| Magic
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Chant a little Chant for Me...
On Legend we have over 150 spells. But you use them in a way rather unlike
most muds. Instead of learning each spell individually, you learn magical
words of
power that are scattered around the mud. The combinations of words are what
make up spells. Words include things like Fire, Create, Time, and Energy.
Magic falls into three schools based on the basic verbs that a mage learns.
Every mage must learn the school of divination, with its verbs Know and
Conceal. After that they must choose between either conjuration (Create and
Destroy) and sorcery (Cause and Remove).
Within the various schools there are also several disciplines, such as the
many spells devoted to creating illusions of various types (Ephemera, Illusion,
Doppelganger, Summon Butterflies, Sword of Light, and many others).
The words that represent the words of power are taken from ancient languages
like Sanskrit.
A mage might chant 'create light' to get a temporary orb of glowing light, and
'create light man' to get an illusory man made of light--a doppelganger.
'Destroy the movement of light' would disturb any of the patterns of
light that characterize illusions and make them all go away. 'Create the
movement of light' poetically results in a swarm of butterflies...
One of the showcase skill sets on Legend is that of herbalism. Based on careful
research into the historical and legendary uses of plants from around the word,
herbalism combines a database of historical and medical information with a set
of skills useful to the gamer.
Herbalism starts with plants: there are plants growing everywhere around
Legend, both trees and small herbs such as thyme and hellebore. An herbalist
begins by learning the herblore skill, which permits them to learn information
about the herbs. A typical herblore entry might be:
-
Name: Uva-Ursi
History: Marco Polo and Kublai Khan both brought this herb back from the Far
East, and by the 13th century it was used in Europe as an antiseptic in
poultices. Also used by Amerinds for the same purpose.
Uses: POULTICE creates a cure light poultice
Safety: non-toxic (no food value)
Herbalism then builds upon this basis with skills to brew herbs into a variety
of remedies, poisons, and potions, make poultices and amulets from them,
cultivate them (even into entangling thickets), make stout staves from the
wood of trees, and other abilities, including learning how to draw sustenance
from the earth in the manner as do plants themselves with the root skill.