So, uh… To be quite honest, I wasn’t going to include Hogwarts-style houses. I’m kind of unprepared for this. Maybe they can exist as fraternities or something?
Alright—in that case I’ll go with “CU has its own internal legal system”, unless I get people asking otherwise. Expulsion will still probably be the most frequent form of punishment, but for extremely serious crimes other options may be available, up to permanent magical imprisonment or forced transformation into a frog or something. Current idea is that it would basically be a court made up of randomly chosen faculty members, but TBD on that.
I can’t stress enough that this sort of thing would be extraordinarily rare occurrence, though, like, maybe two or three times in the last century, at most. The Educators and the faculty are very reluctant to meet out this sort of treatment to students or to their own colleagues—there will/should be plenty of intervention before this point. This is Celestial University, not Ace Phoenix: Celestial Court.
Well, as it stands, whatever decision you decide on, is fine by me. At this point, all three options seem like they can basically be combined. Intervention from Faculties/Educators or professors, imprisonment and maybe a judicial trial, or even a meticulous punishment and absolute expulsion in severe cases.
Elemental chess sounds like something with a lot of potential. Maybe something along the lines of pieces infused with opposing elements, and an extra set of rules which govern them?
Here's another thing. Leisure time. Classes are only going to take up a small amount of the students time. There would definitely be clubs and societies for people to join. There would be common areas and on-campus facilities for the student body to hang around too: cafeteria, sports halls, function rooms, etc. Anyone want to go to the gym and get swole?
Assuming there's a nightlife off-campus, there would likely be bars and nightclubs to attend. I don't know where the Americans stand on this one, but I think 18 is old enough to drink. Then again, I'm English.
Everything’s good! I have just finished elaborating the (preliminary) definition of Magic and (much more importantly) the Three Domains of Magic—while I work on the standardized character sheet, please keep in mind which sort of Magic your character uses if you haven’t already, and how they do so. Feel free to ask clarifying questions!
Assuming there's a nightlife off-campus, there would likely be bars and nightclubs to attend. I don't know where the Americans stand on this one, but I think 18 is old enough to drink. Then again, I'm English.
Wanting to jump in and comment on this real quick—yes there is plenty of campus night life. Outside the grounds proper, there’s an entire city that is attached to the University to help provide services for students, faculty, and related people. That includes things like restaurants, cafes, bars, taverns, and nightclubs, and so on—ranging from the regular and respected to the seedy and disreputable. For the purposes of the roleplay, the age of admission and drinking (and smoking and whatever) for those places is 18.
I could soapbox about how stupid US policy is here but I will spare you all that—just know there’s no need for fake IDs or anything like that here LMAO
It is worth noting, however, that drinking, partying, and the like is expected to happen off campus, and is not permitted on University grounds proper. This is less out of any sort of moralizing purity, and more out of the practical consideration that mixing the University’s cache of powerful magic stuff with partying hordes of drunk and rowdy teenagers is a marvelously terrible idea. Now, that’s not to say your characters can’t try and throw a rager on campus—just don’t be surprised if faculty shows up, disappears everyone’s blunts and red solo cups, and disperses the party. It’s an IC restriction, not an OOC one.
All this talk about partying and the nightlife on and off campus, specifically the mention of taverns, (which are medieval) and clubs (which are modern) has made me to ponder this question.
If CU is an interdimensional university that's somehow connected to multiple realms across existence, what time period is the university set in ? Is it some sort of mash up of ancient and modern time periods or something in between like an 80's or Regency era or a bit more medieval with slightly modern themes ?
Assuming that the University has been going for a long time, you'd expect to see the influence of a tonne of different cultures. Creatively, this could be a licence to run with pretty much anything within reason. We could go steampunk, high fantasy, sci-fi, gothic, medieval, Western, Eastern, etc.
Culture shock would be the order of the day for the new students.
The O.P. specifies "MAGIC". Now remembering Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", we can justify a good deal of different technology levels, BUT is it in line with THE STATED FLAVOR of the O.P.?
I would suggest that magic be separate from technology, that both can be used. Steampunk & Magic could be more compatible to the Stated Flavor than High Tech Sci-Fi and magic.
It’s going good! I’m okay right now, character apps and draft for opening post will be coming up tomorrow hopefully. I’ll also have a long winded answer to the tech levels thing, but TL;DR I’m making it a mix with some nerfs for “modern” tech and some VERY heavy nerfs for cyberpunk/future tech. I’ll elaborate on this a bit more in the morning.
Okay, standardized character sheets adapted from the example of @Miss December have been added. Please take a moment to have your character sheets conform as much as possible to that one—though feel free to add anything you feel I may have left out.
I will have more soon—in the meantime, I decided I need help with Houses and courses: if anyone wants to do a write up on their ideas for Houses and courses feel free to send them my way.
All this talk about partying and the nightlife on and off campus, specifically the mention of taverns, (which are medieval) and clubs (which are modern) has made me to ponder this question.
If CU is an interdimensional university that's somehow connected to multiple realms across existence, what time period is the university set in ? Is it some sort of mash up of ancient and modern time periods or something in between like an 80's or Regency era or a bit more medieval with slightly modern themes ?
Assuming that the University has been going for a long time, you'd expect to see the influence of a tonne of different cultures. Creatively, this could be a licence to run with pretty much anything within reason. We could go steampunk, high fantasy, sci-fi, gothic, medieval, Western, Eastern, etc.
Culture shock would be the order of the day for the new students.
The O.P. specifies "MAGIC". Now remembering Clarke's Third Law: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.", we can justify a good deal of different technology levels, BUT is it in line with THE STATED FLAVOR of the O.P.?
I would suggest that magic be separate from technology, that both can be used. Steampunk & Magic could be more compatible to the Stated Flavor than High Tech Sci-Fi and magic.
Okay, so, to try and address all of these, I think I’m going to boil down my answers to two explanations: vibes, and usable technology.
-Vibes-
So, in my head, the general aesthetic vibe of Celestial University is a total mash-up. The “main, primary” aesthetic is specifically meant to be a sort of non-specific, “age of legends”, JRPG setting—generally high fantasy and High Medieval flavor, with liberal injections of Gaslamp Fantasy, Steampunk and Tesla/Mad Science-punk where appropriate. The general cultural vibe, however, is sort of meant to align with western university/college life—meaning that it includes things like fraternities (Houses), night clubs, house parties, dive bars, sports, etc..
It’s worth emphasizing and repeating here I am not super worried about tonal clashes, or with not everyone being quite on the same page here. Like Rothwell had said, having people from a bunch of different ways of life and cultures is part of the fun of it all, and I generally am not interested in mandating what sets people put up in their theaters of the mind. My primary concern is with how technology might impact capabilities, which I will address below.
-Technology-
So as I have mentioned, in the Million Worlds, different worlds have different levels of physical, material technology, ranging from Paleolithic-era or even less to advanced interplanetary cyberpunk worlds. CU is as much a technological mashup as it is a cultural mashup,
I’m not entirely sure how to lay out—if I even can—the full relationship between magic and technology here. What I will do instead is lay out a series of in-universe factoids/dictums, and then we can clarify everything else as needed, and hopefully I will not be writing checks I cannot cash here. Here goes nothing:
-Something about the physical space of Celestial University—that is, the teleporting, flying continent—really jacks up wireless signals for electronics. There are wired Ethernet connections that make up a CU intranet that works reliably well, but using wireless to transmit on or beyond the island results in latency, packet loss, and all sorts of inconveniences.
-Therefore, while computers and smartphones exist, they are generally not mandatory for classes or life in general like IRL. You can turn in your work both by parchment and owl or by email and file-sharing, most professors won’t mind either way (excluding, obviously, if you’re taking a class like “Magical Computing” or “Internet Spells”). Social media also exists, but is far less of a presence here than IRL.
-Enchantment magic (the main means by which people imbue tech with magic) tends to work better on things that are physically simpler: enchanting a rock is easier and more reliable than a blade, is easier and more reliable than a steam engine, is easier and more reliable than on nanotech. For most people, enchanting technology “maxes out” at a steampunk/gaslamp level—some can do better, but very few can do so reliably and well, making things like magical robots vanishingly rare.
-Likewise, it’s easier and more reliable to use simpler objects—wands and staffs and rings—as focuses for magical purposes than complicated devices like smartphones or modern firearms. You’re not getting anything special out of using more complicated technological devices: typically, it just means both your magic and your high-tech object’s functionality wind up being worse.
-While it’s not an explicit thing, there is sort of an unspoken cultural conflict between high technology and magic. One of the results of this are that technological things that would intuitively give an advantage are frequently and consciously either countered or replaced by magic: bullet-stopping wards rendering automatic weapons less useful, enchanted pens that do math for you just like a calculator, and so on.
With these things laid down, hopefully that will be enough to establish what I consider an appropriate functional technology level. Again, this is negotiable and will adhere to the Rules of Cool and Fun depending.
Profile
• Name: Keiko “Jinx” Majokaze
• Species: Three tailed Kitsune
• Age: 19
• Gender/Pronouns: Feminine-presenting / Fluid She/Her
• Origin Realm: Thaernis
• Role: Undergrad, Freshmen. Mostly taking generals and special interest courses at present but has a Major
Pets / Familiars: N/A, does not believe in owning animals, but understands familiars. Does not argue this, usually.
⸻ Physicality
• Appearance Human: Jynx is slender, agile, and expressive-- built for movement and misdirection. Her pale skin has a faint shimmer, like moonlight and static. green eyes peer out from slanted, almond monoid eyes. Her shoulder length hair is dyed black that's violet under natural light with with blue and glitch green She's a magepunk street kid, with a kitsune mask affixed to the side of her head and a an earing shaped like a type of wind glyph from her home dimension. She has on an old leather jacket with wind sigil on the shoulder and gang affiliation on the back, which a cracked, jawless skull with a dagger through the dome red and bold. She wears a brown, loose neck gaiter and a charcoal shirt underneath. She also wears ripped and torn black skinny jeans buckled combat boots. A messenger bag is slung over her shoulder filled with cans of spray paint, art supplies, notebooks and books among other things. It is a bag of holding in essence and has special runes, glyphs and sigils to make it so. Finally she wears a hip slung belt with of charms made from broken tech, spirit glass, and wind glyphs
• Appearance Kitsune: Pretty much the same, just a fox with three tails, each tipped in a different color—illusion (violet), wind (blue), chaos (green) with many tail rings adoring the fluff and bright amber eyes.
• Special Belongings: Belt of charms made from broken tech, spirit glass, and wind glyphs, Boots with soft soles and hidden compartments, Kitsune Mask, Earring shaped like a wind glyph, rumored to hum during storms. An ArchNetter(brand) EchoSlate (also known as a T-Slate. Basically a cell phone made of crystal), a small crystal charging station (think final fantasy xiv crystal way points but the size of a water bottle) Headphones, ArchNetter digital music player, Magetech earbuds. BOXES of broken magitech, soon to be all sorts of tech.
•Non-Magical Skills: Art (drawing, painting, beading, graffiti) , tattoos artist, peircer, bluffing. tinkering with magitech and normal tech.
⸻
⸻
Personality
• Character: usually easy going, but often speaks too loud on topics she’s passionate about. Her temper can flare here. Absolute loyalty to those who have earned it. She’s rather charismatic and emotionally layered. Fluent in sarcasm and facetism, inappropriate jokes, and blunt truth
• Quirks:
• Finds beauty in broken things
• Sometimes moves erratically, she doesn't know why.
• Eyes reflect the light at times, even in human form.
• Flaws:
• Allergic to rules
• Impulsive
• Often in trouble for tagging things on campus
• Argumentative when it matters
• Gambler
• Calls any one she doesn’t know the name of, or care to learn the name of, Steve.
⸻
Practice of Magic
• Magical Domain(s): Method-Elemancy: Wind and fire, Illusion, Sigils. Mana-Tychochinesis
• Magical Abilities:
• Jinx Pulse: Disrupts nearby magic and technology with chaotic bursts—causes misfires, glitches, or unexpected effects
• Majokaze Step: Uses wind to dash, hover, or vanish—especially during emotional spikes
• Foxfire Echo: Summons spectral flames that mimic voices, memories, or spells
• Tychokinesis: Magic that directly affects luck and probability
• Sigil Flicker: Draws unstable glyphs that warp perception—used for escape, confusion, or flair
• Permanent Paint: Makes spray paint permanent without an advanced spell to remove it
Academic Interests:
• Primary Department: Ilusiomancy
• Minors: Tychokenetic studies
• Favorite Course: Magical Theory and Probability
• Least Favourite: Herbology(science credit)
• Special Interest: Magical Sociology (most areas of it)
⸻
• House: Grim Misfits. The house of tricksters and shapeshifters and those who just don’t fit.. They have no real goal but are known for partying and pranks. They’re bonded by common interest, safety, and survival. Its like a pack, a family. They protect each other fiercely because, as shapeshifters and tricksters, they likely fit in nowhere else very well.
⸻
Current Magnum Opus status: Nigredo / Melanosis / Black Badge
⸻
Plot Hooks:
• Romantic Possibility: Pansexual, Demisexual. She’s very queer and very affectionate with those she’s close with… well… If she’d ever been that close to more than one other person.
• Faculty Interest: Teachers often do not like her as she argues on topics with them that she’s knowledgeable in, or asks too many follow up questions, or openly defies the rules. One teacher has taken interest though.
•Gang Gang Gang: She’s a street kid and a gang banger. When you’re in her circle, you’re in and losing that status is a capital offence. Getting there is hard and getting out is even harder.
•Broken but not lost: She loves broken things. To her they are beautiful. She can fix them up but usually does not. She collects them, buys them, and barters for them. Each item tells a story and she takes them to practitioners of psychometry to find it out.
I’m going to eventually—sooner rather than later—move everyone’s characters to their own thread once approved, so the sooner y’all can make them at least semi-standard the better. No rush though.
