For SELF and PEER Moderation of Arcana [Read]

[Dragon]

If you want to self moderate your arcana training that is great! You would be doing a favour for me. Using the masters that are provided below and only those masters you can self moderate Initiate and Apprentice level training. In order to start such a thread go to The Ivory Wings Universitas thread which is stickied in this subforum. From there you will find a link to the Academy of Mind & Fire, where you can pay the posted sum for your training and start it in one of the classrooms of the University. An example of a classroom is provided on the second page of this thread. Some examples of training are also provided on the second post.

In order for your training to have some meaning and the spells to be okay for using in other threads you need the city's GM's approval. Please PM me or any other GM of Demios when you need approval. If you would let me know about your training from the day you start it, I would approve it faster. If I will see flaws and mistakes in your training I will ask you to edit them after explaining them to you or linking to the resources where you can find help. Just as well if there will be not enough quality in your posts, I might have to tell you to edit that too. Arcana has lots of space for imagination so I expect decent posting quality. Just as well I would be grateful if you would not make more than one post in a day.

If I'll see that your training thread has no flaws and has all the things you need to learn for the level in it, then I will approve it and you'll be able to use the spells in any other thread. Please do not bunny, since I will ask you to edit that too. Unless those are very small bunnies (such as getting a comb as a gift from your Master) then I won't pay attention to them. Creating your own Master NPC is a huge bunny and for that you shall be burninated. A reminder that Journeymen and below are not able of teaching. Only Masters can teach because they have the Imparting technique which lets them teach. Also Demios teaches only Mysticism, Elementalism and Druidism. All other spheres are possible, but have to be run through me or any other GM of Demios.


Useful links when learning Arcana:
Arcana Primer
Archanomechanics/Mana creation
Demios Profile, scroll down to Arcana part
Arcana in general/Your desired Spheres

Great self moderation examples:
Initiate Elementalism by Kevin Girth
Apprentice Elementalism by Magus Syfer
Adept/Journeyman Mysticism by Odyleon


Official Time Table for learning Arcana (RL time):
Initiate.............................One Week
Apprentice.......................One Month
Journeyman.....................Three Months
Master.............................Six Months
Archmage........................One Year

Times it takes for a Mage to reach Clara depending on his level:
Initiate.............................5-10 Minutes
Apprentice.......................1-2 Minutes
Journeyman.....................15-30 Seconds
Master.............................5-10 Seconds
Archmage........................1-5 Seconds

Master Mages that can be used for Self-Moderation:

NPC Name: Laria
Sphere: Mistress of Mysticism
Race: Human
Age: 22 patterns
Physical Description: Laria was a pretty woman with emerald eyes that sparkled with the light of intelligence and cordiality. Her features were delicate enough to be considered attractive. She had long, brown hair bound sternly back into the makings of a ponytail. Like all mages of the University she wore a white robe with red stripes going through the whole length of it, however a strand of grass or some other such verdant device usually hung conspicuously from the folds of her clothes. It was clear enough to see that the woman had an inherent love for the outdoors, and would perhaps have felt more at home teaching the sphere of druidism, rather than that of mysticism. A radiant light glints off the surface of a ring worn on one of the woman’s hands, an item of jewellery which clearly belied the fact that the woman was married.
Demeanour: Laria was the nicer of the two Master Mystics teaching at the Ivory Wings Universitas. She had something of a mischievous nature, and enjoyed playing pranks on Domenique, her self acclaimed antagonist. She was not completely happy with being a mystic - she was forced to learn mysticism by her family when she was younger, despite her dreams of becoming a druidess. She was very, very easy going, even liked to use words like ‘fiddle-faddle’ for describing certain arcana techniques and specifics. She could act very childlike, but she teaches till she explains everything clearly to her students.


NPC Name: Domenique
Sphere: Mistress of Mysticism
Race: Human
Age: 34 patterns
Physical Description: Domenique was a woman who was very stern-looking with a cool expression on her face that suggested that this woman will not tolerate any nonsense. She had long, brown eyes and greying blond, light brown hair pulled back into a tight bun. Like all mages of the University she wore a white robe with red stripes going through the whole length of it, which was usually very well kept.
Demeanour: Mistress Domenique had taught at the universitas a little longer than Laria had, although such a feat was not overly apparent from simply looking at overall appearances. She was very haughty, and used a lot of very long and intelligent words. Domenique was very prim and proper, looking down her nose at people a lot, generally not very liked because of her indifferent personality. She does not see eye to eye with Laria at all. It was likely that she came from a very well-off family. She was almost always the subject of Laria’s jokes and pranks.


NPC Name: Nicholas
Sphere: Master of Elementalism
Race: Human
Age: 67 patterns
Physical Description: Nicholas was an old human with white, short hair that were rarely ever combed. He had blue eyes that shined with wisdom and experience. A large scar runs along his whole left arm, which he got when summoning a Fire Elemental. Fire and Earth were his main Essences. Like all mages of the University he wore a white robe with red stripes going through the whole length of it that go rather well on his plump, but tall built.
Demeanour: Most of the time the Master was cheerful, liked jokes and to teach youth in his sphere. He got on well with all the Masters and lower level students of the University. Just as well quite a few people liked him for his help in various situations. He however tended to act quite shyly near older women, blushing many times. Nicholas also liked to call younger people “Childling, Milady, Sweetums, Honeybunch, Hero, Poppet”.


NPC Name: Erchangus
Sphere: Master of Druidism
Race: Elf
Age: 222 patterns
Physical Description: Unlike most mages, this one spent enough time to keep himself strong arcanically and physically, therefore trained in the wild to keep his body fit. He had long, loose, black hair and dark eyes, which shined with experience. Like all mages of the University he wore a white robe with red stripes going through the whole length of it. Due to the reason that he liked to take his students to the forests to teach, he had his clothes ripped apart in a few places and sewn by the local seamstress quite often.
Demeanour: The Druid had started learning druidism when he was just 42 patterns old for the reasons which the elf likes to keep for himself. He was kind and loved the nature, getting along especially well with Master Nicholas. One of his favourite habits was turning into animals when teaching, the ones students see being wolves, bears, birds and a lion.

[Dragon]

Things you need to do for Initiate training of any sphere:

• Read the Compedium's Arcana section. A must.
• Pay for your training in the University for a sphere of your choice.
• Go to the classroom of your teacher's and meet him.
• Explain why you want to train in arcana.
• Explain why you want to train in that sphere.
• Get Unbound and role-play your Unbinding Dream (Unbinding is [DITC] Described In The Compedium)
• Learn about the 3-spell rule (Look below)
• Learn the Techniques (Meditate, Focus, Channel, Dispel) (Techniques are DITC) (No need to know a lot, just that your character does them, how they work you don't need to know nor IC, nor OOC at this level)
• Learn the Spells that are listed in your sphere of your level (Spells are DITC)
• Learn no more than 3 spells/techniques a day. That is a rule, unless you want your PC to faint.

Things you need to do for Apprentice training of any sphere:

• Pay for your training in the University for a sphere of your choice.
• Go to the classroom of your teacher's and meet him.
• Explain why you want to train in arcana, if you are meeting that Master for the first time.
• Explain why you want to train in that sphere, if you are meeting that Master for the first time.
• Get Promoted (Promotion is [DITC] Described In The Compedium)
• Learn the Techniques (Circle of Magic, Activation, Reshape Mana) (Techniques are DITC)
• Learn the Spells that are listed in your sphere of your level (Spells are DITC)
• Learn no more than 3 spells/techniques a day. That is a rule, unless you want your PC to faint.
• Know how to create Mana well OOC.

For Journeyman/Adept and higher levels please contact me or any other GM of Demios.

The rule of Three:
There is a limited amount of spells that a mage can cast in a brightening. No matter how fit or drunk a person is, there is basically the same amount of spells that a person can cast for his level in one brightening. The reason is simple. A mage has Vis. Vis is his life. A mage uses that Vis to cast spells. When he uses all of it he may die, faint or have a really bad headache. Depends on how evil the moderator is when that happens. However, Vis has the natural ability to recover, therefore the next brightening after a good rest or just time, the mage has his Vis in a good condition again and can cast spells. When a mage is Promoted, his Vis gains strength and perhaps even grows, therefore the mage can cast more spells. However higher level spells require more Vis.

Initiate: 3 Initiate spells.
Apprentice: 9 Initiate spells or 3 Apprentice.
Adept: *Unlimited Initiate, 9 Apprentice or 3 Adept.
Master: *Unlimited Initiate and Apprentice. 9 Adept or 3 Master.
Archmage: *Unlimited Initiate - Adept, Master and Archmage limitations probably Non-existant or very close to.

Meditation, keeping your Clara when not casting:
Meditation does not come easy. When a mage just begins his arcana training, reaching Clara is very hard for him. It may take a few tries, perhaps even cycles till he succeeds. Often, low level mages seek the aid of a soothing drink or the relaxing perfume of incense to induce a meditative state for their whole time as an initiate. It is in fact very rare for a mage to reach Clara easily from their first tries. Mages of higher levels or those who spend more time practising, get the hang of this and can do it fairly easily in the time that their level allows. It is impossible for an Initiate to reach Clara faster than in five minutes for example and only when he is Promoted can he do it faster, but also not faster than his new level allows. That is due to his mind still being highly not used to the whole Meditation process and some bonds that chain him to the Material Plane still remaining.

However, reaching Clara is not the only thing that is hard. Keeping it is much harder. While a mage can reach Clara faster when he's Promoted, keeping it active is just as hard as it was before getting Promoted. In order for a mage to be able to keep Clara while doing something (be it walking, talking or being on fire), he needs to practise that. People who practise to keep Clara when in dangerous and tasking conditions can eventually even run and fight with their Clara held firm, even if they are just low level mages. Paladins are one great example. They study in keeping their Clara when fighting so that they would not need to go through the tasking minutes to reach it all over again. That's why a Journeyman who can reach Clara in just fifthteen seconds is very likely to lose Clara when trying to talk at the same moment, if he hasn't trained at all in trying to keep Clara in hard situations.

An example of a place, which can be used for training:
It was one of the usual classrooms in the University. Just a few chairs, one desk and quite a few cupboards. On the ground there were quite a few pillows, probably for students to fall onto when the Unbinding technique knocked them out. Each classroom was a little bit different. In some windows were small and in some large. In this particular one there was a small window, probably for the spells such as Glowing Sphere to have a better visual effect. The classroom where a Master Druid taught had a lot of animals in it, be it owls in cages or cats all around. The room where the Elementalist spent most of his time had quite a few of Glowing Spheres hovering in the air. The rooms of Mysticism, where the ladies taught had a women’s touch, many more pillows and other girly stuff could be found all around.

However the Druid loved to take students to the Weaver's Wood, since many spells required trees and animals for which the forest was best suited. Most spells were still done in the University's grounds. The Elementalist had also places where he took his students to practice some spells. That place was in the large crater of a dormant volcano, which was not working for over 600 eras at least. There most destructive spells were practiced, since there was no one and nothing that could get hurt. Even the Mystic ladies took students out of their classrooms sometimes. Since the spells they taught dealt with emotions, they loved to take people to the city, quite often into the Orator's Square, where many minds were present for such spells as Reveal.


An example of how to create mana:
First of all a mage dove into Meditation. He was still just an Initiate so it took him whole ten minutes to reach Clara. Sometimes he managed to reach it in five, but that was only when he was in complete peace. Only when he will be Promoted into an Apprentice, will he be able to do it faster. The mage could see the wonderful world in Clara, moreover he could see Ara. To each mage Ara looked different. Some saw it as yellow clouds, some as tiny flying orbs. He saw it as if the air was burning. Now that he could see and feel Ara, he dragged quite a bit of it to himself, merged it with his Vis, his inner life. The mage still wasn't sure how he was able to drag Ara, he just could, just like he could roll his eyes, he just could.

When Ara and Vis came together a reaction called Arcalysis happened. Whenever a mage merged Vis and Ara, that reaction brought his mind into the Astral Plane. Even after many more patterns the mage was not able to tell where the Astral Plane was, nor how he could feel it. Now the mage was able to Focus upon the specific Essence Plane that he needed, which was in the Astral Plane. He was a druid so he Focused onto the Nature Plane. There he Focused onto the Nature Essence. In order for Mana to be created he needed that Essence, it was what made half of Mana, the other part being his own Vis.

So the mage Channeled the Nature Essence onto which he had Focused. He Channeled as much as he needed for the spell he was going to make. This was a small spell, so he Channeled less Essence than usual. Channeling was no different from draggin something physical, except that he did this with his mind and not his hands. When Essence mixed with the mage's Vis, Mana was created. Soon the mage would Shape the created Mana into a spell of his choice, using the Mana Shaping techniques, while still holding his Meditation.

An example of how to create a spell:
Now that the mage had Mana at the ready, all he needed to do was to Shape it into a spell of his choice and not to lose Clara while doing it. Like all Initiate level spells, it required just one of the five possible techniques. An Initiate could control just one technique for one spell, however it did not matter which one. He could also use that technique as many times as he wanted for that spell. An apprentice on the other hand was capable of controlling two techniques for one spell, also whichever two for one spell and use those two as many times as he wanted for that spell.

From the five Mana Shaping techniques [As an Initiate you do not need to know which Mana Shaping technique your spell needs, just that it needs one], the druid chose Divination, which dealt with Emotion Spells, such as Befriend Animal which he was about to cast on a rabbit. Using Divination technique the mage Shaped his Mana into a spell called Befriend Animal. The knowledge of that spell and how to create it was Imparted by his Master, so the mage didn't need to worry about it, his mind knew how to do it, he just needed to wish for it. Then sending that shaped Mana onto the rabbit which was close to him, he simply released the spell and allowed it to take effect. As soon as he released it, the rabbit saw the mage as a friend, because of the spell's effect. The mage released his hold of Clara and went to pet the rabbit. In that same brightening he could still cast two more spells, before his Vis would be depleted.

[Daniel]

Just a note: nothing has changed. Anyone who wants to come in and peer-mod and self-mod is welcome to do so.

[Finnie]

For now I prefer peer moderation and xGM than self modding with any training. Thank you~

[Whisper]

Any kind of moderation is fine with me. Just please get my approval before you self-mod or peer-mod. If you require an xGM to help you with your arcana thread, get in touch with me and I'll set you up with one.