The Sable Magic System

 
 
Note: Information on this page is OOC knowledge, except with agreement from the Sable GM 

Terra Magica

The World of Terra Magica

Terra Magica is the home world of the Royal Family of Sable, although to the man in the street in Sable it is a place of legend and its location is unknown. Fundamentally, however, the magical system which was in place on Terra Magica has been transferred wholesale to Sable and its system, up to and including the magical training, the responsibilities mages have to Society, and the establishment of a Magical Oversight Council to police magical practitioners.

In history it is very similar to Earth Prime and Shadow Earth, with the main difference being that magic has been known about for 2,000 years, and has become accepted and legalised. The Angevin Kings, most notably Henry VI, realised that mages could be a useful resource, rather than something to be hunted down and killed, and Henry founded King's College Cambridge as the first official mage school on Terra Magica. From that point onwards, the history of Terra Magica continued to match those of its non-magical counterparts (the same Kings and Queens, parallel historical progress), although at the point where Earth began to become industrialised they split such that Earth went the technological route, whereas Terra Magica founded its technology on magical foundations.

Like Earth, Terra Magica experienced the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars and the Imperial Colonisation of the Victorian era. At that point there was a slight divergence, in as much a many of the beliefs of Victorian and early Edwardian society remained primary in the Great Britain of Terra Magica. However, the First World War, the Roaring Twenties (to a degree) and the rise of Nazism were directly mirrored on Terra Magica, and the Second World War was fought on cue.

The tech level on the world has advanced to equivalent of just before WWI on Shadow Earth, still primarily steam driven, but with touches which do not wholly fit with that period, but are made possible by virtue of the abilities of the mages. For example, there is an equivalent to electricity, but the flick of a switch turns on a light spell, rather than an electronic current; and while the most common form of transport is horse-drawn, the suspension and wheels are closer to modern automobiles than the traditional horse and cart. In addition, the general air quality is better than on Earth, as instead of fossil fuels being used to power the steam boilers, the water his heated by magical means.

Of more curiosity to the people of Terra Magica, longevity on the world seems to be dramatically increasing. Previously, average life expectancy was 80-100 years old, given the benefits of magical healing, with probably an extra 25 years with youth spells (which would also keep those under them younger and fitter for far longer). However, non-youth spell longevity has now risen to 100-120 years on average, with one or two recorded cases of mages reaching 150, something previously never heard of. Politicians, scientists and magicians are currently still debating why this might be, what fundamental changes it is likely to make to the world and people of Terra Magica, and what must be done to adapt to the inevitable rise in population which will come as a side-effect of this.

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Millbank Manor

Ancestral Home of the Royal Family of Sable

The mansion is set in 250 acres on the Worcester/Gloucester border in good old England. The original house was built in 1600 and is black and white. The great hall (or old hall, as it is also called) is in this part of the building, and has a minstrel's gallery at one end with stairs leading up to it. A balcony runs the whole length of the room. There are weapons and tapestries on the walls, and a huge fireplace. The room itself is pretty big - 65' x 40'. The current dining room is also in this section, as is the old library. Both of these are wood panelled, as are the music room and another room at the opposite end of the hall.

On the first floor of the old house are two guest rooms off the minstrel's gallery, above the music room. At the other end of the hall are a guest room, and what looks like a set of rooms for a child and nurse, although these don't appear to have been occupied for a few years.

The kitchen leads off the old hall, with another staircase going up from it, and beyond them is the stable yard and kitchen garden. Around the stables and coach house you will probably see a couple of retrievers running around, as well as several cats. The horses are of good quality, both the riding and the carriage ones, and the coach house is obviously in daily use.

A new Cotswold stone (a yellowish sandstone) wing was added in 1700, by Robert's father, when the formal gardens were also laid out plus and a raised terrace behind the house and a stairway down to the lawns were built. Looking down from the terrace, you can see a formal garden laid out, complete with box hedges around the beds. Off to one side is what looks like a yew hedge maze, of relatively simple design with a gazebo in the centre. Beyond the garden below the terrace is a large expanse of lawn, and beside the maze is a grass tennis court - although the net is not currently up. In the distance, the lawn ends in another hedge with a gate in it, and you can see fields and woods.

The entrance hall, with a large staircase and the doors to various rooms, are in this newer part of the building. A new library was built in this wing, with bookshelves from floor to ceiling - all three storeys of it (ground, first, second). There is a balcony to one side of the first floor, and of the second, with a wrought iron spiral staircase leading from top to bottom. There are a fair number of arcane titles, as well as historical and military. Not a huge amount of fiction, although there is a little. One section is devoted to medicine and forensic medicine, and some of the titles here have Robert de Lacy's name on the spine. There is a seperate section of the library containing a large number of books with red eagles and swastikas on the flyleaves, most of them in locked glass cabinets. Some of the volumes here fill out gaps elsewhere in the library and are mainly occult and arcane. Robert's private rooms are up there, and his study is immediately below it. Right at the top of the spiral staircase is Robert's painting studio.

The decor in the new wing is late eighteenth century - solid, plastered, coloured walls, with plaster work picked out in white for decoration, and friezes and reliefs on the ceilings. There are a lot of paintings around, including family portraits of the de Lacy family. Duke William (Duke from 1698 to 1740) is obviously Robert's father, and all the Dukes from about 1740 onwards look somewhat similar - there seem to be two main images: variants on Robert and Andrew.

There are one or two other family portraits as well, including one of a family (a young man, heavy set with black hair and green eyes, wearing an army uniform; a shorter woman with brown hair and blue eyes; and a boy of about seven, again with dark hair and green eyes), one of a young, blond man of about sixteen, and one of a woman in her early twenties with strawberry blond hair, wearing a eighteenth century bridal gown.

The furniture is mainly seventeenth and eighteenth century - heavy wooden chairs and tables, upholstered in fine fabrics. English or French in style, mainly. However, there are some comfortable looking leather armchairs in the main drawing room, which while a little out of place are still well made. Also noticeable, is that lights do not appear to be electrically powered - but neither are they oil lamps or candles. In fact, looking at the house the tech level of the Shadow is obviously mid- to late-nineteenth century, rather than twentieth. No TV, no video, no computer, no usual kitchen appliances - you get the general idea.

The studio is a decent size, 40' by 20', and has obviously been converted out of part of the loft. It looks to be lit by two huge skylights, although if you look at them, you will realise that they aren't actually windows, but in fact are some kind of magical construct. However, they give the place the equivalent lighting of a spring day. It only has one entrance - the one from the balcony - no real windows, and a couple of fireplaces. It is fairly tidy. Artist's materials line shelves around the wall, and there are a few canvases in one corner. There are also some blank Trumps. If you are any connoisseur of colours, you will notice that some of the paints are of rich, bright colours that almost seem alive.

A small, thatched stone church was built in the grounds, and is the parish church for the village of Millbank, where the de Lacys are lords of the manor. It is just visible in the trees off to one side of the garden, and contains the family mausoleum.

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