D&D 5E The Light of Civilization - A 5e Renaissance Story [OOC]

[pathfinderq1]

So at this point, we have a noble-ish sorceror, a Church paladin, and a duellist/courtier type (and probably a scholar) on one side, and a pirate cleric, a kobold rogue, and a dwarven battlerager/criminal type on the other side.

Anyone have any thoughts on how these folks might fit together?

At first guess, maybe the sorceror ends up 'leaving' the Guild Arcane for some reason (taking the scholar with her?) and falls in with the 'bad elements'- maybe they are hired to help her escape, maybe they try to kidnap her as 'easy pickings', but either way they end up with more than they bargained for and are drawn into the story.

At this point, the only one I'm having a hard time fitting in is the paladin. Maybe she has had a crucial vision, and is trying to stay true to her faith while working with these strange types... Maybe the Church is playing a very long game against the Guild Arcane, and it serves their purpose (or the purposes of one faction within the Church, and others disagree- openly or not)... Any ideas here?

>Maybe the Magdalena 'rescued' the sorceress from the Guild on the orders of her Church superiors, but cannot openly/publicly take her back to Church holdings (to maintain their plausible deniability)- instead those two (and possibly my scholar) are on the run, and have fallen in with a bad crowd (ie. everybody else). If so, where are we headed now?

Otherwise, at this point, I'm thinking if I go with the church librarian/scholar, she was a liason with the Guild Arcane (making sure they had approved books, acting as a scribe during studies, that sort of thing) and that she was present when the arcane sorceress was around. More to the point, it was exposure to some of the energies from the sorceror which have triggered the beginnings of her 'warlock-ness'.

If I go with that, she is going to be Bard 3 now, Bard 4 next, then start Warlock. She probably already has THE BOOK, and has begun to (occasionally) hear voices, but she hasn't gone Over The Edge yet... Either that or Bard 2, Warlock 1. Shall ruminate a bit.

If I go archer instead, she will be a mercenary, and probably initially linked with our criminal group...

 

[Jago]

*Is so content to just sit back and watch this awesome storytelling unfold*

 

[Shayuri]

Argh, my post died. I was commenting on how it was possible the Guild Arcane had magic items that were thought to be 'dead,' but that Arcata inadvertently awoke simply by being near them. For better or worse.

Probably worse.

 

[Thateous]

Well to be honest Federigo is no longer bad and has renounced his old ways. Same should be said for the rogue. To be honest if you guys were on the run and got caught up in an altercation while Federigo was around he would assist without question and then probably be forced to be on the run with you as well. That's the kind of guy he is.
[MENTION=6855130]Jago[/MENTION] let me know if you have any qualms about the ex pit fighter addition of the background. Federigo so far has been a pit fighter and a member of a professional thief ring.

 

[VLAD the Destroyer]

I had an idea of a cabal in the church which is actively using mages. They are training them some to use their power to influence the city states. Others to become rogue to keep the fear of mages and the arcane high. They've imbedded some of their mages into the guild and are using them to steer the guild. So they influence the guild by controlling the spell books and also have double agents imbedded in the guild to guild the mages in the wrong direction. Could be that Magdalena discovered this cabal and fled the church.

just a thought.

 

[Shayuri]

Percolation ensues.

Suppose this faction within the Guild Arcane is associated with the 'lets use mages' faction within the Church. The Church has these people who secretly aid and abet the Guild in its quest to obtain and use magic...with the understanding that said magic will be at the Church's disposal.

This begs the question, why doesn't the Church have it's own dang magic?

Well, good question. Suppose the Church, as an organization, takes a rather dim view of faith-based magic that its most devout priests are sometimes capable of? Running a vast social-political beast like the Church after all requires compromises, and those compromises could preclude the clarity of faith and purpose that divine magic requires.

Suppose clerical magic is perhaps quietly discouraged as a sign of 'fanaticism' or dangerous radicalism? Suppose the Church of the Maker and the FAITH of the Maker are subtly, but importantly, different things?

Hence the paladin's quandry. The crisis that propels her into this sordid game.

 

[Jago]

By The Maker you folks are awesome.

[MENTION=6814006]Thateous[/MENTION], I'm sold on the Pit Fighter background, I like this a lot. Very cool stuff and also gives the idea that there are like underground fights (or even like a Coliseum somewhere) throughout D'Argenta, which is really cool.

Vlad and Shayuri, I like this, excellent work you two. If we want to take from history, this is basically the Council of Nicea: you had a huge sitdown between all the different religious factions and they all agreed to form together under one church, one creed, but that Creed had to be something everyone could accept, and since Magic was still a very touchy subject it had to go.

So the idea of a faction that is not happy with this compromise and is secretly working with the Guild Arcane to loophole this to death is quite awesome, I like it.

 

[Shayuri]

Well, and bear in mind too that if the Church's official hierarchy and structure is uncomfortable with faith magic, because it comes with conditions that aren't always realpolitik, they still have to demonstrate the power of the Maker, yes?

Arcane magic, arcane miracles, offer the power to wow the masses with none of the potentially sticky wickets that inviting those of uncompromising faith into the inner circle brings.

It has uses you see.

 

[Thateous]

Woah Shayuri. The events and subterfuge you're describing is the kind of thing that makes vengeful angels come knocking.

Sent from my SM-G935P using Tapatalk

 

[Jago]

Seems like we got most of our character ideas down at least: I'm going to create the Cast List in a bit and hopefully we'll be able to get started sometime next week. I'd normally do the weekend, but this one is quite full up for me.


And a small aside: thank you to all of you for being so contributing and involved in this process. It's really going to set a great tone for the game, I feel, to have something we build and expand on together. I know it's a bit of extra work on the player side, but you're all being ace about this and I definitely appreciate the excitement and ideas that are going on here. Class Acts, the lot of you.