First off, apologies for disturbing the eternal silence of the Warrior Mage folder. I wanted to throw out some ideas for the cabals now that we have a better idea of what the future holds for the guild in 3.0.
I'd like to see cabals as a way to further distinguish high level warrior mages, after the point when everyone's spell repetoire starts looking samey. The metaspell concept introduced in 3.0 seems like a good way to do that, and probably developmentally cheaper than making enough full spells so that every mage has a different spell collection.
Below are some concepts I came up with for different groups, and a metaspell for each. I realize I'm taking fairly extensive liberties with the lore here. These ideas still need a good deal of further refinement and development.
Blackfire Cabal:
Skill affiliation – Sorcery
Having no links to the original Blackfire Cabal, this group was formed for the purpose of uncovering the secrets of their namesake. Over time, their mission expanded. Not merely content with seeking out information on the use of blackfire, they also seek out all forbidden knowledge, anything that will increase the amount of magical power they wield.
Knowing the illicit nature of their mission, the Blackfire Cabal organized itself into cells, with each cell operating largely independently, and only the leadership of the cells knowing the identities of anyone higher up in the organization. The ultimate leaders of the group are a complete mystery, hidden behind several layers of subordinates, and no effort by any provincial authorities has ever managed to penetrate more than a couple links up the chain before finding that any names they had had disappeared, or all those investigating them turned to ash.
“Knowledge is Power”
Metaspell Additions: Ring of Spears – By optionally manipulating a small amount of life mana to join with the standard elemental spell pattern, a sorcerer can greatly alter the effect of the spell. Casting the spell in this fashion will cause discolored tendrils of stone to rise from the ground around the caster at the specified, writhing and squirming in exactly the way that stone should not. If any of these tendrils manage to find a target in their groping, they will attempt to wrap around the target, ensnaring them briefly, and attempting to drag them to the ground. The patch of earth which generates these altered spears has sometimes been known to move around on its own volition. Care must be taken with this metaspell, as it’s been known to occasionally turn on its caster.
Getha Hegessgaen
Skill affiliation – Warding
This group was formed by a number of Warrior Mages who decided to become personally involved in the fight against necromancy and sorcerers. Over the years, they expanded their focus (or, depending on who you ask, lost it) to include any rogue mages. A lack of organizational discipline has led to mages involved in this group becoming essentially free agents, and some of them have chosen to rent themselves out as mercenaries to anyone who had mages that needed killing. Due to the nature of the enemies this group was designed to fight, they have become exceptionally adept at countering hostile spells thrown at them.
“Serve with Sword and Spell”
Metaspell Additions: Aether Cloak – can optionally allow the cloak to work on any magic, not just targeted magic, at the cost of also stopping magics from the caster.
Gathering Storm
Skill affiliation – Debilitation
While many Warrior Mages content themselves with excelling at one-on-one battles, this group is more interested in the unique battle dynamics of a many-on-many fight, emphasizing skills and abilities useful in collaborative combat rather than solo combat. The Gathering Storm has been around in some form for nearly a century, but they’ve only recently begun to rise in visibility and influence within the Warrior Mage guild, owing to the numerous threats that have arisen in recent history.
Drills and practice sessions their members participate in emphasize battlefield awareness, threat management, and combat control. Through this focus, this group has given rise to some of the greatest tacticians in the Warrior Mage guild. The varying strengths and weaknesses of other fighters, as well as the multitude of enemies that might be faced at one time has bent the group’s focus towards that of spells usable to attempt to assert some measure of control on the combat conditions. This could be disabling some opponents to temporarily remove them from battle until their friends can be dealt with, or disabling a targets quickly to enable the Warrior Mages comrades to easily finish them off.
“Collaborate, Control, Conquer”
Metaspell Addition: Anther’s Call – Increases the structure of the stone hands that form around the target. While this won’t increase the time of the immobilization since they lose their connection with the ground at the same time, this will have a lingering effect of increasing the target’s burden for a short period after the immobilization effect ends.
Steel Cabal
Skill affiliation – Augmentation
This relatively young group was originally formed by a handful of mostly Kaldar Warrior Mages who had grown to believe that the majority of their guild kin had grown soft through over-reliance on magic to strike their enemies. Their view was that magic could merely supplement, but never truly replace, real martial skill. For years the group remained extremely small, but met regularly to hone their combat techniques. While met with some amount of ridicule from the more magically inclined of the guild, the small group was able to prove just how effective their combat paradigm could be in the war against Lyras. While mostly unnoticed during the war, word has been spreading of their battle techniques, and membership of this group has begun to enter a period of substantial growth as more people seek them out to learn their techniques for battle.
“Clad in Fire, Forged by Steel”
Metaspell Addition: Mantle of Flame – With this metaspell, the flames of the caster will flare up brightly whenever the caster suffers damage. Although too brief to cause damage, the blinding flash will disorient the opponent who struck the caster, unbalancing them slightly. (I imagine this will be much more useful in combat 3.0 than now)
Eyes of The Elements
Skill affiliation – Utility
This is a group of Warrior Mages with a more scholarly bent. They focus more on the study of elemental magics and the planes than most, seeking the first principles behind the elemental magics that they wield, as well as the nature of their . While occasionally mocked by their guild brethren for their more bookish pursuits, they are still Warrior Mages, and their greater understanding of the basis for the workings of the elements can make them dangerous opponents.
“Knowledge is Power”
Metaspell Addition: Elemental Fissure – The caster may specify an element when using this spell, attuning the fissure to that specific elemental plane in a way that eases the manipulation of mana while the spell is in effect. (Gives a bonus to primary magic for spells of the specified element)
The skill affiliation isn't intended to be hard-line, it's just something I realized had started to emerge naturally from my ideas, so I ran with it.
I realized I gave two groups the same cliche motto, but I liked the way they had subtly different meanings depending on who said them.
Also, I really hate the name I gave the debilitation group. Good thing none of this is likely to be implemented anyways.
