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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Jack7" data-source="post: 5684282" data-attributes="member: 54707">In my setting there are actually two  worlds.   After the overthrow of the last anti-Pope and the  expulsion of the Dragoons (the old Anti-Paladin Guards of the Anti-Pope) the  Roman Church moved the papacy back to Rome.    Underneath the old cemetery near Vatican Hill is a  series of ancient catacombs that the Christians had made use of until Rome  became Christian. Into those catacombs crept the MagnaCulta. The main "school"  of magic in our world (according to my setting anyway).   There is no real magic in our world (Earth) in my  setting. But on Ghantik, the other world, magic is common, though extremely  dangerous. On that world is a dispute over whether magic is too dangerous to  continue to use. Some want to adopt a substitute for magic, others to retain  magic as it is, or even to expand the use of it.    Some dissidents who want to retain magic as it is  have formed a Cabal to conduct dangerous experiments to create unique monsters  (that humans call Chimera) that they hope will encourage others to use magic to  combat. (Some of these creatures can only effectively be defeated or killed by  magic - and if the cabal can show a need for magic to fight foreign invaders and  these new monsters - which they themselves secretly created - then they think  they can persuade their rulers and the populace alike to retain  magic.)   To further their aims they created monsters and  sent them into our world (the human world), to ravage human  populations (most people know nothing of this other world) and  they have also come into out world to use their magic to loose plagues upon men  and to cause earthquakes and other natural disasters. Their main target is the  Byzantine Empire because the Orthodox Church and the Emperor have learned of the  other world and even sent a human team to explore this other world.   This human team, the Basilegate,  representing both the Church and the Empire have made allies among the local  peoples (who are Elves, Giants, Dwarves, etc.) and are encouraging them to give  up magic as a way of life. Many of the leaders of these people are seriously  considering the idea, hence the pro-magic cabal now sees all humans as a  danger.   This cabal of dangerous Warlocks and Sorcerers  have sent teams into our world to recruit humans who desire to learn magic (real  magic) and after training them they use these humans as their agents in our  world. These Ghantikan magicians tried to establish a magical base of operations  in Constantinople, but their base there was discovered and eventually  destroyed.   Instead the Ghantikan magicians made contact with  the remnants of the old Dragoons and the Anti-Pope in exile and using them  established a secret base of operations and a magical School to teach humans who  wish to become powerful Warlocks and Sorcerers. In exchange the human Warlocks  and Sorcerers go back to their homelands throughout Europe and parts of North  Africa and Asia Minor and establish their own secret cabals and also  occasionally do work for the Ghantikan Magicians.   Both the surviving and the new Dragoons (the  anti-Paladins) now sometimes act as bodyguards for the Warlocks and Sorcerers,  human and non-human, though they also still dream of overthrowing the Pope,  re-establishing the Anti-Pope, and killing off the surviving Paladins (now left  only in France and Constantinople), Cavaliers (now only in Italy and Germany),  and Rangers (scattered throughout Europe, North Africa, and Asia Minor). Some of  the dragoons have now also studied magic under the Ghantikan Warlocks and have  become powerful users of magic in their own right. Some have even created  Chimeras from creatures native to our world.   The main base and "School" for these Warlocks and  Sorcerers is in the old catacombs underneath Vatican Hill, which are now   protected from detection by enchantments. The  Ghantikan Magicians, Human Sorcerers, and Warlocks among the Dragoons have taken  the old Christian catacombs and turned them into an occult and  dangerous training ground, laboratory for their Chimercial and magical  experiments, and into a prison in which they imprison and torture humans they  have captured.    They also use their Base/School as a place from  which to spy upon the humans, and to "curse them" with magical disasters and  plagues. There is a second such secret Base/School at Ravenna, where the  anti-Pope hides in secret.   Both of these "Academies" (although the term is a  loose one) are called MagnaCulta by the humans, or Jhilkãdwř  (the Base) by the Ghantikan Magicians. There is the MagnaCulta Vatica, and the  MagnaCulta Ravenna.    Both are extremely dangerous places, well guarded,  and well concealed.   Humans are so far unaware of the existence of  these places, though the Roman Church suspects that such agents are at work in  the world and have formed their own specialist Team (like the Byzantine  Basilegate) called the Curae, whose job it is to  discover and if possible destroy such other-worldy magical cabals.</blockquote>

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