Plot
Posted May 1, 2018 14:56:03 GMT -7
Post by Kitten4u on May 1, 2018 14:56:03 GMT -7
In the year 2012, a mysterious illness began to sweep the globe. Its spread was instantaneous. Within a matter of days, victims all around the world began to show the symptoms: high fever, delirium, and sporadic comas. However, the illness was too rare to be considered an epidemic. Fewer than one in a million people were affected, spread thinly across the Earth.
Only the largest cities saw more than a dozen people affected. With so few cases and no clear pathogen, the illness would have been unremarkable if not for a few unique properties. First, the subjects were all young, either teenage or at most a couple of years older. Second, over half the subjects died of sudden neurological failure that didn't seem to be attributable to the illness's other symptoms.
Finally, all of the survivors, within days or weeks of recovering, suddenly began to display immense supernatural powers. These powers were of such incredible scope, and displayed such flagrant disregard for the laws of physics, that they could only be called magic. Society has remained largely ignorant of these rare manifestations, preferring to rationalize away the more blatant displays as hoaxes and accidents. Magic-users have begun to discover each other and form their own underground society, however, and they refer to each other as "mages."
Since 2012, the mage-creating illness has continued to strike at random, even affecting people isolated from the rest of society. The rate has decreased somewhat over the years, but a new mage is still created every few days. Furthermore, mages have investigated into the past and discovered that a few rare people began displaying magic powers even before 2012. Some of these "archmages" are incredibly powerful, having had many years to explore and hone their abilities.
In 2017, a mage used his power to open a portal to a parallel universe. This universe bore an extremely close resemblence to the historical world of 1447. However, just as in the modern day, this renaissance universe had experienced the widespread emergence of magic five years earlier (in 1442). The rise of mages had already begun to cause the timeline to diverge from the one that those in the modern day would find familiar.
After using his portals to connect the two universes, the mage connected them both to a third universe. This one resembled the far, far future, after the heat death of the universe. Through the use of magic powers, an academy was constructed there to act as a gathering place and neutral ground for mages from other universes.
The Academy is open to all mages who wish to use it, whether as a part-time student or as a full-time resident. Given the young age of most mages, it's designed to serve some educational functions. A mage's powers are innate and unique, so mages can't really teach each other how to use magic, but there are some mundane lessons that mages find especially important. Classes on how to get by in other universes are in high demand, as are lessons on self-defense. The Academy also functions as a research institution, searching for the basis of how magic powers work and why they recently became so much more common.
This research is a major motivation behind the Academy's founding. Students are encouraged to go out into other universes and try to change the world. They are especially encouraged to fight with other students and pit their powers against each other. Magic is so overwhelmingly powerful that mundane people are no obstacle. It is only in contests against other mages that one's powers are pushed to their limit.
And encouraging mages to push their powers to the limit serves the final and greatest purpose of the Academy: preparing them to oppose the entities that seem intent on the destruction of all of humanity. The first such entity recently attacked the Early Renaissance. It seems inevitable that other universes will soon come under attack as well.
The one who opened the Academy's portals, an enigmatic mage known only as the Headmaster, is rarely seen. He spends most of his time hopping from universe to universe, perhaps seeking other universes with humans and magic. His ultimate plans are unknown, but it's rumored that he was aware of the threat to the multiverse long before the first entity's appearance. Whatever the case, the Academy certainly still has many secrets to uncover...
Only the largest cities saw more than a dozen people affected. With so few cases and no clear pathogen, the illness would have been unremarkable if not for a few unique properties. First, the subjects were all young, either teenage or at most a couple of years older. Second, over half the subjects died of sudden neurological failure that didn't seem to be attributable to the illness's other symptoms.
Finally, all of the survivors, within days or weeks of recovering, suddenly began to display immense supernatural powers. These powers were of such incredible scope, and displayed such flagrant disregard for the laws of physics, that they could only be called magic. Society has remained largely ignorant of these rare manifestations, preferring to rationalize away the more blatant displays as hoaxes and accidents. Magic-users have begun to discover each other and form their own underground society, however, and they refer to each other as "mages."
Since 2012, the mage-creating illness has continued to strike at random, even affecting people isolated from the rest of society. The rate has decreased somewhat over the years, but a new mage is still created every few days. Furthermore, mages have investigated into the past and discovered that a few rare people began displaying magic powers even before 2012. Some of these "archmages" are incredibly powerful, having had many years to explore and hone their abilities.
In 2017, a mage used his power to open a portal to a parallel universe. This universe bore an extremely close resemblence to the historical world of 1447. However, just as in the modern day, this renaissance universe had experienced the widespread emergence of magic five years earlier (in 1442). The rise of mages had already begun to cause the timeline to diverge from the one that those in the modern day would find familiar.
After using his portals to connect the two universes, the mage connected them both to a third universe. This one resembled the far, far future, after the heat death of the universe. Through the use of magic powers, an academy was constructed there to act as a gathering place and neutral ground for mages from other universes.
The Academy is open to all mages who wish to use it, whether as a part-time student or as a full-time resident. Given the young age of most mages, it's designed to serve some educational functions. A mage's powers are innate and unique, so mages can't really teach each other how to use magic, but there are some mundane lessons that mages find especially important. Classes on how to get by in other universes are in high demand, as are lessons on self-defense. The Academy also functions as a research institution, searching for the basis of how magic powers work and why they recently became so much more common.
This research is a major motivation behind the Academy's founding. Students are encouraged to go out into other universes and try to change the world. They are especially encouraged to fight with other students and pit their powers against each other. Magic is so overwhelmingly powerful that mundane people are no obstacle. It is only in contests against other mages that one's powers are pushed to their limit.
And encouraging mages to push their powers to the limit serves the final and greatest purpose of the Academy: preparing them to oppose the entities that seem intent on the destruction of all of humanity. The first such entity recently attacked the Early Renaissance. It seems inevitable that other universes will soon come under attack as well.
The one who opened the Academy's portals, an enigmatic mage known only as the Headmaster, is rarely seen. He spends most of his time hopping from universe to universe, perhaps seeking other universes with humans and magic. His ultimate plans are unknown, but it's rumored that he was aware of the threat to the multiverse long before the first entity's appearance. Whatever the case, the Academy certainly still has many secrets to uncover...