Magical Landry Sign-Up Part Deux - The Landrying!

[Teal Mage]

Hello there NPF!

After spending several months in Hiatus (while I wrote papers), Magical Teacher Professor Landry is officially back. And it brought the World Primer - a handy guide book which explains the system that the Landriverse follows - with it. It is really the perfect introduction to this world.

What better time to try out a Recruitment thread to pull some new blood in? Never, that's when! So, if you're interested in playing a game that's basically the Magic School Bus meets Anime - in a Horror Movie/Dating Sim - keep reading.

It'll be fun.

You might want to check out the official Professor Landry edupad while you do that too.

Setting: Magical Teacher Professor Landry is set in a world that's deceptively similar to our own. The history, countries, religions, pop-culture figures and world leaders of this alternate earth are identical to our own - but the similarities end there. Guns are far less lethal. Beings from legend - demons, spirits and angels - all exist, most in isolated and magically concealed communities, but a handful live among humans using their special abilities to blend in. Reality warping phenomena is widespread, but little noticed, especially by the humans responsible for it. The Masquerade, enforced by powerful and hidden factions of a magic-using minority of humanity and their non-human allies, ensure that all these irregularities remain under the radar - a job that has been made far easier with the ascendance of science in modern society. Most people wouldn't believe magic existed if it bit their faces off.

Amaranth Institute for the Gifted: The bulk of the story will take place here. The Amaranth Institute is a private High School/College hybrid, dedicated to the pursuit of excellence. Run by Head Mistress Sophia Amaranth, the Amaranth Institute is physically located on the West Coast of Canada, surrounded by the city of Ansidor on the west and its old growth forest to its east. Through means of confusing legality, the School actually exists as an independent city-state and follows its own laws. It houses around a thousand students in its educational complex at any given time, and roughly half that number in faculty. All students and most faculty live on Campus, in assigned dormitories. Most students end up sharing these with two or three others, but the wealthier (or more dangerous) among them are assigned their own private room. The only area of the campus the school is contractually obligated not to bug or monitor is inside these dormitories - a detail that you may find useful, given the degree of electronic monitoring that goes on around the school. For your safety, of course.

Among the mundane world, the school has a reputation for turning out excellent students, but the sheer complexity of the disclaimers in its viability contract makes most parents hesitate to send their children there. Effectively, by sending a student to Amaranth, students waive all legal rights to hold the school responsible - even in the event of death. In spite of this, attendance numbers have remained relatively stable since the school's creation - which ought to speak well for how valuable an Amaranth education is, particularly to the talented and ambitious. Even a year attending this place looks great on résumés and post-secondary applications. For that reason alone, most students enroll for a year, then get out as quickly as possible. Less than half of the first year students progress to Amaranth's second year. The compliment of third year - graduating - students is smaller still.

To the supernatural community, Amaranth fulfills a very different function. Through careful recruitment, the school ensures that there are always a fair number of Blacks on campus, forcing the Magically Aware student population to be extremely careful with how they use their abilities. However, the high expectations of the classes make it virtually impossible to avoid some magic use on the parts of the students. The end goal is to produce magic-users who are able to use their powers responsibly enough to still benefit from them in modern society, without blowing the Masquerade apart. Thus far, things have worked out quite nicely!

If you haven't caught on yet, Players will be students in a particular class in Amaranth. Moving on!

The Masquerade: The formal name for the conspiracy which ensures that magic does not become common knowledge. As far as conspiracies go, the Masquerade is a remarkably inefficient one - the shadowy council at its heart is plagued with in-fighting and wields primarily symbolic power. The Guilds represented by the council are largely decentralized and self-policing, with the majority of enforcement carried out on the initiatives of its members. Government organizations have gradually become more and more prominent in monitoring magic-users over time, thanks to their superior funding capacity, but the continued existence of the Masquerade is more a result of happy coincidences, lack of serious threats and Black magic more than any all-encompassing conspiracy. The Masquerade is far from fangless of course - see Enforcers.

The Guilds: The Wizard's Guild, Witch's Guild and the Eastern Spiritualist Association (ESA) are the main representatives of the Guilds. Each Guild listed above is made up of magic-users who police themselves, share information about magic, and at times, work together to deal with threats. Most Guild Members, additionally, work regular jobs and pay a tax to their organization in order to support its more secretive institutions and relatively few paid positions.

Wizard's Guild: Of the three, the Wizard's Guild is the largest and most powerful. Its reach extends the world over, and has absorbed many smaller organizations - notable among them are many branches of the Christian Church - into its hierarchy. The Guild has established Wizard Academies the world over to instruct young magic-users in the appropriate use of their powers. Unlike Amaranth, the hallmark of such Academies is rigid discipline and control - magic is quite dangerous, after all. Officially, the Wizard's guild only practices pure Blue magic - in the form of Wizardry - and holds dim views of less refined disciplines - particularly innate, demonic or old magic. However, the Wizard's guild is not above dabbling in these areas when it is useful. The guild has strict laws against Dark magic however, and will go to great lengths to enforce them. Most members of the Wizard's guild are human (gender is irrelevant). While there is no formal rule preventing demons from joining - indeed, a surprising number of Wizards have some degree of supernatural blood in their veins - demonic power is viewed as a taint, which needs to be controlled, if not outright eliminated.

Witch's Guild: Witches are those willing to pay the ultimate price for power - or, at least, that's what the Witch's Guild exposés. Historically, the Witch's Guild was always hunted, either by the Wizard's or the Church and resorted to Dark magic, alliances with demons and old magic to gain an edge over their hunters. Though they no longer find themselves fighting for survival, the guild retains strong ties to demonic, traditional and Eastern magical communities and casts itself as a neutral and progressive organization. Unlike the Wizard's guild, the Witch's Guild formally endorses Dark magic - provided the cost is always paid by the spellcaster themselves. The Witch's Guild does not have schools of its own - but does have close ties to the Amaranth institute. Similar to the Wizard's guild, gender is irrelevant to Witch's guild membership.

Eastern Spiritualist Association: The E.S.A. for short, the Eastern Spiritualist Association is a loose association of various Eastern schools of magicians, martial artists and demons. Though originally founded in response to the threat of Wizard's Guild domination, the E.S.A. remains a very decentralized organization that rarely acts in unison. Each school is, for all intents and purposes, still independent. For this reason, the E.S.A. has yet to become a significant actor - it does fulfill self-policing, coordinating, and diplomatic functions between its constituent parts, though. Most human schools within the E.S.A. run their own dojos. Outside of the Far East, this organization has relatively little sway - though it does have strong ties to the Witch's Guild.

Government Supernatural Organizations: Each Government in the world has at least a small department devoted to the monitoring, policing and control of supernatural threats. In the more affluent countries of the West, these Departments have sufficient resources to be more effective at their jobs than the Wizard's or Witch's Guilds could ever be. Outside of policing the Guilds, most Departments have similar mandates and objectives: To reduce the power and reach of the Guilds by researching ways to retain the benefits of magic without relying on mages. In Canada, the Ministry of Research and Development is the Government Supernatural Organization.

Enforcers: The Fangs of the Masquerade. Charged with ensuring the Masquerade remains in place and effective, these individuals specialize in killing rogue mages, Blacks who are viewed as too dangerous to be left alone, and any White they see. Enforcers are agents of the Guilds, and generally speaking, limit their own targets to the Magically Aware and the more insane Whites. Government Organization's have a different title for their Enforcers - Agents. This distinction is largely meaningless, but it has been noted that Agents are usually not magic-users in the traditional sense. They rely on drugs, modern weapons and machines to deal with supernatural threats. Enforcers, on the other hand, are mages in the traditional sense - most of specialize in magic cancelation or absorption. Thus far, there have been relatively few clashes between Agents and Enforcers.

Races: Players in Magical Teacher Professor Landry will be either Human, or Non-Human (Half-Human is still non-human). Here's some details on how these races breakdown, as well as some notable sub-classes of demons. This isn't an exhaustive list by any means, of course.

Humans: The dominant species on Earth. Magic, to most humans, is a quaint and antiquated notion which people clung to in the past to explain that which they did not understand. Overtime, this scepticism has resulted in the development of a low grade magical-resistance on the part of humanity - especially with regard to mental manipulation. However, humans raised in mainstream society also have more difficulty learning the basics of magic than demons - though all are fully capable of it. This fact is one of the primary reasons for the existence of the Masquerade. Were humanity to reach its full magical potential, the results would be catastrophic - particularly for the minority of supernatural creatures that exist. Naturally, humans are limited to physical augmentation with their magical power. Wizardry and other disciplines practiced by humans were developed to address this.

Demons: All things that aren't human are classified collectively as demons. Most demons exist in isolated communities made primarily of their own species, where magic is accepted and widely practiced. Consequently, demons have an easier time learning magic, but are also more sensitive and vulnerable to its effects than the average human. On the whole, demons also have easier access to both martial and magical training than humans. This, coupled with their own innate capacity to manifest overt supernatural effects (see: Demonic Magic) and long life spans constitutes their primary edge over humans. However, as the potentials of fully trained demons and humans really differ very little, this advantage would count for little if the Masquerade were to fall apart. Additionally, all demons suffer from highly inconvenient, racially specific, weaknesses (such as a strong aversion to sunlight, in the case of vampires) which can be exploited against them in battle. The taint that allows demons to use their individual demonic magic is responsible for this weakness - it's the price of being able to manifest spells - sometimes extremely high level techniques - without human shaping techniques, like Wizardry. The taint also enables demons, in general, to better cope with techniques like shapeshifting, which are extremely painful and difficult for humans. However, it also makes human spells, which are designed for the neutral magic they use innately, far harder for demons to use.

Exceptions: Humans and demons don't always fit into the generalities outlined above. Some demons live among humans in modern society, while some humans live in small and isolated communities, where magic is commonplace. In the case of the former, demons - particularly those who are raised from birth as humans - develop a resistance and insensitivity to magic normally associated with humans. In the latter's case, humans develop magical vulnerabilities and sensitivities normally associated with demons. Sometimes, they develop racial weaknesses too - making them more demon than human. Half-demons - children with both human and demon blood in them - also occur periodically, either through natural or unnatural circumstance. Typically, half-demons have unusual eye, hair and skin colours, similar to their demonic parents, but are otherwise able to pass for human. They have tainted magical power, like demons, but this taint is diluted by their human blood, making demonic magic more difficult for them. The same is true of their racial weaknesses - they exist still, but their human blood dilutes it somewhat. Whether or not half-demons are resistant or sensitive to magic depends on their upbringing. Hybrids of different races of demons are also possible. They're similar to half-demons, functionally.

Ghosts: A type of demon created when something dies. Should a ghost be killed, the being is destroyed completely. Naturally, ghosts are immaterial and invisible beings without the ability to move from the exact spot they died. Only through the use of magic can they move or interact with the world. However, like most demons, ghosts have tainted Will, so even a master magician in life is nearly powerless in death. Most ghosts pass over into the next world naturally (a function of their tainted magic) anyway. Those who can't, or won't, become the responsibilities of beings known as Psychopomps - Death Guides. Because ghosts possess even less of a resistance to magic than most demons, they are often captured and used as weapons or servants of living magicians. Psychopomps, charged with the protection of the dead, usually take a dim view of such practices. How they address them varies heavily between them, though. Zombies and other undead are ghosts which, through magical means, have possessed or been sealed into a body. Players who want to play a deceased character are heavily encouraged to consider one with a body, not a ghost.

Greater Spirits: Everything that exists has a spirit. Most aren't self-aware and exist only as creatures of instinct. A minority of them, known as Greater spirits, are self-aware though - these sorts of spirits are available as races at Character Generation. In their natural states, greater spirits are diffuse and incorporeal manifestations of consciousness, most corresponding to large territories of land, water or air. The true body of these spirits is the landform they represent - damaging the landform damages them. Most style themselves as the protector of their territory and employ their Demonic magic to take a corporeal form and protect it when it's threatened. These forms usually aren't made of flesh and blood. A water spirit's corporeal body, for instance, would have red water in place of blood. Though fundamentally different at an atomic level than a human's blood, this red water would exhibit all the qualities of human blood - in addition to all the qualities of water. A similar principle would be at work in the rest of their body. Again, in the case of Water spirits, simply existing at the extremes of temperature would damage them, among other unpleasant things. Once in corporeal form, spirits become very vulnerable - they're as easy to kill as any human. If the spirit representing a territory dies, the area will suffer for a short time - but a new spirit will be born shortly after. Greater spirits, it should be noted, are all actually composed of the countless lesser spirits that make up their territory - stripping these away would, slowly, kill the greater spirit permanently (and catastrophically affect the landmass they make-up too).

Magic System:

Basics: Will is roughly analogous to the concept of Mana. It is what fuels magic in the world of Magical Teacher Professor Landry. In its natural state, Will is without form, shape or substance - it does not even exist. All beings, human, god, fairy, peasant or king, have the same amount of Will, which can not be raised by any means. Under normal circumstances, Will is expressed whenever an individual interacts with the world around them - breathing, lifting a fork, or firing a gun all expend Will. Therefore, every action, even existing, takes Will, and may be considered a spell. Demons possess tainted Will which varies with their species, while Humans Will is neutral. For the purposes of this game, Will expenditure is only significant when used for supernatural effects that could not normally be realized. These 'special' expenditures are catalogued in your character's Spell list. The use and creation of Spells is the discipline of Magic. Naturally, Magic is an instinctive rather than a conscious activity. Only through Awakening – when a Black is made aware of and comes to believe in magic – or Snapping – a sharp disassociation from reality triggered by trauma – may this be changed.

Magical Exhaustion: In-game, Will is expressed as a total out of 50. As this total decreases, a character will begin to show signs of Magical Exhaustion - a gradual depreciation of physical and mental abilities, eventually culminating with explosive bleeding and internal damage, after a character tries to cast spells with 0 Will remaining. Experienced mages are able to continue casting spells after passing 0, but each cast causes additional, painful, damage to their body. Such practices are life-threatening and should be avoided.

Magical Backlash: The strength of a magic-user is not measured in the damage their spells can do - anyone, with the proper knowledge, can level cities. A powerful magic-user is someone who can expend dizzying amounts of Will, without experiencing Magical Backlash. When a spell is cast, externally or internally, the user's Will travels through what amounts to magical pores before manifesting. If the spell in question forces too much Will through those pores, it causes explosive haemorrhaging. This bleeding is Magical Backlash. A powerful mage, therefore, is someone with unusually large magical pores. Through special training, a magician may increase the size of their pores - and reduce the chances of magical backlash. This process usually comes at the cost of a magic-user's resistance to magic, however.

Auras: When Will is expended in unusual quantities a magical corona of coloured shadowless light appears around the magician. These coronas are Auras. Generally, this only occurs when casting spells, but states of high emotion or intense focus can also cause auras to appear as well. The colour of an Aura is the collective hue of all spells known by the magician, in addition to the base shade of their Will. Objects created or enchanted with supernatural powers will carry the aura of the one who created them. Auras are only visible to the Awakened or Snapped.

Black Magic: The vast majority of humans (and a small minority of demons) possess black auras and are known, collectively, as Blacks. Blacks are those outside of the Masquerade - they don't know about, or believe in, magic. Consequently, even if exposed to an overtly magical event, Blacks are likely to rationalize it as anything but magic - science is a mysterious thing, after all. In spite of this, Blacks are fully capable of using spells. Black magic is an instinctive, subconscious and emotionally driven variant of magic which subtly warps reality to match the perceptions or desires of the caster. Black magic usually takes on a life of its own, adapting and improving itself independent of its owner's will, with the objective of protecting the Black in question. Unless doing so conflicts with protecting the Black, Black magic never allows its user to learn about magic or their own powers.

Half-Awakened Magic: Awakening, the process by which magic becomes a conscious, rather than instinctive, thing has never been a strict binary - it's actually far closer to a continuum. Half-Awakened magic exists in the murky and confusing middle of this continuum. Individuals who only believe in a particular kind of magic, or who do not accept magic per se, but suspend their scepticism long enough to be convinced that there are forces in the universe which they can not understand but can take advantage of, are both examples of the Half-Awakened. Mages who have recently been Awakened and are in the process of learning to control their instinctive abilities are also half-Awakened. That said, it is entirely possible for people to be stuck in this stage indefinitely. The Half-Awakened have darkly coloured auras.

White Magic: The power to overwrite reality as a god. White magic-users are created when a Black completely disassociates from reality, usually resulting from a traumatic emotional shock, or a slow process of sanity degradation. Put another way, White magic-users are insane. Unlike Blacks, they possess full knowledge of their own unique and special abilities. Most Whites are also aware of Magic's existence, but rightly perceive themselves to be outside of its rules. Roughly a hundred Whites exist in the world at any one time, but most die within five years of their birth. These people are at the top of the magical food chain - if you see one, your best bet is to run. Note that it isn't impossible for an Awakened mage to become a White, but such an event is almost unheard of in rarity.

Grey Magic: Snapping is either something that occurs in an instant, or as the result of a slow process of sanity degradation. In the case of the later, the magic-user sometimes develops Grey magic. The specifics of Grey magic are extremely murky - it requires the user to recognize that they have an ability of some sort that is unusual and special, in a very specific circumstance, which does not apply to other areas of life. However, once a Grey spell is developed, it generally isn't long before the Grey experiments further in other circumstances. Most experiments like this prove successful - and Snapping entirely is not far away. Unlike the Half-Awakened, it is rare for Greys to remain Greys indefinitely.

Awakened Disciplines: Auras that are red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple (or some combination of those shades) belong to the Awakened – magic users in on the Masquerade. The way the Awakened use magic and shape Will varies quite heavily between disciplines – this section is a list of some of the more common (or at least, more well known) forms of Awakened magic in the Contemporary World of Magical Teacher Professor Landry. As mentioned above in the Witch's Guild write-up, hybrizing disiciplines is fully possible.

Innate Magic: Without the shaping techniques found in other Awakened disciplines, human Will has no form or substance - it is merely power. The discipline of Innate magic directs this force and uses it to infuse the caster's body to augment the user's natural attributes. Though easier to learn than Red and Blue magic, it is also profoundly limited - humans are not naturally able to manifest supernatural phenomena outside their bodies, making overt spells extremely difficult.

Demonic Magic: According to human legends, demons were created as weapons of War. For this reason, their Will was tainted in order to allow them to manifest spells outside their bodies, without the need for human shaping techniques. Demonic magic varies heavily with the race of the user, but each possesses very finite limitations. To get around them, some demons choose to augment their natural powers with human arts. However, their tainted Will makes this a difficult, and frustrating, experience, to say the least. While some races have developed extremely refined forms of Demonic magic, it is technically still a version of Innate Magic.

Wizardry: The quintessential Western magical art. Wizardry is the art of shaping Will through complex arrays of symbols, lines and shapes. Will, in its natural state, is merely potential power - Wizards use their spell circles as lenses to reshape this power, enabling them to manifest virtually any kind of phenomenon, provided they know the correct set of symbols to create it. In ancient times, Wizards used physical objects as lenses, such as rocks or circles drawn in the dirt. Contemporary Wizards create spell circles from their auras alone - a process which requires a great deal of mental discipline, because the slightest error can cause the spell to fizzle, or worse, backfire entirely. Wizards are the most common form of Awakened magic-user in the modern world.

Onmyodo: A form of magic primarily practiced in Japan. Onmyodo draws on the sacred properties of nature to cast spells. Omnyoji - the practitioners of this art - do not shape Will into spells on their own. Instead, they rely on nature spirits known as kami to do so. Most require written inscriptions to communicate their desires and transfer Will to their spirit ally, the advanced practitioners - known as the Enlightened - are capable of direct interaction with the kami without the need for such intermediaries. The power of Onmyodo users is reduced the further they are from nature. Most Onimoji live in Japan – outside of it, they're rare.

Katsujinjitsu: More commonly known as Chi, Katsujinjitsu roughly translates to the Life Arts. Katsujinjitsu manipulates Life energy, both outside and inside the user, when casting spells. Onmyodo and Katsujinjitsu are often practiced in concert because of their similarities - both primarily draw power from outside their user - but Katsujinjitsu manipulates this force directly. Consequently, this is a mildly easier, though more limited, discipline. It also comes far closer than Onmyodo does to the principles of Dark magic. Katsujinjitsu users are most common in the Far-East, though even there, they are firmly in the minority.

Old Magic: All forms of ancient magic, Alchemy, Druidism, Song magic, etc. fall under the collective heading of Old magic. Most forms of it have all but died out. Old magic is the art of shaping Will through physical lenses to cast spells, or, the art of infusing objects with Will, to enhance their properties. The key distinction between Old magic and contemporary disciplines is that the lens used exists physically - it is not a purely metaphysical construct like aura-based spell circles or the immaterial kami.

Shamanism: An ancient form of Onmyodo still practiced in remote communities. Where Onmyoji commune with spirits of the world itself, Shaman work with the spirits tied to physical objects - rocks, printers, rats, etc - to cast their spells. Most spirits that are invoked by Shamans are not fully self-aware, nor do they typically have a grasp of the human language, so communication is often mental or semantic, with verbal and written commands generally limited to bestial sounds, or more rarely, simple symbols. Shamanism is exceedingly uncommon in the modern world and is technically classified as Old magic.

Dark Magic: Dark magic has been known by many names throughout history - Purple magic, True magic, Witchcraft in the West, the Death Arts (Satsujinjitsu) in the East. Regardless of their name, all forms of Dark magic follow the same logic: There is power in sacrifice. When something dies or is destroyed, energy is released - energy that Dark magic-users make use of to empower their spells beyond what they are normally capable of. Dark magic is a classification for spells, not a magical discipline into itself - a Dark magic user must also practice a normal magical discipline to use their powers.

Combat: While Battles in Magical Teacher Professor Landry usually take quite a long time to play out, actual combat – especially exchanges that occur in melee – is both fast and brutal. Fighting is hard and – generally speaking – should be avoided. The people around you may be stronger, faster or smarter than you – and you really won't be able to tell until the battle begins. That said, sometimes fighting can not be avoided. Being able to defend yourself will help a lot, since one of the more significant power-gaps in this game is between untrained fighters and trained ones. Even so, do not expect easy fights or handholding – nasty things can and will happen when swords are out. Remain calm, think things through and play to your character's strengths. Nothing in this world is truly invincible – but fighting a master martial artist in straight-up combat probably won't work. It'll be up to you to figure out what will. I promise, the outcome will be fair – to both you and your opponent – if nothing else.

One Turn-per Week: Roleplaying games like this take a very, very, long time. In an effort to keep things moving, I'll be doing my best to post once a week. This means if you're involved in a scene you'll need to do the same. If you can't, or just don't, I will assume you passed your turn. Outside of combat, the ramifications of that are pretty mild – it'll usually mean your character just doesn't do anything that turn. In combat, the consequences for hesitating are usually worse. If you don't post but are heavily involved in a fight, I'll select an action that makes sense for your character in that moment, in order to keep the game moving. I should also say that off-screen action is only alright with GM permission – if it isn't posted in game, it didn't happen. You can contact me via PM or IM if you need more time, but I won't promise to give it to you. I might allow you to select what your character does, though.

Reaction Commands: Sometimes, when I'm working on a post, I find a small area which requires player input (such as whether or not you trigger a relevant reflexive defensive ability or not). When that happens, I send out an unfinished copy of the post, stopping at the place where the player has a chance to influence the scene, and allow them to dictate what their character does. Similarly, sometimes when resolving a particularly action – usually a scuffle in melee combat – I'll request player input on how their character capitalizes on a particular situation. Players, generally speaking, will get around 24 hours to decide what their character will do in that moment – your character doesn't have more than an instant to decide, after all, so more than that doesn't seem fair. I won't be unfair about this (especially not if you tell me that you need a little more time because) but I really don't want the game held up too long because of Reaction Commands. They're meant to keep things moving, after all.

Meta-Gaming: Do not use information that your character can't have access to (IE: Out-of-character knowledge). Play in-character. Doing otherwise is cheating, and I really don't like cheating. If you aren't sure what this means, ask. You really don't want the GM to be mad at you.

Non-Lethal Principle: This is a caveat to be kept in mind when fighting. Guns, bows and all long range weapons are non-lethal; most of the time, bullets and arrows will only shallowly pierce a target's skin and deal (heavy) blunt damage. The exception to this rule occurs when an individual desires, with all their heart, to kill someone (this is a function of the way Will is expended when firing a bullet, even in a mundane weapon) and does not waver in this desire until the bullet strikes. With long-range weaponry, rage is usually the easiest way to get around this principle. Melee weapons are an entirely different beast – and far more lethal, by comparison.

Spells: Under normal circumstances, magic is extremely difficult to use. It requires careful concentration, years of training, a close attention to detail, access to altered states of consciousness and spell components - none of which is particularly easy to manage when being shot at. Spells are techniques designed to get around this. Through meticulous rehearsal and practice, Will can be trained to fall into particular templates quickly and reliably, in order to evoke supernatural effects without concentration. Different structures of templates are required to evoke different effects and Will may only be directed into a single spell template at a time. Auras are the collective catalogue of spell templates available to a Mage.

Compound Spells: Will may only be directed toward a single spell at any given time. Basic spells only do one thing - Compound spells are an advanced spell, designed to get around the 'one magical effect at a time' limitation. Through careful control and coordination, magicians are able to construct spells which evoke two distinct magical effects at the same time. The metaphor of a river flowing both north and south (at the same time in the same place) fits a Compound spell - it ought to be physically impossible. Because most spells are able to be turned on-and-off reflexively, Compound spells are generally not pursued if there's a viable alternative. They're really hard. Compound Spells, at minimum, are Grade 2.

Grades: All spells may be rated on a grading scale. Most start as Grade 1 - they're an application of Will to do one specific thing, like making something explode with a touch. Grade 2 spells add a second effect to a Grade 1, such as enabling you to blow an object up from a distance, increasing the size of the explosion, or making the explosion release poisonous gas as well. Higher grades continue this pattern. To work out what Grade a spell is, you need to break down what it does, and then count the steps involved.

Growth: Players will begin the game with a relatively short list of low Grade abilities. Through practice and experimentation (see: Spell Refining), new abilities can be added to the list, or old abilities can be improved. This takes a fair amount of in-game time. So, just to be clear, power-levels will increase slowly for the most part, with the largest increases occurring off-screen during time skips. There will be in-game events where spell Grades spontaneously increase, but don't expect them to happen often. From an in-game perspective, events that have that sort of power are extremely uncommon - and are usually associated with Dark magic.

Spell Refining: Is the process by which mages can increase the Grades of their spells. Mages of different disciplines have to do different things to refine spells. Generally, though, the process can be boiled down to experimentation to find a way to successfully alter their pre-existing spell, then continuous practice until they can cast the new spell in their sleep. Spell Refining is a long and frustrating process, which can also be extremely dangerous - more than one unlucky magician has been killed by an experiment gone awry.

Spell Degradation: Magic is hard. In order to use spells effectively in battle, magicians must devote hours of their lives to the practice of their discipline, much like Martial Artists. However, between experimentation to design or improve on new spells and the demands of living in a modern society, practicing spells often falls by the wayside. When this happens, the slow process of Spell Degradation begins. Like any skill, when spells are not frequently used, they become rusty. Typically, this takes the form of a slight delay when casting a spell, or an increased chance of spell failure. Generally speaking, a magician never forgets a spell they knew in its entirety, but lengthy periods of disuse certainly take their toll. Try not to let this happen when using important spells.

Free Casting: Spells are extremely practiced, fast, applications of magic designed for battle or other situations where concentration is a luxury that can't be afforded. Sometimes though, the spells a magician knows are insufficient. In such situations, Free Casting - the use of magic without a spell template - is one of the tools available to mages. Free Casting may be used, in battle and out, to develop new spells or adapt an existing one. However, magic is not easy or safe - attempts at Free Casting are frequently characterized by fizzles or, if the mage is unlucky, fatal backfires. Being slow and careful, not to mention having a wide array of casting components and ritual devices, increases the chances of a Free Cast being successful - which is why most attempts at it are done inside a magician's workshop, not in battle. When hurried, even simple spells or adaptations contain a significant chance of failure. Free Casting in battle is generally viewed as a very desperate act. Most mages avoid it for good reason - those who rely on it die. Extreme caution is advised.

Enchantments: Spells which apply prolonged magical effects to objects, with or without an associated drain of Will, are referred to as Enchantments. Colloquially, positive effects are referred to as Blessings, while negative ones are referred to as Curses. Such classifications are inherently poor for subjective reasons, however. There is no objective mechanical difference between a positive or negative enchantment. Enchantments can be applied a variety of ways - battle based ones (usually possessing short durations) are usually thrown like projectiles and appear to be invisible to the Unawakened, but glow brightly to the Awakened. Longer effects, like those applied to enchanted weapons, usually require longer rituals and greater magical expenditure.

Barrier Fields: Barrier Fields are a closed space that separates everyone within their boundary from everything outside. The most common form of them creates a copy of the environment which it encloses, moves it half a dimension away, and takes all living things with it. Effectively, once a Barrier Field is activated, everyone within its boundary vanishes. However, the specifics of this - whether it is selective in only taking the Awakened or not, for instance - vary quite heavily between Fields. Breaking a Barrier Field is quite difficult from the inside, but the most reliable way is to kill the magician who set it up, or destroy whatever talisman is anchoring it. Outside, the easiest method is to disrupt whatever boundary (sometimes as simple as a line in the sand) created it in the first place. Certain spells may also be designed specifically to eliminate Barrier Fields. The realities of the Masquerade make Barrier Fields a relatively common phenomena, when magic is involved – you'll see more than a few of them.

[Teal Mage]

With the main part of the Primer out of the way, this post is for Character Sheets.

New players (and old Players who want new characters) will be making students for the Amaranth Institute for the Gifted who have been recently acquired by Professor Rebecca Landry. It is currently late October - the end of the second month of the school year. You might be transfers from Wizard's academies. Or maybe you were in a different Professor's homeroom. Maybe you were just walking down the street going to a normal school this morning. Either way, Professor Landry now has her talons in you, and there is no escape from Love and Fightology.

Name: Your Character's name. Keep cultural background in mind when selecting this.
Race: For humans, just say Humans. For Non-Humans, put down your specific race. If you want to try and classify it as Half-Demon, Demon (or something more specific, like Ghost, Undead or Greater spirit) put that in brackets. If not, I'll figure that out myself.
Gender: Male or Female, I guess? If you want to play a non-Gendered, Hermaphrodite, Transgender or Crossdresser, I suppose you'd clarify that here.
Aura: You can try to guess at your Aura color - but its probably best to leave this section to me. Its the sum of all your spell hues.
Age: First in appearance, then in brackets, actual age.
Appearance: Include height, build, hair colour, length, typical style, eye colour and skin tone. Typically clothing style would also be appreciated, but it's expected that'll change daily. Players who are demons should use their section to describe how they look when blending into society – whatever that means.

Spells: This will probably be the hardest section. Here's where players will put in a list of the spell templates their characters have memorized. At these stage, each spell will be more of a proposal than a finished product – I'll probably have something to say about everything in these sections. It's alright if you don't quite understand the mechanics behind the spell too – I'll work that out with you once I have the concept/proposal. If you want to try and guess what the spell's colour is, put it after your spell's proposed name and follow it with ‘Elemental, like so:

Proposed Spell Name, <Colour> Elemental.

Here's a guide to Spell Hue classification. If you can't figure it out, don't worry about it.Spell Hues: A spell is considered Yellow when there is no shaping mechanism, or, when the shaping mechanism is physical but located inside the caster. Spells are Red when the shaping mechanism is independent of the caster, metaphysical or immaterial and outside the caster. Blue spells are those shaped outside of the caster, but not independent of them, using metaphysical or immaterial lenses. Green spells are shaped outside of the caster, not independent of them, but with a physical lens. Orange spells are independent of the caster, shaped outside of them, with a physical lens. Spells become Purple whenever Dark magic is employed - whenever something is sacrificed to fuel the spell. When the sacrifice was made only by the caster, the spell is Indigo. When it's made by another, it's Magenta. Should Yellow magic be involved in Dark magic, the spell becomes Lavender. Black spells are instinctive or not viewed as anything unusual. White spells are conscious, but viewed as special and unusual. Colours may also be mixed normally - if a spell draws on both Red and Blue techniques, it's Purple.


For new players, I'd say that you should start the game with between five and seven grade 1 spells. I'll judge how many spells I feel it's appropriate for your character to have once I see your background and proposed spell list. As a rule, the more complex or powerful your character's spells are, the more difficult they'll be to learn and maintain - which means you'll have less spells in total to work with. I'll deal with higher grade spells on an individual basis, but I want to stress they are very hard to learn. You'll need a very good reason for your character to have learned them - especially if they have more than one grade 2 (or one 3+) spell. I'm not likely to give out more than one (maybe two) higher grade abilities, though.

Each of the spells your characters have should reflect on their background. It's appropriate for some of your abilities to be battle-based (say, three of them), but the rest of their spells ought to address challenges they meet frequently in their daily lives. Unless your character fights a lot, most of their skills should be related to hobbies – whether or not they have battle applications is entirely beside the point.

Oh, and a word of caution! It's tempting when designing spells to create far-reaching and highly adaptable abilities. But, under the Landry system, such abilities are usually less advantageous than they seem at first glance. To use an example: Elementalism, the ability to freely control an element. In the Landry system, this ability has been divided in two: Elemental Generation (the ability to transform the caster's Will into the element in question) and Elemental Manipulation (the ability to control the element of question using Will alone). Further, both are subject to very serious range limitations at Grade 1 (roughly arm's length). It's better to select more specific spells, like Shoot Fireball, than to try and rely on broad and extremely adaptable abilities, because the latter group will always have extremely serious limitations on them. This sort of principle holds true for all spells in the Landry system - illusions, shapeshifting, etc.

That said, here are a few examples of spells you might want to consider for your character.

Summoning Spells: In modern times, it's considered eccentric - if not outright illegal - to carry a sword or gun wherever you go. For weapon-users (and Monster Summoners), Summoning Spells are the answer to this problem. Summoning techniques are designed to bring an object or entity normally located elsewhere - be it your closet or another dimension altogether - to the user. Most disciplines have their own variant on Summoning techniques, but they are generally more economic than throwing fireballs around. The standard Summoning Spell is reflexive and allows the user to dismiss and recall their object quickly and at very little cost. If a summoned object is damaged while in use, it is slowly repaired to the state it was in when the spell was originally designed, after it is dismissed. Additionally, summoned creatures registered to this technique are usually smarter and stronger than their natural cousins. However, adding special abilities to a summoned object beyond this increases the spell's grade.

Will-based Ammunition: Projectile Weapons, when summoned, have a theoretically infinite pool of ammunition to go with it. The catch is, each bullet is formed directly from their Will and drains them whenever they're fired. Cosmetically, each piece of ammo glows extremely brightly to the supernaturally sensitive, in a colour matching the aura that spawned them. The ammo, like the weapon in question, vanishes when dismissed. Projectile Weaponry is slightly harder to learn to Summon, as a note.

Surges: Passive Abilities don't exist in Professor Landry. Abilities like 'enhanced strength' are mainly handled through a mechanism called Surges. Surges are typically Yellow spells, which send magical energy to a particular part of the user's body, reinforcing it and enabling the magic-user to perform supernatural feats. Such surges only last for an instant - roughly long enough to strengthen the next action taken. This sort of technique is generally quite physically taxing, however - repeated uses can damage the user quite badly.

Mode-Shifts: Mode-Shifts occur when a magic-user fills their body with supernatural energy for a sustained period of time. The boosts provided by Mode-Shifts are generally less powerful than Surges. Additionally, so long as the Mode is active, the magic-user is unable to new cast spells - unless the spell happens to be designed to work in concert with this mode (see: Compound Spell). These are slightly closer to passive abilities than Surges, in some regards, but they also drain the user's Will very quickly. Note: Shapeshifting is not the same thing as a Mode-Shift, unless the user's attributes are enhanced in their new form. In which case, then yes, it is a Mode-Shift.

Instant Movement: A classification of spells dealing with the near instantaneous movement of a caster from one point to another. Like Summoning abilities, Instant Movement techniques come in nearly all shapes and sizes - most disciplines have a version of them, though not all are equally easy to learn and use. Flash Step - a Yellow technique - is the most commonly practiced form of Instant Movement - it's a Mode-Shift which reinforces the user's lower body enabling them to dash at impossible speeds in straight-line bursts. Though the movement appears instantaneous, its not teleportation - walls and obstacles still stop it. In spite of this ability's obvious advantages, it's usually associated with evasion, travel or repositioning, not combat. While in Flash Step, the user is unable to perceive their surroundings so paths must be determined before the technique is used. Secondly - and perhaps more importantly - the sudden change in velocity at the move's termination leaves the vulnerable for a moment, and unable to react. It also has a high physical energy drain associated with it - repeated uses will quickly tire the user out. Most Instant Movement techniques are subject to similarly inconvenient drawbacks. I've included a small list of other Instant Movements below, but it is far from exhaustive. More details can be provided, if desired.

Non-exhaustive list of examples.Flash Step, Black Elemental.
Magical scholars believe that Flash Step was based on a similar Black ability, colloquially referred to as Black Step. Functionally identical to Flash Step, Black Step is a mode-shift which enables the Unawakened to dash extremely quickly between points - without realizing how fast they're moving. When in use, the Black's perception shrinks until they're only focusing on their goal. The more sensitive among them experience a feeling of everything moving in slow motion - a detail their powers quickly force them to dismiss. Though time seems to pass normally for them, to everyone else, they're almost a blur. In a blink, they're usually at their destination. Generally, Black Step only activates for short bursts, and is actually slightly less quick than Awakened Flash Steps - but the difference is small enough to be irrelevant. This ability has a high physical drain associated, and only activates in response to emotional needs - it can not be triggered willingly.

Flash Action, Yellow Elemental.
An adaption of Instant Movement techniques. Flash Action is a type of spell with enables the user to perform a single, pre-set, action nigh instantaneously. Different Flash Actions are necessary for different physical movements - a vertical slash with a sword and a horizontal slash with a sword would be completely different actions. Adapting Flash Actions are extremely difficult, since unlike most spells, these rely on practiced motions - even slight alterations to stance or the weapon used can throw these off. Has a high physical drain associated, but can be extremely useful. Flash Actions are prominently used in Iaido.

Flash Move, Blue Elemental
A form of Instant Movement most commonly associated with Wizardry and Blue Magic. Flash Move enables teleportation between two spell circles, though places great physical stress on the body - stress which escalates the further the two circles are from one another. At Grade 1, spell circles can only be established within reach of the magician - physical contact isn't necessary, but the caster must be able to touch them, should they desire. If this spell is activated extremely quickly, it leaves the user disoriented and motion-sick. The spell fails if the boundary created by either circle is disrupted or occupied.

Flicker, Blue Elemental
A variant of Flash Move. Flicker creates a single spell circle beneath the caster which, when activated, transports them to a pocket dimension. The user remains within it for as long as they are able to sustain it. Relatively little physical stress is placed on the user of this technique, though the magical strain is high. The basic form of this spell prevents the user from interacting, in any capacity, with the real world while in their pocket dimension. Unless the dimension is altered, it has no air or light within it as well. Adding these things increases the drain associated with the spell, almost disproportionately. If the boundary of the spell is broken while being cast, the technique fails. Alternatively, if the original circle is occupied when the spell lapses, backlash occurs, making it generally unsuitable for melee combat.

Leyline Contraction, Red Elemental
Widely considered the most powerful and impressive Instant Movement, Leyline Contraction is a technique virtually exclusive to high-level Eastern magic-users, like the Enlightened Ominoji. Leyline Contraction enables instantaneous long-range travel between two points of 'sameness,' as easily as taking a step. Most users of Leyline Contraction are limited by geographic formations, but masters of this technique can travel to any location on the planet, regardless of obvious similarities or differences. Generally associated with Eastern magic - lesser forms of this spell are referred to by the same name. Starting characters won't have access to the fullest form of this ability.

Bio: This is where you tell us about your character. Don't give me your life story – try to be concise. But you do need to tell me a little about your character's upbringing, where they learned their special skills (magic, fighting, how to sing like that, etc), why they're in Amaranth and, if they've been here for a while, what they've been up to. This last point may require some collaboration if it involves the supernatural! But a little high school adventure is to be expected.

Clubs: This is the section where you list your clubs! Along with its reputation for excellent students, Amaranth is also known for its uniquely structured classes. Through its comprehensive Club system, the school offers an extremely wide range of electives to students, enabling them to build a very personalized selection of classes - which are each called a Club. All Clubs are extremely intensive and cover a wide range of subject matter, ranging from historical and theoretical aspects of the discipline to more practical concerns and anything else the school feels is related to it. These connections are often remarked as extremely tenuous by students - like learning about geology and soil composition as a Cheerleader. Clubs meet anywhere from 1 - 5 times a week and their meetings can last anywhere between ten minutes and four hours. In order to facilitate this, Amaranth has a full compliment of Club Coordinators who, miraculously, ensure that all students are able to attend most of their club meetings without scheduling conflicts. Homework is also usually assigned on top of meetings, though the quantity and type varies with each club, the average amount of time spent, per week, on out-of-class assignments in four hours.

In addition to Clubs, each student is assigned to a Homeroom Class of 10-15 students (You are in Q-11, with Professor Landry). These begin at 9 am Monday-Fridays, and end at 12 pm, for lunch. Clubs are scheduled in the time remaining until 6 pm, when supper is served. Some clubs continue to meet after 7 pm, but for most students, this is free time. To facilitate practice and homework, some clubs with special facilities, like the Pool, remain open until 10 pm, but most close at supper time. Should be noted that food and meals are supplied by the school free of charge. Students can also request groceries or club materials from their Home Room Teacher, or Club Director, which if approved, will be supplied for free as well.

First-year Clubs tend to be very general, with the intention of exposing students to a wide variety of situations, problems and techniques, in order to help them develop their own preferences and talents. Advanced Sections are more specialized, and usually exclusive to Second years. A current list of clubs may be found below - if you don't see something that you think should be there, say so. Each first year student is required to have a minimum for three clubs at the beginning of the year, but only needs to get high marks in two of them to pass. Four is the maximum. Students may start their own clubs at any time (called Student Associations), with the approval of their Homeroom Teacher. Associations gain full access to school resources in the pursuit of their objectives. The Social Club is the most notable one - Second and Third-year students hang-out in its restaurant-and-lounge often. It has the highest membership out of all Amaranth associations.

Click here for a list of approved clubs (including a handful of established Advanced sections) and associations. Further details about any will be supplied upon request!First Year Clubs:
Aikido: A martial art's club - learn to fight defensively!
Anime: Watch Anime with Professor Landry!
Archery: Learn to handle long-range weaponry - sometimes, in melee combat.
Art: Learn to draw, paint and use other forms of traditional artistic media!
Band: Learn to play an instrument.
Baseball: The Baseball Team. Practice and fitness are mandatory!
Basketball: The Basketball Team. Practice and fitness are mandatory!
Birdwatching: Observe and learn about animals and plants.
Book: Read. A lot. Or else!
Capoeria: A martial art's club - learn the Brazilian Art of dance fighting.
Cheerleading: The Cheerleading Squad! Practice, fitness and prettiness are mandatory.
Chemistry: Learn to mix chemicals! This is also known as the Science Club.
Choir: Singing class. Dancing is sometimes involved.
Computer: Learn to use computers, design programs, and play video games!
Crafts: Learn to build things from wood, metal, leather, plastic and other materials.
Cultural: Learn about other cultural traditions! Professor Shuyin used to teach this.
Dance: Learn the great art of the dance! Emphasis is placed on formal styles.
Drama: Learn to act!
Fencing: A martial art's club - learn to use one-handed swords in the Western Style.
Fitness: A club about learning to live a healthy lifestyle! Annoys everyone else.
Gardening: Learn to take care of plants properly, and about their properties. Also known as Botany.
Home Ec: Learn to sew, cook, clean, and in general, about domestic arts!
Ice Sports: Contains elements of all sports that use ice - like Hockey and Figure Skating.
Karate: A martial art's club - learn the Eastern striking art!
Kendo: A martial art's club - learn to use two-handed swords in the Eastern Style.
Meditation: A very spiritual take on a martial arts club. Become one with the universe and all that jazz.
Mixed Martial Arts: A martial art's club - learn to fight and win any way you can!
Movie: Learn about, watch, and create, movies.
Writing: Learn to Write in various styles, poetry, narrative, song, essay, etc, and about English Literature.
Publicity: Spread the word about the great things happening on campus! Sorta like a Reporting Club.
Riding: Horseback Riding club!
Soccer: The Soccer Team. Fitness, practice and strong legs are mandatory!
Strolling: For people who like to walk aimlessly around the campus, lost in thought.
Swimming: Contains elements of all water sports!
Tabletop: Contains elements of card, tabletop and board games. Strategy is a must!
Veterinary: Learn to take care of, and heal, animals. Closest thing to a medicine program.
Wilderness: Camping club! Learn to survive in nature.
Winter Sports: Contains elements of all snow-based activities - like Snowboarding, Igloo building and Sledding.

Advanced Sections:
Metalworking (Craft/Art)
Shark Fighting (Swimming)
Sculpture (Art/Crafts)

Student Associations:
Social Club
Relaxation Club
Mystery Club
Occult Club
Pop Culture Club
Psychology Club

Further details about any of these will be supplied upon request!

Just to restate, two is the minimum required, four is the max. The school, and I, recommend four. The Clubs you select will heavily influence the sorts of spells your character will learn. Additionally, you can propose a new First-year club if you don't see something your character would be interested in on the list. Alternatively, if your character is already really good at something, you can try to convince me (and the school) to put them into a specific Advanced club for it. I'll only allow one Advanced club – at a maximum – per character, though.

Notes: A section for quick referencing miscellaneous points that need emphasis. Racial weaknesses, non-magical equipment that your character frequently carries around, items that your character's been given as gifts which are magical but have limited uses, special skills or details about their clubs are also suitable.

Relationships: This is where you get to design NPCs for me to add to the world! Pretty straight-forward stuff, give me a short description of characters who would be significant in some way to the one you're playing – friends, roommates, family – and I'll add them to the world. Don't go too crazy here. Oh, and remember, all characters outside of your PCs are under my control in-game.

Click here for the example bio. This is your Class President!Name: Adeline Fletcher
Race: Lab Experiment (Half-Demon)
Gender: Female
Aura: Black
Age: 17
Appearance: Adeline stands at roughly 5'7, with a lithe build of corded muscles from the intense physical training of the Amaranth sports clubs. She has heterochromia – one of her eyes is amber, the other is hazel. Her brown hair is long and hangs down to the middle of her back and usually styled into a long, thick, braid. She changes her clothes, and styles, daily – some of her outfits speak of money, others are pretty worn. Yellow appears to be her trademark colour. Since she enrolled two months ago, she's replaced her old orange knapsack with a standard issue Amaranth sports bag - a cylindrical red-pink bag with white trim and a black shoulder-strap. It has the Amaranth crest - the flower of the same name - on it.

Spells:

Find: Shortsword, Black Elemental
A standard Black summoning technique. Whenever Adeline's in danger and needs a weapon, this ability activates. Under normal circumstances, it subtly warps probability to place an object within easy reach of Adeline which could serve as a sword. The object needs to be logically obtainable in the circumstances – a fallen tree branch would make sense in a forest, for instance, but not in a locker room. In situations where reality has become extremely frayed – usually a result of overt magical displays – this ability brings her prized short-sword directly to her hand. In such cases, her perception will be altered to prevent her from noticing this anomaly. The blade itself is of Japanese design, made from steel, single edged and roughly as long as Adeline's forearm forearm. A strand of yellow leather, which is starting to show some fading from use, is wrapped around the handle. This ability always shows preference to bringing Adeline's sword to her – if there's a logical way for it to be present, it will appear.

Lucky Throw > Adeline Special, Black Elemental
An instinctive ability. When Adeline throws an object, this ability activates and the throw becomes improbably lucky. Projectiles enchanted with this ability have an usually high chance of striking their target, finding weapon spots, being unhittable or, in general, being improbable. Extremely useful for trick throws. The Improbability enchantment only affects the projectile itself – not outside forces or the target's positioning. This ability does not always activate. Chances of activation increase as the seriousness of the situation grows. Additionally, if used at a high state of emotion, Adeline Special gains the ability to shatter, dispel and otherwise nullify supernatural abilities which could impede it – by exploding. The Will cost of this ability varies - the more improbable the throw, the more draining.

Improbable Edge, Black Elemental
An instinctive ability. When Adeline holds a bladed weapon, Improbable Edge activates and surrounds that weapon with probability warping energy, increasing its cutting power to just slightly greater than what its physical peak ought to be. The net effect is generally not very noticeable - but it does give Adeline the ability to nick and damage almost anything, magically reinforced or not. Will is drained by this ability at a constant, but extremely small, rate - which increases if Adeline stress is placed on the blade. Theoretically, with this ability active, Adeline's swords can chop through diamonds - after a few hours of hacking, that is.

Smoke Bomb, Black Elemental
Using the power of Science! Adeline can craft smoke bombs using a secret family recipe. When thrown, these ping-pong sized black balls – which seem to be made of thin plastic – always burst harmlessly, expelling a thick cloud of non-toxic smoke, which smells vaguely of burnt wood. Has no additional properties. Using these bombs has a negligible Will cost, but creating them is surprisingly exhausting – creating three in a single sitting usually makes her pass out. Adeline usually doesn't carry more than one at a time – even with precautions, they have a tendency to break open at inconvenient times. The less she has to worry about them, the better.

As One, Black Elemental
Adeline's been riding horses since long before she arrived at Amaranth. This spell developed from her familiarity with these animals. As One creates an empathic bond between Adeline and a horse she's familiar with, once she's in close proximity to the animal. The bond instinctively carries Adeline's commands directly to the animal, translated into emotional impulses, facilitating a kind of mental communication between rider and horse. Will drain is extremely minor. As One only allows one way communication – from rider to horse. Mental commands do not compel obedience.

Clue, Black Elemental
An instinctive ability. Manipulating both probability and perception, Clue draws Adeline's attention to a particular detail - be it a facial expression, a tone of voice, or a tear in someone's shirt. When activated, Adeline's amber eye glows golden and the pupil narrows to a cat-like slit. This ability seems to activate automatically whenever Adeline would otherwise miss a clue her powers view as relevant to her. The more different the detail is to notice, the higher the Will cost associated is. Clue only finds the detail, Adeline must interpret it herself. It does not force her to consider the detail significant.

Improbable, Black Elemental
An instinctive ability of unknown grade - it's the result of the experiments which led to her birth. Probability is frequently warped where Adeline is concerned - events that are extremely unlikely to happen to other people, both positive and negative, are very likely to happen to her. The outer limits of this ability are unclear, but its effects become more overt and powerful when Adeline is endangered or threatened. Interacts with her own powers - and possibly others as well. As an aside to players, this sort of ability will not generally be allowed.

Bio: The unwillingly appointed class president of Q-11, and possibly its most normal student. Adeline's a girl from Quebec (French Canada). Her well adjusted attitude belays her unusual upbringing - she was raised in a lavish gated community by a pair of mad scientists working for the Ministry of Research and Development, the Canadian government's supernatural organization. Her uncle, a member of the E.S.A. (and a ninja) instructed her in martial arts from a young age - a hobby she stuck with, even after the Ministry deemed her experiment a failure and declined to bring her into the Masquerade.

Prior to coming to Amaranth, most of Adeline's education was handled by private tutors - this is her first experience with a 'normal' school since her experiment was dropped by the government. Unfortunately for her, Amaranth isn't anything like she expected - a fact she's become more or less resigned to, after two months attending the school. Still, her unusual upbringing has served her well in the intense Amaranth clubs - she's taken to her selection like a fish in water. Now, in addition to her duties on the student council, she's the equivalent of the captain of the baseball team (one coup d'état later) and getting to be quite popular around campus. Things would certainly be looking up for her! - if she hadn't been attacked by her jello last week.

Clubs:

• Baseball Club
• Fencing Club
• Riding Club
• Wintersports Club

Notes:

• A proficient swordfighter - something her time in the fencing club has only improved. Unfortunately, she's still not very experienced in real battle situations. She seems about average, as far as Fencing club students go.
• Her preferred position in baseball is pitcher - but she's getting better at batting too.
• Adeline's taken to carrying her sword inside her sports bag.
• She's a klutz! But a very lucky one.

Relationships:

Rebecca Landry: The auburn haired, bespectacled Professor Landry. Eccentric, even by Amaranth standards, Rebecca Landry specializes in Love and Fightiology - which apparently means spending three hours a morning lecturing students about her version world history, waving weapons around and letting her students fight her battles for her. Adeline swears the woman is insane - but grudgingly admits her lectures are more accurate, detailed and more interesting than most books on the subject. Her usual outfit, a long, form fitting, white lab coat over top of a min-skirt, single color top and pair of high heel shoes, has shown little variation to date. Surprisingly enough, her reputation for being eccentric isn't taken very seriously by students outside of her class - she seems no worse than any other Professor in the Anime Club she runs. Despite working in Amaranth for ten years, she's firmly in Black territory.

Tosin Mori: A fellow first year-student, member of the baseball team and Adeline's best friend. Tosin's got mid-length white hair, blue eyes, a slim build - which is starting to show some muscle from his baseball work outs - and is of Asian descent. He's quiet, but smart and was the one who pushed Adeline to kick Jay off the team. Adeline doesn't know it, but he's actually a Wizard, with a speciality in wind and ice magic. He takes sports clubs less seriously than Adeline, but is competent enough - even if he relies on magic to keep up with the others. Tosin's also in Adeline's Wintersports club.

Jay Miles: A first year student in Professor Landry's class and the ex-captain of the Baseball team. There isn't much love lost between these two - Adeline can't stand him, and Jay thinks she's a heartless cut-throat bitch. Adeline's perfectly happy never to speak to him again - but less than enthused about his decision to replace Baseball with Archery, and his quickly growing proficiency with a gun. Jay's new found hobby of challenging everyone he can to fights isn't making him many friends around campus - and neither is his unpredictable, intense and manipulative personality. Jay's a short kid with slanted dark brown hair, brown eyes, a wiry build and a slight tan. Its hard to tell what his ethnic background is - seems to be a pretty complicated mix. He's a Black, and outside the Masquerade - but might not be too far from Snapping.

Antonia D'Amour: Another first year student in Professor Landry's class. Antonia and Adeline's relationship isn't very complicated - Adeline thinks she's as crazy as her teacher, and Antonia thinks Adeline's hilariously normal. Toni's a cheerful adrenalin junky who loves a good fight and doesn't seem to take any of Amaranth's weirdness seriously - in fact, she goes out of her way to enable it. Antonia's a girl of aboriginal descent from Canada, with reddish-brown skin, blue eyes and long raven coloured hair. She shares the Fencing and Wintersports clubs with Adeline, and is her superior at swordplay - which isn't surprisingly, considering Antonia's far from above using her magic to cheat. She's in on the Masquerade.

Oh, and here are a list of links to the current PC's profiles! They're not all standardized to the new bio format here yet, but you might enjoy looking at them still! Perhaps they will give you ideas for your own characters? Also, this is another link to the Edupad. I highly recommend bookmarking it, since important things are discussed on it!

Official Landry Edupad
Kohana Akecheta (SinrXIII)
Sean Castevet (Bard The 5th LW)
Jackson Hall (Dracorion)
Johanna Imirsdotter (Arhra)
Shinobu Meguro (Girasol of Chaos)
Dalbhach Nuada (Krylo)
Sao Opallios (Riin Whitewind)
Diana Tear (Steel Shadow)

Now, with all that done, are there any questions?

[Wizardcat]

Interest.

[DanteFalcon]

Okay for sure interest now. I have...ideas that I'll flesh out and probably ask you about later today Teal.

[Riin Whitewind]

For a text-heavy game, a text-heavy opening post(s) is fitting in its own way. It's like a light version of the corebook for a pen-and-paper gig.


Glad to see it up and running again.

My character sheet could do with a make-over, I'll see if I can get that knocked out by tomorrow.

[Bard The 5th LW]

Sean's ready to go! I'll probably write him up to match the new Character Sheet later today.

[Girasol of Chaos]

Fresh meat! Shin's definitely going to need a changed character sheet, and I will be sure to provide that soon.

I'm super excited to see this get rolling again.

[Red Mage Black]

Didn't take any motivation from Mahou Sensei Negima, did you, Teal?

I thought that the first time I saw this and before your hiatus. Guess I'll make up something of my own a little later. So... interested.

[Steel Shadow]

Time to get this show back on the road! I'll need to talk with you about fixing up Di's character sheet, Teal, but we've discussed most of the changes already.

New people! Don't worry, it wont hurt to much. Maybe. Come join us on the Edupad! Which reminds me, we need to get around to posting those omakes up at some point...

[Lillium]

I've been instructed by Steel Shadow that I have to post the word "Interest".