A few in game questions

[Legate of Mineta]

Adrian;

 

They can trace Mr. X, if they are good enough investigators. It's much easier, though, if you are familiar with the person who cast the Spell to begin with.

[Adrian]

If it was a magical object, would that then hinder the scrying/tracing/... of Mr. X?

[starcrunch]

Also if one wanted to study this sort of thing what pillar would a student choose? Presumably all of them are useful in different ways but it seems like Enchantment and Astrology would be particularly well suited, especially in tandem.

[Legate of Mineta]

Adrian and Crunch;

 

It would not hinder it if it were magical, except in unusual circumstances.

 

Determining who cast a Spell is Negation, although Astrology can be effective here. Enchantment, much less so.

[freespace2dotcom]

1. What would happen if a person was found harboring a young live dragon? What if that person was a student at the Academagia?

 

2. Will cliques expand in usefulness? (say friend "X" is close with with Orsi so "X" can "borrow" a certain magical item for "XXX?")

 

3. Say, If my character was the valedictorian, and, on his graduation speech, decided to reveal to all that not only did my character become an excellent caster of all legal pilllars, but the illegal ones as well, culminating in showing everyone the key to perfectly stable Gates magic.... just how big of a crapstorm would that unleash?

[Glyndwr]

Yes, almost certainly it would be hushed up if the School discovered it. It would make sensational news if others discovered it, however.

In the Legate ousting way?

 

In both cases, though, it's likely that the punishments would be severe.

How severe are these punishments likely to be? And how likely are my hypothetical friends to report me for hypothetically teaching them hypothetical illegal magic? (Hypothetically speaking, of course. )

 

You mean, will there be special Stories or interactions between the two? It's a great and fun idea, but not overly likely due to the amount of writing.

A shame, but completely understandable. The Descended from Traitors background has always intrigued me, especially in conjunction with some of the others. And do we ever get to find out what it was that our ancestor did that was so terrible? (And why does our traitorous ancestor preclude us from being royalty, but nothing else?)

 

Hmmmm...in the countryside, omens are taken very seriously indeed. A child under that sign might be taken away from the parents and sent to the Temple, the local authorities or the Academagia. In city, there is more ready access to Astrologers who could determine the child's destiny and fate, and, more importantly, unravel it.

Would the reaction be different if a child was born in a city, or if the child was born under a "ThisChildWillDie" sign? How would an Astrologer go about unraveling a fate/destiny?

 

No, not really; at least, not legally. Since imperial times, tutoring has been a paid position, with no real bonds of loyalty.

So it would be odd if a stranger were to approach with an offer like that, I take it? Are there apprenticeships amongst not mages, or do children stay with their parents to learn their craft, or are there other arrangements?

 

Was the study of Mastery (and Gates) restricted to its respective college, or was an ethics course required for any student who studied it?

 

With Mastery, could I command someone to do something they didn't know how to do, but I did (like tying a certain kind of knot)? Would it increase in difficulty the more complex or time-consuming the task was?

 

What would happen to a student that turned up with an eldritch abomination or other [insert Obviously Gates Summoned Creature Here] as a familiar?

 

Can dragons shapeshift?

 

Are there colleges that certain parents would discourage their children from entering? What would their reasoning be?

[Legate of Mineta]

Glyn;

 

In the Legate ousting way?

 

Almost certainly.

 

 

How severe are these punishments likely to be? And how likely are my hypothetical friends to report me for hypothetically teaching them hypothetical illegal magic? (Hypothetically speaking, of course. )

 

You, and your friends, would likely be cloistered, hypothetically. As to the likelihood of reporting you, that depends on the person!

 

 

A shame, but completely understandable. The Descended from Traitors background has always intrigued me, especially in conjunction with some of the others. And do we ever get to find out what it was that our ancestor did that was so terrible? (And why does our traitorous ancestor preclude us from being royalty, but nothing else?)

 

Nope, that's all up to you! I'm not sure why it precludes you, other than if it were royalty, there would likely be some whitewash on the offense.

 

Would the reaction be different if a child was born in a city, or if the child was born under a "ThisChildWillDie" sign? How would an Astrologer go about unraveling a fate/destiny?

 

The reaction would depend on the authorities involve, I would say. As to unraveling, you'll find out.

 

So it would be odd if a stranger were to approach with an offer like that, I take it? Are there apprenticeships amongst not mages, or do children stay with their parents to learn their craft, or are there other arrangements?

 

It would be unlikely, although not perhaps strange- those kinds of apprenticeships, involving board and other expenses, are common outside of mages.

 

Was the study of Mastery (and Gates) restricted to its respective college, or was an ethics course required for any student who studied it?

 

They were not restricted, but Ethics is required for every College, as you'll see.

 

With Mastery, could I command someone to do something they didn't know how to do, but I did (like tying a certain kind of knot)? Would it increase in difficulty the more complex or time-consuming the task was?

 

Yes, but it's much more complex (and risky to the caster.)

 

What would happen to a student that turned up with an eldritch abomination or other [insert Obviously Gates Summoned Creature Here] as a familiar?

 

Is it dangerous? If no, probably nothing. If yes, they would be investigated.

 

Can dragons shapeshift?

 

They aren't telling.

 

Are there colleges that certain parents would discourage their children from entering? What would their reasoning be?

 

It just depends on the parent. Some like a certain philosophy, or style of magic, and so on.

 

For Freespace:

 

1. What would happen if a person was found harboring a young live dragon? What if that person was a student at the Academagia?

 

The Dragon would be killed, probably the person harboring it, too. Affiliation with the Academagia would unlikely be a factor.

 

2. Will cliques expand in usefulness? (say friend "X" is close with with Orsi so "X" can "borrow" a certain magical item for "XXX?")

 

Instructors won't be in your Cliques, so in that regard, no.

 

3. Say, If my character was the valedictorian, and, on his graduation speech, decided to reveal to all that not only did my character become an excellent caster of all legal pilllars, but the illegal ones as well, culminating in showing everyone the key to perfectly stable Gates magic.... just how big of a crapstorm would that unleash?

 

Huge!

[Schwarzbart]

Now after the public demonstration for Gate Magic you best use it to escape afterwards and then try to get a new Face and a new name

[Legate of Mineta]

What Schwarzbart said.

[freespace2dotcom]

*takes notes*

[MadHatt]

Any spell equivalent of Mark and Recall (for those with knowledge of Morrowind) or some sort of point in one dimension to which we can easily teleport to? In case freespace ousts us all and we need a quick getaway.

 

Can we make friends with a gated creature that can come and visit? What would be the general reaction to wandering about Mineta with a jelly cube/beholder/darkspawn ?

 

Any slight chance of us learning Ogrish/Giantish/Draconic/Fairy language next year? Why learn something like Merilien when you can suddenly chat with ogres?

[Legate of Mineta]

Mad;

 

No, at least, not to the knowledge of Elumian mages.

 

Yes, you can make 'friends', but...

 

I don't think you'll see any of those, except perhaps Draconic.

[Adrian]

problems are that ogres tend to have even less centralized languages than humans... damn ogres

 

 

Are... [insert name of that lighter-tan-air wood's name here] wood a light or dark colour wood?

[Legate of Mineta]

Volnauge? It's light.

[Leoshi]

A question on gates and yes, I have fallen to the dark side.

 

Is the school warded against it or do they have a silent alarm in place?

 

Is there a translator spell? Wouldn't it be easy than learning the languages? And the fact that we could talk to animals?

 

Are there sugar canes in Elumia? Or imported from somewhere? I would like to chew on one.

 

Are students allowed facial hair? I have a feeling some of the seniors would like to make themselves look Ezio-like.

 

And to MadHatt;

 

I shall now refer to you as Muthsera.

[Legate of Mineta]

MadHatt is clearly an Imperial outlander.

 

The Academagia is not warded, but who can say if there is a silent alarm...

 

There are translator spells, and yes, they are absolutely easier than learning a language- but, leaving aside the problem of duration, they do not always translate slang or dialects well, and of course, only mages have them.

 

Sugar cane is unknown in Mineta (but sugar is known, imported), and I would like to chew on one too. Thankfully, there is chocolate.

 

Students *are* allowed facial hair, but *not* assassin outfits.

[Leoshi]

Translators for hire! 100 Pims an hour! Talk to anyone or indeed anything! With no fear of saying "I have eels in my pants" when trying to court that lovely girl/boy, take a chance with Adrian and Adrianna's translator service today!

 

*Not 100% guaranteed to translate all languages whether spoken or hinted*

 

And who said these are assassin outfits?! This is the latest trend for those of us who like to look awesome!

 

[MadHatt]

Haha! I am flattered.

 

So translator spells are basically...Google Translate inside your head? That's...not as useful as I thought they might be.

 

So not assassin outfits....climbing walls and falling into hay are out too, I'm guessing? Dammit, everything fun is forbidden.

 

I've been meaning to ask: what happens when you get cloistered? Is it really being cloistered or is it a small dungeon-like cell that's just called that. Because, I don't see how that would work in the long run...even if they remove your wand, you still have your fingers. You could grab a stick. If you're powerful enough and the others don't know it, you could be out of there before they could tell. So ..any special precautions/guards/magic exploding collars?

[Legate of Mineta]

MadHatt;

 

No one really knows. You are sent to the monks...and that's that.

[freespace2dotcom]

In future years, I know illegal magic will eventually bring the death penalty, but will our characters also have the chance to get cloistered?

 

Rather than a single "game over" I'd think that multiple bad endings would also be pretty cool.

 

Also, in future years, will our characters face life-or-death situations regardless of gates/mastery usage? While some adventures in Y1 did feel quite dangerous (The Mastery book adventure comes to mind.) I don't think any were of the "you fail you DIE" type.

 

Edit: I was lurking on some of the older threads, which is always fun.. anyway, one of them was a reference to a certain review of the game, and the manual was brought up, which got me to actually bother reading it.

 

Anyway, I bring up an exerpt:

 

Exploring, basically, sends your character out to try to discover a hidden location in one of five regions: the Academagia, the Academagia Grounds, the nearby City of Mineta, the Imperial Reserve, and elsewhere on the Island of Elumia

 

Now, I thought that that name referred to the island chain that was part of the empire...?

 

Also, Nyaa, I know you're reading this, so I'll let you know that some links on your world of academagia thread are 404'd. (some of the "early UI concepts" on deviantart)

Edited September 11, 2012 by freespace2dotcom

[Glyndwr]

What would happen to a student that turned up with an eldritch abomination or other [insert Obviously Gates Summoned Creature Here] as a familiar?

 

Is it dangerous? If no, probably nothing. If yes, they would be investigated.

 

Now I just need to figure how to get an eldritch abomination as a familiar.... Not that I would ever, ever even think about using Gates magic.

 

 

What does it feel like when a familiar dies? How bad is it considered for a mage to kill another mage's familiar (or does it just not happen)? Would the same hold true for a non-mage?

 

If someone cast, say, a Mastery spell, and then someone else cast a Mastery spell on them, would the person sent to track the Master-using person(s) be able to tell?

 

Also, is cloistering considered a worse punishment than imprisonment? Are executions held publicly?

 

If they did find out about somewhere like the Schohanwicht School was discovered and destroyed, I'd assume they would try and track down any potential alumni, but how would they go about tracking them down? And who would be involved in the destruction of the school?

 

What would the Academagia do with a student who sincerely believed they were, in fact, a dragon?

 

Is there a such a thing as a ghost ship, with or without actual ghosts?

[Schwarzbart]

I suggest you try to get a Bat Familiar and play the Bound Adventure then you see that the health of your Familiar have a very big effect on you as long the familiar is bound to you.

[freespace2dotcom]

1. Can mages get into trouble by inaction in certain circumstances?

 

2. In the most recent preban era, was Mastery and/or gates usage restricted? If so, what were some of them? ie. no first years could be a part of Kasus, you needed some written permission to learn it, etc. I ask because I think that this information would be a critical piece of info on the mindset of people in the current era, even if, as you note Legate, it probably didn't work so well.....

 

3. What would the difficulty rating be on creating temporary "copies" of yourself? I'm thinking "Kage bunshin no jutsu" from Naruto...

 

4. Given that non-mages can use artifacts so long as they're "on" I ask if there wouldn't be any armies that would have weapons and armor that would be "toggled" by a few mages before battles as opposed to something always on?

 

5. What would happen if a retainer of a dragon fled/defected to Elumia? Is that even likely?

 

6. What was the critera for a preban wizard to be forbidden to take on an apprentice? I ask because even though most wizards focus on 1 pillar, I imagine that there would be more than a few notable mages in that time who were very well known for mastering let's say Incantation, but still could Gate stuff. Would said wizard be forbidden from apprenticing someone just because of that?

[Adrian]

Freespace; 3) How many people are you willing to sacrifice for parts for this spell?

[freespace2dotcom]

fufufufu... It's a secret!

 

 

(Incantation. Not revising others silly!!!)