(OOC: Sorry for the limited time I've had here! This next post is more of an explanatory one than anything else.)
Kluthu, the color-changing archmage of the court of Minbenthac, had a lot to do. The war against Dememoras, a run on the city's bank, and general panic and unease among much of the populace left him and the rest of the palace staff with a heavy load of tasks. Meeting with the city's other archmages, researching spells to use in case Dememoras himself attacked, running inventories of magical supplies, securing priceless tomes from the cities' libraries... and making lists of what spellbooks had to be burned in case Dememoras' forces breached the city walls.
It was with much relief that Kluthu was finally able to get a new hours to himself. Knowing that duty could call at any time, and would certainly call before long, he went back to his quarters in the palace. Being a highly powerful mage and a very important figure in the king's court had several advantages, not the least of which was a high salary, a private laboratory, a personal library, and being of noble rank himself, the ability to wed more than one female.
Returning to his room, the archmage's skin glowed a bright yellow. It would be more accurate to call his living quarters an apartment than a room, for it came with private spaces for up to six wives, plus a common room for his children, a living room, and two latrines, in addition to his own room, study, and laboratory, the latter two being connected with his own room.
Retiring to his quarters, the archmage's skin was still a yellow color, but it began to fade and turn darker, back to its original shade of dark orange that he had been born with. By the time he had changed from his robe into the typical home clothes of his kind, his skin was, for the moment, back to normal. Making sure that the cloth around his waist was still secure, the mage went out into the living room, where two of his wives slumbered on the couches, having no doubt fallen asleep waiting for him to return from his duties. Not wanting to wake them, Kluthu sat down on one of the couches with a book he had obtained from his room: The Practical Guide to Almost Everything.
One section was particularly interesting:
"Footwear, humanoids and.
Of the behaviors of various species of the world, few are more curious than the bizarre and unhealthy fixation various humanoid races have with the odd clothing known as "shoes", a functional clothing item used to protect the feet from contact with objects on the ground. While the writers of this almanac acknowledge the utility of the items, the utilization of them outside of strictly necessary circumstances has continued to puzzle our scholars, particularly the behaviors exhibited by the females among humanoid species, who tend to possess most of the shoes, yet wear them the least. Common excuses given by their females tend to revolve around how uncomfortable their shoes are, and yet they spend inordinate amounts of money to purchase them when they have the resources to..."
Another section focused on comparative religion, something that always interested Kluthu:
"Religion, Comparative.
Belief systems in the world as we know it are truly innumerable, and attempts to classify them into neat categories often fall far short of their goals. For the purposes of this text, religions are classified into three main groups; monotheistic, polytheistic, and non-theistic. The first believes in one god, the second in many, and the latter in no deity, but rather, a path, a way, or a world of spirits and ancestors, lacking a pantheon as such. Of note are many forms of heresies, offshoots, cults, and splinter groups. Many of these "unprotected sects" are the result of a powerful entity, be it a demon, a dragon, or even an archmage, using his power to convince others of a false form of divinity..."
Kluthu felt uneasy with that concept, and his skin turned red to reflect his embarrassment. Given his status as an archmage, it was not entirely unreasonable for his powers to be mistaken as the energies of the divine. He also wondered if the writers intended for the phrase describing cults to be a near double entendre.
Flipping to another chapter in the book, the mage happened across an interesting passage:
"Stars, Alignment of.
The common peoples of the world foolishly believe the stars to be nothing more than fires burning in the atmosphere, or else, the spirits of dead ancestors, fallen dragons, or even fireflies trapped in a firmament. Some have even gone as far as to speak of a conspiracy involving the mages of the world creating the stars for their own amusement. The truth of the matter is simple; a star is a burning sphere of gas, burning an unimaginable distance away, created by gravity, heat, friction, and mind-staggering amounts of time. While the stars themselves do not exert any direct control over the planet, the most ancient of mages believed this to be so, and as such, many crafted their spells to reflect the workings and motions of the stars. To this day, many great mages, by force of tradition and superstition, continue to work their spells around the motions of the stars.
Perhaps the most intriguing of these spells are those which cause a condition or an effect that somehow has a relation to the stars. Normally, such a spell cannot be undone unless a greater amount of energy is used to break the spell than was used to create it. Often, these spells have a large amount of energy behind them, or require application of a counterspell that would require so much energy that it would risk damaging or destroying whatever the object affected by the spells was. To that end, a way out that involves the stars is often added, usually occurring only when the stars are in an unusual alignment.
Much research has been done on these spells, and it has been determined that in most cases, and in every case older than 500 years, that the actual alignment of the stars themselves has little to do with the spell, only the appearance of the stars in the sky. Hypothetically, an illusionist with great knowledge of the night sky could break powerful enchantments which use star alignment as their "seal", if only he knew what stars to show..."
