personal journey

My mind in the story and the Battle Mage class descriptoin

Hey all,
I haven't given any updates in a while on this blog.
Not about my personal journey nor anything about the story of "Celestial Retribution"  .

But don't be afraid, I am not gone and for those that follow me, already know I have done some work.

So, as there been a lot of things happening lately, I will talk about the most important thing.
The story.

So I have added 2 chapters and tried to keep them short.
I didn't want to make the chapters to long as it was with my first drafts. They went on for too long and divided them into sub chapters.
That might work, but it felt like anyone reading it would have to set aside a lot of time to read it fully.

Now I don't mind sitting down and writing that but I wanted to make it easier on myself as well.
Instead of constantly changing all kinds of things in the story, why not limit myself in my options?

So I set forth to start thinking about the journey in 4 layers.
- 1) The overall world story
- 2) Continental stories
- 3) Regional stories
- 4) Character stories

For now it is working for me.
I set the limits of the world first and I can make sure the characters and events within the story stay inside those limits. And if I see I have forgotten edge cases I will expand the limits if needed. BUT I will keep the logic in tact. I can not break any logic.

Then I try to stay aware of the continents. Not so much on what is going on it there but more the climate. What is happening there. Is it tropical? Is it an ice world? or is it normal grass fields? that will influence what I will write for the characters and it's another limitation for me to not fly off the rails XD

Regional stories are more focused on towns and cities that are related to the where the story is at that time.
Doesn't mean it will limit to only nearby villages or cities but also things related, even if it is on the other side of the planet.

And finally the character stories.
That is when I dial into the chapter and start thinking about the 3 above. What would be possible when continuing on from the previous chapters to were I want to go towards.

I don't really think about what will be in inside the chapter but rather try to find a good moment to end it. The next story beat I want to get to doesn't have to be in 1 or 2 chapters. Things can happen and I want that journey to be as believable as possible. No rushing it and no forcing.

So yeah, that is where my head is at while writing my story.

Now, I have not only been thinking about what the story would be for the MC and his merry band but also the other elements of the world.
For example, I have tried to work out what the MC's class will be (think of mage, warrior and the likes) and what race they are. With the race they also have a set of traits that should fit with the their power potential and the class they eventually take up.

So for that I wrote down a class description in my google doc so I can review what the class is if I ever forget AND make sure the people that have that class stay within the limits of that class.

So below you can read what I put down about 1 of the class called "Battle Mage".
I tried to keep the terms a bit generalized so people would quickly be able to have an idea of what it could be. (maybe they heard about the name before in some game or tv show.)
But I do wrote the details from my own ideas. So they will overlap with other default traits that every fantasy story uses but can also diverge pretty far. Therefor, keep a mental note that this is MY interpretation of the class in this world :)

Btw, At the end you see the terms "Ignisara" and "ignisari".
Ignisara is an island where the "dragonkin" race come from. Humans with dragon like features like scales at certain places, tail, etc.
Ignisari is the plural of of people from that race :)
Just so you know.


Battle Mage

This class is mainly specialized in offense.
They usually use medium armor but depending on their focus they might end up with lighter or heavier armor though this is rare.

For battle mages there are usually 2 types.
- Focus more on ranged offensive magic
- Focus more on physical magic buffs and close single target magic

Battle Mages usually are the most flexible type of fighters on the battlefield.
They can quickly switch from close physical combat to ranged AOE (area of effect) magic.
This makes them the most wanted soldier on the field.

Within the class, battle mages can specialize in certain styles.
Some try to spread out their focus to the entire class.
This means they can be reasonably good at ranged as well as close combat but overall will be good in everything but never peak at one.

There are many specializations within the battle mage class though many prefer to use the standard choice of: more power equals less speed and vice versa.

Those who focus on physical speed often wear lighter body armor.
Because of their speed they are less likely to be hit by powerful attacks that ,usually, are slow and easily dodged. If they also focus on magic more than close combat, they use their casting speed and light weight armor to get in, do damage and get out. A well trained Battle Mage like this can wreak havoc on the battlefield.

Those who focus more on power don’t necessarily use heavy armor. The amount of power they focus on is usually well balanced with their magical abilities. Though they do less damage in general with their magic, they can enhance their weapons and body to be stronger in moments where it counts. Thus dealing more damage at close range.

If you put this class to the extreme you can have a warrior that can, in theory, defeat complete armies on his own. The battle mage class is said to be one of the hardest classes to master for there are so many stats to focus on. But if done right, there won’t be many that can match them.

Battle mages are said to have originated from the island of Ignisara. Home to Ignisari who have a near perfect relationship with aether. This makes them best suited for having high physical strength, defense and magic power right from the start.