Closed [The Bronze Woods] Meeting The Master

[Michael Kyber]

76th Winter, 516AV When he'd received a letter from the Syliran Knights informing him that he had been accepted as a squire, and that he was to move into the squire's barracks and then report to his new patron immediately, Michael had been thrilled. How could he not be after all, it showed that the order thought he had what it took to make a good knight. However when he'd moved into the barracks he'd found a note waiting for him written by his new patron, named Thazz Mortmer, who'd told him to come and meet him in the outskirts of the bronze woods. Though puzzled as to what possible reason there could be for meeting in the woods of all places, Michael nonetheless complied with his patrons orders and set out immediately. Which is why he now found himself trekking through the underbrush towards the meeting point. Compared to Faylndar the forests in Sylira were a lot easier to travel through and inhabited by less dangerous creatures, however Michael still kept himself alert for any signs of nearby danger. Just because they weren't as dangerous as Faylndar didn't mean the bronze woods were safe for him to travel through, as he was now an ordinary wolf still had a good chance at killing him. At last Michael reached the area that he'd been told to come to, a large cave by a fairly flat clearing of trees, and to his surprise found a small campsite. There was one very large tent by the mouth of the cave, and then littered around the clearing was a number bits of camping equipment such as a washing line, a campfire and even a large rack with strips of what seemed to be deer meat laid out across it. "Well well well, who have we here?" Michael whipped round at the sound of a voice. Emerging from the trees was a literal giant of a man, at least seven foot by his reckoning, with a heavy muscular frame that looked strong enough to punch through a tree. His appearance was quite shaggy, though oddly clean, with brown hair bound into thin dreadlocks and a black goatee. He wore a full set of Syliran Knight plate armor, which was again suspiciously well cleaned and polished, underneath a large, heavy looking coat made of brown bear fur, and strapped to a belt by his side was a plain but sharp looking double sided axe. Thazz : "You must be Michael." He shot him a large, heartfelt grin that instantly set aside any intimidation Michael had felt about his huge size. His presence was strong, no doubt about that, but in an approachable, earthy way that made Michael feel like he could relax when around him, as if he was standing in a sturdy building that you knew wouldn't fall down around you. "Welcome to my humble abode. I hope you like camping, 'cause you're going to be out here a lot." "You live here?" Michael asked, clear surprise on his face. "What, not what you were expecting from a wizard?" Thazz replied, guiding Michael over to a pair of tree stumps by the campfire and sitting down on one of them. "Did you think all wizards were thin little pencils of men who locked themselves up in stuff laboratories all day?" Michael looked away in embarrassment. That actually was exactly what he'd thought wizards were like. Noticing this Thazz broke out into a deep chuckle. "Well I guess most wizards are like that, but not me. There's no way I could stand to walked around in the same cramped castle like Stormhold all day. I mean all those people in such a small space, and the smell..." he wrinkled his nose in disgust, "no thanks, I'm not about that. Too many mages these days get so worked up about the formulas and the scientific methods of magic these days that they forget on simple truth." Michael eyed him curiously. "And what truth is that?" "That magic is life." Thazz replied with emphasis. "Tell me Michael, what do you know about magic so far? The recruitment office told me that your knowledge is very limited." "Well, I know that living things contain a power called Djed inside them. Though practice and will one can use that Djed to achieve certain effects, such as conjuring fireballs or extending the senses." Thazz didn't say anything when Michael stopped talking, seeming to wait for Michael to continue speaking. When he didn't though Thazz made a gesture for him to continue. "And?" "And that's it." "Nothing about something called overgiving? Or world magic?" "I don't know what you're talking about." Thazz grimaced as if he'd swallowed something sour. "Good gods! Where did you pick up what you do know about magic? And tell me you've not been practicing very much on your own!" "A poor traveler told me about djed and inducted me into Reimancy as payment after we found him stowing away on our ship." Michael lied. "The other three forms I learn from reading a book in the Zeltiva university. But I've never really practiced beyond reading the basic theory and making a few small effects myself. The traveler warned me that it'd be dangerous to do so." "Well he's right" Thazz scowled, a flash of anger flaring in his eyes. "What the hell was he thinking teaching you so little! Was he trying to get you killed! Gods what a jackass!" "Was it really that bad?" "Yes, it's that bad!" Thazz replied instantly, obvious worry in his tone. "Magic is not just something you teach to a passing kid for trinkets! It's dangerous! That was unbelievably irresponsible of him! If you'd ignored his warning and tried for bigger effects you could have turned yourself insane!" Thazz took a few deep breaths, obviously calming himself, then stood up and began pacing around the campfire. "Alright, since it's come to this then I'm going to have to start teaching you about magic here and now. However before we do that I need you to promise me something." "Sure, what is it?" Michael replied, eager to get started learning. "Well like I said magic is very dangerous, so until I've judged that you're good enough to use it responsibly I don't want you to use magic at all when I'm not around unless your life is literally at stake. You don't know enough to realize when you're at your limits with magic just yet, so no training yourself without me around to tell you, okay?" Deciding that it sounded fair enough, Michael nodded. "I promise." "Good, then let me give you an introduction to magic." Thazz sat down again, picking a stone up from the ground and showing it to Michael. "Now as you know, you contain a power called Djed within your body. But here's the thing, Djed isn't just in your body, it's everywhere. It's in the foot you eat, the ground beneath your feet, the buildings you make. You see Djed isn't just power; it's identity. This stone has the djed of a stone, which simultaneously gives it the property's of every other stone and yet sets it apart from them. It is hard because the djed inside it says it is hard, and can't be set on fire because the djed says that it isn't flammable." "Now livings things; trees, animals and especially us sentient races, have a much higher amount of djed within us. Now djed can never be created or destroyed, however through natural events djed can be transferred or change forms. With the proper application of will a magician can make djed move or change forms, and with that can create the effects that we know as magic. The best example is to think about how Reimancy works; the magician bids the djed inside them leave their system in the form of Res, and once outside them will it to transform into water djed and thus create water. "Now there a number of different branches of magic which all work by having djed move and change in a certain way, however we magicians like to classify them into three types based upon how they work. The first type is called personal magic, which encompasses the four branches or magic you are already familiar with. This magic works by having the caster draw out the djed inside them and focus it onto certain effects, such as conjuring a fireball or changing their body. As a mage-squire this'll be the type of magic you'll probably see the most, as the speed and effects of this magic often gear them towards combat in either a direct or supportive role. However don't forget that the djed you're spending isn't merely some energy source, it's a part of your and your very identity. If you spend to much of your own djed a phenomenon we wizards call overgiving occurs, in which without enough djed to maintain it a persons body and mind becomes dangerously unstable, turning them mad and sometimes leading to other terrible effects happening subconsciously." "Hold on, you mean casting magic can turn me literally insane!" Michael cried, horrified by the knowledge that he'd been risking his own sanity with his own earlier practices into magic. Thazz gave him a solem nod. "That's right I'm afraid. That's one of the reasons why normal people are generally so suspicious of wizards and magic. Behind each and every wizard lies a potential madman, and a madman who could create fire at will is definitely something to be scared of." He gave Michael a pointed look. "You see why I had you take that promise now? To many wizards like yourself forget just how important djed is to them in the pursuit of power, and once you've given more than who have to safely offer there's no going back." he guestured to the forest around them. "That's another reason why I like to live out here in the woods. Being around so much life reminds you that djed isn't just some energy to be tested and charted like those deadbeats on Sahova think, it's a aprt of life itself and aught to be respected as such. "So if personal magic is about using the djed within yourself, how do the other two types of magic work?" Michael asked. "Well the second type, world magic, is so named because instead of using your own djed the magician uses a combination of their will and knowledge of scientific effects to change the djed of the world around them into other forms. Have you ever heard stories of magical swords that talk or blaze with fire? Well that's a good example of world magic. Once upon a time a wizard would have taken a normal sword and used their will and magical procedures to change the djed within the sword and grant it new power. Through different studies and procedures a world magician can transform the world around them in incredible new ways. Now this often takes a great deal of time and resources, so this is the type you'll see in laboratories, but you might see a product of this type of magic on the battlefield. " "I see," Michael replied, "And since they're using the djed of the world around them instead of their own then they're not at risk of over giving. It's safer!" "Safer?" Thazz laughed. "Ha, not even close! Using djed is never safe Michael. Let's say the magician trying to make a flaming sword gets the process a little wrong, and all the fire djed it should be coating itself with instead builds up inside. What happens when their's too much djed to handle do you think?" "Um... it explodes?" "Oh yeah it explodes! And what do you think happens to the wizard when a blast of raw fire djed hits him? Third degree burns if he's lucky, and total incineration if he's not." "So it's dangerous if it goes wrong?" "Yep, but it's also dangerous if it goes right. See unlike personal magic the flaming sword the wizards created isn't a part of him, it is it's own separate entity. What happens if a bandit steals the sword and uses it to massacre an entire village? What happens when the wizard hates his creation for the pain its wrought in the hands of a bad person, but discovers that their own creation is too powerful for them to destroy? World magic requires a responsibility of a different kind, but one that's equally as important." Michael nodded grimly. "I see. So if personal magic takes djed from yourself, and world magic from the world around you then what's left for the third type to draw from?" "Nice observation." Thazz grinned. "Well if you think abut it there's only one thing left to draw from; the heavens. As I'm sure you know there's a whole lotta gods out there, and each one embody's a set of ideals, concepts or even tangible things that people will worship them for. What you probably don't know if that when the gods find someone who also embodies and respects the things they stand for they tend to like those people, and so reward them with marks they call 'gnosis'. While no-one's quite sure how these marks work it's clear that the mark grant the marked person a link to the god who bestowed it, and grants them some of that gods divine power to call upon. For example a mark from the goddess of healing might allow you to heal the wounds or other illnesses of others." "Now a person can be marked by a number of different gods, and can even recieve multiple marks from one god to increase the amount of divine power they recieve from them. Generally speaking one mark signifies that the god likes that person, two marks signifies they have a vested interest in them, and three marks means the person is fully devoted to them and is effectively the agent of their will on the world. Some say a god can even mark someone a fourth time, making them their prophet on earth and the very embodiment of their will, but I can't say I've ever seen truth to this rumor myself." "But I take it that there's some downsides to being marked, like the other two forms, right?" Michael asked. "Well yes, though it really depends on which god gives the mark." Thazz sighed. "For starters a mark from a god means that god is now watching you, and if they find that you aren't using that mark in the way they wanted you to or have strayed from what attracted them to you in the first place they may just remove it. Worse still they may give you a negative mark, a power that instead of aiding you in life curses you and makes it more difficult. Just like a positive mark these negative marks can stack up and make your life a living hell, so don't go getting gon the wrong side of any gods. If you have three marks from one particular god they can shield you from the negative marks of others gods, but again they'll be expecting full devotion to them from you in return. He removed the vambrace on his arm, revealing a mark shaped like a silver shield. "We Syliran Knights offer our worship to a number of gods, but chief among them is Sylir, god of peace and civilization. Our order was first built on the tenants of the original Sylir, who was sadly slain by our orders arch nemesis, the god of lies and evil Rhysol, but now the son of the old Sylir has ascended to godhood and taken his place, and once you're ready to become a knight he too will bless you with his mark and watch over you throughout whatever dangers lay ahead." The talk of gnosis' reminded Michael of something Rahn had said to him long ago when he'd first found and recruited him to lord Uldr's cause. He'd showed him a blood red mark shaped like a tear on his chest and told him that it was a sign that marked someone as a member of The Returned and as Uldr's chosen. So that was the gnosis mark of Uldr then? What did it do? Rahn had said that Uldr couldn't mark him yet as one of them as it would jeopardize his mission, but one day the time would come and lord Uldr would welcome him as his chosen with open arms. "Anyway, that's all I need to tell you about the theory of magic for now." Thazz said with a grin, standing up again and walking off into the trees. "Now how about we do some fun stuff and go practice some actual magic. There's a whole lot to be doing, and not enough time to be doing it." "Yes sir!" Michael replied, following his new patron off into the trees.

[Michael Kyber]

After a short journey through the woods Thazz brought Michael to a small stream with a flat clearing by its bank. There were a few bits of rope, buckets and other camping equipment scattered around the place, signs that Thazz was using this area for his own camping needs, but more noticeable were the strange, jagged pieces of rock jutting out the ground nearby that seemed so out of place with the relatively level area around them. "This is where I train myself in Reimancy..." Thazz began, patting one of the rock spikes with pride as he passed by it. "And where I'll be training you. I saw on your application form that you can perform water based reimancy and shielding, both of which I can teach you, though I'm afraid you'll have to learn flux and auristics for yourself. Well... by yourself when I'm around to supervise you anyway. Now show me what you can do." Michael cupped his hands together, building up a pool of res in his hands and willing it to transform into water. As his command the res changed form, pooling up in his hands until it bordered on overflowing. Michael poured the water into the stream, then turned to look at Thazz expectantly. Thazz nodded. "Not bad for a beginner. However did you know that instead of straight out creating water, res can be used far more efficiently by attracting water from nearby. You'll need a nearby source of course, but it takes a lot less djed to attract than it does to create, so if there's water around you'll be able to cast more spells than you normally would before you endanger yourself. That's why for the sake of training you'll be practicing by this stream whenever possible." He held out his hand toward the stream, from which a jet of water burst out of and rushed to his palm, forming a floating sphere of water. With a flick of his wrist Thazz sent the ball of water shooting into a tree across the stream like a bullet. "Now you try." Thazz said, gesturing to the stream with an inspiring grin. Michael walked up to the water until it lapped at the tips of his feet, then extended his hand and formed a small ball of res just over his palm. He willed water to come to the res above his hand, and as if it had heard him a thin jet of water leaped up from the stream and gathered itself into a ball where his res was. Unlike Thazz's ball Michael's wasn't as perfectly round, in fact it looked more like a potato than a ball, but the fact that he had still managed to attract the water in the first place gave Michael a surge of pride. That pride didn't last very long though, as when he tried to shoot it at the tree the ball barely made it an arms-width before it plopped back into the stream. Thazz gave a hearty chuckle then slapped him on the back hard enough to make stars flicker in the corner of Michael's vision. "Don't worry 'bout that kiddo, that's about as far as I'd expected you'd get it at your level.". He made a flicking motion with his finger, and at his command a smooth slab on rock about the height of a stool rose out of the ground, which Thazz then sat down on. "Let's get down to your first bit of training then. I want you to keep drawing water up and shooting it as far as you can until you're able to hit the tree like I did." "Yes Ser."Michael replied, shooting a glance at the total distance to the target tree. While it wouldn't be considered far away by archery terms, compared to his earlier shot Michael had a feeling he was going to be here for a long time.

[Michael Kyber]

A couple of chimes later

With each shot he took, Michael's water bullet flew a little further. Eventually he had been able to clear the stream and hit the target tree, and continued to work on on increasing his accuracy and the power behind then shot.

It was just after he'd formed another water ball, this one far smoother than his first attempt, and shot it at the tree with enough force to cause a small dent, that Thazz without warning shouted "Stop!" It wasn't that Thazz had been particularly loud, but the commanding tone of it was so out of place from his usual jovial tone that it made Michael jump as if stung.

"What is it? Have I done something wrong?" He asked.

"Oh no kiddo, on the contrary. You've done fantastically for a first lesson." Thazz replied, switching back to his usual carefree tone. "It's simply that you've done enough for today. It's time to take a break."

"Thank you for your concern master, but I honest don't need a break." Michael countered. It was the truth, while he was a little bit tired he could easily keep going for about another chime or so, and he really was enjoying casting magic. Each shot only took a very small amount of res to cast, and as such each shot barely took enough out of him for him to notice. If he kept going he might be able to put enough force behind his shots to start splintering the wood he was shooting.

Thazz shot him a look of both understanding and slight disappointment. "And that's why I had you promise to never use magic without my express permission. You may feel like you can keep going, but that's only because you haven't gotten a feel for how much djed you have to give. You may feel like you can keep going, but you're approaching the threshold now where the djed you spend will take a toll on your mind as you use it. In the future your djed reserves will increase and you'll come to recognize when you're near your limit, but for now you must stop when I tell you to. Is that clear?"

Michael flushed with embarrassment as he realized that he was going against the promise he'd made only moments ago. "I'm so sorry master. Forgive me, it won't happen again."

But Thazz waved it off with a carefree shrug of his massive shoulders. "Ah it's all right. You're young and eager to learn, I can respect that. We'll get back to training later today, but first we need to replenish some of you djed. Remember what I said about living things holding more djed earlier? Well the good news is that the best way to replenish your djed is to have a nice hearty meal and a rest while your body absorbes the djed from what you eat into itself." He stood up from his rock seat and started heading back to the campsite. "Let's go. I've got some lovely strips of venison nice and ready for cooking on the fire."

-

After a meal and a few chimes' rest, Thazz led Michael back down to the stream. By now the sun had set and the moon rode high in the sky, casting a silvery light upon the forest, and Michael reveled in the slight chill in the nights air.

"That spell you cast earlier is the simplest type of spell a Reimancer has in his arsenal; a bolt." Thazz explained, taking a seat on his boulder again. "Bolts are nothing more than a straightforward shot with an element or paraelement... that's an element such as ice or lightning made by fusing two or more elements together by the way... but because of their simplicity and cost effectiveness tend to be the most commonly used spell for Reimancers in combat. You'll find that with practice that little water bolt of yours can be shot with increased power and accuracy, and increasing the size for a more damaging effect is child's play once you have the technique and focus down. However relying on bolts alone wont help you to beat an opponent with a good amount of skill, you need to use some creativity! And to do that there's something else you need."

Thazz closed his eyes as if in thought, and from the stream a jet of water rushed towards him again. It formed into another floating ball of water in front of him again, however just as it finished a number of other water jets sprung from the stream towards him and formed themselves into even more balls of water, which slowly floated around him like asteroids around a planet. Without warning Thazz suddenly opened his eyes, fixing the target tree with a glare, and in response the water balls zipped off towards it like a gattling gun, smashing hole after hole into the tree in rapid succession.

"That spell is called Rain of Water Bolts, but it's often called Raining Bolts for short. It has the advantage of maintaining each bolts respective power whilst making it far harder for the opponent to track, block or avoid them. However using it at this level requires you to be able to split you focus many times over between the different bolts, which is not easy at all let me tell you. Go take a seat by the stream and form a ball of water, but instead of firing it keep it floating just in front of you. Then when you're ready form another ball of water without loosing your focus on the first one. Once you're able to hold two balls form a third, and so on and so forth until I tell you to stop okay?"

"Yes Ser." Michael replied, sitting down cross legged by the stream and doing his best to empty his mind. Once again he formed a ball of res before him, which attracted water from the stream to itself and made a smooth ball. As he tried to make another ball though his attention drifted from the first one, and almost immediately the water ball fell apart and splashed back down into the stream.

"Here I go again." Michael thought to himself, preparing for another long session of concentrating.

[Michael Kyber]

It was midnight by the time that Thazz once again interrupted Michael's focus with an order to stop. Though he hadn't has as much res within him to spend as before simply levitating the water balls without shooting them was a lot less taxing, and as such he'd managed to get a few good hours of training in.

Maintaining multiple bolts had taken a great deal of concentration to pull off; it was like trying to get each hand to write a separate letter at the same time. However eventually Michael had been able to maintain two separate, though very shaky, balls at once as long as there was total silence. After maintaining them for a while he'd gradually gotten more comfortable with the divided focus, and slowly but surely the balls had taken smother and smother forms until they were almost as good as his single focused bolts. Feeling confident in himself Michael had started experimenting with moving them around in the air, and was able to get them both to orbit him at equal speeds to each other.

Splitting his focus a third time was again difficult, but not quite as difficult as splitting it twice had been. He was able to maintain three balls at once rather unstably when Thazz interrupted, but learning from his earlier mistake Michael didn't say a word about wanting to keep going.

This of course didn't go unnoticed by Thazz. Shooting him a pointed but amused look as Michael silently followed him back to camp, the bear-mage chuckled in his ridiculously deep baritone. "Congratulations. I guess the most important lesson about magic has just sunken in."

"What would that be master?" Michael replied, genuinely curios to know.

Thazz smiled. "That a wizard should always be cool."

Michael's only reply was a confused look, which only served to make Thazz break out into a chuckle once more. "A warrior may get swept up in the heat of the battle and give in to his instincts, but a mage must always keep a calm head. You need focus to control your magic, and awareness to know your limits. Even if things aren't going your way you don't shout or scream, you take a breath, calm down, and then think things through logically. As long as you do that... well, you can never go wrong."

"Now enough of that," Thazz pushed through a clearing, welcoming them back to his camp site. "Let's get some sleep. At sunrise tomorrow we'll have you back on your feet and up and at it again."

[Samuel Longwell]

Grading Complete Please edit your grade request thread so that it's obvious that it's been graded. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions/problems with your grade. Name: Michael XP Award: Observation 3 Socialisation 5 Reimancy 2 Wilderness Survival: Forest 1 Meditation 2 Lore: Thazz Mortimer: Patron Magic is Life Magic: Dangerous Magic: Djed is everywhere Personal magic: Drawing upon your own djed The dangers of overgiving World magic: Changing the djed around you Gnosis: Drawing power from the divine Religion: Sylir Reimancy: Attracting elements Firing a water bolt Para-elements: Combining elements Firing multiple bolts at once to overwhelm opponents Magic: Splitting focus Rewards: Shield Points: +4 Training +1 Thread with Patron Notes: This was an incredibly detailed thread, and would have been worth 5 reimancy XP for sure if you had roleplayed at your level. If you read the grading guide, you'll see that if you're roleplaying at or above your skill level (which is all the time if you're a novice) then there should be signs of overgiving. We have spoken about this since you wrote this thread, so hopefully you can avoid this in the future. Just a note on post length, your first one is huge. It probably would have been best to cut that into two. Typically posts are in the region of 300-1000 words, your first one is nearly 3000. Being able to write that amount is great, but it makes it easier on the graders if the posts are a little shorter (It also will generally mean you get more XP as no more than 1XP is usually given per post)