Traladaran Village Magic at The Karameikan School of Magecraft
by Lille MyIlya Borisnhew, Traladaran Mage and lecturer at The Karameikan School of Magecraft giving his first lecture in "Traladaran Village Magic."
"Before Karameikos became a part of Thyatis and later an independent kingdom ruled by Stefan Karameikos it was a sort of backwater nation with only little contact to the other nations, this had a serious impact on the development of many things, among these were the development of magic."
"Most mages at that time lived in small villages and had only little contact with others, their apprentices would be young people from the local area, that they would teach the art of magic. With the later colonisation of Karameikos the Thyatians brought the Traladarans into contact with other nations and other mages. Now things were different, in major cities guilds of mages were created and the mages could cooperate and teach each others new magic's."
Now the Karameikans enjoy the same types of spells and magic as their brethren in other nations, but back in the old villages there are still mages practising the old village magic and this is what this course is about. Traladaran village magic is divided into four types. The first one being Old Village Magic. This group consists of the common spells as you all know, spells like Magic Missile, Sleep, Hold Portal etc., however these are different, as the village mages had a limited group of young people to pick their students from, they could not always get the brightest ones and often had to simplify their spells, an example of this would be the spell "Wine Makes You Dizzy", this is actually a Sleep spell, but it requires the target to drink the wine you enchant with the spell and as you can see, it is much more easy to cast, the same goes for "Enchanting Speech", which again is a simpler version of the Charm Person spells.
The second group is New Village Magic, this group contains spells developed by Traladaran Village Mages and is therefore unique, and these are not taught in other places and are in danger of being forgotten, if we do not teach it at this school. Among the spells in this group are The Blue Mug of Beer and Petras Answer and this group contains a special sub-group of very specialised spells, these are called the Hero-magic's and in this group are spells such as Paleps Call to the Woodland Animals and To Discern Like Jelka and as you will notice both Palep and Jelka is known from our folklore, precisely "Palep and the Troll" and "The Tale of Jelka and the Werewolf". The third group of magic is called the Ancient Village Spells and these are truly special and incredibly rare. They are from ancient times, most likely our Golden Age before the Beastmen Wars. These spells have changed very little since they were created, as it is the fewest village magicians that ever were able to learn them and use them. Most of these are simply spells printed in their original or close to original spellbooks, which then have been given from village mage to village mage throughout time until these days. We only know a few spells at this school, but it is my belief that there many of these left in the countryside or perhaps in the ruins of old settlements. The most fascinating about these spells are that they in general are very powerful and must therefore have been developed by people who were truly masters of magic, but who were these masters of magic, we don't know yet.
The Fourth group of Magics is the most special and most difficult to learn, no one here at the school are able to use these and they are called Nature Village Magics. They are much like druid spells and often support the village against drought and diseases the can ruin the harvest or the livestock. I have only met a few village magicians who were able to use the spells and they were all devout followers of either Halav, Petra or Zirchev."
"But then why this course? You asks yourselves and I shall answer. First and foremost to save the Village Magic from being forgotten, as much of it is slowly being lost as the new apprentices in the villages wants to learn the new types of magic and that is shame. Do not forget that many of these spells are either unique or represents an important part of our Traladaran culture."
Ilya Borisnhew
Ilya was born in 958 in the small village of Keremvor, about 5 days of travel to the SE of Penhaligon. He grew up in the quiet village under the tutoring of Baranya the village mage. When Ilya came of age he left Keremvor with several of his friends and they travelled wide and far. One day they visited Darokin and here they met a mage from Glantri, he showed Ilya his magics and Ilya was soon quite fascinated by this and lived in Darokin City for many years to study the many foreign types of magic he met here. In 1001 and he returned to Karameikos and saw the lands situation, the place was still a backwater nation when it came to magic and he set for himself to travel from village to village to teach the local Traladaran magic-users his new spells. During these travels he realised that the Traladarans had their own special school of magics and that it was in danger of being lost as the Thyatians slowly was civilising the land. After the Great War Ilya went to Specularum and wanted to join the mages guild, but then heard about The Karameikan School of Magecraft and contacted Tenari. Ilya demonstrated his skills and his little known Traladaran spells and was shortly after given a place at the school, where he now teaches history, archaeology, folklore and Traladaran Village Magic.
Ilya Borisnhew. 13th lvl magic-user. Traladaran. Nationalist tendencies, very knowledge-able about village magic and have travelled far and wide in Karameikos to retrieve village magic. Ilya is very proud of being a Traladaran and likewise wants his Traladaran students to be proud of themselves, interested in their culture and history and value their special spells. Ilya don't mind teaching Thyatians in Traladaran magic, but he hasn't much love for them.
Birthdate: Thaumont 12. 958 AC. AL N. AC 6; MV 9 (due to age); Magic-user LV13; HP 22; THAC0 15; #AT 1 dagger; Dmg 1d4 or by spell; S 9 I17 W14 D10 Co11 Ch12. Ring of Defence (+3AC bonus).
Rules and comments:
Requirements for a Magic-User using only Traladaran Magic is not a minimum Intelligence of 9, but 7, except the Ancient Village Magic, which only can be used by magic-users having a minimum int. of 14.
Students taking courses in Village Magic must also take courses in history, ancient history or archaeology (all specified for Karameikos/Traladarans). A comment on the Ancient Magic: These spells were taught the Traldars by the Hutaakans and some of these spells they brought along from Ancient Nithia (some of these spells might even be found among Nithians and Hutaakans in the Hollow World)
Spells mentioned:
Blue Mug of Beer
Level: 1
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent
Effect: A mug of beer
Save: optional (if you want to resist it)
Description: The caster enchants a mug of beer. The beer turns blue
and will now cure one hangover. However as it is rather foul
smelling the drinker has to succeed a constitution check or fall
ill for one turn, but will otherwise be cured of the hangovers.
Somehow it is very popular among young adventuring parties (besides
regular parties).
Petras Answer
Level: 3
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 turn
Effect: One silver mirror with gold inlays
Save: none
Description: This spell is quite peculiar. It is used to find
peoples True Love. To cast this spell the magic-user must have a
silver mirror with gold inlays and an object dear to the one who
wants to find his or her True Love. When the spell is cast the
object disappears and on the mirror the True Love can be seen, at
whatever he or she is doing at the moment, and a general direction
can be felt, but distance cannot.
Paleps Call to the Woodland
Animals
Level: 1
Range: 90'
Duration: one week
Effect: One child
Save: none
Description: This spell must be cast on a little child (no more
than 10 years of age), who is a hydra. If trolls, goblins or orcs
ever threaten him or her, he or she can choose to use this spell
and summon 3d4 HD of woodland animals to fight for the child. This
spell will not work if the child has ever been cruel to woodland
animals. The animals will arrive before the child is in danger of
being killed and either attack his enemies or carry the child to
safety, they will also attempt to rescue friends and relatives of
the child if possible.
To Discern like Jelka
Level: 2
Range: 30'
Duration: Until dawn
Effect: One wife
Save: neg. (but only if she wants to resist the spell)
Description: This spell can only be cast after sunset and allows a
wife to recognise any of her close family (husband and children) in
no matter what shape they are (polymorphed, shapechanged, turned
into a werewolf etc.). She must be within 10' of the target she
wants to discern. She also has 30% chance to see if it is a curse,
spell or lycanthropy (or any other magical disease with the same
effect).
Wine Makes you Dizzy
Level: 1
Range: Touch
Duration: 4d4 turns
Effect: A bottle of wine
Save: none
Description: The magic-user enchants a bottle of wine. The wine
turns a bit darker in colour and the smell becomes richer. The
enchantment on the wine lasts for 3 turns and people drinking from
this bottle becomes drunk and falls heavily asleep 6 rounds later
(all actions are until then penalised by 4) and sleeps 4d4 turns
unless awakened. Only living humanoid creatures with 4+1 HD or less
is affected by this spell. There is enough of this enchanted wine
to affect 2d4 victims.
Enchanting Speech
Level: 1
Range: 20'
Duration: Special
Effect: One person
Save: normal
Description: The magic-user can enthral one person with this spell.
As long as he is talking the target will stop and listen to him and
will not act against him or do anything else unless attacked in
some way. This spell affects living humanoids with 4+1 HD or less,
unless they succeed their saving throw vs. spells. The caster may
also attempt to give the listener orders, the target will follow
orders as long as the magic-user keeps talking and the victim is
able to hear it. The target will not obey orders that will cause
harm to him or his friends, but will attack others if ordered to do
so. (There are rumours of a more powerful version of this spell
that affects more creatures).
Tales mentioned:
Palep and the Troll
The Tale of Jelka and the Werewolf
Classes:
The Origins of Traladaran Village Magic
History of the Traladaran People
The Truth Behind Traladaran Folktales
Ancient Cultures in Karameikos (archaeology course)