Why Quel Banned Abjeration

As the party made there way through the ruined cityscape of the Necropolis, led by their newest member, the Osirioni mercenary Menna, Corona, feeling that her scouting services were now all but overshadowed, felt herself falling back, as she walked slightly slower , moving her towards the rear of the group, until she found herself stepping in stride next to Quel, as the group shuffled forward. As she did so, however, a thought began to form in her head. “You know, I’ve been thinking.” spoke Corona, towards the mages “And I think I’m beginning to like the idea of becoming a full blown wizard.” Quel looked up at that comment, but Corona continued. “I’ve been doing some reading. And being able to teleport sounds cool!”

Quel sighed. She had certainly heard this conversation before. “So that's what you were doing in the library?” spoke the mage. “Looking up the teleportation subschool? That’s Conjuration. Are you looking to be a summoner like myself?”

Corona nodded, her current interest seemed genuine. “Well, not exactly summoning.” she spoke. “There's more conjuration and summoning, isn’t there? Like Mage Armor, Stone Barrier Weaponry, and of course, Teleportation!”

“Conjuration is a fun school, I'll admit.” answered Quel. Though if you're serious about becoming a wizard, it’s not exactly something you can do overnight. If you intend to become a wizard, know that it’s a long, and complicated process...one can't exactly learn arcane spells overnight.“

“That being said, mind you.” spoke Quel. “With Emily graduating, I'd be more than happy to take you on as a proper apprentice, should you be willing of course.”

“Well duh.” spoke Corona. “Don’t exactly have many options for wizard teachers out here in the middle of Wati.” Corona paused, thinking.

The next thing Quel heard was “What if I want to be a Conjuration-Enchanter?” and the ruffleing of bags, as Corona dug through her pack. Quel rolled her eyes. “That’s not how specialization works. These things are codified. You can specialise in more than one school, to do so would require mo-”

Corona cut her off, pulling a scrap of paper out of her bag. “I found this enchantment spell in the library, and it sounds pretty cool!”

“You can cast Enchantment spells without being an enchantment-focused wizard, Corona.” spoke Quel, trying her best to not sound annoyed. “Through I’dd prefer if you didn’t” That statement caught the inquisitor off guard. Corona cocked her head to the side. “Why?”

“Well, Personally, I dislike messing with people's minds.” lectured Quel. “Say what you want about morality, interfering with free will is a vile evil beyond most.At least with, say, necromancy you can at least use your undead for benfitical work. What benefit can one get from mind control?” "Well, that may be true” spoke Corona, “But I understand the necessity of controlling the battlefield in such a way that it makes things easier for us. Like, I won't control them, if that is what you are worried about, but my plan was to be able to muddle their minds a bit, making them disorganized and disoriented."

“A disorient,” responded Quel; “Is an illusion, a blast of multicolored lights to blind, stagger, or otherwise incapacitate a target. Enchantment? Enchantment is -controlling- the target. In some cases with limited freedom, but in others, zero whatsoever. I understand that some places, like Abslom, have updated there laws to deal with the widespread use of enchantment magic, but how would you feel if, one moment you fight an intruder, the next you find yourself surrounded by your dead kin?”

Corona was taken aback by this. "I do not plan on gaining the ability to CONTROL them, mother.” The limit for me is, at most, enchanting them to sleep.” She huffed. “ But if you would prefer me to not learn a small amount of enchantments then say so, and I'll look more for battlefield control elsewhere....."

“Oh no,” her mother answered, “By all means, do not take what i'm saying as a condemnation. I'm no Thasalonian by any means. And ever since the Pathfinder's Socality Conference On Magic relaxed the restrictions regarding banned schools, heck we're not even supposed to be using that term anymore, just "opposed", I've had the freedom to use enchantment myself. It's not evil, or bad, by any means. Just...something I dislike. And as someone who banned protective wards, because my younger self was an idiot, any sort of control spells are a benefit for us. As long as you don't plan to mind control any local goblin villages and start calling yourself into a deity like dear Trixie did.”

Corona laughed. “Nope, nope, and nope. Just the occasional enemy mishalf from a repeated action.”





------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The two of them continued walking through the ruined city, the pink light off their fighters sword the only true brightness for miles around. To break the silence, Corona spoke up again:



“So, Quel'' she spoke “You said you banned abjuration. But....why? Why DID you choose to ban abjuration? Isn’t that, like, the school of wards and protective magic? It is far too useful to get rid of.” Quel sighed “That's.....a bit of a long story. Are you sure you want to hear it?”

Corona looked ahead. Their destination was nearing. But they were still about a half hour off from the building they were hiking towards. So she nodded towards Quel.

"Allright, well,” begain Quel.

“I need to preface this by saying that this was a long time ago.Like,a good 200 years ago. This was right after the Third Conference on the Editions of Magic. There were a lot of big changes happening back then.

“It was the beginning of spellswording. Bardic music became verbal, and suddenly every single tavern bard had a shirt of chain. And that was hardly the biggest change, either! Personally, I'm happy that healing magic is no longer considered necromancy.”

“But among other things, the Third Conference codified specialisation as a proper arcane tradition. Before this, pretty much every single magical school had there own way of specialisation, and there wasn't really any sort of standardisation. And as a result of that, pretty much every single school was suddenly filled with wizards, looking to specialise. And this was -right- around the time that dear me was just trying to graduate. So you can understand, it was quite the hectic process........"

"Honestly, my first choice for specialisation at my old school was Divination, but I turned It down. I know I know, Divination is a fairly popular choice for specialisation nowadays, but that's because of all the new spells that have been invented in the last two hundred years. Back in the day? Divination consisted of Detect Magic, Augury, and, I guess clavoyance? It was honestly pretty bare bones compared to modern magic. To the point that anyone -willingly- choosing to be a diviner was effectively graduating with a minor. Heck, we even had a few students at my school who chose to ban divination as an easy way out of specialisation. But the professors put a stop to that real quick."

"After divination, my next choice was actually Transmutation. I had a college of mine, a half orc by the name of Aquor, who got me into the idea. And this was before half-orcs in wizardry was considered normal, mind you! There was certainly an amount of stigma in Aqours choice, and honestly, alot of people, myself included, thought Aqours choice to become a transmuter was to simply make himself stronger, and beat people up better! The truth should not have been further, however! Aquor was certainly scrawny, at least, by orc standards, and was studying transmutation with a focus on Chronomancy. Nowadays the only form of Chronomancy you see in magic are spells like Haste, and Slow, but back in the day, it was the wild west. I remember him telling me he was working on some sort of spell to send a ghoul back in time, with transmutation magic! Like, scrying on someone before they were born, and casting a Detect Magic through said scrying spell...real complicated stuff. So while I've always been a fan of transmutation magic, I never chose to specialise."

Quel paused. “Sorry, ........Am I ranting at you? Sorry. Don't mean to regale you with stories of my time back at the academy if i'm boring you."

Corona shook her head. "No, please continue. I find it fascinating."

And so Quel continued her story: “The biggest illusionist I knew was a human named Ramas. Real conspiracy-theory nut. Belived that the chelliax goverment was enchanting the water to create homosexual frogs, and other such nonsence. Granted, he was a skilled illusionist, very creative. Once saw him dueling a necromancer, and he summoned a giant wall of fire to encircle the skeletons! With a first level spell! How you cast? Silent Image, combined with a healthy dose of prestidigitation for warmth. Zombies are stupid. And the ghouls were certainly smart enough to not touch the wall. Genus, I say. But illusions are too close to enchantments for my liking. And Ramas was, well. He was colorful. A skilled illusionist, but It's because of him I can never look at a Prismatic wall the same again. "

"Prismatic wall?" asked Corona.

"A powerful defensive spell. It teleports you around randomly. But it was...very multicolored. Ramas hated rainbows. And he had a few....interesting theories as to what happened beyond a prismatic wall...."

Quel shook her head. Bad mental images.

“Evocation was an easy pass for me. I'm not a warmage. Never will be. Besides, the enchanters guild had these big banners everywhere. "Friends don't let friends specialise in evocation. Heck, I had half a mind to ban evocation entirely. Through the last few days have certainly made that choice incorrect."

"Well Combative magic is a must nowadays” quipped Corona. “In our line of work anyway. So I won’t be baning it anytime soon.”

"Oh of course,. Evocation is useful, don't get me wrong. But specialising in evocation felt like a waste for me."

"Anywho, after all that all that's left was Abjuration, summoning, and necromancy. And well, I nearly became a necromancer, actually. Had signed the paperwork and everything. The idea of having an army of -spooky bones- doing your bidding was incredibly appearing for a younger, lazyer me. Granted, this was before necromancy got the stigma it is. And looking back, I'm happy I didn't jump into the rabbit hole. I still don't view necromancy as evil myself. It's essentially puppeteering. Negative energy isn't bad, it's just the opposite of positive energy. Heck, you're a living example of that Corona. Negative energy can certainly be beneficial, as long as it's contained, same with any other dangerous substance, like fire, or acid."

"As for the ban on abjuration, and the jump to conjuration, honestly it had a lot to do with my friends at the time. I had a number of friends back in the day. One of whom was an assimiar named Trixie. She was a wizard, technically, but never really had the mental know how on how to become a proper wizard. She was certainly bright, yes, but, never really had the intelligence for proper wizardry. She was really quite unhappy when her sister, Tara, got in, and not her, and well..."

Quel gulped, and began shifting around as she spoke. "Actually, perhaps I shouldn't be telling you this. You don't want to hear about me and my old contacts. And I've probably told you this story before....."

Corona frowned. “What do you mean?”

"Well, it’s uhh, well that's the thing, Corona. Trixie...I've told you about Trixie before, yes? She wasn't the most...morally upstanding person in her quest for arcane knowledge. And I don't want your path going down the same way as hers......“

“Suffice it to say, Me and Trixie were good friends before she went bad. And she was looking to be the abjuration specialist in our little group. And, well, she certainly mastered those...I really haven't been able to look at a Shield spell the same way since she became a vampire."





"I'm a partial vampire myself” responded Corona, “And I hate them so I get that. What did she do, conjure the shield in someone and rip them apart with it?"

"Not quite."

"How do I put this...."

"You know how I felt off when you decided to pursue Theurgy magic? Well, Trixie went down the -exact,- same, path. Except...while you pray to Sekhmet for your spells, and your deity grants them willingly, that was not the path Trixie went down.... Trixie...Trixie stole her magic. Learned dangerous forbidden techniques and began to syphon off magic from propper clerics. I haven't the faintest idea how she did it. But that's how we tracked her. Everywhere she went there would be a blackout, as it were. Of clerics unable to receive there spells from there deities. Because Trixie stole them.”

Corona shudders at the thought of losing her connection to Selket and the powers she grants.

"It was perhaps the most wild, and the most evil, use of arcane magic I had ever witnessed in my life.” finished Quel “So I hope you understand why I said I was understandably concerned when you yourself wanted to practice Theurgy "

"I am not going to STEAL magic.” spoke Corona. “I will learn it as I always have. I will not become my father."

"And I'm not saying you will. But you asked about Trixie, and that's the path she followed. I lost a good friend that day. And even though she herself regrets her past actions, I don't think I can ever forgive her for what she did."

"Suffice it to say, I regret banning Abjuration magic. I expected myself and Trixie to be best buds for the next five hundred years. Instead, she betrayed me, Tara, and everyone else at the academy, for a quick grab for power........The reason I banned Abjuration is because I expected Trixie to be there, watching my back, out in the world."

"And, perhaps the reason I haven't looked at a Resist Energy scroll since is because I expect she still might be able too...."

Sad.Quel.jpg



"Even if she won't be able to right now, and as you said she is regretting her actions so i guess she was wishing she could if she knew the situation, I will protect you where she could not. But that still doesn't explain why you chose to be a conjuration specialist."(edited)

"Was it because it was the only school left to choose from?"



"Well it was either summoning or necromancy. And like I said, necromancy was a pretty strong contender.As for the reason I made the choice, well....If it was going to take magic for me to have friends, I'd rather they be fluffy then rotting."

Quel tried her best to give a smile.



"Or the burning of hellfire," Corona joked. Quel laughed at that joke. She certainly needed it

“So in all seriousness, my banned schools will be Enchantment and Necromancy.”

"Is that because you just found out your mother was almost a necromancer?"

"No, because my father was a necromantic piece of shit. After we finish killing this bitch that nearly killed you and Emily, we can start training in arcane magic. Does that sound fine to you."

"Sounds great.!"