#game design notes

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Class and Lore Discrepancies

Occultech: The Rationalist approach to studying magic mirrors the mechanization of industry and the systematic integration of knowledge from information that previously had to be memorized by rote or with the aid of mnemonic tools. In-setting, the Rationalists treat all magic as the influence of scientifically defined energy fields of increasing media complexity. This ranges from sound waves through materials, to gravity waves through space, to electromagnetism in the forms of sparks, magnetic fields, and light. As a practical matter, Rationalist-aligned party members and NPCs are still classed either as War Casters (Offensive Magic) or Occultists (Utility Magic) and are still limited in spells and skills to the same categories. (This results in the notorious Heat Sink bug when fighting the Heat Sink boss in the Power Armor Factory, where Occultech devices and skills with names that sound Lightning themed actually do Fire damage instead and make the Heat Sink stronger instead of damaging it.)

Alchemist Calendar: Rather than simulating a solar system or mapping out alchemical conjunctions for the Alchemy crafting system, the alchemical calendar is synced to the plot progression through the Acts. While this avoids a potential game over from running out an invisible and unexplained timer, it does mean that the in-game calendar progressing by missions and resting at camps / hotels / inns rapidly becomes desynced from the events in the plot. This also justifies the restriction on the more potent elixirs in the earlier acts, so that by the time the high tier elixirs can be crafted the party is more likely to be fighting much tougher enemies.

Confraternity Training: The Confraternity of Eternity claims that the powers that can be unlocked by their esoteric breathing exercises and meditation techniques include shapeshifting. However, the Hero can only learn what is allegedly the first two levels of this power, the first being the Stat Boost ability and the second being the Cosmetic Modifier, effectively an ability to modify the Hero's appearance through a character-creator style interface. This interface only changes skin, hair, and eye color, hair style, and gender markers; the Hero's core character model is the same, though party members and plot important enemies will comment on differences. A proper shapeshifting party member named Cass is introduced in the Island of Tomorrow DLC but is limited to transforming into different kinds of birds, such as the eponymous cassowary.

Marksmanship Levels: The fifth and final level of marksmanship actually only improves damage and accuracy by a fraction of the previous levels, despite the complicated sidequest that is necessary to open the gun range to learn it. Originally thought to be a programming bug, developer commentary has confirmed this was intended as a joke about gun enthusiasts and gun culture.

[ixthil]

Been cooking up a new game over the past couple months.

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Skill List Contradictions

Lost In Mistranslation: There is some confusion and ambiguity about what skills are acquired from what sources and what skills are restricted or prohibited based on different factors. These tend to come in three forms; conflicts between Lore Descriptions and Programmed Mechanics, translation errors, and straight up unpatched bugs that happen "behind the scenes" and don't produce any obvious graphic, texture, or animation anomalies. (Translation errors include both localization and in-house development notes.)

Class Restrictions Versus Class Focus: The most common examples of confusion stem from the handling of magic spells as skills and how spellcasters are divided into multiple classes mechanically. Both in and out of the setting, War Wizards are trained for combat magic and Occultists study support magic, while Alchemists specifically work with the Alchemy crafting tree. Different Lore entries alternatively treat each class as if it is locked to a specific category of spells, or treat all magic as interchangeable despite the class names and elemental distinctions. What actually happened was a major revamp of the class and skill system after early playtesting, with some changes making it into the Lore descriptions and others being left out due to lack of time or oversight. (This is why an extremely strong Alchemist who has completed the Great Work and can literally bench press a tank in one cutscene can't pull a single person back onto a catwalk in another cutscene.)

Too Narrow Or Too Broad: As a general rule, anyone can learn any skill or spell, but only somebody who has already been training with the appropriate background can make the most use of it. Hence Soldiers and Survivalists doing more damage with firearms class weapons and the Marksmanship skill, and spellcasters getting the best return-on-energy-points with the spells that align with their specific class and specialization. Unique skills are either prestige class rewards or specifically intended for a character as a part of the story and main plot. To a certain extent this mirrors real world education and training, but is so ambiguously handled and explained that it can lead players into blind allies where they spend too much time and energy either trying to make each member of the Party a jack-of-all-trades or overspecialize in whatever their stated class focus is. (While legitimate ways to play the game, they both require knowledge of a specific playstyle and depend on certain equipment sets for the relevant characters in order to keep from becoming a Challenge Run.)

Totally Meant To Do That: In order to get around the contradictions after the fact, many of the developers and writers adopted the same "unreliable in-universe narrator" modus that the Elder Scrolls developers did for all in-universe books and documents. This is at least partly supported by the in-universe history of multiple competing magical systems that was present in the earliest concept art and design documents for the setting, but still results in confusion when the user interface provides incomplete or inaccurate information. (Though this also leans into the reveal about the origins of the Hero's powers of leadership and persuasion by explaining why other people can't learn them, the writers can't take full credit because it happened by accident.)

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Alchemy in the Wikke Archipelago

As Above, So Below: Like all magical practices in the islands, Alchemy is based around the study and use of cycles of energy and activity, specifically cycles that correspond with the passage of astral bodies through the sky. Nobody can argue that the activity of the sun has a defining influence on life, and the passage of the moon marks the tides; so it is also with the other planets even if their influence is more subtle in comparison. Rationalists are still attempting to isolate the exact mechanism by which astral bodies exert their influence on the world and everything in it, usually by reverse engineering the processes by which Elixirs and other Alchemical substances are made; light is obviously part of it, but there is definitely something else in play. (Great Works are accomplished less often, and with greater effort, meaning opportunities to study the involved processes are similarly scarce and difficult.)

Light, Sound, And Substance: Alchemical manuscripts often speak of attributes such as Sulfur, Mercury, and Salt, that do not necessarily correspond to the chemical substances of the same name. This has resulted in more than a few self taught or apprentice alchemists poisoning themselves, and the linguistic confusion alone has driven a wedge been Alchemists and non-magical chemists. Alchemists that have the benefit of an entire Society to maintain continuity of knowledge (and set proper safety standards for apprenticeships) understand that these terms are archaic definitions from proto-alchemy and proto-chemistry that stand for whole classes of properties instead; Salt represents the solidity of physical mass, Mercury stands for physical motion or mechanically measured energy, and Sulfur for heat, light, and electromagnetic energy. Learning how and under what conditions these properties can become interchangeable is the stereotypical pursuit of alchemists, but in practice learning the ins and outs of transmutation is only the first step in a long journey - and it involves so much mathematical calculation that the less devoted apprentices who want to make gold as a get rich quick scheme are filtered out very early.

Water Treatment: The body is between two thirds and three quarters water, depending on what medical authority is being used as a reference, and maintaining this balance is vital for all known vital processes. Water is also a relatively abundant substance in and around the islands (if not always fresh and drinkable) meaning it is and has been cheap and easy to experiment with magically. It has been argued that Alchemy originally started as a practice when water was discovered to be such a potent reservoir for magical energy; others argue that true Alchemy didn't begin until it was merged with Astronomy and the study of the heavens, but however it started, Alchemy boils down (pun intended) to collecting energy in water so that whoever or whatever drinks it gains the benefits (or drawbacks) of said energy. This was done earliest with plant life and herbs, harnessing existing cycles in plant growth throughout the seasons, though purely medical herbalism evolved independently of Alchemy and eventually lead to non-magical pharmacology. Later refinements involved complicated chemical processes done under auspicious astrological events, which were both more effective and more dangerous due to the risk of heavy metal poisoning.

Star Power: The most recent development in Alchemy involved the creation of the Alchemical Orrery, a miniaturized model of the solar system that replaced the planets with a set of mirrors made of their corresponding astrological and alchemical materials; gold, silver, tin, etc. Not every material is easily rendered reflective, and mercury being a liquid must be suspended in a carefully created hollow glass lens in order to maintain the proper shape, but the end result exploits the principle of As Above, So Below by recreating the same astrological influences on a smaller scale. The practical upside is that the Alchemical Society in particular, who could afford to build many such mechanisms and had the people to operate them around the clock, has become quite economically powerful; Elixirs and other substances that once took weeks or months to prepare in small batches can now be cranked out in bulk on a daily basis.

Skilled Trades: While the Orreries have drastically reduced the time scale needed for many things created with alchemy, this does come at a price. Part of that price is reduced efficacy; the mirrors capture less sunlight / moonlight / starlight compared to exposure to the actual Astral bodies they represent, and while the optics have been refined over many years and experiments the mass produced stuff still isn't as potent as the bespoke stuff. The other drawback is that operating an Orrery correctly requires the same knowledge of interacting forces that more traditional alchemy does, with the added burden of being able to make very precise calculations and adjustments to the mirrors and lenses, otherwise the astral influence will be dissipated or diffracted rather than concentrated. So the modern Alchemist has to be an accomplished herbalist, chemist, metallurgist, mathematician, astronomer, and astrologer like their predecessor, while also adding mechanic and precision tool-making machinist to the mix.

The Great Work: For the particularly visionary, stubborn, inspired, and insane Alchemist, there is also the ever-present temptation of the Great Work. This multi-stage process gradually transforms the body of the Alchemist into an idealized state, banishing weakness and illness and leaving only strength and grace and clarity. Like so many things in life, it is easier said than done, as the ritual preparations for each stage are increasingly complex and demanding, and the margin of error for failure shrinks dramatically the closer an Alchemist gets to perfection. (Which makes sense if you think about it.) The process depends on the body being present at certain locations where astral energy is exceptionally potent, during planetary conjunctions that either amplify or diminish a given astral influence. There are many different ways to pursue the Great Work, but importantly, they are mutually exclusive; an alchemist can start with any number of conjunctions or eclipses or alignments but each one is only compatible with certain combinations of events going forward, and each of THOSE available events leads to a smaller number of future events. Trying to use an incompatible time or place to progress the work invariably leaves the Alchemist with too much of one influence, not enough of another, or some combination of mutually antagonist forces in their body with no mitigating third element. None of these outcomes are pleasant or healthy, with the exact degree of each depending on how far the Great Work has progressed.

Quitting While You're Ahead: For those unable or unwilling to attempt the full Great Work, there are various points to stop along the way, known appropriately enough as Lesser Works. These enhance the body, senses, and mind, push back the aging process a fair bit, and also add a fair amount of social standing too. The established theory states that the third step of the Great Work is the last step before the point of no return; beyond that point, the simple passage of the seasons and the planets in their courses can incapacitate or kill an Alchemist as their body still tries to reconcile all of the different forces running around inside it. By way of comparison, missing a conjunction for a stage two ritual progression will leave the Alchemist moody and irritable and in ill health for a few days to a week surrounding it, while missing the stage three ritual can leave an Alchemist bedridden for a day or two, and it only gets worse from there. Nobody knows for sure what happens if somebody misses the final stage ritual, but fragmentary texts (as in, the texts were blown up into fragments) point to widespread destruction of some form or another.

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Summoning in the Wikke Archipelago

Natural, Unnatural, and Supernatural: Summoning as a magical practice is by and large adjacent to ALL of the different magical systems and traditions developed in the island chain. Like most other magical processes, it deals with energy cycles, but where magical cycles are easy to experience and interact with directly, the processes that allow for summoning are a bit more obscure. Most knowledge about the field was accumulated by two different scholars, the first being Occultist Happ Wordden about two hundred years before Veck's Regency Era, who wrote a rather lengthy tome titled A Catalogue Of Visitations identifying the different entities that could enter the world via summoning. The other was an alchemist and astronomer named Nathanial Harker who wrote The Cacophony Of The Spheres seventy years later, a treatise on astrological cycles vital for the practice of alchemy and the limitations of working within those cycles, which is credited for inspiring the creation of the first Alchemical Orrery. This book included an appendix correlating multiple astral bodies and their orbits with the entities described by Wordden decades before.

Spirits And The Netherworld: According to both Wordden and Harker, summoned entities fit into four broad categories. The first, most readily understood, and easiest to contact, are the spirits of the the departed, because they have an established connection to the world already. Through the careful questioning of these spirits, occultists and necromancers have gained vital insight into the cycles of life, death, and undeath, and have also made some headway in understanding the afterlife... or rather, afterlives, plural. When a person dies, they may awaken to find themselves in a dimly lit, shifting counterpart to the waking world which has variously been called the Netherworld, Underworld, or Afterworld. By definition, these are the spirits easiest to summon because they are already so close to the world of the living, for the same reason that it takes less time and effort to walk down the street to a neighbor than it does to travel across town.

What In Reincarnation?: In other, more difficult cases, spirits appear to reside in some sort of realm beyond the Netherworld, though exactly what the nature of this world is remains unclear. One notable case study documents a spirit who told the summoner, "I stand in a grand library, and can recite to you one sentence of all these books. Which would you choose?" before the ritual connection was lost. The most baffling outcome appears to support the idea of reincarnation, in that the spirit believes that they are alive and well if they can be communicated with at all; in the most notorious case a man who died in a construction accident claims he was lucky to get out of the way of the wall that crushed him. Scholars have debated the meaning and implications of this conversation for decades, with the prevailing theory being that the spirits are in denial about their state, but a vocal minority promotes a more radical idea; that rather than contacting the spirit of the departed in this world, the summoner managed to reach another universe entirely where events turned out differently and the counterpart to the deceased survived whatever killed them in the original universe. Nobody knows how to prove or disprove this theory, including its strongest supporters.

Demons Versus Archons: Spirits tend to be the concern of necromancers specifically, those who deal with life, death, and undeath, while summoners proper are more concerned with (and associated with) two mutually antithetical beings from Beyond. These come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and forms, but follow two broad categories of similarity, those being Demons and Archons. Demons are physically, if not physiologically, associated with fire, sulfur, and high temperatures, and socially or mentally appear fixated on games of chance and skill. Archons, in contrast, physically appear to be made of ice or crystal, and are associated with extreme cold and frost, and are rigidly logical and organized. These extremes between hot and cold, chaos and order, make these two categories of entities mutually antagonistic, but at the same time means they are unlikely to ever meet each other without the intervention of a summoner in the first place; that said there are natural magical cycles that make it easier for one or the other to cross over into the physical world of the islands without help. Their goals and motivations are extremely difficult to discern at the best of times.

The Umbrals: The final and most obscure category of summoned entities are the Umbrals, beings who are either made of or perpetually cloaked in darkness. Of all the otherworldly entities they are the most difficult to contact, but arguably the easiest to work with once contact is established; while getting a Demon to do anything requires a professional gambler's dexterity and head for odds, and working with Archons is best done with the aid of a very good lawyer, Umbrals literally just trade favors. Simply put, do something for them and they will do something for you. Of course, what the Umbral asks might be something beyond the summoner's ability or skill, or take decades to successfully manage, or violate various legal, ethical, and moral codes; there isn't any clear correlation between the difficulty of what the summoner wants and the difficulty of what an Umbral wants in exchange. Significantly, Umbrals have been known to intervene in the world without the aid of summoning rituals during times of great strife, granting great power to someone on the verge of death and allowing them to turn the tide of battle; how and why they choose to interact with one specific person out of all those involved in the conflict, as well as what they get in exchange, is not understood. (Different Umbrals give different answers when questioned, so it may be that there is no overarching ethos at work and each individual Umbral is pursuing its own distinct goals.)

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Religion, Faith, and Mythology in the Wikke Archipellago

Magic and Myth: In the same way that different cultures on different islands developed their own magical frameworks that didn't necessarily mesh with each other, so too did different cultures come up with answers to the big philosophical questions of Where Did We Come From and Where Are We Going. Untangling different versions of the same stories that have made the rounds from island to island for centuries being changed in the retelling is a complex anthropological task at the best of times, especially when different islands had different attitudes about what stories were Right and what were Wrong.

Consolidation of Conviction: Trying to consolidate so many different mythological conventions and folkloric traditions from the top down would have been an uphill battle at the best of times, so the vast majority of religious groups that survived to the present day never made the attempt; such groups largely devote themselves not the big questions of past or future, but rather the practical realities of the present. Many of these religious practices started as a means of preserving and teaching practical spellcasting in some form, which had an immediate application in one or more key areas of life, and any overarching ur-mythos grew out of the organization as different members tried to reconcile competing versions of folk tales, with various degrees of success.

Heart Of Earth Temple: The Temple is devoted largely to the questions and nuances of life, death, and undeath. The practical applications of that kind of magic were the growth and general health of agriculture and livestock, diagnosis and treatment of illness, and the managing of grief and death both individually and socially. Earth Priests are trained not only in magic but counseling and ecology; the ethos that has grown (pun intended) around the Temple is that undeath is a natural part of the life cycle, in the same way that mushrooms grow from dead wood and scavengers are drawn to carrion. What is commonly felt most keenly as a loss is actually a transformation or transition, though the feelings of loss are completely legitimate in the face of such a dramatic change. Most Earth Priests profess a belief that the world and all in it grew from some primal seed, and has been growing, pollinating, dying back, and regrowing with the seasons for as long as time has any meaning; a circle has no beginning or end after all.

Order of the Sacred Flame: The Order's fire symbolism takes a back seat to their emphasis on creation and transformation in their mythology, as their day-to-day activities are defined by actual work done and leave little time for abstraction. As befitting a religious order of crafters and tradespeople, the Sacred Flame has cultivated a literal creation myth that operates outside of the various origin stories known throughout the island, one where the entire world was the product of a deity, but significantly this deity was an apprentice or journeyman as opposed to a master. Thus, the world and all which dwells within it are rife with flaws, and yet much of the world does function adequately despite not being perfect; this is an important lesson about the nature of creation, the usefulness of even flawed instruments, and how perfectionism is a dead end trap that prevents the development of further skill. Trying to reconcile different competing myths is sidestepped by removing the conflict one degree; the apprentice creator god goofed when creating time itself so all these different myths concurrently happened in different pasts that got awkwardly welded together into the common present.

Alchemical Society: The nature of Alchemy requires a detailed understanding of astronomy and astral influences, so it is no surprise that the Society has some of the most advanced cosmological knowledge in the islands, and indeed the world. There is no overarching theory, rather three competing theories that are frequently debated and amended with new telescopic sightings and measurements; the Grand Cycle theory, the Singularity theory, and the Imbalance theory, each with their own implications for the central Alchemical premise of "As Above, So Below". The Grand Cycle theory holds that, much like the orbits of astral bodies in the sky and the progression of the seasons, everything exists in an eternal recurrence or oscillation, and as such had no true "origin" in the classic meaning of the word. The Singularity theory holds that there had to be some sort of cosmological prime mover that set the universe in motion, which is generally expressed as some sort of enormous explosion that eventually gave way to self organizing behaviors. The Imbalance theory broadly follows the Grand Cycle theory but postulates a great calamity that knocked the heavens out of alignment, explaining why Alchemists must go to considerable effort to concentrate magical energy to create Elixirs or perform the Great Work, rather than such energy cascading through the environment in a chain reaction of perfect transformation and evolution.

Confraternity of Eternity: Paradoxically, the semi-monastic organization dedicated to introspection and self development that eventually became the Confraternity holds considerable stock in the various folkloric tales and traditions of the Archipelago - for the specific reason of deconstructing them and picking them apart. The rationale is two fold. First, tearing apart old and beloved stories is a way of finding personal convictions and contentions that aren't necessarily obvious to outside view, and once a member of the Confraternity is aware of the emotional vestment they can start working on overcoming it. Second, the critical analysis of folklore acts as a springboard to critical analysis of more personal stories that people tell themselves, which acts as a further obstruction towards self development. Confraternity monks do not endorse any particular creation myth, but they do not disbelieve them either - they take them apart simply because anything that CAN be taken apart was put together by somebody else, but clothes, tools, and houses are put together by people and that does not make them any less real.

The Last Great Adventure: The treatment of the dead and the earthly remains of a person are the strongest convictions of many different religious and social groups, simply for the reason that death is a subject that drastic ramifications for the individual and for society at large. Grief and mourning are strong emotions which color the entire experience of losing someone close, while socially there are questions of inherited legal assets and liabilities, and finally the improper handling of a corpse can be a serious public health problem. Differences in creation myths, daily rituals, and holidays can and have been mediated and moderated between different religious orders with a minimum of friction, but those religious practices surrounding death, and dying are at best an "agree to disagree" truce between all parties and at worst have resulted in the ongoing low-level religious clash in part of the nation of Veck. The Heart of Earth Temple requires burial in some form to either preserve the body or advance its decomposition for various forms of undeath, while the Order of the Sacred Flame mandates cremation so that people rejoin the primal fire that created the world and their bodies become fuel for further transformation. Likewise the Alchemical Order has no mandate for burial at sea, but considers that to be the easiest way to restore the alchemical energy from the body back to the natural world, since water is the key medium for alchemical influence. The Confraternity believes that the spirit reincarnates in a new body after the old one fails so the body can be handled in any way that prevents the spread of disease, but there are complex funereal rites intended to aid the spirit in maintaining as much self awareness and therefore developmental progress as possible between bodies. All of these practices are practically and philosophically opposed to each other, and common ground is impossible.

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Spell Categories

War Wizard Categories: War Wizards are thematically and mechanically oriented around combat magic, but the mechanics side and the lore side are different. In the setting history, War Wizards tend to focus on the four elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth. In practice, the damage categories are Fire, Ice, Lightning, and Poison respectively. There are multiple instances of this dichotomy being rationalized, justified, discussed, and even ridiculed in-setting.

Occultist Categories: Occultist are thematically described as magic researchers and theoreticians, in contrast to the practical and pragmatic combat magic of War Wizards. In practice they do have some damage dealing spells, but the damage is considered incidental or even accidental compared to the primary focus of their magic. Occultists tend to specialize in either Gravity, Time, or Mesmerism / mind manipulation.

Occultech Categories: The basic premise of Occultech is a unified theory of magic that describes all spell effects as energy in different media. Ironically while the process has streamlined magic in the setting, it does not actually match how damage and elemental vulnerability / resistance is calculated mechanically, so many Occultech devices and skills are categorized (sometimes arbitrarily) into different groups behind the scenes.

Earth Wizard: Earth themed War Wizards cover both the unliving stone and sand that makes up the earth, the living soil and plants that grow in it, and the decay of mortal remains that are buried beneath it. This explains their connection to necromancy and their Poison-based combat magic, and also gives them limited healing abilities. They are primarily associated with the Heart of Earth Temple, a religion that holds life, death, and undeath as equally vital parts of the natural world.

Fire Wizard: Fire themed War Wizards are straightforward in comparison to other types of wizard; they set things on fire. They also, less spectacularly, protect against fire, and use the symbolic and metaphorical properties of a burning flame to transform and change things on and off the battlefield. They are primarily associated with the Order of the Sacred Flame, a religious order of smiths and craftspeople.

Air Wizard: Air themed War Wizards utilize Lightning damage in combat, through the thematic association with the sky and stormy weather. ironically, spells directly manipulating the wind are uncommon, as the air-themed magical organization - the Confraternity of Eternity - emphasizes internal focus and transformation via breathing exercises. This means that Air Wizards gain various powers over their own bodies that can culminate in shapeshifting or physical improvements like increased strength or speed.

Water Wizard: Water themed War Wizards weaponize Ice magic in battle, and are otherwise affiliated with the transformative practice of Alchemy, which relies a great deal on physical water as a medium for astrological influence. Accordingly they are found in great abundance in the Alchemical Society alongside practicing Alchemists; in the parlance of the society, Water Wizards pursue internal transmutation - the body is mostly water after all - rather than external transformation through laboratory work. (A few purists insist that Water elemental magic is not true alchemy because a Water Wizard cannot undergo the Alchemical Great Work, but only a handful of Alchemists ever pull that off anyway.) The upside of being able to balance alchemical energy in a living body is that Water Wizards can provide even faster magical healing than Earth Wizards, and while their selection of buffs and enhancements are less flexible than what an Air Wizard can do, Water Wizards can apply those changes to other people. This has lead to Water Wizards accumulating a reputation as the "jack of all trades" of magicians and spellcasters.

Gravity Occultist: The most notable and desired ability of the Gravity Occultist, and the main attraction for aspiring magicians, can be summed up in one word, and that word is flying. Other abilities include increasing the mass of something or someone, which can slow down a pursuer without using time magic, or cause a ship to sink in the sea or a vehicle to get stuck in mud, and of course the same effects can be reversed to make a voyage faster (but not always safer) while truly refined skill can manipulate fine objects at a distance. Occultists who specialized in Gravity magic currently gather under the banner of the Rationalists, whereas previously they had no overarching faction affiliation and were thematically connected to the Heart of Earth Temple regardless of their actual religion.

Time Occultist: Time magic is poorly understood by outsiders, who think it can be used to predict or even travel to the future, as well as go back in time to change history. While time travel is not yet feasible (despite a small close knit community of historians and theorists working on it) and predicting the future is a crap shoot because of that whole "free will" thing, manipulation of time energy in discrete systems has become well established practice. Time Occultists can slow down their foes much like Gravity Occultists can, but they can also speed themselves and their allies up, which Gravity magic can't do. (Then again time magic doesn't let people fly, so it all balances out.) High level Slowdown effects can approximate stopping something in time, and subjectively anyone caught in a Slowdown effect experiences the world around them moving impossibly fast. Less flashy but arguably more important, anything that isn't alive (because of how living processes work) can be "rewound" back in time to an earlier state, making it possible to recover and restore previously lost works of art and culture and history. Time Occultists, like Gravity Occultists, have staked their claim under the Rationalist Movement, where previously they could be found in any organization with a vested interest in preserving and restoring lost history.

Mesmerism Occultist: The magic of the mind and the senses is often maligned, far more than necromancy ever was, for its potential for exploitation and abuse. Memories twist, illusions proliferate, and even questions of identity become difficult to answer. (More than one Mesmerist has tried to start a literal cult of personality in the Archipelago.) Strangely enough, the College of Bards has relied on specifically those attributes to revitalize and reform the image of Mesmerism, by offering illusion as entertainment on a large scale. Recent developments in Occultech, connecting Sound wave patterns in music and speech to Electrical activity in the thinking brain, now offer the potential for mass produced entertainment of astounding vividness and clarity, with no risk of mind control without a mesmerist on the other end. (There are some conspiracy theories that Occultech could allow mass mind control, and they have a basis in fact in the form of Silas Van Der Horne's research, but most of the people trying to produce mass entertainment have no idea about that - and neither do the fearmongers, funnily enough.) Mesmeric spells can stun an enemy, trick them into harming allies, disrupt morale and esprit de corps, scramble communications, and redirect aggression towards harmless decoys. Strangely enough, the leadership themed skills of the Hero don't register as Mesmeric magic when quantified by either traditional magical scrying or newer Occultech scans... despite the fact that there is clearly something going on there.

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Economics and Logistics

Coin of the Realm: The nation of Veck (and by extension the Barony of Barry) uses a currency colloquially referred to as a Buck, a silver disk roughly the diameter of the average thumbnail. The official name is the Royal Mark, but the nickname "buck" won out because one side prominently features a stag, that animal being a focal point in the royal family's coat of arms. The Hafton Princes also mint silver coinage with their own heraldic emblems, and that might have helped the "buck" terminology gain traction, to make it clear what nation's currency will be accepted at any given business. (The coins are similar in size and shape, and have been similarly devalued with other metals over time, so in practice they are used interchangeably throughout the archipelago.)

You Can Take That To The Bank: Carrying around a large bag of silver has numerous logistical problems when it comes to making large purchases, so of course there are various means by which different individuals and organizations get around it. Banks offer written checks (or cheques, as the empire on the mainland spells them for some reason) against the recorded balances of account holders, businesses establish records of credit and debit, and there are plenty of traders and merchants who speculate on physical goods that might fetch a better price than what they paid for them. All of this creates paper trails of one sort or another, which the Hero can use to try to figure out the Villains' plans - but the Villains can also do the same to keep track of the Hero and their Party. Buying cash is not that anonymous when every trader remembers the three dangerous looking people carrying fistfuls of silver. (Dexter points this out early on in his Mission Planning tutorial and also lampshades how hard it is for an individual to launder money compared to a larger organization.)

Can't Make Bricks Without Clay: In order to oppose the machinations of at least two aspiring dictators, the Hero and whoever they recruit will need more than just a sense of righteous indignation and catchy theme song. Party members will need food, medicine, equipment maintenance and upgrades, ammunition for various types of weapons, crafting components, and all manner of unusual context specific items needed for one quest or another. All of this runs into questions of money. Establishing and upgrading safehouses often requires an outlay of funds if the safehouse is not acquired through some sort of quest or mission, and any damage will need to be repaired as well. All of this means that saving the world can be a costly proposition, and some of the missions and side-quests the Hero will need to undertake will be purely for financial gain and stability; Party members without food, medical care, or a safe place to sleep can't fight as effectively, recover from injuries, or use their full range of skills.

New Money Versus Old Money: As part of their attempts to leverage control over occupied territory, both Silas Van Der Horne and Ben Waters start mandating the use of their own currency instruments and financial networks in any territory they manage to occupy. This means the only businesses in occupied territory that will still take bucks will be Pawn Shops, which do not have the same range of inventory. Complicating things further, traders from across the sea or the mainland will sometimes try to spend the money of their homeland rather than finding somebody who can do a currency exchange, and a few of those traders are either hamstrung by port regulations or paranoid about being cheated and will ONLY accept payment for their goods or services in the forms they recognize. (At least one quest requires Imperial Crowns from the Siderial Empire.)