Arcana OOC and Q&A

[Skay Ravendi]

An all new sparkling thread for various OOC arcane ramblings as well as Questions and Answers of the subject. You can either use this thread or PM me when you need various help, such as closing a thread or when you need comments in it and so on. Also Odyleon is my great help here on the subject of Song and Ikos. Also check out this thread to see what active WUs or Discussions are already being developed in this forum: Arcana WU Index.

A few shortcut words (OOC use only):

• WU - Write-Up.
• MST - Mana Shaping Technique.
• CoA - Circle of Arcana.
• SoA - Staff of Arcana.

The purpose of this thread:

• Technical things, such as: updating a new draft into the Arcana Wus Index thread. Closing, moving or placing a WU for approvals.
• Asking for Help with your WU, such as: advice, comments, thoughts, proofreading.
• Announcements. Any kind of new info or changes, be it some news from the GDs or a new approved WU.
• Questions and Answers. When you don't know, don't understand or don't know where to find info on something - just post here. I and others will try to help and answer you as much as possible. It's also more likely that a question about Arcana shall be answered here faster and by more people than in the Q&A forum.
• Suggestions. Things that you'd like to see more info about, to be clarified or developed further, suggestions, ideas that you have and so on.
• Random. Bragging when your WU gets accepted and general talky chatty about Arcana.

We're trying to have a unified appearance of all the Arcana articles, so the code, colouring, bolding and etc. should be more or less the same for all articles in the Arcana section. So here are the things you need to know:

• WU Title. You have to post a title of a new WU and the draft it is in in either () or []. Example: Astral Plane [Draft II] or Astral Plane [Discussion].
• Paragraph Title. All paragraph titles need to be posted in bold. They need to be short and relevant to their sections. The size needs to be "4" for paragraph titles and "5" for the title of the article.
• Bold, Italics, Underline, Colours, Fonts, Sizes and Similar. Don't post a whole WU or its paragraph in those codes. You can post certain words, an important sentence, a note, a quote in such codes. If you're going to use a code for something, such as a quote, then keep the same coding for all the quotes in that article.
• Structure of a WU. Unlike for sections like Bestiary or Trade Skills, there isn't a specific structure. Just make sure that the titles are appropriate to the section and that the sections follow in the most logical way as possible.
• Length of a paragraph. It's up to you and your posting style, but try to make them longer than two sentences and shorter than 10 sentences where possible.
• Final Draft. When your last draft gets only possitive comments, all the questions have been answered and it has been proofread then you can post a final draft. If a final draft gets 3 possitive comments from 3 different people and no further discussion is raised by other people - I shall move the WU to the Finals Forum where it shall be voted and and give back the response as soon as I get it.

-Skay

[Tarot]

May I just hijack this OOC for a big 'thank you' to Skay? She's been working incredibly hard on Arcana and she's simply all-around awesome. Kudos to the big-reptile-loving Archmagus! (was there ever a more confusing title?)

[Malkaer Andares]

Has Circle of Magic been renamed to Circle of Arcana? An improvement I agree, but I was not aware of the change until I read this.

[Gye'ron Val Oriden]

I *think* it's the thing that hedgemages use to create spells that combine the essences of the two spheres they focus on.

[Threybius Viartae]

Question about Song:

I've read here and there that Song spells take effect and last for as long as the song/tune does, and also that the spells take effect after the song/tune is completed....so which is it?

[Skay Ravendi]

Circle of Magic was renamed to Arcana when the update on the primer was done. All 'magic' words were renamed to 'arcana' to make a better distinction between the two. Thus a paragraph in the beginning of the primer explaining about magic

*huggles Tarot for the kind words* Thanky And what you're thinking about is Circlet of Arcana, not Circle. Circle of Arcana is that apprentice lvl technique ~_^

[Kenkuroi Mithania]

Questions on clara

Urm.. sorry if this has been a repeat question >.<

But from what I've been reading about the arcana subject, when a mage enters clara, he or she will perceive the world in arcana form?

Eg:
Normal mode - Ken see's a bedroom with a wooden bed and a red table.
Clara mode – Ken see’s a blue plane with a bed shaped swirl of light blue energy and a red swirl in the form of a table...

It is suppose to be something like that? (Clara ‘vision’ has no fix rule, so it may differ between mages right?)

Is there any standard rule or fix setting on how long is a mage able to hold clara? Also clara is gone as soon as a spell is casted am I correct? To cast another spell, a mage has to re-enter clara? Also, when a mage enters clara is there any physical signs that indicates this particular person is in ‘clara mode’?

Thanks in advance, any help is much appreciated

[Amber Brightwing]

It is suppose to be something like that? (Clara ‘vision’ has no fix rule, so it may differ between mages right?)

Something along those lines. It's more like no longer looking through a filter though, so the world should still look pretty much the same, just with Ara and Essences added.

Is there any standard rule or fix setting on how long is a mage able to hold clara?

Some time when not disturbed. It never was defined and it doesn't really matter either IMHO. From what I've seen RPed I'd say that mages are generally only bumped out of Clara due to outside interference (like giving them a good shove).

Also clara is gone as soon as a spell is casted am I correct? To cast another spell, a mage has to re-enter clara?

For the lower levels: yes. I'm not sure if if Journeymen/Masters bump out of Clara
too. I remember it being discussed at some point. If they lose Clara they'll have to re-enter if they want to cast a spell.

Also, when a mage enters clara is there any physical signs that indicates this particular person is in ‘clara mode’?

The mage might look a bit absent or lost in thought.

[Skay Ravendi]

*nodsnods to all that was said* as for:

For the lower levels: yes. I'm not sure if if Journeymen/Masters bump out of Clara
too. I remember it being discussed at some point. If they lose Clara they'll have to re-enter if they want to cast a spell.

Adept and above still lose Clara. You don't lose Clara only if you have Evolved or if you have the Staff of Arcana

[Vincent Stefan]

on the idea of Clara, is Clara Size specific....that is does the amount of power a species has depend on there relative size to what it is they are trying to accomplish.

Take a Necro, one Fea one Human.

The Human can raise for now let's say 3 Human Corpses

Now a fea trying to raise Human corpses, who is of the same level of the Human Necro above, will he be able to raise the same number or is he limited because of his size?

Also, where do you pose an idea that could or could not be added to the general listings of a Arcana skill?

[Amber Brightwing]

Vis reserves are size independent. At least, I've always seen them beeing RPed as such. I've wondered on occasions how that would work for shielding spells though. Giants having worthless shields sounds a bit stupid and Fae having several times more powerful ones might not be 100% fair either.

Edit: for your last question, you mean like a spell or something else?

[Vincent Stefan]

something of that nature...but more an ability reserved for one race. Mostly I have noticed a lack of fea necromancers, so I have come up with a rather unique idea.

I wanted to propose a skill so to speak that allows a Fea to enter into a dead body and in essence turn it into there own. A sort of flesh armor. I was reading the write up on creating undead and in essence the idea is that the necromancer is using raw sperit power to get a dead thing to move. Something like binding a soul to it...so I figured why can't a fea use there own raw power to do the same, only the act of doing so give them control of the body itself.

Of course there will have to be rules on this and a few other ideas I have had, as well such as dopelgangering the body, the body becomes a perfect copy of the fea only without the wings and kind of smelly, what with the body still decaying under the illusion and all that.

I figured there would be a lot of ways to go with this, and wanted to propose it before I get to deep in the idea.


************************************************** ************
Also

I am also working on an idea about mechanical undead. However, the major part of that idea falls on the creation of yet another needed world forged item, a Life Cristal.....Much in the lines of a Soul stone I noticed they exist....The Life Cristal would in essence steal the soul and by virtue life of the intended person. Stranding them inside the Cristal itself....Now in the idea of Mechanical undead these crystals would make up the mind and power of the undead thing itself. That is, two would be required, one for the mind...one for the body....though the types are also important.....Ideal conditions would see the soul of a Powerful mage and the Mind of an Expert Swordsman. The end creation would be a fighting Undead that is very hard to kill, and skilled with a weapon....the worst conditions would see, two mal nourished persons for both crystals, resulting in a almost useless undead.

Of course this too is in the making stage...did not want to continue on ether until such time as some said they were decent ideas...otherwise I'm just wasting my time.

[Kenkuroi Mithania]

Adept and above still lose Clara. You don't lose Clara only if you have Evolved or if you have the Staff of Arcana

I don't think I've heard of that term 'Evolve' from an Arcana perspective, mind explaining what is it?

Oh btw, only Master rank mages can impart right? Does that mean arcana student's can only be taught by Master rank mages? Since any rank below Master can't impart....

[Duvel]

Evolve is an Archmage technique. It lets them stay in Clara without having to do any effort for it.

And only Masters and above can impart, so yes you need a Master (or Archmage) to teach you. A Journeyman can only unbind you.

[Draekial Kadrakai]

A journeyman can teach you just fine, but only after a Master has imparted them to you. I think it would work better for places like Prime where you would have a large number of applicants and only a few Masters.