Background[]
The primary power of these sorcerers comes from their anger. Having survived a long history of slaughter and starvation, the powers that they discovered -- and that permitted them to survive -- were those based on Dust magic, agony, and rage.
Traits[]
Power through Pain: Ardent Mages can more easily manipulate the magic properties of Dust, changing them into powerful spellcasters.
Arcana of Matter: Through crude pain experiments, Mages and Artificers blend their first insights into Dust, enabling the construction of pillars that boost science nearby, and spells that increase unit defense.
Arcana of Agility: By ingesting a unique Dust-concotion that brings on searing pains, Mages can dedicate themselves to the art of awareness, and learn how the mind can overcome the limitations of the body.
Arcana of Authority: This branch of Dust magic is focused on bending the will of others. Through such understanding, allies may champion your causes more readily, and enemies will fight with less passion.
Arcana of Materializing: Most of the Dust that finds its way into the hands--and bodies--of the races of Auriga is but a mere drop in an ocean. Through extreme pain rituals, Ardent Mages can begin to unlock more of these vast untapped resources.
Arcana of Renewal: Ardent Mages are rightly feared for their mastery of the destructive aspects of Dust magic, but it is less well known that intense study of the properties of Dust can lead to curative abilities.
Dust Purifier: By refining the Dust used in spells, the potency of all Dust magic increases.
Painosphere: Mages hardened to the everyday pain rituals that would cripple lesser mortals can increase the potency of their spells by visiting the Painosphere and experiencing true agony.
Dust Mechanics: Deeper insights into the storage and transferral of Dust allows increased quantities of the substance to be delivered from all towering pillars, raising the strength of their effects.
Sacrificial Amplifiers: By strapping living, breathing Mages to the sides of the massive pillars, human vessels can act as magnifying conduits, increasing the power of pillars across your empire. The screams, and the stench of cooked skin is a small price to pay.
Heroes[]
Zarcha Attinul[]
Attinul showed great promise even before starting formal training. It was this natural skill that helped her to survive when lost in the Dune Ridges, a situation caused by a coming of age expedition that was attacked by Sand Jotus. She crawled out of the desert days later, a dried and desiccated husk kept alive only by the intensity of her will. Rapid ascension through the rigors of the East Sandsea Hall academies was followed by a departure for other lands; Attinul remains obsessed by the development of her own powers and the destruction of Jotus.
Unusual for an Ardent Mage she has learned skills of hunting and tracking in order to find her prey. Attinul is therefore capable in a number of roles not traditionally attributed to students from the Wizards' academies, such as scouting, infiltration, and butchering game.
High Inquistor Asalah Arca[]
Born to the Felkani clan, who inhabit some of Auriga's most inhospitable desert climes, young Asalah quickly grew accustomed to the hardships of Ardent Mage life. With a merciless sun beating down from overhead, and only stunted brush and skinny livestock for company, even the banal task of scratching a day-to-day living inflicted a degree of pain upon the clansmen. Among the young especially, the temptation to alleviate this discomfort was immense. Not for Asalah, however. When she discovered one day that a friend had stolen a plate of flatbreads, rather than seek to share in the pickings she whipped up a frenzy of indignation among her peers, and, with the help of a whipping branch, chastised the perpetrator. In time, Asalah's iron discipline and unflinching honesty saw her rise far in the ranks of the Ardent Mage army, but her ability to unearth the truth from even the most defiant subject did not go unnoticed. Inevitably, she was inducted into the Ardent Inquisition. Nowadays, sickened by the creeping laxity of Ardent Mage society, the High Inquisitor offers her services to any group who shares her attitude towards slackers.
Sunseeker Zakiya Eli[]
It will take the sands of time a thousand years to scrub the name of Sunseeker Eli from the collective memory of the Ardent Mages. A political animal who grew the Al-Rubit branch of the priesthood into a powerful force, she is a skilled coalition builder with an instinctive ability to ferret out the secret weaknesses of all those who cross her path. With an immense pain threshold to boot, and famed for holding the record for the longest walk over broken glass, Sunseeker Eli remained a skilled wizard held in great respect by her people. All these feats pale into insignificance, however, as compared to the night she let a Necrophage swarm annihilate more than five hundred of her clansmen. "A gift to the gods," she called it. "An Appeasement of Agony to pay for our sins of weakness." Banished by the Saoshyant himself, Sunseeker Eli wanders Auriga seeking to lead those she views as deserving.
Units[]
Trivia[]
- In the game files, this faction is referred to as "Rage Wizards"
Art[]
