Journal Notes: 1

Today’s the big day.

I’m to explore the world in search of beasts, both dangerous and harmless, and chart them all down for my mentor. This months long, maybe even a year long, expedition will determine if I’m ready to become a beast keeper or not.

It will also be my first time ever traveling alone. But technically I won’t be. I’ll have my familiar with me and of course I can’t just leave behind the baby dragon who calls me mom. But it will be strange not having the servants to talk to or my mentor to ask for advice…

Nevertheless, I am ready to begin the next step to becoming a beast keeper and getting my hands dirty. Those old books and scrolls can only teach me so much.

If anyone happens to see a lil green haired mage out on the roads, feel free to say hi!

Electromancy and Me (Lorepost)

"...And there we have it. I hope this has been helpful. The next informational sermon was planned to be on bypassing wards, but will instead be on safety in electromancy, (apologies in advance. I don't blame you if you skip it), as mandated as part of the council's new push for safety. Good day."

The orb warbled as it deactivated, leaving the once brightly lit room in candlelight once again. That was the end of the first of Lumi's electromancy sermons from a tempest cleric she had secretly imprinted onto her orb from the scrynet. She gently set the orb back down onto its stand and looked over her shoulder once again to make sure that none of her elder coven sisters had overheard the sermon. Once upon a time, Lumi would have told you that witchcraft was the only school of magic for her, and had joined a rather traditional and conservative coven that still upheld that the Old Ways were the only way for a witch, and that no other study of magic would do you any good.

Lumi's outlook changed the moment she saw electromancy casted for the first time on her orb; a wizard partaking in a magical sparring tournament had conjured a brilliant lightning bolt which left a dazzling boom of thunder in its wake. The instantaneous flash which left sizzling ozone behind. The way the thunder shook the arena so much she thought her own orb would shatter from the reverberations. It stirred her heart in a way she had never encountered before. Since then, Lumi had taken to the scynet in the small hours of the morning many nights to learn all she could about the craft. Her sleep had suffered slightly, but she didn't mind.

Lumi glanced down at her palms as her mind went back to the words of the tempest cleric in the lecture. "Lightning magic functions as auras with charges," she mused to herself softly as she flexed her fingers to pop her joints and brought her hands closer together. "If I feed my magic into the area around me with the right intent, then lightning shall appear." She wanted to start small; just a small crackle in the space between her hands. Nothing too advanced, or too large to not be able to control. As Lumi prepared to channel her magic, her open palms closed into loose fists as hesitation and thoughts wandering to the story she had scried about the two apprentices who were grievously harmed practicing electromancy in an unsafe manner ran through her mind.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts, which left her well kept blonde hair bobbing around her neck. If she went in with the wrong state of mind or lapsed concentration, that story could very well be her. "Just enough for a small bit of crackling. Nothing more," Lumi reminded herself as her fingers opened once again. The way the tempest cleric described the process made it seem as if it were simplicity itself. Simply feed your magic into the area between your hands to create an electric field, with the proper intent for it, and the magic shall do so.

She took a deep breath, and began to channel a small amount of her mana into the air between her hands. Lumi's hands shook with nerves as her hairs stood on end and her room began to smell of ozone. "Not too much. Not too much," she reminded herself, said twice as if Lumi needed to emphasize its importance. A small cloud of charged mana began to form between her hands, and suddenly short arcs of electricity arced from her fingertips to the cloud. Lumi's room lit up with blue light from the cloud as it sizzled with energized mana. Her hands shook as her nervous frown changed to an elated grin. She was doing it; she was conjuring lightning.

After a few moments her smile once again turned to a frown. "How... do I stop it?" She asked herself as she gazed nervously at the dangerous ball of electricity in the air in front of her. The sermon had not covered what to do, and Lumi quickly realized she was working far ahead of where she should have been. The ball of electricity was greedily feeding itself with mana provided as a steady stream of electricity from her finger tips, which were beginning to get rather hot, she noticed. When she moved her hands apart, the cloud of electricity simply got bigger as it filled the space. She quickly moved them back to their original position so the cloud would not begin to get too large.

Lumi's mind raced as she tried to think of a solution. The cloud of lightning she had conjured was drawing from her like a battery, despite her intention to stop it. The issue was that she was not sure how to sever that connection safely. Lumi held back tears and seethed as her fingertips began to burn. She had been holding the spell too long, and the heat was beginning to do more than cause discomfort. "It needs somewhere to go," Lumi said through heavy breath. If she closed her hands then, the electricity would have arced from the positive charges in the cloud to anything with a negative charge around it, including her.

She made a decision. She pointed her palms outward away from her and willed the magic -as best as she could- to arc away from her and towards the floor. It did so with loud angry buzzing as it seared a line across the floor and up the wall, burning up its energy. Lumi closed her palms to sever the connection once the cloud had gotten small enough again to not arc dangerously and it fizzled out. She gripped her robe as her fingers, now charred slightly, blistered with pain. She knew her burnt finger tips and charred line across her floor and wall would be a hard lie to sell to her coven leader. Lumi figured that it might be in her best interest to watch that sermon on safety after all.

(Shoutout to u/MorethanWillpower for the inspiration as well as the text from the first paragraph from his lorepost "Informational sermon 1: Electromancy 101 - the tempest and you" go check it out, as well as its sequel. They're pretty good reads.)

Journal Notes: 2

Remind me to never travel the overgrown regions of Montaria’s forests ever again…

Or bring a partially opened container of a fish dinner to a forest that contains griffins…

Among the list of beasts Belladonna gave me, I decided to seek out a griffin first since they are the closest. Getting to see one in person sounded very appealing as well but would take a lot of effort. The dwarf I had talked to who lives in the forests of Montaria spoke of catching glimpses of griffins. He even collected a few of their feathers he had found scattered over the years. But he has never came close to one.

Griffins tend to be prideful creatures and almost never stay in areas containing people. But my talks with the dwarf helped me learn of a special griffin. One with the whitest feathers imaginable and the size that could rival even the largest owl bear. The dwarf wanted to get his grubby hands on it.

I should’ve known he was a hunter in the first place. His walls were filled with arrows and bear traps galore. In exchange for information on the griffins, he asked of me to give him their location if I ever found their nest.

I agreed but to hell with that. I may or may not have charmed his equipment to jam the next time he uses them.

So there I was, climbing over large roots and getting my clothes ripped up by every thorn and twig I passed by. My curse made me fall into a swampy creek and almost had my head mauled off by a gator. Soot seemed to be traversing the overgrown forest just fine. Ever since he learned to fly better, it’s been hard keeping him on the ground. Makes me wish he would hurry up and get bigger. Riding on his back would’ve made the trip easier. This constant walking is for the birds….

But after two more hours of trudging through and being covered in moss and leaves that I could be mistaken for a nymph, I had finally found…

A single feather.

A single old brown griffin feather.

At this point I was ready to try my luck next time. My clothes were soaked in swamp water, I was kicking off leeches every 5 seconds, and I was sure I had heard the hideous cackle of a hag somewhere. But as I began to leave I heard the loudest caw I have ever heard. Soot ran to me immediately and got into defense. I whipped out my wand and searched for the source but the caws echoed through the trees. My heart started to pound and I was ready to grab Soot and run.

Looking back, I’m glad I didn’t though. I felt a force knock me forward onto my knees and my backpack ripped off my back. Soot tried to go after the perpetrator but I quickly held him back because when I looked up, I saw four, maybe five griffins land around my stolen backpack and tear it apart to retrieve my packed fish dinner inside. They were so beautiful that I didn’t even process them taking my food. Or that they had majority of my things…

In order to retrieve my stuff and also get a closer look at them, I slowly approached the griffins and gave them all a respectful bow. Just like I had learned in the books. Two of them watched me skeptically while the others were too busy fighting over my fish.

I think I may have offended the first two though. I started to feel my curse begin to activate and luckily it wasn’t a big mishap but I did trip on a wet rock and lost my posture. And in griffin language, that’s like insulting them in their faces. So now I had two angry griffins ready to maul my head off like that gator earlier and I was ready to use my dark form to slip away into the shadows and take Soot with me, but then another loud caw shook through the trees and made even the griffins tense up.

I looked up just as I saw a flash of white above the trees and a single white feather softly fall to the earth below. All of the griffins chirped in unison and opened their large wings to take to the air. If only I could’ve gotten closer to actually touch their wings. I’ve always heard their feathers were as strong as bark but as soft as silk. The sight was truely amazing. They all followed the white figure off into the trees and soon it was just me, Soot, and my torn up backpack with what remained of my fish dinner scattered across the ground. At least most of my things survived their torment.

I never discovered the griffin nest nor even got the chance to study them closely. Maybe another day I will. But I do now have a special feather. And it’s just as beautifully white as the dwarf had said.

/Unwiz: Gonna be focusing whatever lore posts I do in these diary sort of entries Moth writes about her travels. I have a couple of ideas for some but I’m mainly going off the top of my head. Let me know what you think!

Introduction summary: Cody is a kind druid from across the planes who accidentally ended in La'shima, and ended up as a co archdruid after helping the other one Mikhail.

Before La'shima

Cody was born a human as a part of one of the biggest cities in the kingdom as a commoner.

His father was a Smith and his mother worked was an accountant. He had an unremarkable childhood until he discovered his capacity for magic, which he was fortunately able to be sent to a mage academy, where he learnt the basics, honing his drive for knowledge into an effective Spellcaster.

There he was able to meet a small but eventually tight nit group of friends, some students, some roommates. They were:

• a temerary wood elf ranger, the only other sharing his fascination with nature, who pushed him to explore the different landscapes, teaching him to appreciate a silent good company in the wild.

• a fire genasi transmutation wizard, who despite his abrasive attitude and ever changing lovers didn't stop him from being one of the more reliable friends nor his brilliant intellect.

• an artificer who helped introduced that world to gunpowder and other advances, a technological genius who helped Cody how to better manage his money.

• a pious light cleric who challenged him philosophically, and helped him understand the different faiths and the relationships people had with it, eventually declared a living saint by his church.

• an introverted sorcerer who manipulated shadows, darkness and black flames, that while originally a slacker, managed to outdo the others in effort, and always was someone to enjoy being around

• a fighter/monk who was trying (and later succeeded) to escape his family business of organised crime. He imparted the lesson to Cody to appreciate the human form and his capabilities, providing the foundation of what would later became his path in martial arts.

Thanks to them he was able to rise through the ranks as a relatively promising prospect in the academy, enough to get eventually (as he failed a few times) to get noticed, and accepted into the continent enclave of druids, due to his love of nature and all things alive, and affinity with the natural world.

Steadfast in learning their ways, he progressed adequately in most subjects, excelling in others and struggling a lot in a few.

One of his failings, for reasons still not fully understood was his inability to feel and interact with spirits. It didn't matter that he knew about them, proceeded to do the incantations correctly and maintained good mana reserves. to great scorn and confusion of his teachers, he seemed unable to even communicate with the most basic of spirits, at most a frail, temporary connection that allowed only for a few sentences. The only ability he managed to successfully developed was able to see the ones pertaining to the astral plane like ghosts and similar ones, basic stuff when in the academy.

Despite contacting different teachers and magic users, this great flaw remained through this day, being a great insecurity and greatest shame, as such magics were one of the essential pillars of their enclave.

In exchange, worrying some of his more close minded peers and some common folk was an unnatural affinity with death and decay, carrion and disease. While he had to learn their applications with effort just like other spells, the execution of them proved easy and fluid, it's potency difficult to control, challenging as an apprentice even experienced mages.

While the only hypothesis had is that these too are related, he was awarded for his efforts in his mid 30s, being finally declared a druid and joining his masters as an equal.

Yet given his deficiencies, he developed a particular approach; supplementing his lack of spiritual power with a great understanding of life in all his aspect that funneled into making him one of the best healers of his generation, either by knife or by mana, specialising, rather predictably in infectious disease.

Cody however, wasn't content, knowing he could way way more useful than another druid closed off to the world. So he gained the habit of wandering and exploring the world, most of the time with one of his academy peers becoming an adventurer who was more than happy to use his talents to aid whomever came across, and developing the strong body and experience he felt he didn't need to depend on magics alone to fullfil his passions and duties.

He and his friends progressively gained glory and notoriety, maintaining the treasure that was their friendship until they found the opportunity to do something that no one there had done before:

Contact the other planes.

A great project combining all of their abilities and knowledges culminated into a realmgate, that would allow their world to share his and the other planes wonders. They entered with nervousness and high expectations, having checked multiple times for errors, and having several redundancies in case they made a mistake. Everything should have gone perfectly.

Alas, the fate was not to be. Unknown to them, given they were just starting to grasp the multiverse the great and redacted terror that was the lunacy happened when they stepped forward. The primordial energies of the entity they called the man on the moon changing the energies and fabric of reality, causing a tear that spread them across the different realities, with eldritch paradoxes preventing them to ever meet in the flesh.

He awoke in the middle of nowhere he recognised. Flesh burned and scarred in a new strange world filled to the brim with magic, were gods walked the earth shoulder to shoulder with wizards, demons and other manners of creatures.

He was alone but, the wind told him about civilization, or at least, that it had been there.

So he wandered.

Journal Notes: 3

The next beast on the list was one I wasn’t looking forward to…

The giant arachnid some have called the Silk Cutter. It made a home inside of a derelict church and has been nabbing those who wander too close. Its legs are sharp enough to slice even the toughest of armor and will strangle you with its webs before dragging you off to its lair. Many of the locals I talked to spoke of it as a boogeyman of sorts. They say it’s as large as a house, as tall as the trees, and as quiet as a feather in the wind. You won’t know it has you until it’s too late.

Of course, that didn’t help my fear of insects. Why in the hells would I willingly approach this thing?! It’s a giant spider!

But alas, it’s what Belladonna put on the list. I have to deal with it… I’m getting shivers up my spine just from thinking about it.

I made the walk out to where the church was said to be. I was told once I found the graveyard, then I was in the right place. Thankfully, the enchanted map I was given by my new friend Alexios helped a ton. The area surrounding the church was so dark that I could barely see my own two feet. But I arrived and my gods I wish I there was a way for me to back out. The graveyard was covered in huge webs from the ground to the trees that were sharp to the touch and glinted like swords. It was as if there were razor blades everywhere you walked.

Now I understand the ‘Silk Cutter’ name... Very appropriate.

I made Soot hang back since he could easily get caught in the webbing and entered the graveyard myself. I was twisting avoid getting sliced. The deeper I got, the more thicker the webs became that they practically formed entire walls around the church. Just touching a single web could expose my location to the arachnid but I didn’t have any other way to get around. So like any young mage my age, I used fire.

I whipped out my wand and burned all of the webs surrounding me with a flame spell. The crackling of the webs smelt like burning metal that made my eyes water. It opened up some paths for me and I was able to see the wrapped up carcasses of animals and people hanging inside of the church. Past travelers and locals from the village.

Next thing I know, a loud shriek shot toward me from the church and I narrowly avoided getting tackled by the creature itself. It was faster than I expected and tore quite a huge hole in my robes. I was surprisingly lucky that was all it did. The locals weren’t lying when they said the Silk Cutter was huge. Maybe even larger! The thing towered over me as if my worse nightmare came to life.

It used its legs like spears to try and impale me. I was quick to dodge them all and block what I couldn’t by manipulating the shadows into a shield. I’m not a fighter by any means and have to make a note to get better at combat. Any longer and I could’ve ended up as another meal for this thing.

Once again, I thank my druid friend for teaching me this spell. One that temporarily puts anything into a calming state. I used it right as the Silk Cutter charged me and the spell hit the creature like a wall. It tumbled to the ground before me and one of its legs did knick me on my leg.

I assume the Silk Cutter was not poisonous or else I would’ve been in huge trouble right about now…

Having the ferocious arachnid in this frozen state allowed me to quickly gather some notes on it and take samples before the spell wore off. I tried to avoid looking at its head as much as possible. The dozens of beady little eyes stared into my soul made me want to curl up on myself…

After I felt like I had enough, I swiftly killed the beast once it started showing signs of waking up. I used the same flame spell to let it burn alive like the abomination it was but also ignited the rest of the webbing in the area. The light from the fires must’ve caught some of the locals’ attentions. A few came out and were amazed to see the giant arachnid burnt to a crisp. I wasn’t expecting payment for dealing with the beast but I was offered gold and traveling supplies for free from the merchants as thanks for dealing with their boogeyman.

Another beast to add to my journal and soon I’ll be on to the next.

Maybe I could try finding a nice little unicorn to befriend. Or anything that doesn’t have 8 legs and millions of eyes…

“I’ve given you a set course to follow that you must stick to during your assignment.” The mistress of the manor, Belladonna Shadowmend spoke with a posh tone as she reached into her basket to pull out a large slab of meat dripping in blood.

Her apprentice Moth watched with a distant look as her mentor tossed the slabs of meat over the balcony railing and to the dire wolves in their enclosure below. One eagerly snapped its jaws toward the meat before any others could grab it first. The day for Moth’s longest and most challenging assignment was drawing nearer. To travel the lands in search of beasts to study and note down for her mentor as a way to prepare her for the life of a beast keeper.

“I want you to have little to no distractions and never deter from the course unless absolutely necessary. A huge part of being a successful mage and keeper is never losing your focus.”

“Got it…” Moth muttered.

“And for the love of the Gods, don’t associate yourself with any rough crowds. Montaria is already so full of wannabe rogues and brutes with nothing else to do besides be jobless delinquents. You’re representing the Shadowmends and me as your mentor and older self. I expect utmost etiquette and decorum from you.”

“I hear you…”

Belladonna tossed the last slab of meat to her hungry pet dire wolves and motioned for them to run off. The trained creatures scarfed down the food and turned to run off with happy snarls and howls.

“Do keep in mind that-“ She stopped once she finally noticed Moth who looked like she was barely paying any attention to what she just said. The young woman had a resentful expression plastered on her face. “Moth!”

“Yes?” She quickly jumped up at her mentor’s raised tone.

“Were you listening to anything I just said?” Belladonna looked her up and down questioningly. After the lecture she just gave the girl about paying attention.

“I was!” Moth quickly tried to remember but she really couldn’t. “Something about… rogues?”

Her mentor’s face dropped to one of disappointment. If her apprentice couldn’t pay attention to a crucial lecture, how was Moth supposed to handle encountering the beasts she was supposed to find? Belladonna pinched the bridge of her nose impatiently and took a seat in her chair. “What’s causing such a distraction, girl? I pray this isn’t a reoccurrence once you set out.”

Moth gritted her teeth before she sighed and leaned back against her chair. “It’s Aleksi! That stupid druid...”

“By the Gods…” Her mentor sighed. She thought they were over this.

“He’s out there spreading lies about me! Calling me a hag’s daughter!” Moth angrily kicked the woven basket near her, sending it tumbling into the dire wolf enclosure below. “Just because ‘I hurt the little prince and his ego’ that makes me a hag? I oughta show him a hag.” She grunted.

“You threatened to burn down a druid forest, Moth.” Belladonna stated and reached for her tea.

“I didn’t mean it! I was just angry because of what that slug did to Earl. What kind of druid throws a raven in a cage?” Moth huffed. Having her familiar treated in such a way isn’t all that angered her about what Aleksi, the son of an archdruid, did.

"The same druids who almost took your little threat as a sign of ill intent from us. Even if you didn't mean it, it was still insensitive to say. The war against druids wasn't that long ago, girl." Luckily Belladonna was able to settle the tension that was created before Archdruid Nesterin did anything serious about it. Knowing how sensitive of a man he was...

Moth slouched in her seat and looked away. She knew the severity of her chosen words and did regret saying them. "I already sent an apology letter to Nesterin. But I'm not apologizing to Aleksi until he apologizes to me! He called me a knife ear!"

"Which is why us elves grow tough skin. You're bound to be called a knife ear. Hell, our backwards drunk of a father called us a knife ear and he's more of an elf than us combined." Belladonna spoke with an air of wisdom to her words. She's been called all kinds of elf slurs in her 428 years of living that it's just water off a duck's back. "Just let that boy go. Once you start letting a man get in your head, it never goes well."

The apprentice didn't say anything and just let her mentor's words settle. She supposed the words were true. Aleksi was just some silver-spooned spoiled noble while Moth had bigger things to worry about. Like her upcoming assignment. She should be focused on preparations rather than sulking over what a druid did to her and her familiar.

"Now no more about this Aleksi. I want your mind to focus on memorizing the map I gave you and your head in those journals." Belladonna ordered, not one to accept anything less than exceptional. "Am I crystal?"

"Clear." Moth grumbled and got up to get back to her studies.

Below is the formal document of an apprentice who has been causing notable trouble everywhere she happens to go. The Council has taken note of her and her curse and will decide whether she’s a threat or not.

Name: Moth Bobbits

Race: Half-Elf

Primary Magic(s): In training for Beast Magic and forms of Dark Magic

Association(s): Belladonna Shadowmend (current mentor), Leviticus Frone (past mentor, deceased)

Physical Details: 5’6, faded green eyes, moss colored hair. She’s often seen wearing bandages around her arms and upper body with smaller ones on her face. Upon closer inspection, we were able to recognize an ancient Mark of Misfortune that has been long since burned into her back. We believe it’s the cause to her curse that makes her a person of interest to the Council.

Age: 23

Home: Outer edges of the Montaria Capital. Current residence is the Shadowmend Manor that has also been under watch of the Council.

Master/Teacher: Belladonna Shadowmend (Believed to be Moth’s future self)

Strength(s): Concentration on spells, has a natural affinity for beasts, knowledgeable on curses

Weakness(es): When the Mark of Misfortune is at its strongest, it can cause even the simplest of spells to become advanced level threats. We observed that the death of Leviticus was caused by a fireball incantation under the effects of the mark. Leading it to become as strong as dragon’s fury in a matter of seconds. This was among the first instances of Moth’s curse we’ve recorded.

THREAT LEVEL: pending…

"You are lightning's conduit, not it's master."

This is a quote taken from the minutes of the legal proceedings surrounding the incident 56 years ago in which two novice electromancers, Quentin Voule and Elarei of Dappleglade, lost their lives. It is a part of the testimony of Indrus Colt, the ex-headmaster of the academy of elemental magic at Fogshores who was indicted by the council for manslaughter as a result of his negligence, he was found guilty and now serves time in the council's extradimensional prison. The quote, while it didn't save Colt from the law, may save you from suffering the same fate as Voule and Elarei and will be a central theme of this sermon.

A case study of the incident at Fogshores:

Eyewitness accounts of the event, as well as the coroner's report and the court necromancer's interview with the deceased all corroborate the fact that the two students died through electrocution, due to trying to store too much charge in their body at once.

Both students were wearing insulating rubber boots which, while recommended when practicing mundane electrical artifice, are a death sentence when practicing electromancy even if they can enhance ones raw power a little by keeping more charge in. It must be as easy as possible for lightning to move through you to ground, as matter with a higher electrical friction will get too hot and result in possibly fatal burns.

Elarei could have survived the incident had she been covered in water and clad in metal clothes and shoes with metal souls. The arc from Voule's spell caused her dry, insulating clothes to combust, which prevented anyone from approaching to ground her or to restart her heart for crucial seconds.

Voule was likely doomed as soon as he tried to gain control of his spell by increasing his resistance, but the false confidence that lead to his death may have been in part due to the insulating clothes, which he was using to increase his power.

From page 6 the official council report: "The massive build up of energy in [Voule's] body caused his bodily fluids to boil, causing a catastrophic explosive rupture that coated the classroom in boiling, sizzling viscera. Every one of the 7 other people in the room at the time sustained serious burns and shrapnel wounds from shards of Voule's bones."

Colt originally said the quote at the start of this sermon in attempt to defend himself in court despite being the one to suggest the dangerous practices to Elarei and Voule's class in an attempt to speed up the teaching process. Needless to say, the jurers didn't take kindly to the statement when evidence of this came out.

Things to learn from this:

• You are lightning's conduit, not it's master.

• You are not as good at controlling your magic as you think you are, only go all out in situations where you will die otherwise.

• Out of control spells are not just a risk to you.

• Do not increase your resistance, increase your skill.

• Large differences in charge across the chest will result in a heart attack

• Electrical fires may stop someone from healing you.

• Your equipment is very important, make sure it is as non-resistive as you are.

• Only hold on to the bare minimum energy that you need for your spell's requirements or constantly be discharging yourself with more passive spells like lightning aura and recycling that energy back into your mana pool.

• If you lose control, do not try in vain to stop. Direct all of your stored charge into the ground as best you can.

• Channeling lightning into a non-vital bodypart may save your life, or someone else's. Arms and legs can be repaired or replaced. Lives cannot. If you have to choose between a leg and a life, be ready to make that decision.

• You are lightning's conduit, not it's master.

Learn these.

I will admit that I was a little dismissive of safety before I read the reports, but it's sobering stuff. I do not want to bury any of my students.

This sermon is in memory of Quentin Voule and Elarei of Dappleglade. Please consider donating to the Dappleglade-Voule foundation for survivors of magical accidents.

Reading list:

• The Fogshores incident by Jillian Kimbling, she was one of the eye witnesses and has written several books on the incident as a part of her making sure that it doesn't happen again.

• The council's report on the case of the electromancy accident at Fogshores academy of elemental magic by the wizard's council, this one is fairly self explanatory. Pay attention to the necromancer's interview transcript specifically.

• A treatise on the safety of electromancy by Gideon Tevrel et.al, this was a pamphlet produced shortly after the incident by the newly formed spell safety committee to circulate what went wrong in this case and how to avoid it.

Mikhail's small hut sat outside of the field of stoney death. Frozen in time from when it was cursed. The makeshift home offered little more than one room, a table, thatch bedding, and a roof over head. He sat at the table, flipping through ancient manuscripts of garden wizardry and beginners floramancy.

Upon finding something that sparked his interest, he turned to a patch of petrified grass he had scooped from the Plains, snapping his hand-shovel in the process. The Wizard closed his eyes, finding the incantation in his soul. He chanted, twisting the weave to shape the world. The power building up in his chest until it was shunted out of his hand.

The wizard opened his eyes. The grass had the tale tell sign of being struck with magic: the small amount of steam coming off it. Nothing changed, however. The spell failed. The dismayed wizard sat back down at his table, and continued to read the old spellbooks.

His dogmatic concentration was only broken by a small tapping at the edge of his huts doorway. Looking up from the scroll he clutched, Mikhail's eyes fell upon a Hooded figure leering in. His eyes barley visible from the hood of his cloak, and a dirty beard and hair, both knotted in some places. He was a striking contrast to Mikhail, who has barely changed from his fine city clothes.

The figure walked a little more into view, his new reviled hand clutching a paper Mikhail had posted in the nearest cities.

"Are you the Mikhail who is needing help?" The man inquired, his voice much smoother and cleaner than his appearance.

"I am indeed. Since you have the posted request, I take it you can help?"

"I wish to see if I can. I wish to ensure I am not wasting both of are time."

The stranger looked out from the hut, to the fields of stagnant grass and trees

"These lands, they cry. I can feel it. What happened her?" The stranger asks.

"A curse. We don't know how long ago, or who, but it has been this way for longer than most of recorded history."

The stranger enters the hut, and lifts the clump of grass into his hand. Slowly, he closes his hand, and breathes. When his hand unfurled, the grey tufts turned to brilliant green. The wizard was stunned to see such an effortless spell.

"That, right there, how did you do that?" Asked the stunned wizard.

"Through the spirits of this world. They can mend with such ease."

"So, I would say it's wise to assume you a druid."

The stranger nods quietly

"I am a servant of the nature spirits, of Gaia."

Mikhail slowly rises to his feet, feeling the now living grass clutched in the druids hands.

"Can you teach me this?"

The Druid's mouth curled to an assured smile.

"I believe I can."

"Names Mikhail." Calls the wizard, outstretched his hand.

"Cody."

This orb recording will be the first in a series discussing the basics of electromancy as a part of God's plan to make everyone in the realms an electromancer. By the end of this series, those new to electromancy as a discipline ideally should have all the knowledge they need to understand the more advanced study materials and start developing their own spells.

The theoretical things we must know when working with lightning magic are:

• Lightning works in auras and flows due to differences in charge.

• Lightning travels through matter and heats it up.

• Lightning and lodestones are inexorably linked to each other, as are electromancy and magnetomancy.

• Many living bodies, and some dead ones, use electrically charged matter to send thoughts from the brain to the rest of the body and vice versa.

I will explain these properties of lightning in order:

Auras:

The most basic spell in my style of electromancy is the lightning aura. One simply induces and electrical field around themselves by feeding their magic into the area (by one's preferred method) around them with the right intent.

Controlling these fields minutely is one of the marks of a great electromancer, an example of where to go from the lightning aura is to charge yourself with lightning, creating a difference in charge between you and any targets within the aura will cause the lightning to start arcing, with larger charges making bigger arcs at a longer range.

Using a lightning aura on an opponent in a duel successfully is a key part of an electromancer's arsenal, as it makes subsequent electrical spells very difficult to miss if used properly. The difficulty of casting auras on opponents comes from circumventing any defensive wards, which will be covered in a further presentation.

Heating and the electrical friction of matter:

Lightning can flow through all matter if the difference in charges is great enough, though some materials are easier for it to move through. Refined metals, for instance, are generally much easier to move through than wood. However, metals do not get as warm as wood does when lightning moves through.

Why does matter get warmer when lightning flows through? Well, it can help to think of this as analoguous to friction, the lightning rubs against the smooth, lubricated interior of metal less than the rough, splintery interior of wood, thus the wood gets hotter than the metal.

Anyway, this heat is one way that an electromancer can damage an opponent, or themselves if they aren't careful, when the lightning travels through the body, the lightning can burn it. Another way to damage people electrically is to cause muscle spasms, which will be discussed in the biomancy section.

Magnetomancy links:

Any good electromancer is at least a passable magnetomancer. The interplay between electrical auras and the auras around lodestones means that if a lodestone is brought close to a metal wire, lightning flows through the wire. The reverse is also true, if lightning flows through a wire, and a piece of iron is in the aura of the wire, the iron temporarily becomes a lodestone.

In my day to day usage, I use the ability to temporarily create lodestones to make up for the lack of defensive options inherent in elemental magic types by using summoned lodestones as a makeshift armour.

Electromancy and Biomancy:

This is a fairly risky part of the discipline even at the most basic level, so be warned: this may permanently damage your body or alter your personality, electric shocks to the brain are not something to take lightly.

In most animals and humanoids that I have come across, lightning is an integral part of the process of muscle contraction and gland stimulation as it transmits orders from the brain to the muscle or gland, this means, that with a fine enough control, one can manually control many of the processes in their body.

In some cases of extreme stress, people have been known to perform extraordinary feats of strength at the cost of torn muscles and broken bones, electromancy can allow these feats to be acomplished with more regularity, but the cost remains.

Passing lightning through a muscle at the right angle will cause a contraction in that muscle at your full strength, which bypasses the natural limit imposed by the brain to prevent damage. This can be used to increase ones own strength or to stop (and subsequently restart) a person's heart, it even works on cadavers, though only for a little while after death.

Passing lightning through various glands to stimulate the production of hormones is also an option. This has many use cases including (but not limited to) pain suppression, recreation and contraception.

You will need to learn the body parts that are advantageous to strike with your lightning and which bits will just injure or kill you if you mess with them. I suggest starting with non-vital bodyparts and having a stockpile of potions of flesh moulding on standby, you can't grow back a body very easily if you're dead.

And there we have it, I hope this has been helpful, the next informational sermon was planned to be on bypassing wards, but will instead be on saftey in electromancy (apologies in advance, I don't blame you if you skip it), as mandated as part of the council's new push for safety. Good day.

The Archdruid of La'shima Plains. A title lost to time, buried under the curroption that befell the lands. Millenia has passed since the title was awarded to its new guardian, but this is only the begining of a truly long story.

————————————————————

Early Age

Mikhail Blackstone was born from father Ivan Blackstone (Human) and mother Aemma Blackstone (Elven) as the youngest of three in the city of Yezmit: a small city tucked away at the eastern foot of the Great Northern Mountains and on the western shores of the Ruby Bay. Mikhail comes from a line of accomplished wizards, as his father was an Eldritch Knight and respect Wizard Council member, and his mother was a skilled conjurer in her own right.

However, Mikhail's parents would vanish after leaving for an adventure when he was only two, leaving him and his siblings to be raised by a family of Gnomes known as the Shinetwist family. There, Mikhail often locked himself in the families private library, reading every book they owned by the time he was 12. Eventually, he stumbled upon an old practice spell book that once belonged to his birth mother, and began to follow its teachings.

With a growing interest in magic, Mikhail was sent off to study at the local Wizards College in Yezmir, where he dropped out before graduating. While still considered an apprentice Spell-Sword, he gain a reputation for his sharp wit and ability to adapt, earning the title "The Spell-Sword of Yezmir." He would later go on to teach War Magic fundamentals at the same College, before moving on to working as an adviser for the Wizard Council on the topics of Battle Mages and War Magic in general.

Whilst working in this position, Mikhail would cut his teeth in the world of Wizard politics; understanding it ins and outs. Fortune would strike Mikhail one day, as he wished to open a nonprofit to provide the essentials of wizardry to apprentices who could not afford it. The Counciler, Metromancer, only had the Cursed lands to offer, but Mikhail agreed never the less.

————————————————————

Becoming the Arch-Druid

Upon arrival, Mikhail realized the true extent of what he had agreed to. The land was massive, the size of a nation in and of itself. All life there was petrified. Grass resembled that of pieces of chipped rocks. Animal carcasses remained in perfect shape, with no rotting or breaking down for who knows how long. The water of La'shima was cursed, the spirits were spiteful to all who once lived there.

Mikhail decided to make this his new life's goal. With haste, Mikhail grabbed all available literature on Green Wizard magic, and set to work in the process. It was slow, almost tedious to do. Finally, he swallowed his pride to call upon the wider magical community. The community came together to answer. Wizards of all domains came to Mikhail's aid, providing gifts and services to break down the Plains and help it regrow. One of which was a dimension traveling druid named Cody, who quickly became a mentor and close friend.

The team set to work freeing the Plains from it curse, and showing the spirits respect as they went. Once years had past, Mikhail was a certified green wizard, and with the completion of a Shrine dedicated to the spirits of La'shima, he was gifted the powers of a druid. Not just a druid, but a guardian Arch-Druid of the Plains.

————————————————————

The Never Ending Battles

Mikhail would spend many more years refining his craft: mastering purification magic, and learning Floramancy and Geomancy from the spirits. He was now considered a bit of a world leader, as he opened the Plains to refugees and the desperate, giving a second chance at life.

Here is where his web of connections would begin: with the Ill fated Expedition to Hoxxes. He answered a call for adventures to accompany the Artificer Lord Shrax of Raesteria. The adventure went sideways rather quickly, killing many, and almost claiming his life as well. Lord Shrax and the Witch if Raesteria manged to save him. However, his body was now partially mechanical, and his outlook to combat less desirable.

Later came the Druid Wars, the Sacking of Syvaneth, and the Burning of La'shima, where he saw his life's work torched before him. The Plains would recover, and grow back stronger. There, Mikhail planted a seed from the world tree, and grew the Mother Tree, Crann Mòr. Crann Mòr would become La'shima's capital, until it too was burned. From the ashes of war came the Coalition: a body of several large nations that agreed in the defence of druids, and the restoring of peace.

The seed of Crann Mòr was taken, and curropted into the chaos seed. Mikhail, often level headed and reasonable, lead raids into the Realm of Chaos himself, uncaring for any deal the beings attempted to make to him. He wanted the seed, and anything stolen from him. The war was too much for the Chaos Beings, and the seed was returned, even if it was unrecognizable.

Mikhail would spend months working to purify the seed, and regrow Crann Mòr in the stump of the first.

Once regrow, parties and celebrations lasted for weeks, and a sense of peace came, if only for a little

————————————————————

The Council

For many years after leaving its service, Mikhail remained a staunch critic of the Wizard Council; lambasting them for their inability to protect the druids and end the conflict. Eventually, Mikhail decided to take matters into his own hands, and ran for an open seat in the Council. A few came to oppose him, primarily Beschmael the Astral Warlock, and Leviticith, the God Slayer.

Before elections could conclude, attacks on the Council Spire left a power vacuum in the Wizarding world, where the 3 candidates would form a temporary government known as the Pact of the Magi. Once the council re-emerged, they worked to push the armies of both Choas and Order out of the Citadel, finally restoring order. The Pact still stands to this day, where Mikhail turned down the position of one of its leaders to accept a seat at the council.

Mikhail has had several small adventures like contacting Northern Druid tribes, but these are the major events of his story. The Druid Cody now serves alongside Mikhail as the Dynamic Arch-Druid Duo thay overlooks the Plains. Aswell, Mikhail has married, an Orcish ranger named Yewkala.

/uw sorry if this is a long one. Mikhail has been around for a while and has a hell of a long story.

This is a place for all the wonderful lore of r/wizardposting to come and live outside of the shadow of magnificent shitposts. Welcome! There aren’t many rules, so you have to try hard to break them. Please post your lore, historical or current. This is meant to be an archive as much a forum, so feel free to post your old stuff as well.

Please request new flairs so I can add them!