Names

[TheRaconteur]

---

Zilat

---

Not everyone who wields magic is a vislae. Those who are born with an affinity for a single magical talent are called zilats. Rather than learn spells or rituals, zilats take their one ability and hone it to perfection. This makes them very focused and very specialized, but within their one arena, very powerful. Most zilats use their affinity for financial gain—it’s their profession. 

No full catalog exists of all the different zilat abilities, but some are much more common than others. In Satyrine, people use slang names for zilat varieties. These include:

    • Beguilers: Illusion magic
    • Creators: Creation magic
    • Eradicators: Destruction magic
    • Grabbers: Apportation magic
    • Infiltrators: Invisibility magic
    • Leapers: Teleportation magic
    • Runners: Speed magic
    • Seers: Divination magic
    • Speakers: Telepathy magic
    • Spirit hunters: Exorcism magic
    • Tormentors: Pain magic
    • Protectors: Protective magic

Zilats are very, very focused. A creator is likely to specialize in one type of material or good—a wood creator. A cement creator. A pastry creator. A typical eradicator specializes in destroying (presumably old) buildings, bad odors, or unwanted noise. A beguiler probably createsimages only of their own devising, perhaps to act out a play they’ve written. In each case, in regard to the thing a zilat does, that’s the only thing they do.
 

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Paresaad

---

The Order of the Vance trains and sponsors a group of members that operates as an emergency response team in times of magical crisis in Satyrine. While the Paresaad has no official authority in the city, their involvement in times of need is almost always appreciated. Their reputation is one of speed, efficiency, and self-sacrifice. The Paresaad are more like firefighters than police officers. They deal with emergencies and attempt to save people from calamities that ensue from the use or misuse of magic. They don’t arrest people, pursue criminals, or conduct investigations.

Edited January 13 by TheRaconteur (see edit history)

[TheRaconteur]

---

Silver Magic

---

Practiced by conjurers and artificers both, Silver Magic is the magic of creation, of making something from nothing.

 

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Spider's Nest

---

Long ago this grand house was perhaps the greatest joy of some previous occupant. But now it sits in despair, untouched by anything but time. A shame, as the plantation house would look quite lovely is remodeled. Whoever owned the estate has been lost to the fog of memory, often with people stating that the house has been empty since they could remember. 

In its heyday, it had been a two story affair, wide and square. The heavy columns still surrounded it, supporting most of the roof over the sweeping balcony that encircled it on all sides. This created a wide porch, offering shade to whomever had once dwelled there, overlooked by what had once been large windows evenly spaced. Now, the glass was long shattered, empty window frames instead filled with silk. The roof was largely intact, save for the cupola, which had caved in so long ago none present in the Cascades remembered a time when it was there. It was not till some squatters tried to settle in the house that people found the house wasn't as empty as believed. They were chased out by a sheer number of spiders, each of various species, that plagued every room of the house. Cobwebs and eggsacks fill every corner, and cocoons. Some as big as a person. 

No-one is sure where the spiders came from, but there are reports of a elderly woman with silk white hair entering the premise with a large sack.

Edited February 25 by TheRaconteur (see edit history)

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Vancian Campus

---

Vances simply call it “the Campus.” 17 buildings provide the large and bustling order with administrative offices, records offices, lecture halls, laboratories, and more—much more than the headquarters of the other vislae orders. Almost all members spend a great deal of time here. If a Vance isn’t taking a class, they’re probably teaching one.

Classes offered range from introductory courses to very advanced workshops. They include the following:

• Introduction to Intonation Using Matter
• Psychology of the Living Spell
• Opening Doors to Elsewhere
• Words of Power
• Spellbook Upkeep
• Advanced Energy Wielding
• Advanced Spell Mechanics

And that’s only a sampling. There are hundreds of classes, and almost as many instructors. Classes are scheduled in eight-week blocks with a single week in between (9 is the Invisible Sun’s number), and most classes are not offered each time. Only members of the order can attend a class, and—as one might expect—registration is a very formal process. Advanced classes have degree requirements. Some charge fees, which often cover the cost of texts or laboratory materials, if any.

Sometimes the topics discussed in Vancian classes are interesting and applicable enough that members of other orders attempt to infiltrate them. They use disguises (magical and otherwise), forged documents (magical and otherwise), spells of invisibility, remote viewing, and other means. These attempts almost always fail, as the Vances have put up various wards to keep such intrusions out

The Campus also offers two different libraries— one just for spells, the other for more general esoteric studies. Not surprisingly, all of the spells recorded here are Vancian spells, not general spells.

The Vancian Campus keeps a high standard of lawn and facilities maintenance, and it employs a rather large security force.

Edited February 27 by TheRaconteur (see edit history)

[TheRaconteur]

---

Gold Magic

---

The magic of transformation.

Practices that physically change one thing into another thing, or that simply modify the physical substance or shape of a thing, are all gold. This includes more abstract transformations, such as changing the weather.

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Deathless Triumvirate

---

Ruling over Satyrine, the three immortal, godlike beings known as the Deathless Triumvirate dwell both within and beyond the city itself.

The power the Deathless Triumvirate wields is absolute. Their word is law. However, they rarely speak. For rulers with limitless authority, they in fact do very little. Only in cases where the entire city is involved do they take actions or make rulings. Based on the few actions they have taken or declarations they have made in recent years, one would assume that they are primarily concerned with clearing the Ruined Expanses and keeping the whole of the city secure from some unnamed outside threat.

The members of the Deathless Triumvirate do not make public appearances. Only the rarest few individuals could even tell you what they look like. What powers they might wield, beyond apparent immortality, remain a mystery. They are oft spoken of, but no savvy Satyrine resident assumes that their leaders might help them in a particular way or pass a law that will make their lives better. The Triumvirate is distant, entirely unknown, and thought of the way one might think of an indifferent god. However, it’s worth noting that no one actually worships them.

The three individual beings that make up the Triumvirate are not entirely understood. Each has a dual nature: one physical and in the city, usually within a massive citadel called the Skytower floating above Satyrine’s center in the Marquis Quarter, and one far more ephemeral. It is possible—likely, even—that the Triumvirate is a manifestation of Satyrine’s own life force and will. If this secret proves to be true, then it would not be incorrect to think of them as the mind and the city as the body. The Hate Cysts, then, are tumorous, and the Triumvirate—that is, the city itself—wants them removed.

[TheRaconteur]

---

Invisible Magic

---

Protection. In a sense, all magical practices are connected to the invisible. In another, by its very nature, invisible represents nothing. Still, Vislae consider invisible practices to be all those that grant protection of any kind because they are some of the most fundamental of all magical effects. (Legends say that protection spells were the first spells.)

[TheRaconteur]

---

Gerents

---

Neighborhoods each have a gerent, a person in charge. The real, day-to-day power of the city lies in the hands of the gerents. These people govern a single neighborhood—perhaps a few thousand residents at most—and yet within that neighborhood, their power is great. To deal with issues that extend beyond a neighborhood’s borders, gerents work with one another, making a byzantine web of connections, favors, agreements, and contracts that bind the neighborhoods of a district together and make it work.

Gerents manage law enforcement, regulation, safety, and resolution of disputes. As they pertain to their specific neighborhood, they make laws, and as they pertain to the whole city, they enforce the will of the Deathless Triumvirate. They’re also responsible for taxation and fees, and they make sure to take their share. Most gerents are quite wealthy.

A small group of influential people in each neighborhood usually selects a new gerent when a position needs filling. It’s common, however, that family dynasties hold sway, so a retired or dead gerent is often replaced by a daughter or son.

Gerents usually employ their own judges, local police forces, fire brigades, tax collectors, clerks, and so on.

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Legacy

---

Whatever the truth of the creator, one thing that is universally accepted is that the creator is no longer present in creation. If she is a being outside of creation, that’s self-evident, but if the creator is some sort of world mind, after her creation the world ceased to have the singular consciousness she would have needed to cast the spell that created herself.

The Silent Church in Satyrine offers a place to pay homage to the creator. There are a small handful of similar temples throughout the various realms, but not many. In truth, what the Silent Church and others like it really revere is the Legacy. The Legacy offers the greatest amount of proof that the universe was created by some sort of intelligent—and what’s more, compassionate—entity and not mindless happenstance.

The Legacy consists of intentionally placed beings, objects, tools, spells, secrets, and more, left behind in creation by the creator. It would seem that these things were left to help the creatures in the creation. The common thread is that they provide succor, health, or protection.

Usually, the Legacy in any of its forms is difficult to discover. A Legacy spell may be inscribed on the underside of a rock high atop a mountain or spelled out in the swim patterns of a particular deep-sea fish.

Angels are the primary beings that claim to be part of the Legacy. But other creatures, both common and unique, may also be found to be part of it.

Items of the Legacy are always significant, durable, useful, and appropriate. A shield, a magical salve, or a hammer could all be of the Legacy. One item specific to the Legacy is called a vigor shard.

People in the know always celebrate the discovery of a new aspect of the Legacy. It grants a sense of security. It lets them know they’re not alone.

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Ruined Expanses

---

Almost half of Satyrine still lies in ruin. Buildings damaged or pulverized by powerful weapons, fire, or rampaging warbeasts sit next to mostly intact structures abandoned when that section of the city was evacuated during the worst portions of the War.

These regions of desolation and neighborhoods of destruction are like stretches of apocalyptic wilderness dividing many of the intact districts. Traveling from one district to another often involves passing through one of the expanses, and doing so can be dangerous.

Explosion craters, empty buildings, partially collapsed structures, soaring mounds of rubble, debris-choked streets that create dead ends, and more kinds of wreckage fill the expanses. In some areas, plants have overgrown the ruins. Others are lifeless without a hint of green. Some areas are flooded while others are as dry as a desert.

In some expanses, paths have been cleared through the rubble, or simply blazed through and over the wreckage, to facilitate travel across the ruin. But make no mistake—these locales are not yet reclaimed. They are dangerous and unpredictable for many reasons. The architecture is unstable, brigands and thieves make their lairs there, and creatures like ratgoblins and roachgoblins lurk around every corner. Ghosts of those killed in the War roam the streets. But more than that, the Hate Cysts are still quite active.

One strange effect of the cysts is the oppressive gloom that hangs over the ruins. No matter the weather or season elsewhere in the city, entering one of the Ruined Expanses brings on an almost cave-like atmosphere. Many people think of the ruins as being underground and even describe the grey ceiling overhead, though there is no literal truth to it.

Walking through the ruins, one finds the rubblechoked streets and empty piazzas unsettlingly quiet, even in a city as sedate as Satyrine.

 

[TheRaconteur]

---

Nons

---

To most, “vislae” means “children of Visla,” and this name comes from the recognition that anyone who uses magic owes fealty to and knowingly or unknowingly relies upon Visla and the Invisible Sun. Vislae call non-vislae “nons.” It’s not meant to be insulting. Well, not much.

 

[TheRaconteur]

---

The Bleed

---

Beyond sections of Ruined Expanses, space and time become blurry and seep slowly into an unknown elsewhere. This border is called the Bleed, and it’s not safe to go there. Fortunately, the weird runoffs and emissions from the experiments, summonings, and creations in Fartown that eventually flow into the Bleed at least have a place to go where they can (presumably) do no harm.

 

[TheRaconteur]

---

Blue Magic

---

The Mind. Telepathy, mindreading, memory alteration, dream modification, most emotional effects, and similar effects are blue. Blue practices never directly impact the physical world.

[TheRaconteur]

---

Red Magic

---

Ruin. Red effects are those that harm something else, be it living, dead, inanimate, spirit, or anything else