A Mage Reborn, Book Two (WIP) - UPDATED April 5th, 2025 | Book One Released!

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3536

The MC should probably actually thank Leon for burning him on a pyre. Now he’s free. After giving his mind, body and soul (quite literally here) all the duties have been removed in death and he’s free to do whatever the fuck he wants now, with no hard feelings (besides for Leon ofc).

Fight for Arcadia? Go for it, maybe you can blow up that shitty statue too.
Or maybe you could just blow up the suckers that unleashed sister and made your life a nightmare…hell, why not both!

Or go back to aunt Bess, that’s always an option :man_shrugging:t2:

Enjoy your freedom

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3537

Okay, so is there no way to have a decent thaum stat and still save all the kids and all of the plague victims? I breezed through once with thaum as my MC’s strength, saved all the kids, then all the plague victims died.

Tried another run with enchantment as the high skill, and built thaum up a bit as I went, but there’s no way to save all the kids that way–it’s either thaum or spirtism. Thaum is kickass (the others are just too damned passive, which I suppose makes sense that the more aggressive mage types would get punished), and I really don’t want my MC to have no ability in it (plus, she’s a kind of “let’s blow some shit up, yeah?” kinda mage), but would like to save everyone to highlight just what a piece of shit Leon is for what he does at the end.

If there’s no way to have all the super successes with thaum as a skill, then what’s the best option for failing the plague victims that doesn’t make the MC look like a pile of shit?

3538

I posted a guide up above on how to do it, you need either alchemy or enchantment as your highest stat and spiritism as your second highest, there’s no other combination that works

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3539

I could be getting the numbers wrong, but from what I remember, saving the kids requires either 75 thaum or 60 spiritism and saving all the plague victims requires either 80 alchemy or 80 enchantment

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3540

Yeah, those are the right numbers, I think. I just didn’t feel like running the math on it all. I was just hoping there was a way to keep thaum as a skill because it really is awesome (usually).

Looks like thaum is totally nerfed and worthless in this game, though, except for getting a cool spell here or there. sighs

Thanks for the info! I think I’ll try this game some other day. Gonna have to build a different MC, since the one I made will apparently fail at every task she gets since she is more thaum focused and that’s a no-no in this game (her weak skill was spiritism).

3541

If you don’t have the stats to save all the victims, don’t bother trying, it’ll result in more deaths than if you had picked to save The older or the younger. And I wouldn’t say thaum is worthless, but what else do you expect from a skill that’s entire focus is on combat? it’s the reason it’s my least favorite skill, the other three, all of which I’ve been able to push up to 80 in the demo for the second game, have plenty of broader uses outside of combat, And yes, the occasional decent combat spell as well

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3542

Good to know. I’m just not sure why the skill was added in there if it’s utterly worthless (and feels like more of a “Haha! Screw you, you picked a skill I hate!”). This is why I fucking hate stat raisers.

Edit: Though, thinking about it, maybe that’s the point. It makes it easier to understand everyone hating the MC, blaming them for everything, and Leon thinking it’s a-okay to punch them in the face and burn them alive if they never do anything right and when they “rescue” people, they end up dead.

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3543

It’s not like it would’ve been useful in helping the plague victims in the first place, that’s not what combat skills are for. As for saving all the kids, there’s a reason it’s so high; you’re literally fighting your way through a bunch of guys actively trying to kill you, as opposed to spiritism, which is basically a bunch of teleportations one after another. It’s not that the author penalized those who picked that skill, it’s that a combat oriented skill is only going to be useful in one circumstance, combat

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3544

Another path, fighting some something or other to get some blood crap to heal people that is impossible to get if you don’t have combat skills. Boom, it’s useful. It was a choice.

I just don’t see the point in having it there if it will never help the MC accomplish anything in the game and the only way to have true success is to use the other three skills. Had I known when I started the game that combat skills will never be of use (a warning of “don’t go thaum or you’ll always fail!” would be nice), I would’ve made a different character. Now I get to start from scratch and create a whole new character with a different personality that fits within the scope of skills the MC should be using. Blargh.

As much as I complain about some aspects of TWC, the one thing I really love is that there are ways to succeed with your skill set as long as you choose to handle things with a skill with which you are experienced. I think that has spoiled me and I expected it here. My bad.

3545

It doesn’t really bother me all that much, if I have to be honest. It makes sense that skills aren’t going to be useful outside of what they’re intended to do, alchemy and enchantment have combat spells but both are mostly based around supporting other people and are almost functionally useless in a one on one fight. Thaum, on the other hand, is a great spell when you’re in the middle of a fight but terrible outside that. If every skill was useful all the time, then it would, I don’t know, make your choice of powers less meaningful. Plus, it would feel a lot less realistic. using your example of some sort of cure all getting Hidden behind some monster that only combat can get through, how come this thing is still alive and that this cure isn’t more widespread? how are you supposed to hunt it down and kill it in a span of a night? That sort of thing

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3546

My MC is loyal to Eli. Everything else is just a means to an end if it means living the rest of their life with him. So if Eli says “we’re blowing up Param.”, my MC is blowing up Param. If Eli says “we have to escape Arcadia.”, my MC is ready to skedaddle at any point.

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3547

Same. Since Eli is unwaveringly loyal to the MC and will do anything for them, I’ve decided that my MC will also be unwaveringly loyal to Eli. My MC will stand by Eli always, no matter what. Besides Ilya, Saine and Aunt Bess, Eli is the only one I truly love and care about.

It is clear that Eli isn’t entirely loyal to Arcadia, so I don’t have to worry about sticking to my plan of escaping Arcadia with them.

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3548

Just finished the game with my new MC (high enchantment and spirit, saved all the kids and the plague victims) and feel like I’ve been through the damned wringer.

It was odd playing it knowing the end of it already, something I always prefer, to be honest. But as someone who loathes bad and sad endings (and endings where the good guy dies and is treated like crap), I was glad I knew ahead of time. If I had played this game without knowing ahead of time my MC would be burned alive and betrayed by the guy she fell in love with, I would have been irate and bitching everywhere possible about it. Since I knew (and knew she’d be back), it was enjoyable. In a perverted kinda way.

My poor MC (the second go 'round) was 94% emotional, 85% noble, pretty damned charming, fairly optimistic (in the beginning), and had an 88% with the man who punched her in the face and had her burned alive. After being punched, spit on, hit with rotten vegetables, cursed, and burned alive, she retained her emotional nature, but the nobility is, I believe, gone (at least with anyone from Param, save Ilya and Saine). And her slightly optimistic nature has turned sour. Not to mention she now has PTSD, but whatever…

My take on the situation at the end of book 1....
  1. Leon: fuck that guy. Seriously, fuck him with a chainsaw shoved straight up his ass and pulled out through the top of his head. As a reader, I hate him now. He never gave the MC a chance after she constantly bled for him and the people of Param.

All “oh he couldn’t know” is a load of crap. They live in a world where magic can destroy cities and, more importantly, know that Sister had people mind-controlled and it never dawned on this obnoxious sack of crap that the MC could’ve had the same done to her to keep her silent? He never even tried to find out the truth. No one can convince me that that spoiled bastard loves the MC after that–not after she did all she did for him and his people and then begged him to believe her innocence. Had he one decent bone in his body, he would’ve been fighting to find out what really happened, throwing Ilya into researching what was really going on because the woman he supposedly loved would never have done what she did without reason.

I cannot even begin to express just how much I loathe him now. He’s a weak little boy, not a man. And what he did ripped my MC’s heart out and shredded it into a trillion pieces because all she wanted was to know that he really did love her and believed in her. In the end, he did neither. Dick! I really hope the MC has a chance to kill him at some point, or at least torture him to death. Though, honestly, given how my MC developed, I (sadly) don’t think she’d do it (she even spoke up for the baron, much to my dismay). She might kick him in the nuts, sneer, and walk away, though, then refuse to ever have anything to do with him again.

  1. Ilya: Love her. Before playing, I thought I (the reader) and my MC would want everyone in Param dead. I was wrong. Ilya was a true friend and a good person, to the end. My MC didn’t tell her to forgive Leon and doesn’t want her to do so. I am hoping Ilya can be persuaded away from Leon altogether.

  2. Saine! Such a sweetie! I need to make another run (a more official one) where my MC spends more time with him. She wanted to, but I forced her to raise stats because I didn’t trust the stat checks. I have more of a feel how to go about it now, I think, so she can spend time with all of her friends. Well, her two friends and her betrayer.

  3. Ante. While it’s possible my MC won’t want to torture Leon to death (she really did love him, though that’s gone now), she would torture this bitch to death. Don’t trust her and can’t stand her. And I think she was plotting against the MC. Hate her almost as much as Leon.

  4. The people of Param. Okay, so they don’t need to die since they weren’t responsible for putting the MC to death, but my MC is done helping them. Period. Got a plague? Too fucking bad. Kids need rescuing? Good luck to you. Kingdom falling apart? My MC will roast some popcorn over the fires while it burns. Not. One. More. Drop. Of. Blood. For. Those. Assholes. Not one.

  5. The epilogue. Seriously, it just made me love Ilya more. That she dedicated her time to proving the MC’s innocence, then made a point of spreading word of it to everyone… it was just… it gave me the feels. Saine’s reaction also gave me the feels. Aunt Bess’s made me teary (love that woman).

But Leon’s? Pfft. Nice of him to stand over where he roasted her and say nice words. Too bad it doesn’t undo a damned thing. And too bad the MC doesn’t know it (though she’d likely scoff at how little their hollow sentiments matter now). I just wish Leon had pulled a Tommen (Game of Thrones) and walked out a window high in a building.

Now to play the bk 2 demo after plugging in my mage’s stats to see how well they work and what I need to change to make her more useful to Falco, Yu, and Eli. Hopefully this “found family” won’t murder her like Leon did.

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3549

literally all of that was ante’s fault. If she hadn’t got in the way the original plan wasn’t to kill the saintess. That only happened because the mc didn’t have the mana after fighting ante’s little group to properly break the curse hence it was either kill the saintess or do nothing at that point.

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@Abhorash
Yeah, I know. Also, thanks to Ante’s wasting the MC’s time with her BS, the detonation spell began to go off, and there wasn’t enough time to undo the spell which forced the MC to resort to ending the Saintess Shiraya’s life to stop it.

@EvilChani

Yeah, I also hate Ante. She is the reason the MC couldn’t work on undoing Mireil’s detonation spell and had to resort to ending the Saintess Shiraya’s life to stop it from going off. And I bet she must be rejoicing when she thought she has finally uncovered the MC’s “true colour” and managed to put the MC to death. And I bet when the truth finally came out, thanks to Ilya’s hard work, she probably just went “Oops! My bad.” or something. Or maybe she doesn’t even care. “They’re already dead. What’s done is done.” Ante has better not cross path with my MC again, because while my MC is very kind-hearted and forgiving, that MF is one of the few people he CANNOT forgive! He is gonna LOVE ending her if he ever sees her again.

LOL. Same. Again, Ilya was right when she said Param doesn’t deserve more from the MC. I’m also done with that nation.

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3551

It kinda works for my mage’s angst. Being really good at Thaum and total obliteration, but lacking in other practical areas despite being a scholar. They feel like a weapon of mass destruction, a monster and nothing else. So getting railroaded into war where that’s all they are good for just digs at them. They want to be more, but their penchant for murder has stuck them in a role they loathe.

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3552

I can see that. Given the story, though, I was aiming for a MC that achieved great things and saved everyone possible so everyone turning on her would hit harder. I had intended for her to turn into a psycho afterwards (ready to kill anyone who had gone against her), but it doesn’t seem she’s going that route. Though, thankfully, she could not care less about Param now, except for Ilya, Saine, and Aunt Bess.

Leon, she hates. All that love she felt soured when he failed to stand by her, so now she just loathes him. Still hope she can and would kill him, given the opportunity, though. If not, then leaving him all alone with no one left to care about him, no riches, and no honor would work. Whatever the case, I (the reader) want him utterly destroyed. And I’d love to see people in Param come begging for her help so she can tell them to go fuck themselves–they burned that bridge, so they can die knowing that it was their choice that brought their own downfall.

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3553

I must admit, my opinions on the whole Leon question are in part contextualized by the fact that he was never an RO for me, just my old friend and commander. I suppose that takes a lot of the charge out of it.

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3554

Personally these are one of my favorites I’m sorry but my Shakespearean soul craves for tragedy. I like to see how everyone drowns on their guilt ( and Leon, specially Leon) for what they did to MC when everything they wanted was to save them from destruction as the good person they are ( or were…)

As it says Dead people receive more flowers than the living ones, because regret is stronger than gratitude . Is a quote that really fits with MC’s back story. The fact that we can come back from the dead to remind them of their foolish mistake is even better for me.

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3555

I feel like my MC in the minority camp that doesn’t hate Ante at all. Ante was doing her job protecting the Saintess. And we did kinda murder a bunch of people. Sure it was on accident, but they’re still dead by the mage’s hand at the end of the day. It was a perfect storm of fatal inconveniences and my mage doesn’t have the heart to hold it against anyone.

Personally, I’m a SUCKER for the trope of a person having gone through hell and deciding to be kind in the face of it all. The world was awful to MC, but still, MC chose and will continue to choose to be what they want to see in the world. “Some flowers bloom where the green grass grows. Our praise is not for them, but the ones who bloom in the bitter snow.” From Hadestown really inspired my MC.

I will say, if Eli does end up agreeing to destroy Param, then the conversation between my MC, Ante, and Leon would probably end up going like this.

“It wasn’t personal.”

“Well, neither is this Earthsworn: Origin.”

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