Chapter 3-68: A New World to Adapt To (Infodump!) (2/2)

With only the Powered/Primos divide to focus on, they had naturally focused on addressing that discrepancy and trying to raise the floor and level the playing field thereby, showing those without magic how to gain power, Levels, become Forsaken, and stand as equals with the lucky magic people.

There were still differences between our societies, and the Powered definitely had advantages in life, but there was no caste system.

It helped that Powered didn’t have Powered children; they were born to random Primos. Building Powered dynasties just wasn’t that easy, although some were trying to do so using a sect/cult system, and the Churches were certainly based on that paradigm.

Here, many of the non-humans were Powered (no Ancients were, in contrast), although they had the same problem Humans did... and orcs and most goblins were notably less intelligent than humans, which definitely hampered their ability to improve themselves.

Then, of course, there were the Secret Societies that had been exposed by the coming of the Powered. Suddenly the apple carts they’d had all to themselves were all over the place, out of their control completely, and they were being discovered by magical people with all sorts of new ideas and ways of doing things, without all the ancient conflicts and clashes between them...

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The Illuminati, the necromancers of the world. Thousands of years old, present in every realm and kingdom of the ancient world, and every country of the new. Their greatest leaders were all necromancer undead, and they were both rivals and allies of the Vampire and other Tomb Clans.

The Druids, the Shamans of the world, suddenly finding that their reverence of the world-spirit was now being answered, and their animist beliefs now had teeth. They had been isolated before, with some mutual respect between them, but they had rapidly linked themselves up into a worldwide force present in virtually every rural community... and Urban Druids were as desired by a city as Citybound were.

The Warlocks, sworn to otherworldly spirits or forces, or to the genius loci of the world about them. They were the avatars of their Patron powers, and the conflicts between those forces played out between minions willing to sign off their souls for the chance to wield power. Even the new Churches didn’t have rivalries as long and unending as the Warlocks did...

The Alchemists, rivals in magic and intelligentsia of the Illuminati, and numbering most of the greatest scientists and inventors of the older world among their number. Their hold on the highest order of scientific thought had started falling since the Renaissance started tearing open the sharing of information, but their alchemical and artificing knowledge was rivaled by none in the world, and they had rapidly established themselves in that respect.

The Magi; astronomers, astrologers... and the true Wizards of the past. Both the Illuminati and the Alchemists were, to an extent, merely offshoots and junior branches of the Magi, and their libraries had held the magical foundation that had cemented them as the brainy guys of the magical world. They had reluctantly stepped forward to secure their influence and provide the core material for The Lore after eager new Wizards working with Sorcerers had worked out dozens of spells, realizing they would be sidelined quickly if that continued.

Their greatest rivals weren’t the other magical societies, but the new Churches, and most tellingly, the Sorcerer Bloodlines that had erupted out of nowhere with the coming of magic, and couldn’t be controlled or anticipated in the Human population... and who simply didn’t care about the cerebral education that was at the heart of Wizardry. One simply prayed and got spells, and the other... just got spells from their Bloodline.

The Magi didn’t really get along with religions that actually got responses to prayer because of that...

The Assassins were around... and there were at least three competing organizations of them. Most of the major players were believed to have their own covert strike teams, of course, but the Assassins were pay for hire, and had been for millennia. The most infamous teams came out of the Middle East, but there was another organization managing things in the Far East, and supposedly another one associated with the organized crime and Vampire families out of Europe.

They definitely loathed the Church of Harse, and the Church of Shoul was definitely involved with them as a result thereof.

The Knights of the Temple were known to be about, and there were a few famous businessmen or members of noble families who had declared themselves as Templars. The true goals of the organization were unknown, particularly since the religions of the old world had proven empty and false... and it was widely known now that any force ‘revealing itself’ as the One True God or somesuch was anything but, and the costs to those who bought into it all ended up bloody and final.

It was notable that despite repeated overtures, no known Paladins had joined the Templars... My private belief was that the Church of Imprus was seducing them with talk of power and privilege, but we’d have to see.

The great criminal families of the world basically existed in their own ecosystem, fed by advocates of Shoul, Huul, Angar, and other dark powers, forming a dark underweb to normal society that often erupted into violence. The Tomb families of the pseudo-undead, and the wererat and werespider clans were all intertwined with them in numerous ways, and there was simply no way to get rid of them... which didn’t mean that the Good Churches weren’t happy to take action against them and the shit they pulled.

Oddly enough, most of the Citybound tended to loathe the Families, too, as their predatory habits weakened cities and towns, concentrating wealth and power in the hands of a few... and Citybound didn’t care about the law when it came time to get rid of parasites.

The Hags...

There were multiple stories about Hags. Curses, prices for using them, and crones pulling strings of dark magic among the supernatural beings of the world. Ogres and Trolls were seen in numerous places now, and leadership of their clans inevitably wound back to a Hag somewhere. The Fey both feared and respected them, even the Mythos races dealt with them cautiously, and the werepacks and tombclans treated them with trepidation and disdain born from great unease. The Magi acknowledged their power, the Illuminati had been burned by them and kept going back for more secrets anyway, and the Hags just cackled in the shadows and pulled their strings...

The Freemasons were the last of the big non-governmental players, stepping forth as uniting elements for the skilled tradesmen of the world, whose importance had swiftly returned with the necessity of hand-made items for making magical Gear. The Dwarves and Gnomes had proven to be major players here, and even the Elves had somewhat joined in, setting uniform prices for high QL goods, a guaranteed market and supply center, and a place where their skills could be taught and traded among one another, and guarantees of Quality put into place.

Their online auction site of high QL goods was by far the best in the world. While, as always, the very best crafters could certainly go it alone and not do business through the Freemasons, there was little practical incentive to do so, as the elite crafters were a society in and of themselves. In terms of gathered goods pre-made, the Freemason website dominated the world...