Development of a world Forum Background - Please help me cr..

Concept Dragons are real, or at least they were.  The origins of dragons stem back to 6300BC where a careless magic user bonded himself with the most powerful of the immortals (Drammoren) to create a new creature born of magic “The First”.  Dragons are beings of magic and the bonding with an immortal has given them extraordinarily long life.  The First was only just starting to show signs of middle age but he was 6,800 years old when he was killed.  A few dragons were created by The First through the same magical process until he discovered he was effectively forcing a union of a mortal and an immortal against the will of the immortal.  The dragons of forced union were called the “Coactus”, meaning compelled in Latin.  The First stopped the forced creation of new dragons at this point and the only new dragons were the progeny of those created by The First. These progenies were paired with Drammoren who communicated with The First their desire to bond with a mortal (usually due to some mortal wound that would otherwise kill them).  History has many examples of dragons across many cultures but they all seem to stop around the same time.  In 555AD the leaders of the world were growing more powerful and also more jealous of their power.  Wizards, witches, dragons etc. were commonplace however the rulers felt they had too much sway.  The rulers, lead by Constantine, King of Dumnonia (Great Britain), created conflict between the users of magic and the dragons.  The rulers included; Alla Amidas of East Africa, Muqan Qaghan of the First Turkic Khaganate, Emperor Gong of the Western Wei, Shahanshah Khosrow I (Anushirvan), Emperor Justinian I of the Byzantine Empire, and Æscwine of Essex.  Using this conflict they arranged for all of the users of magic across the world to gather together at the next meeting of dragons and destroy them completely “The Culling”.  The meeting itself was called by the dragons to discuss the forced creation of more dragons by The First or the sharing of the knowledge required to do so.  The First was against this as it would bond the immortals against their will, however other dragons proposed that it was required to build their strength to fight the magic users.  Ultimately the decision was never made as The Culling was successful and the dragons were destroyed.  Once this was done the rulers held a celebration for their magic users, however once the magic users were drunk and incapacitated, the rulers had them all executed.  Magic was then banned as blasphemy by the church and any surviving magic users were hunted down and killed.  Magic was effectively lost to the world and any reference to it in historical writings was destroyed by the church.

Characters Protagonist - Lazarus Lazarus was the sole surviving dragon from The Culling.  He was 10 years old at the time and did not attend the meeting due to his inability to transform yet.  Transformation does not usually occur until puberty (9-13yrs) and takes some time to learn how to control.  Lazarus was 2 years old when he bonded with a Ruby drammoren. Angie The first of Lazarus’ children to bond with a Drammoren.  Angie was born in 832AD and was 24 years old when she bonded with her Drammoren.  Her drammoren’s name was Ifflesson.  Ifflesson was a amethyst Drammoren and as a result of the bonding, Angie’s hair turned mauve.  Ifflesson was very close to death when she bonded with Angie and never fully returned to perfect health.  As a result, Angie’s powers are not as strong as the others, but she is the eldest progeny of Lazarus and makes up for it with experience and cunning. Evelyn The second of Lazarus’ children to bond with a Drammoren.  Evelyn was created in 1431, during the hundred years war between France and England.  She was known as Joan D’Arc during her early life and was saved in the only known example of a Drammoren willingly bonding with a mortal to save the mortal’s life.  All previous bondings were done to save the life of the Drammoren. Her drammoren’s name was Evellessan and Evelyn took the name Evelyn as an acknowledgement of the being that saved her life.  Evellessan was an Emerald drammoren and Evelyn now has a bright green streak through her black hair as a result of the bonding.  Evelyn needed to create a new identity because she had been tried and found guilty of heresy and burnt at the stake.  To reveal that she survived would put her life in peril again and would reveal the dragon’s to the church again. Charlie Charlie is Lazarus’ love interest.  She is a highly intelligent and talented journalist who has been noticing the unusual events surrounding Lazarus.  She approached him for an interview because she was trying to find out who he really was.  They became close and began a relationship.  Lazarus confided his true nature to Charlie and she kept his secret.  Two years after they started dating Lazarus received a calling from an injured drammoren who needed a mortal to bond with.  Having no children of his own, he asked Charlie if she wanted to bond.  This is the event that begins the story.

Immortals: Drammoren The most powerful of the immortals and the immortals that bond with mortals to create dragons.  Drammoren are beings of pure magic and the embodiment of all that is good.  Their sole purpose is the continuation of “good” in the universe and maintaining order.  Drammoren appear as winged angelic humanoid creatures in gem encrusted exoskeleton.  The gems in their exoskeletor define their powers, and their position within the Drammoren community.  They have elongated faces and teeth like reptiles as well as talons on their hands and feet.  They are so bright it is difficult to look at them. They reside in the aspect of our universe that scientist only know as dark matter.  Dark matter is effectively a component of our universe that exists simultaneously and has its own life forms and worlds. Ulcorem The pure opposite of Drammoren.  They are less powerful but more prolific.  They are pure evil and chaos.  They are at constant war with the Drammoren.  Ulcorem appear as harpies in our universe when they bond with mortals.  Harpies are significantly less powerful than dragons, but have grown in power and influence since the dragons were culled.  They have the power to hide their wings from mortals but dragons and other magical creatures are always able to see the true form of a Harpy. Prenia Magic beings of balance.  Prenia are not powerful on their own, but they are able to lend their power to the Drammoren and the Ulcorem to ensure the balance between good and evil is maintained.  Prenia are held in contempt by both Drammoren and Ulcorem but they do not hesitate to use their power to sway the tides of battle.  Prenia appear as spirits or wisps with little substance.  These are sprites when paired with mortals and they avoid contact with mortals as much as possible. There are other immortals that exist to provide the intangibles of the world.  Love – Rati, Comfort/Compassion - Helmion, Jealousy – Magaera, Anger – Allecto, Vengance - Tisiphones

Creatures: Dragons are not the only magical creatures.  Other failed attempts at magic have created beings of power that appear in mythology.  Werewolves are an accident of Monster magic, Vampires are an accident of Mortal magic.  Each have their own rules and are less powerful than the beasts they are made out to be in mythology. Werewolves An accident of a practitioner of monster magic.  Werewolves are a failed attempt at the spell possess familiar 1 (animal).  The circumstances were that the practitioner had only charmed the animal whereas he thought he had bonded with it as a familiar.  When he tried to possess it, the will of the animal remained, and it became a split personality with the practitioner.  The magic passed on genetically and became a recessive gene.  Effectively all werewolves are at least a little bit inbred as the recessive gene must be a double and can only have come from the original practitioner.  There powers are merely that they can change form into a wolf, nothing more. Vampires An accident of a practitioner of mortal magic.  Vampires are a failed attempt at the spell Drain Life.  The circumstances are that the practitioner was attempting to live forever, however the blood ritual was rushed and resulted in partial success (long life – 200+ years) but an insatiable appetite for blood.  Blood is not required; it is just constant thirst.  There are no fangs and no issues with sunlight or garlic, just a thirst for blood that drives them mad if they don’t satisfy it.  Vampires are sterile and there are only a few examples of the spell failing and resulting in these creatures. Golems A failed attempt at creating healing charms.  Over time various practitioners have attempted to create healing charms by connecting Materials and Miracles magic.  The success rate is about 50/50.  Sometimes the charm is created, sometimes life is created in the medium being used for the charm (wood, glass, clay, etc.).  The creature is usually humanoid in form and has the general size and appearance of the caster.  The creature has intelligence somewhat below that of the caster.  They believe they are the caster and are generally enraged by the knowledge that they are merely a creation.

Macguffin There were two copies of each of the six primary tomes of magic prior to The Culling.  One set was stored by senior dragons prior to The Culling to protect them while the dragons were all in one place.  The other was held by various magic users and were presumably destroyed.  The tomes were “Monsters” (summoning and familiars), “Materials” (crafting and enchanting), “Mind” (psychic and psychokinetic), “Miracles” (healing and enhancement), “Mystic” (illusion and alteration of reality), “Mortal” (giving life and controlling the dead).  The seventh tome is a single copy only and is not known to start with as it was hidden elsewhere by The First and Lazarus hadn’t been told about it.  It is called “Magus” and it contains the most powerful spells of all the other tomes as well as a few select spells more powerful than all the others.  The tome stored by Lazarus’ parents was the tome of Materials.

Line of magic Level and Chance of success overlap as the practitioner progresses towards mastery.  Progression is linear however each section has been broken into 6 sections for ease of understanding and visualisation.  The next level of the spell tends to become possible (but not likely) once the previous level is at the point where it is “likely” to succeed.  The subsequent level usually begins just past the point where the first level is “Mastered”.  The levels are “Rarely”, “Unlikely”, “50/50”, “Likely”, “Proficient”, and “Mastered”.  This refers to the progression along a single spell line and is not indicative of the difficulty of each level. 1.1          1.2          1.3          1.4          1.5          1.6                                                 2.1          2.2          2.3          2.4          2.5          2.6                                                                                                 3.1          3.2          3.3          3.4          3.5          3.6                                                                                                                                                 4.1          4.2          4.3          4.4 Wheel of magic The wheel contains the six disciplines of magic around it perimeter showing how closely aligned they are with one another.  A Journeyman practitioner of one form of magic would be able to use Initiate spells of one of those either side and a Master would be able to use Journeyman spells from those either side and Initiate spells from the one beside that.  Practitioners would never be able to learn any level spells from disciplines directly opposite one another unless they became grand masters which, until the Magus tome is discovered, is impossible.  Even then, they would only be able to use Initiate spells from the discipline directly opposite their own. 12 – Miracles
Link – Charms/Idols
2 – Materials
Link – Voodoo Dolls, Divining rods, weapons and armour
4 – Mind
Link – Thought is the essence of life
6 – Mortal
Link – Immortals
8 – Monsters
Link – Beasts and Familiars
10 – Mystic
Link – Illusion and deception The wheel works from the outside in, with the lesser practitioners existing on the outside.  All forms of magic become more powerful and more similar to each other as they converge towards the centre.