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In this week’s blog, we’re going to look at the events that preceded the rise of the current Empire and its loyal ally Inquisition: what sort of world has existed before the Cataclysm?



For thousands of years, the known habitable lands were the playground of the Great Mages. Each of these mages ruled their domain like a kingdom of its own, with vastly different laws and customs. With almost unlimited magic energy at their hands, they all focused on one thing they loved the most: creation.

Depending on the personal taste of a specific mage, you could find yourself in heaven – or in hell. And since these highly talented, powerful individuals were also very competitive, they would often engage in creating new creatures or structures not only because they wanted to see their own blueprint come through, but also to outdo their rivals in how magnificent their creations would be when compared to others.

When one mage would erect a Spire of Ice, another would soon beat her with the Spire of Fire, only to be looked down upon by the creator of the Spire of Chaos. When one mage would let into the world a new race that would treat him like their god, the other would breed a race that would go further in their worship, sacrificing their young at the gates of her Spire – impressive for a while, but only until the day when yet another mage would cast beings that needed their creator for their very existence, and would wane and die if denied the chance to see their master for prolonged time.

The Great Mages would often engage in creating new types of dwellers and animals not only because they wanted to see their own blueprint come through, but also to outdo their rivals in how magnificent their creations would be when compared to others.

As the Great Mages dived into the depths of world on their path of discovery, inevitably they had to interact with each other, whether for partnership – where several mages would exchange valuable knowledge in order to advance each other’s progress; or for rivalry –where several mages would come into direct competition for a particular resource or land.

This led to establishment of the first known Councils, where groups of mages would coordinate their efforts, trading off their previously complete independence for a more powerful position of the whole group. This time is known as The Time of Diplomacy.

Alas, some hundreds of years later the diplomacy of the Councils proved to be insufficient as the local conflicts escalated. The more ambitious the Great Mages became in their endeavors, the more magic energy their projects required, and all magic energy came from the same place: the prehistoric Sources, scattered across the land.

Earlier on, you could locate and claim a Source as your own. Later, with every Source in the known lands accounted for, you had little choice if you wanted to expand: you either had to send an expedition beyond the White Peaks or across the Great Ocean – or you had to take over another mage’s Source, based on cunning and, more often, pure force. This time is known as The Time of War.

Finally, the local conflicts flared up to the degree where deals were made between the strongest of the mages to form two super-powers, known as Alliances, that stretched across all of the continent. Where one powerful mage would be able to forcefully appropriate a part of her neighbor’s land, an Alliance wielded the power that could completely wipe out a selected domain and its ruler.

With this change, another shift occurred: all of the ongoing research of Great Mages began to focus exclusively on battle magic, with elaborate defenses and all-piercing attack capabilities consuming the entire pool of their magic energy. Consequently, as the result of this great arms race, local conflicts froze, since the risk of the retaliation for any small act of aggression became too big to gamble with. This time is known as The Time of Peace.

Each of the Great Mages ruled their domain like a kingdom of its own, with vastly different laws and customs.

This quiet period before the storm lasted for nearly 100 years. The earlier formation of the two Alliances speeded up everyone’s progress – as long as a specific discipline lent advantage in attack or defense, it’s been prioritized over pretty much everything else.

Generally, the Great Mages focused on three big areas: their capacity to inflict harm on others; their ability to defend from a threat posed by others; and, finally, the destructive potential of their “last gift”: a curse that would be unleashed immediately after the mage is dead (whether from a deliberate attack, or poisoning, or purely by accident, did not really matter).

Unfortunately for the world at large, most mages progressed the furthest with their attack capabilities, as well as with increasing the power of their death curses, for they believed that the shortest path to efficient defense lies through increasing the risks for the attacker. After a hundred years of this arms race, it was only a matter of time when some random event would trigger the chain reaction of mutual destruction…

Up to date, no one really knows what caused the deadly magic storms and eruptions that are referred to by the survivors as The Cataclysm. What we know, however, is that at some point one of the Great Mages must have been attacked, and with their death, the curse that she created as an insurance against just such an attack, consumed both the attacker and the victim’s domains. Within seconds, the whole world was burning, as simple folks sought refuge as far as possible from the densely populated areas, which became death traps.

After the Cataclysm, those who did not perish in the flames often died of hunger and sickness – or fell prey to more aggressive survivors.

As the ash settled upon the land and the screams of the dying subsided, the world found itself heavily wounded. From the Great Mages, none were known to survive. From the thousands of different races of dwellers and creatures brought to life by the Great Mages, only a hundred or so made it through: most were killed in the Cataclysm; some survived the original events but waned in the aftermath, lacking their masters the mages; and some committed collective suicides upon finding themselves godless.

Suddenly, people – the human folk – found themselves as the new masters of the world. Resigned previously to the role of trepid servants, villagers and townsfolk no longer had any standing orders… until the new power emerged: The Empire.

Curiously, the very foundation of the Empire lays in the peculiar interest of one specific Great Mage, who – seeing his neighbors create elaborate creatures – decided that his own path lies in the opposite direction: that of enhancing the power of human-staffed legions, rather than creating alternative races.

Over the generations, his research resulted in advanced spells and rituals that would lend his legions incredible defensive and attacking capabilities, as well as increase the speed of their travel across the land. And it was one of these legions, that managed to survive almost intact through The Cataclysm.

With distress and misery all over the place, the legion galvanized around itself a sphere of relative stability. In the time of suffering, they offered a chance of healing. In the time of chaos, they offered some protection. And so, with time, their camp became the capital of the new state: The Empire. As the Empire drew in more recruits, it started to expand, taking over surviving towns and their lords – and slaying whatever non-human dwellers they would come across, in the process.

During the Cataclysm, a large area in the east became drastically different from the rest of the world – and stayed that way. This area is known as The Distorted Lands.

Lastly, we must address the matter of the lands that may (or may not) lie across the Great Ocean and beyond the White Peaks. By now, you are already familiar with the official point of view, which states that no survivors are known to have come from these regions, hence no survivors must exist there.

In the recent months, there seems to be a bit of a disagreement about this between the Inquisition and the Empire: while the Empire refuses to spend any resources on the exploration of the faraway lands, treating the idea as a pointless, and even harmful, speculation, the Inquisition is becoming more and more concerned with the prospect of a possible unchecked threat that these lands may pose.

Some of the oldest books seem to imply that in the Age of Mages, there used to be a regular telepathic connection between the mages in the land where the current Empire stretches; and the mages from what was called “the other lands”. But for what it’s worth, there’s currently no way to confirm or deny this.

After a long deliberation, some years ago the Inquisition finally sent three ships across the ocean, under the pretext of exploring the Western Coast (populated by the barbarian tribes). Nobody, and no word, has come back…

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In this week’s blog, we take a closer look at what exactly is the Guild of Mages and why would any mage firstly want to join it – and secondly, want to run away from it.



Magic is a talent that you’re born with. You either have it – or you don’t. And if you have it, you can possess it in different qualities, as is the case with any other talent such as art or poetry. However, tears flow like a river on the day when any parent discovers that their child has magic talent, for this only means trouble and pain for their whole life.

All magic is the representation of Chaos. When casting a spell or performing a ritual, a mage opens the gates from the plane of the real world to the plane of Chaos, becoming a conductor between the two. This is not without danger. If mage has no education and does not know how to protect themselves, they can burn like a candle. Sometimes the charred bodies of such unfortunate mages are found and their deaths are attributed to accidents. And sometimes the bodies are unharmed, but their souls are gone, so that they continue their lives in a vegetative state until some merciful relative strangles them in their sleep.

Because of these stories, leaving a child with a known magic talent at home, denying them the chance of joining the Guild of Mages in order to learn how to secure themselves during their practice, would be a risky decision.

Illustration 1: When casting a spell or performing a ritual, a mage opens the gates from the plane of the real world to the plane of Chaos, becoming a conductor between the two.

But a bigger risk is actually having them burn at the hands of fellow villagers before they can even cause the same with their own actions: all across the Empire, and especially in the lower social classes, magic talent is seen as a sort of sickness, with mages being responsible for pretty much any unexplainable (or inconvenient) community problems.

This view has been actively promoted by the Inquisition: from the rare history books that present the Cataclysm as the direct consequence of uncontrollable greed of the ancient mages, to the much more common everyday stories, and even special festivals, that directly connect mages and misfortunes of the population.

The biggest such festival happens at the end of each year, when the local Guild of Mages sends to town an unlucky student who then portrays the role of the ancient mage who wants to destroy the world and enslave the villagers. The villagers then proceed to capture and (symbolically) burn such mage, to everyone’s cheer.

Needless to say, festivals like this leave both sides hateful of each other, and occasional lynching of a mage – or someone suspected to be a mage – are not that uncommon. Which is another reason why for a regular mage, being a part of the Guild of Mages sounds like a pretty reasonable life choice.




It seems that the magic talent does not care about the social standing or heritage of a particular person: magically talented kids are born into every kind of family, in every region of the Empire. As everyone knows, mages are sterile (even though this does not affect their libido). For this reason, there are no known “dynasties” of mages, and even in the ancient days, there have been only “schools” made of followers – but never of direct descendants.

Illustration 2: Magic talent is not limited to any social or ethnic group.

The Guild of Mages is directly controlled by the Inquisition. Any person known to possess magic talent has the implied duty to report to the nearest office of the Guild (in the case of minors, the obligation rests with their parents). Failure to submit yourself is considered to be a pretty big problem, and may lead to being branded with hot iron.

Upon acceptance, every recognized mage of the Guild is assigned a bed, a meal plan, and a program of study, reporting to the head of local office that is also responsible for work assignments. Mages are strongly advised to remain within the walls of their local Guild quarters. In rare cases when they do need to venture outside, they must wear a big distinctively colorful pointy hat with a bell. Any mage found outside of the Guild quarters without such hat, is to be branded with hot iron on their forehead.

No spells or rituals can be cast without prior authorization. Generally, Guild of Mages is involved in practicing common magic such as keeping the pests away from the farm fields; summoning rains during the dry season; constructing stone ridges, burrowing tunnels and digging wells. Occasionally, a few mages might be assigned with the Imperial Army, where they work on healing and supporting the sick while on the march.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the main client of the Guild of Mages is the Empire. The money is collected directly to the head office of the Guild while the mages are expected to perform their work – or their duty, to use another term – without expecting anything in return. Rumor has it that closer to the Borderlands, lords hire local Guilds without as much as notifying the head office, and settling the payment directly, which turns out to be significantly cheaper than the standard rates – but who knows, if this is true?




While various dwellers that populate the Wild Lands do possess certain magic, they are not considered to be “mages” since their skill is born with, and not developed based on some raw talent.

As to mutants, they are significantly closer to humans, and you can indeed meet their own mages. Living outside of the reach of the Inquisition, mutant mages both benefit and suffer from this at the same time: there are more accidental deaths, and the learning progress is generally much slower. On the other hand, since mutant mages are able to collect the payments for their services directly, the few known mutant mages are all really well-off.

Illustration 3: Two (of the many) colour concepts of drowners, created to hunt, fish and harvest the swamps.

There is no easy answer to this, so let’s start with what everyone knows – and everyone knows that all the great ancient mages of the past who started the war that lead to the Cataclysm and the creation of the Distorted Lands, have been smashed by their own magic. If there were any survivors, then we don’t know how and where they manage to get by.

A popular theory says that if any of the greats survived, they would have already enslaved the Empire with their all-powerful magic, and since the Empire remains the ultimate ruler of the civilized lands, this proves that no great mages survived in the first place.

Sometimes (after a drink or two) people in the southern ports discuss the lands that lie beyond the ocean: what kind of people live there, and if there are people, then do they also have their own Empire and the Inquisition, or their lands are governed in another way?

But while a great deal of legends does mention “the lands overseas”, nobody currently knows the way to such lands – or has the means to explore, which makes the whole discussion irrelevant (as is the case with most discussions after a drink or two).




There are three on-going concerns for the Inquisition that it tirelessly works on:

1. To locate the runaway mages, of which there are quite a few. It’s been observed that while newly joined mages seem to be agreeable with their quarters and life routine, after they turn 40 or 50 years old, a fraction of them becomes relentless, often to the point of going rogue. What begins with practicing disallowed spells, may end with a whole group of mages disappearing into the night. The current punishment for running away: a public burning of everyone who ran, or helped others to run.

2. To identify and expose the undercover mages, which is a common thing out in the Borderlands. Undercover mages are mages kept by the local lords who, rather than being reported to the Guild, are hidden in their castles, and educated by unauthorized teachers. Having an undercover mage may save you a fortune since you won’t have to pay the Guild for any of the acts of common magic – whether it deals with crops or healing the important members of your family. The current punishment for keeping an undercover mage: a public burning for the mage and their teachers; a confiscation of all properties from the owner of such mage, except for life necessities; a loss of all Imperial titles and awards.

3. To discover and destroy the wild mages. Sometimes kids who possess a magic talent remain unreported for long enough that they have the opportunity to master their own skill. Maybe they are born too far away from any offices of the Guild, and the parents prefer to close their eyes on such a discovery – rather than spend a fortune transporting their own child to god knows where. Or maybe they are born to a family that out of personal experience despises both the Empire and the Inquisition, and does not want to see their kin submitted to one of their institutions. Such wild mages are a real danger since you never know what you can expect of them. The current punishment for harboring a wild mage: a public burning for the mage (which almost never happens as mages prefer to commit suicide rather than allow themselves to be captured for their public execution); a confiscation of all properties of the village or town or other settlement that did not report the mage to the authorities.

Illustration 4: Some of these creatures will become your friends, while others will cause considerable problems for your exploratory parties.

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In this week's dev blog, we're going to talk about the "lay of the land" – that is, about the basics of the world of Spire of Sorcery that most of its dwellers learn as they grow up. What's the Empire? What happened with non-humans after the Cataclysm? Who lives in the Far West? And why the Watchers are deadly, even though they cannot move and have no teeth or fangs?



If we place the Empire in the middle of the map, with its capital at the centre, then to the north lie the White Peaks. As the elevation increases, there's snow, then ice, and then the peaks and ravines that are made impassable by the wind that blows you off the trail. Who lives there, and what lies beyond the mountains, nobody really knows. Life as it is right now, after the Calaclysm, is already hard enough, and there's no spare money to spend on any sort of exploration, especially if the region is as hostile as the White Peaks are.

Illustration 1: "The Lay of the Land" (a drawing by your disciple Mizegul, whose corpse is currently in the Treasure – awaiting the time when you learn how to bring dead to life).

To the west lie the lands populated by a number of barbarian tribes. On the extreme west, these lands reach the ocean. This region was always fertile, with plenty of fruit and abundant fishing grounds off the coast, which ironically meant that following the war of the mages, there hasn't been really a need for any sort of state to unite the dwellers: since people are able to survive by picking their food in the forests, they tend to go here and there depending on the season, and with their horses getting a plenty of grass wherever they go, they prefer to stay on the move. As such, they don't really have much to do with the Empire: occasionally, a tribe would trade, or fight, with a border settlement, but most times the barbarians remain uninterested in any sort of meaningful interaction with their neighbours.

To the south, the Empire borders on the same Ocean as the barbarian lands of the west. Some of the books – of course, forbidden from mass circulation by the Inquisition – mention lands that lay across that ocean, and visits of mages that dwelled across the water, but since these lands (if we are to believe such books at all!) are really, really far off, there are few means and no desire at all to send anyone to explore them. And what would be the purpose? Years ago, the High Council of the Inquisition debated the issue, and decided against any action in this regard, because of the risk of catching some deadly disease – or leading a potential enemy back home on the expedition's tail.

To the east, the Empire ends and the Wild Lands begin, which after a while merge into the Distorted Lands. The Wild Lands are populated by the mutants. To be honest, nobody likes mutants, and even one group of mutants generally dislikes other groups of mutants.

Illustration 2: A typical village at the edge of the Empire. People are mostly occupied with their own survival, with little time to spare to be curious about the world outside.

Mutants used to be humans who got too much exposure to the stuff of the Distorted Lands: not enough to kill them, but enough to affect their children, and their children's children. Their skills, and their looks, are different from those of regular humans. If they would have the courage to show up in the Empire, they would be murdered on sight, since most in the Empire believe that mutations are some sort of a disease, which can spread across entire villages. Occasionally, mutants would trade with the remote settlements, sending forward the folks that look _almost_ human – well, at least as long as they don't take off their coats or face masks, and if the times are tough or a deal is lucrative enough, the settlers would close their eyes on such a trading partner.

The other dwellers of the Wild Lands are the non-human races that were created centuries and centuries ago by the mages of the ancient times. Those of non-humans that managed to survive the Cataclysm, got attacked by the Inquisition that was looking to "clean" the world of the foul legacy of the mages, so the survivors generally moved north and east until they got out of the Inquisition's reach. What sounds like abomination in the capital of the Empire – say, asking mermaids for help, or buying iron from the cyclops, – tends to be seen as less of a scandal among the lords and villagers at the Empire's eastern border. After all, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do to get by.

Illustration 3: The Distorted Lands defy description – for in the regular world, there's simply nothing similar to compare them to.

Moving further east and crossing into the Distorted Lands, things change considerably. From the animals that adapted to live in a totally different environment to, well, other things. Take the Watchers, for example. These look like some sort of columns. Sometimes pale, sometimes covered in brilliant colours of all sorts. They are common around Battlefields as well as Black Pools. Intriguing at first, they are in fact deadly – for they are hypnotic, and will put to sleep, and then suck out the living energy of any creature that falls within their range. If you see one (which is highly unlikely), the best thing is to run away as fast as possible, and don't you make the mistake of trying to save anyone in your party who falls prey to them.

The few adventurers who made it into the Distorted Lands and back, talk about something else: a race of intelligent creatures that seem to feel at home in that aggressive environment, called 'morphings' by the mutants. If you thought that mutants were 'different', then it's a challenge to come up with the correct word to describe these: they are highly intelligent; but almost impossible to interact with, as rather than speech or telepathy, they communicate by changing their shapes. Whether they are aggressive or not, is anybody's guess, since when parties disappear in the Distorted Lands, there's no one to follow in their footsteps to confirm the exact way that they have perished.



The Empire is the only state that came together, following the Cataclysm. It's centrally-managed, with the Emperor residing in the capital city and the army doing the rounds across the land. According to the Empire, its rule is built on the goodwill and thankfulness of the population. According to the population, the Empire's grip on power is built on pure brutal force: pay the tribute – or feed the crows with your corpse.

The Emperor presides over a number of regions, with a dual structure of power (though in theory, there's no provision for such duality): there are the Lords, who come from the local communities and represent the strongest families living in their high castles; and there are the Governors, who come from the capital at the appointment of the Emperor. On paper, the Governors preside over the Lords. In real life, it's a sort of a symbiosis: if the Lord denies the direct order of the Governor, the Governor may ask the army to step in, and hang the rebel; though oftentimes "the rebel" might be able to hang the Governor before the army arrives, which creates a delicate balance of the relationship between the Lords and the Governors.

In towns, there's also the institution of the Town Council: an organ elected by the wealthiest citizens to manage practical issues such as bridges, markets and town prisons. Town Councils tend to be very pragmatic and are known to go for some deals that the Governor or the Lord won't even consider – as long as these deals benefit their towns. The other party that can pursue its own agendas in towns is the Guild of Thieves, but little is spoken publicly about their structure since secrecy and exclusivity is at the heart of their success.

Illustration 4: The Inquisition is organised into different ranks, from the simple soldier monks and up to the members of the Council.

Finally, there's the Inquisition, which exists as a parallel structure. In every big town, there's their embassy, and in the capital of the Empire, there's the magnificent Holy City, the main seat and the centre of the Inquisition's power. The Inquisition was born as the response to the Cataclysm, and is seen as the only force that is able to prevent the destruction of the world by reckless, uncontrolled magic. They manage the highly restricted Guild of Mages, the only "ghetto" where anyone with a known magic talent is allowed to live and work – to the benefit of the Inquisition.



We promised to get back to the fate of your faithful disciple Mizegul, who died after contracting swamp fever. He was a long-time follower – but his health was very weak, due to being born to a very poor family and often going hungry when he was a small kid.

With his corpse safely stored in the Treasury, you can be certain that no rat (or worse) decides to nab at him while you progress with the Healing Magic far enough to learn how to Rise Dead. We must note that while rising dead is a way of bringing back the loved ones, they generally return with a few perks that are anything but nice; as well as with a crippled will to live, which may cause prolonged depression (and even a suicide).

Your experience with Mizegul goes back to your days at the Guild of Mages, when he got accepted as a younger student and you took him under your wing, seeing that he’s been in a bind. Already thinking that at some point you both will run away, you put a lot of effort into teaching him Battle Magic – something that is normally prohibited at the Guild.

What exactly happened to Mizegul before he got apprehended by the Inquisition, he did not like to tell. So you had to guess a few things to fill the gaps. Coming from a low social background, his childhood was anything but happy, and when he finally ran away, nobody really missed the extra mouth to feed at the table.

To survive, he resorted to stealing – using a few ‘tricks’ that were actually simple domestic magic, and was eventually caught. Luckily for him, the guards who got him saw him for what he was: an uneducated mage, and so instead of sending him to a dungeon, they handed him off to the Inquisition, which placed him with the Guild of Mages.

It’s quite a common theme for the kids born to poor families not to recognize their magic talent, which may have fatal consequences: if left untrained, these mages may hurt themselves in a bad way. Since mages are the conduits between the Chaos and the real world, they may burn like a candle when casting spells without protection.

You did your best to teach him how to properly practice magic, but you failed to take into account his weak constitution when sending him on that swamp quest… So now we’ll have to just wait a little, until you can rise him from the dead. He certainly won’t be the same old friend you knew before his death, but he might still be so much better than any new disciple who could take his spot at the Spire.

–––



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It's been a while since we wrote the last blog post, as we got overwhelmed both with travel (F&S indie festival in Bilbao) and with the pre-Christmas push to finish all the open tasks before taking some holiday time to re-charge. But we're finally back, and today we will talk about the world of the game – in particular, about some of the living (and dead) things that populate it.

Illustration 1: Mushroom-eaters.

Mushroom-eaters are one of the non-human races that has been created by the mages of earlier times with a specific function in mind: to cultivate, and harvest, rare mushrooms. Since mushrooms need a very special environment to propagate, it pays off to grow them in the deep forest rather than to try to replicate their eco-system in the Spires.

Mushroom-eaters know how to cultivate and harvest lots of different types of mushrooms, and mushrooms are their primary food source, so following the Cataclysm, they survived without much trouble by continuing to do what they've been created to do all along. They live deep in the forest, settling in nests made of branches, and form a collective organism similar to ants and bees: there's little personality in any specific specimen, but you can negotiate with the whole dwelling that has a conscience of its own.

Mushroom-eaters are not aggressive, however they might attack anyone whom they would consider to be a danger to their dwelling. Unlike many other non-human races, they do not have a built-in need to worship to any superior being or a specific place. They can, however, be enslaved by a stronger party. Convincing them to form a friendly partnership takes a longer time, though it is also a viable way of cooperation.

Illustration 2: Bone Creatures.

Bone Creatures are one of the magic creatures that are not created by any specific mage, but rather are the product of the Source's own activity (the Source being short for "source of magic energy").

Bone Creatures populate Battlefields – locations where massive battles have happened in the past, as parties fought for the control of the nearby Source. The Source uses its own energy as well as rays of death (where still tangible) to create these guardians made of bones of the fallen, whose only mission is to protect the Source from anyone else willing to take it over.

Bone Creatures cannot see, but are good at detecting life in the their surroundings, which they normally proceed to attack. There are no means of communication with them and no way to negotiate anything. As the spell that created the specific creature starts to weaken, the creature becomes less aggressive, until it falls apart (and is often replaced by a newly cast one).

Illustration 3: Fluter.

Fluters are a new type of animals that evolved in the eco-system of the Distorted Lands. Most likely, they used to be small animals or birds, that found a way of surviving in the new environment.

The main food source of fluters is all kinds of large flowers that are quite common in their habitat. They are also able to directly consume magic energy whenever they come across a thick flow: some travellers mention seeing whole swarms of fluters in the range of thousands, whenever a burst of magic energy is released in the Distorted Lands.

Fluters emit sounds similar to high flute notes, hence their name. Their wings are a valuable ingredient used for a number of magic potions and remedies. It is rather expensive since to obtain those, one needs to enter the dangerous and unpredictable region of the Distorted Lands.

Illustration 4: Drowners.

Drowners are one of the non-human races that were created for a specific purpose: to harvest fish, clams, mussels and all other sorts of produce found in shallow waters. They do well in lakes and in swamps.

Drowners are amphibious and settle in the roots of dead trees. They are a self-sufficient race, getting by with fishing, hunting and gathering. They can be negotiated with, as they have a social hierarchy that puts the older, more experienced individuals into the higher rank of the dwelling.

Like many non-human races created by the mages of the past, Drowners have a deep built-in desire to worship someone or something larger than themselves. They regularly bring gifts to the swamp idols, or to a strong creature – if such creature happens to live nearby.

Illustration 5: The Many-Handed.

The Many-Handed is one of the unique creatures that survived the ancient wars of mages. It (for this creature has no gender) is one of a kind, and there is nothing similar to it anywhere else in the world.

Originally created by a powerful mage to take care of that mage's magnificent library, the Many-Handed survived mage's death, and continues to live in the ruins of that mage's Spire, still tending and protecting the ever-expanding library. The Many-Handed lives off the energy from the Source that used to power the original Spire back when it was originally cast.

The Many-Handed possesses a wealth of knowledge, and knows an incredible number of battle spells. It will attack anyone whom it sees as a threat to its library, but is not an aggressive creature otherwise. The nearby dwellings of some of the non-human races worship the Many-Handed as their god, and whenever they come across scrolls or books, they bring them as their gifts.

Defeating the Many-Handed in combat is an extremely challenging undertaking. On the other hand, the Many-Handed is quite open to diplomacy and negotiations that lead to mutually beneficial exchange of books and special knowledge.

Illustration 6: Stingtails.

Stingtails are a new type of animals that evolved as a mutation on the border of the Distorted Lands and the surrounding Wild Lands. They live in caves, sleeping during the daytime and hunting at nights. Their tails carry poison. Stingtails are blind, but they have extremely sharp hearing.

When an animal or a human is bitten by a stingtail, they fall into coma, and are brought by the stingtail to its nest, where the poison starts to melt their flesh until the victim is turned into a sack filled with meaty fluid, which stingtail then proceeds to drink.

Stingtails lay eggs. Their meat and eggs are a valuable source of protein and are used in cooking by those who travel across the Wild Lands. Their wings and poisonous tails are a valuable ingredient used in creating magic potions and remedies. If you can obtain stingtail eggs, you may be able to breed adult stingtails in your Spire, deploying them around the Spire as one of your defence mechanisms.

Illustration 7: Cyclops.

Cyclops are a race that has been created for a specific purpose: to mine precious metals, and to use them in crafting tools and instruments. They are knowledgeable about iron and ore, and they are good blacksmiths.

Following the Cataclysm, cyclops survived by continuing their usual operations, trading metals and tools with other races whenever required.

Cyclops live in caves adorned with the image of their god (the mage who created the race), and worship this stone idol with valuable gifts. They can negotiate. They can also be enslaved, or have the Cult of the Spire imposed upon their dwelling.

Illustration 8: Pale Ones.

Pales Ones are the race that has been created for a specific purpose: to service and maintain defensive mechanisms of Spires, specifically – underground tunnels and traps. They survived the Cataclysm and currently populate catacombs, ruins and caves.

Pale Ones are a carnivorous and will eat anyone and anything that falls into their (rather primitive) traps that they continue to set around their dwellings. Occasionally, you may meet a creature that retains the knowledge of more advanced mechanisms, but generally the race degraded to the level of minimal skills required to simply get by.



The next post in this blog will deal with the relationships between the Empire, the Inquisition and the Lords, as well as provide more details about the Guild of Mages and why certain mages end up branded on their foreheads with the pentagram (not a nice thing, not at all).

And one more thing: we received a lot of questions via Discord about the fate of the poor disciple Mizengul, who, as you may recall, died at the end of Blog #09. People ask if there's anything that can be done for the poor soul, given the lack of medical knowledge or hospital room in the Spire at the time of his death. Well, actually, there is something: we see that you, the mage, know one of the basic spells of the Domestic Magic – Preserve Food.

So if you cast this spell on the corpse of Mizengul, it should be enough to keep him from rotting until such time when you, hopefully, learn the spells that bring back the dead. Unless you store Mizengul's corpse in the cellar warehouse where he may end up being gnawed away by the rats. So the current update on the Mizengul situation is: he is dead, but he's under the preservation spell, locked into your Treasury (as he's such a valuable friend), awaiting better times.
In the next blog post, we will look into the future and explain the challenges and risks of bringing back the dead, even with the best of intentions.

Until then – see you on Discord! And don't forget to check out the newly updated Q&A forum.

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Today we’d like to give you an overview of a day at the Spire. Or to be more precise, a snapshot, as when we tried to cover the whole “day”, we realized that it requires a real deep dive into the user interface across the whole game.

For now, let’s imagine that we’re already running the campaign for 10 hours… but wait, this is not the reference that we can use, since different people will play with different pacing: some strive for complete control, while others just let the flow go.

So let’s just agree that we’re looking at the Spire in a somewhat advanced state. It’s not yet a late game. Not even a mid-game. But it’s the sort of a transition spot from “just setting up, folks” to “really digging it”.



One of the major differences in how people play Spire of Sorcery lies in the level of detail they want to go into. For every type of event, the game offers 3 notification options:

• a notification that shows up as a small icon, which you can open up whenever you want;
  
• a notification that shows up in the log with the header of the event, then transforms into a small icon– without pausing the game;
  
• a full event window that is displayed right in the middle of the screen, and auto-pauses the game.
  

The first option is useful for routine events that are common. For example, you assigned a disciple to go to the nearby forest, and bring back wood. He keeps going there and coming back with the resources. The reports are simple: a disciple arrived from the quest, spending 2 food rations and bringing back 20 units of wood for the Warehouse.

The second option is useful for events that are informative but not very important at the current stage. For example, you assigned a disciple to read books dedicated to Monstrology in the Library, every day for 2 hours. At the end of each period of reading, you’ll see a small notice reporting that she’s finished her reading for today.

The third option is normally used for events that require decisions, or contain a lot of details. For example, a party returns from a long quest, with wounded; sick; and new artefacts. This is probably something that you want to read up in as much detail as possible, as such report also contains hints about the personalities of your disciples and expands your understanding of the global map.

You are free to set up these notification options as you want, and it’s quite likely that early on in the game, every event will be of interest – while later in the game, you’ll focus just on the events where your decisions have substantial impact on the results.

The other way of managing the level of control you want to have over the game, is the depth of reading quest and task reports. Someone comes home with an artefact and a wound. What’s essential? Sending the wounded to be treated, and starting the research on the artefact in the Lab. As to the actual story – where does the artefact come from, and how was the disciple wounded – perhaps you have more pressing matters to attend to, and don’t need these details.

Illustration 1: Concepts for the mid-level members of the Inquisition.

Going back to our campaign, let’s assume that by this time, you have 12 disciples under your authority:

• 2 “old friends”
  
• 5 “advanced” disciples
  
• 5 “new” disciples
  

The details on each disciple (their stats, skills, traits and current states) are available through the character menu. We cannot underline enough the fact that only very rarely, until late-game, will you have the complete and accurate information about your disciples! The game is about exploring the world outside just as much as it is about exploring the personalities of the disciples in your Spire.

Let’s look closer at the “old friends” group:

Some months ago, you started the campaign with 3 disciples who followed you to the Spire from the Guild. Since they are a part of your back story, at the start of the campaign you already have a very good insight into who they are. And yet in the time since then, one of them has – Mizegul – died as the result of a routine quest. How is this even possible? Let’s take a detour to talk about managing danger levels and success rates.



One day, you sent Mizegul to harvest mandragora roots from the swamp nearby, which is nothing special. However, when he came back, he fell sick, and after a few days, died. A major loss for you, since Mizegul had great skills in Battle Magic as well as in Geology (however, your campaign hasn’t progressed yet to the point where he could use them; and so you used him for simple harvesting quests for the moment).

Now, you may recall that whenever you assign a task or a quest (tasks being in-house projects like baking a pie, or growing herbs; and quests being projects in the outside world, like harvesting roots – or enslaving non-human settlements), you get an automatic indication of two things:

Expected Danger Expected Success Rate

So why would a routine quest that did not show you much of a warning, result in the death of your disciple? Let’s break this down: first of all, the expected level of danger it comes in 4 levels:

• ːthe_red_boxː High Danger
  
• ːorange_boxː Moderate Danger
  
• ːlolypopː Low Danger
  
• ːthe_green_boxː No Danger
  

Sending an unprepared party to cross the dessert or venture into Distorted Lands, for example, will show High Danger as one or more characters in the party is very likely to die.

As to the success rates, these also come in 4 levels:

• ːthe_red_boxː Very Low Success Rate
  
• ːorange_boxː Low Success Rate
  
• ːlolypopː Moderate Success Rate
  
• ːthe_green_boxː High Success Rate
  

Let’s say you send someone with a gift, across rough terrain – and without much equipment. The chances of success are high: as long as at least one person makes it there, the gift will be handed over. But the level of danger is also high, to the point where the party may be unable to return at all.

Now, going back to our disciple Mizegul who went to harvest mandragora roots: the quest showed a prognosis with High Success Rate – because harvesting this root is fairly simple; and Moderate Danger – because swamps in general have a location-specific danger: mosquitoes that may (or may not) cause Lowland Fever with their bites. But since this fever (a) is not guaranteed to happen (b) does not affect healthy people (c) is curable, even if contracted –the danger level is not High.

Illustration 2: Concepts for the high-ranking members of the Inquisition.

There are two critical factors that contributed to the death of Mizegul:

(1) At the time of his return from the quest, the Spire did not have a Hospital Room – and neither did it have anyone skilled in Healing. This is a major strategic mistake, since as you start exploring the world, your disciples are bound to all sick and get wounded; which, when left untreated, escalates into a loss of life.

(2) You sent Mizegul to the swamps without knowing that one of his core stats – HEALTH – is very low, so that where other characters who would be bitted by a mosquito with Lowland Fever, would recover – his own chances of recovery were nearly zero. And indeed, you sent other disciples to the swamps before, and what you saw was them reporting insect bites, a few days of fever, and then a complete recovery. The escalation of the sickness with Mizegul was a bad surprise!

While the first issue can be addressed with the construction of the Spire (adding the Hospital Room – or having another room re-purposed into it) and with the hiring process (making it a priority to bring in characters who claim that they are skilled in Healing), the second issue is more complicated: yes, you spent months of game time alongside this disciple; and yes, you still were unaware of what his actual HEALTH stats are.

If you recall, every character in the game has:

• stats
  
• traits
  
• skills
  
• current states
  

Whenever a new recruit shows up, you only know this:

• what the character tells you
  
• what you can obviously see from their outside appearance
  

For example, you may see the following:

KIP (male)

STATS:

HEALTH: –––
INTELLECT: –––
MEMORY: –––
WILLPOWER: –––
CHARISMA: Extraordinary
INTUITION: High*

* – according to this person.

The way to discover some stats, and all of the skills, is through examination: examine the person in the specific area, and you will be certain of their standing there.

The way to discover other stats, like WILLPOWER and INTUITION, is through events: assign a task that the character clearly does not like, and see them succeed, displaying high willpower; or send them on a long quest and read in the report that this person’s intuition served the party right.

The way to discover HEALTH is through a medical examination or by high-skilled magic.

As to traits, the traits that the character is born with, are discoverable via Horoscope. The traits that the character accumulated (such as, for example, a burning dislike towards the Inquisition prompting sudden attacks whenever she sees its members), are discoverable via Fate Reading (another knowledge in the Astrology skill set) or through high-level magic like Mind Reading. And all traits are also naturally discoverable based on events and quests.

Now, in the case of Mizegul, you simply had no chance to perform a medical check on him (as you don’t have anyone with high Healing skills); and your mage’s magic skill is not yet so advanced as to get a comprehensive portrait of your disciple. Hence, when sending him to the swamps, you were looking at “HEALTH: –––“, simply hoping that this turns out to mean “Regular” or even “Exceptional” once you discover the trait.

Illustration 3: Concepts for various chests (located in different locations, originally owned by different types of creatures).

Looking at the “A disciple has died!” event window, you probably had a thought or two about how to avoid this in the future. It would be helpful, for example, to know every disciple’s traits so that you’re more efficient in sending the right person for the right quest. And a good shortcut for this Horoscopes: it’s one of the special knowledge items based on the Astrology Skill.

A throwback to the skill structure: each skill has a progression line, and along that line there are several points where “special knowledge” items become attainable. Let’s take Astrology as a reference. Across the skill line, you have the following special knowledge items marked:

• Star Navigation
  
• Item Knowledge
  
• People Knowledge
  
• Horoscopes
  
• Fate Reading
  
• Seeing the Future; and similar.
  

Normally, you don’t know what these items are, until you come across them in a book. So if your skill already allows for Star Navigation, and you read a book that covers it – this special knowledge will unlock for your character. And if your skill is still inferior for this item, then this item will be marked out on the skill line, so that you at least know of its existence.

Now, the most efficient way of progressing on special knowledge is by reading books. Books are available from booksellers in towns and villages, though these are limited only to the subjects allowed by the Inquisition: farming, forging and such. As to the books about magic, you will have to find undercover booksellers trading in such goods, which means you’ll need a larger town; and probably some help from the Guild of Thieves (or having a person with high Streetwise skill in the party).

Earlier on, we mentioned that the runaway mages are treated like criminals by both the Empire and the Inquisition. So how can you send one of the disciples to town? Firstly, unless they explicitly tell others that they are mages, they could be safe (and as long as there’s not a chatterbox in the party). Secondly, with some simple Social Magic they can disguise their identities, make the guards look the other way, and so on.

The other ways of obtaining books are finding them during exploration (for example, in ruins); trading them from humans and non-humans who may possess them (for example, the Many-handed is nothing else but the guardian of a huge library that has an excellent selection); or receiving books as gifts from the enslaved non-human settlements or followers of the Cult of the Spire (since these creatures remember that the “gods”, in this case you, really love the things called “books”).

And if you fail to find the book required for the particular item of special knowledge, then you can still unlock it by performing research in the Lab – see below.

Illustration 4: Concepts for the mid-level members of the Inquisition.

Finally, we come to the end of this snapshot. You lost a valuable disciple. You’d like to avoid running similar situations in the future. Astrology offers a solution: learning how to make Horoscopes. And how do you get there? By finding a specific book to read, or by performing research in the Lab.

To carry out either of these, you will need to access the schedule of your mage, and to assign a number of hours to this activity. When studying books, you’ll choose the place of study (as it affects the results) and the specific book from those available in the Spire. When performing a research, you’ll choose the Lab and then a dialogue will guide your efforts:

• Do you want to research the application of Astrology to the past? (this leads to learning the coordinates of special locations on the global map, based on what the stars will tell you about the past events)
  
• Do you want to research the application of Astrology to the future? (this leads to learning about the global events that will happen to the world in the future, so you may start getting reminders about, say, an exodus of a specific tribe of non-humans, or a flood)
  
• Do you want to learn about the application of Astrology to gaining insight into other people? (this leads to learning to make Horoscopes, which uncovers the traits that characters were born with)
  

Once you assign the task, the process will become a part of your mage’s routine – or you can also set it as a one-time only event, in which case you’ll be prompted for the next action once this comes trough.

ːgreengemstoneːːgreengemstoneːːgreengemstoneː

With this, the current issue of the blog comes to an end. We started with the ambition of describing one day, but ended with the description of just one specific decision... well, sometimes it happens =).

In the next issue, we’ll focus on the world: the Empire, the Inquisition and the type of lands where the Spire is likely to be set up. Meanwhile, some big news: since last week, we introduced ːnotebookː Weekly Q&A sessions on the official Discord server of the game.

How this works: throughout the week, you can post questions about the game in #questions_en. And every Saturday, our dev team (including Alexey Bokulev) sits down spends an hour answering them. The answers are posted in #answers_en in real time, and then are systemized in this thread.

You can already find there 21 questions and answers from the last weekend, including on whether you can torture prisoners, whether you can send trained monsters on a quest, and in which ways may disciples become a threat to your rule of the Spire!


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