A few in game questions

[Legate of Mineta]

Likely illegal.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are there any machines that are controlled like the Phaeacians' Ships in the Odyssey by the user's mind? Would such devices be illegal to make in the Empire of Man due to using mastery magic?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

""Machines" in the sense of complex clockworks or automata, no.  Or at least they're not publicly known.

Airships and the like, though?  There have been a few, and most of them haven't been healthy for their pilots in the long run - and they're extremely likely to end up haunted, as it happens.  That said, it's not illegal, any more than enchanted rings that respond to their wearers' wishes are illegal.  It's just one of those grey areas of enchantment magic that doesn't get heavily policed since consent seems inherent in basic function."

[Schwarzbart]

50 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

""Machines" in the sense of complex clockworks or automata, no.  Or at least they're not publicly known.

Airships and the like, though?  There have been a few, and most of them haven't been healthy for their pilots in the long run - and they're extremely likely to end up haunted, as it happens.  That said, it's not illegal, any more than enchanted rings that respond to their wearers' wishes are illegal.  It's just one of those grey areas of enchantment magic that doesn't get heavily policed since consent seems inherent in basic function."

let me guess there also some human piloted golem that use this method of control?

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

It has been known in the past, yes.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are there any mages who focus their efforts on training/educating their familiars rather than learning magic?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

It's relatively rare, but:

"In some parts of the Oncestrian north it's considered a sign of aristocratic breeding.  If you're of a magical bloodline and you don't seem to ever do anything other than talk to a hawk shaped out of lightning and stormcloud, it's interpreted as a sign that you're influential enough to have lesser wizards do the hard stuff for you.  (There's actually some indication that it traces back to nobles who were banned from using more active magics after a good round of sedition and rebellion in the 14th century and invested in their familiars as a show of increasingly spectacular defiance, but it's hard to be absolutely sure.)"

 

[Schwarzbart]

but if you focus exclusive on familiar I don't think you can stay long in Academagia, even if your a Morvidus student. You might manage to get past year 2 with be great in handling your familiar and some non / not so magical subjects but I doubt they let you pass year 3.

Hmm wait Aranaz have with history a pure non magic main subject now ... that make me wonder if there was someone already who managed to go through 4 or 5 years who can't handle the Palette - Pheme casting? (don't think it possible for the player as each skill have spells and pheme in Y1)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

From the Team:

"Nope - or, if so, it's been very effectively covered up.  Anyone who can't demonstrate at least minimal proficiency by the end of their first year is sent away for a year to be a servant (and not a servant with a lot of rights) to a garrison mage (originally a legionary mage, of course) in some frontier outpost or bandit-plagued hamlet in the middle of the frosty backside of nowhere.  They either come back capable of, at a bare minimum, magically lighting a fire or they just run away.

That's the somewhat romantic story, anyway.  It hasn't happened in a couple of decades, and in that case the exiled girl (a Lindella Giuri) had had political problems as well as magical ones; her exile might have been a pretext for getting her out of Mineta."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Did Rikildis's decision to study no pillar of magic formally during her first year raise any eyebrows, as it were?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Yes.  It didn't rise to the level of scandal, but it was the subject of her first (of many) heated conversation with von Rupprecht."

[Rhialto]

2 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

"Yes.  It didn't rise to the level of scandal, but it was the subject of her first (of many) heated conversation with von Rupprecht."

Was Rikildis's decision unprecedented at the Academagia?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"No, not at all.

In fact, Rikildis had done enough research to be able to argue that it was a minor Aranaz tradition going back to at least the early 14th century, and mentioned semi-jokingly in a 15th century biography as "the Brancaccio Stratagem."  The idea (according to Benedetto Brancaccio, a 14th century Count of Ghiera/Chiera and an Academy graduate) was that the master of each pillar in the Academy was best understood not as a teacher but as a prince in command of a particularly subtle domain - and each student was therefore a potential courtier or soldier.  It behooves the intelligent courtier to learn which court is worth joining, and to build enough of a reputation to be sought after rather than to come as an anonymous petitioner."

[Schwarzbart]

1 hour ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

"Yes.  It didn't rise to the level of scandal, but it was the subject of her first (of many) heated conversation with von Rupprecht."

It is kind of sad that such info isn't transmitted to the player when creating a character. I.e. I had not to few character that only have Enchant or Calligraphy as "magic" class skills.

Would student who can craft magic item by the end of year 1 also stopped to move on to year 2 if they  can't demonstrate a normal spell?

[Legate of Mineta]

Direct from the Team:

"The Enchantment course includes a perfectly workable introduction to pheme-and-palette magic, even if it isn't the focus.  Moreover, it's broadly assumed that the player character is already minimally proficient at the start of the first academic year; to do otherwise would've required a "Magically Unlearned" Background that would've had to be worked off - and that never appealed to us, just because it would've closed so very many adventures and random events.

It's up to the player to decide where that proficiency came from, but I'd say at a bare minimum that anyone who (presumably for astrological reasons) received an invitation to the Academy would've been directed to the nearest local magical tutor to prepare, if life hadn't already tossed a wand their way."

[Metis]

Honestly that's a difficult thing to imagine for a character who's family is Up From Destitution, among a few other scenarios/combinations. Can one assume that a PC who's a Minetan native could have picked up enough from seeing other students going about their business in the city during the various school years?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

It's not impossible, if you befriended local mages. It's a bit of training, though, so they'd need to invest time. Often, if you show potential, mages may agree to take you on as an apprentice.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are there legal spells that allow people to be guaranteed to have certain types of dreams?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"No.  There are Astrological spells that can help you learn or see things in dreams - and that's perceived as a way of petitioning the Gods for advice, and is completely okay.

But getting guaranteed dreams, let alone dreams specifically about lounging on a beach somewhere, is beyond what's considered proper magical bounds; dreams can be a medium for contact with the Gods, and it's often unhealthy to try to overwrite it. Any serious experiments on how to do it would be filed away as Mastery. That doesn't meant there aren't serious experiments. "

[Schwarzbart]

What where the spells the player was asked if (s)he can demonstrate at end of the year 1? I suspect its different depend on the class that was taken.

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

"For the essential proficiency test, if that's the question, it's no specific spell - it's just a question of whether you can sustain a reasonable stable palette and string two or more phemes together to create a magical effect relative to the class in question."

[Schwarzbart]

Is it intended that the year 2 import tool check each student if they can cast at last 1 spell? (I personal doubt it as it would mean year 2 already need to handle drop outs)

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

No, but at the end of Y2 you'll begin to see some drop outs due to this (and other reasons).

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Is Saisynian widely known in Mineta or the Empire of Man?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

No, only a few know it; scholars and traders primarily.