“That doesn’t mean anything,” I said. “Comms could be down or—”
Bella was shaking her head before I finished. “When we couldn’t get through, we reached out to the Sworn school just outside the city. There are reports of an explosion in the palace. Nobody has any official news, but it’s believed that the entire court of nobles is dead.”
“How is that possible?” Before I’d even finished asking it, the answer was apparent. “Alton,” I said. “She brought a bomb with her to the peace summit?”
Bella shrugged. “Probably.”
“Wasn’t she searched?”
“Of course she was, but that woman gave you metal arms, turned Elsie into a living weapon, and figured out how to control the brain with a button. I think sneaking a bomb into the palace was the least illustrious of her accomplishments.”
My eyes drifted to the window next to Claire’s bed. Fires from Winkerk were still visible in the distance. “But Balgyra’s taken out, too, right?”
Von shook his head. “Alton is alive. She’s already announced Lucian’s death to the world and declared herself empress of the two countries.”
“Chet,” I said in disbelief. “So now what?”
Bella moved in closer and took my hand in hers. “The future might have changed. But our plan is still the same. We’ll find a way to stop her no matter what it takes. And we’ll do it together.”
Throughout the room, everyone nodded in agreement.
“Together.”
Appendix
Fame Rankings
-40,000+ TRAITOR
-30,000 – -40,000 DANGEROUS
-20,000 – -30,000 WANTED
-10,000 – -20,000 CONVICT
-5000 – -10,000 CRIMINAL
-1,000 – -5,000 CROOK
0 – -1,000 DISHONORED
0 UNKNOWN
0-1000 RECRUIT
1000-5000 INITIATE
5,000-10,000 SOLDIER
10,000-20,000 OFFICER
20,000-30,000 HERO
30,000-40,000 EXALTED
40,000-50,000 HIGHEST HONOR
50,000+ ROYAL
Affinity Marks
Champion – Sword
Guardian – Shield
Infiltrator – Dagger
Engineer – Hammer
Summoner – Staff
List of spells
Attack – Green – Champion
Fire
Water
Ice
Lightning
Earth
Air
Poison
Obliterate
Solara
Time
Mimic
Learn Skill
Revive (Awakens a KO’d character. Does not reverse death)
Steal MP
Support – Blue - Guardian
Healing (Heals wounds once)
Regeneration (Slowly heals wounds over time, duration 1 hour)
Shield (Blocks most attacks, has a hit limit)
Strengthen (Increases attack power)
Enhance (Increases speed)
Steelskin (Increases defense)
Mystic (Increases magic power)
Enrage (Increases strength and speed, but more susceptible to damage)
Golem (Increases strength and defense, but slows significantly, appears like a regular shield but with a honeycomb pattern)
Sentinel (Significantly increases magic and defense, but drastically decreases strength and speed)
Fury (Grants enemies increased strength, but also causes them to attack anyone)
Strategy – Black - Infiltrator
Stealth (dampen on boots, invisibility on chest, silencer on bow, pickpocket on gloves)
Illusion
Decoy
Reflect
Flash (Blinds enemies)
Echo (Confuses enemies)
Levitate
Clone
Tools – White - Engineer
Lure
Repel
Light
Calm
Fear
Sleep
Antidote
Aqualung
Silence
Detect
EXP+
Gold+
Scan
Summons – Red - Summoner
Eton (God of Earth. Massive giant that explodes from the earth and smashes things with his fists.) (At Vesna Temple)
Hondur (God of Death. Warrior in full body red and black armor who rushes out of the blade to swing at the enemy.) (At Allyria Temple)
Ranera (Goddess of Life. Angel in white flowing garments who bathes the battlefield in a white light that replenishes allied MP and heals all wounds.) (At Balgyra Temple)
Theena (Goddess of Water. A water elemental. She can take whatever form she desires but can only be found or summoned near water. Any amount of water will do. She then uses the water to attack in way she deems fit.) (At Southern Isles Temple)
Ymbris (God of Fire. Great red dragon that unleashes a torrent of flames.) (At Kardona Temple)
All summoned gods must be won at a trial temple. If your stone is lost or destroyed, you must go through all the trials again to regain it, except fighting the god again.
Each temple has 5 floors with each floor having a unique attribute. The 4 trial floors change every time so that no trial is ever the same, and the types of floors rotate so you never know which of the 4 trials you’re completing. Once completed, the type of trial is done for that time through the temple.
Here are the four types:
1. Strength
2. Intelligence
3. Agility
4. Accuracy
The creation of a Summoner stone comes from a pact between the gods whereby the god merges his power with the energy of the Summoner. If the stone is destroyed, the portion of the Summoner that went into its creation is destroyed forever. Lose enough stones and the Summoner dies.
Forbidden Magika (Well Location)
Death (Vesna)
Eternal Life (Allyria)
Love (Allyria)
Solara (Kardona)
Teleport (Southern Isles)
Time (Kardona)
Undeath (Balgyra)
Spell effects
Different spells have different effects depending on where they are augmented.
Fire augmented into a chestplate will provide increased resistance to fire damage (or immunity at Class 5).
Fire on a weapon will cause the blade to be imbued with Fire magic.
Fire on a gauntlet will shoot out blasts of fireballs.
Fire on boots will allow walking on fire, such as in a volcano.
Fire on the clasp of a cloak will enable a defensive spell that sets the opponent on fire when physical contact is made.
Some spells require audible instruction to function, such as the Time spell. You need to tell it whether to slow, speed up, stop.
Time travel is a mix of the two forbidden magics, Time and Teleport.
Game Mechanics
MP = level x 10 (ex. Level 50 = 500 MP)
AP = 1 per level
EXP needed = next level x 1,000 (ex. To reach level 10, character needs 10,000 EXP)
Attacks provide EXP. 10 EXP per class level. Class 1 = 10 per usage. Class 5 = 50 per usage.
Kills provide EXP
Levels 1-30 = 100 EXP per level of the beast (ex. Level 10 = 1,000 EXP)
This is divided amongst the party as follows, 50% of the EXP goes to the killer, the remaining 50% is divided amongst everyone who landed a hit.
Using the same example above, the killer gets 500 EXP, and if there are 4 other participants, they get 125 each.
Levels 31-60 = 200 EXP per level
Levels 61-100 = 300 EXP per level
Double EXP for monsters higher than your current level.
Triple EXP for monsters 20+ levels higher than your current level.
Half EXP for monsters 10+ levels lower than your current level.
Spell costs
Class 2 costs 15 MP
Class 3 costs 30 MP
Class 4 costs 50 MP
Class 5 costs 75 MP
MP Recovery Rate is 1 MP/minute
Class 1 spell nets 10 EXP
Class 2 spell nets 30 EXP
Class 3 spell nets 60 EXP
Class 4 spell nets 100 EXP
Class 5 spell nets 150 EXP
Places
Allyria (Aren’s kingdom) (Red and Gold)
Balgyra (Enemy kingdom) (Green and Brown)
Drakor (From the Champions of Drakor show)
Drayton (Major port in the Southern Isles)
Fairfalls (Von’s home and small fishing village off the northeastern coast)
The Fringe (Those living on the edge of the continent. Population dwindles with travel away from the capital. The Fringe is the farthest point from it on the east coast)
Kardona (Fifth kingdom to the deep south, dark skin)
Meridian Coast (eastern border of Allyria)
Obsidia (Capital city of Allyria)
Southern Isles (Fourth kingdom, blonde hair)
Valeria (along the border, Sworn school there, also where Aren was being held captive)
Vesna (Third kingdom cohabiting same continent as Allyria to the far west. They have remained neutral in the war)
Winkerk (Capital city of Balgyra)
Bestiary
Ironhorn – Resembles a giant rhino
Nightwing – A large bird the size of an AGIS-Arrow with jet-black feathers, a snakelike neck, and hundreds of razor-sharp teeth
Razorclaw – A large feline creature with razor sharp claws that stands taller than a man
Currency
Gold rifkels (Rifs for short)
List of ships
AGIS – Allyrian Guardian Interceptor Squad
AGIS-Anvil – Drop ship capable of carrying 20 fully equipped civies.
AGIS-Arrow – Fighter jet
AGIS-Scepter – Air cruiser class of the royal forces
Hamilton S23 Dropship – An old helicopter from before the use of air cruisers named after the ship’s designer, Bernard Hamilton.
Items
Amulet of Life – Mysterious properties of unknown value
Draught of aloe – Restores lost max MP from manaburn if consumed within the first hour. Takes a few days to fully restore depending on the extent of the damage. Restores a max of 5 MP.
Major draught of aloe – Restores 10 MP
Impervious Ring – Allows you to completely shield any level of attack but has a steep cooldown period.
Inhibitor Ring – Masks the stats of the wearer.
Minor draught of magic – Restores 50 MP
Draught of magic – Restores 100 MP
Major draught of magic – Restores 200 MP
MP regen ring
Healing regen ring
Item Quality
Wood - Worst
Copper
Iron
Steel
Tungsten
Crystal
Silver
Gold
Platinum
Diamond - Best
Glossary of Terms
MP – Magic Point
HP – Hit Point
AP – Augmentation Point
RAS – Remote Augmentation Station
Active Ordnance Act – An Allyrian military law that governs how supply caches receive and distribute weapons.
Auger – Term vigilante clans use to identify themselves. Synonymous with Omni.
Civie – Short for civil servant, aka law enforcement.
Class – The level of a magika stone.
Cyber – Refers to any cybernetic organism, like Aren, but ultimately refers to the failed experiments by Balgyra that turned people into deranged metal weapons.
Code 358 – A reference to a legal amendment to the Active Ordnance Act that prohibits non-military personnel from receiving free military gear.
The Distribution – Once yearly event where all new applicants to the Sworn School are divided amongst the five divisions. There is believed to be bribery and favoritism surrounding the Distribution mostly due to upper class families having their children assigned as Guardians, the most prestigious of the five classes.
Division – The affinity of a magika user.
Electrocuffs – A tech device augmented with a Silence stone that disables the wearer’s ability to use magika stones.
Fade – What happens to monsters when they die. Monsters are creations of the planet by means of magika. Upon their death, their magika essence is turned into a stone, and their body disappears.
Magicannon – Balgyran tech that consumes magika stones to fire. It was outlawed in Allyria.
Magicoma – After a user exceeds -50% of his total MP, he will slip into a coma. Using more than -100% will kill the user.
Manaburn – Using MP while negative permanently lowers the users available MP
Oathbreaker – Allyrian magika user that broke their contract with the Allyrian government to only use their assigned form of magika
Omni – Another word for Oathbreaker, it refers to an individual who has access to all five schools of magic.
Overload – A super powerful attack that charges when a weapon is used 20 times in rapid succession. Each weapon type uses a different overload, and some weapons can develop secondary attacks after prolonged use by a single owner.
Sovereign – A genetic mutation that allows the user unlimited access to magika without the confines of MP
Names (by order of first mention)
Aren Halland
Wren Cass
Bella Dumont
Izaiah James
Claire Halland
Leon Avarice
Elsie Brownell
Rayf Grant
Maximillian Vondergrift (Von)
Windcutter (Von’s ship)
McCreary (Von’s brother and armorer in Fairfalls)
Sophie (Bartender in Fairfalls)
Klara Alton
Lucian Halland
Hayden Capps
Xavier Halland
President Elias Herzog
Frederic Basinger (Ambassador from Balgyra)
Michael (Engineer)
Rady (Allyrian Chief Engineer)
Charlotte McKenna (Allyrian Commander)
Ryan (Allyrian Soldier)
Jacobs (Allyrian Soldier)
Trevon (Charlotte McKenna’s fiancé)
General Lockwin (Allyrian General on the battlefield)
Jennings, Madison, Whalen, and Colter (surnames of Allyrian soldiers)
FROM THE PUBLISHER
Thank you for reading Sworn Guardian, book one in Forbidden Magic.
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Sworn Guardian: A LitRPG/GameLit Adventure (Forbidden Magic Book 1) Page 36