#arcane magic

arcane explosion!!

I'm rewatching fma and started watching arcane, so I can't help but draw parallels -- what is it with the spherical objects that contain dangerous and destructive power?

The end of the Calamity was only 840 something years ago. With Elves and dragons running around, some of them are definitely old enough where, if they didn't live during the Age of Arcanum themselves, their parents or grandparents would have and they would have been told a thousand stories of the fuck heads in flying cities who destroyed the world and were super annoying and dangerous long before they did that. Many more would be born during the latter part of the Calamity or raised by people who survived the Calamity who passes on those stories. Depending on the race we are talking anywhere from direct witnesses (Like the Bright Queen and Ludinus) to like 2-5 generations removed. Even humans with our short lifespans, it's really not THAT long, especially if you've got a bunch of old ass elves around teaching history class from a first person pov for like 500 years lol.

Intellectually people know that Critical Role, the world of Exandria is a post apocalypse story. Exandria is a scarred landscape that is just beginning to bounce back from the brink. But because it is recovering, it's easy to forget sometimes that it IS POST APOCALYPTIC. So people looking at Vasselheim in the modern day are like, 'bro, you really need to chill, everything's fine.' And Vasselheim is like... 'Chill? I do not understand the meaning of this word. And everything is fine... for now. We will be a bastion of civilization when the end times come once more. Fare thee well traveler.'

Then everyone rolls their eyes and moves on with their day. But if you really think about Vasselheim's isolationism and strength and distain for arcane magic in historical context, you can't really blame them. Are they over the top about their dislike of arcane magic? Sure. Is it quite possibly the most understandable over reaction in the history of over reactions? Also yes! They haven't made it illegal, they are just going to keep an eye on you, so you don't pull a Vespin Chloras and doom the planet to another few centuries of choked skies and sundered landscapes, that's all. Vespin was IN Vasselheim! Of COURSE they have strong feelings about it. The (Almost) End of the World began in Vasselheim due to arcane magic. If they had been stricter, maybe it wouldn't have happened at all!

And it really does paint their actions in Campaign 1 in a different light as well. Their isolationism can come across as shortsighted and selfish, until you view it from their point of view. Which is that they are constantly under threat, they know for a fact that Asmodeus wants their city destroyed, they are a bastion for the Prime Deities in a world filled with many heathens (lol that's where the dickishness comes in) and the Betrayer Gods would take any sign of weakness in their defenses and attack with glee. Hearing it in C1 it sounds like an excuse not to help against the Chroma Conclave, but it is literally just the truth from what I can tell. In BOTH Calamity and Downfall they have mentioned destroying Vasselheim being on the Betrayer God's to do list lol. If I was on a Betrayer God's to do list specifically, by name, I too would be somewhat paranoid and would not really want to disarm any portion of the city to go do something else. No matter how important the something else might be.

Vasselheim was basically like; Look, I'm very sorry to hear about your Dragon problem, that sucks, truly, but if we go out all willy nilly and leave this city undefended, it'll be fucked when we get back. When you have a real plan, come back and get us and we'll join you for the big fight. Until then, it's up to you, here you can have Kima as well, she's been desperate to get out of here anyway, and here's some supplies. We have larger concerns than one continent being attacked by four ancient Dragons. We are the seed bank for civilization for when shit inevitably hits the fan. We are the doomsday bunker for the Apocalypse, four Ancient Dragons are terrible, but they are not the Apocalypse. And they are right. Looking at it all in context, The Chroma Conclave are small potatoes. Horrific, monstrous, life destroying, but compared to the threat Vasselheim is preparing for, nothing.

My theory: her new clothes looks like muscles (hi Viktor) covered with thorny stems of rose 🥀 The guess is she transformed the energy of chains into a form of magic armor (likely making it easier to escape from the chains of the Black Rose and resist them later on) since Mel is an empath mage and touches and redirects others magic and nature (“both conduit and a mirror” as she has the power to sense other’s inner selves and bend their magic”). And the skin of gold is kinda birthmarks she hypothetically was born with and which were activated by using her magic. What do you think? 🤔

This is a potential game that I have been working on for the past 5 years, I'm excited to finally be able to share it with others :) (feel free to ask me abt it)

Kingdoms of the Hollow is a high fantasy world based on the continent called “The Hollow” where there are nine main kingdoms and three commonwealth realms.

Magic is something that every denizen of The Hollow has the potential to succeed in. Magic derives from the individual’s spirit, which is something that all sentient beings have, the stronger the person’s spirit is the stronger their magic will be. Spiritual power is like a muscle, if someone doesn't practice it then they will eventually be able to use it at all. People who use magic in an official sense, like a job, or specialize in it, then they would be classified as a mage.

There are three different types of mages, there are wizards, witches, and sorcerers. Wizards learn from spirits and utilize their power as their own (Arcane Magic), witches work directly with spirits as an extension of their own magical power (Organic Magic), and a sorcerer is someone who combines the two. 

Spirits are the source of all magical power. Before sentient organic creatures started populating the world there were incorporeal beings made of pure spiritual energy. Long before when the story started there were beings that were perfect fifty-fifty splits of organic and spiritual bodies.

Eventually over time organic lifeforms (such as humans) hunted several species of the hybrid lifeforms to be endangered and the rest extinct completely.

In present day spiritual, hybrid, and organic beings have all formed an uneasy truce, promising not to spread any more unnecessary violence. Mages work hard to both repair relationships with the other sentient beings of The Hollow as well as develop their own magical power without the aid of spirits.

One of the ways that mages can collaborate with spirits is through familiars. The term familiar is used to describe a spirit that has made a magical pact with a mage, in most cases these pacts are formed consensually however there have been instances in the past where one of the two beings involved somehow forced the pact onto the other.

It is imperative that anyone who wishes to learn any kind of magic must learn within the proper setting. Without the proper safe environment, it is possible for someone to be influenced by harmful spirits, especially if they are young, since that is when a person’s spiritual essence isn’t properly tethered to themselves.