Tiffany

Tiffany by Nahkh
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Something something /quest/ wants to be the little necromancer girl. By Nahkh.

In a few more words, the quest details the story of one Tiffany Blake, seeking to learn the black arts of necromancy to bring her brother back to life. Unfortunately, it now seems she has gone over her head.

Author's note: This article is intended for participants to collaborate on figuring stuff out. It'll be easier if you keep this page up to date. Also, hanging around #rubyquest or #tgchan when I'm updating is a Good Idea. Also, feel free to put wild theories in the discussion page, or the questdis thread.

Non-Authors note: This page was getting to be fucking huge, so information pertaining directly to the magic system has been moved to Tiffany: Runes

People

Tiffany

The Protagonist Tiffany is a little girl. Her grandfather teaches her magic.

Tiffany's current scores are as follows:

• Awareness: •••••
• Understanding: •
• Synchronicity: ••
• Control: •
• Spark: ••••••

Dad

Gregory Blake Dad is still hurting over the death of Tony, but lately he's been expressing it as a protectiveness of Tiffany.

Mom

Julie Blake nee Kinsley A powerful warlock

Grampa

Alexander Kinsley An old man who is skilled in necromancy. He is deemed a heretic by the Kinsley council of elders.

The Reaper Man

Death AKA Guardian of the Underworld AKA Watcher from the Abyss

Thomas Kinsley

A warlock who's job it is to hunt evil stuff

Gareth Kinsley

A wise-cracking brand new apprentice from the Kinsley family.

Wolfgang Eidhart von Rothwald

The patriarch of the Rothwald Family.

Martin Rothwald

A warlock from the Rothwald Family. Cousin to Julie Blake.

Duncan

A librarian of the Kinsleys, and an old friend of Thomas.

Cain

The artificier of the Kinsleys.

Joyce

One of the Kinsleys' Hunters. Gareth's cousin.

People unlikely to have continued relevance

• Lynn: The girl from the Goth shop. She's attracted to Dad.
• Susan: Tiffany's friend
• The Fosters
• Joel: Little Boy Outside School
• Billy: Boy with BB-gun

Factions

Turns out not everyone in the world is one big happy family working together in perfect harmony. Who'd have guessed?

The Kinsley Clan

A British Magical family. They have ancient magic stuff, a school, and some regulations regarding what is too evil to use.

The Rothwald Family

A German Magical Family. They have money, and are willing to use anything they can.

Lords of the Underworld

There are thirteen great Lords of the Underworld. All but two have signed the Compact, the missing two are Khezet the Unseen and Hakuman the Dreamer.

History

Long ago there existed powerful city-states ruled by wizard kings. They did all sorts of stuff that pissed off the Lords of the Underworld, who eventually went to war with the mortals. The war was known as the Harrowing, and was apparently devastating for the mortal side. Eventually the wizards did something that forced the Lords to agree to peace, and the peace treaty is known as the Compact. The exact contents of the Compact are so far unknown, but it essentially forbids the extension of life by magic and returning the dead to life etc. It also defines the duties and rules of the Guardian of the Underworld. It also tasks the mortals to create and maintain the border of the Underworld, known as the Threshold.

Magic

Main page: Tiffany: Runes Every creature is composed of three parts. There's "tuaftia" or "soul", "hanku" or "breath" and "haftsusha" or "spirit". Tuaftia is like that part of your soul that is uniquely yours. It was created when you were born and it will travel to the Underworld when you die. Haftsusha is more of a hand-me-down. Some time after your birth a spirit will choose you as it's host and when you die it will eventually find a new host. The exact criteria that spirits use to pick hosts is a little hazy, but they do tend to stick to specific family lines. It's also connected to the person's name. That's where the tradition of naming children after famous ancestors comes from, by the way. The haftsusha carries personality traits and stuff like that. It's what does magic. Runes are used to define the manner in which an effect should occur, and the haftsusha makes it happen.

Stats

Duncan's test measures a wizard's ability in five areas that we've labeled Awareness, Understanding, Synchronicity, Control and Spark. The scale is zero to five, and it's meant to be exponential. A three is twice as good as a two and so on. The council members all measures four or five in all areas. Balian himself managed a clean five fives.

• Awareness measures how aware your Haftsusha is of this world. The lower it is, the harder it is for you to do any magic. It'd still be possible for you to use certain artefacts even with very low Awareness.
• Understanding measures how well your Haftsushsa can grasp the intention behind your runes, incantations, so on.
• Synchronicity measures the degree to which you can synchronize your Haftsusha with your Tuaftia. It essentially allows you access to extra reserves of power. This is the hardest to actually learn, Balian is the only one to ever get five on the test on that. Duncan suspects master Cain would rank even higher, if he would take the test. People with high synchronicity are also more able to synchronize their spellcasting with other people, either to cast a larger spell cooperatively or to counter the other's casting. That's not what the test was meant for, but it is a correlation we've discovered.
• Control measures the ability to control the Haftsusha with only your thoughts. Again, hard to learn. Hunters sometimes manage this, though I'll be damned if I know how. They score low on the test, then go and do it in the field just fine.
• Spark measures your ability to actually channel the Haftsusha's power. It also measures the Haftsusha's actual power, but it's hard to tell those two apart. By test anyway.

Enchanted Objects

Enchanted objects are divided into two categories based on how they are powered.

Talismans

Talismans are objects with a spell cast on it. The casting is a one-time event and the object is infused with magic. Over time the magic will fade and lose effectiveness. Talismans range in complexity from simple ad-hoc creations to highly complex ones that are reimbued time and time again. An example of a simple talisman is Tiffany's anti-scrying amulet. An example of a complex talisman is the wardstone in the Adeleine safehouse.

Artifacts

Artifacts are objects with a spirit bound inside it, powering the magic. Artifacts are inherently more powerful than talismans. The complexity of the artifact is directly proportional to how cooperative the spirit in question is. The creation of artifacts is a time-consuming process that is prone to error, and is best left to people who truly know what they are doing. The most difficult part of creating artifacts is defining the desired effect. If you use a spell A to describe the desired effect B, something of the A can very easily leak into B. The methods used by master artificiers to avoid this are carefully guarded secrets. The most sophisticated artifacts feed the spirit with the users power, essentially allowing them to function indefinitely. Artifacts have even been known to grow in power as they age and are kept in use. An example of an artifact is Thomas' lance.