Thursday, May 11, 2023

6 Wizard-Kings (for the same setting)

Thinking about Cosmic's wizardposting here, inspired me to do some worldbuilding via wizard. Here's the format:

Domain - The places they ruled over, and the mark they left on them.
Army - The factions (read: organized groups of people who will do violence to you) left over from their conquests. Inspired by this Arnold post.
Castle - A dungeon! :>
Monster - The ones they made.
Spell - The ones they invented.

Berserk

1. Mad Knight Narn, Heaven-Eater, The Red Sun, Wolf-That-Kills-Lions
A samurai-cowboy-wizard from the Land of Ashen Rain, although he predates the titular black squalls. Widely credited with inventing gunpowder by pulling it out of his giant hat. Put the angels to the sword, leaving the world without psychopomps. Survived by a vast collection of apocalyptic poetry.
Domain - The Orbiter Courts--pretty much the entire civilized world--but never all at the same time. Our shared language is the mark of Red Sun occupation.
Army - The Red Sun Knights, so named because they allegedly never stopped marching long enough to clean their armor. Full plate and flintlocks. They dot the landscape and fight each other (mostly) in a grand tournament for Narn's title. Once they've sorted that out, they'll set about conquering the world again.
Castle - Fort Drakkengard. It lumbers across the world, aimless without its master. Held by the Black Sun Knights, a heretic offshoot who saw Narn stand on the surface of the sun and hit it with a sword.
Monster - The Annihilating Sphere
Spell - Conjure Rifle (Loaded); Comet Strike

2. Simurgh, Lion-Breaker, Mockingstar Mayura, The Old King of Gold
One of the smallest giants at a mere 11'6". Most famous for stealing the sun from the sky, then putting it back like a benevolent god. Widely credited with kicking off the wizard space race, then abruptly ending it (which is why so many wizard towers are full of rocket fuel).
Domain - North Apolyon and Nemea. There, she is depicted in solstice plays as a cruel tyrant with a dish on his head. Nemean currency (the most widespread, albeit non-universal) is counted in simurghs.
Army - The Knights of the Peacock. Impractical and imperious, with brilliant blue sabers and sidearms that issue cerulean smoke. They've rallied around a House of royal vermin, reduced in size and status but royals nonetheless.
Castle - The Ash Palace, a thousand-thousand tons of marble and lapis lazuli caught like a kite in the branches of an enormous tree.
Monster - Phoenix Rays, the Orphemes, the Glass Ooze (she was, among other things, an aesthete)
Spell - Simurgh's Shadow (a moving Darkness that swallows all the senses, inflicts light sensitivity)

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3. Thoraxximos, Ur-Lich, Lord-Cantor, The Unspeakable Corpus
Rose to prominence after an era-defining plague as an advocate for the undead right to a sovereign state. Became a martyr, came back a few days later as the first Lich and founded their own necropolis. Later brought back the dinosaurs, by accident.
Domain - The Six Necropolises, or the Free States of the Twice Arisen. Many elaborate funerary customs were invented to placate the States (and enrich tomb-robbers).
Army - The Grey Maidens, skeletons with flower crowns and man-catchers. They rove about, liberating corpses from tombs and skeletons from sleeping travelers. Currently led by Greyad Mirianna, a pacifist and civic engineer, although not all Greys follow her principles.
Castle - Cantor's Cradle, a hanging gardens rising from a lifeless morass. (The Grey Maidens despise tombs.) Deeper than it is tall.
Monster - Catoblepas, the Atropal
Spell - True Message (as message, but instantaneous and over any distance; only lesser versions exist)

4. The Carmine General, The Centipede Lord, Koagni the Interminable
The most hated man in history. All of his descendants are tainted by his pairing with the Iron God; their blood and bones are black, and they grow horns in late childhood. Carved a path from Akadia to Lost Ilmar to take their princess, although historians assert that torture was his only love. Had sex with a volcano (?????)
Domain - Everything west of the mountains. Obvious remnants of his dominion have been purged, but the symbol association between power and centipedes remains.
Army - Black Knights. Almost all of them are Carmines. They struggle to organize without being targeted by greater authorities, and thus rove about as single hedge-knights. Some of them ride motorcycles.
Castle - The Tomb-City of Shakuay, with its rivers of mercury and cannibal kings. When Koagni lived, it was called Capital City; on the day of his funeral, everything within a mile radius was spontaneously inhumed in exchange for his resurrection.
Monster - Burning Sycophants, Skeleton Wheels, the Machina Ethikos
Spell - Circle of Flame, Bloodbrand (you may track the target over any distance, forever, by scent, and vice versa), Blood to Ants

Disco Elysium

5. Wizard-King of The Line, Geometrist Supreme, Talib
The first of the Philosophers, or The Last Great Thinker. Popularized the practice of headbinding among wizards, to elongate the brain and align one's neurons. Invented the space-folding techniques of Cath Celdaenn (City of Cities, Seat of Last Empire).
Domain - Ancient Gnosc. Idolized by academics the world over.
Army - The Mason Knights, a secret society of academics and other nerdy types. High-ranking members wear lead-lined robes, carry sickles, and know heavy ordnance secrets. Their secret agendas often put them into conflict with one another (two Mason Knights are always less dangerous than one).
Castle - The Line, an unbroken fort which extends from True North to True South, bisecting the world. Manned by a hundred Toll Kings, mastered by none.
Monster - The Gnomen (he dabbled in eugenics), Right Angles, the Manosphere
Spell - Monologue (fire a continuous screaming laser from your forehead), Gate

6. The Witch of El, She-Who-Is-Yet-To-Laugh, The Fox
A shapechanger from Far Flung Lands. Conquered a kingdom by replacing half its ruling caste with her clones (she eventually lost track of who was and was not a clone). A legendary gourmand, credited with hunting the dragons to extinction. Hated by other wizards for ruining teleport (the word "witch" was invented to separate her legacy from their own).
Domain - Ilmar, the Interstitial Kingdom, and its sister state of Eyoch. She is remembered by a rich history of twinned architecture and secret tattoo art.
Army - The Limpids, encased in perfect clear glass like amber. They travel alone and weep at the humanity of it all while writing poetry on a bed of rose petals. They oppose Black Knights wherever they can be found.
Castle - The Throne of Shivered Sight, which cannot be seen from any angle but behind. Mostly obliterated by shivered space in a series of territorial wars.
Monster - Mercurians, Arrowflies, The Thing Between Things
Spell - Fork Causality

1 comment:

  1. *clapping and cheering and shitting and seeing into forever and CASTING SPELLS*

    ReplyDelete