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I've got PFRPG and Island at the Edge of the World, but haven't found a lot of info about this time in either one (maybe I'm not looking in the right spot???) Can someone give me a detailed run-down about this period? I'd appreciate both whatever is in the books as well as "fillers" that people have created and are willing to share.

The reason I'm asking is that our group had an idea of a new type of magic. Since the GM is really busy in RL right now, and hasn't looked at the idea in months (though he approved of the idea), he gave me permission to write a rough draft of the details. That makes it easier on him, since he then simply has to approve/disapprove/tweak any details, rather than come up with it from scratch.

I was thinking of tying it into that time by saying that it's not a completely new discovery; it's a rediscovery of something (very rare, limited practitioners) lost during the Time of a Thousand Magics. Any surviving artifacts would be unrecognizable as being magical (because it's so different) and spell books are so different that they are thought of as frauds and jokes (even if someone tried the spells as written, nothing would happen unless you know how to work the actual magic, which no one even remembers as having existed).

The game basis is that the characters are in a modern world (with a few differences, like aliens, magic, psychics, chi, mutant humans, and mutant animals), but have easy access to an alternate dimension that essentially comes straight out of PFRPG. The group as a whole has fairly good relations with the wolfen and really good relations with the changelings (and as you can guess, not really good relations with anyone else because of the first two).

Any help via background would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

well, it is all still very sketchy, despite 2nd ed. most of the known stuff can be found in the rulesbook as well as some snippets scattered around the sourcebooks. but there is not much to be found.

re-discovery is a (rare but) plausible thing and it has been done officially in some of the books. so go wild.

Vid

Well, there is no breakdown of that age. It's all allusion and Tristine Chronicle ramblings. Of course, that works in your favor. You can make up anything and say it was one of the 1,000 magics.

-Vek
"Why bother even tying it in?"

I think Vek hit it right on the head. The 1000 Magics time period was really just some space of time deep in the past when people used magic a lot, and for a lot more things, than they do now. I imagine that people (i'm talking about the fictional people of Palladia, here) talk about the "Time of a Thousand Magics" with a lot more authority than they have any right to claim on the subject. I'm sure that alchemists the world over like to slap that label onto everything they can, in the same way anti-magic folk use the Elf-Dwarf War.

So, maybe the Carpet Mage down the street claims to have magic lost during the ToaTM, but it really just the result of a couple generations of wizards experimenting with known magical principles and a few references they deciphered from some appropriately ancient-looking manuscript.

It seems to me that most of the lost arts of magic were probably fazed out due:
A) Bad investment to outcome ratio
B) There already existed another more common way to achieve the same effects (be it technological or by simple spell magic, etc)
C) destroyed by fanatics at the end of the aforementioned EDW.

acreRake wrote:It seems to me that most of the lost arts of magic were probably fazed out due:
A) Bad investment to outcome ratio
B) There already existed another more common way to achieve the same effects (be it technological or by simple spell magic, etc)
C) destroyed by fanatics at the end of the aforementioned EDW.

Well, those factors, AND, there weren't 1000 different TYPES of magic. More like name-brands.

Over here, we have Hof the Wallmaker. He strictly casts spells that create walls, barriers, etc. This includes DIMENSIONAL barriers, etc.

Over there, Haus, the Horror. He's a human that casts spells that deal with fright, HF, etc; and the spells to RESIST those things.

They both cast basc 'incantation' spells. But, they focus strictly on their own particular type. Thus, they are two different TYPES of magic, based on To1kM breakdown.

Later on, they would both just be called "wizard".

--
GS

Oh dont forget Segrahm the elf sitting over there, she focuses purely on spells that are centered around shadows

Thanks for the listing of official sources, I'll re-read my books. Also, I do like the "specialization" explanation that accounts for the high number.

Does anyone have any "home-brewed" stuff they'd like to share? Things that happened in games relating to that age, or written backgrounds, or other stuff? Since it hasn't been officially detailed, has anyone done their own details? It'd be cool to read, if people want to post it.

I think rifts is the time of 1000 magics

victor15065 wrote:I think rifts is the time of 1000 magics

Wow, 11 years! It was a powerful Thread Necromancer from the Time of a Thousand Magics that revived this one!

Well since the zombie walks, land of the damned 2 mentions some in the npc section. Primal magic iirc.