Later is fine too, no rush.
@monk and Magic; the sins are integral to magic here in a way, I'm afraid. Using magic requires falling back to these wants and base vices. You cannot cast a spell of Ira without wanting to harm something, you cannot alter a mind with Luxuria without desire for others. This does not mean that magic users are all sinful bastards, only that mortals generally cannot be fully virtuous. A tiny pang of envy is enough for Invidia magic, even if you are content 99% otherwise. I'll let you decide if magic is still unacceptable to your followers.
That said, I imagine the White Rock's aura of virtuousness makes it impossible/difficult to fall on these sins and cast magic - very useful, I'd say. Chosen adhering to the virtues might also have in-game benefits (being very sinful will aid with magic in turn).
Other facts about magic; it is often referred to as the Art or the Arts, and using it as 'crafting' (he crafted Luxuria and Avaritia in a web around the man's mind, etc.).
That's fine-
I think I'll go with a firm anti-magic stance, then, as the Chosen should be striving to be paragons of Virtue actually wait, there's a more interesting way to do that.
The Chosen are Embodiments of Virtue- namely,
one of the virtues. Perfection in all areas is the goal, but basically impossible for mortals- making mortals perfect is, after all, why the Virtue Power needs to gain complete dominion of the world. Instead, while the Chosen are required to have high standards across the board, they focus on one Virtue to an extreme degree- Sir Robin the Brave, Sir Galahad the Pure, so on and so forth. As a result of focusing on that virtue, the opposing vice is never surrendered to, where it isn't completely suppressed.
The upshot would be that spells from that school would be impossible for that Chosen to cast- a Chosen who is known as the Embodiment of Humility would be unable to cast spells based in Pride, for example. It might also make sense for each Tier a Chosen advances to be accompanied by another forbidden school, though that depends on what kind of level cap we're talking here. I don't know if you had an idea for specific upsides to adhering to the Virtues, but the one that springs to mind would be resistance to spells of the opposing Vice- for example, that Embodiment of Humility wouldn't be able to cast Pride spells, but he'd be able to bypass his enemy's Pride-based protection spells more easily.
This way allows players to have fun with magic, but also adds a bit of restriction. Mortals acting on behalf of Virtue would still be expected to show restraint even with schools of magic they're allowed to use- the Chosen of Vice might use magic willy-nilly, but the Chosen of Virtue recognize it as a corrupting influence only to be used as a last resort, and never relied upon. So there'll still be a decided slant to ascetic warriors among the ranks of the Virtuous, I imagine. And of course, nothing says the Chosen can't recruit followers who are firmly in the gray, and have no qualms about excessive Vices- those followers are just unlikely to become Chosen themselves unless they reform their ways. None of that DnD antisocial paladin crap
As far as the White Rock being a sort of anti-magic field, I like the idea a
lot. It makes perfect sense, and fits with everything really well. Thinking on the above also suggests a use for Ra'tul, the artifact sword. As a living weapon, the sword itself is an Embodiment of Virtue, conferring those advantages and disadvantages to the wielder. Much more exciting than a generic Excalibur thing.
I also plan to write up a couple of Chosen apps tomorrow, I just haven't found the spare minutes to rub together to do it. And if this doesn't get used, I think I can copy all this into my notes and recycle it someplace else!
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Topic: Dualism - a Pseudo-God Game of Heroic Fantasy and Eternal Conflict [Started!] (Read 13146 times)