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Message: <blockquote data-quote="seasong" data-source="post: 399399" data-attributes="member: 5137">One way to handle the rise of magic:AlchemyIn the year of the flowering, seven alchemists made astounding breakthroughs in the essential science. Choose a country and an alchemist (who will doubtless have a permanent place in court) who produced the first of each of the following:alchemist's fire (DC 20)smokestick (DC 20)tindertwig (DC 20)antitoxin (DC 25)sunrod (DC 25)tanglefoot bag (DC 25)thunderstone (DC 25)Thus, the Frankish knights could become known for their use of sunstones, while the Jews could make a veritable mint for their control over the antitoxin and/or tindertwig supply.Divine Spell CastersIt is shewn that for 1,000 years after the death of Jesus Christ, God hid His light from the world, that it might share in His sorrow, and the world wept in darkness, as the corrupt priests made mockery of His words and made an idol of the King's coinage an idol which they worshipped at.In the year of the flowering, however, God took back His concealing hand, and let His light shine through to the world again, in remembrance of the Resurrection and in forgiveness of the sins of man. The priests of flock and field, who stood among the people and thus suffered for their virtue beneath corrupt superiors, rose up as one and knew the Word of God, and from their mouths it did spill gloriously and miracles did abound.With the Word of God spilling from their lips as spoken sacraments, they rose up against their superiors and the common people with them, and bore God's wrath to the doors of the Church, and replaced all therein.Today the Church stands as it always has, but corruption has been replaced with purity; pride with humility; sinful greed with forgiving grace.In game terms, the priests with no rank, who dealt with the common peasant from day to day, became 1st level priests (and rapidly went up from there according to ability and experience). There were probably some faithful among the higher ranks, but generally speaking, the ones who made illicit deals with nobles to garner softer living for themselves gained no miracles and thus no way to prove the word of the peasant priests wrong.Which is not to say that the peasant priests were the only ones to gain any power at all. Plenty of ranked priests, faced with the potential wrath of God, turned coat and prayed to devils for deliverance... and gained foul miracles of their own.And, of course, your campaign may allow for older pantheons to have power! This won't change much in the above description because of the lack of faithful to gain power, but in the borderlands where pagans still dwell, wars may take on a different flavor...Arcane Spell Casters: WizardsAmong the faithful, there are always those rebellious-minded scholars who, burdened with a curiousity beyond their wisdom, seek to study those weighty tomes censored or oppressed by the Church. These darkly-inclined souls read the words of Egyptian mage-priests and the revelations given to foolish monks by fallen angels. They even, perhaps, try to recite some of those ancient passages.And in the year of the flowering, a number of them succeeded. The effects were small, and not felt for nearly a decade as they slowly increased their communications with one another. Such as they have always had links to one another to trade books in secret, but now those links became like steel chains, bound by harsh oaths and political need. Gradually, they increased their understanding and personal power, until they were able to begin influencing public opinion to accept them. Thus did the wizardly Cabal form and become unassailable in their might, ten years after the year of the flowering.In game terms, wizards started at 1st level and built themselves up before going public.Assumption: The flowering of the Church does not mean that God is "enlightened" about non-divine spell casters. If anything, God is probably pretty ruthless about stamping them out, particularly if the GM decides that arcane magic taps Lovecraftian "other dimensions" for its abilities.Arcane Spell Casters: SorcerorsI'm not sure how to handle this... maybe treat it as a sort of psychic awakening, like second sight. Sorcerors would probably be pretty underground, as both the Cabal and the Church would want their heads on platters.OthersRangers could be pretty easily meshed in. I personally wouldn't use Druids except as a possible "heathen" variant on the Cleric. Paladins would likely rise from the templar knights and other religious Orders, and would probably be part of the "God's Wrath" aspect of the divine flowering.</blockquote>

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