The "Diamond Throne" setting, for the Arcana Unearthed variant d20 ruleset, includes a race of beings who had been pulled into said setting from another world. These beings, the alabast, are a humanoid yet nonhuman species, whose skin is pure white yet nonalbino, and whose native connexion with magic derives only through magical items. This got me wondering about how their mechanics would differ from the Arcana Unearthed baseline.
We have firsthand knowledge of one alabast spellcaster: Marvalontal in Legacy of the Dragons p. 144. She trained as an iladan, which is a sort of mage-blade. However the alabast arrived as outsiders to Serran, there is all Thartholan and the Bitter Peaks between them and the Diamond Throne / Zalavat heartland, and they remain insular. They also brought no other spell-users with them. Therefore the iladan is likely different from the Diamond Throne standard mageblade.
Spellcasting itself should be different in this city. Arcana Unearthed proposes "three categories of spell: simple, complex, and exotic
". What distinguishes a complex spell from a simple one is that the complex spell is more difficult. What distinguishes an exotic spell from a complex one is that the exotic spell is unknown except that someone in the wider community of mages has observed it. But in fact, a complex spell can be made simple over the decades; which tells me that the main difference between a complex spell and a simple one is one of exoticism too. Therefore, another plane's classification of spells is likely to differ from Serran's. Spells will differ between isolated nations even within Serran.
A society whose primary magic-users were mageblades is likely to concentrate on spells which affect their athame weapons: repair and augmentation. This can be extended to personal augmentative, protective, and offensive magic. Spells which call up non-athame weapons ex nihilo will be neglected. Spells which deal with plants, necromancy, teleportation, scrying, and curses will not be relevant. Also, the world from which the alabast hail likely had nothing to do with AU truenames. Spells dealing with other aspects like (say) slowness, sound, acid, and fire may also not be relevant; although since Marvalontal employs cold, light, energy, and psionic attacks these at least are likely part of alabast stock.
Also, a society of only mageblades will not make any distinction between complex and exotic spells. They're all exotic to a mageblade like Marvalontal, available only if she accesses a library and/or gains a feat. Further, she won't know the concept of an 8th or 9th level spell; and since only 20th level mageblades can cast 7th level spells and only one of those, those are all exotic to her as well. This may be different for Marvalontal herself, given her travels abroad; but her colleagues back on Kellest Minos won't know any of this except what they hear from her second-hand.
So in Kellest Minos - and, by extension, in the other cities of the alabast homeworld as of that former city's transfer to Serran - the following table should suffice to convert select spells from the AU categories to the native alabast categories:
| Level | Simple | Non-simple (exotic) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | magic armor, magic weapon, open lock, touch of pain | glamour, mudball, obscuring mist, tears of pain |
| 2 | enhance magic flow, invigorate item, mark allies | aid plants, control temperature, destructive grip |
| 3 | arrow deflection, suggestion | slow, whisper of madness |
| 4 | enhance magic flow (greater), modify memory, protection from energy | animate the dead, curse of vengeance, remove curse |
| 5 | gird the warrior, defensive field | dominate, enfeebled mind |
| 6 | bloodblade, discorporate, freeze, stimulate, vitrification | call guardian, cursed locale, learn truename, protect soul, wall of sound |
| 7 | - | [all] |
| 8 | - | - |
| 9 | - | - |
The reason that cultural categorisation was left out of AU / AE scope was
not because Malhavoc didn't think of it. It was because of game balance. For most players, "those [PCs of a race] with better access [to relevant magic] are more desirable to play [than those of others]
".
Fewer players of mageblade PCs would want to play a human if they knew that the alabast race is fine-tuned for that. Hardly anyone would want to play an alabast magister.
In theory: the alabast iladan PC would have to start out cloistered in Kellest Minos, while the alabast PC starting from elsewhere would have to progress as a mageblade like everyone else. But in practice, as we all found out with the original Unearthed Arcana's drow female priestesses, no-one ever plays like that.
Therefore I suggest a rule that the iladan stay either off-plane or in Thartholan until 10th level. Before that level her habits of mind are in flux between Kellest Minos and the Diamond Throne. If she ever leaves Thartholan, or even spends more than 2 weeks in the company of a non-alabast mageblade, the iladan gets "the worst of both worlds": the special iladan "simple" spells are now complex again, and she can't learn those mageblade spells simple to outsiders as simple either. After 10th level, the alabast is set in her ways one way or another.
Another alternative offered in the message board is that those iladan "simple" spells should be made "complex" but marked as "Alabast". Then they could be made available to iladan through an extra feat.
I should probably explain further / defend my reasons here -
Invigorate item is the one spell exotic in AU which (I propose) should be simple in Kellest Minos. (I didn't want to include very many.) It is likely that the alabast have other spells which native Serranians have not yet seen and so don't even know to list as exotic. That is for the DM to know and for Kellest Minos visitors to find out.
Some of my trade-offs above were fair: I see no point in helping a mageblade toss around curses or raise zombies, for instance, and I see no point in hampering her from augmenting her athame. Other spells were general enough that they could be left alone. But then there were some decisions I made which weren't so fair. I recognise that there's no alabast-specific reason for allowing cold while blocking fire (say). I was just trying to balance the spells per level; also I made my decision based on Marvalontal's spell list. She is, though, a likely outlier from the alabast mean, given her time outside the city. Other DMs may have other ideas and I encourage them to act on them as they see fit.
As for the alabast homeworld: Matters there have certainly, uh, evolved somewhat since the dramojh snatched this city away. Also, the dramojh only took a city, and back home its surrounding forest could well have supported an equivalent to greenbonds or druids. The one thing we can know for sure is that "alabast" is not how these fellows refer to themselves at home. But that much is out of scope for Kellest Minos in of itself.
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zimriel@sbcglobal.netI see the faen and alabast as AU's answer to Tolkien / D&D elves. The faen are closer in spirit to the elves of Earth legend. That gives them the niche of sylvan elf. For Tolkien high elves, no such Earth legend existed until Tolkien created the theme of the Noldor exile. The elf-like, but emphatically non-fey, outsider alabast fill the Noldor niche in Terrakal.
This page was created 18 Dec 2005. 26 & 30 Dec, revised in accordance to feedback.