Occult Mysteries and Magic, Part the Third.
Answering some more of the questions posed in the introduction to the carnival for the Sea of Stars:
Who controls magical knowledge and its dissemination? The Wizard-Scholars of the City of Borusa would say it is them but they do not have a monopoly on such knowledge as much as they would like to. Most of the draconic houses have vast libraries of magical knowledge, depending on the house it may be well used, or a museum of hoarded (and unused) knowledge. Other group tend to specialize such as the Necrourgists of Laccini or the Court and Battle Wizard the serve in the Eosiant Kingdom (with magic licensed and controlled by the Directorate). But almost every major city has a magical tradition and society of some sort.
Can anyone learn magic? Yes, but some people are more talented in the magical arts, or particular aspects of them, than others. Because of the great effort needed to train people with minimal talent, it is rarely done and many folk think that only the right sort of people can become magic users. A few cultures, however, place great store on everyone having at least a little bit of magic for one reason or another and train their people to express at least a spark of magic.
Or is it confined to particular people? While almost anyone can learn magic, some are born to it. Those with natural magic, often but not always from draconic blood, sometimes have it spontaneously emerge. Emergences can be problematic in the some of the quieter places in the Sea of Stars where people are suspicious (if not hostile) to unexplained magical events but in major towns and cities, such spontaneous emergence often set off a race between various factions to recruit the -usually quite confused- young sorcerer. Many draconic houses and states (like the Dark Star Dominion) maintain schools to train, and usually indoctrinate, these recruited sorcerers. Those families that have a strong magical bloodline try to cultivate them and develop their own traditions and rituals to aid their childrens’ emergence and focus their talents once revealed.
In other words, in the Sea of Stars, magic and magic users can be found just about anywhere. This is party to fulfill the setting’s design goal, allowing for wide player choice and options.
How would you answer these questions for your campaign word?
Notes: See Part the Second here.
Photo “Magic” by Steve Garner is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Sea of Stars RPG Design Journal 