Celtricia, World of Factions-First Look, Collegium Arcana Online Game

[LordVreeg]

Next major class done.

First day of Spellcasting Basics (link to original here).


[ooc]
Spellcasting Basics

The circular room is dark, full of shadows, and the noise of some thirty students is noticeable.   The seating is on circular benches, arranged concentrically and slightly descending as they close on the center stage.  The instructor at the bottom is surrounded on all sides.  Beneath you, the circular bench is unyielding and smooth.

The small amount of light comes from orange braziers in four opposite quadrants of the circular room, and a similar brazier hanging some three dovar above the floor of the center.   The shadows are black, brown or orange tinged from the smoky braziers, and the room smells of pine and dreddle, dry and earthy mixed.   The darkness is a shock compared to the bright lit, ornamental facade outside.


"So, what does it mean to cast a 'spell'?", comes the voice with a tiny, barely detectable lisp from the middle of the circle below.   "No, seriously, you have to start from the beginning.  Before we fly, there is much groundwork and understanding you have to have.  A spell can be thought of in many ways, but really, a spell has to be thought of as an effect and the way to produce it; so the first thing you must understand is that you must create or cast a spell with the end in mind."

The robed figure is large, furry, with a huge oval fanged head, a Gartier, but the greying fur and wilting ears betray him as older.  Still, more than a dovhab above a dovar tall, so much taller than all but the tallest man.   

"As I am sure you heard in the History of the Woo class, our theories are that back in the beginning, everyone did spells the same way some of you have been; pulling power directly from yourself, from what we call 'Spirit'.  It is the first sign that there may be some future for you in the world of arcane study.  But we also call using pure Spirit to be Wild Magic."

He turns and faces the other direction, towards a group of Ogrillite students sitting together.

"Now, histories of the Age of Legends agree on some few things and, of course, the details often agree far less.  The Planars' Amerer and Pablar, as well as the Devilkin Duke Belial, are the most commonly associated with showing the early Omwo~ the secret to accessing the Void-borne sources of power...but the point, for us, is that there are sources of power in the void that can be tapped that are very effective in powering a spell, if the effect of the spell is sympathetic, or in line, with the source."

The elder Gartier looks up and around, his huge eyes seemingly undisturbed.  " Does this make sense to everyone?"  he looks around and sees some nods and the guttural sounds of agreement resonate in a few corners.  Suitable encouraged, he continues.

"It's sort of like a recipe, in some ways.  You figure what you want something to taste like, and get the ingredients that will effect that taste and texture, then you create a set of instructions on how to use them and what order.  Using the Woo properly is sort of like this; you want to be a master chef capable of using this recipes and really once you get good at this, you can even move things around to better create the exact effect in the place and time you are in."

His hands come out, palms up as he turns, "So imagine I am casting a fire spell...this is an easy, basic example...and instead of pulling a day's work of energy from myself, and trying to create or effect fire using spirit from me that has nothing to do with fire, I instead use a more effective source. I create a conduit to the Third Station and pull power directly from the Perfect Flame....and because of the affinity, using the Perfect Flame in a fire spell, I can use a lot less personal spirit to create the same effect."

Then, on cue, the Brazier above the dimly-lit room flares, and spits white sparks, brightening the room and giving a noise like water hitting a hot skillet.  The flare grows, and the room goes from dimly lit orange and fuzzy brown to white-lit, shadows in stark black.  There are involuntary gasps , then, it fades, leaving the room seeming darker than before.

The Gartier chuckles softly, but deeply, breaking the tension.  "It is a good example.  Technically, what I did is use some of my own energy to start the spell, but instead of using all that I would had to in powering that myself, I pulled energy from the Perfect Flame to replace much of what I would have had to.  If you can imagine a more complicated working, the idea is the same.  Whatever the process required to create an effect, use ingredients that represent them.  If a working is affecting perception, the Collective Mind from the Sixth Station is needed, if we wanted to add some controlling elements to the same working, we'd hold that conduit to the Sixth Station in our heads but also open one from the First Station, the Font of Logic, and use some of both."

He turns his huge frame around, and cocks his head, and chuckles in the semi-darkness again.  "That is a lot of thought to chew on for your first day of class.  I will leave you with the fact that the more powerful the spell, the more void ingredients are needed to effect it; and that no one can create the amount of personal energy needed to cast them.  Your reading for tomorrow is from Castor Excel's original manual for his students, "The art of the Woo".  Read chapter one. it's simple and hopefully will get you in the right frame of mind tomorrow.  Dismissed!"[/ooc]

[LordVreeg]

Continuing onward, with the somewhat rebuilt history of the Collegium Arcana, the largest School of magic in Celtricia.


[ooc]
Find and Foster the Magic,

Discover and Decipher the Magic,

Control and Own the Magic.

-Precepts of the Collegium Arcana






In the murky depths of time, and for countless years of written history, harnessing the void-borne powers that some call the Way, that the ancient Omwo~ called Wou~, and is often now called 'The Woo', was a suprassing rarity.    Not because there were more or less people (in proportion) that might be able to touch the Void, but because for literally thousands of years, teaching this ability was very strictly controlled.  And this inhibition is part of the story and underpinnings of the Collegium. 

But in those earliest days, the Omwo~ were servants and helpmates of the Planars, collaborating in their works and if not privy, at least present in some of the greatest Void-Sourced makings in the history of Celtricia.  The mightiest of the early Omwo~,  Dilvish and Abros Naweo and their ilk, fought the creatures of Anthraxus when he refused the Accords of Presence with their surpassing spellcraft.

The Omwo~ of the elder day, the Age of Legend, carefully kept this teaching to Vanir only at first, then Imo and Huet.  Then, when Pablar's Toys, the Humans, appeared, they were kept away from this teaching, with the punishment of death to any who gave the brazen animals such a gift.  Being so close to the planarborn, the antecedent Omwo~ felt that it was their birthright they would be giving up.

This basic pattern, of a race or group being slowly let into the circle, then trying to keep everyone else out, seems to be imprinted into the genetic hardware of every group in Celtricia.  For  thousands of years and through the rise and fall of culture and country, the Way and the Woo were kept to the upper nobiity and the most senior of the temple hierarchy, and in many cases, only the void-sensitive would be (and still are) inducted to the upper levels of a church


The Collegium Arcana did not, contrary to the official position of that group; begin cleanly with a single origination point. Back in the Middle Celtrician Interregnum, Many countries had some variation of an official mage's guild. They did come together into a few different groups, but contrary to the Guild's official stance, it is not a clear fact that they have been one unified group for 2100 years.   As with any group organized around the collection of knowledge, there are many antecedent organizations, and the first city documents bearing the name "Collegium Arcana" go back to about -100 RON.  Claims from before that belong to times where guilds and organizations bore different names and purposes.  There is also the issue that there are long-lived Omwo~ who belonged to earlier clotures and groupings, and their later inclusion into the collegium gives some credit to the claims that a earlier guild was, in fact, the earlier form of the same Collegium. 


As with many organizations, there were earlier guilds of magic that were powerful, and other organizing of magical folk.  Ambretton, Vicoria, and Seau, as well as later Venolvia and the City-State of Winter (Stenron of a thousand years past) all were civilizations where the the guilds of magic impacted the lives of the mighty.   

Yet the Collegium Arcana's rise to prominence has been entangled and knotted to an increase in the amount of people taught to use the void-sourced power in toto; and part of this came from the Collegium itself.  Previously, the 'Woo' (as access to the personal conduit connecting a caster to the Void sourced powers has been called by casters for millenia) was only taught to those of upper classes or nobility; a jealously guarded secret, a set of secret societies within the already rarified air of nobility.  It was part of the mechanism for keeping power in the Age of Legends and the Age of Heroes.  Of course there were exceptions, but they were rare.

The Collegium Arcana, by contrast, in their early incarnations, realized that there was power that could be gained not just by keeping magic from everyone, but by trying to have more Casters than anyone else.  Thus, they changed the ancient paradigm and no matter the ills and evils ascribed to them by their critics and detractors, they are centrally involved with the theme of more and more void-sensitives being taught.  Magic, once very rare and strange and secret for millenia, has become more and more known and approachable.  This, by itself, has caused a huge shift in the social world, and has helped fuel the upstart guilds and mercantile classes that now vie with the nobility of most states for control..   


The formal history of this magical organization goes back to Winterloo, as Stenron was called before the Kingbreaker Jon Stenron came and passed to the Lower Well.  The original Campus was a large tower just south of the Western Godstraat.

Some of the earliest buildings from about the time of the founding of the Theocracy of Nebler (year one in the Reckoning of Nebler) were once the School of Art and Magic founded by the Imagancer Goodeval, including the round Gallery with offices and the later built tower by the Sytiul river.

Currently, however, they do enjoy a position that only a few Churches can claim, and without the competition. The Collegium Arcana has offices in every major city In Northern Celtricia, as well as in most towns. They have a seat in the government of Orbi, a council seat in the Theocracy of Gorntar, and a council seat in the Grey March, as well. They control commerce in many areas, and are wealthy beyond the reach of kings.



Those who join up with this group will never be in need of finding aid in any civilized location. And the guild rewards loyalty, though it does not accept split loyalties. But it is a very bondede existence, as the Collegium considers itself to be the first priority in most cases.

The Central office of the Collegium has been in Orbi for over 150 years (back in 739 RON). Archmage Hier Effen moved it from the ancient quarters in Stenron at the invitation of The Arcanic Table of Orbi. There had been a Guild of Magic in the Stenron location long before the Interegnum, and the Mother-College was ther from the start, so this move was historic. 

This is still something of a sore issue, for though the Mageocracy of Orbi seems to be a perfect fit for the Collegium Arcana, the huge Stenron campuses have never quite let this be forgiven.

There are also many different divisions in the Guild of Mages. There are research divisions, combat divisions, political divisions, as well as different Orders , such as the Order of Flame, the Order of Water, the Order of the Kankenbite (Technocrat, Makerspeak), the Order Eosuj (of Air, White Omwo~) and more like that.

It is actually something of a joke within the less stuffy of the Collegium that any long-term member will be part of a dozen Fraternities and Orders and Brotherhoods.

Yet, not to be lost are the awards and achievements that do matter and bring awe and envy to the eyes of those that meet the holders of them.  Medals and awards for research and accomplishments that


Every guild locality has a Head Warlock, who runs it. The bigger the populaltion center, the more prestigeous the appointment. Think of them almost as fiefdoms of a secret kingdom, with the HeshianTower as the Capitol. Larger guilds also come with the headache of having Ambassador postings, sub-national and national level postings that were originally in place to smooth the bumps and make friends with the local governments, while the the Head Warlock runs the show. Every Head Warlock knows, however, that they are also their to send back reports to the HeshianTower.

Complicating this are the separate Orders within the Collegium Arcana, like the Order of Water, and the Order of Flame. These are almost fraternities, and since they are usually joined early in a mages career, you see some nepotism here. there is a lot of the 'Good Old Boys' network currently in the Collegium Arcana

Approximately thirty percent of the Collegium's membership is 'homegrown'. The guild's mission to find talented children and take them in to give them a comfortable life befitting their talent (and fostering fanatical loyalty) is one of the three precepts of the Collegium. These 'homegrown' members tend to give their entire lives to the cause.

Teens or adults who join the guild later need to be sponsored, and the sponsoring member is responsible for them for a full cycle, but also gains bonuses based on how their sponsored fledglings perform later in their career.

Though the younger children are still shown more magic than in almost any other venue, the real training starts when they Join the Islip, the four or five year training that forms the foundation of their skills.  While preferably done young (normally as the subject enters adolescence) , there are some adults in these classes, normally those who were taught in other schools or not taught at all.

Everyone except the domestics in a particular local tower will be a guildmember. The do not hire mercenaries, rather, they depend on recruits within their own guild to learn the rudiments of combat and the Swords Arcanic is a prestigious group within the guild.[/ooc]

[Ghostman]

Looks like the remainder of this paragraph was cut off:

Yet, not to be lost are the awards and achievements that do matter and bring awe and envy to the eyes of those that meet the holders of them.  Medals and awards for research and accomplishments that

[LordVreeg]

Looks like the remainder of this paragraph was cut off:

Yet, not to be lost are the awards and achievements that do matter and bring awe and envy to the eyes of those that meet the holders of them.  Medals and awards for research and accomplishments that

thanks, man  will fix

[LordVreeg]

The Dormitories of the Collegium Arcana
From here.  often better to read from the site as there are more linked terms there.
This section is one of those that helps players I the game really acclimate to the area, and the maps are being worked on right now.  What dorm the pcs start in will affect their social lives somewhat.



[ooc]The Collegium has been a boarding school for hundreds of years, and some of the schools it swallowed early in its existence had boarded as well.  Students have lived on campus and learned magic here for over a thousand years, and the layers are on top of layers in Stenron.

For the last four centuries, The Golden Square, called by the students the 'Quad' or 'GQ', a collection of four buildings surrounding a stone and lawn courtyard, has served as the main center of undergraduate living.  No road leads through it, so the carriages and wagons must go around it.  It is in the School District of the Winterloo neighborhood of Stenron, just north of the huge  Dimituam Douhol (the red Dome of Stars), across the Brandied Way, south of the Triston Hall.

Around the Golden Square are arranged four large dormitories of varying age, though none less than a few hundred years old.  It is here that students live on campus when they come to the school, it is here that they spend their first five years, and it is here that the bulk of their memories as students are comprised of, the loves and raw passions of pre adulthoods married to these ancient halls that have witnessed centuries of student lives, loves, and learning.

 

The oldest of the buildings was a interregnum manse, owned by a Klaxik family, the Worseteners, and this building, while not the biggest, is the desired spot for upper classmen, since the rooms are bigger and better appointed, and the fireplaces are larger.  Called 'Brenic Hall' officially , for the family that gifted it to the early Collegium, or 'The Bren' by students who lived there or wanted to, this is a sprawling old place, with a maze-like interior, with low, dark corridors exploding into giant, marple-floored dining rooms, with preserved but ancient dark drapes on huge windows, and the afore-mentioned huge fireplaces in huge rooms.   The outside is a grey brick with some wood trim.  Sometimes tripping over furniture that does not match, and over ancient rugs, past paintings in ancient styles and globes with magiced candles within them, Brenic has some sixty-plus bedrooms that each normally house three or four students, except a few small prize rooms on the top level that are shared by two, coveted by Upperclassmen. The regular  rooms are high and have bunked beds, upstairs, the rooms are smaller, but private, and with a good amount of storage.   Unofficially, students pledged to the Arcanic Swords branch of the Collegium has had a hold on these rooms for a few generations of man.  

Opposite Brenic Hall is the squat, castellated monstrosity known as "Totalkak Hall" (or colloquially, as 'Toad Hall').  Built in 717/718 RON, it was build specifically to be a dormitory.  It is a three story building with five story ends, known as the East Butt and West Butt.  This dormitory is somewhat Spartan, with plain white plaster walls and simple large study areas under both 'Butts'.  This dormitory does not hold heat well, either, tough in the cold marcher winter.  Many Dexies (first year students)  end up here.  There are some 450 rooms, each made for four human-sized students.   Though there are garderobes on every level, the only bathrooms with real tubs and such are in the basement.

North Hall is at the North side of the quad, a square building that was once an administration building for the city, built back in 390 RON, some 500 years earlier, before the Collegium had taken so much space.  It is a brick building, with a few stained glass windows in a tower (which depict the historical end to hostilities between the State of Winter and the Igboniats) that is over a central hall, now used for meals and for study at night.  The floors are a dark Shoefel, worn but warm looking, and the walls are paneled with the same wood, and the rooms are very high, with tin ceilings.   North is often a place taller races feel more comfortable, and has almost two hundred rooms.  This is a popular dorm, and the kitchen in the basement is much, much bigger than most.  There are also 4 very large dorm rooms in North, complete with small living rooms in front, that house some ten students at a time, and the school uses these for their female students often.

On the other side of the grass and  whitish marple square from North, lies the wooden, marcher style "Kravent Hall", built for the school back in 770 RON.  Kravent is white with dark Shoefel beams, and a very high pitched roof.   The floors are heavily carpeted, and the windows very small and square.  Kravent is known for the thin corridors and the box shaped, cookie-cutter rooms.  However, one nice feature of the Kravent rooms is their tiny black iron stoves, with ornate grates, that keep each room toasty warm even in the marcher winters. Kravent's double doors are large, and have large Collegium double-wand sigils. on them, and the entry chamber is large and spacious, but often gets bogged during busy times due to the narrow corridors beyond.  Gnomic always report feeling more at home here than the other dorms, for some reason.[/ooc]

[LordVreeg]

The next installment, about the life of a student in the Collegium.  This is more about mood and feel and to help the players get into character, and to understand routines and what a day is like.
This is one that also may be better read in the wiki itself, as there are a good amount of links inserted, especially on setting specific stuff.   From here.
[ooc]
The Feel of Student Life


The Collegium Arcana is the largest grouping of Void-sensitives in the  entire Tale of Years.  And the Stenron Campus , while not the Mother-Chapter anymore, is still the oldest.  So the faculty often remind the students of their fortune in being a student here.  

Students in the Collegium Arcana live under some level of constant fear.  And it is based on the same fear that any high-performance school has, to some degree, fear of not being able to keep up or to stay in.  In the lower classes, they fear not being able to master any of the basic skills needed to stay at the school and being asked to leave, though Dexies and Seconds are at a very awkward social age, as well.  Later students fear being excluded from the fraternities and orders, not to mention they fear failing their difficult practical exams.  The Fifth year students often fear slipping at the last moment and being sent on their sojourns to some useless backwater like Miston or Steel Isle Town, or some fear not being asked to go onto extended graduate studies.

The students are impressed, from the first moment, of their importance to the school, and that the Collegium needs to be harsh in its requirements, but that the survival of the school is based on as many strong, loyal Arcanans in the world promoting her interests as possible.  


"The Collegium's Curriculum is centered on building the whole mage, discovering which Void-borne sources match the talents of that caster best, while also building the other talents needed for interacting with the Void-blind world as a complete person."

--High Wardem Sealina Reccic, Commencement 860


There is a small younger school, the Iumis Centrat (Held Hope, Silverwood Omwo~), where younger children who manifest the talent early are sent to from the rest of the world.  Only two to three hundred  students are sent here from the corners of the globe, so these students see things differently.  They were noticed as void-sensitive as children, and sent here.  Many larger cities have versions of it, but most students enter in as 10-13 year olds (or the equivalent).


Students are taught magical and the non-magical in the Collegium,  with classes that  deal with other cultures, other histories, politics and social graces, mathematics, literature, and some basic science, along with classes dealing with the 'Woo'.  

Classes are normally Dunsak  through Monak, with Lawsak reserved for study (or not) and Fastak being a day of study and visiting the Dou~his' of necessity.  And it is noted if students ignore the last at all, since there have not been Dou~his allowed to be built on campus for hundreds of years[1].  The Winterloo district abuts the Lower Godstraat, and thus, the students have the opportunity, probably taken for granted, of going to the oldest and largest Street of the Gods in the world.  Class starts at 8th hour and goes onto 15th hour, and the Bells from the Dimituam Douhol behind the Golden Quad are impossible to ignore.

Fashion plays a part here, as the outside world affects the current wear of the students.  The student all wear their black student robes in class, but what they wear afterwards and on Fastak  can be quite different.  

Women's fashion in Stenron (and most of the Cradle) have moved towards shinier fabrics, tighter long dresses[2] and head gear is not optional for the well dressed woman.   Longer, flowing gowns with a petticoat or whatnot is still important for more important social scenes.   The Bustiers and corsets of the last decade (that are still popular in high fashion in some of the southern areas) are considered lower class (and are still seen in the seedier districts, or when folks go slumming.)  Shoes for women are somewhat practical with almost no heel.  Winter boots are above the knee, summer shoes are open toed with lacing up the front.  Long necklaces, with little plaques are popular, so these are used by girl students often as well.

Men in Stenron always wear the Toga for formal occasions and events, a throwback to the ancient Suprosian days when it was the uniform of those who ran the previous City State of Winter[3], though there have been a few slow changes in this.  Of course, Maesters and other teachers wear their hard-earned robe and sash all about the campus, but they generally also abandon it when outside campus, though for longer trips, they generally move back into the robe.  Metal armor for either gender is looked at as gaudy and in poor taste in town, but shirts with high collars and ruffles have become the rage, along with calf-length pants and short boots with slight heels, along with a short coat.  Town armors are becoming more stylized and less protective, unless one has money to spend.

The Rule of Reach is very strictly enforced in Stenron, especially in these neighborhoods.  But the unauthorized use of magic is also strictly watched.  No one cares about a little light or warmth, but the Rule of Affect is enforced by the Marcher Court very strongly, by the Wintric Guard and the Division of Controls.  The Wintric Guards are found often in Winterloo (and in the Godastraat, the Jarminik, and the Northern Oberlin), but once one travels to the Trade District or the Isle, things are ....less governed as you move that direction.

As can be imagined, as the students start to get into their school career, they explore nore and more of the city, and while the areas around the School Neighborhood are  large and interesting, as the students reach their fourth and fifth year, trips to the Trade District, with the earthy atmosphere and multinational flavor, become hard to ignore.

Drinking is allowed on campus, but only by adults and those who are in their fifth year or later.  However, the rules in the rest of the city are more relaxed, so finding alcohol  is normally easy, but few would risk being thrown out of the Collegium.  Drug use is heavily monitored on campus, and Stenron's laws make Krrf and Shruums illegal, though getting shruums is not that difficult on the Isle or the Trade District.  Hopitup (a very weak cherry-ale made in the Grey March), Hard Target (a chocolate Stout made in the Bright Lands), and Cameror (a strong stout ale, locally made) are very popular beers, and for wines, Peorni Chias, Hobyt Inn Chias, and Tranquin Terror are very popular, though there are over a hundred wines easy to find in the Trade District.


Blue Cuisine is very prevalent here, especially the breads baked with Cheese or meat or both in them.    Various forms of Chorm are used, especially chorman-based stews.  The School neighborhood has many small bars and inns, but is pretty light on really good eateries.  In the Winterloo district, the Tarplique and the Grace neighborhoods have much better food, with some Omish and Harou restaurants.  On the campus, some of the halls have food, but the main commissary is in Regist Hall, behind North Hall.  Here, rows of tables where many generations of students have done most of their eating, books in hand.   The tables are separated by class during main meal times.




Footnotes

1.legends talk of rituals and some sort of detection magic being at the root of this. ▲
2.some long, tight dresses can be found with drawstrings or other contrivances that may look ornamental, but can open them up for movement if need be. ▲
3.Stenron was once known as Winterloo, and late, the City State of Winter. ▲[/ooc]

[LordVreeg]

Here is the Experience Modifier Page for starting characters in the Collegium Arcana gamer for choosing skills and using their starting experience. Every guild or faction in the game has a Base EXPMOD for a skill, which is added to the ATTRIB EXPMOD (the native ability the character's attributes give them in learning a skill) to create the TOTAL EXPMOD the character has in that skill.

Basically, we keep levels in every skill, with them going up a tiny bit at a time. This gives the players the feel of constant movement and growth while keeping the power curve very low. Every bit of experience is multiplied by the EXPMOD the character has in that skill. And as the modified Experience chart shows, after a while it gets difficult to move up a level, the PCs can pick up sub skills and other skills, so their ability 'pool' gets wider as well as deeper. A low health character may have a .15 EXPMOD in hitpoints, and takes about 700 raw EXP to get to level 1 in HP (which means an additional 2-5 HP added to the 2 they might have started with. A high health character might have started at 3 or 4, and have an EXPMOD of .35, and need only about 300 raw experience to get to level 1. (hit points has a larger ATTRIB EXPMOD portion than many, BTW).

More on EXPMODS here.

As you can see by the chart, there are over 300 skills to choose from. And while that sounds daunting, and does allow for very different starting characters, all skills nest into up to 4 levels of skills and subskills. You always have to have a higher level in a parent skill than the subskill, so with only 3k experience to spend, the PCs will choose mainly from the 90+ basic commonality 1 skills.

[limetom]

So either the math is all wonky on the page, or the formulas for attributive modifiers have all changed. For instance, Basic Actor is listed as "in-9-.01/ch9-.015" when it's given as "((IN-9)*0.010)+((CH-9)*0.015)" elsewhere. It's easy to figure out if you know what's what, but I think it might be confusing to the uninitiated.

[LordVreeg]

Damn...will look.

[LordVreeg]

*Updates, pages fixed, working on maps for School neighborhood, physical descriptions.
first three play 'sections' mapped out, four if we include character creation. 
I have also been putting time and effort into the Gigantic Godstraat Neighborhoods of Stenron, since this will come into play regularly.

As mentioned, play will be mainly PbP and one-on-one IRC, in between the bi-weekly group sessions.  The group sessions will represent more mainstream timestamps, such as the end of a semester, a dance, a special lecture, where the in between stuff may be as mundane as choosing classes or rolling to see how well a paper is written or meeting a crush in the hallway, or perhaps a meeting with a Warden...or as deep as searching for a hidden library, gallivanting through the Grace of Water district, or joining one of the hidden Orders.   

I am hoping to get a rolling, staggered start in the next 10 days.

[LordVreeg]

Will be back on roll20 tonight, working on other parts, like the later sessions, but am happy to work on characters tonight as well.   Rincewind has already started his, as has Matt.

[limetom]

A couple of random questions:

What's the in-game date were starting on?

Do we get any free XP in skills? Here I'm specifically thinking of language skills or Guild Lore or the like that we've gotten in previous games.

[LordVreeg]

A couple of random questions:

What's the in-game date were starting on?

Do we get any free XP in skills? Here I'm specifically thinking of language skills or Guild Lore or the like that we've gotten in previous games.

Damn, damn good questions.
School year is to start on the Lithe, After Tokush, in 895.

Added Language starting EXP.  Guild Lore will be zero, due to the fact you are just starting in the Collegium. 

I liked your character.  Very interesting start.

[LordVreeg]

oh, yes, LT?

For those of you that one to update...
http://celtricia.pbworks.com/w/page/67725545/Collegium%20Arcana%20Play%20Notes
I did already set up a page.

[limetom]

So, I've got some more questions. Well, lots of questions.

First off, what sort of population distribution (as opposed to just size or an average population density) does Stenron have? I can think of several real world analogues for a city with a million-ish inhabitants, but they can have a very different character depending on how the population is actually situated. For instance, some cities have a very well defined core with suburbs surrounding them, like, say, Baltimore. Others have quite a bit of sprawl, like Honolulu. Others are all sprawl, like Phoenix. What's Stenron like?

Second, since I'm assuming in any case that Stenron is fairly large, how do average people get around? You mention at one point on the wiki a (magical?) streetlight system, but what about taxis or the like?

Moving on from questions about Stenron, I've got a couple more, mostly for background stuff for my character. What's viticulture like in the Grey March? It's pretty northerly, right? Where's it done? Is it set up like an Old World winemaking area, say, modern Bordeaux with highly specific rankings for geography and historical quality, or more like a New World winemaking area, where wines can certainly be of differing qualities, but little regulation or even recognition (outside of those in the know) goes on? Or is it like an Old World winemaking region back in the day, where people simply drank what they grew, and sold surplus if it existed? Finally, who is involved--at least in the Grey March? Do humans have a monopoly? Elves? Hobbyts? Or are there a large number of different families in control? I was thinking of having at least one side of my character's family be from one of the wealthier vintner families, but that may depend on the answers to these questions and the next one.

Could I get just some more information about Imo (High Elves) in general? Specifically, I'm looking for what role in the last few centuries (if any) they've played, and more importantly, where this has been. Are there many Imo around? Are they scattered around or do they have a specific area they all hail from? It's surely the case that you'll find a little of everything in a city so large as Stenron, but what about in the wider Grey March?

Last thing, what are elven naming traditions? Way back in the original Celtricia post (I just skimmed through it again tonight for the first time in quite a while), you talk about how Klaxik are named, but elves don't ever get mentioned. I see some elven names in Omwo~ around, but I also see more cosmopolitan names as well. In terms of Omwo~ names, are any common? Do the Imo name their children (if that's how names are assigned in Imo culture) more traditionally? Less? And speaking of that, do the Imo speak Omwo~, or do they speak one of the related languages?