Hey, I want to do a low-fantasy historical campaign that draws off of themes in epic poetry. I'm mainly looking for a setting in history where most or all of these magical tropes are present in some form so I can make it all make sense.
I'm looking for these specifically Thaumaturgy (could be construed as any socially acceptable mainstream religion i guess) Goetia (Anything resembling that culture's depiction of demons or lesser spirits or what have you) Psionics (is this even a thing?) Necromancy (Voodoo........?) Hermeticism (something like sympathy or control of the elements) Alchemy Astrology Animism
What would you suggest? Thanks for the help.
Daniel Jenkins
The Near East, anywhere between 300 BC and 400 AD. Central Asia, in the age of Scythians India, at any time really
Landon Lopez
Mesoamerica. Honestly OP, you could really enter this place and see the magic in the society. I can dump some reference materal
Ryder Cox
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Connor Cruz
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Robert Richardson
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Daniel Hill
They believed that the blood of those who died would be nourishment for the Earth
Aaron Edwards
And that's just the Aztecs... their predecessors in the region were the Maya. They had a very interesting civilization based less on war and sacrifice and more on the mysticism the world had to offer.
They had dope looking boxers too
Josiah Rivera
They were into some... interesting stuff. I've found that some nobles liked to receive fellatio while the girl had a rope of thorny plants in her mouth.
Joshua Parker
This is literally RuneQuest 6/Mythras >Folk Magic Cantrips and basic spells >Animism Binding, exercising, communicating, and controlling spirits >Mysticism Enhancing yourself with magic >Sorcery Bending and shaping magic into spells that have customized impact >Thiesm Ritualistically preparing miracles that are cast later
The systems are customized further by applying rules to how magic points are regained and the effects of expending magic points, which can change based on location or culture.
RuneQuest also builds characters using culture and career, and the technology level can easily be set because he item tables include milieu.
Evan White
The Mayans recorded extensive contacts with their neighbors. They saw themselves as the Serpent Kingdom. The other symbols are neighboring nations, confederations, and tribes
William Roberts
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Grayson Adams
It's a shame that RQ6's magic is so dull and unexciting. I think it was the first time I've ever played with a magic system that actually made altering reality boring.
Christopher Long
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Colton Turner
Africa, Mesoamerica.
Chase Flores
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Jordan Walker
And their building skills were incredible. The Aztecs definitely drew on them for influence
Lucas Martin
OP here, thanks for the meso-america dump. seems legit.
I've been doing research on the real world origins of most magic tradition tropes and have been finding that they more or less blend together in different capacities. It's not all clear cut in a way that the modern mind can just categorize so easily
Matthew Turner
>this was done without horses
Daniel Bennett
their ideographs are so fucking articulated. Must have taken FOREVER to write anything substantial.
Evan Wilson
OP here. Never heard of Runequest. This is a list of magic traditions from an RPG I'm developing.
Henry Parker
I know you are full of shit because each one is a different system.
Oliver Cruz
Anytime OP, then perhaps you take that blend and make it to your advantage. Maybe this culture IS the origin of magic tropes here on Earth. Maybe it will start the magic tropes on their world, universe... whatever. Just an idea.
Also, look into their traditions of trial by combat and sacrifice by combat. Very interesting
They had some dope gods that could make great magical beings in the setting. Or at least summonable familiars
John Phillips
>this was done without metal harder than copper.
The Egyptians had more almost three thousand years before the Mayans and Aztecs started building.
Caleb Ross
RuneQuest based its magic on historical magic and it has built from there. I bring it up as good reading.
Xavier Evans
OP here, duly noted.
thanks again d00ds
Ethan Morris
Fucking Spaniards I tell ya.
William Mitchell
Best way to control a population is to destroy any notion of "their" past. Simply place your own in piece by piece and within a century you have yourself a very broken people that won't be able to rise up effectively.
Colonialism 101
Leo Long
Agree with all these anons. Mesoamerica is criminally underused and really fucking awesome when you look into the mythology. It has so much potential as a campaign setting. You could also use medieval India in which case I would recommend you pick up "Arrows of Indra" which is an indie supplement for B/X D&D but ignoring all the mechanics works fantastically as a resource for Indian themed lore and such.