High and Low Magic

The flow of magic is not even throughout the world of Auseka. In some areas it flows more freely, in others less so. These are called areas of high and low magic, respectively.

The two largest high magic regions are roughly the realms of Palan and Aluraba. The reason for these realms being near identical to the high magic reasons they occupy is political: They make it almost a principle of state to control that area.

There are several large low magic regions throughout the world, though none reach the size of an entire realm. The very north of Biesen and Schap are low in magic, as are the Njorun mountain range, covering large parts of the dwarven realm Ebronland.

Life in Low Magic Regions

As far as low magic regions are concerned, life there is simply more similar to the real world middle ages. There is still magic around, but it is less common and less powerful. The kings still have their court wizards, but out in the countryside, many villagers have never seen a real mage with their own two eyes. In other places, there are magic users, but their powers are small compared to the higher magic regions. If you would take the superstition and fairy tales of the real world middle ages at face value, it would be pretty much like that.

Life in High Magic Regions

At the other extreme, life is very much different both from real history and from other places in Auseka.

Palan is the shining example, and at night in the literal sense - the streets of its largest cities are illuminated by magical street lamps, which re-fill their mana stores during the day.

Daily Life

Even in high magic regions, mages are relatively rare and magic is not available to everyone on a daily basis. Most peasants and even low nobles live a daily life not unlike that of their real-world medieval counterparts.

However, magic being more common and easy makes it possible for regular folks to get magical help such as healing in times of need. A healing potion or healing spell is still a serious expense for peasants, but it is possible to get and afford it when really needed. This leads to a considerably reduced number of cripples and slightly reduced death rates from accidents and child births. The problem for the later two is often that outside of cities it simply takes too long to find and fetch the nearest mage.

Other things such as harvest, animal husbandry, manufacturing, etc. are mostly untouched by magic due to the scales involved. While a mage can use magic to craft items, skilled craftsmen are more numerous and can do most of what a mage could do. There is a small market for magically crafted items where magic can accomplish what craftsmen cannot, in materials and design.

This page is still incomplete and missing content or details that are planned, but have not been added yet.

Court Life

This page is still incomplete and missing content or details that are planned, but have not been added yet.

Communication & Transportation

One of the main impacts of easier magic is that teleportation spells move from the extremely difficult into the merely difficult, and for small items such as packages and letters, actually manageable.

Teleporting a small bundle of letters to the next city (up to about 100 km) requires a 2 and 15 on the Sorcery roll. With one heroic die, and the +1 bonus per die in high magic regions, any die will satisfy the target dimension (1+1=2) while you need only a 13 (+2) for the range. The average expected roll on 2d10 is already 11, so with a small Casting bonus or by making a small ritual to gain one more die, such a spell becomes relatively reliable.

Transportation of people or larger objects is also possible for experienced mages or with rituals. However, keep in mind that teleportation of people, especially important people, is subject to the trust problem - a person about to be teleported cannot be protected with general counter-magic, so the mage doing the teleporting could just as easily teleport them to certain death.

For this reason, in Palan, portals are much more common than teleportation. However, portals are also more difficult to cast as they require a duration, and typically require a ritual. Therefore, there are no permanent magic portals, but there are many ready-to-use portals that are set up with all the proper magical markings (see the "Marking" spell) and can be activated with the proper ritual. Unlike teleportation spells, a portal can be tested by sending a servant through first.

The effect on politics within the two high-magic realms Palan and Aluraba is considerable, even if nobles are not teleporting around daily and most letters are still sent by courier. However, managing a realm becomes considerably easier when rapid emergency communication is possible, and both realms can react to emergencies, invasions and other events much more rapidly and effectively than other realms can. Not only is the information available to the central government faster, it is also possible to quickly send an important person or a small group to handle the emergency.

This makes the government work in these two realms somewhat less feudal and more modern, with more power, expertise and decision power centralized and local regions less independent.

This page is still incomplete and missing content or details that are planned, but have not been added yet.

Military

This page is still incomplete and missing content or details that are planned, but have not been added yet.