Chris or Lord Christopher as he had entitled himself sat in a throne (A fancy Chair if truth be told) in the now deserted mansion in the city. He was reflecting on what he had become. He had vaguely been aware of the undead, but they were practically unheard of as more than pests. Little more than carrion on the battlefield, but Velona had made them into a weapon. She had dedicated most of her magical study and knowledge to making her ground troops stronger. He would now reap what benefits he could from this, or he could leave. Reinstate himself as some lordling with a large capital. Once he learned more of the geography he could invent his own noble backstory.
From his knowledge he guessed he was a vampire, this world however had no concept for such a creature. He had briefly considered naming himself dracula, just for the laughs. But he would just cringe every time someone addressed him as Count Dracula, he prefered Lord as his chosen title.
He had been reading the extensive library of this mansion and had finally got a better idea of where he was and what the hell everything meant. As far as the documents and maps suggested he was in a country called Renia, a reasonably lush country with some desert expanses at the top bordering Maarrus. The country of Renia was known for its large cities and prosperous farming. He was currently located in the south west region a few days travel in from the coast. From the maps he could tell the continent was about the size of america and had no name. No other continent had been discovered, save for a few large islands.
Chris did not know if other continents existed and had no intention of finding out. He was considering where to set up his influence and deciding how far he could aim. He had got a significant boost in his natural capacity from his transformation, however it was still not enough. It perhaps moved him up one and half grades from his D- up to C+. This was an increase of over 10 times his previous capacity, yet put him leagues behind what truly powerful mages would have.
When he had first awoken to the power he had been hopeful of a massive increase to his power allowing him to flatten his enemies. But it looked like he would have to create himself some new items after all. He had the abandoned resources of a city now after all. But not for long...
“Velona, attend me” He spoke softly but the litch walked in moments later with a look of reverence on her face. If he was honest with himself it was nice after the contempt and dismissal of people up until now.
“Yes my Lord, how may i be of service” She asked in a reserved manner and lowered her head to him.
“How long do we have before the city's current state of….occupation will be noticed?” He asked, indicating the room to imply the surroundings. In truth he was curious as to how he had ensnared her into his power, it had been a reflexive natural response for him. He would have to test it out on a living subject to make sure it wasn't exclusive to undead.
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After considering for the briefest of seconds she responded in a precise and informative manner to take up as little of the Masters precious time as possible. “I estimate that we have between a week and two weekes if we kill the traders to prevent the spread of information for a while Lord”
Well he could make do with that. It would leave him enough time to create a few artifacts to support his power and search for possible locations for his jailer, wherever he had fled to. He was too powerful to fight just yet, but keeping tabs on him for future use would be beneficial.
He also had to do some studying about his current state. He had, in the office of the deceased owner of his new house, found a very useful book on quantifying magic. This would be very useful for putting numbers to his calculations and experiments.
Chris waved a hand at Velona in dismissal and she silently retreated from the room. Chris picked up the book on ‘Quantifying Magic by High Mage Aldonate Dan-Habbot’ and opened it to the mage titles section.
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Page 9 - Mage Ranks
Basic Mage - Al
(T0 Mage) Initiate
(T1 Mage) Apprentice
(T2 Mage) Primar
(T3 Mage) Graduate
(T4 Mage) Shaper
Elder Mage - Dan
(T5 Mage) High Mage
(T6 Mage) Grand Mage
(T7 Mage) Mage Lord
(T8 Mage) Arch Mage
Special Mage - N/A
Tiers 9 to 13 have been subject to much debate and many believe them to be exclusive to the gods. Please read chapter 5 - Origins for magic for a better insight to the gods of magic and other mystical disciplines.
The precursor to one's surname will change depending on what classification of mage they are. This is common courtesy and custom in most civilized nations. The rank within the mages classification should be used to introduce oneself and be spoken before the name. This mage tradition has been traced to likely come from the feudal mage lord days when mages needed to show their status quickly when meeting each other. This was shortened until it became the most important part of the name in mage culture.
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Chris digested this cultural information. He had never really known why people said their mage ranks before their name and had deemed it unimportant but in high society he guessed it still held plenty of importance.
For now he would keep reading and digest some more magic theory. Then he had to decide what to do next.