#I think I probably will end up copying a necromancy spell or two with this ink tho

[blujayonthewing]

so in Mel's campaign we recently found two casks of kraken ink, which can be used to poison a weapon or as spellbook ink, and the latter use allows you to choose for the damage dealt by any spell written with it to be lightning instead of whatever the usual damage type is

Mel also has a bunch of necromancy spell scrolls we found sealed in a vault of dangerous contraband under a temple to the raven queen, one of them being Negative Energy Flood:

and. man. I think this is spookier and darker than Melliwyk currently is as a person but I keep thinking about how fucking cool this would be reskinned to be lightning based; corpses raised to fight beyond death by electronic impulses firing through their nerves and muscles, twitching and jerking like macabre puppets, like automata made of flesh

[lo-and-behold-ocelittle]

Let’s outline a magical university

For reasons almost humorous enough to turn them into an anecdote, I drafted the hierarchy (faculties, departments) of a magic university. This is from a fictional nation whose capital city, Melphi, houses a whole bunch of “academies” almost as if someone was trying to build a science cluster there. I grouped together “schools of magic” I thought harmonized due to their primary purpose/fields of study/historical roots. I had to do some redefining here and there.

All fields of study are classified by the prevailing type of application (mathematics vs. engineering–everyone needs number reasoning but while some are dtf once they see abstract problems others need a practical application to get off). This is why the Ministry of Defense co-chairs some faculties and departments in other academies instead of creating a ‘military-only’-department-copy in their own “Academy of Military Science”.

National Academy of Thaumatology(lit.: miracle-working)

The National Academy of Technology is the leading institution of thaumaturgic research and education. Graduates of this academy may refer to themselves as Mages and are granted a license/diploma; ordinary thaumaturges are generally referred to as wizards and witches.

Any mage who heads the NAT is automatically granted the title of an Arch-Mage. The Arch-Mage isn’t necessarily the strongest mage but, ideally, the most competent; the position is elected and only temporarily held.

The NAT harbours six separate faculties and a total of 45 departments. The faculties are headed by Deans, who are appointed by the Arch-Mage. A Dean, in turn, may designate any one of a department’s professors as the head of said department.

Faculty of Divination and Scrying

Members seek to extract information from every comprehensible (and incomprehensible source–this is the fun bit) source. This faculty has six departments.

Department of Precise Prophecies

Analysis of incoming prophecies; may suggest methods to improve the accuracy of prophetic recitals; study of the effects of prophecies on oracles; replication and study of prophecy induced stupor

Department of Percolative Clairvoyance

Remote viewing by means of astral projection; minimisation of projected astral bodies; breaching of thaumic barriers or other wards designed to hinder the clairvoyants

Department of Cryptomancy

Development and breaching of thaumic encryptions; think schematics and counter-spells

Department of Runic Studies

Almost cryptomancy if you don’t know the language; extraction of information from ancient runes; study of antique symbology and foreign circuitry & schematics

Department of Sensory Appropriation

Utilisation of other beings’ senses; research towards improving stability and enabling two-way communication between species

Department of Knowledge Impartment and Remote Transmissions

Development of communication techniques with and without astral projections; research into holograms; cooperation with cryptomancers; research into wordless communication (mental projections)

Faculty of Alchemy and Artificery

Members seek to alter matter and augment objects, turning them into artifacts. This faculty focuses on historical as well as modern applications of alchemy, such as transmutation of mind and matter on one hand and the animation of matter on the other. This faculty has nine departments. They can be roughly divided into those that deal with naturally animate matter and those who don’t

Department of Transmutation

Study of chemical (and later nuclear) alteration of matter; applications include refining and enrichment of a substance

Department of Alteration

Study of inanimate morphing; study of micro-alterations; research into perfect replications

Department of Animation

Imbuing inanimate matter with a resemblance of life; research into prolonging the effects of animation; study of artificial sentience

Department of Infusion

Infusion of inanimate matter and potions with spells, typically one-time use; research into materials that retain spells with little to no deterioration over a prolonged period of time/extreme environmental conditions

Department of Artifact Augmentation 

Creation of artifacts from normal objects; augmentation of mechanical systems with thaumic elements; creation of objects with entirely thaumic systems; research into artifact circuitry and schematics

Department of Polymorphing 

Transmutation of animate matter by means of direct (cast) or indirect (potions) thaumaturgy

Department of Vivisthetics 

Development of animate limb replacements from animate and inanimate matter such as wood or metal

Department of Tissue Replication 

Study of tissue matrices and surmounting the resistance of animate matter against exterior thaumaturgy

Department of Soul-Patching 

Study of the soul anatomy; study of soul transferals and creation; investigation of industrial applications for minor souls; (and probably a lot more)

Faculty of Invocation, Abjuration, and Obviation

Members seek to summon, convene, and bargain with (more or less) sentient entities. Mages also specialise in banishing unwelcome guests or those who have overstayed their welcome. Conveniently, the thaumic barriers used to contain the assault of an irritated celestial can also be used in the industry, where transparent materials with toughness beyond glass and a price below diamond are required. The Ministry of Defense is, unsurprisingly, also rather fond of research into these barriers. Summoned beasts are also studied and may be harvested for alchemic ingredients, deployment in the industry or by the military. This faculty has eight departments.

Department of Celestial, Infernal, and Concomittant Deitical Interrogation

Summoning of celestials, infernals, auxiliary deities and sprites with the goal of extracting information; dangerous and tedious interrogations may result in death by exhaustion, boredom, or smiting

Department of Contemporary Circuitry

Study of summoning circles; summoning circle optimisation; testing the limits of summoning circles; naturally, this department is also part of the Faculty of Divination and Scrying

Department of Lost Rites

Similar to the Department of Runic Studies, this department studies past summoning rituals and catalogues them; finding backdoors to summoning-resistant creatures

Department of Necromancy

Summoning of beings, most commonly ghosts but also DEATH, from DEATH’s realm, souls that have passed on can no longer be summoned; cooperate with the Faculty of Divination and Scrying to extract information from the deceased; work with the Department of Animation to supply (ambivalently willing) souls as a raw material to work spells

Department of Vexatious Relegation

Research of banishing techniques to get rid of pesky metaphysical beings from the poltergeist to the infernal arch-demon; cooperate with the Department for Thaumic Barriers and the Department for Contemporary Circuitry to create wards against unwanted guests (this makes them a great target for prospective clairvoyants practicing for their exams)

Department of Varmint Studies and Husbandry

Study and taming of summoned beasts (not necessarily but commonly) from other planes of existence; harvest of alchemic ingredients; study of industrial and military applications

Department of Thaumic Barriers

The creation of (invisible) thaumic barriers that prevent the passage of physical and/or metaphysical objects; barrier type research such as solid, liquid, and gaseous barriers e.g. walls and dust barriers

Department of Binding and Immobilisation

Emergency procedures when summoning circles are damaged; police and military applications; storage of summoned entities in pocket dimensions

Faculty of Innovational Thaumaturgy

Contains members from all other faculties, who wouldn’t stop pestering their HoD with ‘what-if’-questions. Everyone else is only here to supervise those mages and make sure nothing goes (too) wrong. And when their nurslings aren’t ending the world, they study thaumic contamination, land reclamation, and recycling. Prisoners get sentence reductions, if they willingly participate in these experiments. This faculty has ten departments.

Department of Asset Recovery and Recycling

Study of decontamination methods for thaumically irradiated areas and objects such as testing grounds, battlefields, destroyed cities or spell-gone-wrongs

Department of Leigh-Line-Surveying

Study and development of thaumic models to understand how thaumaturgy works; detection and mapping of currents; study of inexplicable thaumic flux

Department of Hazard Handling 

Responsible for setting up safety precautions during experiments and containing them, if they go awry; investigation of technical failures during experiments; creation of guidelines when handling certain spells; study and research into safety-ensuring spells

Department of Peculiar Entropy Phenomena

Study and attempted replication of matter that inexplicably weathers, repairs itself or remains ‘locked in time’

Department of Experimental Divination and Scrying

Testing the limits of individual departments; possession of another sentient entity; sending and receiving fake prophecies; field testing of knowledge impartment and transmission

Department of Experimental Alchemy and Artificery

Field testing of potions and artifacts; early nuclear transmutation

Department of Experimental Invocation, Abjuration, and Obviation 

Field testing of new circuits and summoning rituals, banishments, and thaumic barrier prototypes

Department of Experimental Evocation

Field testing of new evocation spells

Department of Experimental Convalescence

Field testing of new biothaumaturgy spells (possibly on prisoners, who may or may not be on death row) and convalescence spells

Department of Experimental Illusion

Field testing of new illusion spells; oneiromancers practicing dream-walking in environments with a high thaumic density

Faculty of Evocation

Evokers study the extraction and subsequent harnessing of energy from their surroundings. This faculty has seven departments and a dean with a military background.

Department of Stifling and Sonancy

Study of wave propagation in various media; industry applications like geological mapping and locating mineral deposits; shockwaves for the military, sonar for the navy and oceanographers research; study of interference phenomena and counter-spells

Department of Dynamic Forfeiture

Study of methods to extract kinetic energy from or imbue systems with kinetic energy; industry applications like mechanical/thaumic systems (from artificery); military applications like impedance of movement of projectiles or vehicles (or the opposite)

Department of Torrid Reciprocation

Extraction of thermal energy (particle vibrations) from the surroundings; allows for interesting thermodynamic machines like heat pumps, lots of industry applications in heating and cooling; military applications only in the farthest sense that you can extract energy from your surroundings and thereby freeze people or cause machine components to deform

Department of Cardinal Schisms and Amalgamation

Energy from fusion and fission of atoms; extraction of chemical energy from molecules; industry needs include powering steam machines and smelting; military application can be the uncontrolled fusion or fission of a substance like hydrogen or uranium (to name two familiar ones)

Department of Ray Apprehension

Capture of electromagnetic radiation; applications similar to most of the above except commonly only viable during daytime

Department of Elementary Allurement

Extraction of energy from the movement of charged particles and vice versa; the electricity folks

Department of Locomotion

Exertion of forces on objects to make them move; excludes teleportation (summoning)

Faculty of Illusion

Illusionists seek to replicate real environments and associated dynamic objects to the extent that the illusion becomes indistinguishable from the real world. The ability to replicate distant objects in real time makes them an attractive to communication service providers. This faculty has five departments.

Department of Oneiromancy

Study of dreams from a prophetic or self-reflective point of view; study of mental health through dreams; study of dream implanting; study of (literal) dream-walking

Department of Optics

Study of reflective thaumic barriers used to redirect light; study of civilian applications such communication services; study of enhancements for mechanical optics; competition to clairvoyants

Department of Static Imitation

Study of interfaces and displays for artifacts; study of static civilian applications such as billboards or advertisement screens; artistic applications like in stage shows, a world with nothing moving in it

Department of Dynamic Imitation

Study into the perfect illusory replication of real-world dynamic objects such as fireworks or holograms, also includes military stealth

Department of Phantasmagoria (’cause I couldn’t call it the mind-fuck dpt.)

Heavily military and medical, mages seek to penetrate a victim’s psyche and create a false world inside their head, effectively incapacitating them, also used in palliative treatment of the sick and mental health institutions

I’ll post a visual at a later date, showing cross-over departments and the influence I think the Ministry of Defense has on the research conducted. Supplementary feedback to this post is appreciated.

[robotslenderman]

 So I felt like talking about Rowan and Mannimarco and their backstory.

Note, very long. If any of you read this all then wow.

Rowan was born on Summerset to a former Psijic mage whose name is currently Eilonwe. I might change it, might not. She was born in a hospital -- Eilonwe’s hospital, as a matter of fact, as Eilonwe had given up magic and become a doctor. Eilonwe was born and raised on Artaeum, but left around the time the isle went into reclusion, and used to be a friend of both Vanus and Mannimarco. Rowan’s father is not in the picture.

Eilonwe gave her daughter as much of an education as she could, busy as she was -- taught her about all the Daedric Princes and their Daedra, a lot of religious education, along with physiology, anatomy and writing skills. Mathematics, of course. She taught her a lot of magical theory, but it wasn’t until Rowan learned to be a doctor that she learned some magic, and all of it was defensive in nature or spells specifically for aiding/subduing patients -- paralysis spells, numbing spells, drain magicka, ward, etc, along with enchantments to do similar things.

Rowan left the hospital to join the Wormcult to become a necromancer to have better access to cadavers to cut up. They’re a bit more difficult to come by in Summerset, especially bodies where you’ve got permission to cut them up and poke them. So Rowan was like “fuck it” and went to the Wormcult for that, hoping to learn from their knowledge of the human/mer body. She’d heard of Mannimarco from her mother’s stories of growing up in Artaeum and being a fellow student, so when she heard his name start coming up she was like “Sign me up, FOR SCIENCE.”

She did not introduce herself to Mannimarco, though. It was pretty apparent from her mother that Mannimarco thought himself above just about everyone else and that there was no real point. It did not occur to her that Mannimarco might think her mother an enemy for standing by when Mannimarco was chucked out of Artaeum, so it’s probably lucky she didn’t go up to him and say hi.

He ran into her once while the whole Vestige thing was going down. She was at a class poking at a corpse, like Rowan is wont to do, and Mannimarco made a rare appearance to check in on the class. He used to do it quite often, but these days left the training to his own former students. They didn’t really exchange words -- Rowan’s teacher didn’t let him look at Rowan’s work because she was a shitty necromancer, and distracted him with a better student. 

The teacher did mention off-handedly that Rowan seemed more interested in the body than she was in necromantic magic, which piqued Mannimarco’s interest. It piqued his interest because for the most part, students follow in his footsteps and very rarely innovate -- but passion itself could lead in a new direction and actually build on his work, rather than create a sub par copy of him and his abilities that would never truly live up to him and his greatness.

But at most he was like “Hm, wonder if she’ll ever do anything with that passion”, decided chances were she probably wouldn’t, especially not in terms of necromancy, and went back to what he was doing and promptly forgot about her.

They met again months later, after Mannimarco had been tortured by Molag Bal.

See, important disclaimer here -- their relationship was founded purely on trauma bonding. The two of them would never have become as close as they did (by Mannimarco’s standards) if not for the sheer trauma Mannimarco had gone through, and how much he physically and emotionally depended on Rowan afterwards. That allowed him to develop some grudging trust, some respect and a huge soft spot for Rowan.

So. You’ve been imprisoned and tortured by someone called “the King of Rape.” How great do you think your mental health is after that ordeal?

Spoiler warning: fucking terrible. He might be the King of Worms, but he’s not the King of Stable Mental Health, nor is he immune to night terrors and PTSD.

The Wormcult was in shambles after the Molag Bal incident. Mannimarco was reunited with his most loyal Wormcultists in Coldharbour -- the ones who hadn’t fled, the ones struggling for control in the power vacuum created by his absence -- but was in bad shape. The people in charge of his recovery refused to believe that a person as powerful as Mannimarco was in as bad shape as he was, or that he’d “let” Molag Bal do the horrible things to him that he did, but Rowan saw it clear as day. Unfortunately, Rowan was pretty damn low on the totem pole in the Wormcult so nobody was going to listen to a damn thing she said.

So she had a war criminal on her hands who was in really bad shape, and usually had a healthy respect for authority. Unfortunately, she was pretty sure Mannimarco was going to die without real medical care, or else completely lose what loyalties he had left and end up on his own and then die once people realised just how bad his condition was, so Rowan was like, “welp, desperate times call for desperate measures.”

She got in touch with her Psijic mother, and the two of them fucking kidnapped Mannimarco from Coldharbour.

To be fair to Eilonwe, she had no idea it was Mannimarco until the guy had been in her hospital for a couple of nights and was like, “I swear that guy is familiar...” and eventually put two and two together. At which point she was like, “ROWAN. WHAT DID YOU DO”

“Well I couldn’t leave him to die. My vows!”

“ROWAN. HE JUST TRIED TO DRAG US ALL INTO COLDHARBOUR”

“yeah and he didn’t”

“BUT HE COULD’VE”

“We’d have adapted. Besides he’s like a traumatised puppy right now.”

Which was... not far off. Mannimarco had refused to speak a single word to anyone, but was having a shitton of night terrors and tried to kill just about every doctor/nurse that went near him that wasn’t Rowan. In Coldharbour she used to read to him and look after him, making sure to speak to him and tell him what she was doing before she did it, unlike the other healers, so he sort of imprinted on her. He was pretty stressed out by the kidnapping and suddenly being in a strange place with a lot of strange faces, so tended to freak out and try to set nurses on fire and shit. The only reason he couldn’t was that he was stuck with bracers of drain magicka on him -- the strongest ones they had, which still wasn’t strong enough to contain his true power, but enough of it that the hospital didn’t fucking burn down and that he didn’t actually kill anyone.

Besides, he tended to calm down once Rowan showed up and he was reassured she hadn’t Abandoned Him Forever, and this wasn’t a torturous nightmare invented by Molag Bal.

He needed a lot of round-the-clock care at first, but started to recover physically. Emotionally he was still in a bad place, and still refused to talk or look anyone in the eye, and still often tried to set people on fire. Rowan was the only person allowed to bathe, feed and dress him. Not that he was completely compliant with Rowan, but he didn’t try to kill her too many times. He was a little less violent with Eilonwe, too -- he clearly recognised her.

Over time his silence became monosyllables spoken only to Rowan, then maybe a chain of a few words. Maybe a derisive snort aimed at Eilonwe every now and then. Rowan earned her keep by taking care of Mannimarco and occasionally helping out with the other patients, and eventually managed to coax Mannimarco into the garden and sneer at her while she tried to get him to help her look after the herbs.

(Eilonwe privately remarked to her daughter, “Huh, he likes you” after seeing this.)

Eventually he recovered enough that he started getting bored and resurrecting dead cats to fuck with the other patients, at which point Eilonwe kicked him out. He didn’t fight the idea, even if he was still rather jumpy and prone to nightmares, but went to god knows where to continue his research.

When he did, Rowan went with him.

Rowan, to this day, is uncertain if he took her with him and she let him, or if she followed him and he let her. They didn’t really discuss it. They just left together.

[vallonde-laid-bare]

(!IMPORTANT EDIT: This has been revised since it was posted, making this version out-of-date. All content presented herein should be considered unbalanced/unfinished!) (Disclaimer: I’m really tired right now so forgive me if I ramble)

Aight, now we're getting into some of the heavier rules additions I've made. Let me preface this by saying I love wizards. I think they're just as versatile as clerics while having much more characterization flexibility. That said, I really dislike wizards in 5th ed. They just feel boring, with nothing that really projects that classic wizard feel. School specialization is much less of an impactful choice than in previous editions, and the bonuses granted by your chosen school are generally boring or require silly, exploitative combos to make use of. After finally getting around to playing one and being thoroughly underwhelmed, I decided to take a crack at actually making this class fun to play

NOTE: NONE of this content has been playtested yet. Between two seperate campaings, None of my players have chosen to play arcane spell casters, so I've yet to have a chance to see it in action. I can only image some of these options are overpowered, so it may have to be adjusted on the fly to adjust for player shenanigans.

Let me start by saying this was a major process. I went into 4th and 3/3.5 to find inspiration for the direction I wanted to take the various schools and new rules, and I think I found several ways to make the class and its options feel much more unique. Characterization is always the most important part of creating and playing characters, at least for me, and I feel like every option should strive to push that idea. Starting at the very beginning with implement masteries, you're already seperating your character from other wizards. Down with same-y features, up with options. I'm just going to kind of skim over all of the school and give my basic thoughts and process on the overhaul, even though I'm tempted to gush about all of them because, honestly, I think there's a lot to love here.

Of special note, SAVANT FEATURES NO LONGER EXIST. Cutting the time and cost to copy spells is so contrived and inconsequential that I see their inclusion as more of an insult than a gift. These have all been replaced with something that directly powers up the schools theme because that is way more fun. Also, these are meant to be mixed and matched with the schools as they exist in the PHB. These features all list which feature they replace so you can choose which one you prefer between the two of them when you reach a level that grants you a new feature. - Abjuration: I think that, of all the schools, 5e did the best with abjuration. The base features fit the theme nicely and it's actually a viable way to build a defensive wizard. A bit of a power boost and push 'em out the door with a pat on the bottom. - Conjuration: Lets face it: Summoning in 5e sucks. At lower levels you can summon creatures so rarely it that it doesn't properly lend flavor to the class, and at higher levels its completely outshined by massive, reality altering spells like wish and meteor storm or whatever. This set of features includes a once per day cantrip-level summoning ability and a direct upgrade to the weak level 14 feature from the PHB. Summoning spells are admitedly pretty one dimensional, so if you choose a large number of them to prepare you may come up short on versatility. I was looking for a way to circumvent that issue, and figured that a wizard specialized in summoning would know the spells well enough that they could spontaneously cast them. - Divination: I really like this one, specifically because of how flavorful it is. As you can see, there is no level 2 talent to replace portent because portent is just that good. It's powerful, it's fun, it's flavorful, I just can't see another talent that could be a viable contender for portent. I think expert divination is far to situational and makes little sense for the school, so I present prescience as an option I think it potentially equal in power but way more fitting. And finally, diviner's sight is, in my opinion, the most interesting roleplay option in 5th ed at this time. Imagine a wizard who has looked to far and seen too much, whose vision has been seared away by things no one was meant to see. UGH. So cool. The 60ft of blindsight is awesome and gets around some tricky tricks. - Enchantment: Enchantment already has some cool stuff going on, so I just wanted to make the spells harder to save against because casting something like command and then having the target save is the biggest waste of a turn in this edition of D&D. - Evocation: The biggest change here is elemental affinity, the almost surely broken way to play a real fire or ice or thunder or whatever mage. I think it's fine, but I can see it really causing issues if a player is specifically trying to exploit it. - Illusion: THIS ONE IS COOL GUYS. WOW. This suite of features straight up turns your wizard into a shadow caster. How cool is that?! Balanced from what I can tell as well, but it'll need to see play before I can be sure. - Necromancy: This is the one where I know I done messed up. I love necromancers. Love love love them. I'm an edgy preteen for them. I've also got a lot of thoughts on how they work, and I wanted to highlight some of that here. Necromancers don't so much command death magic as their magic simply manipulates life force. I feel that for a wizard so inclined, it wouldn't be difficult to simply turn that process around. What I'm trying to say is white necromancy and wizards with healing spells. I also added an option that gives the wizard a permanent hunter-style undead companion. Very, very cool but PROBABLY a bit too strong. - Transmutation: Transmutation is cool, and I really like the flavor of changing yourself to be the ultimate jack of all trades. As with everything else, the savant trait has been replaced. - Generalist: I really like the idea of this one, and it has a very classic wizard feel. More focus on the focus, a neat pet, and stronger spells? Yee. - Battle Mage: I'm not so sure about this one. I made these a while back before any of the other combat caster classes came out, so I honestly might end up just scrapping it.

Anyway, I'll probably be dropping some actual setting material next time, most likely the other section on arcane magic. It's blood magic all the way down, kids...

(Content PDF)

[mysticmysterywrites-blog]

Prompt #6

Hey, so this prompt ended up being over 2000 words. I'm telling you now, you absolutely do not have to match it. Like, you can choose to. This is something you can choose to do! But I'm not going to force you to, because I'm 9/10 not gonna match this fuckers length again for a good long time.

Anyway!

I'm kinda hoping for a male character as a reply? The character I'm writing is like, 100% homo of the sexual, and he absolutely fuck with your character a few times while they're traveling. That said, if you really want to play a female character, I'm not that hard to convince (being the massive fucking gay that I am). But also, might end up needing to wipe the romantic aspect from it!

At least w/ Kimon, anyway. His brothers fair game to all genders.

Real fast. Kimon and Thales are human twins, the first being a bard and the second a wizard. They have darker skin, with red-brown hair and brown eyes. Kimon keeps his styled a bit shorter, and sticks to wearing lots of blacks and greys like the emo fucker he is. Probably best known for playing fantasy My Chemical Romance in the middle of the night. Thales keeps his hair down to about his chest, and dresses up in robes and a barrage of colors and patterns thats insulting to anyone actually trying. He's actually p happy, as a person. And you know, the necromancer.

When he's 5 he trips and cuts his leg on the pointed ocean stones, the sea salt slipping into the wound with each lap of the water

He cries and cries and cries, letting the tears replace the ocean mist on his face. His mother eventually notices his screams and comes rushing over to check on him, but his brother watches the way the blood falls from his wound, eyes wide in facination, hand gripping his in an attempt to comfort him.

The memory is eventually forgotten with time, but the fascination is not, and the two of them take very different paths in life.

~~

He starts learning the piano when he's 7, takes fascination in the way that it sounds and feels. Every touch of a new key is a new feeling of wonder and excitement, Eventually, he takes excitement in the way that the lights around him glitter and dance, turning to the tune of the piano. He gets caught like that, playing to lights that shouldn't be there.

His mother is hesitant, of course. Bards are well known for their love of travel, for never standing in one place. Their father was like that. Always wanting to travel and move, always wanting to explore the world. It got him killed, and screwed her leg up, and she didn't want that for her baby boys. She wanted them to live a comfortable, cushiony life. Something boring. Something safe.

However, eventually she relents. He's not a particularly happy child (and hell, even as an adult is admittedly not the tellitubbies sun.) But playing against the piano always made him smile, and she loves when he smiles.

Over the years, He learns to master the piano, and then the violin, then the flute, then the guatar, and even the harp. Always falls back to the piano, but finds just as much enjoyment in every other instrument he learns. Violin offers him the most mobility, however, and mobility eventually offers him places amongst parties of adventurers or caravans.

His brother studies book after text next to him, humming along to the songs he plays time and time again, and eventually is rewarded a stave for his troubles.

~

They leave home when they're 16.

It's a hard choice to make. Admittedly, they have a rather comfortable life. Their mother has money and resources. Earned her place amongst nobility, rather then born. She knows who to talk to, and how to talk to them, and as a result they all live comfortable lives.

But he wants to travel, and his brother is running out of books to study from. He craves knowledge, craves digging deeper into magic he shouldn't have access to. He doesn't understand it, at the time. He, personally, just wants to tell stories. Learn other people stories. Wants to learn stories that have been passed down time and time again, and pass them onto other people.

But his brother wants knowledge, the kind hidden behind lock and key deep in temples and forgotten cities.

And forgotten cities have some pretty damn kick-ass stories to tell.

~~

When they're younger, there's this tiefling girl that comes to their house a lot.

Her names Laelia, and she has this absolutely gorgeous purple skin, and big horns that crook and curve down, following the curve of her back and curl of her black hair. Her eyes are a bright green color, and fingers and teeth are sharp and shinning. She scares his brother, at first. But, Their mother welcomes her with open arms, speaks curses of the girl's parents and their dismissal. Sometimes, she stays for months on end before her parents remember she exists, come and claim her once again.

But she always end up back at their house, and their mother teaches her how to stalk around in the shadows, how to take full advantage of the smallest blade. Her sons might have been magic users, but the girl becomes her daughter, and she gladly passes on her techniques to her as she would a child of her own blood.

She travels with them for a while. She grows close to dying three times, then meets a small group

Her last words to him weren't a goodbye. She didn't believe in goodbyes, whatever that meant. She believed that the word was "Kimon, watch out for your brother," she'd tell him, placing her hands on his shoulder and glancing over at him, "he's getting into some things that are far outside his payroll, if you get what I'm throwing down."

He raised an eyebrow, and at the time he didn't understand. She could see that, he thinks. So, she just sighs and mutters.

"Its- nevermind. Just focus on keeping yourself safe, babe," and then she'd smack him on the back of the head, and turn to walk away. ~~

They find the first book in a temple hidden away, seemingly lost to time itself. Its made of stone and gold, the shine of the metal seeming to dance through the cracks of the stone. Light struggles to make its way inside, and Thales lights their path with a small flame, just in front of the two of them.

Theres a skeleton in the middle of the floor, a body as forgotten as the temple, and stains that even sink into the cracks of the floor. They ignore it, and go about shuffling through the books and notes the deceased wizard had left behind.

Thales thumbs through it with fascination glinting in his eyes and mouth opening and shutting about every now and again. "It's powerful stuff," he mutters, mostly to himself, "I don't know if I've ever seen anything like it."

They spend over a month there, as his brother copies spell after spell down. He doesn't mind, because he's spent three months in towns writing down stories and local fables. But it still worries him, the way his fingers linger over the necromancy books for so long.

~~

There's this girl they meet.

She's beautiful. Hair large, curly. Pure white against a nice tan. She dresses in pinks and whites, carries around a hammer larger then she is. Her skin is callous around her fingers, eyes are brighter then ocean water, and she has a laugh he thinks he could play a song to.

Kimon likes her well enough. Thales falls for her immediately.

The sound of her spine snapping is somehow both memorizing, and sickening.

~~

His cat brings him a little dead bird one day. It's feathers are pulled out and it's guts are destroyed, and the little bastard looks so pleased with himself over it. He grumbles and goes to clean it up, but his brother snatches up the job before he has the chance. Whatever. He's always been a fucking weirdo.

He doesn't think much of it. Wizards were just kind of like that. Maybe he needed the bones, or the feathers. Maybe it was some rare kinda bird, or maybe he just liked the look of the thing. He wasn't one to judge, he supposed.

He comes back three days later, holds up the bird, fluttering and chirping and as happy as could be.

"Kimon," he tells him, hope barely stinging through his voice, "I think I could bring her back."

~~

His brother leaves in the middle of the night, one night, and he doesn't bother coming back. Doesn't leave a note, doesn't say goodbye. He just fuckin' leaves, like the goddamn jackass he is. His anger is replaced by worry only when, two years later, he hears stories of a necromancer causing trouble on a snowy mountain.

~~

There's a few times where he's wrong

There's a few times where he joins a party chasing after a necromancer, only for them to stumble across a cult, or some other dumbass wizard in over their head on the concept of their own power. He doesn't feel bad, helping to bring their end. He doesn't have a connection to them, doesn't feel the pain they do. But it's disappointing everytime. He wants to find his brother, wants to know hes okay.

But he almost always ends up jumping from the party, after they're done.

He meets up with Laelia's party again, travel with them to some sea side town he knows he's been to but doesn't remember the name of. He doesn't tell them about his brother, knows the looks Laelia gives him when he asks are knowing and worried.

They stop at a little in, one thats run down and near abandoned, but has maybe some of the best fries he's tastes in years. He preforms for them to snag them a free room, and thats where he meets them.

They're different. He doesn't know why, but they feel different. He lingers around for a bit, listens to the way they speak and the tales they spin. It might be eaves dropping, to a small degree, but he finds himself so inticed by their words that he doesn't care.

He only approaches them after they tell the tale of a necromancer they've taken down, and how they plan to hunt down another one sometime soon. "I hear you're going after a necromancer," the words feel foreign, sour on his tongue, despite the fact that he's said them time and time over, "Up north, right? How much are you paying?"

And then he separates from Laelia's party once more, to fall in line with them.

~~

He sleeps with them about three times, overall

The first time was excusable. They were both drunk, and he was admittedly touch starved. Every moment their hand lingered against his arm, it shot a feeling of euphoria up into his side, made him see lights he didn't know existed. He tried to play his instrument that night, but the cords were sloppy, and tune was off, and all he succeeded in doing was making them laugh. And hell, their laughter was gorgeous. Waking up the next day curled into their side hadn't been surprised, but he found he couldn't care as much as he should have with a hang over.

The second time wasn't as easily excusable, so much as it was stupidity. Theres this dance they go to, you see. Need to get all dressed up for it, know how to slow dance and eat finger foods and shit. They need to get in and steal a book from the man running the party, something of an easy task. They're talking in private, somewhere quiet, more like arguing, when the doors open. He thinks too fast, doesn't think through his plan. All he knows is that they have papers, books that they shouldn't, and that could be anyone. He slams his lips down onto theirs, lets them linger as the intruders startle, then pass. Flustered, but not knowing any better as to what they've obtained. And they don't bother separating, at least for the night. They're both touch starved, both angry.

The third time? There was no excuse. Nothing he could blame it on. They'd been sitting out by the camp fire, as he plucked gently at the strings of his instrument and played a quiet tune. It was just the two of them, party members be damned. It was cold. They were both tired, both hungry. They'd move closer together, quietly- gratefully- taking in the warmth of the other body heat. He'd bitch at them for ruining the tune of the song he was playing, and they'd laugh at him for it. He'd place his head on their shoulder, place his violin down. Move closer. Kiss them.

They end up in his tent, and he ends up with cricks all up his back, and half a regret from the night earlier.

~~

He tells himself not to get too attached to them. They're a means to an end, nothing more, nothing less.

But Dammit.

He likes them

~~

Theres tubes, filled with green liquid he can't really see through fully, but can see enough through to make out the form of a person.

The basement becomes colder, especially as he hears familiar humming deeper in it.

~~

He would have slept with them more, is the thing.

But despite being a bard, he can't seduce to save his fucking life, and they always shuffle away when he gets close. So he doesn't, and they move on with their lives.

~~

There's this little cabin tucked away in the mountains that they stumble across. While it appears abandoned at first, it's worn and well loved on the interior, Ash and dust having collected, just as much as footsteps and food have. There's evidence of someone living there, but not evidence of there currently being someone THERE.

They find a door under a rug, and that's where they hit gold.

~~

They travel together for at least a year.

They have a tendency to get, well. Sidetracked, is the thing. A small quest here leads to a bigger quest there, and suddenly something that should have only taken three months at most is taking a year to get done. Its an easy pattern to fall into. They're the first person he's felt compelled to stay around in a while, and he doesn't mind getting dragged off to do the next big thing.

Still. He worries what will happen, in the end.

~~

He makes a choice he decides not to regret.

He changes his target.

He's always been good at adding buffs. He plays on the defensive, prefers not to get hit. But it's hard. It's hard to concentrate on protecting both teams. He doesn't want his brother dead, and his brother doesn't want to die, which makes him terrifying. Thales always had a good grasp on magic, and watching him use it against them turns his heart cold.

He could tell that his brother, at least, was picking up on something being off, the way he noticeably double takes at him. His mask covers only the base of his face, but his hat covers the rest of it. But he knows his play style is unique, knows his brother has watched him cast spells with his magic almost his entire life. He notices, about half way through, how Thales backs off. Opens his mouth to say something. Gets himself knocked out as a result of it.

The shriek of the violin stops the battle in it's tracks, and he's turning his heel as his brother falls to the ground. Passed out, he tells himself. He's hurt and bloody and tired, but his brother is only passed out. He looks over the eyes of the person he's been traveling with for over a year now, the person that sweeps his feet out from under him and plays with his heart.

He's not sure if what he feels is love, or lust, but it doesn't change the fact that he's pointing a knife at them.

"Let me make this very clear," he raises the bow of his violin up, something he liked to think was a little more threatening due to the curve of the end being sharpened, due to them having watched him fight time and time again, "If you touch him, any farther, I- I will kill you. Even you can't be /that/ fuckin stupid. Step OFF."