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So you want to be a Charter Mage?
Feb. 15th, 2012 06:06 pmconstantly in progress
So you want to be awizard Charter Mage
What your character will gain
The power to use Charter Magic in the Old Kingdom- Here's a brief explanation.
Ties to the Old Kingdom- Even though the Charter Magic only works in the Old Kingdom, the mark doesn't go away when you leave it. There's a reason Charter Mages, even those originally from Ancelstierre, don't like going too far south from the Wall, into a land where there is no magic at all. Also, your characters will be seen as 'citizens' of the Old Kingdom to a certain extent. Those who draw their power from the Charter are expected to aid it. (In other words, please be willing to have your character spend more than a token amount of time in the Old Kingdom)
Ability to sense some types of magic- And nasty, dark/chaotic/evil magic will make your character physically ill. Same goes for broken Charter Stones. Charter magic itself is described as feeling like warmth and sunshine, and Free Magic is described as hot, caustic, smelling like hot-metal, and making Charter Magic hard to cast. This sense of magic will start out vague, and characters will have to work to develop it.
A mark on their forehead- It will glow when touched, and if the person doing the touching is also a Charter Mage, they'll feel the Charter through the mark- this gets used frequently in the Old Kingdom to confirm that yes, an individual is a real human being.
Tasty blood- even outside of the Old Kingdom, the power of the Charter stays in the blood of Charter Mages. Not as strongly as the Great Charter bloodlines, but enough to be noticeable, and nourishing to supernatural entities that feed off of such things- in canon, this means Dead and Free Magic entities, but in other worlds? It could be vampires, or something else. And outside of the Old Kingdom, your characters won't be able to draw on the Charter to protect themselves.
Possibly, the ability to use other forms of magic if they couldn't before. You'll have to get permission separately for this, but Sabriel is willing to teach them any magic she knows that isn't Free Magic/Necromancy.
What your character will not gain
A death-sense, or the ability to enter Death- Sabriel has these abilities because she's part of the Abhorsen bloodline, and her blood is literally one of the five cornerstones of the Charter, and thus, in addition to considerably more magical power than ordinary Charter Mages, she has certain special abilities related to Death.
A lot of power-right away, at least. Your character is gaining the ability to cast Charter Spells, not knowledge of them. Characters are going to have to start with basic stuff, and learning more will take a while. Attempting Charter Magic that's too advanced or powerful or that characters don't understand fully can have nasty consequences- like leaving a character's throat burned so they couldn't vocally cast magic for weeks after using a powerful mark, and it's stated that the mage in question was lucky it wasn't far worse, to spells going dangerously out of control, to stuff blowing up or fizzling out.
Charter Magic takes time and practice- Sabriel will probably only teach your characters basic spells, like the marks for light and warmth, three marks that let the mage record sound and are placed on an object to let other Charter Mages replay the recording, and the marks of fire, cleansing, peace, and sleep that make up an instant cremation spell called the 'final rites' that all Charter Mages are expected to know. But she's not going to have time to teach your character everything she knows- that would take years, after all. And there are some things Charter Magic just isn't able to do- teleportation, unaided flight (They use Paperwings instead), and what Harry Potter characters would call 'Transfiguration', for a few examples, do not seem to be possible with Charter Magic. (There is one exception to the transfiguration rule, but even if you do want to do a plot where your character learns about Charter skins and finds the book that explains them, learning how to make them takes at least a year and a half, even for someone who had already spent a few years learning magic.)
Tell me what you want your character to learn to do, and I'll tell you if I think it's possible/realistic- Charter Magic can do a lot of cool things, and I'm excited to involve it in this game.
Also note that if your character is is a robot/undead/a spirit/some other variety of supernatural entity, they most likely won't be able to become a Charter Mage, and if your character becomes one of the above, its likely that they'll lose their Charter Mark. (And pretty much guaranteed if your character becomes undead/a ghost.)
So you want to be a
What your character will gain
The power to use Charter Magic in the Old Kingdom- Here's a brief explanation.
Ties to the Old Kingdom- Even though the Charter Magic only works in the Old Kingdom, the mark doesn't go away when you leave it. There's a reason Charter Mages, even those originally from Ancelstierre, don't like going too far south from the Wall, into a land where there is no magic at all. Also, your characters will be seen as 'citizens' of the Old Kingdom to a certain extent. Those who draw their power from the Charter are expected to aid it. (In other words, please be willing to have your character spend more than a token amount of time in the Old Kingdom)
Ability to sense some types of magic- And nasty, dark/chaotic/evil magic will make your character physically ill. Same goes for broken Charter Stones. Charter magic itself is described as feeling like warmth and sunshine, and Free Magic is described as hot, caustic, smelling like hot-metal, and making Charter Magic hard to cast. This sense of magic will start out vague, and characters will have to work to develop it.
A mark on their forehead- It will glow when touched, and if the person doing the touching is also a Charter Mage, they'll feel the Charter through the mark- this gets used frequently in the Old Kingdom to confirm that yes, an individual is a real human being.
Tasty blood- even outside of the Old Kingdom, the power of the Charter stays in the blood of Charter Mages. Not as strongly as the Great Charter bloodlines, but enough to be noticeable, and nourishing to supernatural entities that feed off of such things- in canon, this means Dead and Free Magic entities, but in other worlds? It could be vampires, or something else. And outside of the Old Kingdom, your characters won't be able to draw on the Charter to protect themselves.
Possibly, the ability to use other forms of magic if they couldn't before. You'll have to get permission separately for this, but Sabriel is willing to teach them any magic she knows that isn't Free Magic/Necromancy.
What your character will not gain
A death-sense, or the ability to enter Death- Sabriel has these abilities because she's part of the Abhorsen bloodline, and her blood is literally one of the five cornerstones of the Charter, and thus, in addition to considerably more magical power than ordinary Charter Mages, she has certain special abilities related to Death.
A lot of power-right away, at least. Your character is gaining the ability to cast Charter Spells, not knowledge of them. Characters are going to have to start with basic stuff, and learning more will take a while. Attempting Charter Magic that's too advanced or powerful or that characters don't understand fully can have nasty consequences- like leaving a character's throat burned so they couldn't vocally cast magic for weeks after using a powerful mark, and it's stated that the mage in question was lucky it wasn't far worse, to spells going dangerously out of control, to stuff blowing up or fizzling out.
Charter Magic takes time and practice- Sabriel will probably only teach your characters basic spells, like the marks for light and warmth, three marks that let the mage record sound and are placed on an object to let other Charter Mages replay the recording, and the marks of fire, cleansing, peace, and sleep that make up an instant cremation spell called the 'final rites' that all Charter Mages are expected to know. But she's not going to have time to teach your character everything she knows- that would take years, after all. And there are some things Charter Magic just isn't able to do- teleportation, unaided flight (They use Paperwings instead), and what Harry Potter characters would call 'Transfiguration', for a few examples, do not seem to be possible with Charter Magic. (There is one exception to the transfiguration rule, but even if you do want to do a plot where your character learns about Charter skins and finds the book that explains them, learning how to make them takes at least a year and a half, even for someone who had already spent a few years learning magic.)
Tell me what you want your character to learn to do, and I'll tell you if I think it's possible/realistic- Charter Magic can do a lot of cool things, and I'm excited to involve it in this game.
Also note that if your character is is a robot/undead/a spirit/some other variety of supernatural entity, they most likely won't be able to become a Charter Mage, and if your character becomes one of the above, its likely that they'll lose their Charter Mark. (And pretty much guaranteed if your character becomes undead/a ghost.)
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