#questors

[artnerd1123]

Sorry for the vague question lol. I was reading through the prologue chapters and there was a part where, without spoiling too much, a sorcerer was able to physically sense when their familiar was in danger. Sort of wondering whether they can feel each other's emotions or sense when the other's in trouble?

Oh!!!!!! Oh! I know what ur getting at! That’s actually a questor thing!

Questors are a certain... class? I suppose? Of sorcerer/magic user? Basically they go on quests for a living, directed by magic on which ones to take and such.

Being a questor, however, means you share a sort of bond with everyone you consider part of your “family.” This includes friends, but I digress. This bond makes it so you can tell when your loved ones are in some sort of danger or distress- be it emotional or physical. It’s like magic’s way of making sure u pay attention to how ur “party” is doing. Also helpful for figuring out if u need to go help someone, or if someone like. Triggered a trap or somethin.

Said bond tends to manifest itself in a sort of tightness (or outright pain) in one’s chest if someone is having trouble. As in that prologue ur readin~

TLDR: the sensing of a loved one (i.e.: familiar) being in trouble is a questor thing!

[artnerd1123]

and y’know what, i’ll do another lil dump while i’m at it. 

the subject of this one is news!

there’s a news scroll that goes out for every region of AFW. i don’t have a map in mind for the whole world, so i’m not sure how many continents there are, but it’s pretty much a “by large chunk of continent land” type deal. 

said news scrolls detail important happenings of the continent

dungeons popping up left and right? In there! long standing location finally became a dungeon and moved? in there! sudden nests of monsters cropped up, or got upset? in there! some village managed to find a way to coexist with the monsters out in the woods that people previously thought were just bloodthirsty? In there!

there’s a lot more along those sorts of lines, but y’all get it lskjdfs

basically it tells people what places to avoid (dark magic saturated) 

and what places would work well for any questors wanting to get to a final quest/lucrative questing spot 

it’s always kept to date, and new scrolls are sent out weekly, if not daily. 

there’s probably a couple big lineages of questors who are all what we consider reporters. either way, they all collaborate on the news scrolls to keep it up to date, accurate, and objective

if a questor wants to find work in a town, they can find it on a questor board! it’s like an announcement board where people can tack up things they need done, monsters to go after/help, dungeons in the area, and all sorts of stuff! 

if you put a quest on the board, you’ve just put up a “questor request,” which will get some attention p quickly if you’re in an area with lots of questors

even if ur not, ur probably gonna hear about it in a week or so. questors work fast with magic giving them gentle tugs in the right direction. 

all a questor needs to do to accept a quest is take it off the board

(you don’t take dungeon quests off the board, just put a mark on it to keep track of how many people are going to one or the other)

this only becomes a problem if someone put up multiple questor requests on that particular board. it’s generally whoever completes the quest first gets the reward, but sometimes questors duel it out. it’s pretty impressive when they do. 

ghosts have a version of this called a “specter board” in their ghost towns, which details what the ghost died from, what their unfinished business is, and if the questor will get anything out of the deal besides just getting the ghost to the afterlife

[artnerd1123]

are there like... official large groups of questors? like, organizations? guilds, porhaps? with like fancy names?

Ooh :0

Probably, yeah!!! I definitely know that questor families tend to travel together, so I’d imagine that a larger extended family could end up forming a sort of ‘guild’ since there’s so many of em!!!

But they don’t tend to have any official organizations. They like the freedom to be able to do whatever without worrying abt rules n stuff. Not to mention it’s way more fun to learn about quests/kinds of quests from the elders of your family or some random village u stopped in ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Back to the question tho- the large extended families that travel together are totally called guilds, and usually named after whatever the family’s last name that started it was! They tend to be rarer, just bc questors tend to split into smaller family units/do their own thing rather than stick around to form a guild.

Fancy fancy :0

[artnerd1123]

What's the RPG/Adventure Starter Monster for new questors: giant rats, skeletons, or something else?

Definitely small monsters, for sure!!! It all depends on the location!

Basically it’s anything that one could take down easily, without too many complex spells or trouble! Tends to be either monstrous versions of local wildlife, young or smol local monsters, or some sort of golem made of common materials in the area.

For example...

Forested places tend to have stuff like rats/tiny fae/buggy monsters, caves have spiders/batty monsters/also bug monsters/small rock golems (and sometimes skeletons), swamps have stuff like piranhas/wisps/kappas/brownies (aka tiny swamp monsters that eat ur stuff n drag u into the water), mountains have birdlike monsters/big ol goat lookin things/snowy golems...

y’all get the point ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

[artnerd1123]

does Aiden draw maps of the places he visits? do any questors map out dangerous dungeons or areas so future questors can be safe? or is it more of a, have fun at your own risk, kinda deal?

Ayy, combo questions!!! Nice!

I’ll tackle this in a numbered list fashion, cuz I can :V

Sometimes, yeah! He’ll make maps if he plans to come back there, or if someone’s commissioned him to. He’s not the best at it tho. The best ur gonna get is a rlly rough lookin series of paths/general layout of a place ‘^^

Every well travelled dungeon/area is gonna have at least one map after awhile! They’ll be hard to find (since magic has a habit of yoinking single/collections of map(s) and making them artifacts/dungeon rewards), but u can def find em!!! Not to mention you’ve usually got one or more retired questors chillin in questor villages. They typically have their own books of journeys/maps of places/etc for both their own memories n to help younger questors out :0

All quests have that kinda risk, babey!!! That’s what made it attractive in the first place~

Bonus: reminder that questors that come from questor ancestory are actually compelled to go on quests via their own magic! It’s not jus a job for em, it’s their way of life. Plus, they get bonus magic connection bc of their bloodlines. Cool stuff, eh?

Bonus bonus: people who become questors by choice don’t have exactly the same connection to magic. but the longer they’re a questor, the more their current connection grows! If you’ve been at it for most of ur life, u can have a lot of the same “family is in danger” and “dark magic detection” connections as a regular questor! And if their kids keep up the trend, those connections jus get stronger :V

[artnerd1123]

i remember u mentioning that there are different kinds of show sorcerers, but are there different kinds of questors?

Sssssortaaaa…?

It’s a yes and no kinda question ‘^^

Tbh, there aren’t really specific boxes u could sort em into. I mean… Pretty much every questor has their ideal/favorite kind of quest to go after. You’ve got your treasure hunters, your riddle solvers, your monster fighters, your dungeon explorers, everything in between and more! And there’s more than enough questors who could go for a combo of quest types at any given moment. Or, if they’re just letting the winds take them where they will, they’ll just stumble into quests that fit their skill sets! It’s hard to classify exactly what “kind” of questor they are.

I guess the only real distinction with questors you can make is based on who was born into the trade, and who chose to pick up the livelihood ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Questors that come from questor ancestral lines will be 100% more inclined to pick up the trade than any random sorcerer. It’s a compulsion for em: their bond with magic has run so deep over the generations that it influences them too. They’re literally drawn to go on quests until they finish their “capstone.” (Big quest, p much ur final shebang, after which u can safely retire without the threat of magic dragging u along on another quest sometime). Occasionally they’ll have family traditions as to the type of quest, but otherwise it’s free game ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

Their families (or those u consider family, anyways) will also be able to sense when another is in danger— emotionally, physically, or otherwise— and they can definitely tell if their fellow questor dies. This knowledge manifests in a soreness/pain in their chest. It works in reverse for the questor themself (they can tell how their fam is doin/etc)Is it magic? Probably (ง’̀w‘́)ﾉ──☆*:・ﾟBut it’s rather useful for keeping tabs on your questor buddies when you’re out! And rather nerve wracking for family who isn’t Hfjdjjd—

Those who choose to be a questor still have a deeper bond with magic than the average sorcerer, but it’s not exactly the same as a questor from a couple generations along the line. Their connection is kinda “muffled.” The compulsion to go on quests can also be ignored for way longer if they do desire. The muffled connection doesn’t carry over to the family connection thing, tho! they get it just as strongly as their born-questor counterparts. 

Other than that??? Ain’t much to separate what questor goes where or does what :V

It’s a free for all adventurous kinda world for ya questors (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧

edit: also! just wanted to add some more! questors can commonly fill roles like reporters, seafaring merchants, and postal service (letter/package distributors) to fill their questing urges. They can even be pirates, if they’re so inclined~

[iamthespineofmybook]

Adventurers and Questors

The Adventurers' Guild is an international organization with at least one person in every population centre (except for Ahcos and Lormoor) originally founded in Ancient. In the smallest villages, the lone Guildmember's job is to train those who wish to be adventurers, and help defend the village if monsters appear. In larger locations, there are generally more members of the Guild present. When someone passes the Adventurer's Test, they get their Adventurer's License and four connected Bags of Sharing, and are free to travel the world, the license working as a passport and a mystical translation device. Adventurers are not allowed to take sides in wars, but can help out any innocent that gets caught up in the conflict. A single Adventurer's License can support up to three "Party Cards'' which can be given to the adventurer's chosen party members, granting them its translation enchantment and to get those people through borders. If other members of the party also have an Adventurer's License, they must give their party cards to the same group of people, or not be considered a true part of the group by most laws.

If someone has a special cause to become an adventurer (revenge on a specific powerful figure, finding a specific item to help save their people, a prophecy says they are a Chosen One who will save the world, etc.), they may apply for a Questor's License. A Questor's License does the same things as an Adventurer's, but also grants them discounts in most shops. There may be more than three party cards to a Questor's License, but still only three can be active, and the party members with inactive cards can be swapped with the active ones through complicated magic at Save Points. People are also less likely to be brusk and repetitive with a questor than they are with most adventurers.

The Adventurer’s Guild has its own currency, based on an alchemical formula that is highly guarded (and is said to come from another world), called “Graal.” It’s a strange, greyish substance that acts almost like a liquid, but clumps up instead of runs, and when more is added to it, it gets more massive, but doesn’t gain volume. As such, it is measured in grams when used in transactions. Almost every store in the world accepts Graal as well as its own country’s currency, as it’s a simple walk to the local Guild Hall for an exchange.

(Not sure where else to put this, but I had an idea for a legendary figure who is known for having tamed a decently-high level mimic to carry his gear and fight instead of him. Basically, it’s Rincewind and The Luggage.)

[roisinishere]

I recently made an animation for Questors Theatre’s production of Ladykillers. The animation depicts a map style robbery referencing the blackboard map they have live on set. The animation was used for the trailer and was also projected live on set for people to watch during the performance. The trailer and animation can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbGT12C3hjI