Mercury [Adelaide Wentworth] (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gotnostrings) wrote2012-10-30 10:08 pm
gotnostrings) wrote2012-10-30 10:08 pm
Entry tags:
[Setting Junk]
GENERAL WORLD INFO:
- The planet, aptly referred to as 'Terra,' is very earthlike! The primary difference is the clear presence of magical energy as a sort of 'element' that permeates everything.
- This includes people's bodies, and most people can use that energy to manipulate the world around them. This is magic! Everyone's ability to draw out this energy is different, but generally, one can be put into one of six categories: S/5, A/4, B/3, C/2, D/1, and E/0. Most of the world uses the numbers, but I like the letters better so I'll be using those in this writeup.
- S Rank individuals represent less than 1% of the world's population -- most of the world's humans are C Rank (with devils and beastmen falling into B and D on average, respectively), and the amount of E Rank individuals in some countries rises yearly, but no one's sure of the cause yet.
- There are three races! Humans (obvious), devils (resemble humans, but with pointed ears and sharper teeth. The elves of the setting, in some ways!), and beastmen (resemble humans but with some animal traits -- arguably counts as multiple races by itself, considering the variety).
- You also have 'non-sentient' (arguable) races, such as animals, monsters, and constructs. More on the lattermost later.
- Magic outside of people's bodies has different effects on the environment, depending on the concentration. Areas of high saturation often end up with spaces that resemble paint pots or the reflective surface of a wet salt flat, regardless of the materials actually in the surrounding earth. The colors of the sky are affected in the same way, which is one way to tell you're not actually in a salt flat -- however, high amounts of magic are toxic for all races, so hopefully you realize this before you die.
- Now, this is pretty troublesome for salt miners and people willing to make money of crystallized magic alike, so there are protective suits you can wear! And then pray they hold. Much like with coal mining though, repeated exposure to high levels of magic outside the body has been proven to lead to illnesses over time!
- But anyway. The continent we'll be focusing on for the purposes of this writeup is Calvados!
- Many countries have schools specifically for the purpose of taking potential quality magicians and training them to use their magic properly. There are three in Calvados currently, spread across the continent -- this may seem like a small number, but these schools are more or less entire functioning cities on their own. Appropriately, they're called Academic Cities.
NOTES ON CONSTRUCTS:
- Constructs, as mentioned earlier, are considered to be a non-sentient race. They vary greatly in appearance. A golem could be something as simple as an enchanted paper plane, while a homunculus is almost always humanoid in shape.
- And those are your two types. "Golem" is a catch-all term for anything inanimate made to move using magic. They don't necessarily have a humanoid shape, and aren't necessarily controlled by people -- a weird rock formation in an area that comes to be saturated with magic could become enchanted over time.
- A homunculus, on the other hand, is artificial life created through alchemy -- or, in-setting, the use of science to recreate miracles associated with magic (you have to be able to use magic to do the good stuff, though).
- Unlike golems, you'll never find any homunculi in the wild, because they're man-made! There are recorded cases of them being abandoned or lost, but many of them have a desire to return to civilization or their creator coded in.
- This is a relic of the days when they were used exclusively for slave labor! All constructs absorb magic naturally, so humanoid golems (typically statues, sometimes corpses) and homunculi are still used for crystal mining in places that can afford to have them made.
- Neither group needs to eat or sleep, but obviously a homunculus can if it wants, provided that it has a functioning digestive system.
- Homunculi, especially when made to replicate a high grade of magic ability, are sensitive to changes in magic levels and must be allowed to adjust when moving between areas with heavily different concentrations. This can manifest as anything from a small sneezing-coughing allergy to full-on fainting spells.
NOTES ON ADA SPECIFICALLY:
- Her heterochromia is natural!
- This is maybe her fifth or sixth body.
- Excepting the original Ada's death, she remembers every single time she's died.
- The planet, aptly referred to as 'Terra,' is very earthlike! The primary difference is the clear presence of magical energy as a sort of 'element' that permeates everything.
- This includes people's bodies, and most people can use that energy to manipulate the world around them. This is magic! Everyone's ability to draw out this energy is different, but generally, one can be put into one of six categories: S/5, A/4, B/3, C/2, D/1, and E/0. Most of the world uses the numbers, but I like the letters better so I'll be using those in this writeup.
- S Rank individuals represent less than 1% of the world's population -- most of the world's humans are C Rank (with devils and beastmen falling into B and D on average, respectively), and the amount of E Rank individuals in some countries rises yearly, but no one's sure of the cause yet.
- There are three races! Humans (obvious), devils (resemble humans, but with pointed ears and sharper teeth. The elves of the setting, in some ways!), and beastmen (resemble humans but with some animal traits -- arguably counts as multiple races by itself, considering the variety).
- You also have 'non-sentient' (arguable) races, such as animals, monsters, and constructs. More on the lattermost later.
- Magic outside of people's bodies has different effects on the environment, depending on the concentration. Areas of high saturation often end up with spaces that resemble paint pots or the reflective surface of a wet salt flat, regardless of the materials actually in the surrounding earth. The colors of the sky are affected in the same way, which is one way to tell you're not actually in a salt flat -- however, high amounts of magic are toxic for all races, so hopefully you realize this before you die.
- Now, this is pretty troublesome for salt miners and people willing to make money of crystallized magic alike, so there are protective suits you can wear! And then pray they hold. Much like with coal mining though, repeated exposure to high levels of magic outside the body has been proven to lead to illnesses over time!
- But anyway. The continent we'll be focusing on for the purposes of this writeup is Calvados!
- Many countries have schools specifically for the purpose of taking potential quality magicians and training them to use their magic properly. There are three in Calvados currently, spread across the continent -- this may seem like a small number, but these schools are more or less entire functioning cities on their own. Appropriately, they're called Academic Cities.
NOTES ON CONSTRUCTS:
- Constructs, as mentioned earlier, are considered to be a non-sentient race. They vary greatly in appearance. A golem could be something as simple as an enchanted paper plane, while a homunculus is almost always humanoid in shape.
- And those are your two types. "Golem" is a catch-all term for anything inanimate made to move using magic. They don't necessarily have a humanoid shape, and aren't necessarily controlled by people -- a weird rock formation in an area that comes to be saturated with magic could become enchanted over time.
- A homunculus, on the other hand, is artificial life created through alchemy -- or, in-setting, the use of science to recreate miracles associated with magic (you have to be able to use magic to do the good stuff, though).
- Unlike golems, you'll never find any homunculi in the wild, because they're man-made! There are recorded cases of them being abandoned or lost, but many of them have a desire to return to civilization or their creator coded in.
- This is a relic of the days when they were used exclusively for slave labor! All constructs absorb magic naturally, so humanoid golems (typically statues, sometimes corpses) and homunculi are still used for crystal mining in places that can afford to have them made.
- Neither group needs to eat or sleep, but obviously a homunculus can if it wants, provided that it has a functioning digestive system.
- Homunculi, especially when made to replicate a high grade of magic ability, are sensitive to changes in magic levels and must be allowed to adjust when moving between areas with heavily different concentrations. This can manifest as anything from a small sneezing-coughing allergy to full-on fainting spells.
NOTES ON ADA SPECIFICALLY:
- Her heterochromia is natural!
- This is maybe her fifth or sixth body.
- Excepting the original Ada's death, she remembers every single time she's died.