
Samnell |
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I've been thinking about Carrion Crown set in an alternate, late Enlightenment/Early Romantic Ustalav where the default, dominant magic system is psychic. Divine magic is believed in by the populace, but not something you could go down to the local heal-o-matic to pick up. The age of miracles was great and wondrous, but since the Whispering Tyrant was put away that age has ended. Arcane magic is considered synonymous with necromancy and almost completely proscribed. Maybe you have to do some seriously evil stuff to get access. It's fine for the Whispering Way or anybody else that wants to sacrifice a few virgins, but otherwise verboten. Maybe the secrets of the Esoteric Order of the Palatine Eye include some functional divine magic, if the party earn their trust.
Generally magic available to the PCs would be limited to the psychic magic classes and psychic-using archetypes of others, except for Alchemist (because Alchemy is Science!) and witchcraft (which is technically not ok by the church or local law, but friendly neighborhood witches have enough presence in remote communities to get a pass as long as they behave). Heavily playing up Pharasma as the state religion too, though not to the point of making the world monotheistic.
IC, Alchemy is a modern, secular, practical discipline you learn at university. It's Natural Philosophy and has a somewhat (and increasingly) tense relationship with traditionalists in the church. Some proponents are religious skeptics. Psychic magic may also be that a little, but has a more esoteric air and a somewhat closer relationship with the Pharasmin church. It's Enlightened Philosophy, which includes theology. Practitioners may tend more deistic. Stuff involving spirits would fit into a conceptual niche kind of like ghostbusting and harmless divination. Witchcraft would be conceptualized mostly as superstition, with practicing witches often presenting themselves as anti-witch experts or and fortune tellers.
The flavor sounds neat to me and it looks like the party would still have access to healing and most of the usual. Am I missing anything?