Sickle
The Sickle is the mage guild of the Realms, monopolising the use of magic and protecting its users (killing magic users who does not want to join their ranks). It sees itself as a force for good, but is primarily an interest group for people with extraordinary abilities and a means to stay safe from hoards of people with torches and pitchforks.
Much of this is still raw notes. Never mind if you can't understand it properly!
History
See more in: general History of Hökaland
The Sickle was started among mystics, many hundreds of years ago in order to combat the Warlocks of the Black Nettle during the Warlock Wars. They assisted the Mageslayer in ridding the lands of the Warlocks and then assisted in the building of the Old Empire and it's crown jewel: Capitoleum.
During the Prosperous Times, the Sickle improved their standing and reduced the hatred of mystics that had grown to enormous proportions during the Warlock Wars, but at the same time, the Church of Rahn propagated a strong anti-mystical rethoric. Life improved for people able to control the forces of nature with their minds, but distrust remains high. They helped to move the river Wildrun into an impressive moat, move tonnes of soil to enable important buildings to be founded on bedrock and to irrigate the local fields as well as setting up a system of magic enhancement to improve the crops themselves, making the already massive city almost self-sufficient.
In the same timeframe, the guild started to organise to specialise for different tasks. Together they started hiring their own force of militia to act as body guards and separately they divided into groups they called 'Circles'. Since then, though all members are interested in a strong Sickle, there has been an internal vying for power and political intrigue.
Both for protection and their own strength, the Sickle decided to try and incorporate all users of magic into its organisation. the trade routes of the Coins helped with this goal, but more importantly they god a public relations boost with the great fire of XXXX. It was found that it was started by an 11-year old daughter of a noble family, who had undetected magic powers which randomly manifested and burned not just the girl, but the whole estate and most of the family. The fire spread to an oil storage for street lamps and almost took on catastrophic consequences from there on.
The Sickle, which was central in putting out the fire, managed to raise awareness of the dangers of uncontrolled magic as well as creating a strong sense of urgency to report magic use in non-Wizards. When they pledged to cast a powerful detection spell, it was even welcomed.
The Sickle also gave the King a hundred fire-free street lamps to avoid further fires and pledged to continue to deliver lamps to entirely replace the oil lamps (much to the outcry of oil salesmen and lamp lighters). The catch was that the city would have to pay for magic power at a cost similar to that of the oil lamps, a deal the King gratefully accepted.
Some lamp lighters got to keep their jobs, only now they refill the lamps with magical batteries rather than oil.
Despite many a good deed, The Sickle has never completely gained public support even in the city, and some merchant initiatives are to avoid MEP - magically enhanced produce.
What people, even most Wizards, don't know is that it's the lamps which detect magic. A tiny fraction of the power paid for by the city is secretly used to power the built-in enchantment that takes note of place, location of the sun, school of spell, strength and (as much as possible) magic signature. If it detects magic, this information is then sent to The Eye, which is another enchanted item in the top of The Spire, which creates a small glass pebble imbued with a detailed illusion of the said magic.
What follows is that magic students sort the pebbles for time and as part of their training attempts to detect what spell is used, which is written down on paper. The information is double-checked by another student in another room, and the same twice more. If there are spells which are too complex for the students, or looks like they have tried to conceal its purpose, it's handed to a Professor.
| Upper Circle | ||
|---|---|---|
| Macharned (Grnd Adm) | 20 | The Hunter |
| Linda (f) | 18 | The Shield |
| Hermondend | 19 | The Cloud |
| Tomasi | 16 | The Hammer |
| Aripolis | 17 | The Green |
| Monicka (f) | 19 | The Tiger |
| Full Circle | ||
| Tamah (f) | 17 | The Hunter |
| Delantro | 16 | The Green |
| Torini | 16 | The Tiger |
| Leonerdie | 15 | The Shield |
| Minda (f) | 15 | The Cloud |
| Rogdynettro | 15 | The Hammer |
| The numbers represent DnD levels. | ||
Sparks are higher entropy energy than higher spell levels. They are hard to use for powerful magic and better suited for low cost, long life spells or for powerin particular items. The point here is that they are easy to accumulate and hard to use. The Assisting Pendant is relatively crude, but still quite advanced. Primarly they were made for education before people receive their powers properly, so their cost is already "paid".
The Sponge used by the Sickle on poor people. They get a copper (or something) for a little manual labour, involving sorting stones in a small room. The room's Sponge extracts one Sparks every 10 minutes and deals one point of nonlethal damage from it.
Another "service" they provide is to offer to clean people of magic residue they accumulate on a daily basis. For people with no magic ability, it deals 1 point of nonlethal damage per drain and creates 1 Spark. Pays people money for helping keeping the world free of magic pollution as part of PR campaign.
Each Diplomed Magus of the Circle is bound to donate 1/10 of his magic powers per day to the Sickle, and recieves handsome salary for it (apprentices are expected to donate all of their power on days without magic training, 1/2 for Hypernatural Manipulators and 1/5 for HN Controllers). Used with the above item. Can store up to 200 Sparks (standard). If destroyed (HP 15, hardness 10), creates an explosion that deals 1D6 damage per 5 sparks in a 15 ft radius, dealing 3 less D6 5 feet further out, an additional 3 D6 less another 5 feet out, etc.
Also items for detecting magic. Unbeknownst to the Governors, it's included in each light post in the city. It sends a simple message to a central reciever that writes the position of the sun, rune name for which detector and rough power estimate. These are saved in the annals, and used for magical investigations. Spell Tricks can fool them. Two types: Based on the spell aura or the residue (residue more common).
Lights, water purification, personal magic detection and other items run on Sparks. There are items that just produce them (like a permanent item), but are complicated to make and expensive / takes time. "Producing" sparks from the population is a lot more cheap.
The detectors also see usage of magical weapons (when they hit the opponent), equivalent of a cantrip spell.
It's rude to use spells near other wizards, except for necessary things; it is seen as boastful. An undisciplined youth may be schooled by the use of a much more powerful spell as response.
Using spells silently is much more accepted, seen as cheeky.
Circle of the Spirit once existed. Infested with Scythe and did death magic. Still some happens, but limited funds and a lot of scrutiny.