Order of the Starfall Wizards
The Wizards of the Starfall Order are a secretive and benevolent society that follows the old tradition of apprentice and master, in hopes of endearing young practitioners of the arcane arts with the belief that magic is to be studied for the good of mankind. While not pacifists, they do believe in restraint and do not use their magic for the pursuit of power. They believe in using mundane methods to help others, and when all else fails they resort to their potent arcane studies. They are also a scholarly order that strongly adheres to the preservation of sciences, alchemy, and knowledge.
As an apprentice you were likely assigned to a master at a young age, normally as soon as you were proficiently literate. Like most apprentices you are taught a craft and a science alongside your magical studies. The order believes in a fit body and hard work as a way to ground the soul and create humility within their young apprentices, and as such you spent almost as much time toiling in labor and working your craft as you did pouring over forgotten tomes. As such apprenticeships are normally long, so you may have spent at least a decade in studying and gaining your first abilities to cast spells.
The Order favors the schools of Abjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, and Transmutation. They typically shun Necromancy and Conjuration, seeing it as dark and promoting slavery of magical creatures. Astronomy and astrology, physical natural sciences and geology, metallurgy and carpentry, architecture and engineering, are the studies and sciences normally undertaken by the apprentices. Its these skills that you and your order normally use to aid the poor and help the people that they choose to aid.
Most members dress in mundane clothing, and normally do not let themselves be known as wizards to the public; they wish to avoid being seen as masters of mortal-kind and or its saviors. They enjoy teaching others ways to make their lives more prosperous through invention and self-reliance. Its members have been known to congregate on small impoverished villages and build wells, windmills, sawmills, and other devices to hep the village to survive while teaching the peasants trades and crafts. Many of the Starfall Order are craftsmen in their own right. Outside of these times of do-gooding, they tend to be secretive and keep themselves cloistered.
Starfall Wizards, as they know themselves, hold a council of Wizards every winter solstice where Journeymen and Masters meet to discuss new knowledge, and determine what aid they will render to which peoples. Afterwards, Apprentices are sent out into to the world to gather information and perform good non-magical works. Because of their information gathering and curious natures, they are sometimes distrusted as spies and strangers but they try to do good for their people none the less.
Titles: Levels:
Apprentice 1-4
Journeyman 5-8
Master 9+
There are roughly two dozen journeymen as members of the order at all times, and each normally has an apprentice of first to second level. Masters number less than half a dozen and normally have the role of teaching apprentices of third to fourth level, though many masters do have choice pupils that they teach from beginning until released as journeymen, and some of these journeymen choose to stay with their masters for much longer. The Starfall Wizards are low in number, as many who study for the sake of power or who have no desire to live austere or humble lives find no attraction to their ways - while many other wizards respect their traditions and their devotion to knowledge it is a hard road for many.
- Skill Proficiencies: Choose two from Arcana, History, Investigation, Nature, Religion, Animal Handling, Insight, Medicine, Perception, Survival
- Tool Proficiencies: One of your choice.
- Languages: One of your choice
- Equipment: A traveler's pack, a map or scroll case stuffed full of notes from your studies or a spell book and journal, a winter blanket, set of common clothes, some diagrams on parchment of a water wheel and grindstone, a tool set of your choice and 5 gp.
Life of Seclusion
What was the reason for your joining the order, and what changed to allow you to end your studies and craft? You can work with your DM to determine who your master is and , or you can choose or roll on the table below to determine the reason behind your seclusion.
| d8 | Life of Seclusion |
|---|---|
| 1 | I was searching for knowledge and enlightenment through magic. |
| 2 | I was sent to study as an apprentice to a wise sage at a very early age. |
| 3 | I was exiled for a crime I didn’t commit and sought the solitude of an apprenticeship with a member of the order. |
| 4 | I retreated from society after a life-altering event and found refuge among the Starfall Wizards. |
| 5 | I needed a quiet place to work on my magic and sought apprenticeship with a journeyman of the order. |
| 6 | I needed to commune with nature, far from civilization. |
| 7 | I was the caretaker of an ancient ruin or relic when I met a member of the order who began instructing me of history and magic. |
| 8 | I was a pilgrim seeking enlightenment when I found the Starfall Order. |
Feature: Discovery
The quiet seclusion of your studies and work has provided you with a form of meditative contemplation under which to wonder about the nature of magic and the responsibility of studying wizardry. Whenever you participate in a scholarly or craftsman endeavor over the course of a day, you gain Advantage on the next Intelligence based ability check you roll.
Additionally your master and the wide network of the other wizards of the order will always give you shelter, supplies, and even access to libraries and spells during your travels.
Suggested Characteristics
Some Starfall wizards are well suited to a life of seclusion, whereas others chafe against it and long for company. Whether they embrace solitude or long to escape it, the solitary life shapes their attitudes and ideals.
| d8 | Personality Trait |
|---|---|
| 1 | My long period in isolation and study have left me socially awkward and afraid of public situations. |
| 2 | I am utterly clumsy when it doesn't matter. |
| 3 | My master had something wise to say on every topic, and I am eager to share that wisdom. |
| 4 | The order has taught me tremendous empathy for all who suffer. |
| 5 | I’m oblivious to etiquette and social expectations. |
| 6 | I connect everything that happens to me to a grand, cosmic plan. |
| 7 | I often get lost in my own thoughts and contemplation, becoming oblivious to my surroundings. |
| 8 | I am working on a grand philosophical theory and love sharing my ideas. |
| d6 | Ideal |
|---|---|
| 1 | Greater Good. My gifts are meant to be shared with all, not used for my own benefit. (Good) |
| 2 | Logic. Emotions must not cloud our sense of what is right and true, or our logical thinking. (Lawful) |
| 3 | Free Thinking. Inquiry and curiosity are the pillars of progress. (Chaotic) |
| 4 | Power. Solitude and contemplation are paths toward mystical or magical power. (Evil) |
| 5 | Live and Let Live. Meddling in the affairs of others only causes trouble. (Neutral) |
| 6 | Self-Knowledge. If you know yourself, there’s nothing left to know. (Any) |
| d6 | Bond |
|---|---|
| 1 | Nothing is more important than the other members of my order. |
| 2 | I entered seclusion to hide from the ones who might still be hunting me. I must someday confront them. |
| 3 | I’m still seeking some mystic secret I pursued during my apprenticeship, and it still eludes me. |
| 4 | I isolated myself in my apprenticeship and seclusion because I loved someone I could not have. |
| 5 | My master and I have stumbled across some magical secret, and should my discovery come to light, it could bring ruin to the world. |
| 6 | My time under the Order of the Starfall Wizards gave me great insight into a powerful evil that must be found and destroyed. |
| d6 | Flaw |
|---|---|
| 1 | When I am outside of the isolation of my apprenticeship, I enjoy delights of the world a little too much. |
| 2 | I harbor dark thoughts of power that my apprenticeship failed to quell. |
| 3 | I am dogmatic in my thoughts and philosophy. |
| 4 | I let my need to win arguments and prove my intellect and learning overshadow friendships and harmony. |
| 5 | I’d risk too much to uncover a lost bit of knowledge. |
| 6 | I like keeping secrets and won’t share them with anyone. |
Previous Versions
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