Lifetime

Magic is utilised by sacrificing years of one’s life. Mages are identified by a blue line along the palm of their left hand indicating the years they have left (therefore the mana they have available). Older mages are able to do more with less time.

Life can be given freely to a non-mage to heal an injury/prevent death, however cannot be given to one who has already died. Life can be given to a fellow mage as a gift and is represented as a green line on top of their own; this is a common practise amongst mages killed before their time. Life can be stolen from a mage resulting in a red line. The process of taking life was common in earlier years where slaves were sacrificed to give mages power, this is outlawed nowadays.

The world is just entering industrialisation and mages are becoming more niche. Newer safety regulations prevent large spell work. Due to this many mages are pursuing other careers which are indirectly involved in magic. Mages have their own political council which is losing power in the parliament to merchants.

Protagonist is a younger child of a merchant’s house. As one of the younger children he would have little say in the business, having a mage in the family is considered ‘quaint’. Encouraged to go to the college and become a practising mage and then return to work for the family business. On the way to the college the caravan is attacked by bandits and the talent scout is fatally wounded, he gifts his years to the protagonist as no-one is available to heal him.

The villain of the story is a member of the mages council who is killing off mages and stealing their life. His plan is to become powerful enough to take control of the land.

Political system: each profession has a guild and each guild has a council. Depending upon the influence of the guild the council places a number of members into the parliament. Traditionally mages dominated the council, however as industrialisation has increased other guilds have gained more places in parliament forcing mages out. Mages now hold the most seats but do not hold a majority, other guilds often join together to undermine mages.

Blood Memory

When a person has children some of their memories and skills are passed along to the offspring. It is uncommon but not rare for this to occur. For example if a master blacksmith has several children it Is likely at least one will have an innate talent for metal working and either know skills or pick them up faster than expected. There are many folk-magic spells, potions, etc for increasing the chance of a child with blood memory. This was very common with most first born children being given advantages to ensure the family trade was passed on. Rich families used more reliable magic to ensure knowledge was passed along therefore the land is ruled by a series of legacies. These legacies were wise and worked together to ensure the land was ruled fairly.

One of the younger members of these families grew greedy and wished for more power and then used a powerful dark magic to ensure that not just memories and skills were passed on but her whole consciousness. Through a series of inter legacy marriages over several generations she accumulated all their knowledge from each legacy along with doing extensive research on darker and darker forms of magic. Once powerful enough she attempts to betray the legacies however is uncovered halfway through her schemes. War breaks out, though the legacies are quickly outnumbered. The legacies breed children of the greatest mages and soldiers together and scatter them as orphans across the land in hopes that they will lead a new rebellion once grown. The legacies are defeated and the villain takes control of the kingdom, however her multiple rebirth has increased her fanaticism and madness, and she sits in her tower growing more powerful yet insane with multiple rebirths. She begins to copy herself creating several children all with her memories; some however are born monsters and deformed.

Blood memory in the common man becomes outlawed and any children who show natural blood memories are hidden for fear of execution. The hero is one of these scattered orphans who develops his blood memories in late puberty for being a mage and an excellent fighter. He is quickly sent away from the orphanage and directed towards the resistance.

All the Kings Men

Magic is unique to each individual person and is derived from exposure to a stimulus. A blacksmiths child may develop powers over fire or metal whereas a healing woman may develop restoration powers or power over plants, a hunter may learn to speak to animals etc. No two people have the same talents despite acquiring them in the same way. Powers usually manifest in early puberty though can develop any time in life. Though magic can run in blood lines for a few generations they usually do not inherit. Political power is very transient and revolves around wealth gained from magic. There is a royal family rich in magic which frequently marries in new fresh magical bloodlines, other than the throne a family will only retain a position in government for 3-4 generations before becoming barren in magic. Magic is rare and the birth of a mage is a great boon for a family and usually leads to a place in court. Persons with magic who spend time together can be trained to develop a bond whereby their lives become harmonious. Two people in harmony can exchange an injury between them sharing or removing it. Due to this feature all member of the royal family are brought up with an intimate guard or guards. This guard whilst protecting the royal has a duty to take any injury from them to save their life.

A rebel uprising against the king takes place and the crown prince leads the army. During the battle the crown prince is targeted and isolated from the rest of the soldiers with only his personal guard. Though fighting bravely the crown prince suffers a mortal wound, and his guard (known as his man (or a kings man)) is also badly but not gravely injured. The kings man sacrifices his life for the crown prince, however the crown prince is then killed again by an assassin on the field. The princes brother becomes crown prince regent he is believed to have orchestrated the affair. The kings man had a son who is sent to live with his uncle in a blacksmiths, he is treated well and during a yearly scout is found to possess magic. An advisor to the previous crown prince recognises the boys name and he is chosen to become a kings man to the young crown prince who is just coming into his magic. The king has died and the Brother of the original crown prince is regent. The rest of the kings guard are a serving girl with a talent for healing and a lesser noble boy who has various devious talents related to espionage.

Seven Seals

In the beginning were the Titans. Creators of all existence they shaped the heavens as they saw fit. To serve them they created the Gods to rule over the planets they had created. The Gods in turn created man and the Angels to cultivate their growth. The Angels became greedy and fell into damnation creating the Demons. Demons sought to tempt mankind and raised up a section of humanity closer to the gods creating the Fae. Fae embodied the desires of mankind and lived on whims of cruelty and hedonism. In their revelry they created hybrids of man and beast resulting in strange creatures with no natural place upon the earth. The Gods upset by the disturbance of this balance gave mankind the gift of magic in hopes they would create a new balance against the Demons plans. This continued for many years until finally the Titans became angry that their creations had done so much on their own desires.

In a rage the titans began destroying everything the Gods had worked so hard for. Seeing no other end to the conflict the Gods created the first seal. Behind this seal named Tartarus they captured the Titans imprisoning them in their own realm for eternity. The Gods however were not strong enough to fully seal their creators and the seal began to leak. Threatened with destruction they sacrificed themselves behind a second seal entrusting the worlds they had created to the angels.

Devoid of the Gods protection war broke out between the Angels and Demons each vying for control of their own worlds. Equally matched, a costly stalemate developed resulting in the deaths of mankind in untold numbers. Man, fearful of the extent to which the war over the worlds would progress, fashioned two of their own seals to contain Heaven and Hell separating them from man. This was man’s first great achievement and resulted in a Golden age for them, with magic used freely for the benefit of all. The Fae grew angry and jealous over man’s success and in a bitter rage created a seal over themselves separating their own lands from that of the rest of mankind. The creations of the Fae grew wild without guidance and began to destroy threaten the world of men. The mages grew desperate and held vigils at the gate to Faerie to convince the Fae to take their creatures with them. The Fae bitter as they were refused and settled to watch their offspring bring about mans end.

As had been done before the wizards of men gathered to create a further seal behind which they would contain these abominations in a void between the earth and Faerie. However, the scope of the Fae’s influence was too great and so in sealing the creatures they in turn burnt out Magic from the reach of man. This became known as the seventh and final seal. Mankind was now alone divided from the reach of Fae, Angels, and Gods by these seals of arcane creation.

For thousands of years the seals held strong, however with time they began to fray. Whispers began to pass through the seals into Gaia, the world devoid of magic. First Demons and Fae tricked mankind into wickedness and greed. Gods sent forth Prophets from across the seals to determine if they had been forgotten in this new world. Eventually a message from the Titans reached the ears of a few men. The Titans promised great power if they were freed from behind these seals. And so a group on Mankind gathered the materials leaked through from behind the walls to break the first seal and restore Magic to Gaia. The world of Gaia had long forgotten Magic however and after the breaking of the first seal chaos ensued. As much as they sought to break each of the seals those who knew tried to keep the seals closed as they knew if the titans broke free they would destroy the universe in their rage.

Titans Gods Angels Demons Fae Magical creatures Magic