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So I've spent the better part of today typing this up. It's REALLY long, so I don't expect a large amount of responses (if any, really), but I'd like to get some soundboard going on here for it. Spoilering everything to make this post not stupid long. I apologize for poor readability. I can't help but stop typing a sentence mid-word to go back and add to an old one or start a new one further down the page; I always get some hangers I forget to go back to.
Bonus points if you get all the references and connections that I made. And there's a lot. Seriously. Just do a Google search on each name.
The Council of Nine are the nine most prestigous wizards within the realm. As a group, they act as advisors to multiple noble houses (including kings and queens), run the Tashgar Collge, and control the balance of magic across the world. Individually, they might offer their services to anyone who can afford it (or they are willing to trade favors for), spend time teaching (both in and out of the college) and researching.
Though they are considered archmages and the best of their time, the Nine are usually very specialized. This shows considerably when comparing the council members' abilities outside of their school - it is usually only on par with a much weaker mage (though this is not always true). The exception to this is the Universalist seat, which must be held by someone who displays outstanding prowess in all fields (though this wizard is still weaker in each school than those who specialize). Each school of magic has its own place within the council, and it is forbidden to break this rule - each school must be equally represented.
Every 5 years, there is a competition that tests any wizard who volunteers to show off his abilities (though they can only apply for one school per competition). It takes one week, known as the Haze, followed by the Grand Challenge. The first few rounds of this are arbitrary tests that any wizard of worthwhile power could succeed, designed to weed out those without enough experience. After this, the trials turn competitive, and the participants are pited against each other in contests of their specialty. Sometimes these matches are lethal, though not particularly often.
Once only 5 are left of each school, each are given a chance to show why they think they deserve the seat. This is usually a spell they created themselves or a particularly mastered version of an existing spell. Regardless of choice, the 5 are compared and only the top 2 are considered for the postion. At this point, the council member himself must make an appearance and prove his skills in 3-way challenge. The Grand Challenge does not take place at the site of the Haze. The challenge is created using the essence of each school as critera, and as such, each Grand Challenge is different for each group of participants. The judges announce the challenge only once it begins.
The Grand Challenge is not something that can be necessarily watched - usually, spectators learn the results through word of mouth or the written documents that the judges release every day of the challenge, detailing how the challenge is progressing. The challenge might include: for diviners, to learn a secret from one of the judges (much more difficult than it sounds); for enchanters, to strike a truce between a kingdom and one of its enemies; for conjurers, to somehow gain command over a particularly powerful outsider. These challenges are changed each year, though they are sometimes reused.
The Grand Challenge can last for days, weeks, or even months, depending on the difficultly of the task and the opponent's attempts to sabotage each other. Despite this, some of them have ended in mere seconds, due to a particularly skilled mage's abilities (decades ago, Pynthia immediately won, having divined that her job would be to locate and retrieve an item that was loaded with anti-scrying spells and presenting the judges with it as soon as they announced it).
The competition has become a source of upper class betting, usually watched from a series of crystal balls than can be purchased from the college.
The competition is judged by a group of celestial beings - the Aspects Three. They are Lore (who maintains the Library of Tashgar), Province (who helps the Nine protect the Fracture), and Prospect (who is the main judge of the competition and also designs the challenges). These three entities are emissaries of the God of Magic.
The competition comes with a set of rules pertaining to spells used during it: any spell, even if it is created by an individual, has its effects immediately transcribed and cataloged. While the specifics of how the spell was done is left unknown, it usually takes little time for the wizards of the college and the Nine to reverse engineer it and recreate it. Some notable exceptions, such as Astoroth's spell that merged Ixis, have been had copies made many times, with all manner of wizards attempting to recreate it. None have succeeded yet, though, and so these spells might never be used again.
The Library of Tashgar is set within the college (which is itself set over the Fracture). It houses all of the knowledge of basic to advanced to legendary wizardry that exists to most of the arcane practitioners.
Makelo [Female Half-elf Abjurer]
Very "stalwart" personality
Depends only on herself and her magic but is very confident in both
Aside from Skuld, spends more time than the rest on continuing to hone her craft
Makelo is a very strong minded individual, fitting for her school of specialization. She believes that the force of one's will is a more direct factor in abjuration magic than experience in casting, and as such, she usually focuses on pupils who have the ability to steel their minds more than others.
In her training, students are taught to maintain their physical body, unlike most wizards who neglect their health. As such, many of the more promising ones dabble in transmutation magic to reinforce themselves.
Makelo keeps such a sturdy focus on these due growing from a family of illness, having watched all of her siblings, her parents, and her offspring die off from a naturally occurring sickness. She, through her own determination and her affinity for learning magic, was able to fend it off, though not indefinitely; Pythia has predicted she will eventually die because of it, though the abjurer intends to break that prophecy.
"Maybe you've heard the question of what happens when an unstoppable force meats an immovable object. I'll let you know when I find an unstoppable force."
- Makelo, to a king's court
Prospero [Male Human Conjurer]
Yearned for companionship/acknowledgement of self after growing up in solitude
Focused on conjuration for obvious reasons
Has 2 familiars (Caliban [Imp] and Ariel [Sprite])
Enjoys mentoring, spends most time doing so
A very sociable man, Prospero enjoys conversations and unimportant topics. Just as soon as he would spend weeks buried in his research and teaching his students, he would sit around, idly chatting with friends about just about anything. He craves attention and though he accepts it within himself, he is afraid of losing the respect and admiration of others. Prospero and Astoroth are the only two wizards in the council who have a true friendship. The conjurer treasures this friendship above all else.
Prospero's familiars, Caliban and Ariel, are rarely with him. His bond with them is so strong that he is able to send them off to do errands for him. Both of them, as a group and individually, have represented him during meetings.
Prospero has spent much of his time communicating with outsiders, and it is the contracts he negotiated that allow quite a few of monsters be summoned from the conjuration spells. While he has not spent a lot of time on this recently, the conjurer still ensures to contact representatives of each kind and maintain a strong relationship between the mages and the monsters.
"Ah, so you have brought friends with you. We think alike, you and I."
- Prospero, being ambushed by assassins
Pythia [Female Human Diviner]
Known as The Vista
Has a natural desire for information
Spends most of her time in the Library, talking with Lore and rereading the books
Pythia is the epitome of foresight. She is always many steps ahead of those around her, sometimes even having experiencing it already. She has an insatiable need to record everything and has developed and cast a permanent spell on herself that instantaneously converts her thoughts and visions into written form (a quill that never needs ink writes on on parchment that scrolls at the needed pace).
She does not hoard her knowledge, though - the information she discovers is almost always cut into a book and placed within the Library. Indeed, she contributes more than any of the other Nine. She only witholds information when it is potentially dangerous or is irrelevant, though she has still kept the secret of Ambriose Diggs.
Pythia cares intensely for Lore, the aspect that watches over the Library, and has expressed interest in becoming an aspect once she is ready to shed her mortal coil.
The diviner has only twice ever regretted learning something: when she learned Skuld's past, which was filled with such monstrosities and indescribable horrors that she spent the better part of a week quite sick initially; the second was when Lore finally gave her a glance at his view of the world, despite his repeated claims of her not being prepared. In this second event, she was granted his vision for one day, though she could not remove it before the day was up. Before the end of it, she had been forced to blind herself with a dagger, unable deal with the sight of a godly aspect. She has had her vision restored, but she left the scars that surround her eyes where she had maniacally stabbed her eyes. Many believe the scars were left to remind herself not to look too far, but in reality, she keeps them only as a remembrance of what she will become when she becomes an aspect.
"There are those who don't think diviners have the insight they claim. This room has mostly evokers and transmuters who believe that. Fun fact of this speech, most of them seem to like the color green and are currently looking down at their clothes to see if they're wearing it."
- Pythia, during an introductory speech to new students at the Tashgar College
Ambriose Diggs [Male Halfling Enchanter]
Also Oscar Zoroaster, Illusionist of the Nine
Friendly, charming, outgoing, very personable (though oddly does not get along with Prospero [who secretly finds Diggs's natural charisma threatening])
Has negotiated a very high number of treaties and truces between warring kingdoms (rumored to have ended a 10 year long war after a week of involvement)
Ambriose Diggs was not born a halfling. Nor was he born at all. Oscar Zoroaster, in a test against himself, created the persona to try to fool the entire council. He knew he risked his own seat permanently for the attempt at deception, but he viewed it as a honest desire to further magical knowledge.
He spent years perfecting the character and giving him life, coming up with clever ways of handling being in two places at once (including some spells he created). It wasn't until he felt entirely comfortable in the illusion that Diggs made an appearance. Instead of immediately entering The Haze (which he would be a finalist, at the very least), he put Diggs at the entry level of Tashgar College and went through years of studying enchantment magic, even dedicating himself to appearing to learn the basics.
An entire decade passed and Oscar was able to keep up this facade, developing even better techniques, and finally, the would-be halfling entered The Haze. He did quite well and got to the Grand Challenge. At the start of this, Pythia sought Oscar out and informed him that she knew what was going on. He pleaded with her to allow him to finish his experiment. She almost turned him in, but Oscar did something no council member had ever done: allowed the Diviner full access to his mind, telling her she would not be disappointed.
Pythia, who could not resist the chance to find out what untold wonders could lie within the brain of a gnome illusionist, tentatively agreed, on the condition that if he was doing this for personal gain, she would report him. What she saw there confused her, though. She learned that Oscar, using a combination of enchantment and illusion magics on himself, had cracked his mind in two, allowing both Diggs and his actual self to share the gnome's body. The two minds regarded each other as brothers and the closest of friends but were otherwise independent. Both were aware of what had been done, but neither cared.
Seeing the devotion that Oscar had to furthering his illusions, Pythia had no choice but to allow him to continue. Diggs went on to upseat the previous Enchanter.
"I don't know, have you ever thought that maybe people just like me? I mean, after all, I -am- a halfling. It's sort of our thing, isn't it?"
- Ambriose Diggs, to Prospero
Ixis Naugus [(Male) Humanoid Evoker]
Three people, fused into one being that has the qualities of an elf, orc, and human
Each of the three were masters of evocation: a wizard, sorcerer, and wizard (respectively)
Using Astoroth's help, were able to combine into one being and succeeded the previous archmage using their combined powers
Very standoff-ish and confrontational
Ixis, due to the nature of his being, is a very complication man. Though, to call him a man is not entirely accurate, as the elf fused within him was female and her voice, along with the voices of the orc and human, are apparent when he speaks. He does not particarly care for the purpose of the council, he fights for the seat more as proof of his superiority of in his craft.
Par for the course for him, Ixis has an open challenge to any evoker who thinks they can best him: if they can beat him in a test of evocation, he will give away his seat. There is some speculation as to whether or not he has the authority to do this, but he has never been beaten, so the issue has never come up. Though they cannot be council members, Ixis extends his call to any caster, from sorcerers to clerics to druids to test their mettle against him, promising riches and magical items in return. These duels of his lead to death for the other side about a quarter of the time.
"I applaud your courage, and I am grateful for your challenge, but I feel so very bad for you at the same time."
- Ixis Naugus, after a challenger had approached him
Oscar Zoroaster [Male Gnome Illusionist]
Also Ambriose Diggs, the Enchanter of the Nine (see his entry)
Thinks the Tashgar College creates a dullness in wizards, though he teaches there and graduated from it
Occasionally conspires with Pythia about ways of getting certain votes through the council
Oscar Zoroaster is a brilliant trickster, having deceived even the majority of the Nine (all but Pythia) with both his magic and his pure cleverness. He grew bored, as a child, from ripping off his peers and even elders, with basic cons and devoted himself to the study of magic as a way to further the capabilities of his trickery. It was then he found the deep love for illusion magic and its potential uses for pranks.
He then joined the college and flew through the ranks, outwitting those around him. He participated in The Haze once, though he fell out right before the Grand Challenge. The next time it came around, Oscar blew everyone else away, winning his seat before any of the other schools had finished. He then once again grew bored of his capabilities and set out to create Diggs. Currently, that has kept him interested enough that he hasn't chased down some new idea.
"Too many wizards think that everything has to be done with magic. I tell you now, if you take one thing away from me as a professor, remember this: magic is not the only source of trickery. An illusion of a wall is not as good as an actual wall. You need to use what already exists and what you can create without magic first. The spells come after, when the illusion has already been built, to make it into an even grander trick."
- Oscar Zoroaster, during a lecture
Skuld [Male Human Necromancer]
Known as The First - it is rumored that he is the first lich to ever have existed (making him centuries and centuries old), though if he is even a lich has not been proven
Has no qualms going to any means necessary to further his research
Part of the original council, has never been upseated
Spends all of his time studying - rarely seen (only takes no more than 3 personal pupils, many of which turn up dead for unknown reasons)
Skuld is a dark man with an even darker history. However, the details of his past before the council's creation have been forgotten by most. Astoroth, who is only one of the Nine to rival his age and experience, and Pythia, who spent many years researching it, are the only two wo have any clue who Skuld is (or used to be), and the transmuter is only willing to hint at it, though it is always with a dreadful shiver, with Pythia hiding the information for Skuld's sake, whom she believes has changed.
The necromancer usually attends meetings by a proxy spell and has even held his seat against the Grand Challenge in the same way. He dislikes the council but understands its necessity and also enjoys the research benefits of having access to the Library. Many a time, he has been accused of participating in evil activities, though he has always been able to shrug off any real evidence.
"How fortunate for you to approach. Subject count is low."
- Skuld, being attacked by a group of religious crusaders
Astoroth [Male Elf Transmuter]
Part of the original council, lost his seat only once, which was regained 10 years later (when he merged Ixis)
Tends to change his form pretty common, though always appearing with a signature wide brim hat
Always comfortable in any setting and even with things are dire, tends to take everything in stride
Astoroth is a happy fellow who enjoys puzzles and riddles. He almost always has a story for anyone to listen. He and Prospero are the only two of the Nine who have a genuine friendship that is not based around their position as council members.
Before the creation of the council, Astoroth spent most of his time learning about other sources of magic and trying to copy their effects into his own branch. His favorite time was spent learning from the druids, in which, during his long hours of study, he would give the animals in the forests human-like characteristics and enjoy their company. He has since taking a liking to this, and usually can be seen with some exotic creature who has been gifted the ability to speak, among other things.
Though it is not confirmed (as Astoroth only gives a subtle smile and a knowing wink on the matter), it is suspected that familiars (most notably ravens) that speak Common are somehow Astoroth's doing.
He approached the three that became Ixis, during a fight that might have left none of them standing, after his relatively brief upseating, and offered a way for all of them to attain the seat they so desperately wanted.
"I believe we should cut out early today. I hear a teacup calling my name. No, really - I just remembered I left him in the drawer. He hates it when I do that. Class dismissed."
- Astoroth, in the middle of a lecture
Myrddin Wyllt [Male Elf Universalist]
Though he gives off the appearance of madness, is quite clever and is valued as an fellow member amongst the council
Entered the Fracture (a crack in the universe, is the source of all arcane magic in the realm)
Refers to himself in third person
Myrddin Wyllt was a brilliant and very promising wizard long ago. He was one of the first students at Tashgar College, and his extraordinary mind couldn't attach itself to just one subject. So, he studied them all.
Despite his tireless work, constantly learning as much as he could about every aspect of magic (becoming a pupil to both Astoroth and Skuld at differing times), he never found himself ever straying from his desire for wizardry. It was only until he first achieved the height of Council of Nine (at the young age [in terms of humans] of 27) that he was told of the Fracture. He immediately dedicated himself to unlocking all of its mysteries.
However, after a decade of dedicated research and experiments, he found he could neither replicate nor even identify the cause of the Fracture. In a final attempt in which he was willing to die, with a completely sound mind, he entered the Fracture.
Before him, only one mortal had done so, a paladin of a long forgotten god, and he had never returned. Myrddin, however, emerged seconds later. He had aged over four decades in those few moments and had obviously lost a part of his mind. While his brilliance was, if anything, improved, his being was forever altered, sporting large glowing scars all over his body and a broken personality.
The two of the Nine present at the time, Astoroth and Skuld, have very differing reactions to this. The former, who has tried (with Myrddin's permission) numerous times to fix his now misshapen body with his masterful transmutation magic, looks at Myrddin with a sadness; Skuld simply can't wait for him to die, wanting his body for research.
"Too many wizards, weak mages, can't get through The Haze for a specialty, poor them, because of some brighter, more clever person-people bests them in wits. Then they think they can just take Myrddin's seat away from him. Myrddin sees them thinking, thinking of Universal magics as a fall back. It is fun, to go to the Grand Challenge, for Myrddin, because of this. Wipes those silly smirks right off of those poor wizards' faces."
- Myrddin Wyllt, to Astoroth
I am currently GMing a Kingmaker campaign, leaving it in Golarion, and I am doing as much as I can to not need to change much from the AP, so I doubt it will show up.
I had the idea for the council in the middle of a session. In that campaign, which was set in my world, the players had ended up doing jobs for a green dragon (I had a version of The Game going on). I also had a loose system in place where true dragons had the ability to "grant" dragonhood. It amounted to being gifted points from dragons and being able to spend those points on draconic features, ranging from claws to a breath weapon to wings. They also had run into contact with a phoenix known as the Flame of the East, who was very influential and powerful. Someone asked a stray question about other powerful beings, since they had come into direct contact with the like within 3 levels, and I just rattled off some stuff after some Knowledge checks. This was one of them.
The overview above pretty much says everything that I had in store. It was just a basic construction of the concept. If the players interacted with it, then I would have come up with stuff, but really, that's all I got. I like the idea, partially because I like wizards and partially because I think you could have all sorts of fun with those characters, but I am not sure when, if ever, I might get to try it out.
Of course, since I posted on these forums, anyone is welcome to steal any of the ideas.
My group has trouble meeting. All of us are in college and have jobs.
I actually don't GM most of the time, one of my friends does. We had a campaign in his world that was pretty much our "main" campaign, and my little thing was just a distraction from that so my friend could take a break from GMing. Eventually, we hit a stint when we couldn't play for like a month or so, and when we finally could get back together, everyone wanted to play in his, so we swapped back. Just haven't done anything with it since then.
I'd make Caliban Prospero's half-orc cohort instead of Imp familiar.
I actually considered that (and though I was not set on half-orc, it was in my top 3), but I decided I liked the idea of the conjurer having two familiars, since it was unique, and it fit the terminology (though maybe not the concept) of Shakespeare.
While I never touched a single detail of it, I had planned that holding one of these seats would grant special abilities to the wizard, from the Aspects Three/God of Magic (whoever he might be). It wouldn't be game changing, but the ability to have two familiars seems about on par with what I was thinking.
Definitely a good suggestion, though. It would be an easy change, if I ever actually use this.
I actually came up with a similar idea, but in more of an urban fantasy/modern day setting. I had a plot revolving around the remnants of the broken council rather than an active one, and it was a lot less friendly than the collage faculty feel I'm getting from yours, but I'm not entirely sure what you are hoping to do with your council. Was this purely to expand your world, or were you considering creating some epic adventures based around it? How far do you want to go?
I really like it, but I recommend identifying something the Council of Nine stands against, or actually has to confront semi-regularly (such as proteans attempting to crack open the Fracture, possibly destroying the universe, or inevitables trying to seal it up, removing all magic from the universe).
This was more a thought experiment than anything.
I -have- given it some thought as to why the potent abilities of the council would be called upon. After all, a large group of mages of their caliber surely wouldn't spend all their time teaching and playing diplomat.
I had some passing thoughts of an evil god who disliked the power mortals gained with arcane magic wanting to seal it away and sending his followers to constantly try to do so, so your inevitables thing is similar to that. However, I didn't feel this was a big enough challenge. I feel like something as powerful as the council would need to be attacked from all sides to really put stress on it.
I think I'd wrap all sorts of things around them, wanting their removal:
The cult mentioned above.
The other arcane spellcasters seek equality, forming their own organization(s) and directly calling for a dismantling of the council, allowance to the seats, or even opening up full mage warfare.
Spellplagues show up (or have already existed) in great numbers and despite their best efforts, the council cannot help it. The kings and their people want some change, probably in the only way they know how - a change in power.
The Fracture suddenly begins to pulse sometimes, causing all arcane magic to disappear for random lengths of time (ranging from seconds to days). During this time, even the council is powerless.
----
Anyway, yeah, if I were to use this extensively, it would almost need its own campaign to do it justice. That stuff can always run in the background, but it's hard to bring to life something as intricate as this while not reaching information overload.
A great cast of characters, excellent intrigues, mysteries and plothooks. Very nice, Vendis!
I appreciate the feedback, guys.
I thought of a few more interesting events that could directly be used for the party's participation:
Ixis's form unexpectedly splits back into the original three (whom I should get around to picking names for). The previous spell Astoroth used no longer works. He can develop a new one, but the party must retrieve a special component - that is, if they want Ixis back in his seat (especially after the offers from other wizards or defeated challengers who don't wish to see Ixis rise back to power).
A particularly savvy merchant who deals directly with the college discovers Digg's true identity. He begins to blackmail Oscar, who is unable to bring himself to silence a leak. Oscar's altered behavior leads the party to learning of the secret and the merchant, allowing them to intervene on either side.
Skuld wishes to research creating a soul. He has learned that a soul shatters its shell when the body dies, allowing only the true core of it to pass on to other realms. Skuld believes he has found a way to collect these soul fragments that it leaves behind and work them into a new soul. However, to do it, the party will need to collect these fragments as they adventure using a special magical device he has created. In this time, others learn of the device (maybe not even its actual properties, but at least that The First gave it to them would be enough to stir interest), and the party must deal with them - though it is not always in the form of ambushes or thievery: some tell them they are helping him create an evil object, others say that it is THEIR souls that are being collected, and even some go as far as to say that the fragments being collected are the way that Skuld lives for so long.
The party must decide who to side with, protect or destroy the object, and somehow hope to come out of it on the right side.
That last one would be one of those side quests that last for the whole game, I'd imagine, but it wouldn't have to.