it may serve as an example of the most popular and widespread guilds.

• ENCHANTER'S GUILD - artifacts and the infusion of magical properties into objects.
• SORCERER'S GUILD - magic as offensive and defensive strategy in war and peacekeeping.
• DIVINER'S GUILD - specializing in clairvoyant insight and foretelling the future.
• PHYSICIAN'S GUILD - uniquely teaches scientific and magical methods of healing.
• NECROMANCER'S GUILD - communicate with the dead and manipulate the state of living things.
• MECHANIKER'S GUILD - magic as a power source for machines.
• ARCHITECT'S GUILD - creation and control of Ruse, golems, and magically manufactured life.

Alternative Magical Organizations

Outside the guilds, there are a great many independent organizations which practice magic in all its forms. Their members, however, rarely call themselves "magicians."

• WITCH COVENS - the use of magic to affect fate, luck and nature in a variety of concentrations.
• RELIGIOUS SECTS - worship one or more deities which answer prayers with magical effects.
• SCHOOLS AND UNIVERSITIES - research into the way magic works.

Lantern

@c3p-0h So far, only that it has to do with Anise -- and the Witch doesn't like Anise very much. :3

Lantern

OK DID IT! xD

I defer any confusion to the first page of this OOC.

Lantern

"You all must be very weary of this death," She stated warmly. "Come with me, and I will free you of this prison as soon as I am capable." She then pulled in the wave of willpower in a focused attempt to create a vacuum effect and possibly absorb them. "Join with me. Help me free the Light." Her voice was a soft whisper, but it carried an incredible amount of weight.

The gray forms flashed and flickered, faceless, watching her, but they did not move. The light of the candles passed through them, indecisive. A dark, undulating mass of shadow pulsed where their hearts should have been, squeezing and expanding as if it breathed.

Just as the spirits weakened, their bodies staticked and translucent, their black hearts surged with renewed power. The Lord of Shadow held tighter to them, fed them with more power, intent on victory no matter the cost. The darkness became blacker, beat harder, furious and defiant.

The spirits' blank faces split slowly, to reveal black mouths and white sharp rows of teeth. They continued to fizzle and flicker, but as their mouths widened their strength grew.

Anise, now, was fading. She would find her own limbs flashing in and out of existence, a lightheadedness overcoming her head, a taut discomfort in her chest. In reality, her skin became paler, her lips blue, and she barely breathed.

Peck had noticed, and he crawled forward to place his hands on her shoulders. "Lady!" he called uncertainly. "Anise! You okay? Hey I think this is bad. C'mon." He shook her gently; her head hung limp, her eyes slightly open and still. "Anise, c'mon! Stop! What's happening?" Alarm swelled in his voice. The spirits he couldn't see gnashed their frightful mouths.

Anise could feel their pain. Their desire for freedom, for light. While she faded and weakened -- without the Lantern to fill her thoughts -- she was stripped vulnerable to the emotion of the dead that walked in the dark.

I'm scared.
This is eternity.
We are only objects.
We were never alive.
Nothing has meaning.
Fighting is useless.
There is no point.
There is no good.
I'm scared.
I'm scared.

Come with me.

Buried among the thoughts was an echo of Anise's own voice -- weak and hidden, but present, like a tiny spark in a sea of darkness.

A spark is all it takes to start a fire.

Anise's memory of the sun swelled in her heart, displacing the cold and the dark. The scar on her hand began to glow, and the sunlight swept through her astral body -- the same light that glowed out of the bottom of the Lake. The Lady of Light had found her, had touched the rune of Anise's own making. Should Anise open herself to it, she would find a new and deep reservoir of bright power, buried among the weeds under the water.

Her other hand, too, began to glow. The rune of the Lady of the Pond added a blue light to that of the sun, surged through her like ocean waves.

The spirits' mouths closed slowly, and their eyes opened. The black in their hearts gradually faded, while their shapes took human forms. Anise's grip on them strengthened, while the Lord of Shadow lost his hold.

The despaired whisperings ceased, replaced with a quiet light of hope.

The gray spirits were no longer gray, but stood human and emitting their own gentle light. Anise would feel their renewed hearts link with hers. Their renewed eyes took on a gleam of determination and fury; with the support of Anise's power, each of them clenched their fists and fought against the last threads of darkness.

The moment the last dark chain snapped, Anise was thrust back into her own body, where she could no longer see the spirits -- but she certainly could still feel them surrounding her.

"Anise!" Peck searched for her eyes, then jumped back a little to see that her hands were radiating light -- one yellow, one blue.

---

Artemis opened her mouth. Nothing came out. She closed it again. Her grip tightened around the staff. She looked to the Lantern. Finally, she spoke.

"I'm sorry I ran." She was sorry for so many things. Her voice was still raw. She looked again to the Witch. "I can help. But I need the Lantern."

The Witch was not surprised to see Artemis drop out of the sky, and she raised the Lantern and raised her eyes to peer up at the thief that had refused her help. The old woman had new scars on her face and hands; her balance was unsteady and defiant; her eyes were a little grayer than they had been before, drained of the power that had brimmed within her not so long ago. Behind those eyes rested a dim doubt, the seed of hopelessness that she'd spent a lifetime battling.

These eyes studied Artemis, the tear-tracks through the ash, the changed eyes, the marks of Oseely and The Unnamed One upon her hands, the sigils and strange clothes. The very grass raised up to soften the ground beneath Artemis' feet, and fire roiled raw in the girl's heart. The Lantern cast its red glow between them, the staff brimmed with electric anticipation; their silhouettes darkened the trees.

It was clear to the Witch that Artemis was not here to talk. There was something strained about the girl, something unwilling to listen to reason, to answer questions, to delay the mission she'd set for herself and risk everything. The Witch's bony grip tightened on the stick that held the Lantern, which swung and shifted the light around them.

"I suppose I've been expecting you." Artemis was standing in the path between the Witch and her home; she did not move any closer. "I can see you're not lying to me now, Artemis. Have you stopped lying to yourself, then?" For a long moment the old woman's glinting eyes studied the sooty girl before her.

She huffed and waved her walking stick for Artemis to step aside, let her pass. "You're the reason my magic's fading." She poked her stick at Artemis' hand. "Old Oseely picked you, that bald-headed rascal. Used to be me." She pressed the walking stick under her arm and held up a lined hand to show the fading, faint image of Oseely's mark. "Guess he's lost faith in this old woman -- but I don't blame him."

She hobbled past, shoving her way down the path, back toward her ruined cabin. "Come on, then. I've got something for you."

Still she hadn't relinquished the Lantern, but used it to light the way through the teeming forest and into the clearing, where the stars cast a blue glow on the high grasses. The twisted tree and broken wreckage of the cabin was a dark jagged shape ahead.

The Witch went inside for a moment, and returned again with the Lantern in one hand and a short sharp instrument in the other. She shuffled forward, set the Lantern down in the tall grass, and with a determined and defiant glance at Artemis' face, grasped the iron pendant of the rosary that Artemis kept in her possession, that had been found on the wooded path.

The iron rose was heavy in her gnarled hand. It held the latent power of years of prayer and hope, of the dreams and fears of a young girl trapped in a dark and unfamiliar world, who had been lost to those same shadows -- but there was something else, something far more important. There was within this rosary a resonance so similar to that of the self-proclaimed Lady of Light, whose actions had directly led to the Dragon's resurrection. Hania.

The Witch hesitated, but turned over the iron rose and scratched a sigil into it. Her expression was grim, uncertain, necessary. She returned the rosary to Artemis, and she took a step away from the Lantern in the grass. It was not hers to give.

Oseely's mark on the old woman's hand was still fading, as was the light in her eyes. On her other hand was a different mark, still strong, shimmering faintly white.

"You have what you need, when you need it," the Witch explained with halfhearted irritability. "No more lies out of you."

Lantern

What? Me? Put things off until "inspiration strikes"? Make excuses that it's too hot to post? Wait on people who probably won't post? Ha! Never!

I am on this! XD

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

@Crawkid It'd probably be easier to find/categorize certain ideas if each were in a separate post -- so maybe pick your favorite ideas now and then and post about that? x3

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

@Zealous Blade Ooh more mysteries! So the hunger was a plague that turned people into zombie-like ravenous monsters, and it permeated from the castle -- so Ceolmaer cast a spell, using his own sacrifice as charge, to seal the hunger inside the castle? And the hunger may still be spreading elsewhere?

I should do a synopsis on spellcasting too. Hmm...

@Crawkid Purple ore! Yeaa! This is totally the stone used in the FENIKS project, and the floating stones in a yet unwritten location. Maybe even the power source of some manufactured Ruse.

Definitely have to write that thing on witchcraft, haha.

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

Wait, is this still a fantasy setting?

@SepticGentleman

I'm thinking of it in terms of a worldwide scale: some locations will have developed magically propelled technology while others are living in medieval kingdoms or tribal forests. They can coexist.

Either that or we can be developing several time periods at once, but I'm a fan of the former idea. X3

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

Hey guys, how's this for a world map concept? Please do feel free to edit this as inspiration strikes, just keep in mind it's meant to be on a world scale similar to a map of earth: https://inkarnate.com/maps#/316344

@Crawkid True, it would feel too easy for an epic journey!

I can't help but think of The Author from One Shot. xD

---

@Polybius Awesome insight! Am I right in interpreting that dreams and nightmares become reality? That opens entirely new weird possibilities. x3

YOWL: a worldbuild collaboration

The FENIKS Project

article by Zhu Ruogang for IDYLL GAZETTE

Idyll City -- the sky-island best known for its brightly painted skyscrapers and gravity-defying architecture -- has been hiding one of the most impressive feats of Thought Technology recorded to date. It is called the FENIKS Project, and it is causing ripples among intellectual communities throughout the world.

After decades of dedicated research at the Razum Research Center, Najima Kiira's team -- called the FENIKS Project -- has announced its success. "Death has been conquered," Najima said in a recent interview. "Fear and loss have been obliterated. This is a new age of hope."

Participants in the FENIKS Project -- some as young as six years old -- undergo surgery where a sliver of charged brightstone is implanted into the patient's skull. After a day's recovery, the patient is free to live a normal and happy life, with only annual checkups to ensure the stone is performing correctly.

Upon the death of the patient's natural body, the stone is retrieved and transferred to a Telo: an artificial body, likened to a doll, which does not age nor die. The patient, upon waking, remembers their life up until the moment of death -- and sometimes beyond -- and retains the entirety of their personality. After a brief period of therapy to learn to utilize the new Telo body, the patient is free to continue their life free of sickness or injury or further threat of death.

THE CONTROVERSY
"My Telo has wings!" a ten-year-old patient cheered in an interview. "They said I'll be able to fly! I've already got plenty of pretty dresses picked out. There's a boy in my class who's a Telo, and he has teeth like a shark. I think his mom's gonna make him file them though, he bit the teacher's dog."

"I'll be able to watch my grandchildren grow up," an elderly man wrote. "I'll captain the ships again, see the world, climb the highest mountains, and these old bones won't be slowing me down."

"I feel better knowing my husband has the FENIKS Project behind him," a mother of three told the GAZETTE. "I can't imagine our children growing up without a father."

"This isn't everlasting life," said Eliana Reyes, the FENIKS Project's most vocal critic. "The patient still dies. The implant is simply recording, storing the person's memories and energy. The process of transfer to a Telo is a glorified spell of witchcraft to create a Ruse. What gets up off that table isn't your son or daughter: it's a Ruse that thinks and acts like your child."

"What happens in the long term?" asked Frede Dall, an anti-thought activist out of Loris City. "This thought technology was only developed six years ago; its oldest successful patients have lived in their Tela for only that long. What happens after a decade? A century? Not even the Ruse are immortal."

"You realize witches have been doing this since the Bubbling," said Louis Wallace, leader of the Black Cap Coven. "The clan mothers would wear the stones, and when they died the stones would be put into a dog or a horse, and she'd continue to guide the clan in spirit. It was an honor to the ancestor, not a resurrection."

"The FENIKS Project is the future of the preservation of knowledge," insists the founder, Najima Kiira. "The mistakes of our past will no longer be left to history books; we will learn directly from our ancestors, and we will no longer repeat their mistakes. Ahead of us is an age of peace, hope, prosperity, and a release from the grip of Death."