“…it is important to never forget that as the soul mirrors the body, so too does the body mirror the soul, the two of them always striving to be in harmony with one another. Through labor, training, and effort, the body provides the soul with the essence it needs to grow and thrive, and in turn the soul takes care of the body, soothing its exertions, mending its wounds, and giving it a path to strengthen and grow. It is a balance, a symbiosis, that must be carefully maintained and cul...
2024-06-28 19:43:42 +0000 UTC
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Death, it turns out, is nothing but a new beginning for Vincent.
Rather than a final curtain call before the sweet embrace of oblivion wipes away his grievous wounds, Vincent awakens in a body that isn’t his and in a city he’s never been in before. With only the cryptic words of a long lost god and the fragmented memories of a life once lived to guide him, Vincent finds himself burdened with an impossible task: to prevent an unknown corrupti...
2024-06-28 19:43:35 +0000 UTC
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“Few elements in the makeup of the Empyrean are as important or as overlooked as the Ardent. They serve as a constant reminder of the Empyrean’s fundamental purpose. An alliance founded on the defense of each other. They exemplify the spirit of the Empyrean. They are our heroes, and they are our living sacrifices, offered up on the altar of war.”
—A People’s Oral History of the Empyrean Alliance, Rosen Barvel
Sylvas fell.
There wasn’t eno...
2024-06-28 19:35:57 +0000 UTC
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“Each Eidolon is unique, and in this lack of uniformity we witness their first true defense against us. They are protean and changeable, while we are creatures of a universe with constants. A weapon that can best one Eidolon is not guaranteed to even scratch another. A weapon that we have long discarded for its lack of power might slay the greatest civilization destroyer before it has even emerged from its portal.”
—Eidolon Paradise: A theoretical extrapolation on the...
2024-06-28 19:35:53 +0000 UTC
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“Much has been said of the Eidolon’s capacity for destruction, but the psychological warfare that it brings to bear against mortals is perhaps its most insidious weapon. Those who stand in the presence of an Eidolon are consumed with fear. Their own emotions overwritten by the will of the creature. It takes an act of willpower to even fight an Eidolon, let alone conjure up the hope that one might prevail.”
—The Forever War: Eidolon Incursions and Defense, Fal’Vael...
2024-06-28 19:35:50 +0000 UTC
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“There is no material in all of creation so prized, sought after and despised as Etherium. Without it, we would not have the raw mana potential to perform many of the acts of magic required to maintain an interplanetary society. But even so, the conflicts spawned by those seeking the rarest of materials have resulted in such widespread death and destruction that one is forced to ask whether it is all worthwhile.”
—Star Shipping: Logistics of the Empyrean, Rudvin Hamme...
2024-06-28 19:35:47 +0000 UTC
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“For some, magic is a purely practical affair, for others a religious experience. Most find that their experience of magic arrives somewhere in the midground, between the calculus of casting and the bliss of magic being done. Yet both seek advancement. The practical, for the new opportunities it presents. The religious, to become more godly.”
—Heretical Philosophies: Understanding the Obsidian Dominion, Elenya Starweaver
The time that Sylvas spent be...
2024-06-28 19:35:44 +0000 UTC
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“Circles are the most natural form in the universe. The geometry of a circle interferes with the free passage of mana. The natural curvature is a temptation that mana cannot seem to resist following instead of pushing through. All spellforms are ultimately shaped of intersecting curves, with points of crossover the nexus in which effects are created. And any circle, sufficiently reinforced with sigils, will contain mana in its raw and undirected state. Through this simple device mana sa...
2024-06-28 19:35:38 +0000 UTC
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“While one’s paradigm can be considered simply to be a guiding philosophy, in the embodiment we see a mage’s true commitment to their craft. It is one thing to dabble in the forbidden arts, another entirely to turn over your body to the service of those arts. Magic demands much of those who would wield her. Too much for many.”
—The Body of Work, Lerman Vilmander
The other students had been disdainful before. Now, when Sylvas finally returned to them at di...
2024-06-28 19:35:34 +0000 UTC
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“A magic circle is, at its core, about containment. Mana can enter the circle, but it cannot leave. It is for this reason that circles are used in the cultivation of a core, and it is for this reason that the gradation of a mage’s overall power is typically measured in circles. Once the first circle has been formed within the mage, they can maintain a mana core without external assistance, and from that point they may technically be as competent in the casting of any spell as those of...
2024-06-28 19:35:31 +0000 UTC
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“Of all the Eidolon cults, few have a coherent internal philosophy. As though whoever were planting the seeds of these practices did not care enough to give the religion that they were founding all of its necessary components. The truth is much more efficient. By leaving gaps in the translations and texts, the originators of these outbreaks are helping their religion to take root by co-opting local practices and beliefs to fill in the blanks.”
—Starseeds: Corruption o...
2024-06-28 19:35:27 +0000 UTC
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“Born of a pyre ten thousand souls strong. When stars are right his home will die.
Hollow of heart; black hunger unending. Eater of light. Vanquishing kings.
Doom in hand; pour loose the sands of time. Ender of hope. Feller of storms.
Twinmaidens blood stains; on sorrowful soles. Fast claimed war’s domain. Glad of war. Glad of pain.
Beast eyes close for him. Vault’s gates open.
Starbreaker, thrice...
2024-06-28 19:35:21 +0000 UTC
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Hey everyone! So on the ride back from DragonCon I was left alone with my own thoughts for too long and had an Idea. Terrible thing to have happen to me.
Anyway I came up with this chapter and I'm looking for some impressions and feedback on the comedy and the landing of it all. Please let me know if anything just doesn't work with the tone, voice, silliness, anything!
***
Chapter 1
So traditionally there are a few different ways a story like mine starts.
<...
2023-09-07 13:34:40 +0000 UTC
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