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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Psion" data-source="post: 1860831" data-attributes="member: 172">I worry very much about magic traditions and how they fit in. More for the divine than arcane, though. Arcane magic tends to be more insular and isolated to intitutions of learning and power, whereas divine tends to be very much a populist pursuit.I do tend to make arcane magic an important force in the political landscape as well. Arcane magic concentrates more power in the laps of fewer people, and no government can persist for long without either being run by or having the sympathy or approval of mages.To this end, the two planar cities I am making for my River or Worlds game both feature arcane magic groups as governing forces. The so-called Jeweled City (which I was thinking about stealing Sharn for) is ruled by a council of hedonistic Jewel Mages who entrap subjects in their gems and the most potent permanently attach their psyches to gems.The other, the more rough and transitory Dragonwatch Harbor is protected under the watch of the Dragon Mages, who are actually waning in power, and teaching their art to more initiates in order to draw more wealth. This city has a more even balance of power, with the planar Combine of merchants being an important power block. The Dragon-Mages (who emulate dragons in that their magical power is drawn from valuable things, i.e., treasure) have a reputation as marauders, which has led to covert action by the combine to remove the more dangerous members (many of whom are still at large.)As for divine casters, it seems to me that Clerics represent some common underpinnings that could represent some commonalities in the fluff behind their religion. I use Priests from AEG's Good because Clerics seem too specific too me. What I would like to do is make up some fundamental religious groupings with strong backstory to describe by Priests, Druids, Shamans, and Favored Souls (and possibly others, like healers) are all different, but that is something I am still working on.When I speak of different underpinnings, I am speaking of more that different deities. It's obvious to me that Clerics of vastly different deities have similar training. Why are they all trained in armor? Yeah, I could vary it, but it would be more satisfying to me if I could make an in game explanation that would, for example, put (my versions of deities like) Kord and Wee Jas and Nerull and Pelor in the same family of deities and explain why all their clergy have similarities in tradition despite their differences in philosophy.</blockquote>

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