Mana [DT]

@Lumi A dragoon sounds great! I'll look more into those kinds of characters and see what I can come up with. I'm excited.

So, what is this country like? Would the dragoon be a border guard, or just another wandering adventurer? I guess a lot of it depends on how I decide to form the character, but I'm just curious what you had in mind.

I...wasn't expecting that for some reason. FROM MY NOTEBOOK on Valon's background:

Your home country (the one we're visiting), Howlengale, is, if you can imagine, one of the majestic city-states built of military fortress upon fortress over the ages, renovated again and again until the rich and powerful built a lofty and nigh-impregnable home in the clouds. The citizens of Howlengale grow their children to join some form of military service. Entities of note include the Fire Knights (Valon joined them), the Sentinels (Tynan joined them--also possibly a good fit for your dragoon), and the Athenaeum, which is an order of astral mages which I think I'll tap into much later this chapter or next.

You could develop your own order of military service that I haven't already developed--after all, this storybook started as a lore workshop. Anyway, you'd be serving an order from Valon's father, who is an aristocrat (lol barely) to give save passage through the Silverlake Lowlands to Valon and his comrades.

There'll be trouble, of course.

@Lumi, what about the Templars? You can't mention them in a post and then neglect to mention them again. XD

Unless the Templars are now called the Sentinels and I'm slow to catch on. <_<

It's great that you've caught up, @Sheyren!

@RippleGylf, Dragoons feature particularly in Final Fantasy, so if you like, you can search for lore there. Beware of spoilers, though, since those are almost certain to pop up.

Shhhhh, I said it was from my notebook. xD Back then they were Sentinels. I forgot they changed.

LONG LIVE THE TEMPLARS. HOO HAH.

My Mana Chore List for today is deciding on the feral god/primal/eikon/eidolon that is causing the relentless winter in Howlengale. I'm inclined to borrow some beast gods from the Glory line. >.>

Also, as of some point today the mana pad will contain spoilers at the bottom, so beware.

There isn't a posting order, is there?

Nope! Whenever you feel like doing the thing, you can do the thing.

Okay, I can do the thing if no one else wants to.

Feel free c:

I did the thing. Tell me if I messed something up.

That was wonderful! It did make me wonder if it would be smart to whip up a dictionary of Elven swears. Like how they use hells and godsdamned, etc. They like their swear theology in plural!

That would actually be a fun afternoon project.

Also, our next dungeon is ready for when we get to it down the road. Adding it to the first page, but also here; enjoy the blue on blue on blue:

Pluralized the swear. One day I'll get annoyed and say "Godsdamned it," and everyone will laugh at me.

I'm prone to plan out my characters' entire lives before writing with them, so I have a few more lore questions. Sorry if this is bothersome.

What are the differences between the Fire Knights and the Sentinels Templars? Different philosophies? Styles of combat? Role in the military (like marines/army/navy/air force in the US)?

Do Fire Knights only accept elves that can use fire magic? Would it be normal for a Templar to use fire magic, or would they be expected to use a different kind of magic?

As far as dragoons are concerned, what is their rank in the military? Slightly more important than your basic infantry? What is their training like? And most importantly, do they get cool dragon armor?

You said that Valon's father is (barely) an aristocrat. What's the class system like in Howlengale? Is it based on military rank? Obviously, as a pseudo-aristocrat, Valon's father has the authority to order a dragoon around. Does this reflect how dragoons or other military personnel are viewed in the hierarchy of society?



I've started working on fleshing out my character, hence all the questions. Her name (at the moment) is Fyfa Zareth, a disillusioned dragoon of either the Fire Knights or the Templars (most likely the latter). My apologies for taking so long. I simply enjoy building characters far too much.

I think you just became my favorite person.

Fire Knights would be more aligned with intellectual-AND-physical warfare. In-canon, Valon was accepted from the top of his class after having out-performed the other lads in the Scholasticate (which is their finishing school.)

It's implied in an entry somewhere that Tynan's choice to join the Templars was hard for Valon to swallow, and probably the same for his father. So I think it's easy to say that there's a hierarchy in the military forces. I'd say there's something above the Fire Knights, (probably the Aethenaeum), but definitely ranks below the Templars, as they're still potently skilled battle mages.

Keeping in mind this is a society that values wit and intelligence above strength.

I would say the Fire Knights probably need to be renamed, to be honest, but the original concept was that they teach their inductees fire magic in order to better combat the threats to Howlengale.

And as for Balessan. The reason he's waning from the aristocracy is because of a series of incidents Valon caused before leaving Howlengale + the family's dearth of money in later days. Feel free to flesh some of that lore out by your own means!

I will preface the coming message three times so it's clear:

You do not have to join the Discord server if you do not want to.
You should not join the Discord server if you feel uncomfortable.
You will not miss on any plans if you do not join the Discord server.

---

I made a Discord server for ease of access when I'm doing other things sans Chrome (like vidya gaemz or editing graphics or editing music or writing since I'm gonna be doing a buncha that soon.)

The link is https://discord.gg/VsgJwY9 and will never expire.

Discord is completely alias-based, and for all I care you could use your character's name as your moniker for the server. Or not join. Refer to the disclaimers. ;P

Now imma go play vidya.

Upcoming

♦ 3-4 posts between Dragon's Dive and Howlengale. Weave personal plots at your leisure.
♦ Elves employ Hippogryphs instead of horses. We will briefly fly while in Silverlake. Funtiems.
♦ Alunis is BASICALLY Lucius Malfoy. He disapproves of both his sons, blood or not. We can explore that later.
♦ We will reach The Rivenhold by teleporting! Ah yes, the age-old magic trick that shouldn't be in the canon of mana because it takes so much mana--but Alunis has attuned to the Manalith in The Rivenhold, and so he will take us there with little trouble.
♦ There will be big trouble.