Creation

[readercolin]

I do not like creation as it has been implemented in FF (mostly because I see the level 2 and 3 spells as makedo). Whenever I think of creation, I think of going through and trying to create creatures and bring them to life. Aka, I think that the "Perversions of Life" created by men in the age of patria would have required extensive knowledge of creation magic.

To simulate this, I want the creation 2 and creation 3 spells to allow, with the combination of other spells, the creation of new life. But, because dragons were the greatest creation of the gods, I would like creation 3 to be the creation of dragons (not the equal of those created by the gods, but the best attempts by the mages of this time). However, I still need ideas for creation 2.

What I was planning was for creation 2 to allow the construction of the life, nature to show how it has been developed some, body that it has been given stronger flesh, and enchantment that it has been further attached to the sphere that called it.

Ex. A mage has Creation 2 and death 2. This combination would allow the creation of a banshee. The banshee would be strength 2, movement 1, and have the ability to cast a spell "Screech", that does some damage to units on the tiles around it. If the mage had body 2, it would add +1 movement, and +1 first strikes. If the mage had Nature 2, it would add +2 strength. Metamagic 2 would grant magic resistance. And Enchantment 2 would add +2 death combat.

What I need is an idea for each of the other spell spheres. I have been looking through Kael's Bestiary, but haven't been able to find creatures that would really fit every sphere. This is looking at both the creatures of the various gods, and the creations of men in the back of the bestiary.

So for the spell spheres, here is the sphere, and then the idea for what to go with it.
Fire - (right now, I'm thinking about either a salamander or an efreet)
Earth - Basilisk
Air - Griffon
Water - Nuckelavee
Ice - Winter Wolf
Death - Banshee
Entropy - Wight
Chaos - Chaos Marauder
Shadow - Hydra?
Sun - ?
Mind - Auxhound
Life - Ram of Vir
Spirit - ?
Law - Minotaur

The ideas I have listed aren't permanent, and if you have a better idea, I would love to hear it. This is just my first thought through. I am also trying to avoid conflict with things that would come out of planer gates and such, but as you can see I haven't been successful. Also if you have ideas for a basic stats for such a creature, that would also be very nice. I am going to try to make a mage only able to summon 1 creature, but that will be something that I'll have to play with once I start coding.

-Colin

 

[Seon]

Actually. Creation magic was not used to create perversion of life, but rather, life magic was used. That was the reason why Arawn forbade anyone from using life magic.

 

[Onionsoilder]

What does Creation do, anyway? Dimentional is rather obvious(Think Planar Gates) and Force seems to be related either to inertia or balance of forces - possibly both. But Creation? I mean, obviously it creates stuff, but what?

 

[ExMachina]

In FF, the Creation sphere seems to be basically fertility (faster growth, manipulation of food resources, increased birth rate). This seems a little silly to me, but I'm not sure what other direction to take with it. I really wish it had a different tier 2 spell, in any case.

 

[readercolin]

Interesting. Well, life magic is good enough how it is implemented (well, i'm changing the t2 spell slightly to affect everyone at a lower damage, and undead and demons at the current damage, so it is still slightly useful even when not facing the undead or demons, and teir 3 is going to get another spell in addition to resurrect), but I don't feel creation is. So i'll make a little detour from the lore to allow creation to be more flavorful and useful. As it is, you grab creation 1, park an adept with it in your city, then go away. Creation 2 and 3 are both rather worthless. Allowing life to significantly enhance the creation might be good, but I wanted to keep all the non-alteration spheres from affecting the creation to make it a little less complicated/confusing.

-Colin

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Creation is Fertility, including both physical fertility and a fertile imagination. Amathaon is the greatest genius, in the Ancient Roman sense of the word. While Nature is about helping things grow and mature and Life is about healing and restoring that which was already alive (the perversions of life magic likely worked though sewing the corpses of various animals together and then causing them to heal together into one creature that could reproduce), Creation is about making something new from scratch. Nature would create a tree by facilitating the growth of a seed, while Creation would just pop one into existence fully formed. Amathaon himself is considered the most gentle of the gods, yet he created Eurabatres, the most powerful and destructive (against evil) beast ever made. Amathaon doesn't pay any attention to prayers, but chooses to bless certain individuals for no apparent reason. Others who love this god or want such talents often tithe to great artists blessed by Amathaon, but the god doesn't really care. I tend to think that most Amathaon's angels are essentially Muses. Creation is said to be the most powerful of all spheres of magic, but also the least reliable. Casting creation spells can be exhausting, and whether they actually work depends a lot on luck. It also relies heavily on innate talent, and it very hard to hone with practice.


Force is about Balance, more in the sense of moderation and compromise between the wills of various individuals than between physical forces. It is the sphere of contracts. It only enforces agreements freely entered, but will enforce these are firmly as Junil would his laws. Since Force involves getting all spheres to act in unison, it has the potential to exceed any power but The One.


Dimensional is more about emotional connections between people and things and valuing relational value over intrinsic worth than about physical connections between places. Summoning and teleportation are but manifestations of the bonds felt by the human psyche.

 

[Bootsiuv]

the perversions of life magic likely worked though sewing the corpses of various animals together and then causing them to heal together into one creature that could reproduce)

I always saw things created in such a fashion as unable to reproduce.

I remember reading a great book about 10 years ago....Dragonlance "the Dragons of Summers Flame", in which they talked about life created by the great archmage Raistlin. They were pathetic disgusting things which were hardly able to function, let alone reproduce. I understand D&D is different, but thats what I always thought of when I thought of perversions of life magic.

How could a mere mortal create life that worked? Wouldn't that make them a god essentially?

Just some random thoughts of mine, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

I tend to think Kezef and Leucetonius (I'm away from my computer so I cannot check the spellings) were close allies, and that the archmage of life merely perfected the monstrosities (flesh golems) that the archmage of body made from the creatures that he exterminated from the Grigi plains. (Of course, their students probably made more such creatures than they themselves did.)

My impression is that simple Flesh Golems made by body magic are such pathetic creatures, and cannot produce. The power of life magic is such that it can cause these creatures to heal and become a unified whole rather than just a bunch of parts meshed together, and can gain the ability to reproduce in the process. The actual life functions were not created by man but merely preserved and coordinated by life magic from those functions the constituent species already possessed. Life magic has the power to restore the dead to perfect health, apparently even if the corpse was not a single being but a hodgepodge of parts that were never meant to work together.

Note that most such experiments with life magic did not turn out very well, and that none of them possessed any real new abilities, only the abilities that their parts had before they merged.