Alright, I’d like to share something I’ve been working on for the past 2 days.
It’s a scene where you have to choose your magical specialty.
Said Scene
The form then goes onto to ask you your area of expertise. In the final 2 years of secondary school, students
must choose a "speciality," an area in which they dedicate more time and effort to than others, in preparation
for their futures as mages.
No one person can learn everything in a limited time. The Grand Academy of Sciences of E'ger city is a school
focused on the hard sciences, that being sciences such as biology, chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering
and medicine. The main concern of the academy is teaching their students the basics of these fields in order
to better prepare them for careers as mages. Magic permutates into every single one of these fields,
from the use of healing magic for medicine to transmutation for engineering and chemistry to the close
relationship between magic and mathematics. In fact the ancient magician Pithogar believed that numbers are
magic and that the reality of the world and thus magic could be understood through extensive study of numbers.
All of this is to say, magic is the engine which drives the understanding of nearly everything in the world.
This is not to say that non magical application of the sciences are neglected. Most people in the world cannot
understand magic nor use it. It is simply too expensive and time consuming to teach everyone these skills.
However, those who can dedicate the time and resources are the bedrock of society and any society which
neglects nurturing their magical abilities is quickly consigned to the dustbin of history.
*page_break Your Speciality
*comment ADD CHOICE TO INTEGRATE MOTIVATIONS INTO WHY YOU STILL STUDY COMBAT MAGIC?
2 years ago you were only 16, not yet sure of what you wanted from your life, when confronted with the dizzying
possibilites of what to specialise in you only really had one choice. Combat Magic.
You come from a proud line of warrior mages, Arturius Al Markhi, the Titan of E'ger, was responsible for
essentially creating a new branch of combat magic. Slaying the enemies of E'ger by the thousands and carving
a bloody legacy that haunts your family 3 decades after his death.
Your father, Varnius Al Markhi took up his mantle, refining and perfecting your grandfathers techniques to the
point where it has become essential studying in any self respecting school or college.
For this reason, you chose to dedicate the next 2 years of your life to the pursuit and understanding of combat
magic.
At the time, it felt like if you didn't choose combat magic you would be betraying your family.
Thus, a decision made in youth has defined who you are, and perhaps who you are to become.
*label choose_magic
Which area of combat magic do you excel in?
*fake_choice
#Your families speciality, Augmentation Magic.
Augmentation Magic has been around as long as anyone can remember. It is magic that
physically augments you. At the highest level this means super strength, speed and toughness beyond that of
warriors even. It is also considered an utterly useless branch of combat magic, the mana required for even a
second of augmentation, augmentation that doesn't cause your bones to break and muscles to tear
that is, is leagues above that of casting magic, although it doesn't compare to
creating matter from nothing. For this reason mages of the past millenia have focused on advancing other
fields of magic with augmentation staying a unexplored frontier.
That is, until your grandfather appeared.
The Whispering Death Mage Arturius Al Markhi is credited with perfecting the art of Augmentation. Refining and
simplifying the activation process to the point where the mana cost becomes viable, for which he was made a
archmage of E'ger.
Although he managed to drastically reduce the initial mana cost, augmentation is still a
mana intensive discipline.
Augmentation is by nature a highly offensive tool. To activate augmentation for the sole process of defending
yourself is akin to mounting a griffin only to have it walk you to your destination. It is simply a waste.
Augmentors must take the fight to their opponent, lest they burn their mana reserves before dealing with the
threat.
Is this the area you excel at?
*fake_choice
#Yes, I excel at Augmentation Magic.
*set speciality "Augmentation"
*set augmentation +3
*set offensive +30
#No, I excel in another area of combat magic.
*goto choose_magic
#Casting Magic. The most studied and prevalent form of combat magic.
Casting Magic is the oldest branch of combat magic. It encompasses the twin disciplines of ordinary offensive
magic and ordinary defensive magic. It is the foundation from which a vast well of combat magic stems,
including more advanced spells such as flight, conjuration and transmutation.
Ordinary offensive magic at the secondary school level encompasses forming and channeling mana into
an attack, which is to say, blasting your opponent with pure magic. As well as basic elemental magic.
That being the manipulation of earth, water, air and fire.
Ordinary defensive magic at your current level has to do with the creation of magical barriers to block
attacks of pure magic and the 4 elements.
Casting magic has a relatively low mana cost and allows the most flexibility in your combat style, allowing
you to fight both defensive battles of attrition or decisive offensive battles.
Is this the area you excel at?
*fake_choice
#Yes, I excel at Casting Magic
*set speciality "Casting"
*set casting +3
#No, I excel in another area of combat magic.
*goto choose_magic
#Actually, I don't excel in magic but rather in my intelligence and knowledge.
The pen is mightier than the sword. Your knowledge of theory, the arcane and its uses is where you excel,
rather than in the use itself.
This is not to say you don't know any casting or augmentation magic, but
rather that your strength in battle lies in your ability to strategise, outwit, and overcome the
enemy through deception or extensive preparation.
In fact, many of the scholars credited with advancing humanity's magic the most are experts in its theories
and understanding of it rather than in their ability to use it.
To battle those who specialise in combat magic as one who relies on their wits rather than their fists
necessitates fighting defensively and cautiously until the moment of decision.
Is this the area you excel at?
*fake_choice
#Yes, I excel in my intelligence and knowledge.
*set speciality "Booksmarts"
*set booksmarts +3
*set offensive -30
#No, I excel in another area
*goto choose_magic
I hope that was a fun read. It is part of the prologue and part of the process of character creation. I’m a bit worried it was just an infodump though. I do think it’s necessary for the readers understanding of the story to come at least.
This is probably my first piece of creative writing since maybe middle school. I am probably making a ton of mistakes that I don’t even realize I am making but hey, you live and you learn.
My goal in writing this is to have fun basically, I want to aim for 100k words. I think that’s doable for a first time IF writer. I’ve got about 2.5k so far.
What else? Oh yeah, I watched Frieren and it inspired me to finally try my hand at creative writing, it’s something I’ve wanted to do for a while now. I highly recommend watching it if you haven’t yet.
That’s all, thanks for your time.
After fleshing out my characters, I’ve realized that my current plot doesn’t really fit the characters I’m going for. I’ve been thinking a lot. The more I plan out the plot, the more I realized it’s not aligning with what I’m envisioning for the characters I’m imagining lol So yeah so I’m going to rethink and rewrite most of the plot lol
