Hey Game Fans, we’re taking a look at some world building ideas and concepts for the home setting i run. If you’ve checked out my other world building articles, this is the setting that focuses on Lakeport and the larger world around it. Today i’m going to take a look at one of the more somber gods for the setting, Frand, The Lord of Magic. Before i get started on Frand himself, let me give you a little background for the gods of this world.
Broadly speaking, the gods divide themselves into a variety of groupings and factions, but the grouping i am concerned about today is the old gods and the new gods. The Old gods predate one of the most important conflicts of the setting, the Fey War. These are the gods that originally found this world and shaped it to their designs and interests. They shaped the great forests and mountains, and populated the world with creatures in their own image. The first Gods to walk the world were the gods of Giantkind, the Fey themselves, and the three Elder Wyrms. A few other gods would appear after this first establishment, most notably Ahrimaius, the God of Creation. These are the Gods of antiquity, and they made the world the way it was, for good or for ill.
The Fey War began as internal issue between a small fey enclave and their neighbors. It spiraled out of control to a level of violence and bloodshed that would haunt the old places of the world forever. At the darkest point of the war, when the Me’Ah’Chin hordes looked ready to take the fight to the Gods themselves, the eldest of the Fey Gods, Grandfather Oak, cast the most powerful magic anyone had ever seen. He summoned heroes and champions from across time and space to the Garden where Oak had planted his first seeds. He made them a simple offer. If they would turn back the tide of darkness and save the world, he would bestow upon the seeds of godhood, and make them the new gods of the world.
Heroes to the end, most of these people died during the war to liberate the world. Heroes from thousands of worlds and cultures fought, bled, and died in a distant land to save it from the most terrible monsters they had ever encountered. When the last battle had been fought, and the dead tallied, less than fifty of the thousands of heroes and champions were still standing. A few would succumb to lingering injuries sustained in the war, and their number would be diminished even further by a tragic incident.
The survivors returned to the Garden, and Grandfather Oak kept his word. Each hero or champion became the living embodiment of an idea or a race. One by one, the new Gods and Goddesses organized themselves, and set about the work of trying to heal the lingering damage the war had caused. Some places were never completely healed, and there are distant parts of the world that still think that ancient war rages….but that’s a story for another time.
Frand, The Unfinished Theorem
History
Before the War, Frand was an academic, who spent his days teaching the principles of magic and its fundamental truths to bright eyed, eager students at the royal college of magic in his home country. Frand had been a theorist, and a scholar, and had never had to cast spells with his life on the line. He was timid, easily startled, and considered by most of his colleagues to be a cowardly wizard who skated by on good looks and the barest hint of talent. Frand disappeared on a long sabbatical, and returned with confidence, and a new friend. Frand and Adelia were inseparable after that, and he followed her into the war.
During the War, Frand turned his theories to practice, and spent many long hours devising spells to kill the Me’ Ah’Chin. He took one of the most hard line stances of any of the heroes involved, repeatedly stating that anything that had been touched by the Me’Ah’Chin should be reduced to its bare essentials, and started again. His magic turned several disasters into victories, but the price was high. The bright eyed theorist had slowly turned into a hard hearted soldier.
After the War, Frand disappeared. Without a war to fight, he lost his way, and it took him a very long time to find his footing again. He returned with Bannock and Adelia at the conclusion of their journey, and had slowly started to turn back into the academic he had been as a mortal man. Frand has spent the balance of his time studying magic, and learning more about it’s essential nature.
Relations with Others
Frand is a friendly God amongst his fellow Deities. He gets along well with everyone but Pureheart, whom he detests on several fundamental levels. He also has strong disdain for Galruth, the God of giantkind who brought arcane magic to the world in the beginning. He is a close companion to Bannock and Adelia, whom he assists in managing her many facets.
Relations with Servants
Like a professor lecturing students, Frand tutors his many minions in the power and potential of arcane magic. He has no particular bias towards any one particular school or type of magic, because he embodies magic as a whole. His servants tend to specialize in a specific type of magic, and they often spend their days studying magic and practicing it. Frand’s favorite moments are when one of his servants teaches him something new about magic.
Relations with Mortals
Frand’s clergy spend their days supporting the study of magic and its myriad uses. Frand encourages folk to study magic and to find new and interesting ways to use it. The only magic he forbids people to study is the old magic of the giants. His personal view of magic (and that’s the lens he sees life through) is that every person is an unfinished spell, and that the goal of life is to figure out what that spell is, and to create the purest possible spell.
Unusual Sayings
“Hmm….What does this do?” Frand sees the world as a laboratory, and encourages people to try new things and experiment with their environment. Learning is a key to growth.
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