Comprendere il Fantasmagorico

[Random_White_Guy]

Comprendere: Il Fantasmagorico
By Orlando Otisopse,
Il Calamaro Cremesi La Banda Rossa

[Random_White_Guy]

[hide=Preamble]To preface any author of note or merit must begin with establishing their credibility. As Navel Cadet of an illustrious company of Il Modo I found myself classically trained in the art of Wizardry by the Quartermaster known as L'oca Grassa. I have studied at length but the pursuit of Wizardry is a lifetime endeavor. One in which there are challenges large, challenges small, and matters ranging from the explainable to the inconceivable.

Prior to my shipwreck upon the Sinking Sea, and my eventual arrival in Ephia's Well, I found myself serving upon my Vessel in twofold capacity. The first as a burgeoning scout - small vessels sent shrouded in illusory magics to keep trace and trail of potential enemy patrol. Bandits, monsters more. Secondly as Battlemage, but contrary to the Ephian connotation of the word upon the Waves battle means a matter far different.

The tactics utilized famously in the War of Pearls - Illusionary works of Il Modan splendor, are a hallowed secret. As though now I find myself in service of La Capitana Capitana Lusidra Cortez It has been deemed by my Balestrieres a vital consideration. That in the sharing of my works, my talents, my studies may Potential Clients know well what to come in hiring.

I give to you Comprende il Fnatasmagorico. The Study of Phantasmagoria, the manipulation of the Mind's eye through Illusion.[/hide]

The name Sage Markolo resonates far and wide amongst the trade-routes. For he was the first of Il Modo to cast off in pursuit of the wider world, as Navigator did he breach into the unknown in the desire to discover both fortuna's favor and splendor. The spell Sage Markolo's Fire was crafted in emulation of a nautical phenomenon.  The flames of violet, blue, and green which would crackle and twist along the mast giving the appearance that one's ship had taken aflame in the night. The bane of novice and half-dozed alike who in their false alarm would rally the troops.

Sage Markolo was the first to employ a spell in duplication - Allowing a small force of Illusionists to paralyze an enemy force. At all hours of the night, making them sluggish and woeful for the day's patrol and routine. Days, weeks prior to action against them were the Baz'eelan forces thrust into borderline psychosis from the interruption to their much craved rest. Awakening during the Day shrieking that the Demon Pra'raj has settled upon the ship, to fetch water, to raise alarm, to - anything, do something...

...Only to have such been a passing jape. In the teaching of Sage Markolo's fire, and its study, is a properly trained Illusionist capable of sowing discord and mayhem among enemy lines, enemy camps, and even enemy mind's. For when the flame is there it is the greatest fear upon a vessel.

In translating such to the Desert battlefield it serves as little more than a passing marage, save one thing -

The Mind believes it is warded, protected from such - as it is obviously a false flame. There is no flame in the middle of the desert, outside of ash storms. Something to hardly be concerned with.

...Until instinct takes over and they begin to smell the flesh.

The mind says no, it is fine, there is simply someone cooking nearby. A traveler in a cavern near, preparing his enchantments for the next contract. He cooks some Dune Bison.

... And his final thoughts are all as well.

As he burns to a crisp staring at nothingness...

...Such a smile on his face.

[Random_White_Guy]

To know Sage Giacomo is to know Creation.  It was by his vision, wild at times it may be, that the grand architecture of the Dome of Man took to scale and in such vision was he brilliant beyond scope or scale. He is never pleased, never sated, ever fighting against his demons in pursuit of greater craft, more robust artifice, eschewing the foul Qa'immi mechanisms for more enlightened designs and choosings. Though it is said he supped from the original Dahkwar, sparking him to such visions of genius, allowing him to picture the curvature of the Dome before it's creation, to sit in a hut and envision Il Granduca's Palace, and many, many more considerations.

When demanded in the War of Pearls the faithful adherents of Sage Giacomo set swift to fiercest work. Morphing both pictogram and rune upon rumored to be his very blue-prints for quick and decisive naval victory,  The tales begin at first inspired by the Ghost Fleets of the Underdome, that upon the coldest and stormiest of nights when the fog rolled in would Splintered Mass and shattered sail be depicted upon the horizon by novice Cadets. In due time though as they worked and perfected their craft the miracles of the Arcane came to fairest and fullest fruition - Sage Giacomo's Ghost Fleet.

[hide=Sage Giacomo's Nave da Ricognizione] One of the most important spells learned by Cadet at the Maritime Naval Academy, helps to teach one the understanding of the nature of illusion. Where the Baz'eelan Geomancer relies upon the ash and stone, the Modani in their fairer grace tend the wind and wave - Fog, in particular to shift and sway. Sage Giacomo's Nave da Ricognizone allows one to entirely conceal a vessel, but so too in the heat of battle craft an illusory skiff - if sent across battle lines drawing artillery fire, enemy patrol, or countless other diversionary tactic. For something so simple can sway the entirety of the battle. Doubly so if it is used to lure a patroling pair of vessels directly into your Canon's fire from ambush.[/hide]

[Hide= Sage Giacomo's Coppia Caravella]For the learned though then comes Sage Giacomo's Coppia Caravella. For when battle truly does come one must indeed add a bit of flair of the dramatic, utilizing the Coppa Caravella may a Cadet see one Caravel before one's eyes morphed to two. While it remains predominately illusory, it is capable of light strike - specifically canon fire, elemental damage upon the hull of a rival ship, and more while equally holding more durability than Sage Giacomo's Illusory Skiff.  So too may it be crafted into a more permanent and binding form upon the waves, like a Bouy, floating along as distraction - for if a rival Cadet is foolish enough to strike a ship that looks like it has made anchor, they expose their position welcoming ruthless artillery upon them.[/hide]

[hide=Sage Giacomo's Armada Delle Apparizioni] True to his blind madness, his Apparition Armada, serves as the backbone of many charges. Still in the halls of Qadira and upon the fishing taverns of the Osmani Canal is it said the robustness of the Il Modi Navy. And while this is indeed true it was the adherants of Sage Giacomo's brilliance that brought such to further truth - In the creation of the Armada Delle Apparizioni. It was possible to turn a singular Galleon with it's heavy fortifications and sizeable crew into three, five, ten even in the hands of a Master of Illusion. And oh the sight beheld as three Galleons, with three Battlemage, became Two Score. And as the expert Pilot-Priests wove them through enemy lines - who was to say, who was to know, which was true and which was false? For upon each did the crews howl and jeer, did the Cannons let fly in such booming danger, and from somewhere, somehow did damage still indeed come upon your vessel. Your sails burning, your planks shattering. Ahye! Woe![/hide]

[hide=Sage Giacomo's Nave Ombra Della Linea]Considered perhaps the masterpiece of his Adherants works, Sage Giacomo's Nave Ombra Della Linea revolutionized the already daring action of the Night Raid. When engaging with Baz'eel's Navy off the coast of Qadira it is said these higher spells - believed by some to even be the works of Djinn in their brilliant deviance, shifted the final and brutal blows leaving their Armada sundered. The Nave Ombra Della Linea, the Shadowed Ship of the Line, brought to bear an unrelenting and previously unheard of madness to the battlefield.

It is the very nature of warfare for tactics to develop. Overtime it was discovered and learned not only were the Ashfolk's filtered eyes near as capable of keeping out the brine of the salt spray as they were of the ash, in the Night they were able to discern the smallest discrepancy - For a mere Mirage or Phantasmal Spell of Deception was not enough to fool them. The Adherants found victory in, as all things, the sacred naval practice of Intellegence Gathering. Through a series of intercepted correspondence by operatives in key Port, came forth word. For from the City of Qadira, long before it fell from Baz'eels grace, roamed the Gellemede. A curious faith of the Ash Desert, favoring brothel and mischief, mayhem and woe. Of though their practice comes a phrase - innocuous, yet menacing. They call of her The Lady between the Stars.

It was theorized, practiced in maneuver, and then ultimately proven in fullest combat to be the singularly most decisive spell of the war. The Modani Navy learned the Ashfolk's weakness in full, through this singular act of Sabotage. While their filtered eyes gift them nightvision, so long as there is greater light, may shadow slip undetected. Add to that the rolling nature of the tides, the twisting horizon, and the swells from storm? It proved not to be Fog per tradition, but Shadow itself that became the deciding factor in this war.

The Shadowed Ship of the Line, intermingled among Fleet, played abject hell with the Admiralty of Baz'eel. They were forced to withdraw their Ashfolk Commanders and begin increasingly populating their navy with Human commander. Those who under the flame could distinguish between Truth and Falsehood, Existing Vessel and Shadow Simulacra. Else the Shadowed Ship of the Line, Dancing between the Stars of the brighter Vessels, was able to cut to ribbons the sails of any fleet it pursued, allowing the true forces of Il Modo to make swift work by boarding.[/hide]

[hide=The Legendary Dreadnought]Though it is yet to be confirmed, there is a singular and final vessel, said to have been the Flagship of these wild and unruly adherants. Sage Giacomo's Corazzata di Cristallo. I begin to drift from classical training into fairytale, and for that I offer my sincere apology, yet it bears note that after all Sage Giacomo was a reputed Genius, and with such genius comes the attraction of Madmen.

There are claims and battlefield report recovered from captured scouts, of Ship.
No ordinary ship mind you.
A Naval Vessel of Legend that haunted the shores of Qadira and indeed,
Said to be a ship that haunts the dreams of Maharaja Ravindraa Nehamedu.

...The Corzzata di Cristallo. The Crystal Battleship. A vessel so pure of magic, so terrifying of creation, that in the final days of the War of Pearls it was the deciding factor. Claimed by some to be his motivation in his decision to fabricate tale of the "Storm" that sunk Baz'eel's armada. This storm and devastation leading him to defect and seize the Port Town all for his own power and edification. Spiting Baz'eel and spitting upon the Ashfolk who left he and his men to perish at the hands of Sage Giacomo's Corzzata di Cristallo. A vessel borne from the Underdome itself, twisted and hewn in a Madman's fevered vision. Bending not light, not shade, but the Ashfolk's singular advantage all war - The Sand and Ash. For you see in a daring raid did some of Consulta's fairest operatives secure... The secrets of Baz'eel's Glaziers.

A Battleship borne entirely of Crystal, Illusory magics woven and given truest form. Beneath a Hull fifteen feet thick of reinforced magical glass capable of repelling Cannon shot, Ramming ships set aflame by desperate Qadirans, and even it is said the fiercest lightning of Storms. The Admiralty of Baz'eel finally shatter before this Dreadnought once introduced into the Qadiran Theater. Because of its crystalline formation it could travel, day or night, undetected, unstoppable, and impregnable by enemy force.

...Surely a myth, conjured by limbless sailors and crippled cadets, the disgraced turned from true and honest Naval Command to fell Piracy.
Merely a way for them to save face in the light of their cowardice and betrayal to all they once held dear in Baz'eel.

...Unless...

It truly was the highest mastery of illusory magics at play.[/hide]

[Random_White_Guy]

To know Sage Santina is to know peace, to know comfort, to know above all the sacred mercy that leave so many wanting.  When the Crimson Death struck Il Modo, bringing with it such wanton agony and unbridled horror the peoples had a most embarrassing crisis of faith. How could the Sages fail to spare us of such, how could Fortuna allow us to know such misfortune and misery. Women cradling dead sons, Fathers burying daughters, orphaned children racing through the streets surviving like the half-feral Barbarians that wander Ephia.

Crisis precipitates change, and the change to come came in the form of Santina's Holy Hospital. A young illusionist who refused to let misery find her peoples. She would proceed to use her gifts not merely in passing fancy for fortune and exploration, nor in the pursuit of Militaristic victory and glory. She would chose a selfless and noble path, a means by which she may see the hardships of this world cast aside in favor of the true beauty once known. That in the darkest days of Il Modan history came a beautiful, shining, beacon of hope. So sacred, so precious, that the Sages themselves raised her on high to tend and care for all.

[hide= Sage Santina's Anestetico Abbagliante] The truest miracles occur in harnessing the splendor of what others believe mundane. Widely considered little more than a passing cantrip for the most basic of cadets, practitioners, and novice nurses it holds a mystique beyond measure. For it is a tool - and in the right hands a tool is capable of performing the most amazing wonders. The Anestico Abbagliante, the Dazzling Anesthetic, an incantation popularized at the height of the Crimson Death, not by Sage Santina, but by her devout faithful and her many apprentices who bound to her cause in pursuit of saving their neighborhoods, their families.

Reports vary but to those visited upon by the Sage Santina's flock report a variety of blessings bestowed. Some merely drift away to an effortless sleep - a profound mercy when your every waking moment is riddled with agony and pleague. Some say they have been struck blind by the sights, mercifully so when your eyes burn from the light and the sights of your dead family take such a miserable toll. Most mercifully of all though is it is said they show such a stunning beauty that in a fugue are the Holy Nurses of Sage Santina able to amputate limb without the unspeakable pain, nor the blood-curdling shrieks of the afflicted ringing out as the infected limbs removed.[/hide]

[hide= Sage Santina's Duchessa Danzante] As the nights grew long during the Crimson Death, the plague rattling the city to the bone, from each small window visited by the Sage Santina was left a sigil. A small token, it began as Ducat glimmering in the daylight but as night would fall such would be unseen. And in the bleak and terrifying blackness - so similar to the haunting and horrifying depths below the waves, fear rose. The Hholy Hospital  began by first attempting to use Candle but as the plague worsened was Wax in such horribly small demand.  Matters indeed, growing most grim.

It would be once more not Sage Santina but her nurses, who found solution. A common battlefield spell for the sending of signal flare from ship to ship - Duchessa Danzante - The continual flame, named for the constant waving and swaying like the Grand Duke's Wife herself, Sages keep her. Upon the ships it was used as to bring to task with Real Flame would bring calamity upon the dried wood, so in its absence they would use Illusory magics. Rather than a tool of war though Holy Hospital saw this illusory gift for what it was. It began slow at first with a placing a Duchessa Danzante at each Hospital so even in the worst of the worst afflicted could see the shimmering light in the terrifying red fog. To know that herein was hope, peace, and most of all sweet mercy.

In time though it would shift and it became akin a calling card. Opposite the original offering of Ducats left on windowsill, instead did the Holy Hospital leave a Duchessa Danzante upon the windosill of every room where someone was receiving treatment.  It is said, my friends, that from leagues away the Sailors could see Il Modo itself. Each and every Building glimmering with a duchess dancing in the Window. That they knew where they should bring their curse. Sage Santina be praised.[/hide]

[hide= Sage Santina's Misericordioso Martirio]The most powerful blessing of the Holy Hospital came not in cure, but in alleviation none the less. Each who takes of the physic's arts knows that when cure fails, when leech, when amputation, when all fails and all itself seems lost - there is still hope to be found. There is still kindness. There is still a caring touch upon the cheek, a calming sensation in the room, a peaceful prayer to be uttered, and ultimately a true mercy.

The Misericordioso Martirio.  The Merciful Martyrdom in which the Holy Hospital's faithful take on the burden themselves to commit the act which so many would in fairer times consider a cruelty. In the grips of the Crimson Death though, and I cannot put this into harsher terms, it is as if the Underdome itself pierced the Dome. Billowing red fog from so much blood coughed into the air, horrific red leisions and bulbo festering upon the nodes, agonizing streaks of crimson across the abdomen. The sights, the smells, the sensations of pure and unmitigated horror. In these times did the unfortunate souls trapped within know no rest, no relief, nothing but misery. And so in sacred rite did the Sage Santina's faithful bring to bare one of the greatest kindnesses they may.

Upon the afflicted they brought death. It was not a pained death, nor even a cruel death. But a Merciful one. The Sage Santina's practitioners sharing word that what brought forth a glimpse beyond the Dome of Man, into the Dome itself. To gaze upon the Sage Santina's haunting beauty and know, at long last, true and sacred peace.[/hide]

[Random_White_Guy]

To know Sage Orlando is to know revelry, to know indulgence, to above all know the bounty of life in all its form. Shying not away from the more baser, more primal, and more decadent leanings. The famed performer of legendary Opera, utilizing Illusionary stagecraft and more. Traveling with his caravel of carnal delights from port to port bringing with it a feast for the flesh and senses. Such wonders they brought, such hedonism they indulged in, and so... so very much drinking. The Timeline of Il Modo's victories and success a clear line.

During the throes of the Crimson Death, did the Sages rise to see a humble fishing Village turned into a Nautical powerhouse and Trading hub. Sage Markolo's return from far reaching trade and exploration brought with it magic, which lead to Sage Vittoria's mobilization of Eel-Fishing industry into a true and Proper Navy.  The Pilot Priests blessing the work as sacred to the Dome and when the Baz'eelan efforts to undercut our booming currency failed, and their declaration of war upon Il Modo for its many freedoms and opulence, did the War of Pearls come. In the wake of the War, and as one of the only powers in the Great Ash to hold True Victory over Baz'eel, Il Modo was graced with a Second Renaissance. Hardship cast by the wayside, the Houses flourishing of wealth and riches the like unseen since the Dome's building, far and wide influence gained as Baz'eel's city states fell into open rebellion or Disrepair. With such though came a return of decadence, and oh, how there was decadence...

[Hide= Sage Orlando's Il veleno del vigore] Traveling the far lands did the Sage Orlando secure a fortune of liquors and wines. So much so that demand drew his devout to seek clever alternatives to depleting stock. Drawing upon some of his stagecraft they pulled from his seminal masterpiece. Il veleno del vigore, in which a young soldier traveled with his fleet to foreign land, before trying a curious smokeable known as "Mizzar" and finding himself struck impotent. To remove his woes he secured from a local alchemist Il Veleno del Vigore, an Il Modan concoction for seeing  eels killed and easily collected in their state of rigor mortis. Upon its imbibing he proceeded to fall into a frenzy, visiting a local Il Modan Brothel tocopulate himself to death, shaming both himself and his commanders.

To emulate the tale came the creation of a most powerful illusion. In the hands of the Novices would the imbiber pay a goodly sum of honest Ducats to the Orlandians. They would then be hexed with the delicate taste and joyous thrill of inebriation, able to ride such a high for hours on end until sobering up with a newfound vigor for life. It is said though in some circles the truly depraved would pay even more of a goodly sum, often with dishonest Ducats, to have an even more realistic encounter. Imbibing so heavily they would rattle upon the edge of death, to feel truly alive.[/hide]

[Hide=Sage Orlando's Il fantasma della figlia] Any child of Il Modo knows well La figlia del pescatore di anguille, but for you of foreign shore seeking to learn more of the mastery of the craft I shall deviate to share with you a moment within. Set stage upon a tale in which the virginal daughter of an eel fisherman fell for a Housed gentleman. After bewildering courtship they would proceed to copulate many times, over many nights, before upon the 6th night the enchantment faded at a particularly bawdy orgy.  To the shock, dismay, and terror of she found herself mid-act not with the debonair Housed gentleman in a scintillating debauch for the senses upon a Foreign Villa. But in fact a Shack where a Frostport  Crab-monger had bewitched her into crude lewdness. It is said the Daughter proceeded to drown her sorrows with a bottle of her father's "Private Reserve", before slitting open her wrists in a copper bathtub.

In a time of such decadence shame a foreign concept, worry and woe non existent, and fear is the furthest thing from one's mind. The traveling troubadours of Sage Orlando brought forth Il Fantasma Della Figlia as a showcase of what was once lost. A chance for the wealthiest of wealthy to indulge in that plebian feeling of woe. The sensation of shame, the terror of your family discovering your maidenhood claimed by a disgusting Frostport Crab-Monger of all things. Before ultimately knowing the stinging cut of the blade, drifting away into unconciousness, and inevitably - death... Only to awaken from the exotic and thrilling experience to laugh with your chums, titter with your social circle, and return to the finer things in life.[/hide]

[hide=Sage Orlando's Il Giorno Della Gravita] The day the War was won, as the Sea of Pearls returned to peace, as freedom boomed and the torrent of opulence returned to Il Modo was a day of legend. A week long revelry was held by the devout of Sage Orlando which would come to be known as Il giorno della gravita, and a day of Gravitas indeed it was. As after the first day near all deplorable and self-loathing was achieved, in the preceding 5 days the debauchery ensuing would make a Gelleman blush. The things that were done are not fit for putting to the written word but as your imagination swirls consider this - The population of Il Modo near tripled, almost entirely making up for the lives lost in the Crimson Death.

One of the most expensive and glorious rituals, is in commemoration of that day.  As the travelers and troubadours of Sage Orlando are hired for weddings, birthdays, and the christening of a new Vessel to engage in Il giorno della gravita. A re-creation of that day of days in which Illusory magics are used to see entire crowds of people brought to the zenith of ecstasy,  Music sounds better, food tastes better, a pleasure for the senses unparalleled as the festivities commence. And oh, such lovely poisons pollute the mind and body alike.

You will feel such agony for days, but that is the woe of your next life, in this life - You Celebrate.[/hide]