So I was beginning to think about how magic works In Kharlonia, my continent where the American City (need to come up with an interesting name already) is being thrown into. But I don't like settings where magic is undefined. Athas is richer to me because magic is sucked from life, and ruins the environment as a result. Eberron's magic is used in daily life to enrich everyone's lives, but has also been used in devastating wars as a super weapon.
With Kharlonia, one of the things I'm trying to do is take things I love about Eberron without the Industrialized magic. I love the quori, Kalashter and Sarlona in general, I love Karrnath, I love the Last War and I love how the dragons are presented. I also love the magitech stuff, but I figured "why not let it be a natural consequence of the Americans bringing a two-fisted enlightenment"? There's also some stuff from Dark Sun I love, but that'll be for later.
All magic comes from the same source; the energies that flow through the world from the planes that are directly connected to the planet. There's a typical plane of Fire, water, earth, air, good, evil, shadow, light, life, death, etc.
So one thing about this setting is that magic is differentiated by cultures. There are psychics that use mind magic, A military force that uses necromancy (I said I liked Karrnath), and there are people who can use elemental magic (and yes American youth call them "benders" all the time. Few are very rude about it though). Heck even among the Americans there's a new form of magic rising up that hasn't really been explored before.
Magic flows through the world and it also flows through life. Dragons flow with power from the planes, Fey dance through the energy that permeates the forests through the plane of life, and of course these energies flow from through small creatures as well. As diverse as lizards, small mammals, fish, snakes, birds, and amphibians. So naturally the "Pokegeneration" got there hands on basic taming magic, and began experimenting like heck. Yes the americans are bringing up the first instance of the Summoner Class, although not quite the same as it's presented in the books. They don't build eliedron, rather they tame a small monster, and humanely enhance it with magic and alchemy that they got from the Dwarves (nothing that would grotesequely mutate it or cause it pain). Affectionately known as "Our poor misguided youth" and known not so affectionately as "Pokeboos", these youth use these "Pocket Monsters" as a form of defense rather than power. A general consensus of the subculture (Known as the Training Ethics Code) is that it's unethical to use them for fighting each other and especially unethical to use them in what amounts to Cock-fighting. So they don't emulate pokemon completely (in fact it's probably closer to digimon, but Digifans are kind of the hipsters of the movement). However it's perfectly fine to use them to defend yourself from monsters and criminals. A few of them are even adventurers going far and wide, seeing the world.
I'm thinking about cutting out Wizards as a class, because I don't like the idea of having material components be a source of power. I'd rather that Alchemists try to intercept the magic that flows from the enriched metals and chemicals from the earth.
What do you guys think? Should I keep the different forms of magic seperate by culture?
Oh also there is divine magic, and it is more "spiritual" than it is "planar", but the question still stands whether or not there are gods out there, a lot like Eberron.
Whether you differentiate magical types by culture depends on how multicultural the world is. Look at how real world religions travel and spread and mutate. They're shared and adopted, they're forced upon people. Different religions demonize other religions. Old religions achieve new age resurgence.
Your divine magic can come from the exact same place as all the other magics, it's just that the practitioners personify the power source. You said there was a plane of good and a plane of evil, so those who utilize its power are likely to be divine. You can also look at the Ardents from 3E and 4E, who followed divine philosophies rather than actual divinities for ideas.
I too have been looking at making a pokemon/digimon inspired monster trainer class.
Quote from: Xeviat
Whether you differentiate magical types by culture depends on how multicultural the world is. Look at how real world religions travel and spread and mutate. They're shared and adopted, they're forced upon people. Different religions demonize other religions. Old religions achieve new age resurgence.
Your divine magic can come from the exact same place as all the other magics, it's just that the practitioners personify the power source. You said there was a plane of good and a plane of evil, so those who utilize its power are likely to be divine. You can also look at the Ardents from 3E and 4E, who followed divine philosophies rather than actual divinities for ideas.
I too have been looking at making a pokemon/digimon inspired monster trainer class.
For 5e? Cause with some tweaks, Summoner from PF would work pretty well. I don't like the lack of archetypes though.
One of the thing i'm trying to accomplish with this setting is to take the things that I really like about Eberron, without the industrialized magic. I loved the idea of a unified nation falling apart and breaking up into several nations. And I even loved a couple of them, the Karrnathians.
So here's some ideas
The Kingdoms of the Maarsonian Brotherhood were 7 Kingdoms united under one family. 4 brothers conquered over the land, and agreed to divide rulership between the four of them and give complete rulership over to a brother that a council agreed upon. Eventually through marriages and inheritance division, the four kingdoms split into seven, but were still strong and influental. However that all changed with a massive plague that completely devastated the population about 150 years ago. Now the nations have split apart, unable to agree upon an appropriate heir that would lead the nation as a whole through these trying times.
These are the seven Nations that have been created in the chaos
Garlos: A large nation landwise that broke apart from the plague. with these harsh times, the people felt abandoned by the Light, and so turned to the Darkness. They took their dead, and embraced Necromancy, creating large swathes of plague infested undead. These grizzly soldiers helped to fight off the neighboring armies. They won independence, but at a horrible price. The once grand and wondrous culture of Garlos has been warped into a pessimistic and cruel ethos.
National Magic: Necromancy
Alignment: Lawful Evil (with emphasis on law).
WIP
5E's lack of archetypes can be fixed with some homebrewing. Since most archetypes are only 3 or 4 abilities, it's pretty easy to do. I'm working on some 5E tweeks that I'll be collecting soon. I'm more than willing to help build some archetypes with you if you need some.
I think having magical traditions by country/culture will help you have a nice unique feel to the setting. If race =/= culture in your world, then having magic = culture can help differentiate it. This has a strong Eberron vibe, because race didn't always equal culture there too.