To Rebuild a Mageocracy

Preface

— Blurb —

Magic: amazing, powerful, extravagant, mysterious necessary for the survival of the universe,... and ridiculously difficult to learn. Without a proper teacher, you could never even reach for the lowest hem of your own true Mage's Robe; that's the common knowledge of how Arcata, the once-great mageocracy that ruled enough of the civilized world to call themselves the Dominant Political and Military Force on the Planet Nonith, came to be. With the decline of Mages, however, as the elder mages die out without any promising students, the memory and knowledge of magic became duller and duller with every passing generation, and the Ultimate Mageocracy itself faded alongside it.

Muradin, Deity of Magic, finds themself running out of options, trying desperately to grip the fraying threads of their home dimension, delaying the inevitable as long as possible as they do the work of hundreds of thousands of mages, supplying the Mana that holds the dimension together... until one bronze-haired opportunity shows herself to them, and they find themselves in the unique position to perhaps fix everything, with only a small investment of time and energy to kick off the chain reaction... with a dose of some good old fashioned, ever-dependable, elitist capitalism to fill in the gaps.

Laura 'Morgana' D'Artagnan is a certified expert on all magics, from conjuration to artificing, enchanting, and even divine magic. Well, as far as the Arcana from Dungeons and Dragons is concerned, at least. After all, she makes and sells custom spell cards, monster cards, and custom Pre-made One-Shot Modules for dungeon masters all across the world, one hand-made batch and *edEx package at a time.

To see one of them suddenly *work*, though, is the start of the craziest campaign that she's *ever* seen.

— Nonith, Arcata, the Failed Mageocracy —

Overlooking what was once Arcata, the home of Boundless Magical Knowledge and, of course, the Proselytes of Muradin, but is now a lawless wasteland of thieves, murderers, bandits, and worse, held together only by the iron grip of a royal family of once-great mages, a faceless, ageless, genderless silhouette sighed in tired annoyance, prompting a grumbled reply from its fellow, a stone being with a white beard that seemed to continuously grow and fall off as it spoke, creating a waterfall of marble chips that disappeared as ash before it went past their ore-studded belt and kilt. "Ye don' have teh do it alone, ya'know, Muradin? Ah know ye take a certain pride in yer Duties, as ye should!... but ye'r dyin', Muradin. That doesn't just affect this world, ya'know?!? If the God of Magic-"

The pale being raised a hand slowly, cutting their compatriot off. "I appreciate your concern, Stone Eye, I do, but as you say, I take pride in my duties, as any craftsman does. I crafted this world, I shaped it from cosmos and thought, and I shall be it's guardian until the end of my days, this I swore when I crafted it, tying my life force to its very fabric, sewing its seams with my veins, using my brain to direct its System, instead of allowing the Universal Standardized System to take it over... why would I have done all of these things, if I were to abandon it now? My disciples will rise to power once more... I am sure of it!"

The stone being, Stone Eye, God of Stone and Ore, sighed at the false confidence exuding from his fellow's expressionless face. Their emotions were conveyed via telepathy, just as their words were, and he could feel the steely edge of desperation and despair in his oldest friend's mind, behind the brave front. His friend was dying, and he knew it, but there was truly nothing they could do about it. His soul was sewn into this dimension, and it was dying. Magic was dying, and if that happened... Stone Eye shook his head to shake away the thought, then gave his friend a wide, boisterous smile, procuring a massive jug of some form of alcohol seemingly from nowhere. "Aye, of course!!! Of course, ye'll pull through!!! But enough o' tha', hae you noticed my Champion 'as reached the peak of Seventh Tier? 'E's to be a Demigod soon, ey? Showed that no-good Goddess of Gems' Champion what-for, this year, and got the levels he needed for it just from the competition itself!!!"