I'll talk about a variety of things today.

First: Elder Things

Elder Things are essentially the Gods of Magic that I mentioned back in Katarina the Witch Hunter.

They're insane, broken things. They didn't always used to be this way; things happened and now they are. It might be explained in another story why the Elder Things are the way they are, but for now, just think of them as lunatic, godlike beings. They're intimately connected with the ley lines I've explained in other "Behind the Scenes" chapters. Since they're the source of all magic, they're the Gods of Magic. But their madness resonates in the magic they freely give to everyone, and that's why it's toxic.

Magic

Magic is toxic. It's radioactive, carcinogenic, it does bad things to your body. As you use magic, this poisonous factor accumulates in the body, causing mutation, cancers, madness, and death. Now, the "True Gods" (though by now you know them as 'false') legitimately wanted to protect people from the hazards of magic, so they created Sanctioning Seals, magical tattoos that filtered out the taint and allowed a mage to use their gifts without fear of mutating, getting sick, or worse, becoming an abomination, a thing so afflicted with magical poisoning it's stuck in a state of constant evolution. It mutates constantly, it's cancerous and riddled with tumors, it's rotting away and regenerating while doing this, and there's simply no hope at all for the original person to be saved at that point.

There's some drawbacks to becoming Sanctioned. You have a much lower level cap- you will never be as strong as an Unsanctioned Mage. Also, when you die, instead of joining the Cycle, the cycle of death and rebirth through the Nameless Stone that everyone (now) has accepted, you'll instead be judged by whatever God or Goddess you've sworn yourself to.

But, if you want to be an unsanctioned mage and swear yourself to an Elder Thing you can do some pretty amazing stuff. (of course there are those drawbacks...) You don't have a level cap, and in game terms, you have metamagic feats that allow you to cast at maximum power.

Magical insanity can't be cured with therapy, and it manifests in different ways. You could be a giggling, drooling sack of meat, a kleptomaniac, a sociopath, a serial killer, whatever. There's a madness table to roll on, and it ain't pretty. There's also a mutation table, and a cancer table that are rolled on every time you cast a spell. Who in their right mind would do such a thing? willingly? Lots of people, apparently.

I'll draw a line here for the sake of clarity: There are Unsanctioned mages that get their powers from kami, from Local Gods, and from Elder Gods. and they don't have those "You've successfully cast a spell, now roll on three different tables to ruin your life". but from time to time I roll a die, and they have to roll on one of the tables, because as I said at the beginning, Magic is toxic. Your patron can only filter out so much because there's only one Nameless Stone and there are quite a few Elder Things.

Also, and this is just an aside, whenever a mage casts a spell after reaching a certain level of exhaustion, I generate three random numbers from 1-100 and then roll a d100. If one of those three numbers pops up, you've either burned out your magical ability and can't level anymore, or you explode from magic overload. Good luuuuuck.

Dragons

Dragons are awesome. Absolutely nobody fucks with them. There's only a few in the world. They'll occasionally breed with humans and elves with pretty spectacular results. These dragon-kin are great manipulators, just like their parents. One dragon was introduced in Katarina the Witch Hunter, but I wonder if anyone figured out who they were... Two dragons have played roles in the Seventh Seal's adventures; I wonder if anyone will pick them out. Not that it's fucking hard....

As a rule of thumb, dragons are neutral- as in indifferent to the world and its people. However, they really really enjoy meddling in the affairs of other races because why the fuck not? It's not like a puny mortal can do anything to stop them.

Beastfolk

There are three kinds of beastfolk. (But Nestor-)

First, you get exposed to some magical radiation and you mutate. A lot of mutations are beast characteristics.

Second, actual beast-people. They're sentient, self-aware, and they can interbreed with either side of their parentage.

Third, Were. Werewolves. Werebears. Weretigers. were-whatever. It's a blood curse, it's inherited, and it's passed down through genetics.

They're wildly instinctual, and highly emotional. They're not fit to integrate into society. All of them carry a particular curse: If at any point in time they eat the flesh of a sentient being; human, elf, whatever- they become instantly and permanently addicted.

So don't feel bad about killing Beastfolk. You'll be doing them a favor, really.

Void-crazed

This will show up soon enough so I don't mind mentioning it. We have, from time to time, talked about True Gods, Elder Gods and their lifecycle, Dragons, and the Elder Things, but we've never talked about the Void-crazed.

In Aggenmor, ownership of your soul is important, because it determines what happens when you die, something everyone is intensely concerned with. So everyone, everywhere believes in a higher power in some way or another. The Void-crazed don't worship gods, goddesses, elder things, elder gods, or dragons: They worship the Void of Oblivion itself.

Everyone, everywhere has an instinctual memory of an event known as The Terror of the Long Night. They don't know what it is, but they're terrified of it. The Void-crazed embrace the Terror of the Long Night. They embrace the Void of Oblivion. They are essentially anarchist-nihilists. They want everything to break down into nothingness.

Eirawen was a subdued version of a Void-crazed. I say subdued because she was the Champion of a Goddess that believed that the strong should live and the weak should perish, and all those that died at the hands of her agents were cast into the Void of Oblivion. (really the souls were- nevermind. That's for another time.)

Final Notes

I've actually spent the past week or so writing short stories, so I don't actually have a chapter for you tonight. Sorry about that. There will be a new chapter by next Saturday night.

I have a short story of Sasaki's first few adventures as a Witch Hunter; I have a couple of Katarina side stories; I have a side story revolving around Lady Cardinal Olivia, Bianka Pavlenko and Katarina's daughters; another Sasaki story on how she managed to get her hands on the Thunderblade; I just finished writing up a piece on Moriko, who you might remember from the Shrine of the Ancient Pine, and a story about how Eirawen got her powers as a Champion; I have a story from The Tales of Darius Trakker, Wandering Monk, a story about the mysterious and ambiguous Odessa we saw briefly in Ankar-Set; and finally, I have a short story of Katarina's grandson. Basically, lots of short stories.

I plan on releasing a small book comprised entirely of short stories, and I hope you look forward to reading them!