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Arcane Sanctuary


As I had mentioned in a previous thread I plan to be opening the Arcane Sanctuary (4275 – 1055) to all the mages from throughout the lands. This will incorporate, Conventional Mages, Alchemists, Scribes, Druids, Necromancers, and Tinker mages. My goal is to make the sanctuary a place of learning and sharing for all things related to the Arcane Arts. There will be several different aspects that I hope to accomplish that I feel will help provide an atmosphere that is both welcoming and enjoyable for an Apprentice as well as a Master. I suppose you could look at it as a guild of sorts but I wish it to be much more. My hope is that it will develop into an academy, community, and a fellowship hall. All citizens are welcome to participate as little or as much as they choose the only requirement is that you are a student of at least one arcane art.

Quite often I will mention mages in this post, please note that this refers to any magic user and not just the conventional mage. It is just easier than listing the various types each time

I hope to provide several activities that will interest the various citizens. I will try to list a few below and hope to expand on them in the future.

#1. Lectures -- Once the sanctuary is established I would like to invite some of our veteran mages to provide lectures for the various trades. A few topics that we will try to cover are as follows: Combat Tactics, Resource Gathering, Crafting Tips and Techniques.

I am thinking that there will be one lecture per month with anywhere from 1-3 speakers per lecture. There will be a public announcement before each lecture (on the forums most likely) in which we will request a speaker for the event and announce the date and time so all who are interested may attend.

#2. Apprenticeship – There will be two books available in the tower one for Master mages and one for apprentice mages. If you are interested in taking on an apprentice or becoming an apprentice please sign the appropriate book with your name and specialty (druid, scribe, necromancer etc.) also please include your normal playtimes this way we can match players who share similar styles and schedules. The goal of the apprenticeship is to provide a bond and bridge the gap between the veterans and our young members. Each member can only have one apprenticeship at any given time.

My thoughts are that the apprentice would shadow the master and learn from him/or her. The master has the flexibility to tutor the young mage as they see fit. In the future if we develop a good tutoring process then perhaps we will standardize it.

#3. Newbie Box – The tower is going to also have a newbie box which will consist of mage specific items such as reagents, leather armor, staves, blank scrolls, empty kegs/ bottles, and empty spell books. My thought is that it will basically work very much like the newbie box in Britain except it will obviously only contain supplies that will benefit a mage. In addition I want to stay away from completed spell books and pre crafted scrolls, potions etc. In the hopes that the young mage gets to experience the development of such things on their own and through the help of the other mages.

#3. Quests – From time to time quests will be offered (mostly to the younger mages but I hope to provide a few for the older mages as well) I do not want to go into too much detail right now but they may be as simple as a fetch quest or much more involved. The quests will be player run so obviously they will not all be extremely detailed. However, I felt that it would help build the atmosphere and theme of the tower.

#4. Vendor House – Arcane Antiquities (4428 – 1113) has been established to provide a location for all the mages to place a vendor if they so choose. I am sure that most of the established players already have vendors in their own locations, but the offer is out there for any mages. I would assume that our younger members would be more inclined to use this resource.

#5. Gathering Place – Ideally I would like to see the Sanctuary as a place that mages can come and relax and pass the time if they like. I realize that the Britain bank is currently the most common (if not the only) gathering place, but I believe it is important to expand to new locations.

#6. Mage Hunts – From time to time we will also be scheduling hunts. Once again these hunts will be a chance for the young mages to get to know the veterans (and we might even allow a few warriors to join us hehehe) The hunts will be scheduled and posted on the forums.

Well this is still a rough outline of what I hope to accomplish with the Arcane Sanctuary. I realize that it is quite a task. However, I feel that this could be a very positive addition to WOD. Therefore since it is still in the idea stage I leave this open to discussion and I am eager to hear your ideas and comments. Also if this sounds like something you might want to get involved in please let me know. I will be more than happy to put in the time to make this work but I just want to make sure there would be enough interest before I go too much further.


Thanks,

Greywolfe

#2. Apprenticeship – There will be two books available in the tower one for Master mages and one for apprentice mages. If you are interested in taking on an apprentice or becoming an apprentice please sign the appropriate book with your name and specialty (druid, scribe, necromancer etc.) also please include your normal playtimes this way we can match players who share similar styles and schedules. The goal of the apprenticeship is to provide a bond and bridge the gap between the veterans and our young members. Each member can only have one apprenticeship at any given time.

I think that is an excellent idea. Wherever and whenever the library ends up, I hope it can affiliate. This Arcane Santuary is going to go places, I think. I'd love to help out in any way I can.

This is a great idea - I would love to help with my necromancer and druid characters.

I especially like the apprenticeship idea, considering how new I am to the shard. I'd enjoy learning how to play these characters from an experienced player.

A question came to mind; would there be a ranking system? And if so, how would it be decided? For example, would higher status come from power, or time in the guild, or both?

Oh, and a suggestion I have is Guild Dues. Like, being in the guild has a monthly fee. But the money goes towards making the Sanctuary a better place. Well, it's just a suggestion.

Tell me what you think.


- Marius the Black

Well I had a few thoughts about this. First I prefer not to charge anyone for use of the tower. I do not mind covering the expense of maintaining the tower. However, if it gets large I may accept donations. However, right now there has not been too much of a response from the player base so I am not too sure if it will startup or not.

As for the ranking system, I thought about that as well and for now there will be no ranking. However, in the future I may adopt an idea from Dragonlance.

In dragonlance there are three orders white, red, and black. The order you select determines your alignment (Good, neutral, chaotic). In addition there is a council with a head of each order. Basically you wore a robe of red white or black to show your allegiance to the specific order.


I was thinking about taking the basic concept but converting it to (Druid, Necro, and Mage) However, I am not entirely convinced that I want to do this. For now it is best to see if the Mage Tower idea gets off the ground first then we can see what happens from there.

If a few players start to show some more interest. I will setup a meeting so that we can determine the future of the tower and go from there.

i am eager to be in this mage fellowship. even willing to move my small tower to the site, make it more like a small town, rather than an isolated tower. I would suggest the area near cove's cove.

Genjimoto,

Thank you for your interest in the fellowship and you are more than welcome to participate in any manner you wish. I am hoping to get things rolling and expect that there will be a meeting soon to determine who all may be interested.

Also I appreciate your offer to use your small tower to help establish a community. However, I don't think I can move out to cove. The tower is situated in a very convenient spot in Moonglow and Arcane Antiquities (the mage shop) is within city limits. Therefore it would not be feasible to move out of glow. Also I am rather fond of the island, for it has been traditionally a city of mages. You are more than welcome to move to Moonglow isle if you wish to help develop it into a thriving community. There are a few locations suitable for your tower on the island. Though I would probably suggest waiting until we see how things go before you decide to move.


Anyhow I am glad to hear that there is some interest for this idea, and I look forward to a good turnout when we have our first meeting (hopefully this week)

Thanks,

Greywolfe

Hmmm.. after surveying the area around Arcane Sancturary, there is no space for my small tower near the Sancturary. In the location near cove, there is alot of space for more buildings than just one large tower.

Actually, I had the Dragonlance idea just recently. Druids good, Mages neutral and Necromancers evil, right?

I'd love to support that, form the Black aspect of that. It's a shame no one seems to be getting into it - I think it's a great idea. It would be really good for Mages if they could go somewhere and get resources, other than running around looking for scrolls, runes or whatever.

I'd be happy to support in any way. I hope you hold out for it- I know it's really discouraging when no one responds. But if you stick with it, people might take some time and put their support in.

Besides, the tower would be really cool, and I'd love to be part of the Black Robes!

Maybe you could set up the Test!

Must have skimmed over the part about alignment.

That makes sense to me - those different "schools" of magic already fit into those alignments in my mind, except that druids tend to the more neutral side of good (balance of nature and all that), rather than outright good.

If Marius' "holy magic" idea made it in, that would be a natural for good. *nudge, nudge*

Well, Druids being part of the Balance yes, but I figured that Druids in WoD were more the 'keepers of light and life' and all that (that's not sarcasm, by the way, I think Druids are cool) so they tended to be more good than neutral. Still, maybe Druids are netural. It would be good if they said what they were, rather than me guessing. Anyway..

The latest idea I had would be that if the library goes up, that could be open to all (of course) but sort of really with the Wizards, being that the Arcane Santcuary is really close by. The Druids have the Druid grove, and maybe they could work on facelifting the Empath Abbey, making it a really good place for Druids to gain lore from (just a suggestion), since that it's more or less established that Moonglow = Mages, and Yew = Druids.

Where, oh where, then, do Necromancers go?

Of course, there are plenty of places; Wind, Despise, Blackthorne's Castle, but none of them are really applicable, so I figure that I put the question out to the community of WoD;

Where should Necromancers be (collectively)?

I'd love for any place that made sense; whether a player tower could be put there, or a static one exists- whatever. Where is a good place for Necromancers to collectively gather. More or less, the equivalence of 'Moonglow' or 'Yew', but for Necromancers.

Anyway, enough rambling. Hopefully, plenty of answers on this one!

A graveyard or crypt, maybe?

I was perusing other shards out of curiosity (checking out the competition ), and noticed one that had a bunch of custom housing types, including crypts, ruined buildings, evil enclaves, etc.

The subject of housing is a bit touchy at the moment, with all the ranting I'm doing about lockdowns and the like.

But I saw a house in WoD in the maze, that looked like a keep half-buried in the ground. It looked really fantastic and rather evil, and I would have liked ot live in the maze, but there was this strange house in there. Anyway...

Crypts and the like would be really neat. The Eye of the World is really awesome, and would be a perfect haven with a few tombstones here and there, but the top floor is all locked up for some reason, though the bottom is the same. I really like that place.

I found a great little haunt (no pun intended) just north of Trinsic by the Fens of the Dead. Well, *I* didn't find it, but a friendly neighbourhood gate-man did and we thought it looked excellent.

Still, when I get back into my Marius-shaped alter-ego and have a look around WoD some more, I think there'll be plenty of places to go.

Is WoD ever planning on extending the world to the Lost Lands and that other scary place... in the Age of Shadows expansion? It is the World of Gargoyles or something.. can't remember the name though. Luna is a Paladin town in it, Umbra is the Necromancer one, if that helps.

Marius the Black wrote:Is WoD ever planning on extending the world to the Lost Lands and that other scary place... in the Age of Shadows expansion? It is the World of Gargoyles or something.. can't remember the name though. Luna is a Paladin town in it, Umbra is the Necromancer one, if that helps.

The Age of Shadows world is called Malas, and it's not really that interesting. The necromancer town is poorly designed and looks really ugly. As for opening up the Lost Lands, if you search both these boards and the old boards you'll find some reasons why that won't happen any time soon.

Thanks for the info, Tel'Imoen. Shame about the fact that Malas is boring, though.

Fair enough, I sort of figured that WoD wasn't planning on that sort of expansion, given the lack of any reference to it. The Lost Lands are kind of dull anyway, well.. except of course for the snowlands, but they're open -- and part of the Lost Lands, or is that a custom (and amazing) WoD-specific job?

Well, I just got Age of Shadows, but I have a free month on OSI to find out really how crap it is myself. Well, I have a free month when I get back - but you get the idea.

It's a shame that Umbra sounds really dull. I kind of had high hopes for that. Maybe that just means Necromancers will have to be all underground-in-the-fruit-shed-cellar type of cults! (which is perfectly fine)! Hehehehe