>>24210259
Just don't drink the stuff.

I had a story that never got out of the outline/very rough draft stage that was basically "Peak Magic".

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Liquid necrotite?! I must have it!

What happens if you put it in a flamethrower and cover the flamethrower in sigils and runes that boost fire magic?

I bet it involves fire.

>>24210443
>I bet it involves fire.
No shit, Sherlock.

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>>24210410
So did Larry Niven, except he published it.

>>24210259
If you fall into it do you take on the form of a Precursor?

>>24210473
dat ass!

>>24210443
Some bastardized mishmash of Spelljammer and Kerbal Space Program

>>24210443
Even better idea: A Manatov Cocktail--put the petromana into a glass bottle inscribed with runes of various sorts; you light it and chuck it like a normal molotov but when it ignites on breakage it unleashes a spell on the spot based on the bottle runes.

>>24210259
>high octane

>high hydrocarbon rating gasoline formulated to reduce engine knocking

>>24210593
>>/o/

>>24210593
>gasoline

it's called petrol, seppo scum

>>24210631
Metallica calls it gasoline and that's good enough for me.

>>24210631
Europoor detected. How are you liking your collapsing socialist governments and Muslim hordes?

>>24210259
Yeah, that's a pretty cool idea. I don't see why it would just be magical forests though, or why you couldn't compress a sufficiently magical creature (like a dragon, say, or just a powerful wizard) to make your own variant of this.

Your example also assumes a normal geology, which doesn't necessarily hold true.

Pretty cool idea though. I would totally play a kind of tweaker wild mage constantly topping up on this stuff.

>>24210675
still superior to being a seppo, seppo

>>24210443
>>24210456
>>24210529

It's shit like this that makes the community of /tg/ the best.

Also, I can imagine a fiery lich whose stomach acts like a pulse jet in order to keep his power, so he must constantly drink black mana to keep it working

>>24210678
Actually I just recalled
They sorta do this in Fairy Tail.

An alternate dimension kingdom basically abducts people with high magic power to turn them into magical crystals and fuel their machines of war.

It's liquid fuel versus solid, but still.

>>24210593
This. High octane gas is associated with higher power because high powered engines are generally more prone to knock, demanding higher octane fuel to compensate,

>>24210704
It doesn't really matter, I guess. Throw a manticore in the magical equivalent of a car crusher and get a cube or vial of 'black mana' out the other end.

There could even be different vintages, with varying purities and source materials. Powerful wizards might even battle other powerful wizards solely for the opportunity to distill them down into some extremely valuable or powerful black mana, also for all their gear and shit (which could also be used to make a concentrated magical aid).

I mean, it presumably does horrible shit to you but there's nothing like it for augmenting spells.

>>24210733
Is it actually possible to make petroleum from animal tissue on a reasonable timescale?

>>24210733
The best part of that arc was the hot swordwoman Erza fighting her evil double... mmm... Erza...

Mmmm... twin Erza...

I don't have a gif for this. But I should.

>>24210769
Yes, it is.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_depolymerization

>>24210769
If you're a wizard? Probably.

Poor a couple liters into a big blast furance, tap the metal. The steel that comes out can easily been made into runic and spellforged weapons and armor and stuff.

>>24210769
Bear in mind we're assuming a world where magic exists, and is apparently quite powerful, here.

>>24210778
" the feedstock material is first ground into small chunks, and mixed with water if it is especially dry. It is then fed into a pressure vessel reaction chamber where it is heated at constant volume to around 250 °C. Similar to a pressure cooker (except at much higher pressure), steam naturally raises the pressure to 600 psi (4 MPa) (near the point of saturated water). These conditions are held for approximately 15 minutes to fully heat the mixture, after which the pressure is rapidly released to boil off most of the water (see: Flash evaporation). The result is a mix of crude hydrocarbons and solid minerals. The minerals are removed, and the hydrocarbons are sent to a second-stage reactor where they are heated to 500 °C, further breaking down the longer hydrocarbon chains. The hydrocarbons are then sorted by fractional distillation, in a process similar to conventional oil refining."

Combine that with some kind of necromantic ritual- extract the blood, maybe, and add it back to the fuel in a state charged with all that death magic- and you have Black Mana.

>>24210789
>Poor a couple liters into a big blast furance, tap the metal.
Yeah I heard a guy did that once. Someplace in, uh, what was it called again? Oh yeah. Atlantis.

>>24210794
Meanwhile, those "solid minerals" - blood iron, bone ash, salt - can be used as a potent magical reagents.

>>24210794
Sounds good. Or other kinds of extra feedstock/water mixtures for other kinds of mana flavors.

>>24210794
I don't really see why this would necessarily be necromantic, other than the name Black Mana and M:tG.

You should be able to use it to boost pretty much anything. It's violently unsafe hyper-concentrated magic essence. It's the kind of stuff you spill a drop off on your quill and bearskin rug and six months down the line owlbears keep eating the neighbouring peasants.

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>>24210675
And how is that "running on American Dream pixie dust" manufacturing sector of yours doing?
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-04-05/german-manufacturing-orders-increase-more-than-forecast-economy.html

>>24210819
Well, it's necromantic primarily because it's made by throwing dead magical things into a grinder and using the extracts of their dead flesh for power.

That sounds kind of necromancy-y to me.

>dirt oil
>over superior AND renewable sperm oil

You can't drill for mana.

YOU CAN'T DRILL FOR MANA

I HATE THIS RIDICULOUS FANTASY WORLD

>>24210884
Well, you could conceivably just compress artifacts or whatever. Basically, I just think this isn't so fun if it only augments necromancy stuff.

The process might be necromancy, the results should be more applicable.

>>24210888
Are you going to go to the trouble of ensuring the RENEWAL of said sperm oil, or are we going to have another...shortage?

>>24210899
You could change it. You could become Grand Wizard Decider Dude. You could go to magic school. Learn magic. Become incredible, change the world.

You just need to drink this.

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>>24210443
>>24210529
And that's how Pyro became Flyro.

>>24210900
That's what I was thinking too. The process is necromantic, the RESULT is a volatile and dangerous energy source that's probably still somewhat death-aligned but can be used for general-purpose stuff. When it comes to magic, the origins of stuff matters- virgin blood and not normal blood, mushrooms picked in a graveyard on the light of a full moon, the hand of a hanged man....It's one of those Laws of Similarity or something.

>>24210912
BUT YOU CAN'T DRILL FOR MANA

>>24210920
Also, if it's the necromancers making and refining this stuff they become super important, basically energy giants.

>>24210925
We already did.

A king decides to make a big show by burning a hated rival at the stake after being covered with a liter or two of Black Mana. What happens?

>>24210941
This stuff has to be unpredictable, so I don't know potentially a whole bunch of shit. Flock of vengeful fire elementals, burning evil ghost that tries to hunt down the king, some kind of hideous burned undead, plague of spontaneous combustions, all corpses within a hundred miles ignite, the king and all his descendants simultaneously burst into flame, the fire never ever goes out and gets larger ever day, the birth of a hideous infant sun.

Who the fuck knows.

>>24210941
A massive magical explosion. Hate and revenge have emotional power, violent death has necromantic and emotional power, Black Mana has power, and burning Black Mana is already dangerous as it is. The result? A violent, uncontrolled release of raw magic. People get dead, or transformed, or turned into newts, or have ash permanently coating their face.

Or the hated rival is turned into a fire elemental or eternally-living burning demon or something.

Amoral, powerful wizards are turned ageless and cancerous by their consumption of Black Mana.

>>24210678
>I don't see why it would just be magical forests though, or why you couldn't compress a sufficiently magical creature (like a dragon, say, or just a powerful wizard) to make your own variant of this.
Magic Forests were just used as an example. No reason why other things could not be used.

>Necromantic Guilds have huge political, military, monetary clout due to monopoly on Black Mana supplies and processes.
>Deadly industrial espionage concerning the secrets.
>Competing Necromantic Guilds, powerful as nation-states in their own right, waging wars and proxy-wars over promising sites.
>Even an amateur wizard is worth a fair bit of coin to a bodysnatcher as the raw material in a Black Mana refinery, especially if you can introduce magically sensitive elements (strong emotion, ritualistic scarring/tattooing) to him before death.
>Refineries and processing plants often occupied by just a few secretive, paranoid necromancers and lots of drudge undead labour and protection
>Necromantic overflow creates hostile/uncontrolled undead as 'pollution' around the site, plants don't grow, children and animals are stunted or deformed, unquiet spirits are more common, people are unable to peacefully reach their afterlife

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>>24210938
>I HATE THIS RIDICULOUS FANTASY SETTING

>>24211248
Well, in any case, of course you can drill for mana. Some of the most powerful leylines occur in the mantle currents. Geothermal power's good for more than just heat, you know.

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So guys.
A ship is accidentally damaged while transporting a large amount of Black Mana.
This results in a large Black Mana spillage polluting a coast.
How fucked are we?

>>24210473
>>24210473
Fantastic short story by the way, and very /tg/ related. Look it up.
Oh wait I already did and found a .pdf of it
http://library.worldtracker.org/English%20Literature/N/Niven,%20Larry/Niven,%20Larry%20-%20The%20Magic%20Goes%20Away.pdf

>>24211364
Post-Apoc Fallout Magic Mutants.

Walruses the size of city busses.

>>24211388
Flying rape dolphins everywhere

>>24211431
>Flying magi-dolphin rape clouds.

>>24211431
Your quest is to go to the heart of the spill and ignite a bomb and escape. The bomb will be highly destructive but it'll cleanse the land properly and prevent long-term damages from occurring.

>>24211364
Neighbouring countries straight up gone.

Basically, IDK, this is good enough to spin a setting off of.

>>24211664
The magic-as-oil metaphor has been done to death already.

>>24212070
Then let's make it Orky.
Also, captcha:
>God ntandoc

N'tandoc is now the god of Black Mana.

>>24212245
captcha has spoken, all hail N'tandoc.

>>24213581
N'tandoc, ALL HAIL.

>>24212070
As a metaphor, yeah, but as LITERAL oil? That's kinda new.

>>24213581
Doesn't sound like an Orky name.

>>24213702
You raise a valid point. I propose at least the following factions:
Orks
N'tandoc cultists
Murricans (Dieselpunk Humans, with tanks)

>>24213699
Good point. It'd work really well in a weird combination of Dieselpunk and Dungeonpunk. Make it a fantasy drug, too: Down-on-their-luck hedge wizards huffing Black Mana fumes for a brief taste of euphoria and real power, with deadly side effects.

>>24213792
Like it. Make it so!

>>24213912
>>24213823
Going to build off of this:
The oil is the remnants of Elder/Lovecrafty shit that once blanketed the world. This is Oil it's such a rich source of magical power, and why it has deadly / chaotic side effects.

N'tandoc is a re-awakening elder god, possibly once a lich.

>>24214039
I much prefer the explanations earlier in the thread, that it's made from ancient magical forests and can be synthesized from magical biomass and dead wizards.

>>24214069
>>24214039
I don't the think two explanations are mutually exclusive, but I'm also drunk.

Possible middle ground:
The oil is always synthesized from dead things. The supposedly "natural" deposits. were formed to fuel a war in ages past.

N'tandoc and other dark god / lich / BBEG type motherfuckers are responsible for the aforementioned deposits.

Hi guys, I just woke up and turned on /tg/.

Suddenly, it's the year 200X, and the Apocalypse just went Armageddon.

Murricans and Orks fight for the last wells of Black Mana to feed their warbeasts of steel.

The gas station mages, breathing the fumes of the Black Mana, received a dark vision...

...N'tandoc, the dark lord, is arisen!

>>24214154
I like it!

Idea: The old "natural" deposits? People just THINK they're decomposed enchanted forests that once covered the land. In reality? They're shoggoths. Dead shoggoths. Sometimes living shoggoths, although the drilling operations cover this up. "Oh yeah, and our drilling rig was assaulted by black goopy tentacles roiling from our pipelines and horrible blobby imps who crawled out from the valves."

In fact, any large enough collection of Oil- "natural" or synthetic- will become a shoggoth-like organism, animated by the agglomerate accretion of tatters of souls that remain in the substance from the dead things it was made from.

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I just rolled up a character.

He's a cowboy.

On a steel horse he rides.

He's wanted...

WANTED!

Dead or alive.

>>24214353
In fact, it's a literal steel horse.

Fortunately, because Black Mana is an absurdly potent fuel and magic source- riding on the thin line between "fuel" and "explosive"- it doesn't take much to keep the horse running. The thing gets five hundred miles to the gallon. Which is good, because Black Mana is rare and expensive- it's valuable enough that it's worth setting up a whole operation to kill wizards and extract a few gallons of Oil from their carcasses.

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My character rides a steel steed that drinks Black Mana and breathes out freedom.

>>24214394

Sweet! His weapon will be a six-stringed axe that he carries on his back, which he wields while riding atop his steel horse.

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Captcha
>vianatr aventure
Vianatr will have an adventure. He sounds like a hero from Russ, a frozen land in the north.

The Kingdom of Russ, led by Putin, and The Jade Empire are in an uneasy alliance to back kingdoms in the Middle Continent to control access to Black Mana.

Orks are invading the middle continent from the south because they're Orks.

N'tandoc is manipulating the the 'Murricans into war to invade the Middle Continent to secure black mana and assure his awakening.

Pic related. It's one of the faces of N'tandoc.

>>24214459
The downside is that because Black Mana is an absurdly potent and quite unstable fuel and magic source, riding the thin line between "fuel" and "explosive", you'll go up like a Ford Pinto in a Michael Bay movie if you crash into anything.

>this thread
so whats the upside of being a non necromantic wizard again?
there should be some sort of wizard guild type shenanigans where they actually provide some benefit or service thats lucrative enough to make them become wizards in the first place.

>>24214337
I think I just came. Refineries then have to employ mages and/or clerics to keep the shoggoths under control?

Also, I suggest reading A Colder War:
http://www.infinityplus.co.uk/stories/colderwar.htm
tl;dr: Cold War Nukes are a cover for an arms race to weaponize Lovecraftian entities.

What if the factions are all making secret attempts to weaponize shoggoths? This explains why they'd want to capture the oldest black mana deposits: the black mana produced by mages doesn't work as shoggoths, just as a fuel/drug.

>>24214644
The upside of being a non-necromantic wizard is that you don't need to kill shit to power your stuff. You can just run it off of normal White Mana, which is naturally occuring. It's like being off the grid. You can turn to Black Mana for a temporary power boost, but the long-run effects are deleterious. (No more so than for necromancers, though).

>>24214644
That's a good point. The obvious ones are "people hate necromancers" and "not being mutated / devoured" if the shoggoth thing holds.

I'm down with Wizard Guilds being profitable. Maybe they have a place in armed forces and everyday life? Clerics and instant wound healing would be useful even with modern tech. Same with other casters.

It could work in a magical dieslepunk setting.

>>24214644
You don't need to kill shit, people don't hate you, and you're not mutated, corrupted, and eventually devoured by your own magic.

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>>24214731
>>24214716
>>24214700
the "no evil corruption" and "people don't hate you" thing is clear.

>>24214644
With regard to the "what the hell do normal magic users do?" question, there'd be druids somewhere or something. Given this post exists
>>24214475
Fuck it, Russ has bear cavalry. Maybe this is what druids do?

If black mana is oil, why isn't fire effective in fighting things made of it?

>>24214878
The problem is that fire is TOO effective. Black Mana is basically Super Oil- it's got a whole lot of magic in it, as well as ordinary chemical energy, but it's quite unstable. Igniting a quantity of Black Mana large enough to form a creature would be like setting off a very large bomb. Plus, most times you'd encounter Black Mana creatures would be in Black Mana deposits, drilling rigs, and refineries, so it's like asking "Why can't I cast Fireball in the room full of gasoline fumes and surrounded by tanks of explodium?"

Also, it's very valuable. Fighting a Black Mana creature with fire just gives you a smoking crater, thus wasting all the gallons of the precious stuff to the air and the flame.

>>24214644
Necromancy is only specialized in certain things. Other schools can accomplish more in other fields- necromancers can heal- it's just a question of putting more life force into something already alive- but healers are better at that. Other wizards are better at making magical artifacts, or divination, or at growing things.

>>24214964
>most times you'd encounter Black Mana creatures would be in Black Mana deposits
So what about the fully formed shoggoths? Do they have immunity or at least resistance? Do they become "stable" at some point after which using fire on them means you're now fighting an eldrich abomination that's also ON FIRE and giving zero shits? Because I like the sound of that.

>>24215100
At some point, they start growing membranes and eyes and the oil starts knitting itself into flesh instead of flesh decomposing into oil. They're still flammable, but they don't really give a shit about it (although their blood might still be explosive).

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>>24215135
>blood might still be explosive
>implying amorphous dragon with omnidirectional breath weapon

Also, given people seem to be using captchas to generate shit:
>Incas challobj
Apparently some south american pyramid dwellers aren't okay with this?

>>24214482
Don't forget the horrific effects of the resulting magical fallout on the surrounding area.

>>24215318
I don't think it should be that horrible. We're still going for something like Dieselpunk here; this stuff's nasty, explosive, probably corrosive, and magic-radioactive, but it shouldn't be so horrible that it outweighs the usefulness.

>>24215318
>>24215369
Different deposits have different levels of horrible? Some can be mutagenic but otherwise tame, while others are nests of shoggoths?
Or would you need some kind of necromantic / elder magic to make the shit go full shoggoth?

I don't like the whole shoggoth thing why not just stick with sometimes the deposits lead to the 'birth' of eldritch abominations?

As for non necromancers it works something like this.

Blood magic is like necromancy except killing something and harvesting the resulting force to forge black mana. They use still living breathing beings and doing horrofic processes forge their own variant. Unlike black version its not completely insanely explosively potent. Instead he does terrible things by mutation and madness with its use. Very good in short run but like necromantic versions very nasty long run and when used improperly. Not to mention your goal isn't directly killing them rather you want them alive as long as possible for maximum harvest.

Natural magic draws upon the raw power of mother nature itself, sounds good right? Problem is nature is a cold heartless bitch, potent in its own way rather users have to worry about potentially insane amount of backlash even when used properly. Worst part is said backlash may not be immediately apparent it can even take years, decades, even centuries to be fully realized. That is at least if you abuse it rather using nature magic is all about balance. Problem is other sources used by other mages screw with the balance so even if all the nature magic users don't abuse it there is still problems to be had.

Will post more but need to write just want to put this out there.

>>24215424
In order for full shoggoths like things I would say it would have to take elder magic influences otherwise not gonna happen.

>>24215369
Indeed problem is spills and the effects it has on the surrounding area. Very powerful/useful problem is when it leaks...

>>24210259
... It's jenkem, isn't it?

>>24215564
Abominations being a "sometimes" spawn seems more reasonable, but I like the idea of using some sort of ritual to turn the black mana into an abomination with the intent of turning it loose on enemies. Or just plain out capturing and subduing them.

Also, you're setting up a scenario where druids are a faction of their own. This implies some serious guerilla shit.

Did anyone else notice that if you combine
>>24210545
with
>>24215603

you get disposable eldrich pokemon?

>>24215564

Arcane magic is drawing the raw magical energy that everything naturally radiates. This is the default for many magic users. Problem rises though when the natural deposits are drained before they can be refilled(think fresh water) and even polluted(tainted) if there is too much influence from a specific type of magic. Rather why its still popular is its natural versatility and even better its EVERYWHERE. Alas constant abuse leads to areas being drained thus weakening spells used casted there if their not using a different energy source. There are even reports of "null zones" in which the natural arcane energies floating there are completely gone. Nullifying all magic unless they use a brought in energy source.

Spirit
Religions offer a direct link to raw spiritual energy and then there is the natural stuff everyone has inside. Which if they worship something some of that energy naturally breaks of and joins the 'pool' of raw magical energy. That magic users can later use if they follow/steal can tap into to provide a source for their powers. Problem is the more worshipers even if their not magical adds more energy to the pool which means more power. Then there is the problem of sacrifices providing a surge of magical energy into the pool. Problem is if abused too much it tends to leave a taint and will eventually forever corrupt it if nothing is done.

>>24215697
With the rights runes used I don't see why it can't summon or create something.

Thread archived, vote to keep it so:

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive/24210259/

>>24215743
continued

Planar magic
Is quite simply the stuff a magic user uses if the y use energy not naturally from this realm. Sounds great right never having to worry about using to much of it. Problem is feedback whatever the original source is used. It will without fail leave a taint wherever it is used, which can build up over time, but on the plus side if given time and if the taint isn't too strong it will fade away. Which causes qualities from THERE to come HERE by polluting the surrounding area allowing spill/cross overs. Good news is if your a user of its type you get a nice boost to powers. Bad news is if your not a user it makes it harder to use your magic unless yet again you bring in an outside source. Not to mention what it does to the surrounding environment.

Elemental magic

Simple tapping into elemental energies to desired affects according to element. Good news is in this realm its reasonably balanced. Bad news is using too much of a certain type of elemental wreaks havoc eventually. With too much havoc things start begin to get destabilized which means things start to break apart in a bad kind of way.

Will post some factions/groups shortly feel free to comment.

>>24215909
Guild Plasma and Guild Grim aka the Vile Alliance

A group of necromancers and blood magic users working together for their own benefits. Normally such an alliance would eventually fail due to greed and power mongers. Sadly however blood users need the feed only when their alive and the necromancers take them when they inevitably die. This group quickly rose to power and keep rising its unknown when/if they can be stopped. There are of course other partnerships but none can even remotely compete with the sheer raw output/power of the Vile Alliance.

Nature's Fury

A circle of druids who upon realizing that even if all their kind give up using their power. Nature will still strike back due to the abuse of other magic users and their magics effect on nature. With this realization many druids grew displeased with the lack of action and beliefs of their formal circles. Thus they came together to fight after all nature is already being abused. what good would happen if they just rolled over in defeat without first using ALL the sheer raw power of nature itself? Unlike their brethren these users have forsaken their belief in if temporally in balance. Believing they must first strike clean the filth they see themselves as incarnates of Nature's Wrath itself. After and only after that can they restore balance. Their leader's name is always Wrath.

>>24216238
This Nature's Fury sounds like elfshit, up until the whole Wrath thing. Make them heavy in Russ? Add some druids?

>>24216291
Think extremist pissed of violent blood thirsty hippies on steroids. Basically their a bunch of really REALLY pissed of druids.

>>24216306
If they have bear cavalry I'm okay with it. They need to be more aggressively luddite to be in line with modern Russia.

>>24216306
And they want to make everyone pay and make it like the good old. days. Problem is what they want with their 'balance' is never going to happen even during the old days people abused magic even nature magic was abused their fellow druids to boot.

>>24216345
Honestly bear cavalry is a given not to mention other factions use them too. They more or less want to make it like the good old days and their willing to do anything to make it so. After all there is got to be a crazy vicious environmental extremists group. I just wanted to post the most well known/infamous even by their own kind.

>>24216391
>other factinos use them too
Ok, maybe. But I'm getting progressively drunker so this makes me increasingly angry. But let's move on.

Jade Empire was mentinoed earlier in the thread. This sounds like a shitty china knockoff to contextualize china into shitty WW2. This is fucking stupid unless we can make them interesting.

Murricans. This is thinly veiled political jabs, but I tihnk it's funny. So tanks. WW2, it was the soviets that mastered tanks, but it fits the WW2 theme of American Industry. I'm assuming they'll be a primarily technogloical force. Druids should probably hate them. Also, they kind of killed any native druid-types a long time ago if we're going w/ inspirations.

>>24216700
God damn am I drunkl.

>>24216700
The druids at this point I would imagine who are actually fighting back are a bunch of extremely pissed off Guerrilla fighters. Trying to be sow as much destruction as they can which they succeed doing wonderfully. In return everyone hates them but their such as a pain in a ass and like insects you can never seem to get rid of them all. Of course there are good useful druids but no like to pay attention to them and rather focus on their extremist brethren.

As for more info on Vile Alliance the two guilds posted were the original guilds who figured out how with the new discoveries combined with how well they would work together teamed up. They were the first to do so and thanks to how ruthless they are when it comes to crushing/absorbing those who try to repeat their arrangements. Makes certain their place and continual rise in power. These makes them a huge powerhouse combined with their seeking to find a religious group willing to join their unholy alliance(and wont mind sacrifices) in order to have access to the delicious magic pool without having to steal it for ALL their members. So far they have failed due to two reasons. A they already have some members part of many different religions already who don't necessarily want to convert. B no one seems to want to join the alliance even those who believe in sacrifice. Despite the obvious gains for the religions no one is interested to such an arrangement much to the agony of the Vile Alliance. Who already immensely powerful believe that if they can find such a group they would be unstoppable(they may very well be right).

>>24214337
Uh, okay, but let's not have this all Lovecraftian.

>>24214273
Or, y'know, involving America.

>>24213823
Yeah it's already been mentioned in the thread.

>>24214039
Literally any biological magical stuff can be used to make it.

>>24214644
I'd run this specialised mages, so Necromancers *are* the most powerful faction in terms of the setting but they still don't get access to stuff outwith that. Black Mana can be used to fuel any magical stuff though.

>>24214700
I don't think we should call normal magic 'White Mana' but whatever, I guess it works. I think Black Mana works best without a counterpart, it's called 'black' because it's literally a black, corrosive powder/liquid, not because it's the opposite of normal stuff.

>>24215369
I think it should be super powerful. Look at the suggestions for a black magic burning or a black magic spillage upthread. I think it has to be really horrible and that's a major appeal of the setting, the kind of fuckups and horrific situations it can make.

I wouldn't make this completely dieselpunk, I wouldn't have black mana-powered cars everywhere or anything. It's not a complete replicate for diesel, it's an extreme magical booster.

>tanks and shit, tightly defined types of magic, which have all basically black mana effects and some weird history
Uh.

>>24215697
That's pretty fun. Probably shouldn't be able to control them though, considering you have to break the runes/bindings to activate it.

It's called gasoline.

>>24219138
>I don't think we should call normal magic 'White Mana' but whatever, I guess it works. I think Black Mana works best without a counterpart, it's called 'black' because it's literally a black, corrosive powder/liquid, not because it's the opposite of normal stuff.

That, and a metaphor for Oil is "Black Gold"

>>24219290

>Metaphor
>That word

>>24219365
'euphemism'

>>24216916
so wait... Druids are talibans???
>Sow destruction
>Everybody hates them
>Good useful druids, no one gives them any attention
>Insects, fuckin everywhere
>Anti-murrica

I only caught the first 50 post or so last night and I am rereading the rest of the thread, therefore I am not sure if it's been mentioned but why not have the black mana be the base mana for everything else. It symbolizes compressed decomposed life, thus making it highly dangerous raw, unless you are using it in that manner (necromancy). Other wizards need to distill the magical energy out of it to make use of it, making necromancers rich beyond belief but almost universally hated. Political power struggles often surround the acquisition of black mana and the distribution of said mana to 'distilleries' around the world.

Necromancers have both positives and negatives to their power. Being able to manipulate the raw black mana will allow them readily accessible energy, but since all the mana just consists of compressed life it is easy for necromancers to accidentally consume their life with their magics. Some opt for the undead lifestyle to overcome this limitation, but usually result in being fired for wasting precious materials to fuel their rituals.

Other mages do not encounter this limitation since their magic is not based on life. They require less material since their magic is concentrated even further, but cannot readily use other manas due to their different nature and composition. A fire mage has is very wasteful when casting anything not within the fire domain, usually wasting magnitudes more mana than specialized mages.

>>24221646
Can't really see this though, I mean that would give the necros more OP, while making >>24214644
s point much more acute. If necros are OP, and only they can use tis "black mana" why the fuck would you want to be anything else?

>>24221646
>>24222321
I mean being a lich would have like... virtually NO fucking drawbacks
>Undead
>Immortal
>Most powerfull things alive
>no risks
>unfuckable

>>24222321
>>24222337
What the point of being anything other than an engineering in our world then? You can't do everything as a necromancer, most necromancers do nothing other than mess with the black mana and distill it. Being any other sort of mage lets you cast magic cheaper/

>>24222967
How can you draw a parallel between engineering and necros??
Engineering:
>average pay
>no real power
>boring as fuck
Necromancers:
>Rich as fuck, due to black mana
>Powerful as fuck, due to black mana
>Might not be so fun, but what the fuck ELDRITCH POKEYMANZ

I picture Dwarf-Fortress style Terrifying coasts.

>>24223089
>>24222337
You forget that if you're trying to get in on the Oil/necromancy thing, suddenly all the other necromancers will probably try to kill you if you show any shred of competence.

>>24223334
and you beat them and make your way to the top because adventure

>>24223360
So this is now a setting about becoming a necromantic oil baron?

>>24223395
Hell. Yes.

>>24223395
Well yeah, if we accept>>24221646s point, cuz well, the easiest/fastest way to get money is Necroil Baron

>>24223089

Average pay compared to other engineers/mages maybe, but compared to other individuals that don't have the know how you are making crazy amounts of money. When you look at pertol engineers they make a hell of a lot more money than anyone else without looking at the upper 1%.

Also no one ever said black mana was as strong as distilled mana, you need to consume more of it compared to the distilled stuff.

In terms of boring/fun, that's completely subjective. For all you know necromancy is even more boring than engineering.

>>24223864
No one ever said black mana wasn't, from >>24221646 I gathered it was as strong, if not stronger than distilled.

I see what you mean with boring/fun

And an engineer (at least in sweden) has got an average pay, basically around the average or sometimes a bit over. Yes, they earn a lot of dosh compared to busboys/bartenders, but often a lot less when in comparison with doctors, economists, lawyers and other academics. I'd agree with you though if you'd said economists instead of engineers. Though in this world we still, presumably, need engineers and bartenders, so while we have 2 layers in our world, it's 3 in this (at least). Not to mention the fact that in this world, as in our own, not all the people are able to do whatever they want, hence we have classes

Which actually brings up another question. This Black mana, can everybody handle it? or does one have to be born a necromancer to be a necromancer? Or does it just take some average brainskills?

>>24224033
Anyone can handle it

>>24224564
huh.... But if you handle it retardedly, it'll blow up in your face?

>>24225638
And if you handle it long-term, it'll slowly kill you.

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>>24225690
whaaat, I'd prefer it if it was a wh40k warp kind of a deal. Like if you take a bath in black mana, you'll develop tentacly appendages and lose your mind

>>24225717
That is blood magic mana does that to you.

>>24225765
ah, blood mana deforms, black mana kills?

>>24210899
We're just tapping land for black mana, I fail to see the problem.

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>>24210899
This is /tg/, not /mtg/. We'll tap the lands like a keg if we feel like it.

Though if you insist on it being /mtg/, here is our planeswalker.

>>24225717
>>24225765
>>24225847
Someone mentioned purity / strength of the black mana:
>>24223864
Different oil deposits can be tainting to different degrees. Some can be N'tandoc-brand chaos bullshit w/ instatentacles, some can spawn occasional abominations, whereas some is just toxic. Shit, we need a table for this.

>Regarding other types of magic users
I don't see why Necromancers would be able to cast other types of spells at any level higher than "Just barely competent" They're good at necromantic spells, but bad at other types of spells.
Seers are much, much better at clairvoyance
Summoners are much, much better at summoning things
Druids are much, much better at plant life related things
Evokers are much, much better at blowing things up
ect
ect
The necromancers are powerful because they have the ability to find and refine black mana, which everyone uses to boost their own spells/run their magitech.

>>24228321
Of course, magic users can boost spells outside their specialty and get powerful effects, but it's dangerous, since they aren't good at manipulating the mana outside of their specialty.
So it's safe (enough) to use black mana to boost spells within your specialty, but fairly dangerous to boost spells outside of it.

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Ah, this reminds me of a setting I was working on once. One of the five continents was dominated by a desert, which was now controlled by a powerful fire mage. He'd developed magiteck powered by fire spirits and used the oil from the oil fields to supercharge his machines and himself. Of course there was a guerrilla resistance of wind/sand controlling tribes, and the fire mages were trying to stop the guerrilla fighters by killing sand spirits by glassing the desert.

>>24227989
That looks like a certain animal's penis. Some form of mole. I forget which.

>>24228587
It's not a type of mole, pleb. It's an echidna penis.

>>24228566

>Magitek supercharged by oil
This is the Murrican faction. Can we give them fire spirits too?

There's energy in all living things. Normally when something dies, the energy escapes into the afterlife. However, if the energy is unable to leave the decomposing carcass - for example, if it's trapped naturally or by magical barriers - it will be tainted and create a vile black tar.

Captcha: Queen Foollai

>>24228697
Only if the fire spirits take the form of crying eagles.

>>24228862
What faction does Queen Foollai belong to?

>>24228994
>our turannui
I don't know, but she's the tyrant I'd get behind

Captcha:
>Honsru Islands

Ladies and elegan/tg/entlemen, a Japan Expie has entered the game.

>>24228994
Queen Foollai of Coollai: pink haired bandit queen? Like the Cowboy, she wields a guitar. She is seeking what she believes to be the tomb of a long-dead necromancer that is rumored to have created the oil in the first place?

>>24229319
I'll accept a Japan expie, but get your FLCL weeaboo shit out of here.

Hold up brosephine, if oil is pure mana, shouldn't that logically make dwarves, kobolds, and other subterranean species the more magical ones due to their proximity and probable monopoly on the stuff as opposed to the forest-living fair folk who usually do the magicky stuff?

I mean I ain't ever hear about no oil company digging innawoods. This has potential.

>>24229909
I've also never heard of any company digging in mountains, but I like what you're implying.

I agree that they'd be heavily involved in running drilling and extraction operations. In some cases, kobold or dwarvish oil barons can have ludicrous amounts of money.

However, unless they live ontop of an area that happens to have plenty of oil, I wouldn't expect them to be inherently more magical.

>>24229673
Honsru doesn't have to be a powerful faction. I'd actually advocate for them to be completely shit-tier just to make the weeaboos angry.

>>24232482
Make them like the real Japan during their industrial revolution. Powerful in their own part of the world, thinks they're pretty fucking great, but are actually not quite as powerful as the distant foreign powers that gave then the tech to get their revolution started.

>>24215251
Bump

>>24229909
not necesarily. i know that in the ravnica books too much mana could make you basically OD on the stuff (agrus kos couldn't use any more healing magic without risking a heart attack) so they may develop a resistance to magic instead

--------------- Faction recap so far -------------
From: >>24213792
Murricans: Magitek Dieselpunk with tanks
Orks
N'tandoc/misc dark god cultists

From >>24214475
Kingdom of Russ: crazy nature taliban druids with insects
The Jade Empire: ?

From >>24232531
Honsru Islands: shitty industrializing japan, cannot into industry

Captcha:
>even ndedhdre

Given lich oil barons seem to come up in this thread, they should probably be their own faction that works to manipulate the others behind the scenes. Given many of them would have necromantic affiliations, there should probably be zombies.

>>24210259
Ok, hold on, that is a water bottle, right? Are people going to drink oil now?

>>24228924
So basically phoenixes?

>>24232423
Mermages. They run the fuckin platfors inna ocean, fucking king triton of jade empire under the sea is magical as fuck

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>>24234227
naaaw man, the oil barons shouldn't be a faction. All Necroil barons are independent, but often try to manipulate their governments to further their owns agendas. Or well... maybe not so much governments as their local warlords

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>>24235474
Pic related

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>>24235474
Also

>>24235474
Jade Empire confirmed as some kind of Merfolk. You may have just saved the setting from being generic chinese bullshit.

>>24235522
inb4 Telvanni

>>24235530
>>24235540
My sides have reached the astral plane.

Mana-rich countries:

Russ: Have both offshore and deep forest shoggoth deposits under the control of a werewolf-led paramilitary shadow government. Druids are a nuisance, constantly sabotaging pipelines and necromantic refineries.

Jade Empire: Aggressive merfolk-led meritocracy that conquered coastal cities and expanded inland. Control much of the offshore locations, use reanimated, hollowed-out whales as tankers.

Offiyi Hegemony: An Orcish tribal monarchy that controls the central deposits in the deserts. Use slave and indentured labor for most tasks while the actual citizenry lounges in luxury.

>>24236455
wait a minute, when did the werewolves enter? Can't help but feel a bit... silly...

>>24236455
I, for one, like to think that Russ and the Druids are allied, because they share a mutual hatred for the 'murricans and they fucking have Bear cavalry. I vote for russ being Mean as fuck druids riding bears fueled by black mana vs murrican tanks. Maybe even werebears

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>>24237169

>>24236869
The whole thing got silly when people put a bunch of not-countries and OH MY GOD SO COOL stuff in after the initial good idea in the OP.

>>24240137
OK to be perfectly honest, the werewolf idea was just plain boring. All of this is rather silly, but most of it is interesting, the werewolf thing was just.. plain

>>24240137
That always happens. The trick with these sorts of threads is to only read the first fifty posts, then skim the rest; that's where all the best stuff is.

>>24236455
I'm liking the whales, and the idea of the orcs living in the desert. I'd expect the citizenry to have a strong martial tradition to explain why the slaves don't just go apeshit.

Also, possibly undead workers.

>>24240223
Agreed, the werewolf thing is a shitty spacewolf expie. I'm more down for the religious fanaticism someone suggested earlier.