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Academagia

Fantasy Role Playing System

Credits Trevor Cashmore—that’s me! Tyler Mead and John Bearden Tyriq Plummer Jared Cohen Alexander Martin Brance

Table of Contents Welcome to Academagia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Enrollment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Grade Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Colleges and Classes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6

College Of Elemental Magics Cryoturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 Electroturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

10

Pyroturgy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

12

College Of Natural Magics Aeromancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Geomancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

16

Hydromancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

18

College Of Alchemy & Artifice Armory & Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

20

Potions & Herbology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Transfiguration & Imbuement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 College Of Traditional Shamanism Beast Taming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

26

Life Channeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

28

Shaman Training . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

30

College Of Theology Chthonology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

32

Hierology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

34

Tenebrology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 College Of Theoretical Magics Choromatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Chronomatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

40

Neuromatics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

Paths and Extracurriculars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44 Fitness, Dexterity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 Wisdom, Character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Life at the Academagia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

48

Tests And Easy Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Results, Triumphs, And Consequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Degree of Failure Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

51

Life Lessons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 Study Guide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Report Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Encyclopedia of Tyrr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 The Academagia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Tyrr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 The Five Fundamental Forces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Humans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 The Oceanic League . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Dvergan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Sylphid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62 The Wild . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63 The Spiritual Realm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64 The Arbiters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65 The Free and The Liberated . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66 The Immaculate Legion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 The Guild of Godheads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Welcome to the Academagia The Academagia is the most famous and esteemed institution for the study of the arcane arts across all of the infinite planes of existence. Each year, thousands of particularly talented and gifted magical prodigies from all across the wondrous world of Tyrr are accepted into our prestigious university as apprentice Student wizards and witches, taking their first steps towards the most honorable and noble pursuit in life, the pursuit of knowledge.

The first section of the book is the Academagia Guide, which will serve as your trusty companion and chaperone as we tour the systems and rules of Academagia for the benefit of Students and Administrators alike. The second section is the Encyclopedia of Tyrr, which steps away from the Academagia to talk about the greater world of Tyrr and its peoples. Now, without further ado, let us move on to the Academagia Guide!

1

The Academagia is a university that prides itself on giving Students the freedom to explore their magical education in whatever ways they see fit, and on learning life by experiencing it via adventures and quests. However, though the Academagia and its professors value individuality and independence, we still have a system in place! Parties of prospective Students are guided by an Administrator, whose duty and honor it is to present them with unique scenarios, conflicts, and challenges to explore and overcome - and the Student's goal is to add life and personality to these adventures, to spice it up, and make the story their own. To guide the adventure along, the Administrator is the one who determines results, administers challenges, and makes decisions. Then, the Students drive the story forward, by acting in and reacting to the scenarios and conflicts that the Administrator presents them with, helping create new osbtacles and scenes for the Administrator to present once more… and so on.

The guiding themes of the Academagia experience are growth, learning, and discovery. Students of the Academagia are not only going to be adventuring and questing at the Academagia, they’re also going to be maturing, from Students to mature and capable Wizards Witches. Students will be learning life lessons alongside school lessons, and progressing not only as mages, but as people. The stories that the Academagia system tells best are stories of fantastical adventures built around discovering many things - the power of knowledge, the world around you, and the true potential within.

2

Enrollment Every Student has a Report Card, on which are recorded not only their grades, but also their career path and ambitions, their extracurriculars and experiences, and other essential aspects of themselves.

university, the Magicademy, to find a school more befitting students of their skill level. Step 2: Path

After a Student fills in their name, comes their ultimate goal - their Step 1: Name Path. What does the Student want to To begin with, of course, a Student do when he or she graduates our must fill in their Name! If a Student occult college? The Student is to fill doesn't know their name by now, out their future dream profession perhaps they aren’t as qualified to here. "Adventurer" is too vague - we be a student here as we expected! get so many of those per year, we’d Try recommending them to our rival prefer if the Student specified which

3

role they’re aiming to have in whatever adventuring party they wish to join in the future, if indeed, adventuring is their pursuit and passion. But Academagia accepts magicians of all kinds, ranging from knights to necromancers, theologists to thieves, and swordmages to sauciers. Our education is flexible to every Student's needs!

Step 4: Classes

Each Student has to sign up for a Major and a Minor, each chosen from among the six Colleges available at the Academagia — Elemental Magics, Natural Magics, Alchemy & Artifice, Traditional Shamanism, Theology, and Theoretical Magimatics. Each College has three Classes associated with it, from which Step 3: Extracurriculars Students choose to take two Classes from their Major College, The third step for a Student filling and one Class from their Minor out their Report Card is their College. Students should try to Extracurriculars. What are the maximize the synergy of their Student’s hobbies, interests, passions, apprenticeships, jobs, and chosen Classes with their chosen more? Students should write down Path and two Extracurriculars—it wouldn’t make much sense to take their two most defining Classes which will teach you skills Extracurriculars, which represent that you will never need, right? specific skills they’ve picked up. A few good examples for The list of Colleges and their Extracurriculars could be Classes can be found in the Colleges “Dungeoneering Team Captain”, and Classes section—a real shocker, “Apprentice Necromance’d for the I know — which is the very next Dark Lord Sh’bal for a Summer”, or section after this one. It’s almost “Understudy General of the Holy like we planned that! Army.” Whatever works! Now, once you have a list of Classes, next comes the most important part to any Report card—the Grades!

4

Step 5: Grades Students should now have six items on their Report Card: their Path, their two Extracurriculars, and their three Classes. Each of these is called a Subject, and each Subject has a Grade. Each Student begins with an F in each of their Subjects—but not to worry, they also begin with 100 Learning Points to improve their Grades in Subjects, up to a maximum Grade of A. The cost to improve a Subject’s Grade is not constant - the higher your Grade, the more you have to learn to improve. The Learning Point costs are: F→D

10 Learning Points

D→C

20 Learning Points

C→B

40 Learning Points

B→A

80 Learning Points

These aren't the only Learning Points a Student will ever get! Students can also earn Learning Points by taking Tests, and learning Life Lessons. More on those in the Life at the Academagia section. To the right, there is a chart detailing what each Grade in a given type of Subject means. Hope it helps!

You're in the Class, but you are either very new to it, or very bad at it. Or both.

Fledgeling

You have an Extracurricular, but no real skills or teachings have been acquired from it. You have a passing interest in your Path, but you haven't pursued it meaningfully. You are interested in this Class, and capable of some of the basic cantrips that it teaches.

Dilettante

You have a helpful Extracurricular that provides you some rudimentary skills and know how. You have dabbled in your Path as a hobby, but not pursued it professionally. You are doing well in the Class - you have learned all the beginner spells and abilities.

Competent

Your Extracurricular has taught you some useful lessons and talents, but nothing fancy. You are an apprentice of your Path, having been on-the-job and begun training. You have mastered the basics of the Class, and are now an average magician of it!

Bright

Your Extracurricular has given you a variety of helpful skills and knowledge. You’re more than just a beginner of your Path, now you’re well on your way to mastering it. You are accomplished with the magics of the Class, and can even execute some of its most advanced magics with some effort.

Adept

Your Extracurricular has significantly changed you for the better, giving you profound wisdom and expert skills. You have undergone rigorous and extensive training in the pursuit of your Path, and are now prestigious in your Path's line of work and recognized as a prodigy.

5

Colleges and and Classes Classes Colleges The Academagia began thousands of millenia ago as a university devoted to the study of magic as a whole—but even in its first millennium, the research mages of the Academagia realized that the study of magic was a multifaceted beast, and decided to split the field, and the Academagia, into many specialized schools. Now the Academagia is a university built out of six research Colleges, each of them already esteemed alone, and together forming the Academagia.

Each College is devoted not only to studying one school of magic with scholarly rigor, but also to teaching that school of magic with passion and skill. The top mages from each school of magic are the Archmages of the six Colleges, giving the curriculum the benefit of a master’s experience and perspective—and the head of all six Colleges is the Archmage of the Academagia himself, the Dean, the greatest mage in the history of the multiverse.

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The six Colleges of magic are... The College of Elemental Magics: Magic governing the elemental processes that underlie all energy and matter. This magic concerns itself with the control of elemental energies. Headed by Archmage Kaos, three-time recipient of the Knight prize. The College of Natural Magics: Magic of the natural realm. Instead of controlling magic, natural magic is about guiding and channeling magic inherent to the material world. Headed by Archmage Phanes, pioneer of string leyline theory. The College of Alchemy & Artifice: Magic of the inanimate or soon-to-be-animate. Alchemy & Artifice focuses on the manipulation with magic of artifacts. Headed by Archmage Enki, the first alchemist to create an automated being. The College of Traditional Shamanism: Magic of the blood and of the flesh, Shamanism is the most ancient magic of all the disciplines and revolves around the primal essence of life itself. Headed by Archmage Atman, a former Wild’s Speaker. The College of Theology: Magic of the soul and the divine, theology is the study of the magics of the cosmology that we live in. Theology students seek to pierce the veil that surrounds mortality and the human experience. Headed by Archmage Scadeleot, Mortal Ambassador Emeritus of the Divine Conference. The College of Theoretical Magimatics: The study of the nature of magic itself, theoretical magicists strive to understand the esoteric nature of the arcanic energies that power all magics. These classes elucidate the more abstract magics of space-time, and manipulation of magic itself. Headed by Archmage Nikolzar, who pioneered the first research into the Five Fundamental Forces of Magic.

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College of Elemental Magics

Cryoturgy Taught by Professor Boreas The Elemental Magic of cessation, enervation, stillness, and deceleration. Cryoturgy is the study of the making of invocations to shape frost and ice. Student Cryoturgists will learn how to wrought ice from air, freeze any object, shape and control ice, and summon ice elementals.

8

Cryoturgy

Grade Chart F

Making things cold, but not really to the point of freezing. Lame. Chilling in a small radius (1 foot / half a meter) around the hand.

D

Freezing anything but living things - magical essences in living things counteract the enervating effects of ice upon magical energies, so it takes far more practice to freeze a living thing. Can freeze surprisingly quickly, but only in the small radius (1 foot / half a meter) around the hand.

C

Freezing things and create ice objects within an extended radius of about 15 feet / 5 meters or so. Creating basic ice sculptures (spheres, cubes, icicles, etc.) out of the air within this radius as well. Freezing within the small radius around the hand is incredibly quick now, within a second.

B

Creating elaborate sculptures within the small radius, such as walls, platforms, and bridges. Ice is granted unnatural resilience and resistance to heat. Chilling multiple things at once.

A

Calling down hail and snow from the air. Freezing living objects. Creating ice within a much larger radius, of 30 feet / 10 meters. Freezing multiple objects at once. Summoning ice elementals.

A+

Creating ice at a distance farther than 30 feet, reducing temperatures to intense levels (such as reaching 0 degrees Kelvin), and animation of ice objects.

9

College of Elemental Magics

Electroturgy Taught by Professor Perun The Elemental Magic of tension, separation, potential, and movement. Electroturgy is the art of calling upon and commanding lightning. Electroturgy was once thought to be a subset of theology magic, but with the recent renaissance in Magical thought brought about by Five Fundamental Forces theory, it has now been realized to be an independent Element of its own.

10

Electroturgy

Grade Chart F

Imbuing things with an electric charge within a small radius of the hand (1 foot / half a meter).

D

Casting sparks of lightning, but no control over them - they'll go towards the nearest conductive object. Imbuing things with weak magnetic charges.

C

Imbuing objects with powerful magnetic charges, and can cast lightning bolts at a target. The bolts are weak, so they can't really kill people, but it's a nasty shock that'll easily stun a person. Better against magnetically charged targets.

B

Casting powerful lightning bolts that can burn and harm. Summoning thunderstorms, but can't control them. Casting lightning bolts that 'scatter' upon striking a target, shocking everything in a nearby radius. Casting uncontrollable lightning bolts in an area within 15 feet / 5 meters.

A

Commanding a thunderstorm to strike with dangerous (still non-lethal) lightning bolts at chosen targets, but can only command a single bolt at once. Chaining lightning bolts from one target to the next, diminishing in power with each target. Casting lightning bolts in an area within 15 feet / 5 meters, and control them as well. Summoning lightning elementals.

A+

Controlling multiple nonlethal bolts at once, and controlling with precision lethal lightning bolts.

11

College of Elemental Magics

Pyroturgy Taught by Professor Phlogiston The Elemental Magic of stimulation, innervation, ignition, and acceleration. Pyroturgy is the art of creating and controlling fire, emphasis on the control moreso than the create. Student Cryoturgists will quickly learn how to make fire — most of the rest of the class is spent learning how to control it well.

12

Pyroturgy

Grade Chart F

Creating piddly little sparks that have no hope of igniting anything. Warming objects within a small radius of the hand (1 foot / half a meter) to noticeably warm levels, yet still not hot enough to ignite anything. Lame.

D

Creating fire within a small radius (1 foot / half a meter) around the hand, but not controlling it. Which is troublesome, as its certainly hot enough to spread. So, uh… be careful with that?

C

Casting shaped fire spells in specific shapes (fireball, column of fire, cone of fire, etc.) but still can’t control the flame once it's out in the wild.

B

Controlling fire within a small area, radius of 15 feet / 5 meters or so. Creating and casting elaborate patterns of fire, far more detailed than just 'shapes'.

A

Controlling fire within a large area (radius of 30 feet / 10 meters) and sculpt it into elaborate shapes. Increasing the temperature of fire beyond its natural limits, and give it unnatural resilience. Heating objects up without setting them aflame first. Summoning fire elementals.

A+

Controlling and creating fire at farther distances than 30 feet, controlling infernos larger than that size, and creating fire past 2000 degrees Celsius, and heat objects past 500 degrees Celsius.

13

College of Natural Magics

Aeromancy Taught by Professor Ouranus Invocations and rites to channel the magic of the air and sky. Aeromancy grants Students the ability to guide and direct the winds at their command, and even allows for flight, th dream of many a student. Students with a fear of heights are discouraged from taking this class.

14

Aeromancy

Grade Chart F

Creating a zephyr.

D

Creating a brisk wind, which can float anything up to the size of a large person for a few seconds.

C

Creating a powerful wind that can let a single object 'glide' (give it no significant upward vertical motion, but allow it to stay in the air for an extended and indefinite period of time) and knock over objects with ease. Cannot glide multiple things at once, but can float multiple things at once. Creating precise but weak 'blasts' of winds as opposed to just gales.

B

Creating powerful blasts with enough force to stun or knockout a living opponent. Gliding multiple things at once, and float a large amount of things at once. Making one thing 'fly' (give it significant upward motion) at once.

A

Creating blasts so powerful that the 'blades' can cut rope and scratch steel, and the 'shots' can pierce skin and break wood. Making multiple things fly at once. Controlling a powerful and speedy windstorm with a radius of about 15 feet / 5 meters around the user.

A+

The creation of massive storms; blades and shots that can obliterate any object.

15

College of Natural Magics

Geomancy Taught by Professor Gaia A course in the elements of strength and endurance - sand and stone. Geomancy teaches Students how to channel and guide the power of the earth for their own purposes, to devastating effect. Field course, with plenty of outdoors work.

16

Geomancy

Grade Chart F

Shaping small amounts of earth (dirt, soil, sand, etc.) Stone remains unpliable. The earth/stone cannot be levitated above the ground. Small amount is the size of a human head.

D

Shaping a decent amount of earth, and a small amount of stone. The earth can be compacted to be harder, and can be levitated. Decent amount is the size of human.

C

Shaping a large amount of earth (a circular area abut 10 meters in diameter) and levitating this earth. Shaping a decent amount of stone.

B

Propelling earth with considerable speed. Levitating stone. Motion of earth allows for animated 'creations' of dirt, soil, sand, etc. Summoning harder rock from beneath the surface to the surface, and controlling earth beneath the immediately available surface.

A

Propelling stone quickly, allowing for 'creations' of rock, chalk, mineral, crystal, etc. Controlling all earth and stone within a large radius of the user, even beneath the surface.

A+

Control of a sandstorm or an incredibly massive amount of stone, such as an entire plateau or a castle.

17

College of Natural Magics

Hydromancy Taught by Professor Tethys Wielding water, the magic of fluidity and continuity, Students who learn Hydromancy learn to act as mediums for the most flexible magic of the Natural Magics. Class is equipped to the nadatorium. If you are of an element likely to be extinguished or who has a volatile reaction to water, we do not recommend taking this course.

18

Hydromancy

Grade Chart F

Controlling and levitating small amounts of water.

D

Shaping a decent amount of water, and give it some speed.

C

Shaping a large amount of water, and give it some speed. Giving a decent amount a considerable amount of speed.

B

Summoning water from the sky and from beneath the ground to materialize it seemingly from nowhere. Giving a large amount of water considerable speed, and give a decent amount of water enough speed to shatter glass. Giving a small amount of water enough speed to break bones. Extracting oxygen from water to breathe it. Shaping non-water liquids.

A

Shaping massive amounts of water (a pool in size) and giving it considerable speed, allowing for destructive waves, intense rains, and intense pressure that could break wood.

A+

Shaping of lakes or oceans, pressures that can crush steel and break bones, and the control of monsoons and tsunamis.

19

College of Alchemy & Artifice

Armory & Equipment Taught by Professor Masamune Designing, forging, and smithing magical tools, items, weapons, armor, and equipment. Covers shields to staves and gadgets to gizmos. Lab credit.

20

Armory & Equipment

Grade Chart F

Creating a trinket with a 'trivial' effect.

D

Creating a small equipment ('accessory', such as crown, bracelet, glove, etc.) with a weak effect.

C

Creating a small equipment with a decent effect or a medium equipment (gauntlet, boot, helmet) with a weak effect.

B

Creating a small equipment with a strong effect, a medium equipment with a decent effect, or a large equipment (sword, shield, hammer, armor, etc.) with a weak effect.

A

Creating a large equipment with a decent effect, a medium equipment with a strong effect, or a small equipment with a powerful effect.

A+

Creation of an epic equipment, which is any size of equipment with a unique and legendary quality (such as "never misses," "can be summoned back to owner's hand from anywhere in the world", "drains life force from victims", and "owner cannot be injured while sheathed in scabbard".)

21

College of Alchemy & Artifice

Potions & Herbology Taught by Professor Bacon Creating elixirs, draughts, and poultices infused with magical spells and effects. Also covers the mixing and creation of potion recipes. Lab credit.

22

Potions & Herbology

Grade Chart F

Creating a Potion with an F-grade spell from another Class you're enrolled in, or that gives a minor and 'trivial' effect. (Up to the Administrator what counts as 'trivial'.) Potions are one-use only. Identify trivial herbs.

D

Creating a Potion with a D-grade spell from another Class you're enrolled in, or that contain two F-grade spells from other Classes you're enrolled in. Identify useful herbs.

C

Creating a Potion with a C-grade spell from another Class you're enrolled in, two D-grade spells from other Classes you're enrolled in, or a F-grade spell from a Class you're not enrolled in.

B

Creating a Potion with a B-grade spell from another Class you're enrolled in, two C-grade spells from other Classes you're enrolled in, or a D-grade spell from a class you're not enrolled in.

A

Creating a Potion with a B-grade spell from another Class you're enrolled in, two B-grade spells from other Classes you're enrolled in, or a C-grade spell from a class you're not enrolled in.

A+

Creating a Potion with an A-grade spell from another Class you're enrolled in, two A-grade spells from other Classes you're enrolled in, or a B-grade spell from a class you're not enrolled in. Creation of a Potion with a 'major' effect that cannot be replicated easily by a spell of another class.

23

College of Alchemy & Artifice

Transfiguration & Imbuement Taught by Professor Rava Imbuing inanimate objects with magical properties and effects, and how to transmogrify and transmute inanimate objects. Also covers the creation of golems and homunculi granted with intelligences and mobility.

24

Transfiguration & Imbuement

Grade Chart F

Magically changing the surfaces of inanimate objects with touch, and imbue them with minor and 'trivial' charms. (Up to Administrator discretion what counts as 'trivial'.)

D

Changing the shape of small inanimate objects (wristwatch in size), and imbue them with an F-grade spell from another Class that you're enrolled in.

C

Changing the shape of medium-sized inanimate objects (helmet in size) and imbue them with a D-grade spell from another Class that you're enrolled in. Creating a rudimentary homunculus, a fragile and small (3 feet / 1 meter tall) humanoid that can obey extremely simple commands.

B

Changing the shape of large-sized inanimate objects (the size of a suit of armor) and imbue them with a C-grade spell from another Class that you're enrolled in. Creating complex homunculi, capable of following abstract, complicated commands. Creating a rudimentary golem, a durable construct a bit larger than the average human, which can follow simple commands.

A

Changing the shape of a very large inanimate object (the size of a carriage), and imbue them with a B-grade spell from another Class that you're enrolled in. Creating complex golems, capable of following intricate and ambiguous commands. Giving complex homunculi elaborate sets of instructions and rudimentary artificial intelligences.

A+

Changing the shape of a massive object (the size of a portcullis or traincar) and imbue them with an A-grade spell from another Class that you're enrolled in. Creating massive golems, twice the size of a human, and twice as durable as the normal golem, that are intelligent and capable of following intricate and elaborate commands. Creating human intelligence homunculi.

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College of Traditional Shamanism

Beast Taming Taught by Professor Anima Basics of communicating and handling wild magical beasts, and how to create binding contracts in order to summon familiars. Field course, heavily outdoors, requires a safety waiver. If you’re not good with animals, this course is not recommended.

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Beast Taming

Grade Chart F

Speaking like an idiot to wild animals of considerable intelligence, or magical animals.

D

Speaking conversationally to any intelligent animal or magical animal, or like an idiot to more primitive animals.

C

Speaking fluently to any animal. Negotiating contracts with magical creatures, allowing for partnerships as familiar and summoner. Summoning is not an Easy Action yet, however, so it's best if your familiar at this point stays by your side.

B

Summoning your familiar to your side at any time. Channeling a Grade C spell or lower from your familiar, and vice versa, they can channel a Grade C spell or lower from you.

A

Negotiating contracts with multiple magical creatures, but can only summon one to your side at a time. Channeling a Grade B or lower spell of your currently active familiar, and vice versa.

A+

Summoning multiple familiars at once, channeling Grade A or lower spells from your active familiar, and channeling of Grade B or lower spells from your inactive familiars.

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College of Traditional Shamanism

Life Channeling Taught by Professor Crown Introduction to the world of ki and chakra, the primal essence that flows in all living beings. This Class teaches students how to commune with the lives of other beings, and how to channel the ki and chakra of themselves in order to strenghten their bodies.

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Life Channeling

Grade Chart F

Healing scratches and bruises.

D

Healing small injuries, such as cuts or torn muscles, and strenghtening someone's body a bit, amplifying natural abilities of the target a small amount. (Approximately 1.5x)

C

Healing considerable injuries, such as gashes or debilitating pain. Encouraging the rapid growth of plants (though not controlling when and how they grow). Can imbue people with chi, to strengthen them by about 2x, and even add chi to attacks, allowing one to strike from a range of about 3 feet / 1 meter.

B

Healing large injuries, such as broken bones, significant amounts of blood loss, or big gashes. Guiding the rapid growth of plants, targeting with more precision and encouraging them to grow into certain shapes. Imbuing people with chi to strengthen them by about 4x, and chi-amplified attacks double in strength and

A

Precisely controlling the exact shape of plant growth, strengthening people to about 8x their natural strength, and chi attacks increased to a range of 12 feet / 4 meters and amplified in strength by more than four times.

A+

Reattachment of severed limbs, and regeneration of lost flesh. Creation of powerful blasts of chi that can shatter stone and cut down trees from an immense range (essentially projectiles).

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College of Traditional Shamanism

Shaman Training Taught by Professor Mundi Exploration of the historical role of the shaman as liaison between humanity and the magical spirits and elementals of the world. Students will begin apprenticeship as fledgeling shamans, and learn the skills of communicating with the Wild.

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Shaman Training

Grade Chart F

Seeing the Wild hazy, like through a fog. Your voice is less than a whisper. Speaking the universal tongue of all intelligent races like an idiot.

D

Seeing and communicating with the souls of the Wild clearly. Speaking the universal tongue of all intelligent races conversationally.

C

Speaking the universal tongue fluently. Stepping into the lifestream and commune directly with the Wild. Taking on an aspect of the Wild to incarnate it metaphorically (sight of hawk, strength of tree, resilience of glacier, etc.)

B

Negotiating well with the Wild - but not magical entities of other sorts - allowing for gleaning of information and acquisition of favors. Taking on an aspect of the Wild to incarnate it physically (turning into a hawk or animate tree, etc.)

A

Skillfully negotiating with the Wild, allowing one to take on archetypal aspects of the Wild (such as turning into the most eagle-y eagle to have ever eagle'd)

A+

Negotiating the Wild into acting on your behalf or incarnating itself - some examples include the river diverting its course, or the aspect of the eagle incarnating as the archetypal eagle to provide assistance. Taking on multiple aspects at once, thus becoming a chimera (a hawk made of wood, for example).

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College of Theology

Chthonology Taught by Professor Mort The study of the afterlife and underworld, chthnology entails an in-depth theoretical analysis of apparitions, ghouls, ghosts, ghasts, geists, phantoms, revenants, spirits, wights, wisps, wraiths, zombies, other undead, and more. Teaches the art of communication with the departed.

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Chthnology

Grade Chart F

You can hear the undead and be heard by them, just barely.

D

You can speak successfully and make your presence known to the dead.

C

In the land of the living, you can turn dead and force ghosts into the spiritual realm. You can enter the spiritual realm but not for long - past 5 minutes, and you're dead. (Anyone can leave the spiritual realm, though.) You can use this time to exorcise weak ghosts by pulling them into the spiritual realm, put to rest the undead one at a time by doing the same, and locate spirits’ dead bodies.

B

You can exorcise weak ghosts and put back to rest undead while in the land of the living. You can seek out and commune with spirits, by venturing into the spiritual realm for a small period of time (10 minutes). While in the spiritual realm, you can do many things... You can guide a spirit into possessing an object, giving that object intelligence, minor ghostly powers, and any magical abilities of the spirit when it was alive. You can raise dead, but they will be unable to act without command. All of these must be done while in the spiritual realm.

A

You can find a specific spirit in the spiritual realm, by venturing into it for a longer period of time (30 minutes at most before you die). You can also venture to the higher levels of the spiritual realm, to seek out the Immaculate Legion, the Liberated, and the Guild of Godheads, if you so wish. You can raise subservient dead, who can follow rudimentary commands. You can bind a single spirit to your will, and mute theirs, giving you complete control. You can put to rest multiple undead at once, whether you're in the land of the living or not.

A+

You can resurrect the recently dead, revive the long-dead into undead creatures. You can resurrect yourself, if you can locate your dead body in time from the spiritual realm. You can exorcise ghosts and undead permanently.

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College of Theology

Hierology Taught by Professor Joshua The study of holy and law magic, alongside the basics of protective charms, shielding, and boons and blessings.

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Hierology

Grade Chart F

Identification of blessings, of wards, and of magical bindings.

D

Creation of flimsy protective charms that can take the brunt of a weak spell, small blessings that give minor energy, and minor boons that provide good luck. Creating wards, which are small areas (6 foot in diameter) that have small laws (such as "No rocks allowed") that when broken cast a binding spell on the violator, which is pretty much only good as a hindrance or distraction.

C

Creation of basic protective charms that can take the brunt of an average spell, blessings and boons that provide noticeable stamina, creation of small and weak magical shields that don't protect a thing but instead an area, and larger wards (12 feet in diameter.)

B

Creation of strong protective blessings that both protect the recipient from the average spell, and provide them noticeable toughness; creation of larger and more resilient shields; and creating powerful wards, that cast stronger binding spells, which can actually serve to detain someone for a bit. Targeting people with weak wards.

A

Creation of powerful protective charms that grant immunity to something, blessings of greatly increased resilience; casting of powerful wards on people; and incredibly strong shields that can take a beating. Wards can now smite violators with magical damage.

A+

Being able to smite people at-will instead of relying on wards to do it; establishing a direct line of communication to the Immaculate Legion. (More on that in The Encyclopedia of Tyrr, under The Immaculate Legion)

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College of Theology

Tenebrology Taught by Professor Shaytan The Dark Arts often get a bad reputation due to the many villainous tenebrologist warlocks who have risen to infamy, but just like any other school of magic, tenebrologists come in all shapes and sizes. Just, most of those shapes happen to be very edgy. This class teaches Students how to wield shadow magics, understanding the nature of entropic magic and negative energy, and the basics of occultology.

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Tenebrology

Grade Chart F

Can identify the presence of negative magic and Liberated. (More on that in The Encyclopedia of Tyrr, under The Free and the Liberated)

D

Can cast a basic bolt of shadow, nowadays known as entropic or negative energy. pure decay, which typically manifests as pain and rot when it strikes a living thing, but also wears down and destroys inanimate objects and magical spells as well.

C

Can create antimagic bolts, which - when they strike a magical thing - cause considerable damage to the spells underlying that thing. If they strike a person, they'll temporarily disrupt their spellcasting capabilities. If they strike a spell, they cancel it out. Can control darkness and shadows - not able to create it, just manipulate it.

B

Can cast controlled entropic magic in specific shapes (spheres, columns, cones, bursts, etc.) and create antimagic fields that last until they've been hit by a spell, whereupon both the field and the spell are canceled out. Can create shadow and manipulate it. Can commune with specific Liberated.

A

Can create durable antimagic fields that can absorb multiple spells before being worn down completely. Can cast multiple antimagic fields at once, but not multiple durable ones. Can cast multiple entropic bolts at once, and individually control each one. Can cast supercharged antimagic bolts that will disable the spells of a person for an extended duration of time. Can form basic contracts with Liberated, negotiating for power and knowledge.

A+

Can bind magical entities - including weaker Liberated - to one's will, by using complex antimagic shackles. Establishing a direct line of communication to The Free.

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College of Theoretical Magimatics

Choromatics Taught by Professor Euclid The domain of all spells that create spatial and matter distortions - effects that alter size, geometry, or distances. In covering matter magic, it also covers the basics of gravity magic.

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Choromatics

Grade Chart F

Can notice the gravitational field and exact dimensions of objects.

D

Can distort spatial dimensions and gravity by up to 1.5x. For instance, causing something to be 1.5x more or less heavy, 1.5x more or less far away, or larger or smaller by a factor of 1.5x.

C

Can distort spatial dimensions by up to 2x. Can teleport small objects within a radius of 6 feet / 2 meters around the user to any other spot in that radius.

B

Can distort spatial dimensions by up to 4x. Can teleport large objects (up to the size of people) within a radius of 6 feet / 2 meters around the user to any other spot in that radius. Can completely negate the gravity of small things (usually, things with less gravity than the user). Can create portals through which any object can go through to another specified place of your choosing. You must place the portal yourself, though.

A

Can distort spatial dimensions by up to 6x. Can teleport large objects within a radius of 12 feet / 4 meters, and really big objects in a radius of 6 feet / 2 meters. Can completely negate the gravity of large things (things with the same or up to twice as much gravity as the user. This means you can negate your own gravity.) Can now create wormholes from a distance of up to 6 feet / 2 meters.

A+

Create miniature and extremely fleeting black-holes, create wormholes anywhere in eyesight, reverse all gravity within the immediate area, negate all gravity within the immediate area.

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College of Theoretical Magimatics

Chronomatics Taught by Professor Zeno Spells ranging from Haste to Slow, Temporal Magimatics is a crash course in magics that alter time. A waiver will have to be signed by you before taking the class in all time streams, for those enterprising timetraveling students.

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Chronomatics

Grade Chart F

Can cast a basic haste or slow spell on something, to make it go 1.5x as fast or 1.5x as slow.

D

Can cast a stronger haste or slow spell, to make it go 2x as fast or 2x as slow. Can stop something in time for about 10 seconds.

C

Can cast an even stronger haste or slow spell, making an object go 4x as fast or 4x as slow. Can stop something in time for about 30 seconds. Can see ahead into the future a few seconds, allowing one to dodge attacks. Can read the pasts of objects by touching them.

B

Can cast the strongest haste or slow spell, making an object go 6x as fast or 6x as slow. Can stop something in time for a few minutes. Can see ahead into the future up to a minute. Can see the past of anything and/or everything in an immediate radius of about 12 feet.

A

Can travel back in time one turn, reversing all things that happened in that turn. Cannot use this spell more than once per scene.

A+

Time travel backwards more than one turn. Travel back in time one turn more than once in a scene.

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College of Theoretical Magimatics

Neuromatics Taught by Professor Galen Magic of the mind, a modern day re-envisioning of the traditional mental magics of the past once known as Neuromancy. The skills of telepathy, telekinesis, scrying, and illusions are taught in this broad-discipline class. A psychology test will be required for admission.

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Neuromatics

Grade Chart F

Discern a general mood of the room.

D

Read the general mood of a specific person. Create an inanimate and noticeable illusion.

C

Create an inanimate but much more resilient illusion. Get a random insight on a person's personality.

B

Read someone's current thoughts. Create animate illusions. Implant suggestions into other people's minds.

A

Dive into people's minds to retrieve specific thoughts. Read multiple minds at once. Implant suggestions into multiple minds at once.

A+

Mind control. Persistent and autonomous illusions.

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Paths and Extracurriculars The Classes are strictly defined by Academagia - there's no independent study on campus, only those 18 classes to choose from. So the capabilities described by each Grade are generally obvious, and easily defined for all students. But how do the Administrators define capabilities of each Grade of the Students' Paths and Experiences, which are unique to each Student? Well, we're not asking the question for the hell of it - here's how.

Generally, the capabilities that Paths and Extracurriculars will be used to describe fall into one or more of four Categories: Fitness, Dexterity, Wisdom, and Character. When the Administrator is judging what a Student's Grade of a Path or Experience implies about the skills and capabilities of that Student, they may refer to one of the four Categories that they feel best describes what skills the Student acquired from that Path or Experience.

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The Academagia staff recommends that Students have their Path and Extracurriculars represent a large variety of skills and abilities, to give the Student the most material to draw from. A Student’s Paths and Extracurriculars are going to apply the four categories very narrowly for instance, an Extracurricular “Work at a Monster Zoo” is going to measure the Student’s Wisdom or Character with Monsters, not their Wisdom or Character in general - so, the average Student will still want to represent a broad range of skills, to give them a larger variety of situations and scenarios that they’re useful in. Try to be clear with the Administrator what you want your Extracurriculars and Path to represent, skill-wise.

Choosing a Path and Extracurriculars: A Path already describes a lot about a Student—what good can the Extracurriculars do on top of that?

The key to choosing a good Path and Extracurriculars is for them to reinforce the depth and potential of the Student, while also supporting their strengths and focus. For instance, a Student who’s hoping to become a Knight is going to obviously have the Path “Knight”… right? Well, not necessarily. This Student could have the path “Dragon Knight”, or “Spell Knight”, or “Felknight” - anything to give them that extra bit of depth! In a sea of Report Cards, a Student needs to stand out to get noticed by the Academagia. Likewise, their At the same time, Administrators are Extracurriculars should reinforce going to be looking at a Student’s who they are—a Knight—but also Extracurriculars and Path to see give them some extra intrigue and what adventure and journey would possibility. Remember, suit them best—for instance, if a Administrators will be testing you Student is clearly optimized for based on your Extracurriculars, so social situations, then their best choosing Extracurriculars with a ride adventure would probably be full of range of applications and utility is moments for these skills to be the key to success! tested.

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Categories Fitness can range from feats of pure strength, to ones of toughness. Regardless of whether you’re enduring a vicious blow or dishing one out, both are acts of Fitness. Obviously, if the Administrator deems that your Path or Experience would give you only one of the two - strength or toughness - then that's that. Dexterity is the skill of balance, agility, reflexes, hand-eye coordination. Dextrous Students move precisely and effectively, without sacrificing speed or quality. Aiming a wand, sculpting a masterpiece, and walking a tightrope are all abilities that can be mastered with a sufficient Grade in Dexterity.

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Categories Wisdom is the skill of cunning, intuition, and insight. While Students learn much at the Academagia, not everything is taught n class — shocking, I know. Wisdom represents worldly knowledge like street smarts and hands-on experience, the kinds of knowledge that help one solve problems creatively, and notice things that others wouldn’t. Character describes the general force of personality that a Student has, alongside one’s people skills, charisma, and mental strength. A silver tongue, nerves of steel, and a good read on a person’s personality- those are just some of the many skills that a good Grade in Character earns a Student.

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Life at the Academagia Now that the Students have finished Tyrr to learn from. A day at up their Report Cards, it's time to Academagia is never boring—there begin their lives at the Academagia! is always some great adventure to The Academagia is a magical school be had! Ancient tombs are opened and release equally-ancient curses, full of intrigue, adventure, quests, lost ruins, treasure, wilds, and more. wild beasts roam the forgotten halls of the Old Grounds, magical The grounds for the Academagia experiments go awry in the were specifically chosen—and laboratories, and more! Each day, perhaps even nudged along by its founding wizards and withces—to be Students are going to be reacting to a diverse land, giving the students of the scenarios provided by the the Academagia the widest possible Administrator—and so, let’s explain exactly how a Student does that! range of settings from all across

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Tests and Easy Actions

the Grade Chart in the Enrollment section to get an idea of what each You can't get through your education in Academagia without a Grade is capable of for each Category. Its only when a student few Tests. Or rather, a lot of Tests. attempts something dramatic and A Test is any dramatic action that truly out of their reach - that is, that would be difficult for you. As a wise requires a Grade in a Subject that philosopher dog once said, "Dude, they aren't at, and when failure suckin’ at something is the first step would be interesting and important to being sorta good at something." that they have to take a Test. You're going to be facing a lot of Tests as a Fledgeling or Dilettante in When you take a Test, roll two sixsided die. The difference between anything - but what's nice is, you will learn from these Tests, whether your Grade in the Subject and the Grade at which the action you're you succeed or fail, and only by attempting becomes effortless (the learning can you go stronger and start being sorta good at that thing. Difficulty Grade) is the Curve of the Test, which determines how difficult Every student has some actions that it is to Pass the Test. they are obviously capable of easily doing. These action are not labeled For the purposes of tests, there Tests by the Administrator. They are exists a fifth and final Grade, unattainable by any mortal being called Easy Actions. How does the A+. Even a Student with an A in a Administrator determine what is or Subject will have to struggle and isn't an Easy Action, given the work to do some things - and those Grades of a Student? For Classes, things have a Difficulty Grade of A+. refer to the Grade Chart under that Class in the Colleges and Classes Your Curve is the number you need section, which lists the possibilities to beat on both die to Pass the of each Grade. Anything your Grade test! For instance, if you've a Grade or below is an Easy Action. For of F and you're trying to do an action Paths and Extracurriculars, eyeball with Difficulty Grade A+, you're

49

going to need to roll more than (F→D→C→B→A→A+)=5 on both die to succeed. As they say, you don't learn from success as much as failure - and that carries on into the Academagia system as well. If you fail your Test, you learn from the experience, and gain Learning Points equal to the Curve of the Test! Thus, However, when you Pass a test, you attempting the nigh-impossible have complete control over the (such as a Grade A+ action with a Grade F in that Subject) also rewards results of your action. For instance, you a lot, with 5 Learning Points! The you could discover a weakness of the monster you're attacking, find a trade off, of course, is that you're also very likely to just fail completely. hidden treasure in the room you're You can spend these Learning Points exploring, or force a person you're interrogating into divulging their at the end of a session to increase the Grades in your Subjects, just like secrets. The result must make logical sense - so revealing a sea during Enrollment. serpent is allergic to water is not Results, Triumphs, and gonna work - and it must be Consequences an obvious application of your When you take an Easy Action, you Subject - so you can't use your describe what you do, and then the Warlord Path to make a golem, for Administrator says what happens. example, even if you justify it by The action can't backfire on you, or saying it's a war-golem or whatever. be completely ineffective - but it is A basic guideline: Passing a Test still up to the Administrator to lets you create an advantage, not determine what the results of your end the scene or change the plot. action are.

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Failing a Test, of course, carries 0 some dire repercussions. When you fail a Test, the Administrator gets to or less describe how your action is botched, and the consequences of the failure. Typically, the higher the difference 1-2 between the results of a die and the result necessary to Pass, the more significant the failure. Add together 3-6 the amount below Passing the Student was on both die. If they Passed on one die, subtract that from the other number instead. The sum is 7-8 their Degree of Failure. Check the Degree of Failure table, to the right, for the results.

9-10

This means that the Student Passed on one die by an equal or higher degree than they Failed on the other. The Student chooses to succeed at a costly price; or to have nothing happen, neither good nor bad. The Student fails, and there's a minor price for that failure. A swing and a miss at the monster results in them losing their balance; in lying to a teacher, they inadvertently let something important slip; locked in a flooding room, they fumble and lose a treasured item. The Student has badly failed, and the situation escalates. The monster gets mad; the teacher realizes you're lying; failing to disarm a trap, the Student triggers a magical sentry. The Student has failed dramatically, the situation escalates, and they are knocked out for a round. The monster has cold-clocked them upside the head; they are shocked into silence by a riposte in a debate; they are scrabbling for purchase on a steep cliff. There are serious negative consequences for this failure. The Student is out of commission for the rest of the scene, and the situation has gone supremely south for the Students!

Life Lessons

51

Not all lessons are learned just from Tests, of course! A lot of the most important teachings and knowledge are acquired simply by adventuring, fighting enemies, making friends, going on field trips, and even studying (though that one's boring). In other words, just by living their lives, overcoming challenges, and improving as people, Students can earn Learning Points!

truly growth or learning. Of course, the final decision of how much to hand out is up to the Administrator if the Administrator feels that Students earned extra Learning Points through exciting action or creative plans, the Administrator can hand out Learning Points for that too, and in fact, this is encouraged!

Just like the Learning Points earned from Tests, and the ones during If the Student has uncovered a grisly Enrollment, Students can spend secret about their family, had their these Learning Points at the end of a values tested, or discovered the lost session to increase the Grades in secret of making a great pastry, they their Subjects. have learned something important, and thus earned Learning Points! The basic guideline is that Students earn Learning Points at the end of a session based on how much they changed and grew that session. The 'degree' of change can be measured up against the Curve. Changing extremely drastically could be likened to 5 Learning Points, and a minor lesson could be 1 Learning Point. The only real thing to keep in mind is that the change must be lasting. If it is going to be forgotten in just a few adventures, that wasn’t

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Study Guide Alright, let's have a brief review of the Academagia system as a whole, shall we? You can use this as a quick reference sheet if need be. ◆The group of people adventuring together consists of one Administrator and any number of Students. The Administrator acts as the moderator, guiding the course of the journey, while the Students act and react to the events and characters the Administrator narrates. ◆ Students choose a Major and take two Classes from it, choose a Minor and take one Class from it, describe two Extracurriculars they think will help them at Academagia, and then choose their Path, their ambition and future goal. These are their six Subjects. They start with 100 Learning Points (LP). ◆ The Students spend their 100 Learning Points among any number of their six Subjects to increase their Grades in the Subjects. To increase to the next Grade in a Subject, a Student spends 10 points for each Grade they already have in that Subject. ◆ Over the course of the adventure, whenever a Student would take an action, the Administrator compares it to their Grade in the relevant Subject - if their Grade determines that they can do the action with no effort, it's an Easy Action, and they succeed. Then, the Administrator describes the results. Otherwise... ◆The Student takes a Test. They compare their Grade in the subject to the Grade of the action they're attempting to do, which is set as the Curve of the Test. Then, they roll two six-sided die. If the number on both die is over the Curve of the Test, they Pass! Otherwise, they Fail. ◆ When a Student Passes a Test, they get to describe the result of their action. ◆ When a Student Fails a Test, the Administrator describes how their attempted action fails, and its consequences. Refer to the Degree of Failure Chart to figure out how exactly the Student fails.The Student gets LP equal to the Curve of the Test. ◆ At the end of each session, all Students earn LP - ranging from 1 to 5 - correlating to how much they learned and grew that session. That's the Study Guide! With that, the Academagia system has been described. No more is needed to go on adventures with the Academagia system - one can go out right now to quest with their fellow Students in the pursuit of knowledge! However, if you wish to completely understand the magic and world of Academagia, look no further than The Encyclopedia of Tyrr, which is coming up soon.

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The Encyclopedia of Tyrr

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mysterious circumstances — the Academagia has grown more accepting of students of disparate skill levels. When the Dean took up the role of the Archmage for the first time centuries ago, the Academagia finally opened its doors to truly all magical students, no matter their mastery. The Academagia spans an entire continent in its universe, Tyrr. Some theorize that the Unnamed Mage created this continent, while others claim that he transformed an existing one into the Academagia as it is today. However it came to be, the Academagia now is home to realms and terrains taken from many universes like patchwork. The prevailing theory of thought is that the Unnamed Mage built it this way to provide as myriad an experience as he could to his pupils. The Academagia holds mountain ranges, volcanic fields, icy extremities, overgrown jungles, and a lot of dungeons and ruins, perhaps leftover from The Academagia is an ancient and legendary what came before it. Though the school of magic and wizardry. Founded eons Academagia is vast, it is filled with magics ago — so long ago that very few people alive that allow students to quickly traverse it. know exactly when — the Academagia Until a millennium ago, the Academagia began as an institute devoted to the study studied solely ’magic’ - there did not exist and learning of magic in all forms. the standard College division of the modern Founded by a mysterious Unnamed Mage day, as all magic was thought to be the who was known to each of the many same. Archmage Paracelsus was the first to universes of reality by different names, the use the College system, when he divided the Academagia quickly became a place of myth field of magic into six Colleges — and along and rumor. Few mages were accepted into with that, the Academagia itself — and its halls, and when they returned, they were chose the first Archmages for each College. profoundly changed, having now turned into His theoretical divisions of magic quickly incredibly powerful magicians with no equal spread across the multiverse and became besides other students of the Academagia. accepted as the prevailing system of Over the centuries — and especially after magical thought. the Unnamed Mage disappeared under

The Academagia

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The Academagia makes up an entire continent of its own on Tyrr. Besides the Academagia there are four other continents, one in each of the cardinal directions of the Academagia: Sesar to the north, Vhok to the south, Umeria to the east, and Ee to the west. Sesar is an arctic continent, surrounded by treacherous waters and a perpetual stormline. Covered in frozen lakes and rimed rivers, it is the home of the Tyrr’s members of the Oceanic League, with the most common member on Tyrr being the Mer, as is usual for universes. Vhok is a mountainous continent, with stretches of desert between the ranges. Beneath the earth, however, deep rivers and vast caverns are home Like a majority of the multiverses, the to Tyrr’s Dverg. dominant race in Tyrr is humanity. It also natively—or at least, as far back Umeria is covered by the vast Umerian Empire, founded by the humans of as recorded history can tell — has Tyrr millennia ago with might and been a home to the other intelligent races, Dvergan, Sylphid, and beings of magic. Its land was once diverse, but is the Oceanic League. All of Tyrr speak now mostly urban city. Umeria is the the same language, Tyrrean, which is a magological cutting edge of Tyrr, as is rough butchering of the First Tongue. expected with human civilizations. Ee is a grassy land of rolling hills and Filled with ancient temples, epic vast fields. The Sylphids of Tyrr claim artifacts, legendary prophecies, it as their homeland, but they really chosen ones, vast kingdoms, it is live more in its air space, not on the considered perfectly average. With land. The continent itself is diverse, one exception of course—Tyrr is the home to members of each race. home of the Academagia.

Tyrr

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began his research into the workings of Elementals, he quickly noted that only three types appeared— those associated with what had been termed elemental magic, obviously. Yet many other kinds of magic existed in practice, with no elementals of their own! Paracelsus devised a classification system, separating the schools of magic into what made them unique — Elemental Magic had elementals, Natural Magic had matter, Alchemy & Artifice had enchantment, Shamanism life, Theology soul, and what he termed Theoretical Magimatics was the study of magic itself. And thus, the six Colleges were born — and with it, the idea of magic as not one entity but many, the first hint to the theory of the Five Fundamental Forces. A century ago, Mage Nikolzar—before he became the Archmage of Theoretical Magimatics— was researching the concept of mana, the single link remaining between the various Colleges of magic. He was convinced that there existed some fundamental interaction between the Colleges at the level of mana—for how could one energy source power such disparate spells, if they had no shared root? Researchers scoffed at Nikolzar’s attempts to revive the long-dead Unifying Theory — but his Magical thought and research have existed forever. efforts weren’t for naught, as Nikolzar realized when he looked at a very small scale, that each of As all races are naturally gifted with magic, it was the magics manipulated a unique incredibly small inevitable for some intrepid being to start investigating the magical abilities that people could particle! (Alchemy & Artifice and Theoretical Magimatics manipulating all particles in a limited access. This study was first known as magology. fashion.) Elemental Magic manipulated For much of magology’s history, magic has been ‘elementons’, the particle of energy; Natural Magic known to be driven by a single force, called the manipulated ‘atomons’, the particle of mass; arcane. Immaterial, and invisible to all races except Shamanism ‘vitons’, the particle of life; Theology humans, the arcane was thought to make up the ‘ectons’, the particle of soul. Alchemy & Artifce heavens and all magical spells. However, as could bind magics to processed and manmade magology progressed and developed, magical objects, which lacked a magic of their own; and researchers began to realize that the different Theoretical Magimatics, then a neglected and purely styles of magic differed in many ways that could theoretical field as the name implies, could not be explained easily. Though all were powered manipulate ‘arcanons’, the even smaller particle of by the arcane, spells weren’t made of the arcane. concept, which makes up all magical particles and For millenia, they sought a Unifying Theory of the fabric of the universes itself. Magology, that would connect the many types of With this discovery, Nikolzar was thrown headlong magic and their practitioners in some way. into fame, and made the youngest Archmage to When Archmage Paracelsus of the Academagia date, heading the College of Theoretical Magimatics.

The Five Fundamental Forces

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Humans Humans are naturally frail bipedal creatures entirely made of soft and fragile flesh, and are bestowed with significant stamina. They are inherently social creatures, having begun in small tribes and worked their way up to large civilizations. Art, politics, and strategy come far more naturally to them than the other races, and that alongside wizardry has led to them often being conquerors, both culturally and militarily, despite their natural frailty and weakness. They are allies of all other races, despite this. Humans are the only race to not have

a bond to a Natural Magic—instead, they are imbued with all inherent Natural Magics, being made out of Air, Earth, and Water equally. This symmetrical distribution balances out quite well, resulting in Humans having a natural affinity with all Colleges, and being the only race to naturally be able to see the arcane and the workings of spells. These facts combined result in Humans being natural wizards and witches across the multiverse, and often leading their universe’s civilizations in magological progress and research. For instance, a majority of inventors of magological devices and spells across the Colleges have been Humans—with the exception of the Natural Magics, of course. Theoretical Magimatics is the College that Humans are most readily capable with, as arcane-sight is an inherent trait of all humans, and would obviously be of use when researching arcanons and their uses. Thus, it comes as no surprise that Archmage Nikolar, the father of modern-day Theoretical Magimatics and its current Archmage, is a human from birth. Besides Theoretical Magimatics, Humans also display an affinity for Alchemy & Artifice, which they use to circumvent their natural frailty.

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shapes and sizes because they are naturally affined to Hydromantic magic, which is of change and continuums. Thus, their races have evolved and diverged over time like a river from its source, resulting in the incredible variety they now have. The Oceanic League also are generally skilled with Electroturgy, as it and Hydromancy share a similar philosophical root in being magics of transition, movement, and flow. The constituent tribes of the Oceanic League are all naturally warlike, and prone to competition and rivalry. Though the formation of the Oceanic The Oceanic League a millenium ago has reduced League the tribes’ wars and rivalries, the League is still tenuous at best, and The Oceanic League is not one race, millennia of tension do not disappear but instead a large variety of races. with such an alliance. The Oceanic The most common of these, and the de League itself remains organized in facto leaders of the League, are the tribes, who compete for political Mer, who have the features of various positioning and with the Mer for the types of fish. Beyond the Mer, there position as the leader tribe. exist an uncountable number of other The Oceanic League are begrudging races. A few of the more common are allies of Humans, often contesting the Dar, titans who look similar to with them over coastal areas but whales; the Ur, scaled reptilians akin approximately friendly in relations to crocodilians; and the Kir, tall and otherwise, though a bit tense. The quiet peoples who take after squids. Oceanic League, even when rivals of Other races remain unnamed since the Humans, admires their fighting they are too rare for such convention. spirit and the Humans’ ambition to The Oceanic League come in so many overcome their squishy bodies.

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Earth. As such, they are staunch and proud creatures, who are set in their ways and rarely change. Thus, it makes sense that they also share a natural connection with Cryoturgy, which has a similar philosophy of inflexibility, stillness, and constancy. Families to the Dverg are very important. A family is more than just a shared bloodline—it is also a shared creed, personality, philosophy, and more. A Dverg tries their best to emulate their forefathers going back for generations, and to live up to one of the chosen Iduks of their clan, a particularly important Dverg from the past who ascended into oratory legend. All clans share some Iduks — Sword, the warrior and the king; The Dvergan typically live deep Shield, the wright and the kind; and underground, within expansive Staff, the wizard and the clever. When caverns. The Dvergan are creatures a Dverg disgraces their clan, they are made of rough and thick skin, with a to take off their mask for their life — stone carapace covering much of their in other words, to be forgotten to the body. Their stone carapaces are Dverg and their histories forever. ritualistically sculpted into intricate The Dverg are suspicious and cautious armors and etched with glyphs and folk, and thus have no overly friendly sigils that tell the stories of their clan relations to any of the other races— going back for generations. Each nor are they enemies, though. They Dvergan also dons a stone mask, upon venture out above ground only in their which is written their own deeds. younger years, typically, and remain The Dverg are made of stone because careful to never forget the traditions they are the race naturally affined to carved into their stone hearts. Some Geomancy, the Natural Magic of few do remain above ground, however.

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Sylphid The Sylphid are beings of the air, so light and diaphanous that they may float upon the breeze effortlessly. Thin as paper, they are nonetheless remarkably resilient to harm, though there’s not much cause to worry as they also typically live hundreds of kilometers above the earth alighted upon the winds. The Sylphid have only recently—a few milleniums ago— begun diplomatic relations with the peoples of the surface, using complicated armors they call Agra Talun to weigh them down enough to drag them to land, and which are

powered by magic in such a way as to make them feasible to move with such weight. The Agra Talun of each Sylphid is designed elaborately and oddly, in a way that the Sylphid sees as beautiful, but each other race is perplexed by. Such alien practices are typical of the Sylphids. Being separated from the other races for a huge majority of their existence, they have therefore developed very alien cultures and mindsets to the other races, making them at best confusing, and at worst enigmas. Sylphids have no prose, no sculpture, no painting—their only art and form of transmitted culture is storytelling and comedy, the latter of which is a favorite to them. Sylphids are giddy and excitable, and friends to every race — though, as nuisances, the kindness is not always returned. As should be clear, the Sylphid are affined to Air — flighty, difficult to grasp, and forever free. This also connects them inherently to the Elemental Magic of Pyroturgy, the element of liberation and excitement. The current Archmage of the Academagia, known only as the Dean—for Sylphid names are unpronounceable to other races, as they are spoken with silence — is a mysterious individual who rose to prominence as an extremely powerful

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up these ecosystems, and the patterns and relationships that define them.

The Wild The Wild is not another plane of existence, but instead another world overlaid on top of ours—the world of vitons, the particle of Shamanism. Shamans learn to see only vitons, and in doing so, the Wild — which is the stream of Vitons that flows deep beneath the fabric of reality, connecting all living things across all universes. From the Wild, all living things are born and patterned — and from all living things, vitons flow into the Wild. A continual cycle of feedback and patterns creates the complex ecosystems, the organisms that make

All vitons are the same, yet not — they each are patterned differently, by their experiences and usages in the natural world, and thus imbued with a pattern and form over time. Vitons of similar patterns pool together in the stream of the Wild, like fluids in a mixture, forming pools—and these pools create Archetypes, the powerful and massive organisms of pure viton that live in the Wild. Archetypes are the embodiments of certain living things—they are the ideal, the pattern and form that these living things strive to emulate, and the mold from which they are forged. As these Archetypes lack material form or spiritual form, they have no presence or sentience — but they are still capable of action on an instinctual level, and on communicating with skilled Shamans. Archetypes may work through their constituent members in the living world, able to influence living things that are patterned off of them, but this is rarely observed. Traditional Shamans, who seek the way of the messenger and mediator between the living world and the Wild, seek to communicate and negotiate with its Archetypes and bring balance to the Wild and the living world.

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The Spiritual Realm is a treacherous and difficult place for any being made of substances other than ectons to traverse. Unlike the Wild, it is a separate realm of existence from the material world, and thus operates by its own laws, though magic still works. Chthonologians are the most intimately connected to the Spiritual Realm out of the Theologians, able to serve as mediums between the two realms by walking along their edge. The Spiritual Realm is not the afterlife — it is the home of those awaiting judgment by the Arbiters, who may take days to years to judge a soul. Until then, spirits may wander the The Spiritual Realm Spiritual Realm, or even try to force their way back into the realm of the The Spiritual Realm is the home of living as ghosts or the undead. Neither spirits — those entities separated form work out well, as Chthonologians are their atomons and vitons, purely hired to take care of such problems. divorced convictions and beliefs of a The Spiritual Realm is also home to the person. In other words, the dead. A three factions of deities of the glassy obsidian floor perpetually full of universe claiming to be the true mist, the Spiritual Realm is made Almighty, the Immaculate Legion, the purely of ectons, the soul and Guild of Godheads, and the Liberated. thoughts of a being. Without ectons, The divinities reside far within the something is not capable of true Spiritual Realm, too far for most thought of emotion. As such, ectons Chthonologians to reach, but not far are particularly connected to enough to be truly out of reach for all. arcanons, the particle of concept, and A determined individual can still researchers have found that ectons beseech the gods in person, though it are the best conductors of arcanons. rarely works out well for them.

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monochromatic, devoid of all color. Arbiters come in two main varieties — either predominantly ebon or pallid. They are always cloaked and robed. Their faces are never seen, though it varies how exactly they are obscured. The Arbiters roam the Spiritual Realm, until they reach a soul. When they do, they stop before the soul in complete silence ‘judging’, and then claim it. The soul then dissipates into the perpetual mist of the Spiritual Realm, never to be seen again. No one is sure exactly what happens to the spirits claimed this way by Arbiters, though each of the factions of divinities have their own competing theories and ideas on Arbiters to sell you. Each faction believes some of the Arbiters to be Since the dawn of time, there have theirs, and yet have no evidence to existed the mysterious and enigmatic, show for their arguments. The Arbiters. They are made of pure Immaculate Legion claim the pallid arcanon — their existence is merely a Arbiters as allies of their ranks that truth, driven by no matter, spirit, life, choose the devout to ascend to join or energy. Nobody knows how many the Immaculate, and the ebon as Arbiters exist, and attempts to make servants that damn the wicked. The grimoires describing all of their kind Liberated say the ebon Arbiters were have always failed, as each one is created by The Free to reward those unique in appearace, either radically who act, and the pale to punish those or subtly. Some theorize that they are who oppress. And the Guild of infinite in number; others theorize that Godheads claims many things about there is but one, constantly changing. the Arbiters, all conflicting. All Arbiters share a few things in common, at least. They are purely

The Arbiters

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themselves as freed from their prisons by the Free, just as he tore himself from nothing in his desire to exist.

The Liberated and The Free The Liberated are a faction led by the divinity the Free, one of the claimants for the title of the Almighty, like all other divinities. The Free believes himself to have been born at the dawn of time, and that he wrenched himself from the primordial sea of nothingness, then taught the rest of existence to do the same. He claims that all things exist only to serve your wishes, and that the meaning of life is to act according to your own desires. He preaches complete freedom and total liberation—hence the title of his most devout, the Liberated, who see

The Liberated form the ranks of the Free. They have no titles, no organization — they serve however they wish, whenever they wish. The Free emphasizes the voluntary nature of his disciples, and their choice in all things they do. However , the Free often presents his Liberated with difficult ‘choices’. For example, “Obey my command, or I kill you.” Devout and faithful Liberated are rewarded with great ectonic power, however, this power deterioriates their life and matter like a poison. The Free’s most pious are ascended into Demons, beings of pure ecton and great power. The Free is a powerful and fierce divinity, and like all divnities, is made purely of ecton. In his case, he is supremely gifted with tenebrology, and he himself is a being of chaos. He rewards those that choose and act, no matter what their choice and action is. He is often willing to grant wishes, if only the wisher pays a price or returns a favor to him in the future. Among the Liberated, there exists one fallen El from the Immaculate Legion, who fell only recently. She has named herself “O”. Tensions between the two factions have grown considerably.

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nine Melodies, who each have nine Legionnaires. Each of the nine Demesnes is led by a Quorum of nine nameless El, powerful beings of pure ecton embodying hierology.

The Immaculate Legion

The Immaculate Legion work as militant missionaries of the Perfect, who embodies all things perfectly, but especially justice and order. They see themselves as servants of the Law of the One True Almighty, and seek to have all others understand his righteous ways. It doesn’t matter whether they convince you with a silver tongue or a steel blade, as long as you are convinced.

The Legionnaires, as exalters of order and law, thus work with Hierology, as would be expected of servants of El. The Immaculate Legion maintain that The El themselves are powerful they serve a divinity, the Perfect, who practitioners of hierology, with a is one of the claimants to the title of complete knowledge and control over the true Almighty of reality. The only it, and are therefore incredibly problem with their assertion is that powerful and dangerous, when they the Perfect has not made his presence appear, which is very rare indeed. known in eons, and it is repeatedly They usually rely on the Legionnaires, called into question whether he is though no one is quite sure why. dead, or even existed in the first place. Only one El has fallen, quite recently The Legion is organized in strict order, in fact, and she fell to the Free, a fact first divided into nine Demesnes, that the Free is never afraid to remind which are futher separated into nine the Immaculate Legion of. This leaves Spheres, then split into nine the ranks of the El numbering eighty, Symphonies, arranged once more into which consternates them to no end. nine Choirs, then lastly grouped into

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pantheons, groups of divinities who each back up each other’s claims, and Unions, which represent the shared skillsets among many of the gods in their pantheons. For instance, Zowz is the head of the Union of Thunder, which consists of storm deities. The number of Unions is countless, but the largest ones correlate roughly to the magics. Fire, Winter, Thunder, Sea, Land, Sky, Nature, Life, Smithing, Medicine, Justice, Death, Evil, Time, and Wisdom. The divinities of the Guild of Godheads are not all claimaints. Many are smaller divinities who seek to stay out of the war for the title, and simply wish to survive.

The Guild Of Godheads

The Guild of Godheads exists very shakily. The pantheons are always bickering, especially for territorial rights of worship, claims over waffling The Guild of Godheads is a group of followers, and arguments over the divinities, many of which are claimants to legality of syncretism. It doesn’t help that the title of the Almighty, the creator of many pantheons are lead by claimants to the universe and its one true god. The the Almighty, thus leading to a lot of inter Guild of Godheads was founded a few -pantheon rivalries and even wars in millennia ago relatively recently in the some cases. Nor does it help that Zowz, scale of the divine. Faced before the the charismatic and ambitious leader of combined might of the Free and his the Guild, is also an arrogant blowhard Liberated, and the organized ranks of the who is a known braggart and showboat. Immaculate Legion, the many smaller The Guild of Godheads is often faced divinities and their loyal pantheons of with public ridicule for their fellows were hopeless to win followers. unprofessional and ungodly behavior— However, Zowz, the leader of the Hellan yet, they are also the most widely pantheon, rallied the smaller divinities worshipped of the three factions of together to unify and form the Guild. divinities. Apparently their mortal resemblances earn them some sympathy. The Guild of Godheads is made up of

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