World Setting

The World

This world is a typical fantasy setting. It is not Earth. Technology is primarily equivalent to medieval times with the addition of an actual magical influence. It’s closest to Steam-magic Punk-ish. Magic is not wielded directly by people, but through the use of naturally occurring crystals that form deep underground and grow by absorbing the magical field of the world. Earthquakes, erosion, plate tectonics, and exploration can cause the discovery of new deposits of these crystals.

Larger crystals store more energy than smaller crystals, and so are more valuable. Unfortunately, the crystals are fragile and need to be handled with care lest they fracture and release all their stored magical energy in a single burst. Dust sized crystals are weak enough that they can be used to start fires with little threat of harm, but crystals as large as a head could bring down a large building if broken open.

Crystalmancers study and use crystals to cast a variety of spells, mostly elemental in nature. It is common for them to embed pearl sized crystals in jewelry to assist them in casting commonly used spells such as providing light, calling lighting, pushing/pulling objects, and the like.

Engineers use the crystals as power sources in their gadgets and inventions. Vehicles not powered by animals will have at least a fist sized crystal running the machinery. Of course, those crystals are rare and powerful, so only the most affluent people can afford to buy and keep them. As such, most vehicles are used for mass transit of people and/or goods between towns. Railroads are not unheard of to link towns with good economies. The rarest of vehicles are the flying machines as a bad crash can cause tremendous damage as the pilot and passengers usually die in the resulting magical explosion of the crystal cracking open. Only the craziest of people try to fly.

Since crystals provide the main sources of power for industry, electricity was never harnessed or studied as a power source and is considered dangerous.

The War

Although crystals can be found almost anywhere there is exposed rock, most are not large enough to power much of anything. To be useful in the simplest of inventions or spells, a crystal needs to be at least 1cm in diameter, spherically. There are only a few places in the world that reliably produce such sizable crystals and they are constantly in a state of war over ownership rights amongst the largest and most powerful of nations. Control of a crystal field gives significant advantage to the nation actively mining the caverns there. As such, the Crystal Wars, as they are called, have been going on for lifetimes. The warring nations commonly hire adventure-eager young men and women from the weaker nations as mercenary forces to fight in the wars with the promise of fortune if they complete their 25 year contract. By far, most mercenaries do not live that long. For those that do survive, the nation pays them a pittance for their services in relation to the value they served, although it is still more than the individual would have made in the same time spent at home had they never joined.

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