03 Character Creation

Creating a character for Apprentices is about defining who they are and how they will survive the gruelling, cutthroat environment of the Academy.

What is a Mage?

Before you build your character, you need to understand what it means to be a mage in the world.

The Gift

Not everyone can use magic. The ability to sense, draw upon, and shape mana is an innate biological trait, you either have it or you don't. Roughly one in every twenty people is born with a mana reservoir large enough to cast even the simplest spell. Of those, only a fraction ever receive the rigorous training required to become a true mage. Your character is one of those rare few who both possesses the gift and has secured a place at a prestigious academy.

Mages in Society

The role of mages has changed dramatically in recent decades.

• The Old World: For millennia, magic was the exclusive weapon of the Noble Houses. Techniques were jealously guarded bloodline secrets, and a single trained battlemage could rout an entire regiment of mundane soldiers. Mages were the aristocracy, and the aristocracy were mages.
• The Fall: Recent Great Wars and magical plagues shattered this paradigm. The old magical elite was broken almost overnight as mundane counter-measures advanced and noble bloodlines were wiped out.
• The New World: Desperate for fresh mages to fill their decimated ranks, governments established massive, state-funded Academies that actively recruit talented commoners. Magic is being democratized. Your character is a product of this new era, possibly the first mage in their entire family line, sitting in a classroom next to the spoiled heir of a dying Noble House.

Archmages

Above ordinary mages, there exist rare individuals known as Archmages: mages who have achieved mastery in multiple fields of magic to such a degree that they can rival or surpass dedicated specialists in each one. There is no formal institution that grants this title. It is earned purely through reputation. Your character is, needless to say, very far from this level.

How Do People See Mages?

The answer depends entirely on who you ask:

Career Paths for a Mage

The Academy doesn't just teach you magic, it certifies you for a profession. Upon graduation, common career paths include:

• Government Mage: Employed directly by the Crown for civil engineering, military service, law enforcement, or bureaucratic spellwork. Stable pay, mandatory loyalty oaths.
• Guild Specialist: Joining a merchant or crafter guild as a specialist, enchanting goods, refining alchemical products, or providing medical magic. Lucrative but competitive.
• Dungeon Delver: Venturing into the Dungeon to harvest magical materials, slay dangerous creatures, and retrieve ancient artifacts. Extremely dangerous, extremely profitable.
• Private Tutor / Researcher: Serving a Noble House as a personal mage or pursuing independent arcane research. High status, but you are at the mercy of your patron's patron.
• Freelance / Mercenary: Operating independently. The riskiest path, but the most free.

The Dangers

Being a mage is not glamorous. It is dangerous:

• Mana Drain: Push your body beyond its limits and your own mana will tear you apart from the inside, triggering Exhaustion.
• Mana Track Strain: The soul is not invincible. Overuse of certain magics or tampering with forces beyond your understanding can permanently scar it.
• Sanity: The things you will see in the Dungeon and the moral compromises you may be forced to make all take a psychological toll.
• Politics: The Noble Houses, the Church, the military, and the criminal underworld all want a piece of you. Staying neutral is nearly impossible.

Follow these steps to build your Academy student.

Step 1: Background

Your background defines where your character came from before arriving at the Academy. It shapes your social standing, your connections, and the skills you bring to the table. Choose one background from the list below.

Each background provides:

• Flavour — a narrative hook that informs your roleplaying
• Starting Bonus — a concrete mechanical benefit applied during character creation
• Connection — a narrative resource: a person, organisation, or access you can leverage during play

Generic Core Backgrounds

If you are playing with a Setting Plugin (e.g. the Eldemar Plugin), additional localized backgrounds will be available.

Step 2: Choose a Playbook

A Playbook represents your starting archetype. It provides your base attributes, starting health limits, and gives you unique mechanical "Moves" that define how you interact with the world and magic.

Select one of the four Core Playbooks. Each playbook file contains everything you need for Step 3 and Step 5:

• The Heir: Vast political power, high expectations, family secrets.
• The Grinder: No natural talent, surviving purely on extreme study and grit.
• The Prodigy: Terrifying raw intuition, but lacks control and discipline.
• The Tinkerer: Relies heavily on crafted gear, alchemy, and artifice.

(Note: As you grow, you will be able to take Moves from other sources, including learning them from teachers).

Step 3: Attributes

Your character has 7 core Attributes. If you choose a Playbook, your array is already provided. If you are building from scratch, use the following:

• Mundane Attributes: Base 0 levels. You have 2 Points to spend (1 point = +1 level).
• Magical Attributes: Base 1 level in each. You have 2 Points to spend (1 point = +1 level).

Step 4: Magic Schools (Fluency)

As an Academy student, you have some basic training in magic.

• You have 2 Points to distribute across the 8 Core Schools (or support fields like Alchemy). Each point grants 1 level.
• Fluency (School Permission): School levels define what intents are fictionally plausible for you and unlock each school's tiered Technique Glyph track.
• Technique Glyph Access: At baseline, every caster starts with Faden plus their school-native starter glyph; further tiers are unlocked through school progression (see 05 Magic System and 04 Progression).
• Spells Known (The Recipes): For every level you place in a school, add one structured Spell Formula to your Grimoire using the declaration format Intent -> School -> Glyph -> Scale -> Tags.
• Custom Formula Track: Improvised formulas are stabilized through Research Matrix and learning clocks during downtime.

Step 5: Playbook Moves

Look at your Playbook and choose 2 Playbook Moves. These define your unique mechanical edge, such as advanced combat tricks, social leverage, or unique magical talents.

Step 6: Academy & Derived Stats

1. Choose 1 Mentor Professor: Pick exactly 1 Professor to be your mentor.
2. Physical Health: You have a track of 7 Boxes. Earning wounds inflicts narrative complications and ongoing penalties on physical rolls.
3. Soul Integrity & Sanity: Each has 10 Boxes.
4. Matrix Strain Threshold: Calculation. This is your comfort limit for concurrent tags. Exceeding it means you are Pushing the Matrix and invites hard 7-9 choices.
5. Ready Patterns: At scene start, mark 2 + highest of (Calculation, Memory) Glyphs as ready. Using known but non-ready glyphs in tense scenes adds one extra mixed-result pressure.
6. Memorized Spells: You can keep a number of memorized formulas equal to Memory. Memorized formulas cast faster in fiction and reduce Mana Track cost by 1 (minimum 1).
7. Downtime Codification: Keep a list of unstable but promising formulas. Between scenes, use Research Matrix and progression learning tools to stabilize them.

Economy ========================================= Playbook Templates