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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8679578" data-attributes="member: 6790260">The Old Kingdom books by Garth Nix.It has classes (though technically they're more like clans): the Wallmakers, the Clayr, the Abhorsen family, the royal family, regular necromancers, regular charter mages, etc. It has an extant (though not very explicitly-defined) magic system, one which permits the creation of magic items including both temporary consumables and permanent enchanted objects, based on the use of special symbols. It has (in-story) bestiaries and complex classifications of both dead/necromatic beings and "free magic elemental"-type beings, which require certain specific actions to defeat or contain. There are even familiars (called "sendings" IIRC) and ritual magic effects. The bells absolutely feel like they share a lot in common with spell levels, though with a more "maneuver"-like twist (particularly the techniques that require ringing two bells at once.)Then, from a narrative perspective, it absolutely reads like a good piece of fiction based off of a couple of campaigns. The weird gymnastics required for Lirael to be Sabriel's half-sister, for example, look a lot like a DM's post-hoc retcon to bring together an old campaign and a new one. Both stories have a clear "final boss" (Kerrigor for the first book, for example) and involve both NPC allies and PCs (Touchstone, Sabriel, and Mogget for the first group; Lirael, Sameth, the Disreputable Dog, and Mogget for the second group.) Some of the swerves absolutely have a smell of "DM improvising wildly as she goes," like the Disreputable Dog's appearance in Lirael.The Old Kingdom is by far the most D&D-like fiction I've ever read. It helps that the stories are also quite good.</blockquote>

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