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Parabellum Magicis
Jan. 25th, 2020 03:23 pmParabellum Magicis is a tabletop campaign set in an alternate America where magic is as commonplace as electricity is in ours, and where monsters and magical creatures lurk constantly at the fringes of human society. The players will take on the role of freelance monster hunters, keeping humanity safe one fell creature at a time.
The power of magic is the power of imagination, focused by the human mind. Everyone possesses a certain degree of imaginative power, but normally this is insufficient to affect material change on the world around them.
Classically, magic was performed by specially trained mages, who trained their minds to focus their imagination into the proper shapes and concentrations to affect the world around them. Their mind essentially becomes a mold, into which they pour their imaginative power to form it into the proper shape. Many used incantations and rituals as aids, not because these acts carried any intrinsic power, but because reciting a series of words or performing a series of gestures helps them get their mind into the proper shape. More experienced mages may choose to eschew these conveniences, at least for simpler spells.
All of this changed just shy of a hundred and fifty years ago, when an immigrant wizard living in New York devised a system for gathering ambient imaginative power using complex crystal lattices, so that it could be used to power single-function magical artifacts. Although there have been a number of advances since their creation, the same basic principles are still used, and today there are Tesla Leyline Power Stations (named for their original creator) operating all over the world, ushering in a new era of commonplace magic. They gather massive amounts of power that would otherwise simply go to waste, store it in crystalline batteries, and beam it wirelessly to houses and businesses to power magical refrigerators, microwaves, water heaters, and other devices, which come with all the spellwork built into them. Instant magic; just add power.
Traditional mages still exist, of course. In fact, there are more of them than ever, thanks to demand for them to develop and implement new Tesla-powered spellwork. The basic principles of magic are taught in most schools, and although not everyone has the patience and aptitude necessary to learn it, discovering that a friend or neighbour dabbles in magic is not much more unusual than learning that they play the piano or paint - and much like those examples, what’s truly rare is finding someone who has learned enough magic to make a living doing it.
Humans have the ability to use magic, but magical beings are magic. It’s built into their very beings, the way carbon and hydrogen are built into ours. They take many forms; some are kindly and benevolent, some are wicked and malicious, while still others are wild or mischievous. From fairies to vampires to eldritch beings too alien for the mind to comprehend, magical beings run the whole gamut.
It is commonly believed among experts in the field, although still not proven, that magical beings are created and sustained by a collective human unconsciousness. Known as the Bernhard Hypothesis, this holds that while individual humans need training and focus for their imagination to affect the world around them, large groups of humans may unconsciously use a collective imagination to project these beings into reality, as avatars of social beliefs, fears, anxieties, and traumas. Although this hypothesis is as yet unproven (and, indeed, many critics accuse it of being untestable), it is generally agreed upon as the most likely explanation for the existence of magical creatures.
In recent decades, the number of magical beings has increased precipitously, leading to more and more conflicts with human populations. The exact cause of this increase is not clear, but many have pointed out that the increase coincides with the spread of Tesla Leyline Power Stations and their attendant magical devices, and it has been suggested that the relationship may be causative. This is not nearly as generally-accepted as the Bernhard Hypothesis, however.
Not all magical beings are actively hostile to humans, but many are feral and territorial, and in recent years even those indifferent to humans may have been brought into conflict with them as the number of beings increased dramatically, while the territory available to them shrank. This has led to the rise of the monster hunter as a profession.
'Monster' is not a strictly legal category, but rather a subset of magical creatures whose presence is dangerous to nearby human populations. Most of these are feral creatures, but there are some, such as vengeful spirits, which exhibit some intelligence but still cannot safely coexist with human populations.
Monster Hunters are people who manage monster populations for a living. Some are mages, some are demihumans (see below), and some are magical beings themselves. Some are essentially contractors who work to manage known and ongoing infestations, others make their living off of bounties posted and paid for by city and state governments, or sometimes by private individuals. There's never any shortage of work.
Forty years ago, an disaster, the nature of which is still unclear, occurred along the banks of the Cedar River in Iowa. Magic-infused mist, emanating out from a point along the river's edge, filled and permeated the surrounding areas, and out of the mist came an incredible number of hostile creatures, attacking anyone they came across. After a series of battles between these creatures and the National Guard, it was decided that the best way to deal with this crisis was to evacuate those still inside the affected areas, including the communities of Palo and Cedar Rapids, and contain the effect by sealing off the area. Army mages erected magical barriers around a circular area about fifty miles across; barriers which are still maintained to this day. Ten years ago the barriers were moved outwards by about a mile; authorities insisted that this was simply the safest way to replace the magical structures that were hastily erected in the middle of a crisis with barriers built to last.
Exactly what happened in Iowa is still unclear. The results of a congressional inquiry were largely redacted, which fueled speculation until the full report was leaked and contained very little that wasn't already public knowledge. Many believe that the incident began at the Tesla Leyline station several miles outside of Cedar Rapids, which had been shut down for maintenance; this theory is borne out by the station being near the center of the exclusion zone, but a lack of a clear explanation after decades of academics considering every possible way a Leyline Station of that model could create such an event, as well as decades of continuous operation by hundreds of similar Stations around the country without any similar occurrences, has somewhat discredited this theory.
Access to the exclusion zone is heavily restricted. There are occasional expeditions into the zone for the purposes of academic research and similar, but they're always rebuffed before they can penetrate more than a few miles. The hostile creatures are still in there, and time has made them no more friendly.
The first monster hunters were mages, but it soon became apparent that this would not be sufficient as an answer to the increasing monster problem. Mages simply took too long to train, and an aptitude for magic did not necessarily translate into an aptitude for combat.
A solution was discovered by Alexander Mikhailov, a Russian mage, in the mid-twentieth century. Mikhailov was studying vampires and werewolves; magical creatures that can convert regular humans into new versions of themselves. He discovered that, just as magic is performed by shaping imagination in the correct mental mold, magical beings have ‘molds’ that define their forms and powers, which he calls the creature’s ‘essence’. Werewolves and vampires convert humans by overlaying this essence on to their victims’ bodies, inducing transformation. Delving further into this discovery, he developed a method for extracting the essence of any magical being, and applying it to a human body, granting them that creature’s powers. Humans who have been subjected to this process are known as demihumans.
Today, there are any number of variations on the Mikhailov process, each with different outcomes. The top-of-the-line and most expensive procedures, performed by the Mikhailov Institute itself or by similarly prestigious corporations, produces a demihuman that can banish the changes at will, resembling a normal human until their demihuman powers are needed. Cheaper versions of the process may leave permanent changes to the demihuman’s base forms, or even leave them perpetually transformed.
One thing that is constant across all versions of the process is that the body cannot tolerate more than one monster essence being forced upon it. Everyone who has tried to take on a second has died slowly and painfully as the two essences inside them fought for dominance.
This transnational organization, a non-profit dedicated to resolving the ongoing monster crisis, was founded by Alexander Mikhailov, the inventor of the Mikhailov process, using funds raised through his wildly successful process. It trains, certifies, employs, and equips hunters all over the world.
Although exactly how monster hunters are certified and regulated depends on region, the Mikhailov Institute has arrangements with nearly every nation-state’s government. A Mikhailov Institute-certified hunter is considered the industry gold standard. A hunter employed directly by the Institute is the diamond standard. They employ an awful lot of badasses.
While no one person can handle multiple essences in their body, two demihumans are able to briefly combine their essences, forming a new, third person, with traits from the two originals. This fusion is unstable, and will last only a few minutes before splitting back into the original two demihumans. It’s believed that this process is facilitated by the fact that demihuman bodies have already undergone substantial morphing as part of the Mikhailov process, and as a result are somewhat unstable.
Strictly speaking, the Institute does not recommend this procedure, as it is a new discovery and largely untested. However, this has not stopped its use from becoming widespread among demihumans.
Parabellum Magicis will be played in Valor. We will be using some prototype rules for fusions between characters. The game will be played over Roll20 via its text chat. The party will be made up of 3-4 players, preferably four.
If you have any interest in playing, let me know by filling in the following form and leaving it in a comment on this page:
The Setting
Magic
The power of magic is the power of imagination, focused by the human mind. Everyone possesses a certain degree of imaginative power, but normally this is insufficient to affect material change on the world around them.
Classically, magic was performed by specially trained mages, who trained their minds to focus their imagination into the proper shapes and concentrations to affect the world around them. Their mind essentially becomes a mold, into which they pour their imaginative power to form it into the proper shape. Many used incantations and rituals as aids, not because these acts carried any intrinsic power, but because reciting a series of words or performing a series of gestures helps them get their mind into the proper shape. More experienced mages may choose to eschew these conveniences, at least for simpler spells.
All of this changed just shy of a hundred and fifty years ago, when an immigrant wizard living in New York devised a system for gathering ambient imaginative power using complex crystal lattices, so that it could be used to power single-function magical artifacts. Although there have been a number of advances since their creation, the same basic principles are still used, and today there are Tesla Leyline Power Stations (named for their original creator) operating all over the world, ushering in a new era of commonplace magic. They gather massive amounts of power that would otherwise simply go to waste, store it in crystalline batteries, and beam it wirelessly to houses and businesses to power magical refrigerators, microwaves, water heaters, and other devices, which come with all the spellwork built into them. Instant magic; just add power.
Traditional mages still exist, of course. In fact, there are more of them than ever, thanks to demand for them to develop and implement new Tesla-powered spellwork. The basic principles of magic are taught in most schools, and although not everyone has the patience and aptitude necessary to learn it, discovering that a friend or neighbour dabbles in magic is not much more unusual than learning that they play the piano or paint - and much like those examples, what’s truly rare is finding someone who has learned enough magic to make a living doing it.
Magical Beings
Humans have the ability to use magic, but magical beings are magic. It’s built into their very beings, the way carbon and hydrogen are built into ours. They take many forms; some are kindly and benevolent, some are wicked and malicious, while still others are wild or mischievous. From fairies to vampires to eldritch beings too alien for the mind to comprehend, magical beings run the whole gamut.
It is commonly believed among experts in the field, although still not proven, that magical beings are created and sustained by a collective human unconsciousness. Known as the Bernhard Hypothesis, this holds that while individual humans need training and focus for their imagination to affect the world around them, large groups of humans may unconsciously use a collective imagination to project these beings into reality, as avatars of social beliefs, fears, anxieties, and traumas. Although this hypothesis is as yet unproven (and, indeed, many critics accuse it of being untestable), it is generally agreed upon as the most likely explanation for the existence of magical creatures.
In recent decades, the number of magical beings has increased precipitously, leading to more and more conflicts with human populations. The exact cause of this increase is not clear, but many have pointed out that the increase coincides with the spread of Tesla Leyline Power Stations and their attendant magical devices, and it has been suggested that the relationship may be causative. This is not nearly as generally-accepted as the Bernhard Hypothesis, however.
Not all magical beings are actively hostile to humans, but many are feral and territorial, and in recent years even those indifferent to humans may have been brought into conflict with them as the number of beings increased dramatically, while the territory available to them shrank. This has led to the rise of the monster hunter as a profession.
Monsters, and Those Who Hunt Them
'Monster' is not a strictly legal category, but rather a subset of magical creatures whose presence is dangerous to nearby human populations. Most of these are feral creatures, but there are some, such as vengeful spirits, which exhibit some intelligence but still cannot safely coexist with human populations.
Monster Hunters are people who manage monster populations for a living. Some are mages, some are demihumans (see below), and some are magical beings themselves. Some are essentially contractors who work to manage known and ongoing infestations, others make their living off of bounties posted and paid for by city and state governments, or sometimes by private individuals. There's never any shortage of work.
The Iowa Exclusion Zone
Forty years ago, an disaster, the nature of which is still unclear, occurred along the banks of the Cedar River in Iowa. Magic-infused mist, emanating out from a point along the river's edge, filled and permeated the surrounding areas, and out of the mist came an incredible number of hostile creatures, attacking anyone they came across. After a series of battles between these creatures and the National Guard, it was decided that the best way to deal with this crisis was to evacuate those still inside the affected areas, including the communities of Palo and Cedar Rapids, and contain the effect by sealing off the area. Army mages erected magical barriers around a circular area about fifty miles across; barriers which are still maintained to this day. Ten years ago the barriers were moved outwards by about a mile; authorities insisted that this was simply the safest way to replace the magical structures that were hastily erected in the middle of a crisis with barriers built to last.
Exactly what happened in Iowa is still unclear. The results of a congressional inquiry were largely redacted, which fueled speculation until the full report was leaked and contained very little that wasn't already public knowledge. Many believe that the incident began at the Tesla Leyline station several miles outside of Cedar Rapids, which had been shut down for maintenance; this theory is borne out by the station being near the center of the exclusion zone, but a lack of a clear explanation after decades of academics considering every possible way a Leyline Station of that model could create such an event, as well as decades of continuous operation by hundreds of similar Stations around the country without any similar occurrences, has somewhat discredited this theory.
Access to the exclusion zone is heavily restricted. There are occasional expeditions into the zone for the purposes of academic research and similar, but they're always rebuffed before they can penetrate more than a few miles. The hostile creatures are still in there, and time has made them no more friendly.
The Mikhailov Process
The first monster hunters were mages, but it soon became apparent that this would not be sufficient as an answer to the increasing monster problem. Mages simply took too long to train, and an aptitude for magic did not necessarily translate into an aptitude for combat.
A solution was discovered by Alexander Mikhailov, a Russian mage, in the mid-twentieth century. Mikhailov was studying vampires and werewolves; magical creatures that can convert regular humans into new versions of themselves. He discovered that, just as magic is performed by shaping imagination in the correct mental mold, magical beings have ‘molds’ that define their forms and powers, which he calls the creature’s ‘essence’. Werewolves and vampires convert humans by overlaying this essence on to their victims’ bodies, inducing transformation. Delving further into this discovery, he developed a method for extracting the essence of any magical being, and applying it to a human body, granting them that creature’s powers. Humans who have been subjected to this process are known as demihumans.
Today, there are any number of variations on the Mikhailov process, each with different outcomes. The top-of-the-line and most expensive procedures, performed by the Mikhailov Institute itself or by similarly prestigious corporations, produces a demihuman that can banish the changes at will, resembling a normal human until their demihuman powers are needed. Cheaper versions of the process may leave permanent changes to the demihuman’s base forms, or even leave them perpetually transformed.
One thing that is constant across all versions of the process is that the body cannot tolerate more than one monster essence being forced upon it. Everyone who has tried to take on a second has died slowly and painfully as the two essences inside them fought for dominance.
The Mikhailov Institute
This transnational organization, a non-profit dedicated to resolving the ongoing monster crisis, was founded by Alexander Mikhailov, the inventor of the Mikhailov process, using funds raised through his wildly successful process. It trains, certifies, employs, and equips hunters all over the world.
Although exactly how monster hunters are certified and regulated depends on region, the Mikhailov Institute has arrangements with nearly every nation-state’s government. A Mikhailov Institute-certified hunter is considered the industry gold standard. A hunter employed directly by the Institute is the diamond standard. They employ an awful lot of badasses.
Fusion
While no one person can handle multiple essences in their body, two demihumans are able to briefly combine their essences, forming a new, third person, with traits from the two originals. This fusion is unstable, and will last only a few minutes before splitting back into the original two demihumans. It’s believed that this process is facilitated by the fact that demihuman bodies have already undergone substantial morphing as part of the Mikhailov process, and as a result are somewhat unstable.
Strictly speaking, the Institute does not recommend this procedure, as it is a new discovery and largely untested. However, this has not stopped its use from becoming widespread among demihumans.
The Game
Parabellum Magicis will be played in Valor. We will be using some prototype rules for fusions between characters. The game will be played over Roll20 via its text chat. The party will be made up of 3-4 players, preferably four.
If you have any interest in playing, let me know by filling in the following form and leaving it in a comment on this page:
