One of the original Elventi was the High Elventi known as BlenderofSixElements. Actually at the time, he was StarsFallingAcrossTheMoonastheSnowFalls. All the Elventi knew a bit of magic, the manipulating of cosmic flows to effect the world. He who would become BlenderofSixElements spent the the time to experiment and contemplate the elemental forces of Arth. He creates the rules and functions of magic as it is known in the Known World and taught it to the other Elventi.

The teaching of magic is normally linear, one teacher to one student. That teacher’s preferences colors not only which students they would teach, but which mystical skills they would emphasize. Thus "bloodlines" of mages were created. One could tell who one’s mentor (and who his mentor and mentor’s mentor was) by their attitudes and skills. Given the immortality of the High Elventi, many bloodlines came from the prime source. It is from the "pure bloodline", a "recent" student of BlenderofSixElements, ImpatientShaperofTreesWhoCastsRatherThanShapes (an Elventi who changed professions radically) that Humanti magic came from.

The Magic Guild is one of the first Humanti Guilds, one of the first organizations that crossed clan bloodlines. They began to adapt what they had been taught to the "human time". "Caster" as they came to call him, eventually came back and taught the Humanti more completely, allowing the council to become the first Wizards.

Since magic was innate to so many parts of Elventi culture, magic was one of the avenues of uplifting/ civilizing Humanti. They learned the basic truths of language, mathematics, the nature of the universe, religion, and the flow of cosmic forces.

All six elements in their manifest and higher form were initially taught. The Humans would tamper with things on a small scale using thigns of the fifth (light and dark). This created imbalances that needed to be addressed. After a particularly bad wave of weather caused by Human miscasting, the Elves, realizing their mistake, threatened to kill off all Humans - even though they were Imperial Citizens. A compromise in court was immediately implimented. They left Lumenos (light and dark) to the prayersmiths (those who follow The True Gods of Arth), who might invoke a spirit to work any effect. The other elements were allowed to be touched by all SpellSmiths.

To give you more system

Magic is skill based. Each element’s aspect (there is one to three per element), is its own skill. If you have a small number of skill system, break it down to the elements, if you play GURPS each spell is a skill, if you play Hero, each is its own power set. Apply as it is best fit.

For those who have not read an Arth Post, like the Gods

Fire (Fire, Motion)
Earth (Earth, Mind Control)
Air   (Air, Perception)
Water (Water, Healing)
Light (Not allowed)
Darkness (Meta Magics only)

Each spell is empowered by Mana, a personal magical endurance/ power of your spirit/ metaphysical constitution. Thus spellcrafters can cast a variety of spells a day. They can only cast a short number of spells at a time, though they might recover power during the day. Figure 12-16 points of mana, recovering one point per hour, each spell taking 1-3 mana to cast.

Each spell has matching Cards in the Arthian Tarot Deck. In fact, the Cards are used as training tool in this system of magic. So never play poker with a spellcrafter.

Now the Philosphy behind this spell system is the same as the underlying system of philosophy for everything in The Known World. So if you learn "magical theory", you learn logic, rhetoric, mathematics, and science. This is simple to the Greeks learning The Four Elements and how they were "tied in" to other areas of schooling.

An architect is not a mere builder. While experience with all the trades that create a structure is a part of his expertise, he does not do the manual work. He conceives the idea of a building, and makes it material. The architect is to be concerned firstly with the construction. This encompasses all the practical matters of site, of materials and their limitations, and that of human capability. The second concern is "articulation"; the building must work and must please and suit the needs of those who use it. The third concern of the architect is aesthetics, both of proportion and of ornament.

The Society
The Brotherhood is something between an exclusive gentleman’s club, and a secret society; only true architects are allowed, the membership is therefore small. In a given town, unless it is very large, there won’t be more than a handful of architects, or even one. Meetings will be held in rented places or in private rooms rather than specially devoted locales.

The main goal is the sharing of the valuable knowledge on art and building. Of course there are also more ‘esoteric’ or moral aspects, as advancing the truth, or uplifting the human condition, but those are really in the background, given serious thought by only a few members. Foremost is but the mastery of the craft, and preservation of the secrets of construction.

More valuable than arcane can be local knowledge. A new architect in town can expect useful information from his peers, like customs that are best not broken, and the right people to speak with.

Particularly the relations to local groups can be difficult. Once organized in some way, the workers tend to demand ever more pay and try to do less work, the suppliers to save their expenses, and some customers are just unmanageable. Knowing authority figures that are reasonable and willing to help (or can be bought in the worst case) saves plenty of time and money. The groups range from smaller or larger construction crews, up to officially recognized Guilds as the Society of Brick-Brothers. The question of quality is similarly important.

The Ring
The mark of membership is a simple ring, it slightly varies across the kingdoms, but a compass and a stonemason’s hammer are almost always included. The ring is usually a gift from a master to his pupil when he is considered worthy, a mark of the end of apprenticeship. A few architects have even their own name on it, and use it as a signet ring. Name or not, many like to leave the mark in the parts of the buildings they have created.

On the inside may be a personal motto of the wearer; the sentence was sometimes used to exchange encrypted messages to a known colleague.

Note: the Brotherhood is NOT a freemason-like organization (but can be upgraded to something like that, if desired).

The Depths of the Art
To know much about a subject gives power over it, and in a world of magic it is doubly true. These abilities are mere cantrips, not full-blown spells. In fact, most architects would deny they have anything to do with magic, and it is merely their expertise that provides them with the information.

Each power works only on the caster/architect himself, range cannot exceed one clearly defined limited space (like a room). Typically, the architect would slowly walk around the room while inspecting it, lost in thought and muttering for himself, then suddenly note "Hey, this isn’t right!" to the builder’s annoyance.

The casting time depends on such factors as architect’s experience, his familiarity with the place, whether he designed it, or was present during construction time, and so on.

The Finger - by the means of touch, the architect can feel with a good precision whether something is perfectly horizontal (or vertical).

The Hand - by laying hands on a structure and concentrating, one can discern something of its stability and the forces that have effect on it. One application could help to find the main supports in a single room (of course by walking around and touching all walls and pillars, so that could take some time).

The Eye - how perfect are the straight shapes, and the curved shapes, all this can the eye see. Beauty and stability both depend on them.

The Foot - walking around the room, one can discover in which way(s) it slopes, and where the water would flow to or stay.

The Sense - one can feel the humidity, and where it most likely comes from; but also feel the air moving through cracks and the like. This may help with completely unrelated activities, like finding concealed architectural elements.

The Mind - concentration is needed in many mundane tasks. This power is most often used while drawing floorplans: hours may need to be spent without interruption, not minding the outside world. One will be exhausted after such a work, but envisioning a work of art, and bringing the vision to others is worth it.

—-

Your home, your fortress
Centuries of experience in building, working with masters of warding magic, research, and the occasional ‘borrowed’ text were all needed to amass the wisdom of what means ‘safe housing’ in a realm of supernatural forces.

It is the choice of building materials, the skelet of the construction, and especially the foundation. The protective power may not be large, but even a little protection makes the life easier; also, such a building easily accepts more warding magics (a minor bonus to warding spells cast on it).

Note: It could be iron nails in every window and door against the fae, or an uninterrupted line of salt throughout the building against the spirits, holy symbols hidden in many shapes and structures against the undead, and so on. There can be protections devised against general magical attacks, or specific forms (fire magic, divination, anything). The question is - what are the dangers in a given game world?

Note: in my vision, these architects are not casting any spell here, merely building the most powerful ‘natural’ wards that are possible. However, you can give them some measure of power, or even make them true low-level wizards specializing in warding.

Plot Hooks:

In or Out: as usual, there’s a very inaccessible location the PCs want to get in, or get someone out from. The architect is similarly inaccessible (maybe imprisoned, or dead… and it wasn’t an accident), the plans nowhere to be found. But his peers may know of plans to similar facilities, or author’s personal preferences. Time to become friends with them.

The new member: a renown architect from far away arrives, eager to take over the large project currently in works, its master being very sick. But the man doesn’t act as would be expected, and seems to avoid the local experts… quickly, is there a crook within reach of this month’s wages?

Begone: if you happen to have an indestructible evil item/demon/whatever at your hands, you might want to hide it forever. You could do worse than having a member of this group aid you in designing and building the prison.

—-

Credits: special thanks belongs to Wulfhere and Chaosmark, who brought important new insights to the Art. Long live the chatroom!

In a realm dominated by hoary old towers with equally old wizards haranguing terrified apprentices and would be magicians spending the better part of their youth toiling away as slaves for their elderly mentors, Cinque-Parte Polygnostic is equal parts anomaly and affrontery.

Johannes Cinque, the Wand-Maker
One of the original founders of CP Polygnostic, Johannes Cinque was considered a mediocre magician by his dour and balding master who did not shed two tears when his apprentice of sixteen years threw his hands up in the air and quit his studies. Cinque excelled in the crafting of magical items as well as being proficient, if not gifted, in the realm of alchemy.

Hillsong Parte, the Oracle
Most are surprised to discover that the other cofounder of CP Polygnostic is not only a centaur, but a female centaur, and later the wife of Johannes Cinque. Counterpart to Johannes, Hillsong is a competent sorceress and while things of potions and powders are strange to her, magic is innate, and her intuition borders on the supernatural.

The Dark Patron
There are certain folk, immune to the passage of time, who are able to see things that even the most long in the tooth of human magi are quick to overlook. Dro’hizzir, a lord of Pulca and the leader of the elven Shadow Warriors, saw that the human Cinque had a gift for crafting magical items, but lacked focus or purpose in his work. Considered demented by the other lords of Pulca, Dro’hizzir became a distant and slightly malignant benefactor for Cinque as he hobbled along selling magical charms and doing unlicensed commission work for nobles who didn’t want the pay guildmage rates. Some consider it a stroke of genius, others a gift from madness, but it was simple pragmaticism that drove the dark elf to bring Hillsong and Johannes together.

Given his ability to remain unseen, it was a simple matter to dose the two with love potions, causing the man and centauress to fall in love with each other. It was a simple thing that a married man produced more and better work than a bachelor, and rumor he heard among the humans was that a sturdy woman with strong hips was best to have. It was simple for the elf to find the 1100 pound Hillsong and her impressive hips, and even simpler for him to bait her to find Johannes and his meager cottage shop.

A Cottage Industry
Hillsong and Johannes worked well together, and despite the alchemical induction of their relationship, the duo would eventually fall in genuine love with each other. They combined their knowledge of magic and alchemy and created a unique potion that allowed them to have children together, though Johannes’ sons and daughters all happen to be centaurs. This was all well and good for the duo, and their regular goods, amulets of protection and rings that detected poison made them decent money, it was a far cry from the arsenal of human made magical weapons that Dro’hizzir expected to reap for use in the shadow wars against the enemies of the dark elves. But he knew that such notions would take time to come to fruition.

During this time, hunger and famine were taking a toll on the vitality of the shadow warriors of Pulca as the enemies of the dark elves had made advances and forced the dark elves to abandon a number of valuable food production areas on the underground realms. During his last foray to the surface realms Dro’hizzir discovered a strange magical contraption that defied the law of conjuring food from magic. Goeric’s Bountiful Creel was left in an area where Johannes would find it, ironically when he was taking a day off to fish from the local river.

Recognizing the high quality of the creel and correctly guessing it as being Kitionan handiwork, he took it up and placed his days catch into it. It was a matter of delight that the handful of small glass-eye brim that he caught grew into a catch large enough that the entire family had fresh fish instead of watery fish stew for dinner. Two months later the couple had deduced the magical nature of the creel.

The Master Reveals Himself
It was a short time after this that Dro’hizzer revealed himself to the now engaged couple and their three children. Though he did not reveal his hand in their union, or the discovery of the creel, he requested of them a bite to eat. Generous to a fault, Hillsong fed the dark elf well. Still they were wary, for they had heard the tales of the dark elves, murdering everything they pillaged across with their silver scimitars, commanding war packs of panthers and black lions to devour their foes, and being able to poison a foe with a glance of their magical eyes.

Antigony Cinque-Parte, the Sculptress
Drawn to the arts of shaping stone, Antigony was the eldest of the couple’s children and recognized the stranger as the Lurker, for she had seen him atimes when he came to spy on the family. She knew that he had left the creel for her father to find. As a mostly white centaur, her skin is predisposed to sunburn and the hair of her head is very pale.

Dro’hizzer stayed as a guest of the family for a time, and paid them what seemed very generous for replicas of the magical creel. Employing her children, as well as several village children, Hillsong had the creels woven in short order and even made both friends and money teaching the children the finer points of centaur basket weaving and wickerworking. The elf found Antigony to be a constant follower and would delve every bit of stone lore from the elf that she could, often asking him to sit for her. Now few things can stroke the ego of an elf quite like sitting for a sculpture, and the centauress was talented, though her skill was still young and raw.

These Boots Were Made for Walking…
The creels completed and the famine gone from Pulca, Dro’hizzer found himself no longer subjected to questions about his sanity. His vanity was much greater as his lodging on the surface was now a stone built room in a proper stone house, and in the courtyard, his likeness was rendered from grey stone. Having recently been attacked by an errant priest and demon slayer, the dark elf found himself in possession of a unique pair of boots. The priest’s Gravestompers, with their silver fittings and religious images were pleasing to the dark elf. Unlike most of the common boots of this type, the boots Dro’hizzer obtained were enchanted to protect the wearer from the undead, as well as being baneful to the undead. Having a long running feud with a seven century old vampire lord, prudence demanded that he have an ample supply of these magical boots.

It was a simple matter and soon the now some years wed Cinque-Parte family was turning their minds to acquiring boots and granting them the proper enchantments. Having experience with the creels, the enchantment of the boots was much easier. It also helped that the couple had taken on no fewer than four students, of which only one was one of their own children. Within three years, most of Dro’hizzer’s Shadow Warriors were garbed with line leather boots that gave them an unexpected advantage over their vampiric rivals.

The Unofficial School
It was local common knowledge that the Cinque-Partes were not only well off and beneficial wizardly folk, but unlike the pederastic magi in their phallic towers, they Cinque-Partes were decent folk, a man a wife, several children. The sort of place that the children of the villages would go when they could. Hillsong was a natural teacher, and Johannes, now a bit heavy around the midsection was considered well educated by the locals and nobles even if he couldn’t name all 400 celestial beings or correctly calculate the Sidereal date. Construction became constant and the family attracted not only petitioners to learn everything from basketweaving to enchantment, they also attracted other patrons, such as weavers looking for work, or scribes looking to pass on their art in exchange for food and lodging. It was a haphazard time of informal classes, non-existent schedules, and general anarchy.

The Brilliant Prank
It is still a mystery how the vial made it’s way to the nascent school, but the Korinthan Cracker Powder made the school, just as it almost destroyed it. The vial has half empty when found, after a student had used some of it’s contents to scare other students in a prank. The vial was taken to Johannes who was able, after some arduous study, to determine what it was, and more surprisingly, how to manufact the powder as well. The same mode that brought the vial to the school, carried this discovery back to Korinth. As can be expected, the Thieve’s Guild was VERY unhappy about the discovery and dispatched a team of assassins to eliminate the school, destroy the records and seize all of the Cracker powder that had been illegally made.

The assassins made a great show of destroying much of the school’s original buildings, wounding several innocents, and invoking the ire of Dro’hizzer. The dark elf defeated the assassins and in a moment of uncharacteristic sentimentality used both his innate ability as an elf to heal, and a irreplaceable drop of magical potion, he saved the lives of Antigony and her mother Hillsong though the elves of Pulca no longer required their aide. Now, when the Shadow Warriors battled the Thieve’s Guild in Korinth, it was a matter of principle and pride as the thieves had attacked something the elves considered under their possession.

Fire of the Mind
The years of magical research and practical application of enchantments and sorcery had given Johannes a unique view of magic. This would be taken to another level of understanding after an unexpected run in with a Godkiss butterfly. None knew he had a parasitic infection in his brain, but during the creature’s incubation Johannes worked feverishly writing what would be the culmination of his life’s work, The Enchanter’s Rubric. This book laid out in plain detail the mode of preparing a mundane item to be enchanted and how to modify difficult spells to be placed into items.

The primary use of this work was the manufacting of wands, the most common tools of wizardry, though more ordinary magic items, such as Staves of Servants could be created, along with self sweeping brooms, animated furniture and the like. More in depth applications can be found by diligent readers, such as creating magical weapons and armor and such.

Sadness and Grief
After his many long years, the emergence of the adult Godkiss butterfly was more than the venerable Johannes could survive. The elderly human, now many times a grandfather, was then in his late eighties. Hillsong, herself nearly a decade his senior and increasingly lame in her front longs did not long survive his passing. It was with a surprisingly heavy heart that Dro’hizzer left the the grounds of the school, naught to return again. His experiment had done well for him and his people, and the pain he felt at the natural deaths of mortal creatures left him feeling vulnerable and weak.

The Foundation Laid
Antigony would step up and take the place as the Headmaster and officially name the school Cinque-Parte Polygnostic, to honor her father and her mother. With the wealth her parents had made and saved, and the generous donations of various parties who liked to see less money in wizard’s wiry old hands, a new campus was built. The new school kept the open and friendly feeling of the old one, with wide courtyards that were as much places for play as they were gardens. A meandering river slunk through the grounds and fishing was encouraged though the original creel had since done as many magic items are wont to do, having slipped away some years before, unnoticed.

The central plaza of the CP Polygnostic is dominated by a statue of an elf, his face stern but wise. When carved in stone, there are precious few differences between a forest elf and a dark elf. Most properly educated mages consider the school to be an abomination on the face of magic, rending away the mysticism around the arts and turning their ability to make students into slaves for years on end into idle dreams of the past. Even worse, in their eyes, mundane arts are taught as well. It seemed that nothing could sully the school further in their rheumy old eyes, but then the old men discovered that a student could be learning something as crude and base as basketweaving, pottery making, or fishing, or riding horses. Students of the arcane arts were intended to spend their hours with hands cramping from endless scribery, their eyes strained from working in too little light and quivering with fear over upsetting their magical mentor.

Yet the old men’s fears were in large part unfounded. The school, though offering a vast variety of skills was rather limited in it’s magical stock. Most of it revolved around enchantment and alchemy. So potions and basic magic items were being produced in good numbers, as were a number of magical arms and armor, but nothing like the truly eldritch powers commanded by the evokers, and pyromancers, and fiendish necromancers of the black towers.

CP Polygnostic is much like a modern vocational school, offering relevant courses and study and applicable knowledge. This compares with the wizards and their apprentice based system being more like the traditional universities. A Polygnostic student isn’t going to learn ancient and arcane languages, magical history, or strange and obscure spells. They will know the basics, and will be able to a couple of things fairly well when they ‘graduate’. This graduation, unfortunately, is not recognized by any Mage’s Guild, which will require a second apprenticeship for such students, or by more powerful, wealthy, and influential personages. Besides, only those who couldn’t stand up to the real rigors of magical study run away to Polygnostic.

Folk Magic

Folk magic is more of a magical tradition than a school of scholarly research being as old as the hills, some say as old as time itself. It is as deeply ingrained to the psyche of the country folk as the changing of the seasons and has been passed down from father to son and mother to daughter for countless generations.

There are two main branches to folk magic: spirit recruitment and animal charming, each of these is discussed separately.

Spirit Recruitment

The world is full of spirits of many kinds. They live in the trees, the rivers, the fields, the rocks, and even in the very earth itself. A few are powerful demons to be feared or semi-divine entities who demand worship, but most are rather benign and quite harmless. It is to these that spirit recruitment is directed.

The purpose of spirit recruitment is, as its name suggests, recruiting minor spirits to aid the farmer or his household. This is not the domineering control imposed by wizards and sorcerers, nor is it the fawning supplication advocated by priests and holy men. Instead it is a kind of trade, an agreement between equals, by where the spirit grants its aid in return for some service or minor sacrifice.

By far the most common of these are the hearth spirits, the grain spirits, and the guardian spirits, although other types certainly exist.

Hearth Spirits

So called because they like to live in the lintel over the hearth, hearth spirits perform a variety of minor services for the household. The exact services vary from spirit to spirit but usually include things like guiding the smoke up through the chimney or smoke hole, extinguishing any embers that escape the fireplace, and gently nudging small children away from the flames.

In return for such service the hearth spirits require regular sacrifice in the form of a burnt offering. It is therefore traditional to throw a cake, biscuit, or similar item on the fire whenever the family sits down to a meal.

Grain Spirits

The grain spirits are the spirits of corn, wheat, and barley, or any other crop the farmer wishes to sow for that matter. Each crop has its own spirit without which the seed cannot germinate and the crop cannot grow. Thus, in order to ensure a successful harvest the farmer must have the appropriate grain spirit living in his fields.

However, grain spirits are delicate things and cannot survive the winter cold. Therefore the stalks of the last sheaf harvested from a field are woven into a little box-like container known as a Corn Dolly, and this is buried in a sheltered corner. Here the spirit will sleep, protected from the frost and snow of winter, ready to emerge just in time for the spring planting.

Guardian Spirits

These highly territorial spirits like to live inside pieces of iron. The shape of the iron is meaningless to them but the size is not, if the piece is too small the spirit will not be comfortable and will leave. As it happens a horseshoe is just about the right size, and this why people often hang old horseshoes on their front doors. It is also most likely the reason horseshoes are believed to be lucky.

Because these spirits are so territorial they make extremely good spiritual watchdogs. Thus they are commonly used to guard the house from malevolent or unwanted supernatural entities, such as the demons of ill health or the imps of misfortune.

Some versions can also attack more corporeal intruders, such as thieves. However, such spirits might attack anybody they do not know so it is necessary to “train” them to recognise household members. This is believed to be the source of such customs as carrying your bride over the threshold and crossing a new born baby’s palm with silver, both of which are to do with inviting a new member into the household.

Animal Charming

How much of this is magic, how much is animal training techniques, and how much is simply an understanding of animal behaviour is not certain, but the fact remains that country folk know how to influence (if only to a limited degree) the behaviour the creatures around them.

The exact procedure varies dramatically from place to place, and even more so depending on the animal being charmed, there are however some common elements.

Typically a little food, appropriate for the animal in question, is required which is either laid out as bait or held in the hand whilst approaching the animal in a non-threatening manner. This continues until contact is made or, as is more often the case, the animal runs away.

Once contact has thus been made, the animal is encouraged to act as required by the caster. It is this stage that varies most, being dependent on a variety of factors such as the animal involved and the behaviour the caster wants to instil as well as local tradition and even the casters’ experience and personal prejudices. In fact some of the best practitioners claim that there is no “correct” way of doing this and that each case is different - you simply have to learn how to “wing it”.

It is important to note that no direct control or domination of the animal is taking place here, nor can an animal be forced to act in any manner contrary to its own nature. However if you have a clear idea of what you want and it is within the normal behaviour pattern for the animal the results can be astounding.

Mostly there are two main uses for the technique: controlling livestock (e.g. charm the dominant ewe into the fold and the whole flock will follow) or hunting small game for the pot (e.g. charming a rabbit close enough to catch it).

However some communities have developed unusual and imaginative applications, such as the lowlanders who encourage pregnant wildcats to raise their kittens near the grain store or upland farmers who charm hawks or kites to nest near their fields. In both cases this farmer gains some measure of pest control.

Magic is a living entity, simple and non-sentient, but reactive to large-scale emotional states. Its name, like we might call a dog, “Dog”, is Garan. It is better to think of it as a huge plant, rather than an animal.

Garan can be grown, harmed, shaped, controlled, in parts or as a whole. It responds to the actions/ feelings of the living things around it.  Humans/ sentients being more emotive and directed, can do more to shape magic than green life and animals.   Magic is more akin to gardening and sheparding, than studying and blasting. Mages tap the Garan’s “sap” to produce effects.  Those effects must be “in tune” with the local section of Garen. If they are not, the Garan might respond adversly. Note, you can only twist, push, or manipulate it so far. The Garan has an “immune system” to defend itself.  That reality shaping backlash can be pretty darn dangerous.

Magic produces “buds” which can be implanted into an item, location or living thing. Buds are generated by concentrating certain feelings/ ideas.  Certain holy locations might continue to produce holy items, as buds there are incorporated into them.  The Arena might be used to produce buds for weapons or fighting. Volcanos produce fire powers. Etc Etc. The buds of Magic must be fed, nurtured and cared for, or they will die.  So magic items must be recharged with appropriate energies. You have to keep items near appropriate areas for a time, so they can grow strong again.  Keep an item of cold production away from the arctic tundra that spawned it (or the top of the mountain, or a glacier) and it will grow weaker and weaker… eventually dying off.

What do you think and where should we go with it?

(Oh and yes, I have seen the X-files again.)

Here, fantasy meets sci-fi. Aliens have built automatised outposts for the research of this planet. To minimise the chance of influencing the local primitive civilisation, the outposts are well hidden in wild outlying regions. There, pretty much all higher beings are caught by the robotic staff, stunned, examined, and given a small implant for tracking before being released. Satellites in the planet’s orbit keep watching them.

But as time has passed, the rare sentient visitors of these places have learned to interact with the implants in a useful way… and now they call it magic. Basic abilities may include: sensing other implant-carriers (“magic-users”), always knowing one’s location, attunement to magical ley-lines or sources of power, even manipulating one’s metabolism to a degree. Some may develop a supernatural feeling for their surroundings.

The adherents of this school are the equivalent of fantasy rangers - hardy travellers, scouts and even spies. They travel and share knowledge of the the ways of the world. Over the cunturies (or millenia?) of alien research, this has created quite a tradition. Those wishing to wield this magic go on a questing journey, performing rituals (all for colour), and braving dangerous locales to finally meet a higher being… so majestic and splendid that mortal minds cannot grasp it, collapsing at the instance. But if they are worthy, they recieve a gift, a true boon to a traveller.

To choose a student seems to be easy - those that have the ‘gift’ can learn the tricks, others can’t. The loose organisation has but noted that sometimes not so fine candidates recieve the gift, so they try now to keep the important locations a secret, a lost battle apparently. But at least the beings (gods?) pose a challenge that keeps the weaklings at bay - no one that travelled with company has ever recieved the gift. Obviously, one must travel alone, and survive the dangerous journey there and back on his own.

Option 1: Magic has something to do with it, and study of magic can improve and widen these abilities.

Option 2: No magic, it may be a peculiar feature of their anatomy, or the tracking system is dysfunctional, and leaks important information the implant-carriers have learned to use.

In both cases, this ‘magic’ is only a support for something these people know to do, albeit an important one. Their abilities can be easily hidden, making them great nature guides.

All too often the nose is left simply offended by the practice of magic, burned by caustic vapors, rankled by cloying fumes and left to it’s own in the aroma of the undead. Not so the largely under-developed school of the olfactomancers, the Sorcerers of Scent, the Smell-Binders, and the Magic Sniffers.

The most basic ability of the olfactomancers is the ability to scent and differentiate the various realms of magic. While the scents associated with each realm of magic very from wizard to wizard, some of the schools have some similar characteristics. Necromancy always has some hint of death and the grave in it, and elemental spells leave scents similar to their elements. A fireball spell might leave a magical scent of sulfer, or of burning cedar, whereas a lightning bolt might smell like rain, or the air after a violent storm. This is a supernatural effect and such scents can linger long after the magic in question has passed.

Most of the time, olfactomancers examine odors, but with the Ghost Smell spell, they can leave specific smells as well. This can range from a light floral scent to ease a night in a dungeon, to prankster applications, to covering their own scent to deter tracking animals.

So often using their nose for their magic, an olfactomancer could be greatly dimished if his sense of smell was compromised. The Endure Smell spell allows a sorcerer of scent to ignore penalties and distractions caused by smell, scuh as the stink of ghouls and ghasts, stinking clouds and the like. This infers no defense against poison or any other agent in a smell or cloud, so most olfactomancers use the spell with a degree of caution.

Casting this spell, the first and most honored of the Olfactomancer’s spell history, allows the mage in question to differentiate and sort odors in the same fashion as a well trained bloodhound. The mage can use this power to track someone or something by it’s scent alone. it also allows for the sorting of scents, such as smelling a food dish and sorting out the list of spices in it, or much less appealing, sniffing a bit of droppings (you know, poo) to get an idea of what said creature/person ate and where they might have been in the last few days. Cue the Sherlock Holmes players.

The Olfactomancer’s most common combat spell, Stinking Cloud creates a cloud of smell specific to the olfactomancer that is nauseating in a fashion very similar to tear gas. While the scents may vary, the specific effects are the same, gagging, choking, profuse mucus from the nose and a chance of vomiting. No other aspects of a scent are copied, thus a flammable based scent is not explosive, nor is a necrotic based scent poisonous.

While almost every olfactomancer can scent magic, the number that can remove the smell from their magic is much smaller. This is a sort of clean-up spell that allows an olfactomancer to magically clean an area of any and all smells, including supernatural and magica odors. Dismell Magic can be used on a single person rather than an area, and for a day per wizard level, that person will create no odor, no matter how poor their hygiene or filthy their surroundings.

This spell creates a soothing cloud that lulls those who smell it to sleep, IE an area based sleep spell. Those who awaken after being hit by this spell remember a primal and emotionally deep scent that they had long since forgotton, such as a grown man remembering the smell of his mother when she held him as an infant, rocking him to sleep.

There are few things that smell worse than zombies and ghouls, and the horror of the thing is that the undead are immune to their own reek. Casting Gag the Dead renders any undead with a nose, which is pretty much all of them but skeletons, vulnerable and fully aware of their own rotting stench. This generally leaves most undead stopped in their tracks and more sentient forms of undead might be repelled by the stink and flee combat.

This is one of the few curses that is available to the school of olfactomancy and it allows the mage to swap scents in a single person. While this might seem a questionable power, it can be quite useful. If a mage suddenly finds his familiar now smells like boiled cabbage rather than a cat his magic is interrupted, and if a noble found the smell of the royal court too much to bear it could cause a scandal. This spell can be reversed by the caster or a Remove Curse spell.

"... when the first people entered the woods, they were powerless at first. The animals were cautious and swift, some fruits that seemed edible were revealed as poisonous, and little food was found anywhere. Harsh times it were, and they might have perished, if the Boar Spirit had no mercy with them. And she has shown them where to find the good fruit, and which to avoid, what roots to eat, and what herbs to seek if one is ill. Thus have the people learned how to survive in the woods, and closed friendship with the boars."
- that claims the myth the Order spreads as the only truth, and most other people consider bogus. Deep in the woods they live, only rarely they visit the civilization, to liberate the unlucky pigs humans have enslaved over the years (or so they say). Naturally, many consider them insane. It is no surprise they are forbidden this meat.

"The Order" is more a loose tradition than any organization, its members living loosely in deep woods, considered primitive by the civilized world.

The Boar Spirit prefers to have little contact with others, tending to its own affairs and offspring. It may attack if approached at the wrong time or in the wrong way, so beware. It teaches self-sufficiency, and a peaceful nature, that responds strongly on any threat. A follower of her will not start a conflict, but may well bring it to the bitter end.

Swine Magic is a wizardly School of Magic, specializing on mimicking the abilities of the Boar Spirit (who supposedly taught these long ago). These magic-users are wizards, and can teach their spells to other wizards, should they be considered worthy.

Rarely, it happens that the Boar Spirit touches an adept of this school for his devotion, and confers him a deeper insight into this magic, making him or her a true shaman. This does not seem to happen with more than one person at any given time, though.

History:
"The Order" are the remains of the Tribe of the Boar. As civilization approached the forest, the tribe found it’s way of life under a subtle siege. For long have the followers of Boar been proud of their mastery of the woodlands, where they could eke out decent living, at least compared to other tribes. But then came agriculture and towns, many permanent settlements started appearing around, and suddenly it was not so great to live in the forest.

As tribes have been vanishing, the small roaming family groups have come into many contacts (and occasional conflicts) with other folk. Too frequently, young people have abandoned the old ways and left to see the new world. The elders have made the decision to retreat deeper into the woods.

But the damage has been already done. Limited trade exists even today, with tools of metal and other comforts exchanged for what can be found there. Still they are distrustful of strangers, and isolate themselves as far as it goes. Even literacy has reached them, through wandering sages and wise men (an easy plug for a druidic tradition if you want), allowing them to write down their magics and wisdom, something unheard before.

"The Order" represents a counterculture to the civilization around, determined to not leave their woods for any price. Rarely, young idealists of the towns and cities will develop a philosophy of a ‘return to the nature’ or ‘the noble savage’ (yes, they are savages to the outside), and join them in their uneasy, but ‘natural’ life. One day, there will come a direct clash of these two ways of life; most likely violent. For now are the woods deep enough, the arts learned from Boar used on hiding, and deterring intruders.

The Boar spirit has sensed the changes in its sponsored people. It does not understand what is happening from its time scale, but time will show. For now, it chooses the rare men and women which are close to the former ideals of tribal existence, and would make good shamans back then. Respect for the Boar is of course mandatory.

Typical spells and abilities:

Enhance senses - namely taste and smell. The target is partially able to track with his nose; as many of the Order know common, visual tracking, they can be very adept at it. Edible roots can be also found if you are not too noble to get down to earth. It takes some experience to fully use and appreciate.

Blend - moving little or standing still, the target is hard to discern against natural background (foliage, wood, etc). Wrong clothing may give him off easily, so dress properly. It is speculated that old followers of the tradition have this effect permanently on them.

Iron stomach - with this spell, almost any organic matter can be eaten, and digested to a degree. Note that while ingested poison may be resisted with this spell, there is no guarantee. The spell is seldom used, because it does not change the taste, and most often produces severe cramps afterward. It is useful to prevent starvation and is rarely used for bets ("I bet you won’t eat this…").

Enhance hair-growth - occasionally used on the liberated pigs, to make them better blend in nature, some use it to grow beards or long hair. Fashion in any way.

Charge* - roaring mightily, the caster runs towards the enemy. The spell can help to intimidate some opponents, and to have a good start on others, but is only usable at the start of the fight. Do not forget even powerful wild boars withdraw sometimes. Not all enemies can be defeated.
Boar Bellow* a non-combat variant of Charge, an inhuman LOUD scream is produced by the caster. (Louder than a jet engine taking off - thanks to Murometz for this one!)
Flee* - the target can evade physical combat or direct capture. Shouting madly and moving erratically will confuse the enemies, and may give enough time for escape. It is very entertaining to cast it on a domesticated swine during an attempted slaughter.

Guardian - cast on a group; the caster or a selected person will know, if a member of that group leaves a certain distance from him/her, or is in immediate danger (while still close). The Boar Spirit is remembered as a good mother, that never leaves its children behind.

Huddle - for deep winter, the people/creatures that huddle together with the caster while in some cover from outside, stay comfortably warm, and can rest even in not ideal conditions.

Burst - the target becomes able to run a large distance at a solid pace without much exhaustion, for a time. Beware though, as taking on the power of the Boar means taking the weakness as well: especially in summer it is easy to overheat one’s organism, so remember to cool down.

Resist Parasites - the swine do not have fleas, as their skin is so thick. The target is similarly protected from the various little buggers that want to get his blood. (thanks to Murometz for this one!)

So ugly it is cute - some say the Boar blesses with this effect all small piglets. It allows even a bit unnatural, or some might say, ugly, appearances to appear cute and harmless. The effect can be dissipate with too extreme looks or improper actions, it also won’t hinder anyone really wishing to do harm; but it’s a potent protection if used right. Remember, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

This school of magic was made for the K10 game rules, "just because", to show that anything can be made with them. Have fun if you use it!

This school of magic is composed of a set of mental and spiritual, even physical techniques, strenghtening your spirit and its bond to present and past, and as some hope to the future as well.

Making use of the advanced techniques, the adept can remember anything that ever happened around him, in detail and colour. Every word spoken, every event that happened around can be re-lived and analyzed. (Analytical skills are taught as well.) True mastery is shown in the amount of detail one percieves, some natural talents could recollect even what happened when they were asleep, or unconscious - to most is this knowledge very dim. A side effect of this is a certain resistance to magics that influence the psyche, as more common methods of pressure.

Students of this Art often take courses in most diverse lores and skills, which they can remember whenever (if ever) they are necessary - provided they have the time. Naturally, they become excellent witnesses and often end as advisors (or spies) for the truly powerful.

Those who want to master this school need a strong will and the ability to put aside depressive thoughts (as all your failures become visible to you…). Not to be forgotten is the fact that maintaining relationships becomes extremely diffilcut for people that don’t forget. The school therefore resembles very closely a monastic order, further improving the ‘useful servant’ image.

Adepts, ever striving for more knowledge, still have a healthy respect for inborn gifts and talents, as to a life-long devotion to an art. While they have deep understanding of many lores and crafts and arts, they become true masters of few. For instance, many study strategy, but if called upon in times of need, few make truly good generals.

—-

Final note: the school by purpose denies that its abilities have anything to do with magic. For sure, because their techniques are internal, they cannot be detected as magical. This makes them an interesting option for lords vary of magic-users, and also makes them seem harmless as opposed to the wielders of magic.

The school itself grew of a small splinter group. Loosing their faith in Debeth, they embraced the roles of servants and advisors - positions not without power and wealth.

As the cold, chill wind howled through the narrow gorge, the war-wizard swore. It was a dead end, and slow though their pursuer may be, there was no escape now. Not with a greviously wounded man, as his normally-armored guardian was now. As the shaggy white beast bore down upon them, he threw aside his cloak and tunic in a single, practiced motion, revealing flesh that glittered with the presence of a hundred runes welded to it. And then, he cried out.

“Come, beast! Come and face the silver flame of Jurad!” Setting one hand upon a rune upon his chest, and the other over the rune upon that first hand, his hands burst forth into a searing, silvery light, arms with which to face his foe…

The rune slivers are a magic system meant for a low-to-medium magic world, depending on the DM chosen availabity of runes and those with the ability to fuse them to the body.

Casting the rune-magic is a fairly simple endeavour. One places a hand upon one’s name room, which is always enscribed upon the head, and the other upon the rune to be evoked, and wills the power forth. Be it granted by the gods, by the arcane forces, whatever, this is all that is involved in active spell casting. Preparing for it, however, is quite another thing.

To begin, the wizard must have bonded at least two runes to his body: The name-rune, and the rune with which he means to cast. The name-rune is carven for him by one of an elite set of wizards (world specific organization(s)), and then, like any other rune, the surface skin of the body is cut away in a flap so that the rune may be inserted into the skin, and then the skin is resealed by the master. No anesthetics may be used during the proceedure, for to be drugged when the body is adapting to its mystical presence is certain to make the link impossible to use properly while sober.

The name rune is exactly as it is named. It is the wizard’s mystical name, and very few of them are repeated. It forms the basis of the fusion between the wizard’s body and the ability to draw magic forth from the world, and though it does nothing by itself, it is utterly essential as an enabler of the magic. The name rune must be placed as close as possible to the center of the mind, the forehead, or over   the center of emotion, as near to the heart as possible. No other places may serve as the seat of the name. Should the name rune somehow be broken, the pain will be beyond excrutiating - many wizards die or go mad from the agony. Should the wizard survive such an attack, he will not be able to cast spells until the name-rune is replaced.

Other runes may be placed upon the body as desired, though in all cases, the rune’s location upon the body may effect what is finally allowed. A rune of the wind, for example, placed into the forehead, may allow farsight or the sensing of the weather, while a the same rune placed into the hands may allow swifter attacks, and in the feet, a swifter runner. Generally, for ‘spectacular’ effects, such as the throwing of lightning or fireballs, the rune must adjoin the name-rune, and no more than half a dozen runes may adjoin the name-rune.

While a persistant effect may persist, a wizard may only close the circle between his body, mind, and the mystic over one rune at a time - That is, he cannot clutch at a cluster of runes and effect them all at once. He must be able to touch the rune grafted to his body with the bare skin of his hands.

Knowing runes and symbols is much more than to be a painter. It is to know the way magic flows, the way the world flows. If you concentrate deeply while creating a symbol of power, you may capture a tiny part of the worlds’ power, for your own purpose. This symbol may continue to capture the magic necessary for its function for some time.

Runecasters come mostly in the guise of a warrior, and rarely look interesting to other races. Dwarves but know and respect them. While they seem to be no priests, they all revere dwarven gods and dwarven ways. Runecasters are often solitary, which is not unusual, but like to travel and learn about the world, which rare for dwarvenkind. Surprisingly, they also tend to enjoy the Sea - not necessarily sailing it, but watch they can, for hours and hours. All kind of shapes may capture the interest of a Runecaster.

Runes

Runes are mostly painted (or carved, traced, drawn, etc.) on the target surface, which with most basic effects takes about 10 minutes. While the result may not look much interesting (incomprehensible is a better word) it requires intense concentration, quite similar to commonly known methods of spellcasting. Sadly, every rune produced must be unique and made specially for a known person or object at that time. All runes have a duration, or defined moments when they loose their magic. At the beginning of casting, most casters shortly reflect on the aura of the moment, the surroundings, or the target person.

The bonuses gained by the user of a Rune are relatively minor, but can often persist for more than many elegant and more potent magical effects.

The creation of a rune is a matter of the moment and personal style - some prefer to scribble wildly, with many lines creating a mish-mash resembling modern art or nonsense, others like to write very slowly and deliberately (reminding of the art of calligraphy), creating simple symbols. Both ways seem to produce the same effects. Note also, that a copy of the symbols made is not a bit magical, just like a used and spent rune. It cannot be used to create another effect.

There are some examples of Runes in the Scroll below.

Other powers

You spend your life with symbols, creating and getting a feeling for all kind of symbols. If concentrating on symbols of any kind, some information can be felt out of them, from their shape, from the pressure applied to various parts of the letters, even something of the attitude of the symbols’ creators may stay behind.

So you may concentrate on a letter from a friend and discover fear between the words saying all is well. And even if the hieroglyphs in the wall cannot be deciphered, you may suddenly feel confident it is a warning. You may get a very bad feeling too, when that scribble is a death curse.

Beware, for in the symbols and shapes much is hidden. Some symbols you should not seek, lest you find what they mean.

History
“Since when we know the runes? The knowledge has always been with us.

So this is our Art: runecasting, much more subtle than the commonly used magic. It does not create new things out of nothing, it helps with what is already present, it improves our work, and offers deeper insight into known things. Still, it is power, so be careful with it. It is said some runecasters have ended their lives in strange ways indeed… so be careful.”

The school of Entwiners is formed around the art of creating magic with rope and knots.  In some cases other materials are woven in to add to the enchantment.

The origins of Entwining reach back far in history and seem to appear older even then the coming of fire.  Some ancient graves of primitive peoples have been found with the bodies adorned with knotted leather cords which still bore residuals of ancient enchantments.  The early enchantments revolved primarily about abstract defences against evil spirits and the bringing of luck.  More utilitarian magics are a more recent development. 

The arts of Entiwining appeared to be forgotten with the advent of the written word.  The tedium and discipline needed to invoke magic with complex knots exceeded the patience of many mages and so the art fell into disuse, with the exception of those peoples who have not yet developed writing.

A revival was experienced after the recovery of a precious set of works from the grave of a great mage dating back to the transition time between Entwining and Magic of the Book.  In the grave was found an enormous volume which depicted in great detail the making of a great number of enchanted knots, long lost to the world. Since many of these enchantments were novel and useful, the study of Entwinement was resurrected and now most mages are at least aware of it’s basic principles.

Currently, Entwining is most commonly associated with the sea, the Entwiners are all experts in rope-making and knot tying. Interestingly enough, the Art appeals to many who not lettered and may have other disabilities.  There are reports of practitioners of the art who are blind, deaf or both. (See Herithi the Begger for one such person).

The enchanted knots all have the following properties:

1. The knots do not reduce the length of the rope, regardless of how much rope is consumed in tying the knots.
2. The knots do not cause a weak-point in the rope.
3. Any Entwiner-made knot is fiendishly difficult to untie.

In addition, all Entwiners are expert rope-makers and can splice ropes together with great speed.

Although they have many magics to work with mundane rope, rare plant fibres, hair from mystical creatures, and even woven crystal form the raw materials for their greater enchantments.  None of their magics involve the creation of rope by magic - this task is considered a fundamental preparation for their magic.

Simple spells will render ropes fire & rot resistent, unusually strong, increase length or knot themselves.  Many enchantments common with rune-type magics can also be created with specially tied knots.

Some knots can be tied into a being’s hair to provide magical defences, etc.

More advanced spells can allow for attack or defence, with ropes making entangling attacks, spinning themselves into nets, or stiffening and striking like spears.

If high-level magics are desired, at the top of their art, loops of rope can form wormholes to allow for transport over great distances. Still others allow the Entwiner to invoke primal forces creating raw energies, gravitational effects and even distort time.(String theory! :) )

School of Parasitism
 
The School of School of Parasitism is an uncommon and unpopular branch of magic. It’s hallmarks are the sapping of strength, subtlety and disease.

Practitioners of this art typically are employed to subtly weaken enemies. The Parasitists generally become immune to disease and toxins imparted by parasites, both natural and magic. Otherwise, they would not survive to become serious practitioners.  The school is closely associated with insects and similar creatures, but is sharply focused on the concept of parasitism.  Normally a caster would not rely solely on this school, as it is fairly limited in it’s scope.  There are other schools, such as necromancy and Zoimorphists which would work with this one.

Dominator Parasite
 
This spell calls into being a Dominator Parasite, a disgusting worm-like parasite about 8" in length and 2" in diameter.  When placed on a non-resisting victim (or at least well bound), it will burrow into the victim with a specialized tail, leaving a small head exposed.  It avoids damaging major organs and seals off most blood vessels. It then integrates with the victim’s nervous system and takes over.  At greater degrees of proficiency the caster may share the senses of the victim.
 
Dread Parasite

Summons forth a Dread Parasite, one which causes severe affects upon the victim. The Parasite must be delivered to a victim either directly by the caster (by touch) or at a distance through use of the Infestation spell.Sample Dread Parasites:

Mingoven Brain Worm
Appearance: Black worm with chitinous bands, 1" long and very thin.
Mode of Operation: Enters ear or burrows through skull (the latter only on immobile victims). Causes acute insanity. Interestingly enough, the parasite completely seals the skull once it enters.

---

Silderian Heart Borer
Appearance: Pale green grub-like worm with dramatically shaped cutting mandibles, about 1/4" in diameter and 2" long.
Mode of Operation: Enters the chest and burrows into the heart. Victim weakened to the point of immobility. Excess stress could easily kill the victim.

---

Lyvoran Gut Worm
Appearance: Appears as a very wide tapeworm with oddly human-like eyes. Initially is it vanishingly small until it makes its way into the digestive system.
Mode of Operation: Enters the body through either mouth or nose and makes it’s way to the stomach. Victim cannot obtain nutrition from food until cured. 

---

Tyanic Eye Wasp
Appearance: Blue and grey striped wasp similar in size to normal wasps.
Mode of Operation: Wasp lands upon victims eyes, and injects egg. If not removed (by surgery or equivalent magic), will result in total eye loss when the eggs hatch.  Until that time, the victim can see spots in their vision that get gradually larger.

---

Velathian Spinal Leech
Appearance: Dull purple leech with an array of small tentacles near the mouth.
Mode of Operation: Attaches to spine and draws forth spinal fluid, causing intense pain and incapacitation.

---

Greathian Nerve Flea
Appearance Unless viewed with magnification, appears as a little black flea. Magnified, it appears a dark metallic green.
Mode of Operation: Bite causes local nerve tissue to dissolve, eliminating control and sensation in affected area.

Draw Strength
This spell when cast on a victim will leech away vitality and continually stream it to the caster until the spells duration expires, or the spell is otherwise removed.  The victim feels exhausted until the spell is over and will be impeded in many activities.  The caster gains a boost in physical strength and endurance while the spell is in effect, and the caster may have more then one victim at a time, so long as they remain in range of the spell. 

Infestation
Target pointed at becomes Infested (as per Infesting Touch). Once infested, the caster requires less effort to cast additional spells on the victim (Spells that require touch now become line of sight). 

Infesting Touch
Victim becomes Infested with a swarm of parasites, generally causing minor damage and a great deal of horror and revulsion. Willpower is required to ignore the critters and proceed normally. Tasks requiring concentration will be impeded while so infested.  Critters include lice, mites, ticks, and worse.

Lurking Pestilence
Caster creates a magical trap that will deliver another spell in this domain onto the target.  Involves planting some token, usually grotesque, that the next person to touch will deliver the spells.
 
Malarial Swarm
Summons a swarm of malaria-bearing mosquitos under the casters control.  The Malaria is exceptionally virulent, causing symptoms almost immediately.
Convulsions, vomiting, shivering and eventual collapse and death are the hallmarks of this disease. 

Mindworm
The victim becomes susceptible to suggestions and impulses insinuated by the caster.  This effect remains so long as the victim does not pass to far away from the caster.  If sufficient distance separates the two, the spell is ended.  The victim may or may not be aware of these being of external origin.
 
Parasite form
Caster assumes the form of a massive swarm of parasites which can then disperse to the four winds.  The caster can choose to Infest a target, but may not engage in further spellcasting until they regain their original form.  Caster is unhurt even if the swarm is damaged so long as a single parasite remains alive - the caster can shift their consciousness from critter to critter as desired, even if the current one is slain. 
 
Parasitodial Summoning
   Target becomes the host for some large insect or insect-like horror.  Victim is generally paralyzed and 2-7 days later, young creatures will burst forth, killing the host. This is used by the Parasitists to produce some of their creatures, including familiars.  It is rumored that insectioid practitioners of this art can use this spell for their own reproduction.
 
Sunder’s Coat of Vermin
This spell, when cast, covers the wearer with a cloak of wiggling parasites (species as desired by the caster). It is a minor defence primarily intended to make people stay away, as any who come within 3’ of the wearer are subject to infestation by the horde of parasites.
 
Taint Water
Infests water with disease-causing water-borne parasites, including nematodes and leeches. Once introduced, the critters will multiply naturally though will be somewhat more tolerant to harsh conditions for several days.

Touch of the Leech
By touching a victim, the caster may draw blood from them, which will in turn revitalize the caster. 

Touch of the Spirit Leech
As Touch of the Leech, but instead of blood, spiritual energy is drawn, and can be used to restore caster’s manna. See Spirit Leech.

Summon Demon Ticks
Summons a swarm of  Demon Ticks. 

Plot Ideas and Campaign Use

Used only by the most horrid of individuals, it is a tool for villains and others that would use revulsion and horror as weapons.  The school can also include other pest-related spells already present in your game world.

The Street King
Gerthic, poor and living in the worst places, where no other riffraff would dwell, was kicked around and beaten by pretty much everyone. A runt, with little hope, he fell into the influence of an infernal power.  The devil granted knowledge of the School of Parasites, and with this fell knowledge, he came to increase his station.  Now he is a petty crime lord, using his powers to enhance his position.  Numbers of his followers are infested, unwittingly lending him their strength.  He occasionally hires out his services, either to weaken or kill targets as the contract requires.  Perhaps the PCs are selected as a target.

The School of The Seeker does not have an actual school, but it is a fellowship of several dozen wizards. The school is named for a wizardly guardian from long ago, those that protect The Realms from forces beyond the ken. In fact, the school is actually founded by his three apprentices.

It is the wizardly school of hard knocks. There are easier programs of study. It is part boot camp, part test of character, and an magical crash course all rolled into one. Those that follow Seeker’s way are strong, resiliant, and know their weapons. They are also used to adversity (see school abilities). They are taught how to use magic properly, maximizing effect with the least amount of effort. They are taught how to handle people. They are taught how to see the future and safeguard others.

The Grimoire of a Seeker Student is quite an eclectic mix of spells. Every tiny cantrip is studied, as you never know what will be useful. There is no mastery of one school of study or element, but a broad overview of every school.

Much of what they are taught is not magic. They are advisors to heroes and crowns. They are guild troubleshooters. They learn about people, about history, about monsters, and if they survive their training (which about 30% don’t) about themselves.

About 50% quit at some point, as the training is guelling and a decade long (over two). Thus their are few followers of Seeker’s Way.

Note:
1) Its wizards to deal with adverse conditions (granting them only half the negative modifiers for adverse conditions and half for positive conditions)
2) All spell lists are open to them except the higher level specialty spells. They know every cantrip in the world.
3) They are taught weapons and unarmed combat, as well as a wide variety of lores, so there is no prohabition against learning anything.
3b) They are travellers, so they know travel lores and area knowledges.
4) The catch is that your destiny is no longer your own. You must save the world from itseld and untold horrors. If you shirk your duty, more experienced members of the School hunt you down and kill you. (or keep your soul in a jar as an example to other bad students).

Now with the change in how magic worked, a way was needed to replace scrolls. Instead of the traditional paper, parchment, papryus, or skin and leather made scrolls a new way was found very similar to the focus staves.

Since magic had to be focused through a conduit for it to work, spell crystals were created.

These small 1” to 2” geometric cubes have the spell symbols etched directly on the crystals. When the spell is cast the crystals shatters into motes of fine dust and the spell activated, using up all the mystical energies within the crystals. The number of sides determine the potency of the actual spell crystals.

The cube (6 sides), the octahedron (8 sides), tetrahedron (4 sides) are the most common. They only have enough stored energy to have the most basic and general spells etched into their sides. The more complex spell crystals such as the dodecahedron (12 sides) and the icosahedron (20 sides) can hold far more energies and have far more complicated and powerful spells etched on their sides.

Propably the most sought after spell crystals is the truncated tetrahedron (8 sides). This odd shaped crystals is smaller than the rest but seems to be able to hold twice as much energies than the more complicated crystals. Another effect of this crystals is that it is the only one that does not shatter and destroy itself when it is used. These spell crystals can be used over again. The extent, if they have one, to which they can be used is unknown. There have only been eight of these odd crystals reportly seen and used in the last few centuries of the spell crystals use. They are highly coveted and lusted after by the magic community.

The spell crystals allow for far easier use and transport than of the traditional magic scrolls. They do not succumb to weather effects and are light weight and very easy to carry multiple crystals.

Having spell crystals reduces srolls, making mobile magic less prominent. It is difficult to find the required crystals, and those that are sold in apothecary’s are never sold cheaply. Because of this they are coveted by those without the knowledge to create them.

Verbal, Material and Somatic, also known as movement. These are the three building blocks of most forms of magic. Some spellcasters have learned to specialize in one of these forms; Verbal spellcasters are also known as bards or spellsingers, depending on the world. Material spellcasters are best represented as the Dwarven Runecasters. The Somatic specialization, often overlooked, is known as Spelldancing.

The form of Spelldancing is a relatively new one, and as such it is still feeling out its strengths and limitations. It was initially founded by a mage who lost his voice during a summoning accident. While drifting for a while, he took in a performance at the local theater. Midway through the show, the movements of the dancers and his current dilemma seemed to coalesce themselves in his mind. The potential of this idea struck him like a pile of iron bricks. still in the middle of the performance, he lept to his feet, attempted to holler "I’ve found it!" which came out as a loud wheeze, and proceeded to run out of the theater at full tilt.

It was years before he managed to advance his theories to the point where he could cast even the simplest of spells. It was a historic moment when, deep in the bowels of a library, the mute mage danced an odd little dance, something between a jig and a square dance, and a small orb of light popped into existence.

In the years since, the mage has attracted numerous students, either bards attempting to expand their repertoire, nobles seeking to stand out at ballroom dances or any of a multitude of others. The discipline has gained much popularity in the nobility, for it provides "a dignified way for the true gentleman to work magic". Through them (and specifically their wallets) the school has advanced at a rapid pace. While still not as developed as the more traditional spellcasting forms, it is growing at a much quicker pace. Given a century or two, it may actually catch up.

Any existing spell that relies purely on motion (somatic components) can easily be modified to be cast through Spelldancing. Other spells can also be modified, though with varying levels of success. Sometimes the effect changes in a purely cosmetic way, and others it can become either much more powerful or simply not have an effect at all. Many spells simply cannot be cast through Spelldancing, regardless of how much time is spent working on it.
There are some changes from standard magic that seem to apply to all Spelldancing spells:

-Most spells affecting light seem to be slightly more powerful when cast through Spelldancing. A light spell will be brighter, and magical darkness will be harder to dispell.

-To date, all spells that create fire have been observed to create less fire, but the fire itself is much hotter. As such, it usually is a blue flame.

-Spells that alter the way the caster moves, such as flight spells, are easier to cast with Spelldancing than with traditional spellcasting, to a point where a Spelldancer could cast a water walking spell while a more experienced traditional spellcaster couldn’t.

-Spells that create physical objects simply don’t work with Spelldancing. You could dance until you’re blue in the face, you won’t make a sword pop into being.

-Spells that buff up people other than the Spelldancer are greatly reduced in effect, weaker spells of the sort having no effect at all. The same goes for curses and the like. They have normal effect if the Spelldancer casts them on themselves, however.

Remember, Spelldancing is a new form, and has many other quirks that have yet to be discovered. This is by no means a comprehensive list! Also due to the youth of the school, it has yet to develop any spells unique to itself. It is certainly possible, but to date most efforts have been focused on understanding the form better. There is no doubt that Spelldancers will begin creating new spells in the future, it simply hasn’t happened yet.

The Greater Comet Academy was a magical academy of some repute for several centuries ago. Centered in Bynor’s western counties, it drew the talented and nobles from far and wide. While general magics were taught, the school specialized in the magics of warfare. This is more than the flashy blasts, cones, and bolts, it includes fog spells, illusions, communication, and scrying spells. In addition to the actual spell casting, it also taught mundane classes on the best way to utilize magics in a military campaign, general strategy and tactics, and command skills. Generations of True Battle Mages, battle capable wizards and mages, and military leaders passed through the battlements and keep that was the school.

However, all good things must come to an end. The School’s leaders allied themselves with a noble faction in Bynor. They “sided”, thus becoming directly involved with the Way of Thrones. This violated time honored laws and traditions, as well as violated the guild charter for the wonder works in the Central Kingdoms. Things needed to be done. The entire guild drew members from every Battle College and school of magic that could be reached. It was a near army of Mages, supported by an actual army of Grogs (Bodyguards for the Mages).

The School was violently disbanded by the guild force, which included more guild loyal and neutral Comet Seniors and Students. There was only a smoking ruin left after the four day siege.

While the school is gone, its traditions and spells have been preserved by surviving staff and students. There are now minor academies of The Comet.

Since the school had such a powerful reputation, many descendents of the school have taken to calling themselves Comet guilds and circles. They make a living as mercenary and loyalist forces.

For reasons of Comet tradition, a mage mercenary company is called a Guild, while unit (3-7 Principals, 1-3 Juniors per principal, and grogs) is called a Circle.

The Masters Of Fog Magic (designed for a low-magic world)

The followers of this school specialize in the control of the Fog phenomenon. In a world where most magical effects have only a short duration, theirs can stay active for hours, even days in some rare cases.

A Fog is natural thing, air moisture that becomes visible (under certain conditions of course). An adept of this school can control, enhance, even create a Fog provided the conditions are right. The spells have a long casting time, and dispelling such an effect does not make the Fog null, it takes some time for it to disperse. Unlike some other wizards, these magic-users tend to be of quite phlegmatic natures, it will happen when it will happen, and to hurry won’t help. Other wizards have tendencies to despise them, and call their magics pathetic and pointless.

Teaching is done simply from master to apprentice. It is but said that deep within the Great Swamps, where fogs abound at any daytime or nighttime, there lives a master of masters of Fog Wizardry, that can teach the basics and much more. Tradition commands to bring each new spell to this master, sadly few honour it.

Besides spellcraft, these men and women (surprisingly, the ratio is almost equal in this field) study meteorology and in peaceful times try to forecast weather. One day, they also hope, they will be able to influence it.

This seemingly useless field of study has found a big use, however: on the field of battle. After the glorious victory on the Starling Hill, fog has become a favourite element of surprise and deception. Masking advancing units, providing cover for the defenders, confusing soldiers and generally messing with enemies’ heads is all well. There are similar naval uses, and the occasional merchant ship hiding from pirates.

—-

Current news: (An update due to several requests.)

There is a great uproar in the magical community. Levdan Ongaro of the Island has proclaimed the School of Fog Magic to be a fake. Through a magical analysis of the spectral patterns he personnaly developed, he found that there is no significant difference between Fog effects and spells of the School of Water Magics.

This is of course a great insult to the Masters of Fog Magic. While some magic-users have despised the School in the past, it is nonetheless a great and respected feat to create an entirely new group of magical effects. And if Levdan’s accusations were proven… it would destroy the whole group.

But at the moment, there is no sign of peaceful research. Letters with warnings and insults have been exchanged, messengers sent and dismissed. It has been quite foggy in the last few weeks on Levdan’s island, as to prove this master of Water Magic cannot dispel an entirely different effect! Levdan himself has barred entry to any of those that are “so ugly that they must hide in fog”. It is suspected there are at least three master wizards hiding nearby, and they patiently keep sending fogs to their enemy until he gives up. Let’s see who wins this battle of nerves.

(Rules-wise, what seemed to be an entire School of Magic, is actually a single, albeit diffilcut spell usable on several power-levels. Adapt to your game system as you wish.)

The following information is for Ageratos, but would be unknown to the majority of the populace. Most sorcerors will probably know it, rather in the manner that an American knows about the Revolutionary War, and historians might know it if they specialize in the history of the occult.

The School of Jundera

The School of Jundera is the most ancient school of Amandaeanic magic, first established during the Bloody Age by Jundera the Ultimately Wise, one of the disciples of Mandaeani (who is widely believed to be the grandfather of all the known magical systems; those systems and Schools which follow his teachings are called Mandaeanic, while those which reject his teachings are Amandaeanic, or Anathematic).

Jundera created his School in recognition of the mighty sorceries of the Ancients, who he believed knew a "purer" and more "bodhic" magic than the Agera of his day knew. He was extremely conservative in his magical philosophy, and unlike his master Mandaeani (who he came to despise), rejected the Shamani-based, elementalistic magics which evolved out of the traditional Ageran ways.
Showing the Bodhologist influence on his theory, Jundera’s School strongly emphasizes a deep and definitive understanding of the self. Jundera himself purported the semi-solipsistic belief that all things in the world actually were generated from the "Spring of the Self", and that conflict was engendered by the clashing of two beings’ "Springs"; this belief translated into a magical system which emphasizes the "strengthening" of "personal reality" in order to "weaken" the "outer reality".
A lot of words, however, do not easily translate into practice. While Jundera was very good at philosophy (indeed, many of his disciples became Master Bodhologists), it was soon discovered that using the strength of the self is extremely difficult. Jundera’s original magics, written down in the scrolls known as the Baaghora Baia (translating as "the Jewel of Wisdom"), involved heavily drawing upon the sorceror’s inner reserves of strength and willpower in order to fuel Ontological magics (Ontological, or Realist, magics are those directly and bluntly changing the function of reality). Soon after Jundera’s death, the worn-out Junderic sorcerors allowed the School to become less conservative in aspect.

The development of the Junderic magic has created a system based on channeling energy for the manifestation of spells from outside sources, through the self. And rather than use an Ontological approach, the Junderics have become practitioners who approach magic through Affectation, that is, the manipulation of natural processes to create spells (Affectation, while more limited than Ontology, is easier, faster, and vastly-less taxing). Junderic sorcerors favor living beings as sources of energy- drinking blood and the sacrafice of small animals being the most common.

The School of Jundera in practice

The sorceror Veyaton has slaughtered three chickens, and gathered their blood in a shallow brass dish. Drinking from the dish, he allows the blood to spill down his robe and splatter about his feet. Using the strength of the life-force of the chickens, Veyaton reaches out with his sciomantic gauntlet and surreptitiously motivates warm air to roll moisture from the surface of the ocean, congealing it upon the shore into a thick mist which causes the ship of his enemy, Ordaec, to go astray, and beach catastrophically. Veyaton smirks, and dispatches his soldiers, sub-human apes arrayed in brass armor, to destroy the survivors.

The Tower of Troubles is a Mages guild where young wizards and sorcerors are trained in the Art. It arose as a compromise between the gods of Bareel and the human practitioners of magic.

The gods were appalled when the first human used arcane power. The story is long and complicated but basically a young man prayed for deliverance for his family and village as it was destroyed. The gods didn’t answer and he swore to never pray to them again. So he escaped on his own and fled deep into the mountains. There he sheltered in a cave which ran almost to the heart of the world. There the essence of the quiessent god for whom the world was named whispered to him in dreams and taught him the use of magic. The other gods were unable to determine the source of his power and feared that men would cease to worship gods if mere mortals could perform such wonders without them. So they set their churches the task of exterminating wizards. This went on for millenia till at last Marakeer,god of secrets and knowledge discovered the source of the wizard’s power and interceded on their behalf to end the crusade.

The compromise struck was that all wizards would be trained in the same manner with certain fields of study left alone ( time travel and the Void in particular). Wizards were also bound to never attack the prime temples of the human gods nor to share the great secret that all mages must know in order to learn magic. That secret being that the gods themselves were created by a greater being and sent into the Void to bring substance and life there. They were bound by a geas and passed that geas on to their students.

Not all wizards accepted the Geas and are subject to being hunted by the churches Holy Purifiers, Priests trained and equipped to kill wizards.

The Tower of Troubles provides basic magic training and testing for human and half human wizards. In due time they locate masters to which students may apprentice and have vast libraries of arcane and mundane lore . Some library materials require special permission from the Tower Master to study. Towers also sell wizards spell components ; even rare and hard to find items are avilable at the larger Cities Towers. Wizards must pay yearly dues in money, service, or items equal to 100 gp /level. This grants them access to all Towers in the human kingdoms as well as permission to wield arcane magic without penalty. Each tower has lists of mages in the area their field of expertise and offer referrals for such. Another “perk” of being a Tower Mage is that the Emperor may call upon any Tower Mage to serve in the military for a Five year term as a battlemage. They then undergo special training in combat spellcasting and battlemagics.

Tower Masters are always Epic levels and have served a ten year long stint as a battlemage( achieving the rank of Warmage).

Tmesis (Greek, "a cutting") is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is inserted into another word, often for humorous effect.

Tmesian Magic is a small school that deals almost entirely with scrolls and spellbooks. It is the art of booby-trapping spells by writting a second spell into the body of a larger spell. While this practice is uncommon with scrolls, as those have a tendancy to be sold or bartered, it is much more common in the case of spellbooks. This might seem to be an odd thing, since there are plenty of spells to ward said books, and even spells that in themselves are traps, such as spells that when read are activated, often exploding on the reader of the book.

Would an ancient culture really leave such virulent traps for those centuries later to find? I would guess probably not. A more pressing concern is going to be their peers and rivals mages. What mage has not thought of purloining another of his peer’s spellbooks for access to his spells and spell research? There would be an unwritten but understood code of honor to see spellbooks returned to their owners should they be lost or stolen, entrusted to their next of kin. The threat of finding one of these spells carefully placed into a spellbook could be enough of a deterent to keep some of the slighty unscrupulous from abusing or purchasing a stolen grimoire. For those who would not even think twice, their fate is a bit more messy.

Mechanics
The trick behind the Tmesis style of scribery is that the writting mage knows the section of the spell that is the tmesis element, and can invoke the spell without using that portion. Those the mage instructs in the style are also able to use the texts without undo harm. Some mages could be consistant, with Emberwyld the pyromancer making the third verse of every spell incantation his tmesian trap. The mage could also change things around, just to keep a canny apprentice or magic reading thief from figuring out his system.

Generally, not every spell in a grimoire is going to be so booby-trapped, and in all likelyhoods, fewer than 10% of the spells present are going to be treated so. Doing more than this takes up valuable room in the text, as well as time writting the spell. Also, the spell being booby-trapped must be larger than the trap itself, otherwise the tmesian element becomes rather obvious. First or very low level spells are not going to be trapped, while mid to high level spells are much more likely to be. And as a rule, the effect of the tmesis aspect can mimic a spell of two ranks lower, or alter the way the spell itself functions.

A canny mage can attempt to check a spellbook for such spells, but first the mage must actually know of the tmesian school first, and must be familiar with the spell being cast in question. For example: Baldur the Unwise has gained a stolen spellbook, and has been afflicted with the Nocuon tmesis. He reads carefully through the book, checking the spells he is familiar. After checking each spell (A spellcraft, magery, or similar mundane skill) he decides that the two fire spells are safe, since he knows both of them. A third fire spell has a tmesis in it, an dhe will avoid it as he doesnt recognize what sort of tmesis it is. The three other spells are a different matter, two are from a school he is not very familiar with, so he cannot be sure if the spells are safe or not.

Thus presented for the approval the citadel, the Scroll of Tmesian Magic.

Vampirism is a path through a desolate, uncharted land. What is below are only guidelines, the typical development of a student of the vampiric arts. But in theory, it is possible to develop these techniques anew, or learn them from preserved records.

(This is the promised follow-up extension of the True Vampires article.)

The Stages of Advancement
- candidate - a person is interesting enough to a master to consider study, the first lessons about vampires are imparted. (Note: the candidate doesn’t have to know about this interest, or even be willing to study.)
- apprentice/adept - the adept starts his training, aware of what he is doing
- token vampire - the adept masters one or more technique of life force transfer, and now can feed. Closing and opening is possible.
- permanently closed - when life doesn’t escape the body anymore, only a little is lost in daily life; more with great stress or traumatic moments. Sensitivities start to manifest, and will get more serious over time. This is when they are considered vampires by their own kind.
- dead - once the life expectancy runs out (depends on factors as race, health, etc.) the mortal becomes something wrong, a paradoxon, a true exception to the laws of nature. These creatures cannot stay ‘open’ for too long; what they were only sensitive before become vulnerabilities.
...
- the ultimate being - the hypothetical end of all striving; this creature is immortal without relying on others, and in absolute control of its own destiny. It is immensely powerful, rivaling gods themselves.

But first, you must truly understand what it means to be Open, and what it means to be Closed.

Open…

All living beings are by their nature Open. They are a part of the world, in permanent contact with it, interacting, perceiving, gaining and losing power. And in the end, it is through this link their life comes to an end.

...Closed…

At first, it is a matter of concentration. Very little escapes those who are Closed, everything stays inside. The adept must learn to achieve this state, and uphold it for the longest possible time, to gather his energies, and not waste them on the outside world. He closes upon himself, and becomes a concentrated version of his own potential. Those looking upon him, and perceiving him fully, may feel it is an important, even mysterious person that is hard to see through; sometimes they confuse the power for a mere "strong presence".

But ironically, the vampire (or soon-to-be vampire) is harder to notice when not specifically spotted:

"People say that vampires have no shadow, or no reflection in the mirror. That is not true, but think: The Shadow is not You. The Reflection is not You. When You are truly Closed, they are but empty, shallow, unimportant extensions of Yourself, and most living beings perceive them as such. Mostly, they don’t notice them at all."

And that’s why the approach of a Closed vampire can be so startling - first they are hard to notice, and suddenly they are hard to ignore.

...and Open again:

To become a vampire, the adept must be Closed permanently, without concentrating - otherwise, the loss of life and death are inevitable, by expiring in sleep, for instance. However, the state of being Open is essential for survival as well. Before, the adept could simply end concentration, or use a cantrip to suspend the Closed effect. Now, he has to master this technique, too.

Below are listed effects, or more precisely groups of effects. Most of them affect the caster only. More may be added later to the basic trio - Feel Life, Open and Closed. In that case, pick and choose which (sets of) powers suit your vision of these vampires.

This is an alternate magic system for a fantasy world.  You can’t just drop this one in into any world, it has to be appropriate for the world. 

All magic is performed by summoning, commanding, removing the spirits of things. Invisibility is the summoning spirits to cloak you or removing the spirit of your appearance.  Firestarting is the summoning of a fire spirit, while a fire bolt, would require summoning and commanding (Go there).  Healing would be summoning a life spirit, or banishing a disease spirit. You get the idea. 

Many of these more notable or powerful spirits are worshiped as one of the million gods.  All spell caster function as religious leaders, as do the priests of Shinto.  Many of you just went, no I don’t want Japanese stuff in my campaign.  Well this spiritualistic and animistic take is very close to Druidic and Celtic worship… very European. 

Since most of the magic requires placating and flattering (i.e. prayer) a spirit to do what you want, there is much chanting and apparent prayer. 

The first and last innovation of this magic was to write "prayers" on wheels that can be spun.  As a "prayer" wheel is spun, the prayer is "said". Say something enough times (1000) and the spirit will respond.

Thus it has been for hundreds of years. The priests support the nobles maintaining the status quo.  Temples have dozens of prayer wheels being turned by bored young temple kids, all to generate magical effects.    

One young priest saw children play with something, a top.  They battled with their tops.  The young priest saw immediate applications.  By inscribing a prayer mantra to a bey (type of top that is spun by a holder and the pulling of a cord), the requisite 1000 repetitions of the prayer can be made in 90 seconds rather than 30 minutes.  By including a mantra to the spirit of the Bey, to increase its speed and duration of speed, spell effects can be generated in short notice. (15 seconds tops)

The elder priests do not approve of these Beys, as they apparently trivialize the prayer wheels.  Yet young priests see the way to grant great magics to everyone, not just nobles. 

Now these young bey priests waunder about, dueling, and providing magical services to the masses.  Someday there will be a schism in the faith, but right now… you have young bey priests and older prayer wheel priests.

I have never been happy with the way that magical constructs were presented in games.  Admittedly, a large statue stomping the surrounding countryside is an impressive image.  But the logic (or lack thereof) involved has always bothered me.

A large statue, which is what the stereotypical golem is, is not articulated for movement.  It doesn’t matter if the statue is of a human, an ogre, a bunny rabbit, or a giant caterpillar.  Anything created from a single peice of hard material isn’t going anywhere.  Golems crafted out of several pieces are slightly more logical, but the matter of joints is generally completely overlooked.  Also overlooked would be the general fragility of such a creation.  What are the first pieces to break off of any statue?  Any extensions, such as fingers or limbs.

With that in mind, I present the x-jacks, my own take on constructs.  A x-jack is any type of construct made of many smaller pieces, and specifically articulated to move.  The x-jack is named for whatever it was made of, and the pieces are generally encased in something to keep them all together.  A sandjack, for example, might be a cloth casing filled with sand.  In theory, one could take a set of ordinary clothes and fill them with whatever, then use magic to bring it to life.

X-jacks need not be humanoid, as long as they are capable of movement.  In some cases, the properties of the material itself fill this requirement: sandjacks, ragjacks, leatherjacks, and grassjacks would all be innately flexible.  (As would a waterjack, if you could figure out how to keep it in shape.)  But, unless they had some sort of semi-rigid, articulated skeleton, they would unfortunately be kinda floppy.

Constructs made of stiffer materials, such as stonejacks, woodjacks, glassjacks, and, for the mage who likes to be flashy (and has too much money), jeweljacks need to have specially created joints.  This could be as simple as hinges or basic pivots, or something as complex as a fully carved ball-and-socket, depending on the capabilities of the mage in question and the uses for the construct.

A mage need not personally craft every piece of an x-jack; he may hire an expert sculptor to carve the pieces of a stonejack, or a metalworker to make the pieces of an ironjack.

Usually, the spells involved in animating an x-jack imbue it with some kind of magical perception, but in some cases, the mage opts to give it “eyes.”  These maybe glass marbles, wooden balls, metal balls, or even small knots of fabric.  One mage created a grassjack, and used round nuts for eyes.

An x-jack does not need to be only one material: it is quite common for a ragjack to have a core of pieces of wood, or a woodjack to have joints made of metal.  The x-jack is named after the dominant material.

There exist special types of x-jacks.  A mage in a dangerous area may protect his home with armorjacks, animated (but empty) suits of armor.  A particularly depraved necromancer might take a fancy to fleshjacks, which are pieces of corpses sewn together.  A variant of this is the skinjack, in which the mage fills the skin of some creature with whatever.  The difference between skinjacks and leatherjacks is that a skinjack is still recognisable as what it was before it died, and may or may not be rotting.

X-jacks last as long as the materials that make them up and the enchantments holding them together.  If a ragjack starts to rot, or gets moths, it’ll fall apart soon.  A sandjack with a hole in the casing won’t last long either: sand pours out, and will at the very least render the body part useless.  A woodjack that is incinerated or has termites also has a problem. 

Magicrosis is a problem that affects all x-jacks regardless of type.  It occurs when the animating magic starts to wear out, wear thin, and just generally decay.  Of course, materials can be treated to resist decay, insects and other pests can be driven away, tears and other “wounds” can be mended, and spells can be renewed.

An x-jack is only as smart as its creator chooses to make it; that is part of the spells used to animate it.

Examples of x-jacks: the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz would be considered a strawjack, the Frankenstien Monster is a fleshjack, and Gatekeeper of the Goblin City from Labyrinth might be considered a particularly nasty example of an armorjack.

Zoimorphic School of Magic

The Zoimorphic school of magic is focused on the alteration, manipulation and creation of life forms.  Practitioners do not refer to themselves as thus - terms such as Biomancer, Life wizard, or Seekers of Perfection are far more common.

Admission

Potential Zoimorphicists are skilled magicians who have an interest with tinkering with life.  Often the power-hungry in search for new minions may begin to travel this path.  It is not one to take lightly as the time and effort required to make any real progress is quite high. Many projects are very long term and taken on by the school as a whole.

Generally a given school of Zoimorphicists will have a very specific goal for their projects - creating life forms to exploit dangerous or unique environments, weapons of war, improving humanity, etc.  Only those sympathetic to that goal would be considered for entry.  Most societies persecute Zoimorphicists and the schools are very secretive.  One notable exception is that of the The Rephatians

Practice

The main procedures conducted by Zoimorphicists are extensive rituals performed on creatures to change their current attributes, making the changes inheritable, and to speed the process along.

Projects take large amounts of time unless great risks in terms of subject mortality are taken.

History

This school has arisen independently in numerous cultures, sometimes as offshoots from Druidic or Animistic practice, other time as the results of applying magic to improving agriculture.  In other cases, the simple rituals of shamans and midwives may slowly evolve over time into the greater rituals.  One could consider the low level spells themselves as the School of Midwifery.

Perhaps the greatest practitioners are The Rephatians who almost exclusively apply their art to humanity itself and regularly imply the highest level rituals.

In many cultures this type of magic, with the exception of the Midwifery spells,  is viewed with hostility comparable to necromancy and so is generally practiced in secret.

There are rumors of powerful artifacts of magic that greatly improve success rates of the Zoimorphic rituals, but no concrete information on these has yet been found.

Many of the defences of The Unseen Fortress were created via practioners of this school.

Campaign Use

This school of magic is not well suited for adventurers due to the long duration required to perform the rituals, and the potential for abuse.  It is this potential abuse which makes this school a good source of conflict in a campaign, and allows evil secret societies, governments or other organizations to create the various minions to harass adventurers.

GMs will need to carefully adjudicate use of these spells - no alteration will come without some cost to the affected creature.  Increased strength, for example would require added bulk or increase in metabolic rate.