Runehack: Jewelstake

I have spent plenty of time thinking about a desert-based city and how to make it interesting. Whether it's Ancient Egypt in general, Las Vegas, Agrabah, Jerusalem, or any of the other desert-based cities, it's a fascinating thing to me to consider. After plenty of thought, I found a way to make my desert city that's interesting—a pillar of natural glass. Turns out that's all I needed to create what's Runehack's version of Las Vegas, which is rather lovely for a cyberpunk world to have. While the exact physics behind something like this aren't explained, there's enough hints dropped in this article to suggest how this pillar of glass came to be. I'm excited to have created something that sounds plausible when explained, but supernatural when it's not, because things like these have lead to myths and legends in our past.

A significant part of this article to me is the magicore, a magician subculture. I have been into magic tricks for years, so it's something that means a lot to me. I'm glad to have found a way, in which this premise could fit into the Jewelstake, and you can expect to see some references to real life things within that section.

With all this said, I hope you'll enjoy reading about another of my cities, and I wish you an awesome day!

Edit: After redeeming a sketch from the awesome Densetsu_VII, I'm adding it into the article with his permission.

Jewelstake

When an ancient tribe of orcs and goblins finds a pillar of gem-like crystalline material in the desert near a river, it's reasonable to assume they would build a village nearby. When they find out over the years that the stake is actually growing, they start to place bets. And once the news began spreading, people from all over the world gathered there to keep placing bets. This of course draws the attention of Lifestock, and the business starts to ponder: what if we made a couple of businesses around this city for people who like to make bets?

A historical sketch of the Jewelstake's early origins, sometime after the orc and goblin clans found out that the stake is indeed growing. I really like the idea of skull motifs in the Ironskulls' architecture, as well as the orange hues in the green stake of natural glass.
Art kindly provided by Densetsu_VII.

Geography

Jewelstake is located in the White desert that's found in southwestern New World. Since the city was built around it, the Lively river flows through it, splitting it into two halves. One of the ways in which the river is unique is its riverbed of small vibrant natural glass pebbles.

Majority of the foods that Jewelstake produces are poultry, as well as fruits and vegetables that do well in this temperate climate. Cotton is something that also fares well in this region. While this place is very poor when it comes to the natural reserves of amber, it has plenty of gold, silver, iron, and oil. One of its biggest sources of income though is tourism and gambling.

History

One of the nomadic tribes of orcs mixed with goblins has wandered the world in search for a place they could call homeland for years before they stumbled upon this sight. A pillar of natural glass rising from the ground is indeed a peculiar natural phenomenon, one could say it's unique within this world to this very spot.

Some of the goblins have made a bet that the orcs soon joined in on. "Which way will the stake fall" is something they have pondered for decades. At first, the bets started with small goods, which decayed and rotted years ago. So they looked for a substitute that wouldn't spoil, and found the pebbles of natural glass in the river. They figured these pebbles would be a good representation of goods, so they used those. Some historians speculate that this was the first instance of a fiat currency in the world.

The pillar's growth was slow, and so it turned out that the bet will likely not come to fruition within the lifetimes of the original settlers. Some of them left the village, wishing they had nothing to do with it. Rest in turn reacted by raising the stakes to entice each other to stay in the bet for generations. Eventually, they formulated a law, by which everyone invested in the bet has to add more into the bet, or leave it on the summer equinox of each year. After several attempts to knock the pillar over, another law was formulated, stating that whoever breaks the stake will be executed.

When the money grew large enough, the village attracted travelers from the entire continent, and over years grew into a city. The bets keep increasing, and with that more and more people run out of money. So, they start to bet things that grew in value over years, such as expensive imported wines, cheese, and eventually even plots of land.

The age of monsters began, and the city has surrounded itself with walls for protection. When Lifestock grew large enough to buy cities, they bought Jewelstake and inspired by its ongoing bet, came up with the gambling dens—establishments where people get to gamble in various ways with a promise of a small chance to get a lot more.

The bet is yet to be resolved. Scientists estimate that the tower could collapse at any moment, with the greatest estimate for the tower's maximum height being 530 meters. Due to the bet taking so long, many betters have sold their spots in the wager to others, and over time a market revolving only around the sale of the spots within this contest has been established.

Structure

Jewelstake is divided into 7 districts, 4 of which are now held by the major betters in the Jewelstake’s bet, and will belong to its winner. Thus, to discuss these districts properly, we need to discuss the four major players in the historical bet.

• Lifestock. As soon as they bought the city, they started to convince people to sell them their wagers, offering them money in return that would be valued more than everything they’ve bet up until the moment. Plenty of people fell for it, which is why now Lifestock owns the greatest percentage of the bets, 30%.
• Pagachi. The bet began when the Marlin Pagachi claimed that the Jewel Stake will fall northwards. The man was confident about it, making his children promise to him on his deathbed that they will insist on this fact. When others started to sell the bets, the family started to buy out anything next to the north, until it reached precisely 25% of the possible ways the stake could collapse.
• Ironskull. The orkish woman of the Ironskull clan disagreed with Marlin, and said that it will fall to the south. While her family wasn’t as busy with buying out the bets, by now they own 15% of the possible bets.
• Vilfae Rehar. The dwarven billionaire came to this city only after Lifestock bought it, seeking the opportunity of a lifetime as the newest competitor. She bought most of the remaining bets, paying generously for them. Nowadays, she owns 25% of the bets.

The remaining 5% is distributed among the commoners of the city. Parts of the bets of all parties except the Pagachi family are what the stock market around the bets is based upon. The seven districts of Jewelstake are as follows:

Pagachi Street. The oldest district of the city is populated majorly by the goblins of various clans, with the epynomous Pagachi family owning all the gambling dens and bars in it. It occupies the southern parts of the city, bordering The Wall, the Central District, the Steel District, and the Wheels District.

Steel District. Orcs of the Ironskull clan have settled in the western part of the city. Several farms can be found there, along with some inns, and a few entrances to the mines. The Steel District's neighbours are The Wall, the Central District, the Green District, and the Pagachi Street.

Central District. This part of the city is where all the corporations brought to Jewelstake by the Lifestock can be found. It borders all the districts with the exception of The Wall.

Rehar Town. The district placed into the bet by the dwarven billionaire contains majority of the mines, plenty of hotels, and a handful of gambling houses. The district is filled with various copies of world’s wonders, attracting many tourists regularly. This district borders The Wall, the Central District, the Green District, and the Wheels District.

Wheels District. The Wheels District is one of the newer parts of Jewelstake, and fortunately first of the districts to not be placed into the great bet. It’s named after the plethora of casinos, which all use wheel motifs inspired by the stake itself to place bets onto. Several small companies, as well as many residential buildings, are also found here. The Wheels District is bordered by The Wall, the Central District, the Rehar Town, and the Pagachi Street.

Green District. All the vertical farms can be found along the coastline of the Lively river in the northernmost district of Jewelstake. Green District borders The Wall, the Central District, the Steel District, and the Rehar Town.

The Wall. While it’s not a proper district per se, it keeps growing in size due to newcomers who decide this district is the best for them. It has been agreed to be a neutral ground that cannot be placed into the bet for the safety of all within it, which is why many of the people who move into Jewelstake will be drawn to choose this district over any of the ones involved in the bet. The Wall borders all districts with the exception of the Central one.

Culture

The clothes billow upon movement on purpose to keep their wearer cool by providing breeze. While common clothes are normal in the desert too ever since the cooling/warming fabrics have been invented, these outfits are still a regular sight in the Jewelstake.
Art kindly provided by Arell, a friend of mine.

It would take a daring nature to live in the desert for generations, just to see if you're right about a pillar of natural glass falling one way or another. Citizens of Jewelstake tend to be rather daring, loving competition and wagers. While some show such tendencies in physical ways, such as traversing the city over the flat rooftops by jumping the great gaps between them, others prefer to dare with their expression—be it their outfit, their speech, or their art.

However, it takes two to compete or make a bet. And while their courage is seen as normal within the city, outsiders might find it a little off-putting. Jewelstakers have thus developed a culture of hospitality towards those new to the city. It takes three days to fully welcome someone within the city, if all the traditional rites were to be performed. Each of these three days consists of five meals that consist of the best thing that those who are welcoming the outsiders can afford, and showing the city. While these rites are today a rarity, local elders still insist on doing them even for people who they wouldn't approve of.

People of Jewelstake look down on the criminals and cheaters, but everyone deserves two chances. In order for a wager to work as it should, both sides must play by the rules, which include paying the price upon losing. A century ago, it was normal for the punishment of the criminals and cheaters to be loss of an eye. It was a mark for life, and a mark that anyone who would look them in the eyes could see immediately, branding them as a swindler. Great part of the culture has thus become focus on the eyes of people when talking to others. Attempts to cover the eyes in any way seem to the local as a sign of dishonesty and potential ulterior motives.

Subculture Showcase: Magicore

Note: This section is not meant to imply that the presented subculture is in any way unique to or most represented within this city. It is just a subculture I chose to present because it felt most thematically fitting and it wasn't introduced yet.

Magician outfits serve two purposes: to draw the attention to the magician, and to draw the attention away from the magician.
Art kindly provided by Arell, a friend of mine.

Art Curiosities: The cultural significance of witch hats that both of the performers depicted wear have been shifting over the history between a sign of scientific prowess and the knowledge of supernatural. The magicore uses brushes as implements of "magic" for their performance, because the early runes have been considered a form of magic in the era before the monsters came, and runes used to be painted with the brushes. Dark clothes can help them with hiding fish lines that could be used for tricks, in which they make it seem like they can levitate a thing wherever they wish without using runes, and red color serves to draw attention to them.

Magicore is focused on making the extraordinary seem to be real. While most forms of cheating are unacceptable here, magicians are seen as acceptable for the wonder they spark whenever they perform. There are three core tenets that the magicians must follow to keep calling themselves a magician, although as you'll see, over the years exceptions have surfaced.

1. Keep it real. You shall never reveal nor admit your tricks. To keep your magic real, you must say it is real.
2. Once per show. You shall never perform the same trick twice on a show. The more you show it, the more likely it is they'll find it out.
3. Never after reveal. If someone uncovers your trick, you cannot perform it ever again, for magic known to the commonfolk is never again wondrous.

With these tenets in mind, every show is a dare. If someone was to find out how one's trick is done, the magician is never supposed to perform it again. After the advent of Mistweb, this has lead to a culture, in which the tricks are revealed only by those who wish to be rude. Some magicians ignore this tenet, while others outright violate it themselves.

Repeats are usually not entertaining, but people who are curious enough about a trick will sooner or later ask for that same trick to be performed again. The magicore community has discussed over the years what exactly does the trick stand for here. Is it the mechanism in which the secret is performed? Is it the exact act that's performed? Is part of a trick a trick? If a magician performs a trick, in which they shuffle three cards around, making it seem like they are all the same card, is this all one trick being repeatedly performed, or is this whole performance a trick?

Finally, there have been some magicians who have donned a mask and started to reveal their own tricks online. Most famous of these has nicknamed herself "Null", and her identity is to this day unknown. Revealing one's own tricks is seem somewhat okay, but Null goes one step beyond and deconstructs the tricks of other magicians too. There are some guesses about who Null truly is, but for now most of these have no evidence that couldn't be pure coincidences.

A schism within the magicore community is whether usage of the real runes and runetech is acceptable, and whether it should be counted as part of first tenet, or even get its own. The issue with runes in a performance is that people have come to expect them, which is why some mages have accepted runes as a commonality, thus using them in their performances. The opposite end of this spectrum refuses to use runes of any kind in a performance, relying on far more traditional methods. Vast majority of mages though doesn't hesitate to use runes only to enhance the performance with extra sensations like glitters and fanfares without the runes being the real secret to a trick.

Due to all of the above, there's a minority of performers within the magicore community who have labeled themselves as "true mages". These performers take pride in following all the tenets, including no usage of runetech on their shows. These make some of the most famous magicians in the whole world, with their shows being rather costly to attend.

Relations

Jewelstake belongs to the family of city-states owned by the Lifestock. Despite the fact that Lifestock's ownership of Jewelstake is up in the air, the corporation still owns some parts of Jewelstake that are not involved in the bet.

There are two surprising partners that Jewelstake has in the other cities. One is New Prista, which is the origin of plethora of tourists who visit Jewelstake for a night or two. The other partner is Wondermire due to Jewelstake being its source of various performers.

Curiosities

Among the various points of interest that can be found in Jewelstake are the following:

• The Jewel Stake, a pillar of natural glass that grows out of the ground on the borders of the Pagachi Street, Steel District, and Central District.
• Fortunate Hall, a complex of buildings found in the Central District that's characteristic for its rentable hoverrooms, allowing its most paying customers to travel between the buildings without having to go outdoors.
• Headtemple of Boredom, a temple dedicated to scorning the deity of Boredom, that has turned into a casino over time. Regular scornages are still held once a week.
• The Vibrant Woman, a sculpture of a female humanoid without a face in the Green District that has been grown there by an unknown elf over decades. The woman is idealistic, reaching for the Sun with both hands.
• Lively Port, a port built on the Lively river. It's known all over the city for its mixed choir that has existed for nearly a century.

Important People

A few examples of the important people from the Jewelstake:

• Cataly Pagachi, goblin, female; the current elder of the Pagachi clan.
• Thalegh Ironskull, orc, male; the current elder of the Ironskull clan.
• Vilfae Rehar, dwarf, female; the billionaire who helped in the development of the Jewelstake with her investments.
• Waltward Wilmund Westford, human, male; the current President of Jewelstake.
• Jonrick Ironskull, orc, male; a famous artist and actor.
• Null, unknown, female; the masked Mistwebber who's a self-claimed magician revealing other magicians' tricks.
• Bernara "The Great" Blossomwell, fairy, female; a performer, actress, and the world's last true mage who's a fairy.

Encryption runes, Submemory, and Arunia

I've spent plenty of time pondering how the encryption runes should work. I think it's time I'll try to describe that, and while at it describe some related worldbuilding.

Encryption Runes

An encryption rune has three inputs: information, key, and mask. Its functionality is simple: If the observer holds the key in their memory or submemory, they will observe the information. Otherwise, they observe the mask. Out of these three components, key is mandatory, and while both information and mask are optional, the rune must contain at least one of these in order to make sense. While usage of either of those is relatively cheap though, combination of both is a lot more expensive, making encryption runes with all three components exceedingly rare.

Both mask and information are based on illusions created by the runes, using sight, hearing, smell and taste, touch, temperature, and northcall. You can't encrypt something that's already written down, though you could cover it up with a new encryption. If the encryption lacks a mask, someone who doesn't hold the key will perceive the rune's drawing, as well as whatever it's covering up as a white noise, or its equivalent in the senses that the information is conveyed in. If the encryption lacks an information, whoever doesn't possess the key won't perceive rune's drawing nor the effect it's supposed to present.

Key is an input written in the same format as a detection rune would be. It can be about any range or combination of physical sensations perceivable through sight, hearing, smell and taste, touch, northcall, and temperature. Time on its own doesn't work here, but it can be used to determine the durations of these sensations when combined with them. Understandably, if one wishes to make these sensations complex enough to be perceived by more than one person, they would have to cover a lot of wiggle room. But people have come up with a different way to do this too.

See, if two people look at a white piece of paper, what they'll see is slightly different. One could maybe have the Sun or other light source bounce off of it, while the other could be looking at its darker side. There's all sorts of factors that can skew our senses, which in the past required plenty of wiggle-rooms, making encryption runes so impractical they weren't used. That was until someone came up with a genius idea of using illusions as passwords. After all, illusions are easy to reproduce and convert into/from detection runes, so they make for ideal passwords. This discovery has revolutionized the encryption services ever since.

Finding an artwork depicting an encryption rune in action was hard. This should suffice.
Made by yours truly.

Submemory

People and machines can both memorize things. There's a strange advantage that people hold over machines when it comes to decryption. This trait came to be called by the scientific community as the "submemory", shortened version of subconscious memory. In layman terms, submemory is an inaccessible record of all experiences that the humanoid has ever experienced, including those that they do not remember. Machines do not seem to possess submemory, which means that they can decrypt only things, for which they hold a key in their memory.

The exact details of how a submemory works are unfamiliar even to the best of mindlore scientists. How the mind could increase its capacity in such a way, and keep it up all throughout an individual's life is seemingly impossible to comprehend. The best guess for an explanation is that the mind finds the most efficient way to encode memories all over the brain, although it's difficult to know how exactly it's doing this, if at all. A far easier (although more convoluted) explanation that they have formulated is that the brain is only a channel for something beyond the physical world. This "soul" of sorts could hold any number of memories, and be the actual source of the submemory. This explanation however opens a whole new can of worms and brings up more questions than it answers, so it's not generally accepted within the scientific society. For all they know, this theory could be completely false, but at the moment it is the best guess they have.

Arunia

Much like mutations happen in our world, something akin to this can happen in Runehack too. One mutation that's so wide-spread that it has its own name is called "arunia", and it's an inability to be affected by the runes. While the detection runes can detect things about them, these people are oblivious to the illusion runes, and in case someone would attempt to move them using the telekinesis runes, they would fail.

Due to the fact that an encryption rune becomes much more expensive if it were to contain both the information and a mask, and due to the fact that an encryption rune can be created on top of an already existing image, one easy way is to have someone who's not affected by the illusion runes (and thus also outputs of the encryption runes) present in a group of people to see if they spot something different. Arunic people are sought after by various governments worldwide, and accepted into jobs as law enforcers, intelligence agencies, investigators, as well as for the other jobs. However, such a life has its downsides, for it's impossible for the arunic people to ever experience the wonders of Mistweb, virtual realities, and other wonderful benefits bestowed by the illusions.

If two people are conceiving a child and at least one is not arunic, the child has only a 0.1% chance to be born arunic. If both parents are arunic, this probability increases to 99.9%. Due to this, the condition is quite rare, although not unheard of worldwide. This won't ever come up in any of my future articles, for sure. (It will.)

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

10 Guidelines to Moderating Magic

I think it's finally finished, or at least the first version of it is.

The 10 Guidelines to Moderating Magic is my document, in which I gathered all of the rules I came up with on the blog over time, added some things, edited others, and condensed them enough to put them onto a single page.

With that out of the way, here are the 10 condensed rules in text form, followed by the document itself. The document can also be found in my homebrew collection.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!

Cover art is Chef, by Stephen Stark.

10 Guidelines to Moderating Magic

Rule 0: BGC

For the purposes of these guidelines, BGC stands for background character—a humanoid character that isn't important to the plot. DM can determine which of these guidelines to use and whether they apply to player characters, villains, other NPCs important to the plot, and to the non-humanoids.

Rule 1: Maximum Level

BGCs can't multiclass, and their character level can't surpass the lowest of the ability scores their class requires (as per the Multiclassing Prerequisites table) minus 10.

Rule 2: Knowledge of Magic

The highest level of magic that a BGC possesses detailed knowledge of is determined by the magics that they come into contact with frequently, as well as the community they live in.

Communities by Level:

1. Village
2. City
3. Magic School
4. Castle
5. Tower
6. —

Rule 3: Awareness of Magic

BGC's awareness of the magic's existence rises with the perceivability and frequency of its effects.

Rule 4: Training Duration

For a BGC, reaching a specific level requires training that lasts a number of months equal to twice the level they wish to learn. The DM can choose to extend this duration by a number of months equal to 5 minus the BGC's Intelligence modifier.

Rule 5: The Standard Spellcaster

The most frequent spellcaster in society would be the one that's reproducible in the most reliable and easily accessible way.

Rule 6: Magic Costs

The recommended cost of a spell provided by a spellcasting service equals 12 gp 5 sp × (2 to the power of spell's level), halved if the spell is cast as a ritual, plus the cost of a costly material component, halved if the material component is not consumed. For the costs of magic items, use the Sane Magic Item Prices.

Rule 7: Magic Item Crafting

With the exception of spell scrolls and potions, a BGC can start making common magic items if it's a 5th level spellcaster. Uncommon items require 2 more levels, and for each increase in rarity, this amount increases by 1.

Rule 8: Permanent Spells

A spell with permanent effects should be used more often the lower its level is. These spells include: find familiar, arcane lock, continual flame, magic mouth, Nystul's magic aura, glyph of warding, fabricate, Mordenkainen's private sanctum.

Rule 9: Illegal and Regulated Spells

The DM should carefully consider what magic is illegal and/or regulated.

Recommendations for Consideration: spells that cause harm, enchantment spells that manipulate others' actions, necromancy and conjuration spells with a chance for the raised/summoned creature to break from mage's control, wall spells, arcane lock, continual flame, control water, detect thoughts, dimension door, divination and spells of a similar character, enlarge/reduce, glyph of warding, knock, Leomund's tiny hut, magic mouth, modify memory*, Mordenkainen's private sanctum, reincarnate*, teleportation circle*.

* This spell is of 5th level, so unless it's public knowledge that it exists, it technically wouldn't be illegal.

Rule 10: Two Witnesses

For any important activity where the use of magic could prove to be a problem, a BGC should have at least two witnesses present. If the BGC can afford it, at least one of them should be able to cast counterspell/dispel magic.

Warlock Powers are Free*

While I was working on my 10 Rules, people kept having issues with rule #5. The rule is a claim that warlocks should be much more common in the world since the only requirement to become one is being capable of agreeing to a contract. I've talked about this matter once before, but due to all the arguments I've had over the last week on the topic, I was forced to reexamine my views. And my dear viewers, things can be so much worse than what I've envisioned back when I wrote a prequel to this article.

Let's begin with a question: Have you read all of the Terms and Conditions that you've agreed to in your entire life? Were all of these readings thorough enough to allow you to understand them all? If you haven't, do you have a friend who did? I personally will admit that I haven't. In fact, I have yet to meet a person who would with confidence tell me they did. We keep doing this so often without a second thought, but why? Because it would take too much effort, and because this way it's... much more convenient.

How to Be a Good Patron?

Let's do a thought experiment, and imagine that you are an otherworldly warlock patron. Let's imagine that making plenty of pacts is good for you. How do you get a lot of people to sign your deals?

Hint: The answer is not offering them a lot of power. In fact, too much power will make them even more suspicious. Even worse is the fact that not everyone is power-hungry. Some people are okay leading small, relatively insignificant, simple lives. And there's no shame in that.

First thing first, you should consider rebranding yourself. I mean, you can lie, right? If you can't, you'll have a harder time making lots of pacts (though it's not impossible). Instead of presenting yourself as Asmodeus, the lord of Nine Layers of Hells, maybe highlight your positive characteristics to those interested in serving you. Repeat after me: "I am a chief management officer of a multi-level organization localized on an outer plane, specializing in providing contractual services." It's all a matter of perspective, only extremely desperate would sign a contract with you if you introduced yourself as a lord of Nine Hells.

Similarly, present your personal values in a positive way. One of them should definitely be "making the world a better place". Other classical values can be any of the following: loyalty, expanding opportunities, progress, satisfaction, fulfillment of visions, etc. Feel free to be vague about these.

For the love of everything that's dear to you, don't intimidate them. That sort of reputation either spreads like a wildfire or keeps building up over the years until someone smears your public image with many witnesses you've wronged over the years. Intimidation might seem like a good thing at the moment, but trust me—it's not.

Can any of you tell me what he's doing wrong? It's multiple things. Present yourself in your best possible form to your warlocks, not just any old robe you find laying around in your home. Please, cover your chest if there's blood flowing out of it. And most importantly, please keep your contracts tidy. You can cast prestidigitation for a reason, it's not that hard, and a clean readable contract will make you seem much more trustworthy than a blood-oozing bunch of squiggles.
Jokes aside though, this is cool art. Art is for the Blood Scrivener MtG card by Peter Mohrbacher.

Make the cost of your powers something that's barely known to your warlocks. A traditional example is their soul, but if the public is too well informed about the details of that, this might prove to be a problem. Perhaps it could be perceiving the world through their senses or access to their thoughts and memories. Maybe an occasional "job opportunity", through which they could earn a small extra (for example a monetary reward) for performing a little service for you. 

Make sure that your contract is barely comprehensible to a mere mortal mind on a first read-through. Maybe show it to some acquaintances you trust, or try some A/B Testing until you nail down a contract that has the highest chance of being signed.

Present your powers as free. The only thing necessary to do is to sign a contract after all. You don't need to inform them of the details in the contract, you could just give them some legalese brief description of the cost that makes the contract seem like a good thing.

Make your powers seem like a convenience. Previously, I've said that not many people are power-hungry. Honestly, you don't want to even target that demographic in the first place, since they will sooner or later seek a way to overthrow and replace you. Instead, seek people motivated by comfort and ease of life. Convince them that they want these powers, because they'll make their lives so much easier. Why bother standing up and grabbing a mug of ale, when you could just mage hand it right to you? Make cleaning the floors, clothes, dishes, and anything else a breeze with prestidigitation, or automate it with an unseen servant. Get yourself a pair of the Eyes of the Runekeeper, and you will never need to bother studying different written languages ever again.

Building a community is a major step towards improving your approach. Let your warlocks recommend you to their friends, and encourage them to recommend you to their friends too! Who wouldn't want this community to grow, letting more folk join in and share their experiences, teaching each other how to grow and develop together?

Networking! What a buzzword to use, but it's so true. Get into deals with small villages, magic schools, noble families, guilds and so many more. Keeping up good relationships is a great boost for your public image too.

How to be a Great Patron?

You know, I feel like you already knew all of this. For all I know, you might be presenting yourself to the people as a non-divine saint with a small cult following that keeps bringing more and more people even after you've stopped contacting people on your own. "Yeah yeah, just sign this contract, it's all fine. I and all my buddies did, and that's how we got these cool powers!" But… I think you're looking for something more. You want to really step up your warlock-hiring game. Let me present you with the following mantra that I came up with.

"A good patron makes their powers seem free. A great patron makes their powers seem like a privilege."

If you wish to get people interested in your powers even if they don't need them, make them seem scarce. If too many people are asking for your powers, ask them to send you a resume with a brief description of their life history. Invite them over for an interview. Ask them all the classical stuff: strengths and weaknesses, expected uses of these powers, their personal values, etc. If you don't find them worthy, tell them so. If you wish to actually bestow them with warlock powers, privately send them tips on the areas they could improve in. Remember: you want this contract, but so do they if they go through all this work. They'll see the powers themselves as a reward, not as something they have to pay for.

As a final step, advertise yourself. Recall how I said that you should make them want these powers? Forget that. Convince them that they need these powers. If you're big enough, they'll see them all around themselves anyway. Highlight how these powers make your life easier, and the many benefits of their use. They can save your time, letting you spend more of it on things that matter to you: your family, your friends, the pursuit of your true passions, or even improving the world one small bit at a time.

Maybe even mention the potential of earning money using these powers. While the studied wizards and faithful clerics have more potential to use their spells instantaneously, your strength lies in this potential replenishing faster. You just need to keep yourself relaxed on your job all the time, and you'll get all of your potential back within an hour. I mean, would you rather spend years studying wizardry, and spend even more time afterward by hunting spells for your spellbook? That whole thing is awfully expensive. Imagine if your job was to literally stay relaxed until customers come in. Hey, maybe you could even manage to do this 8 hours a day, seven days a week, four weeks a month, twelve months a year.

Internet folks love lists, so here's everything compiled into two neat lists, free of charge!

Good Patron list:

• Rebrand yourself in a positive light
• Present your personal values positively
• Don't intimidate people interested in your offer
• Make the cost practically imperceptible
• Use legalese on your contract
• Present your powers as free
• Target the comfort-oriented demographic, not the power-hungry or a desperate one
• Build a community and network

Great Patron List

• Bestow your powers only upon those who deserve them
• Convince them they need the convenience of your powers
• Let them know of the money-making potential

Thank you for reading, have a nice day, and best of luck hiring your new warlocks and expanding your very own Eldritch Community.

P.S.: You can also choose not to follow any of this and be a bad patron. But beware, for that is a way to only get the most desperate and power-hungry of the warlocks to sign contracts with you, only to hate you for the rest of their lives.