Chapter 3-95: A License to Make Money (and the Gods of PoT!) (1/2)

“Well, congratulations, Miss Traveler,” the hyn businessman, Pogagee Walks-on-Grass, the feared silver-tongued negotiator and cunning manager of the Hall’s finances, spoke up. “It seems that our expectations of you were somewhat off-center.”

There were murmurs of agreement from around the table. I had definitely surprised everyone here.

“My original request of asking for a loan was contingent on my not remaining here, and effectively doing work out in the field while building my Gear. I am absolutely certain I would be able to pay such a loan back, but it seems there are reasons for me to remain here for a short period of time before I renew field activities, Treasurer,” I replied easily. “On that note, I expect to have a significant amount of income start accruing rather quickly, and I am wondering if the Hall might be able to send some extremely skilled Crafters and a few Infusers my way to work with me.”

There were more wry chuckles all around. All of them could tell that I was going to be making a lot of money very quickly, indeed, with all these changes.

“Do you have a proposal for the pricing of such new knowledge?” Inquisitor Torast spoke up.

“Surprisingly...” I trailed off, flicking up multiple copies of a pricing schema. There were more wry chuckles as I sent the pricing calculations wafting through the air with a flick of my wrist, spinning lazily to settle down precisely in front of each of the Councilors.

I had definitely come prepared. I was offering them a chance to set themselves firmly at the heart of magical innovation.

“Five years or a hundred goldweight for a Valence I spell, whichever is last,” Treasurer Pogagee mused, picking out that line. “That nicely settles the issue of minimum payment, with no limit for a spell with high enough demand. I notice that you have a straight linear increase in pricing base, with modifiers?”

“The aim of Silver Magic is to promote constructive use of magic, not the widespread proliferation of Charms, aggressive battle magic, necromancy, Summoning, or the like. Also, spells like those have a niche following who are VERY aggressive about having the latest, best thing... or are areas that we want to shut down entirely.”

“They will need to advance half a goldweight to make the Master Copy, and then receive half commission on any copies sold through the Churches, while being able to sell any personal copies they desire at full price. How do we track them if they can also sell the copies?” the hyn asked alertly.

“All copies converge back to the Master Copy. You can read the data with a simple Assay Cantrip. When it reaches the time or threshold, you can notify the maker and break the Master Copy.”

“Requiring them to swear under Oath that any minor adjustments and improvements will be made available for only a nominal fee is impressive. You can... modify the Mastery Copy, and the Bonded copies will replicate the change?” he figured out.

“Yes. However, minor modifications can also simply be sold after the spell is made public by the creator, who can charge whatever they wish. A substantial modification that is not mere refinement is actually a completely new spell, and should normally jump Valences, or have other requirements.”

“I am not a Caster. Is there a reason this Shards spell of yours is not a simple revision?” he inquired.

“The current common arcane Shards spell is, in essence, based on the Silver Magic Shards spell, if you go back to its source. However, Divine energy is not suitable for force magic, especially battle magic. If, for instance, you try to cast this version of Shards as a divine Silver Magic spell, it will fail.” Moonsister Seleisa’s lips parted in surprise. “Arcane magic is extremely flexible and powerful, as well as adaptable. The revisions in the spell are not simple to understand, as both the Councilors will tell you. In effect, understanding each addition to the Shards and balancing them as a whole requires increased mental ability. Thus, understanding all three changes and being able to apply them to the spell as a whole requires a 14 rating of the appropriate Stat, +1 per, not the 11 which is the standard for a Valence I spell. And even then, of course, successful comprehension is not guaranteed.”

Low Level Arcane Intellect Casters, those with Stats of 11-13, often super-specialized in certain schools, just so they could learn the magic of those schools. While they could try again after gaining a Level, if they couldn’t understand it and couldn’t advance, that was it, which could be very discouraging to a Caster if they couldn’t memorize the Lightning Bolt they’d always dreamed of.

Sorcerers didn’t have the problem, of course, feeling their way to certain spells... but the spells they learned weren’t always what they wanted, either, since they tended to come out of inner desires rather than professed desires. Being told to get Mage Armor to protect yourself and ending up with Vanish because you’d rather run away invisibly from a fight, and similar things, happened to Sorcerers all the time.

There was a specific ‘School’ of training called the Triad system, where you restricted yourself to exactly three schools of magic in learning, optimizing your Matrix for those schools and simply eschewing the rest. It helped immensely in learning the spells you wanted from those schools, at cost of versatility.

Talented (meaning the really smart) Wizards, Witches, Magi, Artificers, Binders, and Alchemists never needed to do such a thing, of course. However, it also meant that Casters who favored certain kinds of spells often got dubbed ‘Triad-users’ of the appropriate type.

The most famous Triad was the Tyrant’s Triad, which was Charm, Necromancy, and Summoning, representing control of the living, the dead, and the supernatural. In terms of ability to leverage your power by controlling the powers of others, it was indeed extremely potent... and pretty much loathed all around.

This contrasted with the Adventurer’s Triad of Evocation, Alteration, and Illusion, giving a potent combination of extreme versatility and offensive punch. The Merchant’s Triad of Divination, Alteration, and Charm also had a bad rap, while the Warder’s Triad of Abjuration/Wards, Divination, and Evocation had a good reputation for defensive strength, and the Soldier’s Triad of Evocation, Summoning, and Abjuration was designed for a good mix of offense and defense. The Scout’s Triad of Divination, Alteration, and Illusion was designed for maximum stealth and ferreting out information...

Needless to say, the Triads were very popular in the military, as they made for streamlining the training of soldier-Casters much easier. Truly talented Casters didn’t need the focus, after all, but truly talented Casters didn’t stay in the military, either.

But in the end, they all wanted the best spells to use, and there were still Hard Limits on Levels gained. Even someone with a 10 could figure out a Cantrip or two, but if you wanted to learn a real spell, you were either really smart, or you specialized.

Because of this, Generalist Mages who didn’t choose a school were either idiots or geniuses, with precious little in the middle. Specializing could mean learning ALL the spells of a specific school, Element, or Style, versus only some of them. Casters weren’t immune to being hired for specific purposes, and while being a master generalist Caster was indeed a fine and worthy goal for some... if you didn’t have the right spells, you weren’t going to get hired for anything.

Because of the importance of spells and proliferating them, the act of swapping spells and exchanging them, or gathering funds to purchase one and spreading the cost out over multiple Casters, was very encouraged by the Churches of Heaven, especially for common spells (and loathed by the Uruthimi and wagemages of Trose). However, this did not repay researchers much at all, which meant that while research went on all the time, the spells that came out tended to be prized secrets closely held by small groups of people and not revealed to outsiders if possible.

My method could potentially tap a huge waiting reserve of people wanting to be rewarded for their research!

“Now, before I start spreading this spell willy-nilly through the ranks of those affiliated with the Hall, I would ask for a couple weeks at least before you begin quietly selling to your own. I understand there is a sizable temple to Uruth to the south, and I’d like the opportunity to bleed them of a lot of money personally before you start taking over selling the spells, if that is not an issue?”

There were some chuckles around the table, including from Master Polneibo. “Oh, by all means. I will quietly tell my people to wait, and they can claim they also bought them from you. Just the looks on the faces of the Uruthimi when they learn you gave us distribution rights, and have taken over the dispensation system...” He paused, looking back down at the sheet. “I confess to some confusion on why you’ve only tripled the value of a Valence III, instead of squaring it, as is required by magic item construction?”

“The demand on the consumer side is high, but the capability on the production side doesn’t match up,” I replied calmly. “Are higher Valence spells more valuable to baseline Casters? They are pipe dreams to many of them, something they may not get to Cast until they are in their sixties or older, while high Level Casters have many, many demands upon their time. If such a spell is essential for their jobs, they will buy them... if not, they simply are a collectible, and such collectibles will sit and wait until they are actually needed.

“Thus, demand for non-key spells is actually lower as you advance in Level. Niche spells have niche uses. Sorcerers do well because they don’t need to use such things, after all, and the number of Wizards who do need to use them is naturally small enough that only a few have a need for them.”

“I expect that for this Shard spell you are very rapidly going to exceed the minimum pricing,” Treasurer Pogagee laughed, and I just smiled in expectation...

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I went down to the Sage’s Dwelling, the Temple to Uruth that had been built as near to the University of Michigan as they could reasonably put it and still hold true to their lofty aspirations of teaching magic to all comers there without offending the school and other temples in the area, who also were in the business of recruiting and training Powered.

It really was a smaller place, as the major temple to Uruth was in Chicago, where Sylune didn’t have nearly the influence, and which basically dominated the University of Chicago there, transforming it into one of the best places to get a magical education on the planet... if you had the money to pay and could put up with the intellectual snobbishness and looking down on non-Casters.

The Lector who received me had his thumb up his bum, especially after he heard I was offering to sell a spell, but he’d have to forward half a goldweight and give up some blood to see it. But I offered to return it all if he wasn’t satisfied, and disgruntled, he couldn’t turn me down.

I waited until he started salivating, and as delusions of wealth selling this to his fellows danced in his head, I crushed them by relating that his copy was Bloodbonded, it could not be copied or sold by anyone but me, I wasn’t selling the rights to it to the temple, and was there anyone in range with half a goldweight who wanted to buy an improved Shards spell that this Lector could confirm was better, and that they couldn’t read?

I Wrote out seven more of them that day, bringing my haul for the day to four goldweight, told them I’d be back tomorrow and could sell ten more of them, and walked on out.

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“Ye’ve set up a shitstorm on the Uruthimi servers,” Gregorigori advised me over the terminal I was watching and not touching, going through local news to get caught up on the situation in the Midwest here. “They are salivating about the new spell, and naturally already trying to break the Bloodbonding and sell it to others.”

I smiled, imaging their faces when they failed and would have to buy the spell from me again. I wasn’t going to hand it to them for free, of course. Their stories when they had to spend the money twice would cool down the eager heads ready to make money off my ‘research’.

“And I’ve got the money coming in, I need to keep things moving.” For now. My main Limits now were my own Ranks and Caster Level, and I was looking at a bare minimum of three months to get where I needed to go.

I couldn’t go get the boy until I was stronger. I couldn’t get strong fast, like I wanted to. I was being forced sideways until I couldn’t go sideways anymore, which was immensely annoying, all the channels being filled at the bottom before the next Level began.

But if other people could help me make my Gear, and I could establish a very solid financial foundation for what I needed to do next, that wouldn’t be an issue at all.

Making ten goldweight, $1.5 million, a day. Sooooo much work to be doing... and I would be hard at it for at least the next two months.

Once I made Four, however, things would move along nicely...

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Trav’s not going to be doing anything extraordinary for the next couple of months, except making a lot of money. Tomorrow’s chapter returns to what Sama was doing during those years she was growing up, and just how she started getting on the bad side of certain parties...

Also, there's been a few people requesting it, so here's a look at the major players of the Pantheon...

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The Gods of the Power of Ten

As normal when I am referring to gods, I am talking about non-finite entities who actually embody one or more facets of the Profound Alignments. They are as much ideas given form as actual entities, and the idea of ‘killing a god’ is basically restricted to an avatar of such for finite beings, unless they have the power of a true Titan.

I do use the old system of demigods (who are finite), lesser gods (evolved demigods who have advanced to a multiworld stage and are approaching non-finite status), intermediate gods (fully non-finite and with broad concerns), greater gods (massively powerful entities that lead courts of lesser gods) and Overgods (who dominate Pantheons of Greater Gods).

Comparing them to Earthly Pantheons, none of the mythological gods of Earth would be higher then a Lesser God, such as Zeus or Odin. If you give those gods multi-worldly responsibilities (i.e. they exist on other worlds, like the Forgotten Realms of Toril), then the Pantheon heads like Zeus and Odin would be Intermediate Gods. They are simply too ‘mortal’ to advance further.

The Christian/Muslim/Jewish God would be The Creator, and effectively does not answer prayers. The Overgods are to it what ants are to Overgods. Answering prayers is THEIR job. So appealing to God to save you gets nowhere.

In the Power of Ten, our mythological gods have no power here, nor naturally do the religions of the books. The powers of Mythos did/do exist, but the very low amount of magic in the world meant that they were restricted to the shadows, and almost never interacted with our reality, the extent of their influence being nightmares, bad dreams, and deals with the rare humans who could wield magic.

The Aruan Pantheon didn’t actually ‘arrive’, so much as the world came to their space with the coming of the Shroud. The Aruan Pantheon represents a certain temporospatial area of Creation, and is also oriented towards humanoids. None of its deities are actually human or other mortal races, and anything accusing them of being ‘human gods’ is going to get sharply corrected at one point or another.

They represent ideas and beliefs, not races. A god of a race is no higher than an Intermediate Deity in this power system.

So, the gods of the Power of Ten!

EMINENT means that the god is supreme in that category over all other gods.

================================

The Silver (Lawful Good)

Harse, the Ivory King (Greater God): Good, Law, Justice (Eminent), Judgement, The Dead, Protection (Eminent)

-King of the White Court

-Judge of the Living and the Dead. Sends souls to their proper fates.

-Represents the highest ideals of the Silver.

-Served by Archons

Amana, the Mother (Intermediate God): Good, Law, Healing (Eminent), Mercy (Eminent), Compassion, Motherhood, Education, Peace (Eminent)

-Queen of the White Court, Wife of Harse, and the only one who can override a Judgement of his.

-Her Amazons are also dedicated healers like the rest of her clergy, and superb unarmed combatants.

Mithar, the Silver Sun (Greater God): Good, Law, Strategy (Eminent), Paladins (Eminent), Mastery (Eminent), War, Destiny (Eminent).

-Has no temples or churches of His own, serves the other Gods of Good.

-General of the Hosts of Heaven.

-Is responsible for calling all Paladins to serve, whether they serve other Gods or Him directly.

-Served by the King of Horses and King of Hounds.

-Guardian of the Destiny of Heaven.

Scriba, the Minister (Lesser God): Good, Law, Ministers, Scribes, Bureaucrats, Rulership, Civilization, Literacy, Education, Managers, Planners, Knowledge, Government

-Wars are won by mastering the small things.

-The patron of honest civil workers and the Patron of ever-improving civilizations.

-Extensive sponsor of monastic traditions and unarmed combat.

-Mithar’s logistician as well as Harse’s Prime Minister.

Bulwark, The Steadfast Defender (Lesser God): Good, Law, Police, Defense (Eminent), Wards, Protection, Community

-Patron of honest law enforcement, standing armies of defense, militias, and fortifications.

-Mithar’s primary subordinate.

-Invoked by many common soldiers and honest laborers.

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The Golden Court

Aru, the Sun King (Overgod): Good (Eminent), Life (Eminent), Light/The Sun (Eminent), Creation (Eminent), Community (Eminent), Healing, Knowledge

-King of the Heavens, first among Equals.

-Not elitist, priests are very community oriented.

-Eminence in Life means absolute dominion over resurrection magic.

-Huge foe of the Undead

-Served by Angels and Guardinals

-Rules the day.

Sylune, the Silver Queen, the Queen of Stars (Greater Goddess): Good, Silver Magic (Eminent), Stars, Navigation, Mystery, the Moon (Eminent), Exploration, Travel

-Commonly represented as a jet-skinned, silver haired elven woman of incredible beauty

-Patron of all good spellcasters, sailors, explorers, and wanderers.

-Good’s strongest presence at night.

-Mother of Tiirith by Mithar.

-Her Amazons tend to be sailors or constant travelers keeping roads open.

-This is Ealistraee’s expy in Power of Ten.

Flora, the Harvest Queen (Intermediate God): Good, Agriculture (Eminent), Community, Weather, Homes, Plants

-A mostly rural goddess, on very good terms with Amana

-Naturally the patron of farmers and ranchers, small towns, and the like.

-Her Amazons are community defenders.

Aethra, the Wind Rider (Lesser Goddess): Good, Women Warriors, Hunting (Eminent), Riding, Horses, Rangers (Eminent), Air, Archery

-Daughter of Mithar and Eryl, a patron of women warriors and Amazons.

-Patron of all Rangers, particularly in her aspect as Marshal of the Gods, hunting down wrong-doers.

-Gets along much better with her father then her mother, which annoys Eryl to no end.

-Rides the King of Unicorns (a ki-rin). Yes, she is a maiden.

-Her Amazons tend to be roving Rangers, Marshals, and renowned huntresses, and the most iconic Amazons to many people.

Muse, the Artiste (Lesser Goddess): Good, the Arts (Eminent), Knowledge, Culture, Community

-Patron of positive artwork and cultural development of all types, especially public libraries.

-Many connections with other deities in and outside of Heaven.

-Considered the primary Patron of elves who do not follow Sylune.

-Primary contact with the Spring Court of the Fey.

=========================

The Court of Roses, The Rainbow Court

Nuava, the Rose Queen (Greater Goddess): Good, Chaos, Love (Eminent), Arts, Beauty (Eminent), Romance, Glamour, Charm/Enchantment, Liberty

-Lover of Valus, who is her Champion.

-Beloved by all, even those who also hate her.

-Her love is without vanity or jealousy.

-She has pined after Mithar, but he has avoided her charms.

-Served by Faengels

-Her Amazons are often fiery, passionate diplomats who get into leadership positions.

Tiirith, the Divine Bard (Intermediate God): Good, Chaos, Music/Bards (Eminent), Luck, Trickery, Charm, Travel, Liberty (Eminent), Swashbucklers

-Commonly portrayed as Halvyr, Patron of all hybrid races

-Son of Mithar and Sylune

-Patron of traveling entertainers, and all Bards and Minstrels

-Can enter even the greatest Dark Courts as a Bard with ease.

-A massive foe of institutionalized slavery and racism, and Tyranny in general.

-Always falling into and out of favor with various gods for his shenanigans.

Jestanna, the Rogue (Lesser God): Good, Chaos, Fortune (Eminent), Trickery, Charm, Thieves, Liberty

-Tiirith’s most frequent companion and fellow schemer in escapades grand and subtle.

-Patron of the hyn and all smaller races, or, more precisely, their adventurers.

-A divine thief of the highest caliber, but always for Good causes.

-An exceptional foe of Tyranny, who has humiliated many diabolic beings to death, and has a knack for destroying the most careful of plans in totally annoying ways.

Valus, The Knight of Storms, the Ever-Questing, the Divine Champion (Intermediate God): Good, Chaos, Valor/Courage (Eminent), Strength (Eminent), Glory (Eminent), Hunting, Storms, Animal, War, Liberty

-Once Mithar’s Champion, now serves at the Court of Roses, and is Nuava’s primary lover. There is no conflict between he and Mithar, they remain the best of friends... and indeed, his leaving may have been one of Mithar’s strategems, as other gods are always trying to stir things up between them and failing somehow.

-The quintessential god who is always roving around beating up Evil and seriously antagonizing idiots.

-Patron of idealists, rebels against Tyranny, lone fighters, and divine wrath. Favored deity of many adventurers in magical realms.