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[necromanswers]

Hey folks. PSA for you. Name's Lup, I own Affurgato. Congrats to those who've already met my fabulous self.

As a heads up: I'm a lich. Other terms include: undead, corpse-walker, monster, abomination. Someone screamed "The Raven's Misfortune" at me once and I thought that was delightfully poetic.

If you have a problem with this, you can eat my entire ass. If you want to BRING your problem to me, I'll be happy to set YOUR ass on fire.

Now, are there any deeply personal details I ought to know about you in order for us to be friends? Apparently I have trust issues and aren't accustomed to mortal cultural norms.

that's all, have a great day or whatever

Comments

[astralera]

Should things go tits-up Ardbert and I are very skilled, but we've yet to figure out how to put steel to the incorporeal.

So its usage is like a more potent lol, I take it?

[necromanswers]

Like fighting a ghost? There's spells for that too, though I'm not sure I've got them, personally. Would have to check my spellbook. I think that's more a cleric's domain?

yeah basically. beef up your lulz. there's a few variants but I don't know all of them, I just picked up a few in space.

[astralera]

Generally, yes. The issue here would be if there is no manifestation within the physical realm. I know of a way that could work to force a physical summoning, but it would be dangerous and very likely impossible.

'Cleric'? There is an ability called 'Cleric Stance' that increases the potency of a healer's offensive spells for a short period... I believe some White Mages of eld were referred to as such in my world, but am not sure as it's a forbidden magic.

What are the clerics you know like?


There is so much 'chat speak'. It's both fun and incredibly confusing. I know:

lol
brb
wtf
jk
nvm
ikr
yolo
stfu

And now 'lmao'.

I prefer 'kaomoji'. They are like emoji, but more creative.

[necromanswers]

Call me biased but I'm not super eager to look for ways for people to damage ghosts. I'll leave that to your expertise.

The cleric I know is a weird old fuck with a plant fetish and an obsession with the Zone of Truth spell. Clerics in general, though, are healers who get their power from the god they're aligned with.

Kaomoji? I'm actually not familiar with that term.

[astralera]

Not ghosts — deities that have yet to manifest in physical form. Ghosts are different, and not truly a threat.

In my worlds all life is made up of aether, and it can be divided into three categories: corporeal, spiritual, and mnemonic. The body, the spirit, and the memory.

'Ghosts' are made when spiritual aether exists without corporeal aether. Likewise, 'zombies' are made when corporeal aether exists without the spiritual.

Deities are not truly 'alive' and aren't subject to standard aetherology, so far as I'm aware. Admittedly I know little beyond that. I've always been the 'brawn' of my allies, so to speak.

(ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:･ﾟ✧ Kaomoji. ♡ (˘▽˘>ԅ( ˘⌣˘)

[necromanswers]

Can't really claim to be an expert on the gods of my particular world, either. I just know they're all real and wildly different from one another. Their power comes from beyond the Weave of magic, all the way over in the Celestial plane. I've never known their magic, and probably am not likely to, so whatevs, I'll stay in my corner.

oh! nice. I didn't know that's what they were called. ヾ(￣◇￣)ノ〃

[astralera]

What is the Weave of magic?

They are very fun. ٩(๑･ิᴗ･ิ)۶٩(･ิᴗ･ิ๑)۶
Apparently they originate from Earth's Japan.

So your clerics are akin to priest-healers?

[necromanswers]

The Weave is the source of all magic that isn't pulled from celestials- the magic of wizards, sorcerers, warlocks, bards... it's called arcane magic, instead of divine. (technically divine magic still uses the Weave, it just goes through a god-filter first to clean it up or whatever) Essentially, energy is like a fabric sewn into everything in existence, from rocks and trees to living beings. Casters can pull a "string" from that fabric and reassemble it into more organized magic via their spells. I'd compare it to something like your aether, if I were to hazard a guess.

Lots of things seem to come from japan lol, must be a cool place.

Priest-healer's a good term for them, yeah. Though most of them are warriors in their own right on top of the healing magic. Guy I know used a big club to bean assholes on a regular basis.

[astralera]

The general concept sounds a great deal like aether. What casters do also sounds very similar in function to arcanima. We shape aether using geometries drawn with aetherially conductive ink, though if you're skilled enough you can 'draw' the geometry in your mind's eye.

Most healers of my world are skilled warriors, though they weaponize their magic rather than their conduits. Conjurers assault enemies with cutting blasts of wind and stone.

I can infect opponents with miasmas, hit them with blasts of unaspect aether, and leech vigor and mana from them.

But I also can cave skulls in with my codex if I feel like it. 📖💪

The most effective way to heal someone is to assure that they need no healing in the first place. To do that you simply defeat your enemies before they can cause injury.

[necromanswers]

it wouldn't surprise me. I've visited loads of different worlds, and in pretty much all of them my spells worked the same way. Energy is for the most part universal, it just sometimes takes some tweaking to find the "Weave" equivalent on each.

hell, a lot of those spells are similar to ones either I can cast, or folks I've known can do themselves using our magic. lots of crossover to be found, I'm sure, if we compared spellbooks.

And yeah, that's ideal! easier said than done, though, especially for wizards.

[astralera]

I cannot sense aether in these other-worlds, yet I can still absorb ambient energy for my magic if need be. Whatever it is, it is similar enough to be functional for me, though is lacking in certain aspects. Not unlike the difference between real food and replicated food—functionally the same, and yet not quite.

I've a grimoire here. I would not mind showing it to you, though my spells are all mathematics and battle stratagems.

Can wizards not just light their enemies on fire or sear them with lightning?

[necromanswers]

That's more or less what I'm at, too. Familiar, but not too familiar.

It's generally bad form to share one's spellbook, but I wouldn't mind swapping a few pages. You might find similarly mathematical equations in mine, spell runes can get weird.

We totally can, sure. But can you guarantee that every single enemy you ever fight goes down in a single hit?

[astralera]

Is it? How so?

In my world there are mages who are secretive and protective of their research, but magic will not evolve when kept to oneself. Perhaps sharing entire grimoires is not commonplace, but geometries and pages certainly are, so far as I'm aware. Which is not saying a great deal, as I've never been taught any form of mage etiquette.

My primary spellbooks are filled with geometries from the long dead, though considering the two branches of arcane magic I've been mastering were thought to be lost over the past few thousand years my resources have been quite limited.

One of the foremost summoners from five millennia ago enchanted his grimoire, turning it into a familiar. Principia was meant to instruct future summoners. It was a rather odd teacher, even by my standards.

I cannot guarantee that, nor would I want to — it would be so dreadfully boring.

[necromanswers]

Just like you said- it doesn't feel exactly like it should, but it's close enough that I don't have trouble casting my spells. More often than not what's missing is the spell components, not the Weave itself.

Huh... that's super different. A wizard's three best tools are focus, spellbook, and familiar. Plenty skip the third, but they're all completely separate. It's not a good idea to cross the streams, since too much sentience can cause one to turn against the wielder if they're not careful. Where I'm from, even the strongest wizards generally know better.

And that's what I meant by easier said than done. If you can't guarantee a quick death to your foe, you'd better brace yourself for injury. Thus: healers.

[astralera]

I primarily rely on a focus in the form of whichever weapon I've on hand. Arcanima usually requires geometries drawn with aetherially conductive ink, which you then push or draw aether into in order to shape it. I don't need to for all my spells at this stage, as I can visualize the geometry in my mind's eye and recall the feeling of shaping aether in that way.

Having my grimoire makes my aether usage more efficient, and I require it for higher tier magic, but it is not mandatory. Likewise, I need no conduit or focus to heal.

Unless it is an attack that cannot be dodged or blocked I just let Lily heal everyone, especially as most have some capacity of self-healing or damage mitigation. It's rare when I truly need to step in and heal, though I haven't entered battle as a healer often as of late, with my preference being for my summoning magic, my dark arts, or my dancing.

[necromanswers]

Wizard focuses can be a little unorthodox, but they tend to become a part of the wizard over time - not literally, but in the cheesy "my focus is me" sort of way. It's really dangerous to channel the Weave without one. It can be pretty much anything, so it doesn't have to be something that's annoying to carry around. Sounds like our magic works similarly in practice, though, as far as casting goes.

I've never known a healer to be able to cast through a familiar like you do, so that's a no-go in my world unless it's something I've not yet seen. Healing's between a cleric and their god, or a druid and their nature

or I guess a paladin and their hands, I remember that being a thing.

[astralera]

It can be dangerous to channel powerful elemental magic without a proper focus, as it can alter your internal aether. I've heard stories of thaumaturges aspecting too strongly to fire, resulting in their aether setting alight and burning them alive.

I don't cast spells through Lily — she has her own magic. We are more akin to partners, though she obeys me if I ask something of her. Healing magic has naught to do with gods. It's no different in concept than any other magic, though it can come with more risks of burning oneself out.

Paladins using magic with their hands?

[necromanswers]

Yeah, sounds about right. One idiot at uni turned himself inside out trying to cast Dimension Door without a focus. They had to quarantine the lab for a week so they could scrape him off the ceiling.

That's one way that your familiar and a wizard's familiar is different. They have no magic of their own, besides the ability to manifest and vanish at will. What power they have is sourced from their master.

Far as I know, they have a handful of useful spells, and one of them involves a limited healing touch. I can't say how good it is though, I've never done much adventuring with paladins. They tend to be more stuffy assholes than clerics, in my experience.