Holy Cow
Guest
reserved for index and intro and whatnot, this is a shared setting some codexers have been developing for a PnP and I thought to risk a narrative in it to see how it holds up
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Monster Trucks
- Thread starter Holy Cow
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- wizard kings
Holy Cow
Guest
The summons, when it came, was like a Xiphos: Edged both ways, satisfying as it wounded. The pupil had not heard from the mentor for the better part of a decade, and had feared and sometimes hoped their ties were forever cut: They had not parted in amity, the master disgusted at the pupil’s choice of lover, and harsh words traded that could not be unsaid. Had they been men of the world, honour would have demanded the spilling of blood. It is fortunate, then, that both pupil and mentor are practitioners, and care not a fig for the laws and customs that rule the lives of their lesser kin. Where the Art is concerned, all victories are pyrrhic victories. Mothers often hope their children learn soon in life that one should not play with fire, and sometimes ensure the child burns their fingers once early on so that he or she will learn not to be burned again. Practitioners seldom have this luxury, as one unfortunate Proscribed learned when trying to co-opt the pupil to his cause. The pupil thought the calcined remains made quite a tableau at the tavern’s doorstep, and would surely bring a great deal of morbid custom to the innkeep.
Now, half a world away from home and heart, the pupil waits alone on the second floor of a wizard’s tower. The room smells of saffron and lemon, better fit for a marketplace than a library. The walls are lined with shelves from top to bottom, each divided into slots where the works are stored. The scrolls are fastened with leather tabs, thongs slotted through them, with one end encircling the scrolls and tied to the exterior. Beneath each slot, there are characters in the roman alphabet, mostly titles, though some are marked only with numerals or fragments of sentences. The pupil walks from slot to slot, marveling at the works contained therein: “The Olympiad” reputedly written by Homer, considered by many scholars to be the first work of literature of the new era, although the Persian Magi hold that to be the “Memorial of Light”, a lost text. “On Magic”, Aristotle’s famous treatise, though now largely discredited. “Lost Carcosa, the Ghostplague and the downfall of the Achaemenid Dynasty” by Pseudo-Baracus, a man somewhat given to flights of fancy in both ideas and prose. Ah, here is a newer arrival, “Priests of the Midnight Sun”, written by one Aethelrix. The scroll is badly bruised and spotted with red. Presently the whole chamber is tinged by the ruby rays of the setting sun. It is a sunset that triggers memories of Home, of…
A) The Persian Empire, broken and desolate remnants of a once mighty juggernaut, haunted by ghosts and ruled from the shadows by the Magi who claim to see the future in light. Theirs is the solitary task of guarding against the end of the world, though sympathetic to their plight is…
B) The Roman Republic, its School the first signatory of the Treaty of Nikaea, a nation of politics, art and fine jurisprudence who prefer the glint of a dagger in the dark to the gleam of a thousand swords at dawn. Their proudest accomplishment is…
C) The Gallic Federation, now an independent and prosperous nation in its own right, eager to exercise its political muscle. The Druids hold Tradition and Ritual above all else, but find themselves more and more superseded by the ambition of the young, stoked by…
D) The Syracusan Dominion, a mercantile thalassocracy whose advanced machinery can only be matched by the machinations of its mages, their colonial ambitions bare for all to see. Though a naval and industrial powerhouse, they find themselves constantly foiled by…
E) The Hellenic League, birthplace of Civilization, a collection of city-states heir to Prometheus’ Gift and led by Sparta, First Among Equals and undisputed military power of the Mediterranean. Theirs is the burden of upholding Culture and Reason in these dark times, though this claim is disputed by…
F) The Free Cities of Palestine, where the words of the kabbalists make gardens bloom in the desert and all the peoples of the world come to their shores to trade in the finest wares and be enlightened by the mystical works of its sages. Its independence was recently wrested from…
G) The Basileia Numakedon, the carcass of Alexander’s Legacy now confined to Asia Minor. Though other countries may deride the Serpentine Throne’s political and military might, the Mithridatic School’s medics are one of the Great Sea’s most valuable assets, and none dare risk their displeasure save for…
H) The Kingdom of Egypt, the River Nation of the restless dead. Its royalty returned from millennia of slumber within its Pyramids now push their competing claims and wage endless war with their deathless legions, all to win the Nile’s greatest prize: The Sekhemti.
Turning away from the vista, the pupil takes firesteel and flint from a tinderbox and lights the large bronze lamp in the alcove above the window, then resumes the inspection of the scrolls: “The Bull” by Archillides of Syracuse, the account of his failed expedition into Cretan waters. It is said that the Horned King himself, after acquiring a copy of this work, invited Archillides to reside in Crete for as long as he would, so impressed was the Minotaur with the harrowing account. Some say the old sailor still resides there, safe from death and old age, attended at all times by nymphs who bathe him with rosewater and feed him Ambrosia. The next slot contains a work familiar to every lettered person on the shores of the Great Sea: “Carthage must be destroyed”. More pamphlet than scroll, authorship anonymous, but with powerful rhetoric. It calls for the utter annihilation of the citizens of the Iberian Peninsula and their demon-god. The work itself is old, but tends to reappear whenever tensions flare on the Gallic-Carthaginian border. At the end of the shelves the slots above and below disappear to give way to one single aperture. Inside it rests a leathery rectangle with the height of three scrolls stacked but half as narrow. Beneath the aperture the title engraving reads: “The Wizard Kings”.
“It is a tome, or codex,” says Varvanus, the mentor’s former slave, offering the pupil a goblet of wine and a plate of bread and cheese that are accepted with thanks “You open it like so, and turn its pages instead of unrolling them; the vellum sheets are sewn and glued together on the spine. Thus both sides can be used for writing, as you see.” He pauses to hand the pupil the book and refill the goblet. “A peculiar work. The master may be some time.” After a perfunctory bow, the old retainer leaves with the empty plate and disappears into a side door. The pupil begins reading:
“By the reckoning of where I was born, over four thousand years have passed since God created the Heavens and the Earth. By the reckoning of where I lived and did not die, this is the year of our Lord of 476. Neither date is found in the local calendar, which proclaims the present as the year 812 of the Apostatic Era, eight centuries since the Burning of Olympus. Though the date is ominous, no barbarians are at the gates of the Roman Empire. In fact, it has never existed and the Roman Senate and People are alive and well, if not thriving in the shadow of its former colonies. The central European tribes have been thoroughly civilized and most have long since broken away from Rome’s cultural tutelage, now occupied with barbarians of their own. The Germanic kingdoms are beset by vicious marauders from the Far North, whose High Priests bring Winter and Storm. Even so, they are of little concern to the rest of the world. Earth’s beating heart is the Great Sea and its shoreline, from the Pillars of Herakles to the Hellespont and the Levant. Cities thrive in every region touched by the Mediterranean; commerce, travel and conquest stoke the furnace of the Soul and the arts and sciences flourish, the light of Man’s achievements thereby enhanced. There is scant little civilization east of the River Jordan; the much-reduced Persian Empire stands as a bulwark to the hungry ghosts of Carcosa, and an alliance of free peoples of the Caucasus hope to withstand the charge of the Horselords of the Steppe, but more often than not become bloody smears under their hooves. It is a brutal and dangerous time to be alive, but none would gainsay me when I say this is the most wondrous time in Human history. For Man has strived ever upwards and achieved something greater than his culture, his arts and crafts: Man has mastered Fire, not of the hearth of home, but of the Heart of Creation…And Wizards have mastered Man.”
The lamp has gone dark. Varvanus quietly glides back into the chamber and takes the exhausted pupil by the hand to the already prepared chambers, softly closing the door on his way out. A mirror and washbasin are set on the rustic table next to the bed. The pupil performs the necessary ablutions before turning in, and studies the face reflected in the glass mirror backed with gold leaf. The pupil sees…
1) A young face of classical features and understated beauty that has driven many a man head over heels, usually to their detriment. A useful tool in a witch’s arsenal, though it can’t quite conceal the contemptuous arrogance underneath.
2) The lean face of a man in late youth. Not particularly handsome but agreeable enough to look at, though the supercilious sneer that often plays upon its lips gives the patrician cast a brittle quality.
Now, half a world away from home and heart, the pupil waits alone on the second floor of a wizard’s tower. The room smells of saffron and lemon, better fit for a marketplace than a library. The walls are lined with shelves from top to bottom, each divided into slots where the works are stored. The scrolls are fastened with leather tabs, thongs slotted through them, with one end encircling the scrolls and tied to the exterior. Beneath each slot, there are characters in the roman alphabet, mostly titles, though some are marked only with numerals or fragments of sentences. The pupil walks from slot to slot, marveling at the works contained therein: “The Olympiad” reputedly written by Homer, considered by many scholars to be the first work of literature of the new era, although the Persian Magi hold that to be the “Memorial of Light”, a lost text. “On Magic”, Aristotle’s famous treatise, though now largely discredited. “Lost Carcosa, the Ghostplague and the downfall of the Achaemenid Dynasty” by Pseudo-Baracus, a man somewhat given to flights of fancy in both ideas and prose. Ah, here is a newer arrival, “Priests of the Midnight Sun”, written by one Aethelrix. The scroll is badly bruised and spotted with red. Presently the whole chamber is tinged by the ruby rays of the setting sun. It is a sunset that triggers memories of Home, of…
A) The Persian Empire, broken and desolate remnants of a once mighty juggernaut, haunted by ghosts and ruled from the shadows by the Magi who claim to see the future in light. Theirs is the solitary task of guarding against the end of the world, though sympathetic to their plight is…
B) The Roman Republic, its School the first signatory of the Treaty of Nikaea, a nation of politics, art and fine jurisprudence who prefer the glint of a dagger in the dark to the gleam of a thousand swords at dawn. Their proudest accomplishment is…
C) The Gallic Federation, now an independent and prosperous nation in its own right, eager to exercise its political muscle. The Druids hold Tradition and Ritual above all else, but find themselves more and more superseded by the ambition of the young, stoked by…
D) The Syracusan Dominion, a mercantile thalassocracy whose advanced machinery can only be matched by the machinations of its mages, their colonial ambitions bare for all to see. Though a naval and industrial powerhouse, they find themselves constantly foiled by…
E) The Hellenic League, birthplace of Civilization, a collection of city-states heir to Prometheus’ Gift and led by Sparta, First Among Equals and undisputed military power of the Mediterranean. Theirs is the burden of upholding Culture and Reason in these dark times, though this claim is disputed by…
F) The Free Cities of Palestine, where the words of the kabbalists make gardens bloom in the desert and all the peoples of the world come to their shores to trade in the finest wares and be enlightened by the mystical works of its sages. Its independence was recently wrested from…
G) The Basileia Numakedon, the carcass of Alexander’s Legacy now confined to Asia Minor. Though other countries may deride the Serpentine Throne’s political and military might, the Mithridatic School’s medics are one of the Great Sea’s most valuable assets, and none dare risk their displeasure save for…
H) The Kingdom of Egypt, the River Nation of the restless dead. Its royalty returned from millennia of slumber within its Pyramids now push their competing claims and wage endless war with their deathless legions, all to win the Nile’s greatest prize: The Sekhemti.
Turning away from the vista, the pupil takes firesteel and flint from a tinderbox and lights the large bronze lamp in the alcove above the window, then resumes the inspection of the scrolls: “The Bull” by Archillides of Syracuse, the account of his failed expedition into Cretan waters. It is said that the Horned King himself, after acquiring a copy of this work, invited Archillides to reside in Crete for as long as he would, so impressed was the Minotaur with the harrowing account. Some say the old sailor still resides there, safe from death and old age, attended at all times by nymphs who bathe him with rosewater and feed him Ambrosia. The next slot contains a work familiar to every lettered person on the shores of the Great Sea: “Carthage must be destroyed”. More pamphlet than scroll, authorship anonymous, but with powerful rhetoric. It calls for the utter annihilation of the citizens of the Iberian Peninsula and their demon-god. The work itself is old, but tends to reappear whenever tensions flare on the Gallic-Carthaginian border. At the end of the shelves the slots above and below disappear to give way to one single aperture. Inside it rests a leathery rectangle with the height of three scrolls stacked but half as narrow. Beneath the aperture the title engraving reads: “The Wizard Kings”.
“It is a tome, or codex,” says Varvanus, the mentor’s former slave, offering the pupil a goblet of wine and a plate of bread and cheese that are accepted with thanks “You open it like so, and turn its pages instead of unrolling them; the vellum sheets are sewn and glued together on the spine. Thus both sides can be used for writing, as you see.” He pauses to hand the pupil the book and refill the goblet. “A peculiar work. The master may be some time.” After a perfunctory bow, the old retainer leaves with the empty plate and disappears into a side door. The pupil begins reading:
“By the reckoning of where I was born, over four thousand years have passed since God created the Heavens and the Earth. By the reckoning of where I lived and did not die, this is the year of our Lord of 476. Neither date is found in the local calendar, which proclaims the present as the year 812 of the Apostatic Era, eight centuries since the Burning of Olympus. Though the date is ominous, no barbarians are at the gates of the Roman Empire. In fact, it has never existed and the Roman Senate and People are alive and well, if not thriving in the shadow of its former colonies. The central European tribes have been thoroughly civilized and most have long since broken away from Rome’s cultural tutelage, now occupied with barbarians of their own. The Germanic kingdoms are beset by vicious marauders from the Far North, whose High Priests bring Winter and Storm. Even so, they are of little concern to the rest of the world. Earth’s beating heart is the Great Sea and its shoreline, from the Pillars of Herakles to the Hellespont and the Levant. Cities thrive in every region touched by the Mediterranean; commerce, travel and conquest stoke the furnace of the Soul and the arts and sciences flourish, the light of Man’s achievements thereby enhanced. There is scant little civilization east of the River Jordan; the much-reduced Persian Empire stands as a bulwark to the hungry ghosts of Carcosa, and an alliance of free peoples of the Caucasus hope to withstand the charge of the Horselords of the Steppe, but more often than not become bloody smears under their hooves. It is a brutal and dangerous time to be alive, but none would gainsay me when I say this is the most wondrous time in Human history. For Man has strived ever upwards and achieved something greater than his culture, his arts and crafts: Man has mastered Fire, not of the hearth of home, but of the Heart of Creation…And Wizards have mastered Man.”
The lamp has gone dark. Varvanus quietly glides back into the chamber and takes the exhausted pupil by the hand to the already prepared chambers, softly closing the door on his way out. A mirror and washbasin are set on the rustic table next to the bed. The pupil performs the necessary ablutions before turning in, and studies the face reflected in the glass mirror backed with gold leaf. The pupil sees…
1) A young face of classical features and understated beauty that has driven many a man head over heels, usually to their detriment. A useful tool in a witch’s arsenal, though it can’t quite conceal the contemptuous arrogance underneath.
2) The lean face of a man in late youth. Not particularly handsome but agreeable enough to look at, though the supercilious sneer that often plays upon its lips gives the patrician cast a brittle quality.
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communard
Arcane
I want to be a cute gallic witch.
C1
C1
Excidium II
Self-Ejected
H2
A2
Last edited:
A1, let's sauce this burger up
D2
C2
Mustawd
Guest
C2
xXGunsNRoses420Xx
Novice
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2016
- Messages
- 63
C2 - lets turn this into a porno
xXGunsNRoses420Xx
Novice
- Joined
- Jul 4, 2016
- Messages
- 63
C1*
Esquilax
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2010
- Messages
- 4,833
C2 is basically Lyric Suite. A staunch defender of Tradition against the encroaching forces of Modernism and materialism. It's a pretty interesting angle, I must admit.
Nevertheless, the clairvoyance angle of the Persian magi really interests me, as does the ever-elusive promise of enslaving nations through necromancy, which we never end up going through with. It's a tough choice, since they are all so fucking good. I'm happy with either A or C.
Nevertheless, the clairvoyance angle of the Persian magi really interests me, as does the ever-elusive promise of enslaving nations through necromancy, which we never end up going through with. It's a tough choice, since they are all so fucking good. I'm happy with either A or C.
Reject_666_6
Arcane
D1, let's make Archimedes proud.
Holy Cow
Guest
this CYOA is a little more involved and a lot less on-the-fly writing, so I expect updates to be weekly for the most part, though of course that's not a rule. in any case i'll leave this vote open til tomorrow, it's a fairly big decision. The gender not so much, ofc, but the place you're from determines which School of magic you're in.
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Excidium II
Self-Ejected
Esquilax
Arcane
- Joined
- Dec 7, 2010
- Messages
- 4,833
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