Wow. It's been a long time since I last updated this blog. Anyway, the rules are FINALLY being written but as of now, are not yet completed and thus barely playable. But it is a start. Magic and Tech PDF.

1st Concept Art

Alas, after many months, the first concept art for the Naratian Combat Witch and their Ground Combat Magical Apparatus is completed. Thanks again to meganerid for taking on this commission. https://meganerid.deviantart.com

New Sketch.

     A new sketch from Meganerid https://meganerid.deviantart.com has come in. What are your opinions?

Rough Sketches Are In!

The artist meganerid, https://meganerid.deviantart.com, has released his rough drawings of the Ground Combat Witch and Ground Combat Magical Apparatus. Feedback would be greatly appreciated.

 The first rough sketch of the Ground Combat Witch. Meganerid wanted to get the GCMA down first then the combat witch.

 The initial version of the GCMA.

Alternative variants of the GCMA that are being explored. 

Narrowing Size Decision

I was beginning to make up a player aid called Target Silhouette which helps in determining if a target has cover or not when I realized that a draw at 20mm would be 10mm or larger than 1/4" but smaller than 1/2". That be incredibly TINY to paint. Thus the game scale determination is now 28mm or 32mm.

Current Ideas for Game Mechanics.

Well, it's Wednesday again. Time for a large update.

History of Magic and Tech: Pt 2

Seven grand armies were assembled. Five will go through the desert and wipe out the nomadic tribes that helped the refugees and continue on north as the other two will land on the other side of the Great Desert and begin to wipe out the exiles. The emperor and his military advisors believed that the diverse make up of the exiles would prevent a coherent response and thus be able to win easily. This was not the case.

As the fleets landed, they were met by what they found to their horror not a mob of defeated exiles but a well trained, well armed and well disciplined force. What they all had failed to realize that 500 years have passed since the end of the campaigns to rule all of Certau. The exiles who fled here did have their share of struggles and conflicts but a demi-goddess, who lived in the northwestern mountains brought an end of the conflicts and retold the prophecy that they were told and believed to be true back in Narantia. 

It was through her that the exiles realized that they were wrong and misinterpreted the prophecy. The prophecy states that only after their final defeat and endure a time of strife and grief that they shall be united under one flag, the flag of Narata. In ancient legends, Narata is the name of a warrior god through his deeds drove back the titans and at one time, unified the people of Certau. It was upon his ascension that the people broke apart their unity and created the nations and brought about the events that led to the birth of the Penar Providence.

The Republic of Narata was born 25 years ago after the first goddess then ascended when her task was done and another was rescued from the war-like demigod in the volcanoes of the southeast. The warlike demigod Baltharious seemed ways of becoming immortal himself and he believed that by eating his offsprings would he become immortal.

It was by the hands of a mortal woman that his cruelty and the demigoddess Yephima’s nightmare ended. Weakened, she gave the last of her energy to her last offspring and to that of the woman who had freed her after her short while of captivity in the hands of Baltharious and passed away. It will be these two daughters that will also add to the events that will shape the course of events to come.

The invading armies from the seas were soundly defeated and were routed back to Penar Providence. With their defeat, the living god emperor severely punished the commanders but yielded to the advise of his advisors and with the last of their military strength, gathered one massive invasion force but in doing so, cut off supplies for a while to the five armies still marching through the desert.

Narata waited but upon hearing word that the Desert Nomadic Tribes were being attacked, decided on a bold and dangerous strategy. The nomads told them that the grasslands belong to the exiles but the desert is theirs and the exiles shall never step foot in the desert. The exiles agreed and this carried over to the unified nation of Narata but they felt obliged to help them.

Keeping only two small delaying forces scattered along the coast, the bulk of the Naratian army marched into the desert. There, they clashed with the advancing armies of the Penars on the banks of the Embortano River. By doing so, they gave the nomadic tribes the time needed to rebuild when a young woman gave voice to the idea of unifying the tribes and then unifying under the Naratian flag for they too are enemies of the Penar Providence.

The councils of both nations agreed and in an unexpected move, made her Queen of Narata. Under her leadership along with the indescribable strength of two other women, one a priestess with swordsmanship skills unseen or unheard of before and the other a mage whose power seems to know no bounds, utterly crushed the Five Grand Armies, leaving not one survivor.

With the threat from the desert neutralized, the army split in two and went to the coasts. Word came that the invasion force landed in the far north. Leaving behind small forces along the coast, the two main armies met the Penars, surrounded them and destroyed them, leaving few survivors.

Knowing that invading south could put them at equally the disadvantage as the Penars had gong north and with no navy to speak of, the Naratians decided that they will adopt a defensive strategy.

They built a series of forts along the Embortano River, a wide river than runs west to east, nearly cutting the Great Desert in half. A navy was built up to protect their coasts and with that, the map will remain unchanged for a thousand years.

Time and time again, the Penars will try all different routes, different build up of their armies and each time, they are defeated; although it should be noted that on a few occasions, Narata almost lost but they always managed to find a way to win.

Then with each passing war, Narata would expand their chain of outposts south until they reached the grasslands on the southern side of the Great Desert. Narata established forts and castles to secure their holdings on the southern side of the desert and moved a vast portion of their armies to the new forts as well.

Every other new war brought with it a surprise from both sides in terms of technology and magic. New metals have been discovered, new processes to make their military efforts more efficient explored and implemented. Better weapons and armor, new ways of harnessing, controlling and utilizing magic discovered.

Each war has become ever more savage and bloodier. Each new war saw a darker side of the Penar Providence. Then came the Great War eighty years ago.

During this time, the two nations had allies and trade with foreign nations and with it, each nation expanded their influence over these nations.

With the known world effectively split in two camps, the Great War saw casualties like nothing before it. It saw a level of destruction none thought was possible. It became a war where industrialized militaries and magic had come to a point where even their own power terrified those that wielded them.

Where Narata chose to go down the path of being more reliant on technology and less on magic, they; like the Penars, used massive bombs using new principals in harnessing the very thing that makes all matter possible, the atom.

By using processes that simultaneously split the atom and a particle of raw magic with two elements, uranium and demonite, an element that has shown to cancel out the side effects of using just uranium, they have created a bomb that could wipe out entire armies and cities. In a test, they had found that not only was its power overbearing but the demonite, before known that in vast quantities could open rifts to the underworld, had done just that.

The combination of a tiny amount of demonite and uranium, being used to help split a hydrogen atom and a raw magic particle had torn open portals bigger than anything before. Narata now had to fight the demons of the underworld that came from this portal as well as the Penars.

In a frenzy, the Penars had discovered this use too and used it on their own people whom after generations of abuse, rose up. “The bomb” as it was simply known as was also used outside of Certau to massive, devastating effects.

The unexpected fallout of the use of Demonite caused those who survived the initial blast or lived downwind to become corrupted in mind, spirit and body. Their bodies decaying and their minds full of hatred for the living.

From these portals arose spires of black rock and as these spires grew, the portals expanded and the beings of the underworld began their own campaign to destroy all live on the surface. It took many years before their expansions were halted and saw a small number of these spires crumble and with them, the portals closed.

During this time, the immortal emperor vanished. No one knew where he went and the nations that the Penars conquered nearly two thousand ago were once again free.With no choice, an uneasy truce was announced. A truce that continues to this day but is beginning to waver.

Still loyal to the immortal emperor, the orc clans continue to invade Narata and each time, Narata calls upon its forces to repel the invaders. Incursions of mutants and lately cybernetic enhanced beings from unknown origins but strongly suspected from the Penar Providence challenge the Narration forces. Recently, the Penars are massing their forces again and incursions in other countries have started to rise. Gun fire has been exchanged; damage and casualties have been inflicted. How long can this pattern continue before another great war is declared?