Sovereign Magic - Mastery of the Land

For many, the wizard is an archetype of power. With courage and discipline he ventures into forbidden mysteries, learning the spells which may melt down reality itself and remold it closer to his heart’s desire. Once the heady heights of ninth level spellcasting are attained, the magician is believed to be at the apex of his power. However, there are those for whom this is just the beginning.

They are the likes of the moon-pale, merciless ice witch in her far-off palace of snow, whose word can open vast crevasses into which the unwary can fall and who can call up the ravening frost worm from its lair simply by an act of will. The suntanned wanderer of the plains, in appearance a harmless old dodderer, is one of them; if he willed it, the clouds would gather heavy as ink and lacerate the earth with lightning. The aged mountain dwarf who sits quietly alone, surveying the rocks and crags of his home, could speak a handful of syllables and cause the whole side of the mountain to come hurtling down into the valley beneath. The muttering, obese sorcerer of the swamp is more than he appears; the bones of an entire army lie beneath the placid surface of his marshes, and if asked they would tell a nightmare tale of bloodsucking insects, tangling roots and marsh mud that came alive and engulfed them.

These gentlemen and ladies are the sovereign mages, those who have learned the rare art of entering the soul of the land and binding their personal power to it. Not content with merely moving upon the face of the earth, they seek to become one with it; some to conquer, some to protect. By infusing their very essence into the country around them, they become partakers of the energies of the land, drawing upon it to achieve legendary and miraculous results. Whether they serve as governors, custodians or power-mad conquerors, they are a more potent magical force than any ordinary spellcaster could hope to be.

These mages, beginning with a kernel of power, often expand their influence into other zones. The more land they take over, the more their ability to influence it grows. Their arcane spellcasting abilities are augmented massively and they become able to cast spells over huge distances, raining down their magic upon the unwary who had thought themselves safe in far-off lands.

They enter folklore, being spoken of as legendary beings whose wrath it is not wise to risk. The wild beasts of the region seem to know and obey them. Some even send forth weird allies and emissaries, whose eyes and ears the sovereign mages may use and through whom they may speak. Some, the darker ones, are even said to take possession of important figures against their will. So, when the king begins to act strangely and opens the borders to the kingdom’s traditional enemies, who is to say it was not some malign sovereign mage using him as an unwilling puppet?

Sovereign Magic – Mastery of the Land is another volume in the Encyclopaedia Arcane series, focusing on the powers of those legendary wizards and sorcerers who overshadow whole tracts of land. Designed for easy integration with any fantasy-based D20 games system, the Encyclopaedia Arcane series does far more than merely introduce new spells or items to extend existing magic-using character classes. Instead, each book covers wholly new forms of magic or details aspects of magic-using characters’ lives in extensive detail, adding fresh dimensions to campaigns. Such information is not intended solely for the Games Master to use in association with non-player characters, however. Each book of the Encyclopaedia Arcane gives full details for players themselves to try the new systems presented, along with plenty of information to aid the Games Master in the introduction of each book into his campaign.

This volume gives players and Games Masters alike all the information they will need to integrate sovereign magic into their campaign. Full guidelines are given for the establishment of a sovereign mage’s dominion and the expansion of territory, as well as a complete list of territory spells, the incantations only available to those who have this magical power of governance. Specific help is also provided for the Games Master, showing how to use these awesomely powerful beings in support of game balance and campaign drama, rather than upsetting it.