RPGnet
participant, occasional blog reader, and Domino Girls fan daHob has been making
noises about wanting to write up this setting as a Savage Worlds PDF, so I
suppose I'd better get on with it. Now we're getting into the hard
parts. It's time to talk about magic.
By
"Magic" I refer to all the means that humans have to manipulate the
supernatural aspects of the world. Of course people in the setting have a
different view than we do. To them, there's no division between the
supernatural and mundane worlds. And don't even get me started on
religion vs. magic.
Magic
of the Land
The Lord is
the Land. The Land is the Lord. This relationship is sacrosanct and
unalterable. Once the Land recognizes a Lord, it takes its shape from his
will and gives him power in proportion to his strength. The mechanisms of
rulership vary, but they generally involve dealing with a powerful Spirit of
the Land who dominates an area. If a Land doesn't have a powerful spirit,
one will arise to challenge its new Lord soon enough. Then he must either
defeat it or reach some kind of accommodation with it. The nature of this
encounter will determine, to some degree, the Land's destiny under its Lord.
Qin-Zhang
was a master of the sword and a poet and philosopher. He wandered the
world, battling for causes he believed to be worthy and elegant, defeating
bandits and kings alike. His legend was, if anything, a shadow of the
truth of his deeds. But time flows like a river from the mountains of
birth to the seas of death. Qin-Zhang knew that in time his blade would
dull, as would his wits. He wished for a lasting testament to his life,
and for a place to lay his head when he slept, and his bones when he died.
The warrior and philosopher wanted a home and a wife. But what land could
be equal to his brilliance, and what woman could be worthy of his seed?
Qin-Zhang
took his parchments and inks, and his sword and armor, and went in search of
his destiny. He followed the Jade
River to its headwaters,
and there he found a beautiful land nestled in the shelter of five
mountains. He climbed the first mountain, and there he found un-men with
arms like tree trunks and skin of bronze. He slew their leader and they
bowed down before him. He left that place and climbed the second
mountain. There, he found a serpent of fire, which he slew also, although
it cost him the finest sword he'd ever forged. But the serpent's entrails
were of ever burning flame, and its scales were of bright steel. He
forged a new blade, better than the old, and journeyed to the third
mountain. On the third mountain, he found nothing to battle, but voices
howled on the winds and spoke riddles. In a shrine on the mountaintop,
Qin-Zhang meditated for a year until he could answer every riddle, and when
he'd answered the last one, it began to rain. Each raindrop became a
silver coin. Qin-Zhang filled his pouch with silver, because even heroes benefit
from good rice wine and a soft bed, and journeyed to the fourth mountain.
There, he found water spirits, immune to his blade because their flesh was as
water. He could not pass them nor defeat them, so he paused and wrote a
poem of such sadness that it made the water spirits weep. As they cried
out their tears, they dissolved into nothing, and joined the river of Jade.
Qin-Zhang left that place and climbed the fifth mountain.
The fifth
mountain was higher than any of the others, almost as high as the stars.
Qin-Zhang's steps became heavy. He abandoned his pack, then his scribe's
pouch, and finally his silvery sword, and ascended the peak in only his
robe. Unarmed and nearly starved, Qin-Zhang looked up into sky more black
than blue and fancied that he could reach out and touch the stars. As he
reached up his hand, he saw a dragon descending from the sky. The sight
so inspired him with awe that he was overcome with euphoria and fainted.
When he
awoke, a woman stood over him wearing a robe of gold silk with a dragon's
scales embroidered into it. The robe was open, and he saw her
charms. She gave him rice and wine and told him that this land was hers,
and that she had been waiting for one who could take it.
Qin-Zhang
had no sword, but he had substantial charms. He opened his own robe and
claimed the woman.
After she
was sated, the woman, who was a dragon, told Qin-Zhang that he would have a
place to lay his head when he slept, and to lay his bones when he died.
He would have a land to rule, and his land would never forget his name.
But he would never have a wife, and if he ever took one, she would take away
all that she had given, for what mortal woman could be worthy of his
seed? Qin-Zhang accepted this with equanimity, and descended the
mountain. He retrieved his sword and his scribe's pouch and his pack, and
when he descended, he found a great palace. There, he ruled for many
years.
Each year,
Qin-Zhang would ascend the mountain again. In time, his blade and his
wits dulled. Age bent his back. And one year he did not
return. But one claiming to be his son descended the mountain holding his
sword and wearing his robe. The man had skin of gold and eyes of
darkness, and ruled over the Empire of Qin for many years, stretching out his
hand to conquer all of the nine kingdoms.
<2>Powers
of the Lord
Once a Lord
has claimed a Demesne, he has power over it. This power can take many
forms, depending on the character of the Lord and the care he takes over his
lands. Strong Lords have strong Demesnes, and have greater power over
them than weak Lords.
Broadly,
these powers fall into three areas. There are powers of the Heart, powers
of the Eye, and powers of the Hand.
Powers
of the Heart: The most elemental of a Lord's powers, and among the most
subtle. Powers of the Heart are those that describe a Lord's relationship
to the land he rules. His heart pumps blood and life into his
Demesne. If his heart is weak, his land is weak as well. Powers of
the Heart affect the Demesne more than the Lord. They shape the character
of its terrain, the fertility of its fields, and even the nature of its
people. A cold, cruel Lord will rule over a harsh Demesne. It might
be prosperous, but its prosperity will come only with struggle and pain.
Its people will be either fearful or cruel. Its Spirits will be
dangerous. A kindly Lord will rule over a kindly Demesne, with happy
people and lush fields. But it is easier to be strong and cruel than
strong and kind.
-------------------------
Gamespeak: Powers of the Heart are the stuff that determines what the
land is like. I'm the kind of guy who would model this by hand waving.
If I were going to define a system for it, it'd be something like the
Organization rules for Angel. You'd have various attributes of your land
that you could assign points to. You'd earn points by doing lordly
stuff. I think they'd need to be a fluid resource, rather than something
you pay character points for, because the whole point is that they can be
gained and lost. In a balanced point-gen system, being a strong Lord
would be difficult because you'd need to spend points on Lord stuff OR personal
stuff, and the system I'm trying to create says that the more personal strength
you have, the stronger your Demesne is.
Powers of
the Heart will probably work as kind of a shopping list of attributes and
ratings. You can customize your Demesne by choosing the ones that fit
best. They'll cover a lot of things like the general weather, the
terrain, what kind of natural resources there are (although this can't be changed
radically), and even the people. People from a land where the Lord
venerates physical strength might really just tend to be stronger than their
neighbors, but they might also be quicker to anger or a little less
intelligent.
-------------------------
Powers
of the Eye: The connection between a Lord and his Demesne gives him
supernatural knowledge over it. Not all Lords have the wisdom or insight
to excel in this area. All Lords have at least a vague sense of the
health of their Demesnes, and they receive some kind of warnings when their
lands are in immediate danger. Depending on the character of the Lord and
the Demesne, this could come in the form of prophetic dreams, whispers from
Spirits of the Land, or supernatural intuition.
More
perceptive Lords begin to develop means of scrying over their realms.
They might be able to locate game, know the status of distant cities, or call
into vision different parts of their land. Often, this knowledge comes
from totem animals or Spirits of the Land who answer the Lord's call.
Lords schooled in magic might employ scrying rituals instead.
The
knowledge gained this way is of concern to the Land, not always to the
Lord. He might be able to send ravens to track an invading warband, but
not to follow his wife who he believes is unfaithful. Or perhaps he
might. The Land can be fickle.
Still more
perceptive Lords begin to know their Demesnes as well as they know their own
bodies or minds. They know when to plant, when to harvest, and when to
seek shelter from a coming storm. They can look upon a suspect in court
and know his guilt or innocence, and what punishment is most appropriate.
The wisest and strongest begin to become infallible, at least insofar as ruling
their Demesnes is concerned. As with the other powers of the Eye, these
powers often have an external focus, but just as often, they are purely
intuitive. The Lord simply is his Land, and knows it as well as he knows
himself. Of course, this also means that a Lord can deceive himself about
his Land as easily as he does about anything else.
-------------------------
Gamespeak: These are fairly straightforward. A Lord will have some
kind of perception level, and as it increases he gets access to deeper levels
of information and insight. Players will probably be able to define their
own "special effects," but the powers will be pretty constant.
There's room for some customization, though. A Chinese Emperor might want
to know which bureaucrats will be best for certain jobs, while a Plains Indian
chief wants to be able to find buffalo. So some of the specific insights
might vary.
-------------------------
Powers
of the Hand: A Lord in his place of power is fearsome to behold. He rules
his Demesne through magic as much as through will and action. The
stronger a Lord is, the greater his power over his Demesne, and the greater
power he can draw from his Demesne.
By keeping
his Land healthy, a Lord keeps himself healthy to some extent. While he's
defending his own Demesne, very little can harm him, and he will not fall ill
or fall victim to misadventure. But if hostile spirits blight his lands,
or treachery weakens his will, he becomes vulnerable.
The Demesne
also begins to answer the Lord's will. Its' people's loyalty comes as
much from the bond between Lord and Land as from his decisions. Thus do
strong, but cruel, Lords hold their people in bondage. They might hate
him, but fear him too much to rebel until some greater force inspires
them. Some Lords also learn to master the beasts of their realms, or even
the weather.
All Lords
have some sway over the Spirits of their Demesnes, but this is not a sure or
certain power. Often, there is a price for invoking it. At the
minimum, any Spirit of a Demesne will recognize its Lord and not commit treason
upon him. Lords who take time to court their Spirits' favor might be
served by spectral knights, or ride upon steeds of fire.
-------------------------
Gamespeak: This will be another thing to spend points on and to advance
at different rates. In fact, the whole thing will probably work that way,
with a Lord player choosing what aspects he cares most about and getting more
points to spend over time.
One way to
balance this against other players would be to follow the example of King
Arthur's legend. While Arthur was the king, his Knights were often more
powerful in specific ways. Lancelot was the greatest of sinful knights,
for instance. So a PC party might have a Lord with all kinds of cool
Demesne powers, but his companions might be a powerful, mysterious wizard, a
Starborn bard who can literally sing birds down from the trees, and a Starborn
warrior who can't be defeated in battle. Having those people as friends
is part of the Lord's strength.
There will
have to be a way to gain and lose power in your Demesne, involving events like
going to war, being betrayed, or losing your heart, and acts of atonement like
questing for the Holy Grail or going out again to fight your Demesne's Spirit.
-------------------------
<2>Banes
of the Lord
A Lord has
to stay strong to keep his Demesne strong, and he must periodically renew his
ties to the Land.
While a
Lord is supreme in his Demesne, he may fall victim to a greater Lord's
invasion.
He might
weaken either through age or lack of will. He might always know what is
best for his Demesne, but he can deceive himself, and his judgment can be
clouded in personal matters. A Lord who rests on his laurels and falls to
drink loses his strength, and his land weakens around him.
Treachery
is the greatest bane. Any treachery weakens the entire realm. A
strong Lord's subjects might not be able to betray him directly, but powerful
allies are not so bound, and even the least peasant is still a Man with the
ability to influence his own destiny.
-------------------------
Gamespeak: This is the stuff that costs you "Lord
Points." And generally, the GM gets to decide which of your
advantages are degraded. The typical way will be for them to all be
degraded more or less equally, but there could be exceptions depending on the
kind of bane that hit you. It is, of course, especially nasty to lose
your physical invulnerability in the face of a treacherous attack...
-------------------------
The Land
wants to be strong. A weakening Lord will find his Demesne slipping
away. A blind Lord might not notice. If he is wise or fortunate, he
might have the chance to win his strength back through some kind of act of atonement.
Such a feat is at least as difficult as winning the Demesne in the first
place. Often, the best a weak ruler can do is to die to atone for his
sins and leave a strong kingdom for his son.
<2>Succession
The Lord of
a Demesne is not immortal. If a Lord becomes so, the Land begins to
twist, because immortality is not the province of men. When a Lord dies,
a new Lord is chosen. A Lord's children share in his command of the Demesne,
and very often his chosen successor takes his place. The heir will have
to face the same renewal ritual his predecessor faced, but this is often easier
than conquering the land the first time. Thus, in fact, begins the fall
of many Demesnes. The first Lord had to be very strong to take the
land. His son doesn't need to be as strong, and thus might not be.
Wise Lords send their sons abroad to face hardships and win victories, but this
has a risk because the son doesn't have the protection of his Demesne so far
from home, and enemies might seek to slay him. That would, in turn,
weaken the Demesne as the Lord grieves for his lost child.
The heirs
of a Lord, and sometimes his feudal vassals, share in his ties to the Land to a
lesser degree. They will never have as much sway as the Lord does, but
are often still quite powerful. A deposed Lord's subordinates lose all
their powers when he is deposed. Of course, sometimes one of these subordinates
is the one who claims the land from his ailing Lord. In this case, he
will, of course, retain his powers and might choose to share them with his
brothers and sisters.
-------------------------
Gamespeak: This is pretty straightforward up until you get to the Feudal
system, where the King rules a big land that's cut into small pieces ruled by
Dukes and so on. In those cases, a Duke probably has a Demesne with its
own Spirit, but that Spirit is subordinate to the greater Spirit of the King's
Demesne. The King has power over all of the Spirits and all the Demesnes,
but a Duke probably has equal control within his own Duchy. Lesser Lords
only inherit power from their Masters, if they get any at all. Some
people just have to get by with strength, cunning, and charm.
We'll get
into this a little more down below.
-------------------------
<2>Conquest
The Land is
a living thing, and its Demesnes have life, breath, and will. A Demesne
wishes to be strong, and has a natural urge to prey on the weak. Strong
Lords are often moved by this will to conquer their neighbors. Just as
much, a land with a weak Lord will slowly start to attract would-be conquerors
as the Land searches for a worthy ruler.
A conqueror
does not have to claim the Demesne as the original Lord did. By force of
arms, he makes himself the new successor, and so only has to continue the
rituals of connection. Matters are often not quite that simple,
though. The Land will seek to test its new ruler, and might not
immediately grant its powers. The new Lord will have to make some kind of
accommodation with the Land before he rules it completely.
If the conqueror
already holds a Demesne, the two lands are merged into one, dominated by the
Spirit of whichever was larger. Spirits of the Land follow after the
mortals in their realms, so the conquered people may find their land changing around
them as once-familiar Spirits are displaced by new ones. The new Lord's
character will start shaping the land within a year, as well.
Matters are
more complicated yet if the old Lord and his heirs are not slain
outright. If they escape or are exiled, there is always the chance they
can return. The Land will accept a past ruler or his blood more easily
than an entirely new conqueror. If the current Lord is weak, a Demesne
might even start answering to the "lost heir." But sometimes a
Lord of a Demesne bows his head to a greater Lord. In these cases, both
lands retain their Spirits, but the conqueror’s Demesne becomes stronger, and
the High Lord's power extends into the new realm.
-------------------------
Gamespeak: This isn't too complicated. It probably doesn't need a
formal system. A deposed Lord who somehow escapes has the chance to come
back and try to get his realm back. A callow orphan boy could turn out to
be the True King. A King can grant power to his Dukes and Earls.
The actual mechanics of the power work however I design the system to work.
-------------------------
Next up is
Magic of the Lower Air, and possibly Magic of the Underworld. They may
end up being really similar, since a lot of the powers actually belong to the
spirits, not to the magicians. Sorcery and Necromancy are more about
knowing secrets and being able to get spirits to do favors for you than having
"superpowers."