Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The Center Cannot Hold: Classes 8

Being brief tonight.  The last bit on the history of classes in Crux.  Crux is the City of Curses, and sits at the center of the world of Orphos.  I created it as a dark fantasy/steampunk without the punk setting.  I currently am running a Fate Core game set in it.

Slayer: The less said about Slayers the better.  Theirs is a dark art.  Those who seek it become dark themselves, even if they struggle to keep a bit of the light within them.  Those who do know of the First Slayer, aren't willing to share that tidbit.

Summoner: Summoners came about during the Tomasi Empire.  Their Legions relied on a swift force of summoning Witches and Conjurers to surprise and reinforce them.  Summoners were outgrowth of that, Wizards who used parts of the Witches bondings rituals with greater powers, but instead directed toward another kind power: spirits of the Aether and the planes beyond.  The first Summoner was the Tomasi Empress Arlassa the Green.  Arlassa could summon forth a colossal entity from the sea, a tentacled behemoth the size of a tower.  It swallowed disobedient legions whole.  Later attempts to summon it again only would prove disasterous, and attracted the attention of Othebea and its own crusades centuries later.

In the modern era, most Summoners perform research studies for the Esoterium Machina.  They experiment with their Eidolons, sometimes developing them into useful research tools, other times making breakthroughs in containment and wards against planar entities.  In Crux, most Summoners tend to also be Ursyklons.  These Ursyklons embrace the totemic bonds with their Eidolons- they see themselves as a new generation of Ursyklons, breaking from tradition to forge a new path for their people.

There is a another kind of Summoner at the University of Crux however, ones who want to uncover Arlassa's secrets.  They see a potential in new kinds of Eidolons, perhaps ones who might help to unlock technologies and magic abandoned by Ursyklon and Aboleth millennia ago.

Witch: The first Witch was the first Wizard to admit that he had failed.  In that act of humility, Ared Silverune earned the power and patronage of Shraxes herself.  He founded the methodology of calling greater powers and asking them for power, making pacts that empowered him more than study alone.  Summoners would later use these techniques themselves, in more unique ways.

Witches cover a variety of fields.  For the Cecaelia, the Sea Witch often forms a central part of their communities.  Ice Witches in Bor help their tribes to survive harsh winters.  And of course, Tomasi Witches accelerated the fall of the Tomasi empire when they began to summon entities they could never really control.  Despite Othebea's crusades in the past against the class, secret Othebean White Witches have a tradition all their own.

In Crux, most Witches provide arcane services other spellcasters might think below them.  Weather witches provide predictions on the weather to fishermen and traders.  Bone Witches help maintain the graveyards and stamp out undead infestations as part of their service to the Church of the Black Rose.  Other witches walk the streets, selling balms and minor ailments to passersby.  Witches form a key part of the magic available to the less well off- perhaps the best known Witch in all of Crux is the Archwitch, whose Patron is the Goddess Shraxes.

Wizard: Wizards were the First Class- the first Wizard made the first choice, changing reality though that decision.  The name of the First Wizard is lost to time- Ursyklon claim that the First Wizard predates even their civilization, a being born on a world long and far away from Orphos.  But their choice still echoes in Orphos, especially in the story of First City.

First to learn the secrets of magic, Wizards on Orphos gathered to form the earliest known cities.  The Esoterium Machina refer to these forgotten cities as the Maru Civilization.  It remains unknown which of these cities was the first.  However, one of these forgotten cities remains deep underneath Crux.  The wizards of Maru Civilization practiced a cthonic form of magic, directly interfacing with the realm of pure magic known as The Aether- they had no schools of magic, only focusing on the pure mastery of becoming one with the Aether.  Only the Aether-Blooded know for sure what happened when the Maru Civilization over-reached itself and tried to infuse themselves with the Aether itself.  It didn't make them into the gods they imagined it would.  Centuries later, the first Aboleth would come to Orphos and find no cities left after the disaster that had happened.

Wizards in Crux find all sorts of roles for themselves, but measure their reputation by membership within the Esoterium Machina.  Wizards, as a whole, specialize and seek out ways to make names for themselves, through the creation of new spells or discoveries not yet known.  Several classes are in fact, born from Wizards who had succeeded at the research necessary to craft their own new paths: Magus, Summoner, Witch and others were all created by Wizards.  The urge to experiment and explore the nature of the universe through magic remains something that drives all Wizards.

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