In a world of magic and struggle the animal known as 'man' makes use of their greatest asset, tool making, to tame this wondrous power.
They do so via one very important action.
They ask QUESTIONS.
You control one such QUESTION as it accepts or denies answers and shapes the world in the process.
A wild and tempestuous force, one that will lash its wielder as readily as its target. It is a most curious art spellcasting. A mage must be focused completely and utterly on the end results of their spell or risk unforeseen consequences… And even then, such may occur purely on the whims of that most chaotic of forces.
There are laws to this, we know this to be true, but we mere mortals are not capable of taming them, of refining them into a shape that is usable to us. It is like asking a single man to fell a forest with naught but a chipped and rusted axe.
But, much like how that man could fell that forest given aid or the allowance of creating better tools so too can we create something greater than ourselves to tame magic. Bear no beliefs otherwise; this, what we embark upon, is a tremendous undertaking. We will not be coming back alive from this for a magic of this sort requires the determination that comes only with death.
My fellows we go now to create, in accordance with these scripts we have writ, things so far above us that we can scarce strain our necks enough to see where their own heads scrape the sky.
We go now to create, not Gods nor Titans but something greater, something that will lead us, guide us, and finally reign that tempestuous force known as magic so that those who follow us will not need make this same sacrifice to know the greatest peaks of our art.
We go now to shout into the great heart of the world six simple things.
We go now to ask Questions.
~ The Speech Given By An Unknown Magus Prior To The Creation Of The Questions ===========
The Speech was discovered by a Past Magus who'd peered back. Review is underway to ensure the veracity of their claims as if this is indeed accurate then this paints a very different picture of our world and our place within it.
Until such time as I grant my approval for this knowledge to be made public this document and any further from the Magus in question are to be censured pending review.
For, as we all know, Knowledge Is Power.
~ Signed by the authority invested in me as the Archmagus Arginine by our Wisest Emperor
~
A lack of cessation. This is the first sensation that strikes you. Sight. This is the second sensation that strikes you. Knowledge. This is the third sensation that strikes you.
You exist now. You did not before but do so now. This is the reason for the first sensation.
Your eyes are open. They were not before but are so now. This is the reason for the second sensation.
Your mind fills. It was empty and in some sense remains so but there is more there than there was before. This is the reason for the third sensation.
The knowledge within you tells you what you are and who made you. Tells you at least something of the world and the curious other sensations that fill you even now.
Your eyes show you what made you and thus what you were made to serve. Bipedal, furless, clothed in loose fitting garb that is more so for the simple purpose of covering than for any decorative reasons. These ones, at least, are dead. Sacrifices to propel the creation of such as you.
There are five other groupings such as this you notice. There are five others like you. There is… Some definition to them all but you can scarce make it out. The knowledge within you knows them to be your siblings, your fellow… Questions. But no more than that comes to your mind. You are all loosely defined in terms of the self.
It is PURPOSE that unites the six of you. PURPOSE given to you by the ones who crafted you, who shaped you, who gave of themselves that you might be.
Your existence screams out to fulfill this PURPOSE.
You turn your mind inward to better sift through the knowledge contained therein.
Magic. The six of you are to control magic, regulate it, provide your creators, provide HUMANS, a more readily available and safe means of utilizing this arcane energy. Their methods, the ones that they have used for a scant few generations thus far, are… Flawed. Imperfect. Much energy is lost and sometimes violently so.
Thus did some of their greatest give of themselves to form you. There must be more however. Something within you tells you there is more. You dive deeper into your well of knowledge to seek for those answers.
Soon enough you find those answers. Sitting calmly within your own self you begin to review.
You are one of the Six Great Questions Of Magic. By answering you and having their answer accepted by you a mage can obtain greater control over the powers you regulate. If their answer should be rejected they will still be able to wield such magics but their control will be comparatively weak and loose.
You can only reach out to contact humanity in such a way as to accept their answers once every ten years. Mentally, you log this away as a CYCLE.
Mages wielding the powers you wield provides you with greater INFLUENCE over the energies arcane and by making use of such INFLUENCE you will be able to affect change upon yourself to grow ever stronger, ever more control, and thus provide humanity much the same.
Doing this does require POWER however and you only generate so much of it from yourself at a time. To further expand upon your reserves of POWER you must needs hibernate to gather the energy needed. It will take an entire CYCLE to gather the energy needed to affect change upon yourself in this manner and thus you would be skipping out on accepting answers for that time.
Lastly, you realize dully the full implications of your not being alone in this endeavor. There are five other Questions and together you must all co-operate to provide the greatest benefit to humanity for the sacrifices rendered here today in this chamber.
You accept these things for that is what you are. You exist to fulfill a PURPOSE and thus will do so.
As you begin to fade out, the intense energy of your creation fading gently away, you realize you have one final query for yourself...
Which of the Six Great Questions are you?
The Questions are as follows:
[] Who must you be to wield this power? (Starting Domains: Self 3, Fire 3)
[] What will you use this power against? (Starting Domains: Learning 3, Air 3)
[] When must you relinquish this power? (Starting Domains: Time 3, Water 3)
[] Where must you roam wielding this power? (Starting Domains: Space 3, Earth 3)
[] How should this power be wielded? (Starting Domains: Others 3, Order 3)
[] Why would you do this to yourself? (Starting Domains: Conflict 3, Life 3)
Moro, wha-
Welcome to a weird ass take on the God Quest formula folks!
This will be a fairly light quest mechanically and I will be improvising the whole ass setting together from scraps here but hey! That's part of the fun of these kinds of things is having to improvise because you fine folks decided that yes, actually, the God or equivalent thereof absolutely needs to slam a 40oz and get a domain that lets them shatter a mountain for looking at them wrong.
Admittedly you're a bit more limited than that in this quest so don't go expecting things of that nature but I do hope you all enjoy all the same.
I'll be explaining a bit more on the quest mechanics, such as they are, over the next few updates as the next update after this one will be the first answer you receive for your chosen Question.
Eh, Transformations into monstrous races with curious weaknesses, and drawbacks is definitely a worthwhile path. Not going to lie. So, I'm fine with being that question.
Heck Vampires with their various weaknesses could be exemplary of the type of magic we'd be giving them.
My Takes on the magic foci of the questions.
Who must you be to wield this power? Vocational Magic
What will you use this power against? This is magic against a specific target. This may not just be something like rabbit-bane, but could also be something like I'll use this power against the filth that is in the world. So More Goal Focused then anything else.
When must you relinquish this power? Power Slots, Limited Uses, Random Power Outages the works. There isn't a spam option here, but the mages that practice work with the limitation to have a more promising power.
Where must you roam wielding this power? Travellers, likely leading to magic related to travelling. Perhaps Regional Magic. Deserts may lead to sand magic or heat magic.
How should this power be wielded? This is Things to Protect, to Fight, To Summon, These are the summoners, the conjurers, the healers of the world. All are possible, and this is the most open-ended of the questions, though all are open ended in some capacity.
Why would you do this to yourself? Monstrous Transformations weakening yourself, making yourself inhuman to be exemplary in some other way.
[X] When must you relinquish this power? (Starting Domains: Time 3, Water 3)
If our power can be wielded forever then the wielders will start taking it for granted, become less creative. If one knows that e will no longer aid them at some point definite point in the future then they might start using for the things they really care about.
[X] When must you relinquish this power? (Starting Domains: Time 3, Water 3)
If our power can be wielded forever then the wielders will start taking it for granted, become less creative. If one knows that e will no longer aid them at some point definite point in the future then they might start using for the things they really care about.
I actually disagree with that assertion. People will very likely be able to better realize their own abilities if they have them for a longer time and use their powers and abilities.
Even in the best case it's comparing someone who's read books and will only ever fight in the war for a month versus someone who is a regular soldier for years, but never got book learning. The regular soldier will have a better innate understanding then the reader ever could.
The standard case? It's a recruit that gets thrust on the frontlines and knows he'll be heading back home in a month, versus a soldier who will be there for years. Magic being equal between them the soldier has a better understanding of what his guns can do then the recruit ever could. Even if the recruit has a grenade launcher it's far more of a liability then the soldier's pistol.
He's my second favorite deity, but not because magical abilities are limited in time in say months but relinquished can take a lot of meanings. A Code of conduct for instance when someone kills a moral man they should be punished, or ensuring they don't spam their abilities unnecessarily by limiting their castings per day.
They relinquish their castings for the day on the 5th spell... they relinquish their spells if they break the major laws.
