A few in game questions

[Legate of Mineta]

S;

Actually, the reply just in!

"Just in terms of easily accessible flora there's foxglove, there are the nightshades (Deadly Nightshade is lethal, but easily mistaken for Saints' Nightshade, a fairly gentle sedative), there's dogweed (called that because it grows low alongside certain paths, and some dogs eat it and promptly throw up), there's poison hemlock, there are robinberries.  There are many, many more - though most are more likely to make you sick than to kill you unless consumed in bulk.

And there are also unique plants that grow at sites of magical events of certain kinds.  Most of them don't have names known to anyone but the locals, but they can have some of the most disturbing effects of all.

You're right to think that taking or trading in what we'd call illegal drugs in the modern world generally isn't illegal in Mineta - unless the case can be made that they're used for blatantly criminal purposes.  If you sell a powerful opioid that's used in a murder, you can be tried as an accomplice unless you can demonstrate that you had no knowledge of the poisoner's intent and you did your best to instruct the buyer in safe use.

There are drugs that are associated with draconic cults in pop culture - kinds of scalemoss, in particular - that could get you under investigation for religious-political reasons, but that's not quite the same thing.  Getting high with them isn't the crime; attempting to commune with insidious powers is.

And there are trained apothecaries in Mineta if you know where to look, but most of them don't have great reputations.  To the common Minetan, the people who know what they're doing with drugs are generally either aristocratic alchemists or wisefolk (usually women) who live out close to nature.  What would some tradesman in a city who's never seen, like, foxbells on a forest floor know about how best to use them, right?"

[Metis]

On 2/5/2022 at 1:09 AM, Metis said:

So IIRC Y2 allows you to get a second Familiar, potentially. How all can a PC acquire a second Familiar, as in the actual animal/whatever else?

Did you miss this one, Legate ?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

Hmmm, looks like I did, but the answer is mostly [Redacted]. However, some general advice:

"You generally need to study how bonds work extensively - and then, when you're ready, you basically have to go looking for an appropriate, amenable Second.  It's not like bonding with your primary familiar, where someone will just find you (or vice versa) once you become magically active.  There's some astrology involved, as well as bond-work proper."

[Metis]

How much of that is...not "common knowledge to a layman", but if you were to ask a random person in Mineta about it how much of that advice would they know/have heard of?

[Schwarzbart]

2 hours ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Metis;

Hmmm, looks like I did, but the answer is mostly [Redacted]. However, some general advice:

"You generally need to study how bonds work extensively - and then, when you're ready, you basically have to go looking for an appropriate, amenable Second.  It's not like bonding with your primary familiar, where someone will just find you (or vice versa) once you become magically active.  There's some astrology involved, as well as bond-work proper."

2) So someone who want to focus on Familiar need to study Zoology and Astrology? What other 1st year subjects are needed for this?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

Virtually nothing, for the common layman.

Schwarzbart;

There's some things that are [Redacted] here, because there are a few ways to do it- but Astrology and Zoology are recommended.

[Schwarzbart]

Can Incantation summon creatures?

And if so can this creatures also be bound?

Spoiler

I suspect we already saw a familiar with gate origin in the secret background adventure. 

 

[Legate of Mineta]

Schwarzbart;

"As a rule, Incantation can only summon creatures indirectly - that is, while the creature is whole and real, it is also inherently unstable and unboundable.  Using magic to create or materialize stable living beings is considered Gates, regardless of the subtleties."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are alchemists allowed to prescribe medicines in Mineta? Are they often sought for medicines?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"They are absolutely allowed, and… well, at least sometimes sought out.  Alchemists are widely assumed to be more expensive than herbalists, and the fact that they don’t generally specialize in health matters (as a profession, if not as individuals) makes them seem a bit less reliable.  They’re not usually the public’s first choice.

 

But in Mineta there are some “curative alchemists” who do indeed have healthy businesses."

 

Edit:

 

"One qualification: alchemists are widely understood to be striving for the secret to immortality, and one curious effect of that is that they're much more likely to be sought out for medical assistance with problems linked to age than with problems linked to contagious disease or injury.  They're still a less popular option than herbalists, across the board, but it's a field of study where people are willing to allow that they might have some expertise."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Have any students from the Academagia (or professors!) defected to the Oursukis?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

Some students have indeed gone there for the purposes of studying magic. They are driven insane by it, so... not 'defection' per se.

[Rhialto]

37 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rhi;

Some students have indeed gone there for the purposes of studying magic. They are driven insane by it, so... not 'defection' per se.

Is such studying legal and capable of being done openly?

[Legate of Mineta]

It's legal to go there, and you could certainly declare your intent to study. It's not too likely you'd be stopped, but you might be reasoned with/imprisoned if you have family looking after you, and robbed, if you didn't.

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Is Pelia bi-cultural, or did her father assimilate into Minetan mainstream?

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: How much warning did gates mages and the broader Empire of Man have about the ban on Gates magic?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Her father went about becoming Minetan in a fairly deliberate way - the change from "Søren" to "Sereno" was indicative of a larger pattern - and Pelia herself has never really been anywhere outside the greater Minetan area when the player first meets her.  That said, she's probably at least semi-proficient in both Vilocian and the "ultra-Vilocian" dialect her father grew up with, and there were minor cultural carryovers within the home (pumpkin pie for the Fools, a loaf of rye bread on St. Roar's Day, etc.).  She would say that she doesn't know enough about her father's homeland to be bi-cultural herself, though - just a little bit eccentric by Minetan standards."

And:

"Plenty of warning, in a sense, but it still came as a surprise.

People had been talking about it for easily ten or fifteen years - and there had been previous cycles of discussion in previous centuries - but it hadn't really seemed likely, just because a lot of powerful people were pro-Gates and well-placed to keep any dramatic change from happening.  Then, over the course of about two tense weeks in Mineta, it went from mostly inconceivable to a done deal, which meant that in the periphery of the Empire there was basically no warning at all."

[Metis]

Do people remember what happened to cause so abrupt a shift in so short a time? And in either case is that something that could be discussed out in public, like the Y1 event between the mage in red and the mage in blue discuss the pros/cons of un-banning Gates?

[Legate of Mineta]

Metis;

"There answer is unknown.

There are two fairly dramatic explanatory stories, contained in "The Secret History of Neimatia" and "The Secret History of Blind Anonymous."  The former suggests that Imperial ministers looking for guidance tried to bind the spirit of a certain ancient king, and instead somehow summoned or created a living prophecy - which foretold the doom of the Empire and the passing of the reign of the New Gods - and somehow the entity was slain.

The latter is a less florid read, but some people find the gist of it - that the creation of something called the Ninefold Gate threatened the stability of the ley lines and the continued stability of all the islands of the Empire - to be compelling.

Those Students who may have contact with... other sources of information... might have been given the idea that the real problem was economic.  It was a period of frequent wars, the Imperial coffers were bled dry, and all the commerce that bypassed the ports and the great walls was essentially invisible and un-taxable; the great shipping guilds sensed an opportunity, publicized a bunch of stories over the course of several months to make Gates seem dangerous, and whispered in the ministers' ears about the financial windfall the government would receive overnight if they instituted a crackdown for the public good.

It's consistent with the surviving tax records and bookkeeping, to be sure.

Historical astrologers instead support magical catastrophe theories - the idea that something disastrous really was narrowly averted, or at least somehow contained - and that the reaction (even if it was an overreaction) was prompted by something startling and dangerous.

It's the subject of a fair amount of historical debate, and most of that debate is considered legal and legitimate (as long as you don't publish papers saying it's a great trick the Dragons played to make humanity voluntarily toss away some of its strongest defensive magics).

If you try to argue the point in a random tavern, though, you're likely to get beaten up.  And too much fascination with Gates can make one rather unpopular outside of certain academic circles..."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Are any fay opposed to humans cutting down trees or using leather? And can this opposition become violent?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"Leather is almost never a problem; the Courts are extremely hostile to hunts that cross over into their territories, but most of the great powers look at humanity's treatment of animals the way we might look at a fox's treatment of squirrels.  It may not be any fun to watch, but it's what happens.

Plus, in fairness, the Courts have carnivorous tendencies of their own.

Trees are a different matter.  Some groves are considered actively sacred, and even entering their spaces with an axe or torch in hand can lead to real unpleasantness.  Even trees that are in human spaces, though, are... well, "respected" isn't quite the right word.  The older faeries go back centuries before almost any tree you could find within fifty miles of Mineta, after all; the Green Courts are usually junior partners to the fey.  But sometimes the faeries do recognize sentience in trees; in other cases, they perceive them as a kind of emergent art.  They're not impressed when humans tear them down, and major logging enterprises tend to be perceived rather like widescale vandalism.

And, yeah, Gods help loggers who try to tear down forests with extensive faerie populations.

So, shorter version: yes, cutting down trees can get violent.  A smart woodcutter will leave offerings or find a way to ask permission before starting a serious project in lands suspected to have faeries, and if the fairies signal their displeasure they just won't proceed."

[Rhialto]

@Legate of Mineta: Do the bees in the Academagia have an actual link to mastery magic, or are they just a way through which a person with knowledge of mastery magic can gain better knowledge of mastery magic? I would think that the first option would make more sense from a story/gameplay integration standpoint, because mastery is portrayed as a secretive and forbidden art - rather undermined if anyone with knowledge of basics mastery magic can learn more by studying ordinary bees (and a method not associated with any other pillars of magic). But I ask you, motivated in part by hopes of writing a certain adventure.

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"They're normal bees, and it's a normal hive.  There are definitely places around the Academy where illegal enchantments (and life forms?) can and have been hidden, but this is very public, and given its occasionally peculiar reputation it has been checked out.

Rumors of a ghostly beekeeper who whispers invisibly into students ears, on the other hand, are unconfirmed."

[Rhialto]

6 minutes ago, Legate of Mineta said:

Rumors of a ghostly beekeeper who whispers invisibly into students ears, on the other hand, are unconfirmed."

What sorts of things does he whisper? Forbidden knowledge? Tips about handling bees? More innocent things?

[Legate of Mineta]

Rhi;

"*If* he exists, no Student has recorded what was said to them..."