I’m doing Inktober for the first time, and it makes for a perfectly good excuse to do some worldbuilding and practice drawing people that don’t look like weird plastic action figures. Still working on that second part; getting better, but far from where I want to be. I’ll try to post these in weekly batches.
1. Spiralcaps
The subterranean world is largely unexplored by humankind. In regions with especially volatile concentrations of arcana, the underground lattice of caves and caverns weave in incomprehensible ways, creating passageways that dive and stretch for miles. With plenty of space for life to make its own way, even the lowliest of organisms find ways to take advantage of the abundance of free magical energy.
The term ‘spiralcap’ does not refer to any one particular fungus, but a broad category of fungi that share several common, magical traits: extraordinary size, brilliant bio-luminescence, and spores of a particularly lethal strain. Many Frontier-bound amateur fortune seeker have met their end deep in the desert cave, where one errant inhale can result in a sudden bout of massive pulmonary hemorrhaging and laceration or dissolution of the airways and digestive tracts.
2. The Mesa of the First Mages
Few have ever ventured into this particularly remote corner of the Constonian Frontier, but those who do will no doubt find the peculiar pillars that dot the highest plateaus. Old stories tell of ancient proto-mages who lived ascetic lives atop the pillars, meditating on the secrets of arcana.
3. Inquisitors Raid a Kobold Village
Kobolds: A generally solitary, nomadic species that live above-ground in the warm seasons and below when the snows arrive. Though ill-reputed among human communities due to their reputation for violence, thievery, and kidnapping children, the small, dog-like reptilians are usually amicable, if distrusting of all strangers and non-kobolds. They are quite intelligent and highly social, and although scattered all across the Frontier, kobolds still keep close communications with all of their kin.
Inquisitors: Holy Warriors of the Church of Manasta who follow the charge of their ancient founder, St. Artannus: to secure all artifacts of arcane power, and destroy all those who would misuse them.
4. Mage Initiates
Becoming a mage is simple enough. Once you receive your Church-approved scepter and have had some time to practice under close supervision from their clerics, even a novice of three years can reliably manage rudimentary telekinesis and defensive wards. The only real obstacles are affording the registration cost with the Church for the scepter in the first place, and not accidentally vaporizing yourself and everything in a fifty-foot radius the first time you try to conjure fire.
Becoming a mage of the Sunderfeld Academy, however, is no easy process. It requires study, it requires mental fortitude, it requires physical strength, and most of all it requires money. If one is lucky enough to be of noble birth to a family with the resources to guide your training, and happens to have the aptitude for the arcane arts, then there is a slim possibility that after an entire childhood and adolescence of nonstop drills and conditioning you may be a viable applicant to the Mage’s College of the Sunderfeld Academy. Once arrived, you will then find yourself in a cohort of 400 other students just like you, who have trained since they could crawl to prove themselves, who could wipe away entire companies of lesser mages with a sweep of their hand, and who are all competing for the top rankings by graduation.
Although there’s no statistically significant difference in graduation rates between the Mage’s College and the other, more mundane schools of the Academy, those that graduate from the former are significantly more likely to come out of it missing more fingers and eyes.
5. False Cockatrice
Though often mistaken for a true Cockatrice, the False Cockatrice—or more aptly, the “Giant Western Prarie Chicken,”—bears no relation to the far rarer reptilian chimera. That said, the False Cockatrice is an equally dangerous threat to lone travelers. Despite it’s resemblance to its docile, domesticated biological cousins, Giant Chickens have a far more vicious streak, often hunting for sport and clawing and pecking its prey to pieces.
6. Maplehead
If you are traveling the arboreal foothills near the Cloudtop Spur at night and suddenly catch the scent of sweet maple syrup on the wind, run.
7. The Wardens of the Royal Corps
As the centuries rolled by and Constonian interest in the western continent came and went and came again, eventually a permanent branch of the Royal Corps was founded to secure the Kingdom’s grip on the territory: the Wardens. Primarily a border watch manning the forts dotting the circumference of the continent, they are the first to mobilize whenever the Corps must operate within the Frontier itself.
Light scouts, mobile cavalry, and resourceful spellcasters combine for a fighting force that can travel quickly across the dangerous terrain, and make do with what is often very little. Expert survivalists and disciplined fighters, they pride themselves on always being both the first to arrive and the last ones standing.