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Appearance as a stat?

During my deconstruction of the Rolemaster ruleset for my Shadow World campaign I kept hitting a wall with stat redesign. Sometimes I tried to reduce the stats from 10, other times I tried to come up with a better framework of qualities that represents a “being” and works with the skill list. I have to say that even after 45 years, the 10 basic stats in Rolemaster work pretty well and it’s hard to come up with something better. It’s a good balance between tangible physical components and intangible or mental attributes. That is not to say that I don’t use stats differently (stats as skills) or apply different stats to skills then RAW, but I can’t come up with any real improvements that are worth further effort. That’s a testament to the original design.

However, there is 1 physical quality that I think should be included and one that I use–but not wholeheartedly. “Appearance”. It’s easily argued that physical appearance is an incredibly relevant attribute, but decisive as well. Recent game design theory has moved away from stressing physical appearance and embracing full-inclusivity, but beyond in-game efficacy, an appearance score is a quick indicator, a short-hand, when describing a PC or NPC. As part of my writing, I’m trying to focus more complete character descriptions and I don’t think every PC or NPC should be heroic in appearance or from “central casting”. Certainly a character could be less traditionally attractive (physical appearance) and yet highly charismatic. And yet, I don’t want to lean into the normal advantages that physical appearance provides: in real life or in gaming.

I’ve always been intrigued by player’s decision to embrace a PC with unusual attributes: obesity, unattractiveness, physical disabilities etc. In a game environment of min/maxing, fantasy and escapism, many players want to be an idealized figure. Does anyone really want a score of “20” in physical appearance? Should this be addresses through the flaw system or incorporated into the stats and related skill resolution (charm, leadership etc)?

Anyone else use Appearance as a 11th stat or a more prominent role in their game?

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SW 4th Era: Road Map for History

How do you know where you are if you don’t where you’ve been?

For the last 20 years I’ve found my campaign hovering around the last few decades of the 3rd Era. The great story arcs are still in progress and the conflicts arising from those story lines are intersected by the PC’s again and again without them being the main characters. Strangely, I’ve never run a group completely through one of Terry’s campaigns.

Shadow World now feels like a game of the greatest hits, or similar to Star Wars RPG where the players run their adventures during the lead up to the original trilogy. Great moments, world shattering events and completions of story arcs are there but not for the party to enjoy directly. I’ve talked with quite a few Shadow World GM’s over the years and most run games with characters between 1st and 10th lvl and then reset. Some of Terry’s storylines are going to need very high level characters and based on feedback from my “Legends of Shadow World” their also seems to be little appetite for high level adventures as well. Not everyone can be a lowly Hobbit and save the world!

So, to circle around, before I can build the 4th Era I need to finish the last few pages and chapter of the 3rd Era. Each of Terry’s new books slightly advanced the timeline, but I think it was his fiction, “Loremaster Legacy” where he hoped to finish his opus rather than through incremental SW supplements. While there are many story arcs in Shadow World, the higher level narratives need to be resolved to determine and inform what happens next. For all my ideas about the 4th Era, any changes need to have a logical justification and not just the simple hand-waves that annoy me!

So what are these large story arcs?

  1. The Northern Eye. The loss of the Northern Eye plunged the hemisphere into erratic Essaence activity and Terry hinted at more several issues. Clearly, the return and placement of the Eye is a key event in the 3rd Era.
  2. The Shadowstone Chronicles encompasses the “World Crisis” story arc that has driven the setting from it’s earliest form. Several items play here: the Shadowstone, the Soulsword, the Ark of Worlds and the Heart of Agoth are key elements. There is a lot of Middle Earth DNA here and some elements of the Court of Ardor that is leading to a grand confrontation between the good guys and the bad guy(s).
  3. The Nameless One. Something is happening here. A mysterious figure that shows up before a major disaster needs a conclusion.
  4. The Gods. Since the Wars of Dominion, the friction between the Orhan and Charon pantheons has reached a boiling point.
  5. Lorgalis. For many settings, Lorgalis alone might be the main antagonist. While not world spanning, his influence and plans regarding Jaiman are significant.
  6. The Gold Dragon. He hasn’t played much of a role in the 3rd Era, but setting him up for the 4th seems appropriate.
  7. Andraax. Should the story of Andraax be put to rest, finally? Perhaps a deep sleep for now?
  8. Legends of Shadow World. I consider this critical narrative and set’s the stage for several SW elements: the Lense of Strok, the rise of Andaras, the disposition of Nynaku and the Demons of the Pale.

I’m not sure any definitive ending to these stories will satisfy everyone; but these stories need an end. My goal is to write the ending first and then see where it leads us, rather than write the ending that meets my needs and plans for the 4th Era. That’s going to be difficult since I’m not sure what’s working subconsciously in my creative process!

I’m curious if anyone has run to the end, have any ideas on an ending, or feel like there are other major plot points that I didn’t discuss that need commenting!

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SW 4th Era: Initial Books

As many of you already suspect, I’m further along on this project than just concepts. I’ve fleshed out the first 3-5 supplements that could be brought to market as a cohesive RMU 4th Era launch. Arguably having several books ready to go creates more momentum and incentives player buy-in of the setting. Of course, any new users for SW would likely want the older material from Terry as well giving the entire product line a great boost.

I’m not getting into too much detail, but here is my working list.

  1. SW: 4th Era Addendum. I’m not sure it should be called a Master Atlas since it doesn’t need to rise to that level of detail and/or it would include some redundancy. Nonetheless, this is the essential primer for the new setting that would include a “history” (I’m starting this on year 20 after TBotNE) that establishes the current state of affairs, politics and power and high level topics. 150 pages. Plus Map Gazatteer.
  2. A Grand Adventure: “Rise of the Loremasters”. I’m envisioning this as a fusion of the Druid narrative from Sword of Shanara, and Star Wars sequels. The Loremasters, decimated by the final battles, are absent from the affairs of Shadow World. Worse still, Karilon has been quarantined by powerful magic and inaccessible. Starting with the “Search for Randae Terisonen” this multi-part campaign has the group seeking out surviving Loremasters and eventually helping restore the order. 60 pages.
  3. A Dungeon Crawl. RM and SW has never had a tradition of dungeon adventures, but several expansive facilities were abandoned at the end of the 3rd Era. Are they still occupied? What evil resides in these remote places. The players are tasked with gathering intel, recovering or destroying a powerful talisman or artifact. 50 pages.
  4. A Wilderness Adventure. Without the aid of Navigators, the group must traverse a land ravaged by a last battle. Now overrun by XXX, the players are tasked with connecting to a remote enclave in a traditional hex or wilderness crawl. 35 pages.
  5. A City Supplement. With Eidolon destroyed and Norek drowned in a cataclysmic tidal wave, a new city has arisen as the center of commerce in Emer. 120 pages.

I see most of the focus still on Emer and Jaiman but with clear development guidelines, third party authors could start utilizing and/or developing other parts of the hemisphere.

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SW 4th Era Project: “Shuffling the Deck”

As I continue to fill in the foundation of my 4th Age of Shadow World, I’m debating a balance between retaining core elements of Shadow World or “upsetting the apple cart” and making some broader changes to the setting. As a long term SW user I’m of two minds but ultimately shaking things up seems the proper choice; otherwise, why not just continue to play in the established 3rd Era?

Coastlines & Topography. I’m going to push Matt for some feedback on this, but I’m going to assume a modest 50′ rise in oceans level due to ice melt from the “Battle of the Northern Eye”. Obviously that will impact some major cities, but leave several key locations untouched: Haalkitaine and Ardania specifically come to mind..

Pantheons. My thoughts on this will become more apparent when I upload by Shadow World: Book of Essaence, but I see some disruptions to the established Gods. A few Gods of Charon might rejoin their brethren on Orhan, while a few others may be banished or flee to live on Kulthea; powerful still but greatly reduced. The Masters of Emer may re-assert themselves. Whether Nynaku escaped or was re-imprisoned (Legends of the Shadow World adventure), the energy pulse at the northern pole cracked his prison shells. He flees into hiding, but is a force now on the planet.

Rise of the Earthwardens. There is a great storyline here. Assuming the Loremasters have been culled a bit, the return of a few Earthwardens could be a great hook. Plus the return of Arcane/Primal Essaence magic…

Eidolon. I’m with Hurin and I think the floating city needs to come down! It’s a high profile target and a major disruption to the Essaence Flows could capsize it with a secondary attack of opportunity by the Silver Dragon. The ruined city could have been plundered but lying mostly intact a few miles from Sel-kai.

Rule of the Dragonlords. The 4th Era could start with the dominance of the Dragonlords. Ulya reasserts herself in the West and directly confronts the Alliance. The Silver Dragon takes control of Northern Emer (he has invaded before), the Red Dragon pushes down into Tanara and north Rhakaan.

The Unlife. I’m torn here again. I could see the Lords of Orhan, out of fear and desperation throttling the dimensional rift even further to block the Unlife from entering this reality. That could also weaken the Essaence, the flows, magical recharge rates, weaken magical effects etc. Perhaps the 4th Era is not the story of the Unlife, but an age of less magic to mirror the “Age of Men” in ME?

The Secrets. With the Secret Circle undone, these would be amazing “mega dungeons” for the players. Now vacant, or mostly so, filled with traps, knowledge and artifacts. More akin to the “Haunt of the Necromancer”, perhaps they are still occupied by one of the lesser circle or an Adherant?

Nexus & the Navigators. Imagine the Flows are completely disrupted or rerouted. Mapped jump points, Obelisks and safe routes are now all in question. Nexus itself is no longer a convergence point with major Flows now terminated. Travel is still incredibly risky, but the Navigators are also less effective. That’s also interesting to me.

The Loremasters. The Third Era ended with great sacrifice. Many of the elder Loremasters were killed to stabilize the Northern Eye or in direct confrontation with Shrek, the Shadowstone etc. Karilon was infiltrated and heavily damaged, and it’s protective magics stripped away.

The Ash Lairs. Like the Wars of Dominion, the denizens of the underearth swarmed up and invaded the surface at the darkest moment. Perhaps they were fleeing for safety themselves (major earthquakes and gate volatility). Either way, there were major battles and engagements on most continents.

Spacemaster Angle. The wild card could be the Dia Khovaria. Already position with agents on Kulthea, a weakened Essaence field could allow easier access to Kulthea and better technological reliabillity.

Anyway, just a few thoughts as a I build a concept framework for a 4th Era book. I still think this is a great path forward for ICE and Shadow World. It protects Terry’s work, but it creates a newish setting for RMU using the strong foundation of Shadow World material.

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Shadow World and the 4th Era

There has been some discussion about resetting the Shadow World setting with the start of the “4th Era”. The purpose is two fold: first, to respect the canon work that Terry has built and second to create a starting point for new Shadow World material with a clean slate (more or less).

There is no dispute that Terry’s work in the Master Atlas’s, Emer books, Loremaster Legacy, Grand Campaign and other supporting material was building towards a finale. The converging narratives were built around the loss of the Northern Eye, growing influence of the Unlife, and world spanning cults. Similar to the end of the 1st Era, and to a lesser extent, the Wars of Dominion at the end of the 2nd Era, the current 3rd Era was going to end, and likely messily!

Clashes of great powers, meddling of Gods both noble and malign, key and notable NPC’s and the players themselves could result in seismic events. Perhaps this grand battle would not result in world-wide destruction, but it could certainly lead to triggers that would then unleash secondary destruction. Floods, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions could be as destructive or more so than cataclysmic releases of the Essaence.

I see 4 major categories of change:

  1. Geographic impacts. This could be destruction of coastal areas, loss of land mass due to a rise in sea levels, subsidence of continental shelves, massive volcanic activity.
  2. Changes in the Essaence. Would major Essaence flows change in scope or power? Would flows reroute or diverge from current paths? Would the ambient level of Essaence change, become more or less volatile?
  3. Political. If major population centers and/or empires were dramatically impacted would new powers emerge? Which major powers, NPC’s or historical figures survive?
  4. Gods. IF the gods were involved with the end of the 3rd Era, what is the end result? A shift of the current pantheon? A change in the hierarchy of the gods? Do the Gods of Charon benefit or lose from these events?

I think this is an exciting pivot point for Shadow World! Terry’s setting up to this point, becomes history– a time of legend and mystery! Functionally, this reset could coincide with the new RMU ruleset and some of the changes built into the 4th Era could better engage with Rolemaster rules.

As I work on this I’ll post some updates, but curious if anyone else has some thoughts?

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Shadow World: Retconning the Dyari.

There was a recent discussion on the forums about Dyari. I’ve written about Elves before here, but the recent conversation brought me around again.

Musings on High Elves in Shadow World
Elves, Elves, Everywhere! Elves in Shadow World and fiction.

I’ve put together a more detailed history of the Elves and posted it on the forums a decade ago. In the subsequent years I’ve fine tuned and expanded upon it as part of our definitive Master Atlas and now in the SW: Book of Essaence I’m working on. I feel that most of my material is well within Canon, but there is one significant change I made: I demoted the Dyari to a cultural group.

The Dyari are a more philosophical issue for me. First and foremost, I have no interest in strict racially dictated moral and cultural traits: i.e. Orcs are “evil”, Gnomes are good with tech or devices, Dwarves like to work with stone and metal. These monolithic ideas that beings were born into specific abilities, attitudes and predilections were simple and appealing 40 years ago. IIt allowed us to easily drop races into convenient trait and identity buckets for game play. And, it gave free reign for player groups to attack and kill any person or being inherently “evil”. Per the MA:

The Dark Elves instead gained their name because
of an earned reputation for associating with
the powers of darkness. It is true that many of their
kind have been seduced by the lure of the Unlife
(many of the Priests Arnak are Dyar, for instance),
but most Dyari are merely what one might call
“mercenary.” They embody the worst traits of the
Loari but to the extreme: they are vain and arrogant,
considering all other races (including other
Elves) to be inferior. They have a lust for power:
political, magical, physical, and spiritual.

    I am uncomfortable with an entire race, male, female and children being painted in such broad strokes, I feel that the origins of the Elves lends themselves to worship or alliance with the Lords of Orhan, but ultimately there should be a role of self-determination. For me, the solution was to have Elves that withdrew from the Lords of Orhan, become inherently “outcasts” from the collective Elven community. That is not to say that they would become evil, or automatically follow the Charonic pantheon. This solution allows for a variety of motivations: moral independence, agnosticism, allegiance to a local god, atheism etc. This of course introduces aspects of religious indoctrination, complicated cultural forces, and player choice.

    It’s important to note that SW Dyari are not DnD Drow with black skin and white hair. That is a powerful image used throughout fantasy pop culture and VERY popular with players. Instead Terry wrote this:

    The Dyari (Iy: “Delvers”) are, despite their nickname
    of “Dark Elves,” no darker in skin pigmentation
    than their brethren; in fact they are very
    fair-skinned.     While most have raven hair, a few
    are born with pure white locks. Their ears frequently
    have more pronounced points than the
    other Elves; their eyes are grey, black, or sometimes
    amber. Often, however, they are so similar to their
    Loar cousins that it is difficult—at least for mortals—
    to tell the difference.

    For me and my campaign, that was the opening to retcon Dyari and provide a more nuanced approach to “fallen” Elves. Notably, during gameplay, I’ve framed Ilyar to be more intolerable, insufferable and judgmental in their approach to mortals and other lesser beings, while Dyari tend towards libertarianism. Certainly some contemporary parallels!

    A final point, and one that I’ve also written about extensively. I don’t see the Charonic gods to be inherently evil or part of the Unlife. Certainly some of the gods of Charon embrace less celebrated behaviors and personality traits, but these aspects are all inherent to the human condition. I’ll have more on this in the upcoming SW: Book of Essaence!

    For many, or even most GM’s, this is probably too much of a retcon, but I’m happy to hear everyone’s thoughts!

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    Shadow World: Works in Progress

    While I’m working on the Shadow World: Book of Essaence, I dropped a quick Shadow World Combat companion book of alternate combat notes from my S.W.A.R.M. ruleset. For those that read this blog regularly, a lot of the material was posting on this blog over a decade ago and has been consistently used in my Shadow World campaign.

    Optional Initiative was one of my earlier posts back in 2016!

    Optional Encumbrance and Armor Rules

    Individual Weapon Modifiers

    Shadow World Armor

    Matt’s Shadow World Combat Styles

    I updated some items, added my own Combat Styles and put it together in a more comprehensive package for my group to use. Like the Book of Channeling, this is a slow but steady process of consolidation of my Shadow World material. Much of it is in our “red book”, a monster Master Atlas that’s now at 476 pages!

    The Shadow World: Book of Essaence is putting together a ton of my material that can found on this blog and the the Rolemaster Forums: history and development of magic, Ka’ta’viir, Earthwardens, Dragonlords, Gods, Primal Magic, Arcane Magic, Elven Magic, Dark Magic, Magic development by the Eras, new spell lists, magical languages and spell list assignments by language and a few key artifacts. It’s turning out to be a much bigger project than I anticipated! I had hoped to have it up by now, but life keeps interrupting and these smaller projects like Book of Channeling and Combat Companion was needed for my gaming group.

    Thanks for reading!

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    Shadow World: Book of Essaence

    “Master, I still do not understand. How can a language do anything? Words describe things. They do not ignite lamps, mend bone, or open gates.”

    My old teacher smiled faintly. “Common words do not. Magical language is not ordinary speech.”

    I collected my thoughts. “Then what is it?”

    “A control architecture,” said the teacher. “A formal symbolic system that binds intention to the Essaence. Consider ordinary language. If I say fire, I have not created flame. I have only caused your mind to retrieve a concept or image. Heat, light, danger, color, memory. Yes?”

    “Yes.”

    “But when a trained caster speaks the correct arcane lexeme for fire, with the proper tonal contour, breath pressure, mental image, and energetic will, he is not merely invoking a concept. He is selecting and activating a pattern already latent within the Essaence.”

    I studied the pages in front of me, a sheet of vellum covered in angular glyphs, breath-marks, and tonal notations. “And these symbols?”

    The teacher tapped the spiral glyph.

    “This establishes the transformation domain — thermal excitation.”

    He tapped the hooked mark.

    “This limits the area of effect.”

    Another mark.

    “This binds the effect to the designated target rather than the surrounding air.”

    Another.

    “This determines duration.”

    “Then a spell is a sentence?”

    “Similar, but no. In ordinary language, grammar clarifies meaning. In magical language, grammar clarifies causality. A spell is what happens when intention is encoded into valid symbolic form, supplied with energy, and resolved by the field into a realized effect.”

    I was silent for a moment. “Then why can two mages speak the same words and produce different results?”

    “A good question. Because the utterance alone is not the whole spell.” The teacher tapped his own temple. “Intent conditions execution. The spoken form provides explicit structure, but the mind provides hidden parameters; target image, desired intensity, exclusions, emotional coherence, even metaphysical alignment.”

    I looked again at the glyphs. “Then magical languages were specifically designed for this?”

    “Some were designed. Some were discovered. Some are remnants of older, denser systems. But yes, they are not optimized for ordinary conversation. They are optimized for semantic precision, low ambiguity, and resonant correspondence with the Essaence.”

    “So common speech describes reality,” I said slowly, thinking it through, “but magical speech instructs it.”

    The teacher’s expression sharpened with approval. “Exactly.”

    “Why did the Earthwardens labor to devise spell languages for mortal use?”

    “Because raw Arcane speech was too dense, too exact, too perilous for lesser minds.”

    “And so?”

    “And so they made structured paths: formulae, runic bindings, later lists and notations all to let mortals shape the Essaence without being consumed by it.”

    “And the greatest spell-language?” he asked softly. “The oldest one…Iruaric?”

    The teacher was silent for a long pause, as if considering what to reveal to the young student. “Iruaric does not merely refer to the structure of reality,” he said. “It was formulized close enough to first principles that speaking it correctly is less like making a request and more like issuing a lawful revision.”

    Loremaster Remembrances. Vol I

    Randae Terisonen

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    Shadow World Channelers Guide v2.0

    I recently posted up an updated version of my “Channelers Guide” over at the RM Forums and thoughts I’d make a few comments.

    1. Book title. I’m still not sure what to call this! I use “Guide”, “Handbook”, “Religions” interchangeably at different points. Is this work about Channeling, religions, Priests?
    2. Analog approach. Despite efforts to improve my work efficiency, I’m still using an old school approach to updates. I’ll jot down an idea, write a quick note or send myself an email and then put those scraps in a folder. Then when it accumulates I’ll add it to the master doc, add copy and then edit/page setup.
    3. Now that I have a group again the new material is piling up! I have 2 channelers in the group and I wanted to flesh out a few more religion details as part of their character backgrounds. I’m already thinking about v3.0 but want to finish up the Book of Essaence first.
    4. As Micael pointed out on the RM Forums, I left out 6 spell lists for some of the Gods of Charon. Most of those had some treatment already in Powers so I didn’t focus on either adding too, or creating a new religious organization. For now. I’ll be adding those in the next version.
    5. Other adds for v3.0. Summary of any significant religions in the various books. Artifacts, maybe some common temple floorplans or designs. With the spell lists and new material it’s going to push to 100-120 page count.
    6. Editing. I have no skills as an editor or in page layout. I wish I could put out a more professional product, but the last 10% just takes too much time.

    Here are the links to the spell lists not included in the guide.

    Andaras: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3787
    Scalu: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3799
    Nynaku: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3804
    Kesh’ta’kai: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3782
    Moralis: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3802
    Klysus: https://ironcrown.co.uk/ICEforums/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=3803

    Book of Essaence (BoE). This project has been a lingering goal of mine for quite some time. In fact I should have written this first, before BASiL, to help guide the design of spell lists. There are pieces of the BoE throughout this blog: powers and spells of the Earthwardens, Dragonlords, Xiosians, Essaence flows, magical languages. BoE is tying all of these pieces together into a cohesive whole, with a history starting in the 1st Era and following the origins of spells through to “present day”. The outline is currently at a dozen or so pages, but spell lists will inflate that for the final product. With the baseline finished I’ve come to the conclusion that early magic had to have 2 stages: Proto-Magic and then Arcane magic. That solved a lot of issues I kept encountering.

    So why do the BoE? Much of it is academic and would have little if any impact on gameplay. Perhaps it’s my nature, but Terry left many gaps in the Shadow World setting, particularly in the underpinnings of the magic system. We have the “results” (Spell Law) but we never had a clear idea how it got there. Kulthea is not in a fantasy universe of magic; it’s in our “real” universe with a special circumstance that allows for magic. For me, this needed better road rules!

    Anyway, I’m moving along quite nicely with my writing goals for 2026. Will I hit all of my benchmarks? Probably not, especially as my RL gets hectic again in a few months. Either way, I’m no longer waiting for any real opportunity from ICE to expand the Shadow World product line. If I have ideas in my head that need writing down I’ll keep on going.

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    Essaence Barriers in Shadow World

    I’ve written a few blogs referencing Essaence Flows and Barriers over the years, but my current writing has me circling back to the subject. I’m not sure what our readership is here now, but I thought I would throw it out.

    The issue. Excluding the inception of the Great Barrier, when did Essaence Flows begin to manifest into physical barriers on Kulthea?

    While I still suspect that many SW groups don’t use Essaence Flow barriers as originally devised and envisioned by Terry, they are part of the setting and would necessarily direct societal interaction, commerce and trade. So when did they become “a thing”?

    Essaence was detected on Kulthea during the 1st Era and was present during the technological evolution of the Althans and the rise of the Essaence Users, the Ka’ta’viir. So while the Essaence permeated Kulthea, it couldn’t have to the extent that it does in the current Era. We know the Essaence interferes with standard tech and the presence of invisible energy walls and even Flow Storms would have had an impact on the Althans. There is no indication of Essaence working like that in the 1st Era. That leaves us with a few basic conclusions:

    1. Essaence energy became more ubiquitous and powerful after the end of the 1st Era.
    2. While this coincides with the placement of the Northern and Southern Eyes, it could also be the result of time. The Interregnum lasted 100,000 years, so perhaps the Essaence was always growing and expanding on Kulthea.
    3. Alternatively, something about the installation of the Eyes and the creation of the Great Barrier created offshoots: smaller, less powerful, and perhaps temporary versions of the Great Barrier that ebb and flow around the hemisphere.
    4. Counter intuitively, weren’t the Eyes meant to stabilize the Essaence? You would think that Essaence would be more consistent and less volatile with the Eyes, but for a many reasons that seems the opposite.
    5. Another theory might be that the wars and cataclysms at the end of the 1st Era, damaged the Essaence permeation into the universe. The Essaence was out of control and the Eyes calmed it down, but not to the degree of pre-interregnum. So all of these could be partially true.

    Is this academic? Perhaps not. While I’m working out the ontology of magic using, it’s equally important to define the what/how of the Essaence over time. Simply put, if the Essaence ebbs and flows, so to perhaps the power and scope of spells. That would dictate spell design for early primal magic, arcane magic and the contemporary magic realms.

    Anyone have any thoughts?