To Live in Magical Times (Pathfinder/Rwby)

Unused Dormitory, Beacon Academy

Awakening to find yourself in a bed and in an unfamiliar room was briefly disorienting. You didn't recognise the strange lanterns embedded in the ceiling or the stranger in the other bed.

For a moment your brain insists that this is the dream, that you just need to lie back down and forget yesterday so you can get back to tracking down Fethrymil's notes on purifying demonic ritual sites.

But then Amber mumbles something about painting trees and it all comes back to you.

You and Amber were led here last night by Ozpin's second in command, a woman named Glynda. Apparently she isn't a spellcaster but Amber said her mastery of dust and telekinesis would easily let her fake it.
You don't believe there's much of a distinction to be made, but you've heard people say the same thing about wizards and sorcerers so you probably just don't know enough.

You change into your spare clothes as you start to plan for the day - you'll need to get access to the academy's library so you can start learning about Remnant. You need to know more about the world - its people, its history and its technology would be the best starting point.

Once you have access secured you'll be able to get what you need to start teaching Amber - a glance at the empty desk reveals no paper, parchment or ink for you to use. You'll need those for her to take notes of course, but just describing the basics of planar metaphysics was a hundred times easier with diagrams. Even if they were inherently inaccurate.

You'll also want to show her how your magic works so she can understand the difference in your approaches - you're pretty sure she's using primal magic instead of arcane, meaning that even if your initial guess is right and she's just doing almost everything wrong you won't be able to just teach her to mimic how you cast and be done with the matter.

And if you're wrong then she'll be able to explain why your methods don't work for her and start writing it all down so no one else winds up in this position.

Once night falls you'll be able to get a proper look at the stars. Intellectually you know there's no way any constellation known on Golarion would be visible from another world but you still half expect to see the Stair of Stars leading to Cynosure like it always has.

You'll also need books on the stars from the library but you'll leave that for after the history books. Seeing the stars yourself and hearing what Amber knows is a better way to learn the most important stories, the ones that have endured the ages.

You write down your plans in your journal, only briefly debating if you should finally take Fethrymil's advice and start writing everything in a cipher. A glance at the strange glyph on the front of your spellbook is all you need to know there's no need.

You're the only person on the planet who can read Hallit and there's far too much for you to do to even start considering changing that for months, if not years.

Your spellbook is at even less risk, written as it is in Fethrymil's constant mixing of elven and the three thassilonian runic alphabets and your own combination of hallit, celestial, elven and thassilonian that lets you best describe the workings of magic to yourself.

Eventually Amber stirs and rises, greeting the morning with all the grace you'd expect from an astronomer and not properly acknowledging you until after venturing through a door you'd assumed led to another bedroom and instead concealed an absurdly large closet.

Towels in hand Amber stares at you, seemingly as confused by the contents of your pack scattered across your bed and the books in your hands as you are by this school.

"Good morning." You say when it becomes clear Amber isn't going to say anything.

"Morning. What're you doing?" She asks, mumbling every single word.

"I was going to prepare my spells for the day but I don't yet know what I'll be doing today." You respond, trapped by the wizard's eternal dilemma. "If you're heading to the baths I'll join you since I don't know where anything is here."

"Baths?" Amber asks, apparently stunned by the question. "Gross, no. I'm going to take a shower."

"The contraptions with buckets of boiling water?" You ask, briefly reminded of Fethrymil's eternal complaints about everyone else living at Pulura's Falls. "If that's what is on offer I think I'll make do with a bucket and cloth."

"Why would there be buckets?" Amber asks, sharing your look of bewilderment. "Just. Just follow me."

You let her lead you down the halls, still not sure what was happening here. Surely if she needed it Amber would've bathed the night before.

=================================

After a thorough explanation and demonstration of the wonders of plumbing and the dire consequences of neglecting hygiene - especially for your teeth - and a subsequent detour to secure breakfast from one of the teachers, an older man named Port who manages to resemble every Taldan professor of military history that somehow made the transition to army officer and back without missing a step or syllable in their endless lectures, you return to your assigned room ready for answers.

Amber consults a rectangle of glowing glass before saying you need to stay where you are for now, leaving you to be amazed by the breakfast given to you.

Instead of a hunk of bread and draught of water or distressingly watery porridge you've been provided with an abundance of eggs, meat and fruit, along with a hot drink seemingly made from dirt and some bitter tasting seed.

"You don't need to finish the coffee if you don't like it." Amber says after your third attempt at stomaching the drink.

"I refuse to let this go to waste." You respond before retrieving a blank piece of parchment from your bag. "Now I have a few questions about your magic I need answered before I can start teaching you."

"Ask away." Amber says with a sweeping gesture.

"When you draw on your magic does it come from within or without?" You ask, only to realise a separate question you'll need to answer. "Actually, how does your magic interact with your aura? Do they both draw from the same well?"

"I think my magic comes from within." Amber says after a moment of thought. "And it doesn't seem to interact with my aura at all. I can keep using it even if my aura's broken."

"How do you repair a broken aura?" You ask as you write this down.

"When you run out of aura in a fight the protection breaks in a flash of visible light. Makes it really obvious that you're vulnerable." Amber explains. "It regenerates if you're calm and not using it, which is nearly impossible during a fight."

"When I saw you use your magic your eyes glowed and you rose into the air before making things happen with a gesture - is that how it always works? Can you conjure lightning from your hand instead of summoning it from the sky? Can you make the earth shake or plants grow, or are you restricted to wind, lightning and fire?" You ask.

"My eyes always glow when I use magic and no I don't have to fly. I've never really tried to do anything without some sort of gesture. It doesn't feel right. I can shoot lightning from my hands but it's weaker if I don't pull it from the sky - it's also way easier to do something with water or fire if it's raining or I'm next to a bonfire or something. I can do things with rocks and the earth but it's harder than the other elements and I've never done anything with plants." Amber explains.

You quickly mark some of your previous speculation as right or wrong - Amber uses somatic components much like a sorcerer does but no verbal components. She sounds like a typical elementalist instead of a druid since she can't do anything with plants.

"When you create a gust of wind compared to a really strong blast is there any meaningful difference beyond putting more power into the wind?" You ask.

"I don't think so? I just think of wind and focus on it and get the wind I want." Amber says, sounding a little uncertain.

"The magical effects you produce are indiscrete." You say, realising you might need to explain the question as you write.

"For me Gale Blast and Gust of Wind are two different spells. Gale Blast makes wind swirl around me to push people away while Gust of Wind creates a violent stream of air that sends things flying in a single direction. I can only cast the spell I prepare - no matter what I do I can't make Gale Blast act like Gust of Wind or produce any effect except the one it was designed to produce."

"That sounds really limiting." Amber says.

"That's how magic works. Every caster on Golarion casts spells like that, except maybe the psychics. I was never clear on how that works." You say. "Stepping away from you for a moment - what are the greatest feats of any maiden you know of?"

"If you believe the fairy tale they could apparently end droughts, dissipate hurricanes and turn deserts green but I don't know if that was real." Amber says.

"One of the hazards of letting history become stories." You say, dismissing the issue. Reviewing your notes a new question occurs. "Wait, magic doesn't use aura - do you have spell slots? Or can you just use magic all day without issue?"

"I get tired and have to stop after a while." Amber says. "What are spell slots?"

"A magician can only cast so many spells in a day, depending on their mastery of magic and the potential energies of their soul. A spell slot is an abstraction, a way to divide the potential energies of your soul so you don't hurt yourself trying to prepare a spell you won't be able to cast." You explain.

"I can hold five cantrips and three spells in my mind, ready to cast. I prepare these eight spells each day, leaving a minor amount of arcane potential unused. As I continue to use my magic and learn about the arcane I will be able to use the unused energy to prepare additional spells."

"That's really complicated." Amber says, looking overwhelmed.

"It took me a year of study to be able to cast Gale Blast for the first time. For most people magic isn't something you wake up with, it's the result of hard work." You say.

"But plenty have some form of innate magic - some draw on an inherited bloodline, some are cursed with divine power, some forge a bond with a magical being and some turn a mastery of music, poetry and story into magic."

You fall silent as Amber's discarded rectangle lights up and begins to angrily buzz.

"What is that?" You ask as Amber grabs it.

"It's my scroll." Amber says. Instead of letting you ask why anyone would write on a tiny piece of glass she keeps talking. "Glynda says we can use all the facilities of this dorm including the courtyard but we need to stay inside so people don't notice us."

"A scroll is a rolled piece of paper or parchment for writing upon. What is that and how are you talking to Glynda with it?" You ask.

"It's a little portable computer you can use to talk to people who aren't in front of you." Amber says, as if that explains everything.

"It's a device that solves mathematical equations and lets you cast Sending?" You say, hoping she explains more.

"Kind of? A computer is a machine that does a lot of maths to do a bunch of other stuff - send messages to other people, take pictures, play music, look things up on the internet. A scroll is a portable computer, called that because the first models came with styluses and they collapse." She says, demonstrating by squeezing the glass into a much thinner rectangle.

"I'm going to need books that explain this stuff." You say, not sure how any one thing can do all that.

"Sure, I'll ask Glynda to send us some. And a scroll you can use." Amber says as she opens the scroll back up and starts poking at it.

"I don't think I could possibly pay for something like that." You say, thinking of the coin you've still got from serving in the crusade - 15 gold pieces, 33 silver pieces and a handful of copper.

"Don't worry about it, the school buys them in bulk. Scrolls are an integral part of the huntsman's arsenal and students break them all the time." Amber says dismissively.

Only then do you realise. Beacon is a school for nobles and royalty. No wonder Amber was left to learn on her own - she's just a farmer who lucked into magic.

"I also need books on history and the stars." You add, realising Amber isn't waiting to send your request to Glynda.

=================================

The scroll you're sent is more than twice as long as Amber's but otherwise identical. It opens when you touch the central diamond and prompts you to answer its questions, leading you to collapse it and put it aside for now.

The books provided are much more useful - it doesn't take much digging to find a description of Dust - crystals that hold immense elemental energies and are used to fuel the technology of Remnant. The flameless lanterns are powered by lightning produced by dust, vehicles burn a mix of fire and wind dust aptly named 'burn dust' to move without horses, airships use gravity dust to float and guns use dust to produce explosions to propel their bullets.

Apparently Dust was first discovered millennia ago and was key to humanity first managing to start driving the grimm back, with the kingdoms today covering more land than ever because of humanity's mastery of the substance.

Your immediate conclusion is that dust is magic, an idea you can't disprove with the books available to you. You know elementals can be bound in gems so they can be released whenever desired, which implies general elemental energy could be as well.

You also spot something a few of the books hint at, something that Edrekk once told you when explaining mining - much like iron and gold, there's only so much dust on the planet and the supply will someday run out. Something you're pretty sure Remnant will manage to do long before Golarion manages to run out metal ores with how much of the stuff they apparently mine.

Beyond your thoughts on using dust to enhance your spells or weapon, like nearly every warrior on Remnant does, you find the most fascinating aspect of Dust to be how new forms of dust can be created by mixing other forms of powdered dust together.

Once you satisfy your questions about dust you turn to technology - much of it seems beyond you but you settle for learning what everything is even if you don't understand how or why it works.

Even then the applications of technology seem endless. You spend most of a day trying to understand the different machines that can be used to cook things before giving up on the microwave before deciding to focus on what you've already encountered and what you think will actually be relevant in the future.

The global network of computers that is the internet, the art of capturing image and sound to make movies, the aerodynamics of flying vehicles, the evolution of weapons and armour over time, advances in medicine and more catch your interest.

Mechashift weapons are the most interesting - a combination of ranged and melee weapons that don't just make it easy to carry both at once and switch between the two options smoothly but also enable combining the two.

Amber shows you a memorable video of a girl with an explosive hammer destroying a watermelon for reasons that escape you, but you can still appreciate the weapon. There are spells you could use to emulate the effect, but there's no magic involved here beyond dust.

Sadly you can't afford to focus solely on new ways to destroy your enemies. You spend just as much time on the history of Remnant - the four kingdoms plus Menagerie, the kingdom that isn't despite being settled after the kingdoms stopped having kings.

The kingdom you are in now is Vale, historically covered most of the valley that Beacon stands above, avoiding the surrounding forests and mountains and periodically dealing with the grimm that thought nothing of jumping off of the cliffs to get at the people below.

Despite that the modern kingdom is named for the vast plains on the northern part of its coastline - a breadbasket repeatedly settled by expeditions from Vale the nearby Vytal Island and eventually Mistral, as hordes of grimm inevitably rose up and destroyed any settlement that neglected their own defences.

Vytal itself was a spiritual centre for several of Remnant's religions, becoming the focus for many religious wars termed crusades over the years. The thought is more than a little disturbing to you considering no one ever declared a crusade against the grimm, a foe that all could agree upon, but you'll leave that for after you've learned about what people believe here.

Vacuo is the other kingdom on the continent of Sanus, for some reason centred in a vast desert rather than the tropical jungles that can be found to the north or the mountains to the east - a riddle that is answered when you delve deeper.

Vacuo only began to develop a shared culture 1000 years ago when Malik the Sunderer united the nomadic desert tribes, the oasis cities, the northern jungle tribe, the southern steppe nomads and the eastern mountain clans under his rule, leveraging a sudden flood that linked the great oases of the Bereha Desert to the sea to bring food and plenty to his people.

Yet that unity is now forgotten, the oases dry and the desert cities abandoned after the dust that allowed them to exist was mined out and the pollution left to taint whatever remained. This all happened despite Vacuo being one of the winners of the Great War and the mining primarily being performed by Atlas.

You're not sure why or how that could ever be allowed to happen as you silently wish you'd gotten to see the desert when it was green and bountiful. You've never seen a desert before but one desolate wasteland dotted with ruins is the same as any other.

To the east is the kingdom of Mistral, historically a loose confederation of city states that were eternally fighting with each other. The kingdom first united under an Emperor in response to an invasion from Vale, only to repeatedly fragment and reunite again and again over the centuries.

Apparently it competes with Vale for the most populated kingdom, hampered mostly by the extensive criminal networks that claim to rule its minor city states and the fact that many more towns and villages declare independence from the kingdom than any of the other four, making counting their population difficult both logistically and politically.

The icy kingdom to the north is Atlas, one known as Mantle. An icy place defined by most of its history by only having a few fortified cities in the mountains, protected from the grimm by the climate and taking advantage of the relative freedom to farm every scrap of arable land available.

The books praise Mantle's early embracing of democracy and equality while barely mentioning a slave based economy, a situation that makes you think first of Cheliax, a comparison that doesn't fade as you learn about how the grimm's eventual adaption to the cold forced the people of Mantle into cramped quarters in their fortress cities and led to an embracing of tyranny that led directly to the Great War.

You don't really understand how there were only four nations or why they were so eager to go to war when so much of the world was only occupied by the grimm, but the results are obvious. A brutal war that saw fighting in every kingdom and the grimm constantly assaulting any front neglected by its defenders, eventually ended by a warrior king who refused to rule directly, instead instating democratic councils that spent years as nothing more than his mouthpiece before rediscovering conflict and whole new forms of petty politics when the king died.

Perhaps that's an unfair assessment - the king did end slavery and try to get the faunus treated as equals. But it couldn't be more clear that he failed when his grand gift was a continent so unwelcoming that Mistral and Mantle were willing to go to war instead of settle it.

The history of the faunus is the topic of a single book, but you saw mention of them everywhere. Almost always they were a despised minority, a perpetual underclass pigeonholed into the jobs that no one else wanted. It reminds you of tieflings, orcs, goblins, even halflings when you look at Cheliax - but there's no sensible justification for the hate.

There's no historical war where the faunus did unspeakable evils to humans. No myths claiming that they're responsible for all evil acts or even stories about how they were in the way of something the gods gifted humanity. Just a persistent dislike for people that're a little different while ignoring the obvious and ever pressing threat.

The Faunus Rights Revolution makes sense at least. Rebellion is the only sensible response to slavery and after the Great War got humans and faunus used to fighting side by side it was the perfect time to act. You're not sure why the book depicts the war as one of two sides, considering each kingdom must have had its own reaction to the Revolution, but you'll need to look up more about that later.

The establishment of the Huntsman Academies is a complete afterthought in the books you have, leaving uncertain as to how important Beacon Academy was - apparently the Headmaster was part of the ruling council of Vale so it must be a vital part of the kingdom's defences. But huntsmen aren't considered to be loyal to any kingdom and are encouraged to travel - but they can't all be knights errant.

No noble would allow their children to dedicate themselves so totally to the defence and fortune of others and ignore the lands that give them the wealth needed for their arms and armour, right?

=================================

Dormitory Roof, Beacon Academy
Midnight

"I spent years thinking the priests were inventing things to be angry about." You confess, furiously pacing back and forth in an attempt to keep control.

"That if a bonfire or particularly bright lantern was somehow posing a problem you'd need to spend ten minutes walking or put the damn thing out to fix the problem. Only now do I understand the depths of blasphemy that people allow when ignorance is permitted to thrive."

"Don't you think you're overreacting?" Amber asks, not bothering to hide her amusement at your plight.

"Overreacting? The skies should be full of stars! A great wash of light and colour that can teach us the wisdom of the past and guide us as we travel! But because people are afraid of the dark I can barely make out the pole stars!" You continue ranting, punctuating your point by pointing at the pathetically empty night sky and the unpleasant glow of the city.

"This can't be necessary. No wonder humans were so easily defeated by the night vision of the faunus when this is what they consider to be an acceptable level of darkness."

"I know. You said this last night. And the night before. And the night before that." Amber says placatingly.

"Why are we up here then? I checked, astronomy compensates for this by going far far away and living with the danger." You ask irritably.

"Because I want to awaken your aura and thought this would be the most appropriate place." She says with a grin.

You look up at the shattered moon and the stars you know are there.

"Good enough." You decide. "Is awakening someone's aura normally a ceremonial occasion?"

"Not really, no. Directly awakening someone else's aura isn't something that's really done outside of war, since you have to use your own aura to do it and can make it really hard for them to figure out their semblance." Amber says evasively.

"How is aura normally activated then?" You ask.

"It just happens on its own when you do enough meditation and exercise. Or you somehow activate your semblance by pure chance, but that's impossible to do on purpose because you can't know what your semblance is until you've used it once." Amber says.

"And that isn't an option because?" You ask, certain you can handle whatever exercise regime she could throw at you.

"Because you should have done it years ago? And because you're from another world and might not be able to activate your aura normally." Amber says.

You stop pacing and crouch down, having vented your frustration by now.

"What are you doing?" Amber asks.

"You said I'd need to meditate." You say.

Amber just sighs and pulls you up, placing her hand on her shoulder and looking you in the eyes.

"There's like four different poems I'm supposed to say here but I don't really remember them?" She says. "So just pretend I said something profound."

"In a thousand years we'll both be dead." You say, remembering something Hengrei said when you'd asked about his previous summoners. "But here and now we are alive. Until the last echoes of our existence fade from the world, we shall remain."

You feel something in you shift, a sudden surge of warmth that starts in your chest and swiftly spreads across your body. A soft blue glow briefly envelops you, only to fade as Amber steps away and sags from sudden exhaustion.

"Is that it?" You ask, trying to figure out how to bring the light back.

"How high can you jump? Just straight up in the air, no run up or anything?" Amber asks.

"Without using my wings? 6, maybe 7 feet." You guess.

"Try it." She says with an expectant grin.

You oblige, crouching and leaping into the air without beating your wings. To your surprise you rise far higher than you expected, overbalancing and falling when you hit the ground.

"That was easily 20 feet." Amber says, looking smugly satisfied.

"It's that easy?" You ask with surprise.

You don't bother waiting for an answer, instead sprinting for the edge of the roof. This time when you jump you rise even higher, catching a sudden updraft with your wings and soaring until you're level with the central tower of Beacon.

For a moment you glide beneath the moon before diving straight for the roof, letting gravity accelerate you until you hit the roof with what easily could've been a punch that cratered the stone even without a spell to add to it. And you're utterly unharmed.

"If anything breaks I'm blaming you." Amber says as she stares at you.

"I'd fix it myself." You say, realising you should really decrypt Fethrymil's notes on the Mending spell.

"Where is Bella anyway? We should see if her aura awakened when yours did or if I need to do that separately." Amber asks.

You glare at her for this unexpected lapse in experimental procedure.

"We shouldn't have done this unless she was here." You say. "But I don't know, probably halfway up a tree and trying to steal eggs from an owl or something."

=================================

The astronomy books you've been provided with are more focused on the characteristics of stars - how they form, their brightness and when they're visible. Constellations are mentioned primarily as ways to contextualise the star's locations - utterly fascinating but not at all what you were looking for.

Eventually Amber finds you getting frustrated at another description of how galaxies form and directs you to astrology, an entirely different field of study still fundamentally about watching the stars. Except it's considered pseudoscience because 'stars can't have any effect on human activities'.

Adding books on astrology and mythology to your studies gives you the answers you need - the northern hemisphere traditionally recognises 6 constellations of grimm as their zodiac, a construct similar to the Cosmic Caravan you know, though with 6 constellations instead of 13.

Each grimm constellation represents a particularly ancient and powerful grimm that once menaced the world and is associated with one or two other minor constellations, generally representing the grimm's downfall.

The Nuckelavee rules the skies in January and February, a strange grimm that is both horse and rider. On Golarion there is a fey with the same name, known for its flayed appearance and its protection of its polluted home. The constellation represents an ancient grimm creatively known as the Horned Rider, a monster that would seek out the knights in charge of protecting Valean settlements and murder them in open battle, usually in full view of those the knight. Its downfall came when it stepped upon a serpent mid battle, suffering a venomous bite that caused it to perish moments after slaying the knight.

With the coming of Spring rises the Cenitaur, a bizarre bloated centipede thing capable of spitting acid and you suspect exploding on defeat. The first cenitaur was apparently large enough to blot out the sun, a monster that burrowed deep beneath Vacuo and periodically emerged to drag settlements beneath the sands. Its demise came at the hands of an ancient hunter (not huntsmen you note) that trained his hounds to burrow and track the monster through its tunnels, eventually slaying the creature in an extended battle that collapsed the tunnels and drowned the cenitaur in an oasis.

Next is the Sabyr, a mighty cat known for being one the first grimm to adapt to the frozen landscape of ancient Mantle. It hunted any who dared to leave the protection of the cities, cutting off trade and ensuring those it couldn't reach would starve. Until a strapping Mistralian lad named Irakles met it on the road, wrestled it to the ground and snapped its neck before continuing on his journey which is apparently known by all except you, though you do find a reference to him as the 'greatest gladiator' to ever live.

The draconic wyvern dominates July and August, supposedly the largest and most powerful of all flying grimm and so rare that some doubt any ever existed. It supposedly made its lair on Menagerie and menaced each kingdom in turn.
Its doom came when a wise woman tracked its comings and goings, deducing where its lair was hidden and paying for a ship to sail into the unknown when no other would listen. There the knights that accompanied the woman found the slumbering wyvern, setting upon it and eventually slaying it, despite all but one dying.

When Fall claims the world it is followed by the Feilong, a draconic sea serpent capable of flight and spitting lightning. According to myth the first Feilong was born from the dying curse of the first Wyvern, a dread beast that sank the ship of the wise woman and victorious knight as they returned to their home and remained as a barrier to any other that dared to brave the sea.
Eventually a Mistralian city decided to placate the beast by feeding it, chaining their princess to the rocky shore and leaving her to be devoured. Of course that didn't come to pass because a monster hunter heard of the city's plight and waited for the Feilong to strike, hiding from even the princess. The man redirected the lightning breath back into the grimm and slew it in a single strike, before freeing the princess and taking her with him, for she had been abandoned by her people.

Finally there is Monstra, a hideous flying whale that swallows airships whole and regurgitates grimm, always accompanied by a flock of flying grimm. Its hunger was its downfall, for a cunning man flew his airship into the beast's gullet. From there he fought his way through its guts, escaping by eventually cutting through its eye moments before the lightning dust he'd filled the ship with had detonated, cooking the grimm from the inside out with the intensity of a thousand thunderstorms.

That made fourteen constellations if you counted them yourself, six terrifying monsters and eight testaments to how they could be slain by guile, strength, determination and luck.
Sadly the only constellation you can see above Vale is that of Irakles, raising his arms in triumph.


=================================

Unused Dormitory, Beacon Academy

Fortunately for you, Beacon's dormitories are as extravagant and expensive as everything else. This means that the common area includes a full kitchen, a giant scroll so everyone can watch something at once, an absurd amount of new furniture and most importantly, a white board.

Which was like a sheet of slate and chalk but better in every possible way.

This is where you've set up to begin Amber's education on all things magical.

Because you've had the time to draw the multiverse in all its glory. Now you're not the best artist, but this was really just a series of circles with different colours and a lot of labels, so there shouldn't be any issues.


"This is the universe." You say, pointing at the circle containing your rendition of a spiral galaxy.

"Everything that you have ever known, everything you have ever seen. Remnant, Golarion, Ert. Every inhabited world, every star in the sky. A boundless expanse of wonder and potential, so big it would take you a thousand lifetimes to explore. The Material Plane. And it is just a tiny fragment of the greater whole.

"At the centre of every star is a portal to the Positive Energy Plane. At the heart of every blackhole, a portal to the Negative Energy Plane. And the four elemental planes are wrapped around the universe like a great impossible onion. With Air closest to the Material and Fire burning on the outside.

"Together those planes all form what is known as the Inner Sphere of the multiverse. Surrounding the Inner Sphere is the Astral plane, which also holds the nine Outer Planes.

"Here you can see Pharasma's Spire rising towards the Inner Sphere. Atop the spire is the Boneyards, where all mortal souls go after death and are judged. At the base of the Spire is Axis, a vast city of absolute law.

"Next we have what are called the Upper Planes, though geographical terms are relative at best. Elysium, Nirvana and Heaven, paradises for the souls of the just. We also have the Lower Planes, the final destinations for those with naught but evil in their hearts. Hell, home to devils and tyranny. Abbadon, home to daemons and annihilation. And the Abyss, home the demons and corruption.

"The Abyss is different to the other planes of the Outer Sphere. It is more like the last of the planes, the Maelstrom. Both are vast, infinite expanses of chaotic quintessence, permeating the Astral Plane and ultimately surrounding the Outer Sphere. The Abyss began as a corruption of the Maelstrom and is still found within it.

"Finally we have the transitive planes, which is to say the stuff between all the other stuff. I mentioned the Astral already, leaving the Ethereal, the Shadow and technically the First World.

"The Ethereal Plane is essentially the same as the Astral, except it exists between the Inner Planes instead of the Outer Planes. The Shadow Plane is a twisted reflection of the Material, sitting between it and the Negative Energy Plane as a sort of buffer. The First World was the first draft of the Material Plane, existing around and sort of behind it, inhabited by fey and countless strange creatures."

You pause and turn to Amber, who looks more than a little lost.

"Still with me?"

"I think so? The Ethereal is how you got here right?" Amber asks uncertainly.

"Yes and I apologise for dropping this all on you at once. But you need to know the scope of the multiverse to understand what it is made of and how to manipulate it - a phenomenon that we call magic." You explained.

"So the multiverse isn't made of atoms?" Amber replies.

"The Material universe is made up of Matter, one of the four essences of the multiverse. It is essentially anything physical, found in its purest form on the Elemental Planes. Its counterpart is the essence of Spirit, also known as soul or ethereal essence. Just as the Material Plane is made of Matter, the Outer Planes and their inhabitants are made primarily of Spirit, just as our souls are." You begin to answer, adding a circle to the board and dividing it in four, labelling the opposing ends of one line 'Matter' and 'Spirit',


"The other two essences are Mind and Life. Though they do not act as opposites like Matter and Spirit do, they do stand apart. Mind or mental essence is often described as what conscious thought is made of, a useful but inaccurate generalisation. Your mental essence is your rational, logical mind, while emotion and instinct arise from your vital, or Life, essence. The essence of life is the duality of positive and negative energy, the contrast of creativity and destruction."

You label the other axis and start filling in the four quadrants.

"And this brings us to the four traditions of magic. Each manipulates the essences of the multiverse in different ways, each focusing on two in particular, though some spells can be found in every tradition.

"I wield Arcane magic, the tradition that Remnant would call scientific. It manipulates the essences of Matter and Mind with ease but struggles to grasp Spirit or Life. I have also inherited Divine Magic, which uses faith and belief to manipulate the essences of Spirit and Life.

"I believe your magic is Primal in nature - an instinctive connection to the rhythm of the world around you that lets you manipulate the essences of Matter and Life. I have made a small study of geomancy, another primal art, but that is a discussion left for later.

"The last and least relevant tradition is Occult, a form of magic I have little experience with. Occultists embrace the unknown, using their knowledge of the unknowable to manipulate the essences of Spirit and Mind."

Once finished with your diagram you turn to Amber, watching her as she listens and fails to take a single note.

"So you think you can teach me magic because Arcane and primal magic both manipulate Matter?" She asks eventually.

"Partly yes. But also because some things are universal. Protecting yourself from a miscast, the different components of spells and so on." You pull one of the notebooks Professor Port had acquired for you from your pocket and throw it to Amber.

"I also believe I'll be able to teach you Geomancy or at least use its principles to help you understand the magic of the maidens. But first you need to know all of this." You say, waving at your work.

Amber catches the notebook and looks guiltily at you.

"I might need you to repeat most of that."

"But of course." You say with a smile.

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Central Courtyard, Beacon Academy

Technically you're not meant to be wandering Beacon's grounds at all. Glynda was quite clear after watching you flying around. But students also aren't meant to be wandering the grounds after curfew, meaning you find the odds of discovery to be acceptably low.

Especially since Bella's been exploring the school since the morning you got here. You're not convinced a rainbow ferret will inherently give anything away but you're here as a guest and she's pushed their hospitality far enough.

Fortunately the familiar bond means you can always track her down, even if she's feeling cheeky. Which is why you're cautiously approaching one of the dormitories you know is filled with students, many of its windows still lit from within.

"Excuse me."

You turn away from the building to see a red haired man approach you, clad in an orange vest and black pants. And with a pair of blank white eyes. A blind student, exactly what you need to pretend you're abiding by the rules.

"Can I help you?" You ask.

"I thought you might be looking for something you've lost." He says with a friendly smile.

"More like someone." You mutter as you reach for the bond again and… Damnit. She's right in front of you, not in the building. "Do you know where my ferret is hiding?"

"I haven't seen her." He says smoothly, holding out his hand once he gets close enough. "I'm Fox."

"Shayla. And you haven't seen me either." You say, shaking it and sighing when Bella takes the opportunity to reveal herself and scamper from his back to your shoulder.

"You should try not to lose her again." He suggests, laughing when you sigh.

"She delights in losing herself. I hope she hasn't been bothering you."

"She was delightful company."

You turn and glare at Bella, who gives a smug look back. This is going to be an annoying lecture to give.

"I'll say hi if I see you around." You say to Fox.

"I'm sure we'll meet again." He says, turning away at the same time as you.

"You're aware that we're guests here right. And that for Amber's sake we're supposed to stay hidden as much as we can." You growl at Bella once you're far enough away from Fox.

"I'm just a random ferret. Even when people see me they don't notice me." Bella says innocently.

"You know full well what your fur looks like and how it shimmers in the light. And that you shouldn't be around any of the students. What if you talked to them?"

"What if I did?"

You growl and start planning the proper revenge for your first friend. Maybe you'll catapult her into the sky and let her land in a muddy puddle. Or you'll just steal her desserts, that'll be easier.

=================================

There's more to life than study, no matter what you'd prefer. What task does Ozpin ask you to perform?

[ ] Mistralian Tournament
It has been a month and no trace has been found of the three that attacked Amber. Instead of following a cold trail, Ozpin wants to draw them into the open. A tournament where you'll show off your magic in a deniable fashion while surrounded by allies is a good first step and a good chance for you to get used to fighting with aura.

[ ] Mystery in Keshi
Keshi is Amber's hometown, a farming settlement in Vale's hinterlands known for very little. Until just after you arrived and Ozpin started receiving a lot of odd reports. He wants you to accompany a team of students and a teacher to Keshi to figure out what's happening there - and if it has any connection to you.

[ ] Qrow's Investigation
It's a long shot, but Qrow thinks he's found evidence of Amber's attackers in an abandoned camp. One that hosted a lot more than just 3 people. Ozpin wants you to accompany Qrow and work with him as you chase down someone who was at that camp so you can get some answers.

=================================

This took way longer to get done than I wanted it to - I just couldn't settle on the expository bits. I think I got enough of Shayla's voice and opinions into the research parts and I kind of hate myself for considering a shirt that probably only got ten minutes of thought by a graphic designer canon for this but it is what it is.

I also deleted an overly flowery description of preparing spells that'll be reused when relevant, since you're probably not going to try teaching Amber how to prepare spells.

Something to keep in mind here is that all three options will happen without you and won't be failures just because you don't tag along - though the tournament won't be anything important without you since Ozpin doesn't want to risk his only free maiden (or maybe one of two, I haven't settled on the Summer Maiden yet).

As always, ask any questions that come to mind, especially if they're about Golarion or any part of Pathfinder's setting.

Finally, here's a much better rendition of the Great Beyond aka the Multiverse than can be found in pathfinder rulebooks - and better than Shayla could draw.