Locations

HISTORY:

However, everything has changed. The church, now, is not in its absolute dominant status like three hundred years ago. Today, divinity power can’t be acquired with talent alone. Being a real pastor requires systematic learning from a young age.

‘The Emperor of Magical Arcana’, it was he who started the close to four-hundred-year golden age of the development of divinity power and magic. He changed the rule of how to become a Divine Caster.

As a member of Rafati family, compared with most pastors, Benjamin knew more about the circumstances of the world. What's more, he was not that devoted to his own particular faith. More accurately, being an aristocrat actually conflicted with his identity of belonging to the church.

Even further, after “the Highest Theology Conference” more than three hundred years ago, the church was partitioned into two: one south, the other north. They both criticized each other for being a hearsay. But neither of them were ever interrupted or prevented from continuously gaining the divine power, which made many bishops and cardinals doubt whether God really existed, or if all this was a test for God’s followers.

This kind of attitude directly affected the following younger generations, like Benjamin, for hundreds of years.

Besides, to fit into this fast developing era, several popes had introduced part of the knowledge gained through the exploration of the world by great Arcanists, to modify the foundation of theology.

The adjustment guaranteed the fast development of divinity and the emergence of countless great spellcasters. Therefore, the South Church could still preserve its predominant position in general and keep growing while being surrounded by many powerful enemies like heretics, evil sorcerers, dark creatures and so on. But at the same time, this behavior additionally prompted more conflicts within the South Church itself.

“Four hundred years ago, guided by the Holy Heilz Empire, the church marched towards the west. Finally, they occupied the last central city of the old Sylvanas Magic Empire, Aalto. The army drove the dark creatures and demons away into the Dark Mountain Range. Since then, Aalto has always been one of the most famous cities across the whole continent.

“Three hundred years ago, under the guidance of the Pope Charles I, who was still a cardinal at that time, lots of famous scholars and artists studied and edited together the hymns and poems of past ages. After he became the pope, he promoted the singing style in every church and started regular choirs. Since then, Aalto has been enjoying the reputation of ‘City of Psalms’.

“Because we are close to the Dark Mountain Range, elves, dwarves and dog-headed men, or say, cynocephalus, often came in contact with us and some even became members of our duchy. Different kinds of music were mixed in Aalto and the polyphonic music was born here. Then followed formal symphony, gesu violin, etc.

ON THE TOPIC OF MAGIC:

According to the notes, people in ancient magic empires believed that magic worked as the result of four basic elements - earth, fire, wind, water - releasing power under the guidance of their spirit. Later, light, darkness and necromancy magic joined in. And sorcerers were also able to summon demons from hell, pits or other dimensions.

At the same time, all the magic could be divided into eight schools: Element, Astrology, Necromancy, Illusion, Summoning, Force, Transformation and Alchemy. The book Astrology and Magic Elements was mainly focused on Element and Astrology magic.

Before becoming a real sorcerer, an apprentice could only learn some simple tricks instead of real first circle magic.

In Lucien’s viewpoint, the structure of those apprentice spells was very simple. They were just some geometric patterns combined together, which could be triggered by the spells and corresponding magic reagents.

There were also three levels of the sorcerer apprentices: in training, intermediate, and advanced, graded according to the different levels of spiritual power, which determined how many spells they were able to cast in a row - five, ten and twenty, respectively.

Through meditation an apprentice could improve his or her spiritual power. With the help of certain magic potions, he or she could start mentally building a first circle magic structure. Those who succeeded would become real sorcerers. Having sufficient spiritual power was the key factor during the process, because the casting of magic from the first circle did not require any spelling, magic reagents or gestures.

**The grading of knight and pastor was similar to the different levels of sorcerer.**

The ability to use the third circle spell Fly, the sixth circle spell Magic Trigger, or many other ninth circle spells symbolized different levels of sorcerer. When a sorcerer or sorceress could start using one of these spells, it meant he or she had made a new breakthrough. Their spiritual power would grow by a large extent, and their souls would transform into a higher-level form. Even their lives would be extended.

In the ancient magic empire, people regarded the first and second circle sorcerers as junior-rank mages, while third to fifth circle were middle-rank mages, and sixth to eight circle, senior-rank mages. Above them, a ninth circle sorcerer or sorceress would be respected as an Archmage.

Similarly, the levels three, six and nine were the key promoting points for a knight. If a person successfully awakened the Blessing in their blood, they would first become a level one or level two knight. From level three to five, they would be regarded as a grand knight; then six to eight, a radiant knight; in level nine the title was gold knight; and after that was the highest level of all, a legendary knight.

For pastors, it went from junior-rank to middle-rank pastor. Then a middle-rank pastor could be promoted to bishop. For the senior-rank pastors, most of them would become cardinals. There was no special title for a level nine pastor, but if one could successfully join the conclave, he or she would be respected as a grand cardinal.