Saturday, 15 July 2023

Hex Crawl 23 General Lore 6: Magic of the Urig Lands

 

Magic

Wizardry is taught in organized academies, using the papyri and tablets of a spell lexicon that dates back with few changes to the age of Silver. Scholar-wizards are rigidly controlled by the state, being levied to assist in public works, espionage, and much-needed support for the direly decayed armies in the field.

Warlocks gain their power from an elaborate hierarchy of demons, using rites and incantations passed down in certain families of the nobility and civil service. They are seen as a disruptive element that pragmatically would cost more to root out than to ignore. Their excuse, if caught, is that the demons they consort with are more benign than the true destructive powers of Chaos.

Sorcerers are in danger of being burned alive once their powers manifest. Those who survive this gauntlet escape to the fringes of the vassal states and lead a lonely and precarious existence.

Druids are a tradition of folk in the wild and marginal places. Known as sand-speakers, they are valued for aiding crops and keeping sand and drought at bay. Their preferred beasts and plants are native to the desert. They do not follow a religion, but simply are very attuned to the natural world.

Bards draw their powers from the laughing dwarf-god Bes, who lived when his contemporary gods died because he was beneath the notice of Fate. Bards are most likely to be constitutionally short in stature: ayotochin, gnomes, human little people, or Yagan dwarves. They sing, rhythmically chant, and play percussion instruments such as drums or sistrums. Jesters and entertainers with a good grasp of psychology and lore, they form a tacit league against a society that is just as prone to laugh at them as with them.

Religion

See articles on traditional, Setho-Mitraic and Odausian .faiths

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