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[Roboson]

+1 to returning our master wizard to the plains. Hopefully firewall will help hold our position in the jungle.

[10ebbor10]

On a side note, we need to get this

Revision Credit:  A cultured scholar, Jibril Saadiya, has come to the isle of Forenia, having heard rumours of magic.  He claims to be a mystic and alchemist, and whilst you have doubts about that he certainly seems sharp and would be a welcome addition to your design team.  He appears to be a Saracen and consequently enjoys culture, entertainment and erudition.  The nation that is the most cultured, entertaining or erudite will attract this scholar and his keen mind.

On Arztotskan literacy

It is a simple fact, that Arztotska is the most literate nation in Forenia. Certainly, we have the greatest amount of literature and libraries in Forenia, and have had so for ages. The origin for this peculiar fact is climate. Arztotska's cold and long winters are dark and boring. Without anything to do and with tremendous cold outside, Artotzkan's started writing books in varying materials. As the winter lengthened, the worst of these manuscripts were thrown into the fire to keep our noble citizens from freezing.

Through ages of natural selection, only the best novels and stories were preserved. Materials changed, from wooden bark to paper to magically enhanced means of writing, but the tradition persevered. The healthy smoke of literacy engulfs Arztotska citizens from the moment they were born till the moment they die.

Since the invention of Artotska's most precious technology, the Axe, dramatic changes have engulfed the literary community. No longer is wood a precious and limited resource. No longer must the weakest of works be burned. The sudden unleashing of talent has resulted in the creation of thousands of new works, many greatly beloved, some reviled. Occasionally, books too horrific to unleash upon the world are still burned, preserving academic standards. For a short period of time, it was considered to burn the author as well, on the fire of his own books. This practice was abandoned once it became clear that even the most prolific writer was unlikely to finish more than 3 books per winter.

[Roboson]

In addition

The magical advances discovered by our military's wise and often unlucky research and development team have created several spin-off technologies that have made their way into everyday life. One such example is the Great Arstotzkan Amphitheater in Arstotzka's capital. The large structure is only used during the short summer months, as it to cold and snowy during the rest of the year to use it. During this wonderful and warm(ish) time, the amphitheater is used almost around the clock to display Arstozkan's greatest plays, as a concert venue for its choirs and orchestras, and for a variety of other shows. One of the most popular shows has been the Magical Demonstration Act, put on by three of our wizards. They put on a wondrous show utilizing the spells researched by our military. Wasps, webs, crystal, and fire are all used to astound and intrigue the audience. The program started as an outreach to try and get more people to join the army, but it has developed far beyond that. Three wizards who do the acts have become true artists, devising new shows every few weeks. Whether its an interpretive dance around controlled fireballs, acrobatics using webs, or areal spectaculars using thousands of wasps in formation, these wizards have found new ways to bring magic to the everyday citizen of our fine country.

Few inventions have made their way to the everyday person, but one ingenious use of magic has began to make big waves among the populace. A quite clever wizard that was injured severely and relieved of duty opened a new service in the capital. He has been providing hot steamy water, even in the winter months. Utilizing the magic lance spell he learned in the army and the help of a blacksmith friend of his, he creates metal pipes with several magic lances in the center. By coating the lances in metal, the metal turns into a pipe when the lances dissipate. Doing so has created a magical dependent way of creating pipes. The wizard, having a very cheap and easy way of creating pipes, then goes into business as the entrepreneur of a bathhouse. Using a large thick furnace and an incredible array of pipes, the wizard is able to provide steamy water to all patrons, and there are a lot of patrons as it costs very little to use the services there. Noblemen and peasants alike mingle here. The establishment even has a large laundry section where citizens can come to wash their clothes in addition to their bodies. His pipe idea has been picked up by the government, who is currently trying to mass produce the interlocking pipes (both in a metal and ceramic form) in order to improve the sewage and water system of the capital, as well as provide a heating system to homes (although right now that privilege has only been implemented within the royal palace, using a similar method of piping to distribute heat created by a royal wizard throughout the palace). However, almost no wizards have been differed from the war effort for this task, so the going is currently slow. The hope is that in time, the entire country will enjoy full and easy access to running water and heat, but it will have to wait until after the war when more wizards are available to practice their magic for the good of their people.

Another spin-off of magic is the creation of Wizard Silk. The webs created by wizards has been spun into a fine and luxurious silk. The new and wonderful cloth has become all the rage in noble circles throughout the country. Not only is it softer than the wool that most people had become accustomed to, but it is much easier to manufacture. As one strong wizard can produce a great deal of the webs, enough to completely entangle an enemy squad, the material is easy to collect, and cheap to make. Its become so common that even peasants can afford to buy some in order to make fine clothing to attend church and formal events. In more affluent households, the new Wizard Silk is being used to make wonderful clothes, sheets, curtains, and other cloth items. It has revolutionized fashion, to the point that fashion has become a leading conversation topic among lords and ladies. Master tailors are able to work wonders with the cloth and are cloaking the noble people of Arstozka in fasionable articles to the highest degree. Indeed, wizard silk has led to the inclusion of fashion almost to an art form, and certainly to a degree where it is becoming more closely tied to Arstozka culture.

These magical spin-off technologies are quickly becoming a integral part of culture within Arstotzka, much to the benefit of lords, ladies, and peasants alike.

[10ebbor10]

That crystalic casting is actually a really smart idea. Were it not for the fact that we have more immediate priorities, we should use it sometime.

[Roboson]

You have no idea how long I spent trying to think of a way to use those useless lances when we decided not to revise them... That was the only thing I could come up with lol.

[10ebbor10]

I wonder if we should it as an order. We have the metal, after all, and it's not like our cavalry force is doing anything useful.

Step 1 : Crystal lance
Step 2:  Dip in metal
Step 3 : Lance dissolves
Step 4 : Summon new crystal in lance before battle, use metal crystallic lance to attack.

[Roboson]

Nah, orders haven't really worked out for us. And I'm hesitant to use an order on a technology that wasn't technically invented by our army.

Edit: On Arstotzka Architecture

Atstotzka architecture could be described as somewhat Gothic, with an emphasis on beautiful exteriors, but pragmatic design. Arstotzkans are, if nothing else, a pragmatic and rational people. This is apperant even in their architecture. Their cities are well designed and easy to navigate, and their buildings are soundly constructed with a great deal of forethought and spacial understanding. Roads are well kept, wide, and well designed so that they may last for as long as the Arstotzkan people. Forever. Their buildings, composed of stone, wood, and brick are sturdy to a fault. There is a great dichotomy between what is called "Low Arstotzkan design" and "high Arstotzkan design." Low Arstotzkan design does not imply its inferiority, but is more a description of its style. Architects of this school prefer low laying designs, often only one or two stories at a maximum. This style uses a great number of hexagons in its design, not only because of the ascetic value, but because of the strength of the walls and also because it allows the roof's weight to be evenly distributed. Low Arstotzkan design is typically used to construct family homes (most families homes are kept for generations, and are well kept and constructed as a symbol of familial and national pride), as well as many businesses and other similar buildings. There is a great emphasis on natural lighting, and windows are everywhere. While no one would go so far as to call the style ornate, but beautiful it is. Arstotzkan craftsmen have perfected their craft for generations, and the world knows no better wood carvers, and their work is everywhere in Arstotzkan.

Really anything that is not a government, church, or royal building, is probably constructed with Low style.  However, those buildings are often constructed using the high style. They are typically several stories tall, with multiple towers. Stained glass windows are common, and used to great effect. These buildings are truly beautiful, and ornate to some degree. They often have a great deal of murals on ceilings and wall depicting the great events of our nation's history. There are few of these buildings in each town, but they are easily recognizable by the height and the style, which is another hallmark of Arstotzka, pragmatism. Any stranger to Arstotzka can navigate to important buildings from anywhere nearby, and the citizens are more than happy to direct anyone (except Moskburg bastards). Of these great buildings, none are more incredible than Arstotzka's great libraries and universities. They are great wealths of knowledge, and work to advance the sciences. The pragmatic people of Arstotzkan are pragmatic, and hold science and knowledge as very important. Church and religion are viewed more as a family value, and the government does little in regards to regulate them. However, this does not mean that the people are not religious, although some of them are not, they simply just do not flaunt it like the Moskburgs.

[RAM]

Universal magic: All of our soldiers (And wealthier civilians) now know sub-apprentice levels of magic. Let's call it basic, or minor? They can, with great effort, removing themselves from the battle and possibly suffering permanent injury or death, use apprentice spells. Also, we use the revision to make a universally practical spell. Take off the concentration and containment of our minor fireballs and have a Flare Flame. It'll be basically an enhanced version of throwing dust in someone's face. Probably give horses a good scare at close range making cavalry weak in close range. But generally having a gout of flame on hand is all sorts of useful for creating a distraction and inflicting moderate burns. Good if you drop a weapon, good if they block everything you throw at them, good if, ehh, whatever...

[10ebbor10]

Pretty sure our forces don't know magic.

[RAM]

Which is why I am proposing that we would teach it to them.

[10ebbor10]

Pretty sure that's not going to work. Seems like something that would have -4 modifiers.

Currently, we have 1 apprentice per 5 squads. You want to go to 1:1.

[Roboson]

@Iituem

Two questions:
1) If we manage to get wizardite to last weeks, or days even, will we need to devote spells to maintain the armor and weapons during combat, or will it count as out of battle type of magic?

2) Can everyone learn magic or only those naturally gifted with it innately?

[Iituem]

a)  If you got wizardite equipment to last even a day it would count as out-of-battle magic because you could pretty much scale it up quite easily at that point.  The limitation would be needing to sustain it, so yeah instead the strength of the spell and cost would determine how much was available to your army.

b)  There are varying talents.  In theory everyone could learn magic in the way that in theory everyone can learn advanced calculus.  Some are going to be much better than others, but it all comes down to the training.  Right now training in both countries is bottlenecked due to availability of education and materials.

[RAM]

Pretty sure that's not going to work. Seems like something that would have -4 modifiers.

Currently, we have 1 apprentice per 5 squads. You want to go to 1:1.

No, I never said that nor implied that. Not even slightly. Please stop just randomly making stuff up. 1 apprentice per 5 squads to one apprentice per squad is just random. I am not talking about training new apprentices, they would be less than apprentices. If we roll well then maybe we would get more apprentices as they are revealed in basic training, but it would basically just be introducing an introduction to magic into the military training(Do we even have military training? I am guessing no, so that is something else that we could do). Less than the magic teaching that an apprentice has. Now likely not everyone has an aptitude for magic and it would still not be universal, but if we aim low in the spells that they can use then we could get a major proportion of our forces capable of doing something magical. Combine this with our experience of wands and it could be huge! My current plan is to move into making a wand that is actually a bow. The wand part summons arrows and the bow works normally, thus providing arrows that replenish with magical ability and don't need to be drawn form a quiver and disappear after a few seconds so can't be reused. We could even try some uncontrolled fire magic in the mix to make them burst into flames when they expire to make up for them not remaining in the wound. As wands the requirements for use would be greatly reduced and arrows are only small and very temporary so it could actually work with basic training.

Currently our magic is really far too limited in quantity to account for their numbers. New spells can only go so far. We need new technologies and new resources...

[10ebbor10]

So, basically, you'd create an underclass of units who're insufficiently strong to perform any usefull magic, then want to spend even more actions to make very weak spells for them too use.

We don't have the actions in reserve to do that. We have to get results now.