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.

Runehack: Avurai University

If you've been reading this blog since its beginning, or if you happen to have read its earliest posts despite the fact they're super outdated, you might remember my list of settings I wanted to work on. It's funny looking back at that list and at my current priorities. Sivobog I see to this day as a mistake, while Grimwick is a world that has lingered in the back of my mind for years, but I never really felt like starting actual work on it. Then there's E2020, and Charodey. The former, full name Earth-2020, was an urban fantasy setting: basically our world, but with magic and fantastical creatures. While it was a fun thought experiment, I realized quickly that this can't be done easily because of magic, which is why it eventually evolved into the Ethernet of Keys. That setting toned down its magic to an absolute minimum by the 5e standards, permitting literally only cantrips. The more thought I gave it, the more I realized that the further back you go with the introduction of magic, the more differences our timeline should contain. Today, I know that the easiest solution to that would be to just.... introduce the magic right as the game starts, or as close to that point as possible. Back when I thought otherwise, I started to work from the ground up on a world with minimal magic. That's how Runehack was made.

Charodey was another setting that has lingered in my mind for a long time. School time is associated in my head with some nice memories, a collective that can but doesn't have to always work well together, and learning. While the original premise was much more fantasy, I remembered it when this article was half-finished. Sure this university is very, very different from Charodey, but somehow it found its way into the Runehack too it seems. Back then, I literally named the school "Charodey Academy", the word Charodey coming from the Slovak word for a wizard. The Avurai University is different though. It's a place full of elitism, betrayal, competition, but above all else education. Hopefully, it will be a homage to an idea I had a long time ago, despite the fact that this school has basically no magic in it.

I wish you at least as good of a time reading this, as I had writing it up.

Avurai University

Avurai University is a surprisingly influential city, considering it can't expand, has practically no goods for export, and that it has a capacity of 5000 people, 50 visitors, and 3000 fairies beyond that. While the island can support more people than this, it's much safer to keep the numbers below the actual limit. This university campus travels around the world and educates only the best of the rich, as well as the richest of the best worldwide. Earning your place in this university is truly a prestige, whether as a student or as the staff.

Geography

Avurai University is the biggest city entirely located on a floating island. The island usually travels around the world in an orbit, though the rulers of the city can direct its flight through a complex mechanism built into the island. Due to its original location being above a warm temperate climate, most of its natural fauna would resemble that of a typical deciduous forest. However, ever since it started to traverse the world, it only retained on its surface plants that would survive in any climate. The only expansion it ever went through was hollowing out the inside of the island to create buildings on its surface, and to establish an underground farm for the food.

The closest thing to the exported goods of the Avurai University would be its educated people. While the island can hold thousands of people, it has barely enough space to produce its own food and wood. Anything else, such as metals or amber, has to be imported up into the city. Due to this, anyone who wishes to study at the university must pay a lot to stay there.

History

The history of this city goes back to 2900 years before the era of monsters when the greatest cryptoexplosion of the recorded history happened. This produced the biggest flying island in the world that flies to this day, Freeland. Over the centuries, the island gathered dust on its surface, which turned out to be fertile enough for life to start there. It's theorized that birds or other historic flying animals have brought the first plants to the island, which without other competition thrived there since the island flies low enough to receive rain.

Once humanity has developed the first flying vehicles, a handful of hopeful settlers set the course to Freeland. However, the more of them gathered there, the more they realized the many disadvantages of this land: lack of goods they could produce combined with the very limited space for living was discouraging enough to make them leave.

Twenty years later, a handful of wealthy Lifestock employees had a vision of what the Freeland could be, bought it, and claimed it as their own. Once they started to build a university there, Lifestock has started to show interest in the project. When the offers started to come, first from their employers and later from their competitors, the owners of the island and the university decided to quit their jobs and establish independence. Building the university took a total of 3 years, and the university has operated for nearly 160 years ever since until the present day. While the university has remained completely independent ever since its founding, its independence relies only on the constant influx of wealthy students and keeping up its reputation.

Structure

The city has 5 major districts, some of which are divided based on the five faculties. While the Dormitories and the Scholars' Way are not connected, other districts are all interconnected at least in one way. Each of the districts houses some non-teacher staff, though outside of the Main and Farming districts it's only for the most needed matters.

Dormitories. This is the residential district where all of the students live. It also contains some places where the students can hang out to enjoy themselves.

Farming district. This district is off-limits to anyone but the farming staff and those who govern the Avurai University, and it takes up the entirety of Freeland's underground spaces. Vegetables, fruits, crops, and even some meats produced there are then transported to the other districts based on their needs. While the students above are told that the illusory sunlight is good enough for the plants, only the farmers know the truth of how these plants can be grown underground.

Main district. Most of the non-educational establishments of the Avurai University are found in this district. Shops, catering, repairs, and many other services are available in the largest outer district of the city.

Scholars' Way. The university teachers live in their own district on a single street that could be mistaken for a part of the Main district. This district also hides beneath it the control panel that determines which way the Freeland island travels.

Studies. Buildings intended for the education of students are all located in the Studies district. It is the most defining part of the whole university both due to its unique architecture in comparison to the rest of the city, but also because of its function.

The people are divided into these groups based on their relations to the university:

• Teachers, those who are employed by the university to educate its students.
• Personnel, those who are employed by the university to take care of the cleaning, cooking, services, and any other necessities.
• Students, who are equally subdivided into the following five Faculties based on the fields of science:
• Cravenlore. These students learn about the nature of non-humanoid beings such as plants, animals, and apex predators. Their representing color is green.
• Mindlore. These students focus on politics, economy, psychology, art, history, and other matters related to the study of humanoids. Their representing color is red.
• Runecraft. These students learn everything there is to know about the runes, runetech, and their applications in practice. Usually, the knowledge of runes would fall under the Worldken, but it has been separated into its own faculty due to the breadth of things that the runes are used for in practice. Their representing color is orange.
• Witlore. These students focus on the study of all matters nonphysical, that include mathematics, logic, and philosophy. Their representing color is pink.
• Worldken. These students learn about the chemistry of inorganic materials, the fundamental laws of the universe, and their utilization in practice. Their representing color is blue.

Culture

Standard uniforms of the Avurai University are beige in color, with dark brown details, and colored signifiers of which Faculty they belong to in the form of shoulder pads and the neck gemstone.
Art kindly provided by Arell, a friend of mine.

Art curiosities: The fairy secretaries are a luxury permitted on the university for all personnel, as well as students of 3rd or 4th year of study.

If someone asked anyone from the Avurai University how they'd characterize life there in four words, they would say it has to be educational, snobbish, competitive, and back-stabbing. Since it's the university's policy, the choice of who gets to stay is governed by strict rules.

The students can study at this university for up to 4 years, or more if they can afford it. At the start of every school year, the school admits the 400 of the best students done across all of the cities of the world into each Faculty, as long as their test results were above 60% correct. This usually totals to the 2000 students in the first grade. Every year, only half of that number passes to the next year, with the same condition of at least getting 60% of the answers right. The final fourth year thus holds only 50 students in each faculty, to a total of 250 fourth graders across the whole university. Out of these, anyone who gets at least 60% of the answers on the final tests correct gets to pass, receiving a title and usually leaving the university. Since they have more free time due to requiring less sleep, the majority of students attending the Avurai University consists of elves, with higher concentrations in the latter years of study.

Since Freeland has a carrying capacity, each student is limited in how many things they can bring with them. While stationary is largely unaffected, they can't bring with them things such as their own vehicles (including hovering ones, which is a matter that puzzles students yearly), hovering rooms, or pets. University's population is also kept in check, with any of the personnel or students who perform the forbidden intercourse running a risk of getting expelled permanently.

In order to ensure the highest quality of the teachers and personnel, at the end of every semester, the worst 20% of them are replaced with the new hires from cities all over the world. This also includes the runebots who serve double duty as janitors and security of the city. These runebots are replaced only when it is necessary, for example, due to a malfunction.

Beyond the standard limit of 5000 people and 50 visitors, there's a limit of up to 3000 staff fairies on top of that. Any student who is a fairy doesn't count into this limit and gets counted as a regular student to the limit of 5000 people. Some common jobs for the fairies employed by the Avurai University include education, surveillance, repairs, accounting, library guides, and working as waitresses in the bars using special hovering food trays. But the most common job for the fairies here is a personal assistant. Any employee, as well as students of 3rd or 4th grade, can bring along a personal assistant fairy, as long as they employ and pay her properly. A fairy employed this way serves as a secretary to whoever they're employed by, keeping track of their schedule, duties, and anything else that the individual wishes to delegate upon her. Since a personal assistant bypasses the merit-based requirements for coming to the university in another way, it is the greatest hope for many of the fairies who would want to see the Avurai society in person.

Every school year is split up into three trimesters and a holiday, all of which line up with the seasons perfectly. The trimesters cover spring, fall, and autumn, and the holiday lasts during the winter. There are several official events organized by the teachers and university personnel, and a handful of unofficial events organized by the students for the students.

The Academic Show is organized at the beginning of the summer trimester every even year. Students who choose to attend this show must present some kind of scientific experiment and/or invention in order to impress and educate others. The most impressive presentation from each of the faculties wins a monetary prize, as well as a university-paid trip to one vista within the winners' choice of a city that the University will pass over before the school year ends. Any participants who present an experiment that was showcased there during the last Academic Show are automatically disqualified from winning the prize, although they are allowed to present. Since the monetary prize for each team is equal no matter the number of members, participants usually limit themselves to working with up to 2 others, or preferably alone.

The Scholars' Soiree is a formal dance organized on the evening before the final week of the autumn trimester of every school year. It's preceded by the month of tailoring, during which the attendees of the Soiree have a chance to design and sew their own outfits. The Scholars' Soiree begins with a ceremonial feast, often considered to be the first of many winter feasts. After the feast, people are free to do as they wish: socialize with others, drink or feast some more, dance, or attend other activities. The secret judges mingle with people, examining custom-made outfits close-up until 1 hour before midnight. At that moment, the judges are unveiled and hand out the titles of the Lord of the Night and Lady of the Night to those who they deem to have the greatest self-made outfits. Understandably, even a friendly meaningless contest like this can and is cheated by those who can afford to cheat it. Since all of the students of 3rd and 4th year get to have a fairy as a personal assistant, those who wish to gain this title will employ fairies with past experiences in fashion design and tailoring.

The Winter Feasts are organized during the winter holidays. It's a simple event in comparison to the other two, all about having wonderful weekly feasts for all three months of the winter. Students who haven't finished their 2nd year of study are not allowed to stay at the university during the winter months, which means they cannot enjoy these feasts. Teachers use these feasts as a way to entice the students to stay in the University even during their holidays and possibly help out in it as a cheap labor force for some small credits.

Over the years, students of this university have formulated several humorous phrases revolving around the nature of their university that has ever since become commonplace, sometimes even beneath this island:

• "Drop-off" and "drop out" both stand for a student, who is not studying anymore due to a reason that's not graduation. They can also stand for things that have fallen from the island down to the world below.
• "Flying grades" are grades that will allow a student to attend the flying university for another year. In other words, they're a nickname for passing grades.
• "Hang in there" began as a phrase of encouragement told to those who struggle with passing. However, it has evolved to contain a strong sarcastic undertone.
• "Climbing the Tower" stands for the effort that someone puts into graduating the Avurai University with the intention to stay there as a teacher. It's due to the fact that only the teachers are permitted at the Tower of Knowledge.
• To "feast on meat" means to enjoy the rewards one has earned. The origin of this phrase is uncertain since it could stand either for general consumption of meat, which is much rarer than fruits and vegetables, or because of the Winter Feasts.
• "Traincatcher" is a student who is expected to fail their current year of study.
• "Streetcleaner" is a nickname for the janitorial runebot staff, mainly due to their capabilities of keeping the streets tidy, and enforcing curfews as well as laws.

"Hang in there, traincatcher!"

Subculture Showcase: Scientific Communities

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.

Examples of the scientist outfits. The white lab coats are the most important part of the outfit, with the innerwear being optional, up to the individual scientist's wishes.
Art kindly provided by Arell, a friend of mine.

Art curiosities: The guy is wearing a VR headband. The scientists showcase two different types of clasps for the "semi-open" lab coat at the top—the male having two triangular flaps, while the woman has a gray band. They bear no cultural significance and are interchangeable. Pink is prominent within the scientific community due to its association with knowledge. The first versions of the illusory screens were made pink in order to stand out in most environments, and ever since then, the color gained a cultural meaning of intellect. Of course, it's not the only meaning there is for the color pink.

Once the monsters came to be, some people have tried their best to understand how they operate. Eventually, these people have created teams, which evolved into groups. Some of these groups have diverted their attention to other matters of study, such as inorganic matters of the world, physical laws, or abstract sciences. Once the mistweb was developed, the international scientific community was born.

The highest ideal they hold is the search for the objective truth. They wish to learn as much about the world as possible, which is why they try to measure everything and run many experiments. The only boundary that they tend to clash into is the vague line of morality. Since many of the scientists who enter this community are Avurai University graduates, it's rather competitive. If one can make themselves more famous and rich through their experiments, it is most likely that these graduates will be the first ones to step on, and sometimes even over, the line of morality out of the public eyes. After all, what is one to do if the secrets of the World lie beyond that hazy line? A way to improve the lives of thousands, if not millions, could be there.

• One of the places that scientists worldwide viewed as sacred is The Tower of Knowledge, atop of which is The Amber Telescope. Years ago it was said that every scientist worth their salt has looked through the Amber Telescope. Nowadays this belief is seen more as a superstition than a sign of prestige since many scientists have been successful despite dropping out of Avurai University (not literally), or in some cases even despite not studying up there at all.
• Once every four years, the Cognito Prize is given out to the most influential scientists in their respective fields of study.
• "A wrong train can still bring you to the right place" is a phrase that came to be due to an anecdote about Hernard Silverstem. When he traveled home from the Avurai University on a train during his third year of study, he fell asleep and dreamt of a wand that could control other people's minds. Only after waking up did he realize he was on the wrong train. Exiting it in the nearest city, the first thing he noticed was a great bronze statue which made him think of his most famous idea. Since then, the phrase came to mean that even an accident, a mistake, or a wrong way of thinking could get you interesting, and occasionally even correct results.

Relations

While most of the cities respect the Avurai University, considering it one of the few places with an objective outlook on the worldly situation overall, there is one city-state that tries to take it off the pedestal. Moorwell, the city that helped in the establishment of Avurai University, possesses sour feelings towards it ever since it has become independent. For years, it has been running a campaign to slowly erode people's trust in this institution, in hopes of discouraging new students from arriving. Without new students, the school would inevitably run out of money and have to find a patron who would gladly buy it in order to improve it. While within Moorwell this campaign is somewhat successful, other cities still hold enough people interested in studying there to keep the school afloat. One of the cities Avurai University cooperates with the most is the Everling, which thanks for its existence in part to the university, and thus regularly buys advertisements on the Freeland island.

Curiosities

Considering its size, the number of points of interest on the Freeland island is surprising. Here are just some of them:

• Brilliance Train Station is the train station located on the border between the Dormitories and the Main District. While the trains don't come by often, they do when the University is flying above another city to gather the travelers and bring any ordered goods to the island.
• The Grand Vestibule is the entrance to the main university building. It's great in size, with plenty of room to serve as a student lounge. It's directly connected to Jolye's Square.
• Jolye's Square is the only town square of the Avurai University, connecting all of the districts. It bears the shape of a pentagon and used to be mockingly named "Five-Sided Square" due to Jolye's famous claim that one could draw a five-sided square on the surface of a sphere. Once she has proven her claim, the square has been renamed to honor her.
• The Library of Wynbel is a library found at the border of Jolye's Square and the Main district. This building has three floors, and several elevators that can bring the students up, down, and to the other end of the building.
• The Platform, also nicknamed "The Long Way Down", is the main elevator that's used to travel down into the lands beneath the city. It's located on the edge of the Main District.
• The Rose Garden is a greenhouse for studying various kinds of plants found throughout the world. People of Cravenlore Faculty are assumed to hang out there the most, even though the actual difference is minuscule.
• The Tower of Knowledge is found in the Scholar's Way district and holds atop of it The Amber Telescope. Only the teachers are allowed to ascend this tower. All of the districts can be seen from the top of the Tower of Knowledge, and the tower can be seen from all districts. The only exception to both of these cases is the Farming district due to the fact that it's underground. While the telescope does have a name that draws attention, it's in fact not made out of amber.
• The VR Grotto is a laboratory found in the depths of the Runecrafts' Faculty studies. According to the University's records, it is the perfection of Kaily Runetooth's Academic Show project, which is a room that can emulate any sort of environment.

Important People

A few examples of the important people from the Avurai University:

• Jolye Hammerfist, dwarf, female; one of the founders of the Avurai University, and its very first Headmaster.
• Nedmund Palevine, elf, male; the current Headmaster of the Avurai University.
• Hernard Silverstem, elf, male; the inventor of runebots who has studied in the Runecraft Faculty.
• Kaily Runetooth, goblin, female; the scientist who studied in the Worldken Faculty, and invented a way of synthetically creating amber. It's a thing she keeps secret, but with the money she has earned from this, she studied Runecraft Faculty for extra 4 years, and afterward bought herself a city-state of her own, naming herself its queen.
• Pristina Ashenhart, human, female; the exemplar student of the Witlore Faculty, considered the most important philosopher of her time back when she was known to be alive. She's assumed to be dead in the present times.
• Maxton Amberblood, orc, male; the most famous student of the Cravenlore Faculty that has afterward remained on the university and revolutionized its farms.
• Catalia Volerich, fairy, female; a mistwebber who's a member of the Lucky Petals mistwebber group located in the Timberhaven.
• Winbel Moonshire, elf, female; an explorer who has written and sold many books about the wilderness, each with a questionable degree of fictionality. Her publishing is so popular, that she established a library on the Freeland.

Northcall

I've wanted to add a new sense to the folks of Runehack, for some time now. I've narrowed my options down to a single one and felt like writing about it.

"Ever felt that sensation of following the Still Star into the unknown? To see what's in there?"
"Haven't we all?"
A custom artwork drawn by Arell for this article.

Northcall

Due to traveling a lot in the older times, the humanoid species of Runehack have developed and retained a sense of magnetoreception. At all times, they can sense the direction of the true north. Think of it as an expansion of proprioception (the sense of where our body parts are relative to each other, to put it simply), except it's a position relative to the north, letting you know the direction to the north, and while close enough also a rough distance.

In the old times, people considered this sensation to be the call of the unmoving star in the north. Eventually, they came to call this sensation the northcall without realizing what exactly it is or how it works. Grammar-wise, think of it being used in the same way we use words like "sight" or "smell". While it was very useful for orientation and long-term travels, some have wondered what this sensation actually leads to. Early communities were, understandably, under-prepared for such journeys, which is why they always ended lethally. Thus, "reaching for the north" has become a phrase for hopeless journeys that would be deemed impossible, and/or perilous. One of the symbols associated with this sense is the Still Star, a star that's perfectly motionless in the night sky, right above the true north.

At a certain point in history, humanity has discovered a strange mineral that called for them too, though its call was much weaker. Many names have sprung for the lodestone depending on the cultures: from starstone or starmetal to northrock. The northcall of this rock was much shorter than the call of the true north, but they noticed a strange phenomenon through experimentation: The lodestone attracted itself, and its power grew stronger when more were brought together. This has been an origin to many legends of theirs, one being a legend of Mount Boreal. This mountain was supposedly entirely made out of lodestone, and in some versions of the myths even held a way to reach the Still Star itself. Even nowadays, lodestone is a cultural symbol for love and attraction and used in various gifts for the closest ones.

Another myth says that the Still Star is a heated loadstone, and that little stars are within all of us. Some people claim that their soulmate has a distinct northcall due to the attraction of starlets, but such claims were afterward disproven. While northcall can detect the presence of other people, its strength is so weak that it works only within a room and doesn't let you know where or how many people are in the room with you. You just feel a hunch that there probably are people with you there. According to some, the Still Star beckons all people to join it. When it comes to the afterlife, believers of these myths say that after the death, the little star within a person, too small to be seen by a naked eye, escapes, and flies to the North to finally join the greatest soulmate this world ever had. Understandably, a religion has sprung up around the Still Star, worshipping it as both a deity and an afterlife that one should strive to reach.

Debates have gone on for years whether the source of the true north is the Mount Boreal or the Still Star, so many expeditions have been made to see it in person. The Mount Boreal believers have presented themselves as rational, claiming that the mountain of lodestone is the most sensible explanation, while those who thought it's the Still Star used more spiritual reasoning, with less empirical evidence. After some time, society has grown competent enough to reach the true north of the world. Once they arrived close enough, the explorers made a bizarre discovery: there are two norths calling for them. One that points downwards, and one that points upwards, directly at the Still Star. As the news propagated all over the world, the religion that has grown around the Still Star has splintered. One major branch of this religion is a dualistic faith in two deities who represent different ideals of what the good is: one that claims that intentions are what makes a thing good and another that claims that the outcomes are what makes a thing good. It mirrors the duality of the origin of the earth, and the Still Star high above, and yet people feeling the call of both. Since this religion is one of the two biggest religions currently present in this world though, I think that it should get an article of its own, or at least a segment focused on it some other time.

Those who can't feel the northcall used to be called wayless, but over time this word came to be seen as offensive, so it has been replaced by the term "uncalled". Before the time of monsters, religious fanatics used to pursue the uncalled people, seeing them as people without a moral compass that would help them tell good from evil. It's not a thing that religious people in the present times are proud of, but it's undoubtedly a part of their history.

Lesser Norths

One of my rules for the Runehack's magic system is that the runes can detect and replicate (almost) anything the human senses can sense. This is why I wanted to make an extra sense, to begin with, so let's get to that.

Detection of northcall simply allows people to direct their machines much more easily in movement. It gives them an objective point that can serve as an anchoring point for them. After the runetech revolution, a scientific breakthrough has proven that the Moon does actually have a northcall of its own, although one that's so weak it can only be detected by machinery and not people. With a triplet of points (the north pole, the Still Star, and the Moon), it was only a matter of time before the Global Positioning System has been reinvented, working entirely on the base of runes.

When it comes to the northcall-based illusions, people have started to draw attention to their businesses by their use. These illusions came to be commonly called "lesser norths". But with the abundance of lesser norths and no way to tell them apart, the illusion became so overused it was obsolete. Soon enough, laws have been passed to ban the public use of northcall illusions, reserving them only for the places that can provide emergency assistance. When someone needs help due to a crime that has happened or a wound, they can simply follow one of the lesser norths they sense to get to safety and/or to get the help they need.

Understandably, as with any other illusion, northcall too can be made private, which is not covered by the law. The most common use for private northcalls is finding things when one needs them - stuff like one's phone, keys, car, the hidden box that nobody should ever find out about that's just buried someplace in the forest... you know, the usual.

---

That's it for today's article of mine. It feels refreshing to do this sort of worldbuilding again where I start off with an idea and try to grow it as much as I can. I've tried to finish the next article on a Runehack city, but while most of it is done, I'm stuck with the Elvish language at the moment. I'm still tinkering with it, trying to find a good sound for it, altering vocabulary here and there, and tired of rewriting the important words I need for that article. Soon I'll hopefully have the dictionary finished enough to actually finish the article, maybe edit some of the Elvish words in the New Prista article, and continue the series as I hoped I would.

Thank you for reading, hope you've enjoyed this article, and I wish you an awesome day!

Doubled Creature Types

Alternative title: Are we the monsters?

I had a neat idea about D&D 5e, so I've decided to make a short article about it.

Intro

What creature types can you find naturally on the Material Plane? For the sake of clarity, I would say that a creature type naturally on a plane is a creature type that's integrated within the plane's ecosystem on a long-term scale. This is not a trick question, let's just go through them:

• Beast
• Dragon
• Giant
• Humanoid
• Monstrosity
• Ooze
• Plant

Mini-rant: Giant is just a Large or larger humanoid, it shouldn't be a creature type because it's more of a size category.

I could in theory add more creature types, but these will suffice for now. Now try to tell me, what creature types can you find naturally on the Upper Planes? As far as I am aware, just celestial. What creature types can you find naturally on the Lower Planes? Fiend, maybe one or two extras.

What if there was a way to introduce a bit more variety to the various planes of existence? Let's think through this thought experiment together, and make up a system of Doubled Creature Types.

Finding an art to represent the idea of a double creature type was hard enough, so I'm gonna just go with this art, call it a "fiend construct", and call it a day. ... Addae. That's not a bad name actually.
Arcane Construct III, by CaconymDesign

Doubled Creature Types

Let us begin this journey by splitting the creature types into two halves: General, and planar.

• General creature types include beast, construct, dragon, humanoid, ooze, plant, and null (more on that later).
• The planar creature types include aberration, celestial, elemental, fey, fiend, monstrosity, undead.

(I left out giant because of my mini-rant above, feel free to put it into either category.)

Now, each creature gets assigned two creature types. In most cases, one should come from the general, and one from the planar half. Understandably, which types go where is up to everyone, but that doesn't matter.

The planar creature type determines the plane of the creature's origin. The general creature type determines its function within the ecosystem of the plane. Plants are there for the herbivores to consume, oozes consume the corpses, humanoids make civilizations, etc.

So what does this give us? More variety to all of our planes of existence where we apply these, of course! Why restrict yourself to just fey, when you could have fey beasts like talking wolves or sacred deer, fey plants who can talk to you and bind you in its roots, fey oozes that glitter or something, and other stuff. How about a corrupted bear turning into an aberration beast? A constructed celestial? A fiendish dragon? All these and so much more are suddenly open to us!

What does that make our player characters though? What is their planar creature type? Well... monstrosity is the best fit. Monstrosity covers anything that's on the Material Plane (as far as I can remember) that isn't a beast or a humanoid or anything else like that. So every human, elf, or other humanoid race has a creature type of monstrosity humanoid. Every beast of the Material Plane has a type of monstrosity beast.

What does that make the previous monstrosities, like owlbears or medusae? Monstrosity null, or simply monstrosity. Null is a simple creature type add-on that you can add on top of the planar type to make something that's just... too generic to use two creature types (unless you want to experiment a little, making medusa a humanoid or owlbear a beast).

Could there be a creature with two general creature types? Yes, for example, a wolf overgrown by plants could be one. Could there be a creature with two planar creature types? Yes, for example, the elemental titans could be both elementals and giants.

What about stuff like charm person or Wildshape? Do they now work on all these new creature types? Up to you. If you want them to work, go right ahead and experiment! If you don't want them to work with them, make up a houserule along with these that reads "whenever the rules say something affects a humanoid, it affects a monstrosity humanoid unless I say otherwise", and analogous for other creature types you're worried about.

So there it is. A short demo of an idea, without a proof of concept. I'll probably include them in some of my future brews, along with a write-up as to how they should be handled and which of the creature types is the "dominant" one. I feel like I could make a booklet on planes now, except I don't have much time, energy, attention, and ideas for that kind of stuff. I got some ideas for it, don't get me wrong. It would be a cosmology of my own, possibly similar to the one I've presented on this blog previously, or maybe a new one. It definitely wouldn't be a carbon copy of the Great Wheel, at best I'd merge some of the planes together to get the essence of all the interesting things in there. But any of that is a promise I can't make, I already have so many other ideas I could work on, and yet I feel like these days I have less and less time to work on them.

Commoner Magic: Levels, Magic Items, and Training

Continuing my sort of series on the worldbuilding with the magic of 5th edition Dungeons and Dragons, I've decided to try tackling the magical items, levels, and the time it takes to train today.

I'd imagine someone with an inborn talent as described later in the article to be someone who people generally know about. They could achieve greatness with all of their potential, possibly even going slightly beyond.
Silverquill Apprentice, by Mike Bierek

Levels

In order to gauge how many people of certain levels there could be, I came up with a simple guideline to assume when worldbuilding.

The maximum level that a commoner can reach in a class is equal to the lowest ability score modifier that the class requires (as per Multiclassing Prerequisites) multiplied by 2.

Just for the sake of clarity, let's make an example. Let's say someone wishes to become a rogue. What level can they be at best, if their Dexterity modifier is +4? The answer is 8.

Now, the most obvious question would be "How come players can reach higher levels?" This is a general rule of thumb. Exceptions can exist. Alternatively, there could be an actual reason for this. Maybe the players are blessed by the god of adventure. Or maybe they actually need help from the magical items in order to progress further. That all I leave up to the DM, to each their own, I'm here to give advice on worldbuilding, not on managing the party.

One curious consequence of this is, that in order to reach a level of 10 in a class, the character will need to have a starting modifier of +3 or higher in that stats associated with their class. Upon reaching level 4, they can increase this modifier by 1, and they can do that again upon reaching level 8. There's a handful of exceptions, a good exception being Fighter who can afford to have a stat of +2 or higher in order to get to the 10th level (extra bonus: Fighter is the only class in the game that gets to choose which of the stats it tracks). On the other hand, someone with a +4 or higher modifier in their class' stat has one ability score improvement to spare, perhaps for a feat or into a different ability score.

A rather curious bad case of an exception is the trio of monk, paladin, and ranger. Each of these classes has two stat prerequisites, which means that by my own rules, the lower of their stat modifiers determines the maximum level. In order to become a level 10 monk, level 10 ranger, or level 10 paladin, a commoner would have to have a beginning modifier of +4 in Strength and Charisma for the paladin, or +4 in Dexterity and Wisdom for the other two.

There's another interesting consequence to take notice of. Some magic items exist that can help one increase their natural predispositions. These include but are not limited to:

• Gauntlets of Ogre Power and Belt of Hill Giant Strength, which replace the Strength modifier with +4 and +5 respectively.
• Headband of Intellect, which replaces the Intelligence modifier with +4.

I'm leaving out the items that increase the Constitution since that isn't on the Multiclassing Prerequisites table, as well as any consumable items and very rare or rarer items (the reason for the last will become apparent with the next rule). Understandably, there could be further items added to this list through homebrew, such as a cloak made out of a nymph's hair that replaces the wearer's Charisma modifier with +5, but that's up to the DM.

So, what worldbuilding consequences does that create within our world? Here's a handful in a neat bullet point list format:

• If you're not born with strong natural predispositions (+3 modifier) for anything, but you're somewhat strong or dexterous (+2 modifier), you may as well try your hand at being a Fighter.
• Unless you're predisposed to be excellent in whatever you wanted to be good at (+4 or higher), you should focus on improving what you're good at already instead of getting distracted along the way (feats). If you get distracted, you may never be able to reach your fullest potential.
• If the settlement has a magical item that could increase one's capabilities, they could be lent for training.
• Since only such items at the moment in the game increase Strength and Intelligence, such practices could lead to wizards who are capable of casting spells much more powerful than they could understand on their own, as well as barbarians and fighters who can seem rather weak.

Hey, I think I've mentioned magic items, so it's time to talk about those now.

Magic Items

This rule might be kind of controversial, but it's something at least I find somewhat reasonable, considering all of the previously established rules.

Commoners can at best create magic items of rare rarity.

Before you raise your pitchforks, let me show what happens when the commoners raise theirs. Xanathar's Guide to Everything states, that in order to craft a magic item, you'll need time, gold, formula, and most importantly an ingredient from a monster of some CR. I did some maths assuming the 5th edition's combat balancing is right. I don't know if it is, let's just go with it for now. I've considered two kinds of scenarios: One in which the commoners face a monster along with some "minions" of its own, and another in which the commoners lure such minions away, thus facing the monster on its own. I chose only the highest CRs in each of the ranges listed for the magic item crafting, and I made some CRs up for the minions that felt legit to me. I also assumed all of the commoners to be of the same level, and that they wouldn't go into a Deadly encounter (making these the hardest possible Hard encounters). Here's a nice table, displaying how many commoners would be needed for each of these encounters.

Level	Common (CR 3)	+2x CR 1/2	Uncommon (CR 8)	+4x CR 1	Rare (CR 12)	+8x CR 2
1	6	-	-	-	-	-
2	4	7	10	-	-	-
3	3	5	6	-	11	-
4	3	4	6	-	9	-
5	1	3	4	7	6	-
6	1	2	3	6	6	-
7	1	2	3	6	5	-
8	1	2	3	5	5	12
9	1	1	3	4	4	11
10	1	1	3	4	4	9

As you can see, Common items are something that even villagers could their hands on if enough of them got together. Uncommon items, on the other hand, could only be achieved by folks who live in communities that help them grow in their magic or martial capabilities, or by a large group of villagers who know how to distract the monster's assumed companions. Rare items would be restricted to city folks who know how to distract the minions or lure the monster away, or in case the monster's minions are not so easily swayed, ... only the most experienced of the commoners.

Very rare magic items, as well as magic items of higher rarities, are not in the table because even with just 8 minions, a CR 18 foe would be insurmountable even for twelve level 10's. If they were to distract them, it would still be somewhat feasible, but hardly so.

Since these two approaches were suggested to me by the community, I'd much rather just try combining the two in a way that makes sense to me, and translate it into the levels to keep it in theme with some of the previous rules.

• Common items could be crafted by commoners with a spellcaster level of 5 or higher.
• Uncommon items could be crafted by commoners with a spellcaster level of 7 or higher.
• Rare items could be crafted by commoners with a spellcaster level of 9 or higher.
• Unless we're talking about making a common item by a skillful 5th level commoner who knows how to split the target away from its minions or a 9th level commoner, making magic items is a group effort.

I know it's not exactly what the table above says, but this way it feels at least somewhat nice and authentic to me. You could change these levels as want. This is just a guideline for a minimum provided by me.

Sorcerer has wares if you have coin. Of course he knows what all of these things do, and he isn't just selling his experiments to find out when others try them, that's why his stock is full!
Ye Old Magic Shop, by jjpeabody

Training

I think I've finally sorted out a good way to determine how long it takes for a commoner to get levels. All you need to do is just to say it takes them a number of months equal to twice the level they wish to reach a worth of training. Reaching level 1 takes two months, reaching level 2 takes 4 months after level 1. Thus, the full journey from level 1 to 10 would take 110 months, which is 9 years and 2 months. These years assume 8 hours of daily training, weekends and some holidays off, etc. One could complicate this further by increasing the number by 5 minus the Intelligence modifier, but I feel like this is good enough for me.

If you're concerned that it might be too easy to become a master of your craft, just remember that it takes 10 years of not working in order to get this good. You would need money to cover your own expenses, as well as money to pay your trainer. Thus, for someone who has to work hard every single day, the process could take way, way, way longer.

Example

All of this sounds like it deserves some examples, so let's roll up stats for three siblings and see where their lives could take them. For this, I'll use an odd method of stat rolling I came up with just for this article (6 + 2d10 drop highest, they're commoners after all), and convert them to modifiers instead of bothering with ability scores.

• Aleya: Strength +2, Dexterity -1, Constitution +0, Intelligence -2, Wisdom -2, Charisma +2
• Barnsby: Strength -2, Dexterity +1, Constitution +0, Intelligence -1, Wisdom -1, Charisma +1
• Clayre: Strength -1, Dexterity +0, Constitution -1, Intelligence -1, Wisdom +3, Charisma +1

Aleya was strong and charming from a young age, though she was easy to fool and clumsy too. She has some potential for becoming a paladin, though the best she could achieve would be 4th level in almost 2 years of training. If she became a bard, shown some magical powers characteristic for a sorcerer, or made a deal with an otherworldly being, she could reach 6th level in that class, which would take her 3.5 years. The same goes if she tried to be a barbarian. However, she could reach 10th level if she trained to be a Fighter for more than 9 years.

Barnsby was never truly exceptional in anything, besides being rather weak. Even if he tried to be a charismatic mage or rogue, he'd at best reach his personal limit of level 2 in 6 months, unless someone would assist him with magic items.

Clayre however was always seen as an exceptionally wise individual. While she was not dexterous enough to become a monk or a ranger, she could still become a cleric or a druid. If she dedicated all of her focus to growing wiser, one day she could reach the 10th level in her class of choice too.

Not everyone has it in them to achieve greatness, and thus sadly Barnsby would be left behind by his sisters. While the game is trying to be fair to us, life is not fair to the commoners. If I were to assume the rolling method I made up on the spot for all of the villagers, only 1% could ever go beyond 8th level in a class that's not a Fighter, and even out of those some could stagnate due to diversion of focus on something else. And you know what? That sounds like a pretty good guesstimate to me. Ideally, I'd be able to count the number of 10th (or possibly even 9th) level characters in the whole world, minus players and story-important NPCs. People like Clayre, who reach their full potential and become 10th level, would be known about across the kingdom without a doubt, if not further.

When my burnout started, the magic system of Dungeons and Dragons 5th edition felt like a big intimidating body of water. An ocean that I would rather avoid if I could. The first article was testing the waters. The second was putting my whole leg in it. Right now, it feels like I'm standing in it up to my waist. When I get around to making the next article, it might finally be my full dip into the water. I'll try to rewrite the rules to be clearer and to work better together, I'll probably try to also reword them in order to allow the DMs to adjust them as they wish. Who knows, one day I might get back to actually DMing D&D instead of just talking about it. But it is not this day, these days I feel too overwhelmed with work to do that.

Thank you for reading, and have a nice day!