Winds of Areloma

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Forum RP. Real description will come at some point probably.


    Magic Within Society

    JazzyJ
    JazzyJ
    Admin


    Posts : 49
    Join date : 2017-12-06
    Age : 34

    Magic Within Society Empty Magic Within Society

    Post by JazzyJ Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:45 pm

    The interests of the magic users within Areloma is represented by the Magocracy. Not every mage is a magocrat, however; quite the opposite. The Magocracy is a subset of the aristocracy, and they are both the advocates and the persecutors for the magic wielding minority. As such, they are subject to a limited democracy within the magical community. Basically, any registered mage can vote; however, registering yourself as a mage makes you subject to the laws of the Magocracy, and those laws favor the wealthy.


    Magic for the Poor
    So, you are a low class, young sorcerer. What do you do now? Well if you’re “lucky,” lucky being relative, you’ll be scouted by a Magocrat or an aristocrat. They might sponsor your education in an Academy or find you a tutor to hone your natural talents. Either way, if you are scouted, you will almost certainly be taken away from your squalid home to be treated like the lost nobility that you are. As you come into adulthood, you’ll be encouraged to be an advocate for other low-class mages by becoming a Magocrat yourself, or you’ll be hired on as a private tutor for noble children beginning to show their own magics, while being encouraged to take on less fortunate youths in your spare time. You may be hired on as an advisor to a wealthy Wizard or, if you’re particularly lucky and/or pious, a Prophet. If you’re fortunate enough to be poor but non-native, you’ll be considered part of the gentry, or minor aristocracy, and your children and grandchildren will have access to a wonderful education and upward mobility within the aristocracy through marriage. If you are native, your descendants will, at the very least have access to a good education, and you can potentially influence the Magocracy and the aristocracy to enact laws to treat your people better.

    However, if all of that sounds like it’s too good to be true, honestly, it probably is. So, you hide from the Magocracy. You teach yourself how to handle your magic, or are taught by an older mage, becoming a Witch. You don’t really have a say in the Magocracy, and you don’t have a vote, but really, they’re so corrupt and self-satisfying that it doesn’t really matter. You watch them neuter your peers; make them forget everything that made them who they were before some wealthy sponsor swept them away. Maybe you help protect and provide for your community, or maybe you prey on the weak and foolish to fuel your own chiruromancy. Either way, the Magocrats want to find you and, presumably, kill you. What they do to you beforehand you don’t know, but the horror stories you’ve been told keep you awake at night, and make you jump at every loud noise in your moments of rest, every creeping shadow during your travels.


    Magic for the Rich
    You woke up one morning because you fell out of your bed, which inexplicably found itself on the ceiling? Congrats! You’re a mage! Your life is going to be considerably more and less easy than your peers from this day on. Likely as not your parents will send you away to an Academy for the next decade of your life, possibly in part because it’s a tradition within your family, possibly because they just want to get rid of you and enjoy the last years of their youth while someone else raises you through the most difficult parts of your own, possibly neither or both. That is, unless you are some kind of aberrant. Maybe you could do some form of magic way younger than most people manifest it. Maybe the gods chose you to heal and bring life and light into the world. If you’re an aberrant, though, or, if your parents are exceptionally clingy and/or overprotective, instead of going to an Academy to learn comradery (and less savory things) from your peers, you are given a private tutor.

    Academy life tends to be where permanent family alliances are formed. As well as learning how to mastery your magic, you get an intensive course on how to politick. And while you are more likely to meet people of the lower classes, you are more likely to fall back to what is comfortable and safe.

    Tutoring is a lot more personal, and can lead to a greater understanding of the lives and difficulties of other people outside of their social bubble. However, not being surrounded by other children their own age can make it difficult to relate, and the young mage may grow up awkward and spoiled.

    Either way, once you have a sufficient understanding of your magic, you are expected to join the ranks of the Magocracy, even if it just means a token registration and paying your taxes on time so you can vote.

    All mages are going to feel a nagging desire to improve upon their own magic. Among wizards the competition to attain prestige is extremely fierce, but among sorcerers it’s downright dangerous. Sorcerers (and some particularly competitive wizards) gain their magic through blood. Usually they are taught to use their own, or animal, blood, but of course, wealth, power, and perceived invulnerability can lead to more heinous methods of magic. It’s not unheard of for competing sorcerers to kill each other to fuel their magic. It’s even less unheard of for sorcerers to have people taken off the streets to be used for bloodletting. Of course, no mage wants to be accused of these actions, and disgrace and steep punishment awaits the convicted aristocratic sorcerer. Your family and political connections are the only things that are likely to save your neck if you are caught bloodletting.


    Magic for the Middle Class
    Every little middle classed child wants to become a mage, until it actually happens. Magic can be devastating to the middle-class family: Academy and tutelage are expensive, and you may not have the money saved up to afford it, and you’re likely too wealthy (or your parents too proud) to be sponsored by a Magocrat. When you do eventually get into Academy (and you will, because no merchant wants to parent a witch), you may be able to get on with the sponsored students, and if you can swallow your resentment, they will likely lead to be loyal friends and allies. Of course, you and your family want you to become friends with noble children. Again, if you can put up with their entitlement despite your inevitable resentment, they are powerful friends and allies, but they tend to be mercurial, and you may never reach their inner circle, due to the circumstances of your birth. Your family name and your resources are all that really matter in the social world of the Academy.

    Once you eventually make it out of Academy, you become part of the Magocracy, and life gets a little easier. You’re expected to help earn back the money that went into your schooling, but other than that, being a middle class mage is relatively free of expectations, leading to them being some of the most free mages in Areloma, for better and worse.
    JazzyJ
    JazzyJ
    Admin


    Posts : 49
    Join date : 2017-12-06
    Age : 34

    Magic Within Society Empty Re: Magic Within Society

    Post by JazzyJ Thu Dec 07, 2017 3:47 pm

    Note
    Magocrat: a politician
    magocrat: a registered mage of the Magocracy

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