HUMAN
The race of people who once inhabited Earth, now belonging to Arcania. Humanity in Book of Magic works almost exactly the same as humanity in the real world, bound to all the usual physical capabilities as normal humans save for the ability to use magic. All humans born in the world of Alterra are capable of wielding at least some magic, but only a fraction of them ever attain the level of control and power necessary to be known as a magician.
In order to channel their magic, humans must acquire a source from which their magic flows, typically deriving from one of nine possible Job archetypes. In order to use magic, humans must be aided by the use of a wand, a specific object that allows them to cast spells. There are many domains of magic that humans follow or study in order to channel their powers, but every Job requires a wand alike.
Humans in Alterra appear almost just the same as humans did on Earth, but they enjoy the added benefit of ambient magic flowing throughout the realm that allows them a much more colorful range of features than Earthling humans once had. It isn’t uncommon for Humans to have a different variety of fantastically-colored hair, eyes, and tattoos.
subclass
job
For Humanity, a subclass dictates the source of the character’s magic rather than what that magic is.
There are some types of attunements that could easily fall into more than one class, but you’re free to pick whatever fits your character best.
If you don’t know what subclass to choose, the Luminary job is pretty much a free-for-all where you can make anything you like!
☆ ALCHEMIST
Alchemists are magicians who gain their magic abilities through the mana imbued in prima materia. Alchemy is the most scientific and chemical of all human magic jobs, involving the study of ancient magical chemistry, transformation, maturation, purification, and transmutation of matter and materials. All potion-brewers, as well as many inventors, artificers, machinists, tinkerers, and enchanters usually take up the title of ‘Alchemist’. Any magical attunements having to do with the creation, transformation, or enchantment of manmade material falls under this job.
Alchemists are known best for their use of magical incantations, runology, and glyphs to perform spells. Though it is typically possible for an Alchemist to cast spells without drawing or summoning a magic circle, they are usually more powerfully served by the preparation of one. Otherwise, Alchemists are also known for their use of magical engineering, tools, and mathematics to get the job done.
ARTISAN ☆
From music to food to smithery to weaving, Artisans practice their magic through the use of artisanal works and materials. Most Artisans spend long hours of study or profession in their chosen pursuit, often making a renowned name for themselves even outside the realm of adventuring. They are known both for their legendary feats as well as for their contributions to society, and Artisans’ attunements are often those to do with humanities pursuits, such as writing, music, cooking, art, fashion, and all other realms that are to do with using magic in professional work.
Throughout Arcania, Artisans are known best for the goods and economy supported by harvesting materials from slain monsters; the collection of their furs, feathers, hides, and other loot is very valuable. Artisans typically supplement their Adventuring expeditions from lucrative professional pursuits, from working monster hides to writing novels on their journeys.
☆ elementalist
Elementalists are those who source their magic power from the ambient magic found in matter and forces of the natural world. From elements as cardinal as fire and water to elements as primordial as gravity and kinesis, from matter as earthen as wood to as refined as glass, Elementalists typically master command over one matter or force type found in the natural realm or composed of materials derived from it. All types of magics having to do with manipulation of matter fall under this job.
The ‘element’ an Elementalist commands can be something very concrete or something very abstract. Things like ‘water’, ‘fire’, etc. can be an Elementalist’s element, but so can those like ‘acceleration’, or ‘emotions’. The main mark of an Elementalist is simply drawing power from attuning with a specific type of widely-expansive material or force.
covenant ☆
Covenants are those commanding some of the oldest and most cryptic magics found within Alterra, whose powers are sourced from the very spirits of the realm themselves. As their name suggests, a Covenant is a magician who has made a sacred contract with an Alterran Seelie fae, trading something of utmost value to them to be granted magical ability in equal measure. Covenants are rare magicians in that their magic comes at a steep price, and very few humans are deemed fit to be offered a contract from a Fae spirit.
A Seelie fae spirit is capable of granting their contractual magician an attunement deriving from their own magical domain; a fire Fae might grant their magician fire magic, a forest spirit might grant their magician plant magic, and so on. Most spirits are cryptic, wise, and proud beings who do not operate like a usual friend or pet; they rarely speak, and their feelings and motives can be difficult to discern. Unlike greater deities, Seelie fae do not assume humanoid forms, but their Covenant can summon their avatar when necessary.
☆ LUMINARY
Luminaries are magicians whose magic draws from deep within the soul. A Luminary is perhaps the most mysterious of all the human adventuring Jobs, those who harbor the least similarity between one to the next. Each time one encounters a Luminary, they can be sure that they are in for some kind of surprise. Each soul is unique, and within it lies a grand complexity of secrets. The ways each Luminary may find and channel their magic can be anything imaginable. The only predictable thing about Luminaries is their unpredictability.
Luminary serves as the most open-ended Job class, a special option in case you find that none of the other jobs particularly suit what you have in mind. A Luminary’s attunement and how they call upon it can be anything you like.
MESMER ☆
A Mesmer’s magic draws from their own heart or mind, imagination, thoughts, intention, or even emotions. All Magicians who gain their power through these faculties may assume the title of ‘Mesmer’. Mesmers are often those with powers of psychokinesis and employment of psionic magic. Commonly, they practice calling upon one's mental faculties to exert deft control and operation over the mind with abilities such as clairvoyance, future-sight, telekinesis, telepathy, and all manner of extrasensory perception. In addition, they are also known for empathetic and psychokinetic magics, such as all those dealing in charm, emotion, perception, as well as certain types of buffs and debuffs.
However, there is no one magic attunement that dictates one as a Mesmer—the truest evidence of a Mesmer is merely the source from which one’s power flows. For Mesmers, that font flows from within the bounds of the human heart and mind.
☆ NECROMANCER
Necromancers draw their power from ghosts, afterlife, ancestors, and viscera. Contrary to what some may believe, a Necromancer is far from evil. Though much of their powers draw from elements known as ‘dark’ to most, not all of them see it that way. A Necromancer’s attunement draws from the power of animate life itself, able to blur the lines between the material sphere and what may linger in the afterlife. However, while a Necromancer’s attunement may deal with what ghosts or spectres linger in the shadows, they are all likewise unable to overcome the veil of death. A Necromancer can never grant renewed life, nor steal that of a living creature.
Attunements common to Necromancers are all those dealing in communion with ghosts and hallows, animating the mortal shells of living things, manipulating the growth or decay of living matter, and all other types of magics dealing with death, ectomagics, and the body.
summoner ☆
Summoners are magicians whose powers derive from the beasts found in the material sphere of Alterra. Contrary to their name, a Summoner’s magic does not always require calling upon their beast of choice; rather, they can channel the essence of any animal type and use that within their magic to some effect. Usually, Summoners ‘tame’ a beast type in some form—sometimes this involves thorough study, befriending one of the chosen type, or using some kind of magic enchantment on the beast.
A Summoner’s magic doesn’t necessarily need to be exactly just “summoning an animal”. Summoners are something of a sister-subclass to Elementalists, both of which comprising the ‘fauna’ and ‘flora’ divisions of a typical Druid-type class. Where Elementalists draw on the powers of nonsentient nature, Summoners draw on that of anything within the animal kingdom. Their attunements may have any number of things to do with this. Of course, it is possible to combine both animal and non-animal elements into a Summoner’s attunement as well. The most important element of a Summoner is merely the source from which their power derives: nature.
☆ WANDERER
Perhaps the most curious class of all, little is known about the mysterious Wanderers of Alterra. Though rumored of throughout the realm, none in the mortal sphere understand how or why Wanderers come to be; simply that they are. To most Alterrans, Wanderers are a strange class of humans thought to be ‘chosen’ by the patron goddess of Arcania, Lune. They appear to awaken somewhere within the realm, always free of injury and always safeguarded until they are delivered soundly into the hands of the Alterran people. Most strangely, they appear to have little memories of themselves aside from the ability to divulge their name and information about themselves excluding where they’ve come from.
In truth, Wanderers are those humans who have recently deceased somewhere on Earth. They awaken in Alterra immediately following death, with only their wand as keepsake from their past life. A Wanderer retains full acuity of their memories of their past on Earth, but a powerful celestial magic prevents them from speaking of it to anyone. Unbeknownst to most, many Wanderers across the realm of Alterra have attempted—yet none have ever succeeded. Their memories of Earth may never live on within the bounds of Alterra, but somehow, the goddess has seen fit to grant them a second chance. Their attunements are vast in variety, though all seem to draw on elements from their past life that grant them power now in the present.
