Archmage Journals

"Stuff" is not a bad word and I will die on this hill

[b1nary-c0de]

Pine for Two Gardens

Green Thumbs to wage war Fresh experience Placed on display Green Trimmed hedges Fenced by guardians Planted around a home Green Terror inside Forgotten on high Pleading for a new color Please now Find the solution Take me away from Green -- Archviol Vesta, "Warding Poemry", published 340 RE

[wholeheartedsuggestions]

you are not a burden for having big feelings

[b1nary-c0de]

A lesson my dude Corvin learns the hard way unfortunately... Turns out, magic is predicated on the foundation of emotion. Turns out that removing emotion from the equation might technically be a way to stabilize the caster's magic, but true stability only comes from regulated emotion, not its removal. Regulated emotion also lends greater power to spells. An emotion that syncs up with the type of magic being cast is empowering.

[b1nary-c0de]

Yoli's head broke the surface just in time for another wave to smash into her face and fill her mouth with saltwater. The force of it slammed her head back underwater for another several excruciating seconds. Her fingers grasped for the open air as she kicked her legs in an effort to resurface, but another wave pushed her down again. Her fingers grabbed water now. Her lungs began to burn with the effort of holding her breath underwater while trying to surface, but no closer did she rise again.

This was a dream she had every night, and in no night did it get any easier to deal with afterward. She always found herself waking to tears and strangled sobbing, her body shivering with a cold that wasn't there. She didn't know why she had the dream, or why her body always reacted to it. She did know that sleeping terrified her. She hated the dream. She hated powerlessness.

It wasn't her fingers grasping at air and water that did it. It was her lungs burning in her chest, flowering into the burning blossom of promises broken. Her strength did not avail her here. Her strength could not part the seas that hounded her down to it's depths. Could not.

Could not.

What could?

[b1nary-c0de]

"Find the light," he whispered to the lonely winter air, "find your way to me." Ranson felt, more than saw, the air in the clearing in front of him twist and warp in reply, as if reaching for the faint light in his hands.

Then nothing.

"Keep going, I will not leave here," he urged the stillness, his hushed voice echoing off the surrounding snow. He pushed the lit rune-plate out of his hand into a Path with a short burst of Particles, sending it slowly hovering out into the open space. As its dim light cleared the tree line, the plate's runes flashed a short sequence before the plate stopped moving. A void fractal pattern began etching itself into the air around the plate, slowly propagating out to the size of a spell circle.

Ranson's breathing slowed as he watched the light from the rune-plate fill the fraktaline rifts, before stopping altogether as the rune-plate winked out of existence.

Now he could only wait. And hope.

[b1nary-c0de]

The year is 2419 RE. A team of dungeon-delvers unearths a remarkably well-preserved leatherbound book from a treasure hoard after killing the cave system’s monstrous inhabitants. One of the members on the team well-versed in magical detection examines it before touching it and discovers it is indeed magical, but that it is only a preservation-type magic spell. Feeling confident, they remove it and stow it away. Later on, the team’s magic user again examines the book, confirming the spell from earlier and learning its sole purpose is to preserve the journal and its contents. Decidedly intricate, the magic user realizes the complexity of the spell despite its apparent simplicity and becomes incredibly curious as to the book’s contents.

[b1nary-c0de]

Quote from Legions of Madness: A Magical History of Sas Domin, the original writing is from Journal 097 (discovered above the village of Kydi after its liberation)

The problem with the situation at hand is two--no--three-fold. First, there is too much corruption within the High Council to overcome. It has set in and propagated for generations. There is simply no way to fix this. Second, some may see this as overly negative. That is fine. They are blind to the realities of darkness. However, this pattern of staunch resistance is what allowed this plague to settle in our midst to begin with. Third, the people are too weak to do what must be done. Complete destruction of the Council is required. The mere mention of this is of course grounds for immediate imprisonment, as the Council has set this into the laws of the land. I have tried to get those around me to see reason, but I am committed to my course of action regardless. This is a warning to anyone who may read this in the future, if any survive -- do not let them in. For the love of your country, for the love of your family, for the love you have for yourself -- do not let them in.

-- Archmage Gyfa Madar Corvital, excerpt from Legions of Madness

[b1nary-c0de]

From Journal 003, discovered behind a runic seal in the ruins of what is thought to be Jeshde City, Xi Dotha Empire

I have seen the end. It is more peaceful than I expected, though perhaps my initial imagery of a burning hellscape was born from a jaded sense of the world. There is temptation to be apathetic having this knowledge, I will not deny, but I cannot leave while dozens of lives may still be saved. I will stay, though perhaps not to the end. I do not think that is my lot. No, I will stay until someone I can save does not deign to listen. May the light and sound be with me.

-- Archmage Meerlion III, Time of the Fifty Kings

[b1nary-c0de]

From Journal 022, apparently re-discovered on a shelf in the college's archival vault behind a stack of platinum ingots (stamped 167 years prior)

Beware the folly of man. No, not what man may do in his life. The folly of which I speak is the hatred of the race of man. It is a race most sturdy. We like to think of the dwarven kings as being the hardiest of all, but the weakest human is yet stronger. The great elven forest realms have stood for thousands of years, but even they cannot outlast the humans. Generations may pass in a single lifetime, but the stoutness of heart transcends generations. Generations become kingdoms, which fall and rise, yet there they still are. We know the short-folk firm in soul, but yet the humans still yet again go deeper. It is a strange thing, this resiliency, for it is not an active one like the younger dragonkin, but a passive. It sits deep in their nature and is passed down throughout all of time. To win against this would be to erase them all from existence entirely. But if one remains…you have lost.

Beware the folly of man.

-- Archviol of the Bardic College at Wardheim, 319 RE

[b1nary-c0de]

From Journal 016, discovered in the Vinsheim Cavern dungeon

The humans are spreading. They came peacefully, but we did not like them. They took up land, they did not yield, and they would not bow to the High One, the All-Seeker. We burned, tore, and laid waste, but they would not leave. We don’t even know why we hated them, but we did. The more they held, the hotter our hatred grew. We have gone mad. There is no return for us. Hate them if you wish, but it will destroy you too.

-- Aginon Ky’Gruumch, High Praetor of the Orcish Legions at Vik’Brek

[b1nary-c0de]

"It doesn't matter," Corvin said, turning to look at me. I made a face. "No seriously," he continued, "make that face all you want, but there's no reason why you can't use Edaya's theories of magic over Groyett's. They both cover particle streaming." "Ok, but they don't deal with wave forms in the same way," I replied, tapping the copy of Physical Magic Methodologies on the desk in front of me, "Groyett covers the energy fields portion way better. It's like you don't even want to acknowledge new research." Corvin made his own face at that. "Does it matter when you get the same result with your output anyway?" he said, lifting his shoulders in a half-shrug. It's an argument we've had many times before. Each time we learn new spell sequences we have to test power output against each other, and each time we match each other evenly.