Garlean Magitek (Thaumaturge) - Story Hook

[Cota Orben]

Hey guys, 

 

I'm a bit of a newcomer to this game, and while I wait for some of the server issues to get polished over, I've been playing around with character concepts for the villain to a friend's story. I'm not going to spoil their story for anyone, but I figured it'd be alright to discuss elements of what I had in mind for this character, to see if more experienced lore theorists could help me fine tune some things. 

 

So, a little bit about the character first. He's from the Garlean Empire, though he'd obviously not be stupid enough to go about parading that - unless he suddenly develops a strong desire to have his face meet a greataxe. However, I'm a little spotty on exactly what that entails. I know there's one sort of capital for the Empire, and I know the population is multiracial (He's a Hyur Midlander, though that might change if Midlanders aren't lore appropriate to that background), and also that there's a bit of brainwashing that goes on. But how deep is that? Are citizens of the Empire turned into mindless army drones, or are they given autonomy enough to be able to operate without constant supervision? 

 

Also, what's the ranking structure like? Lowborn, Highborn? For this character, considering the sort of job he does (A sort of bounty hunter/infiltrator, so to speak), he'd probably be somewhere around the middle if such a distinction existed. I know there's a sort of noble class, but that's about it. 

 

Basically, he's meant to be a Garlean bounty hunter, perhaps assigned to help deal with the Ala Mhigo Resistance and/or persons of interest who have fled out of Imperial borders. It's a fairly basic plot, I know, but since he's meant to be woven into the story of a friend's character, certain details are still a work in progress. 

 

Now, onto the reason I made this topic in the first place, his tech. 

 

This being the bit that you guys who aren't interested in story stuff might want to read. 

 

I've received numerous accounts of just how good Garleans are at magic. Some say they can't do it at all. Others say they're terrible at it but can manipulate aether to some degree. There's also been an equally large variety of ways to get around this, Ala Mhigian parentage and, the modus operandi I'm currently considering, magitek.

 

Basically, this character would have a gauntlet, or a bracelet, or some kind of 'let that allowed him to emulate Thaumaturge spells. Considering the Fire/Ice theme, perhaps one hand could manipulate fire, one could manipulate ice. It really depends on how much I want to make the Astral/Umbral Fire/Ice mechanics IC and, if I really want to use them, perhaps I should go with the natural magic route. 

 

Now, here's the thing. Something like this is never going to be as potent as the real thing, and if this character keeps up a constant deluge of magic, it's going to break down eventually. At the same time, it has to be workable to the point where I can't get completely curb-stomped by someone who can just outlast the spells, block everything, and so on and so forth. There has to be some sort of threat involved, right? Since this character is, indeed, a villain (For now. Perhaps a villain with redemptive elements? We'll have to see). 

 

The current "model" I have in mind allows access to the majority of thaumaturgy magic, with an artificial transpose feature built in for Astral/Umbral switching. The idea is that it operates in a similar function to how the game mechanics work; too much fire is devastating, but overheats the device, while ice is sort of weaker but allows it to cool down. I'd also allowed for Flare and Freeze from the Black Mage arsenal to be used, but as sort of "Limit Breaks" in their own right which would pretty much just serve as an attempted finisher or to clear up an escape route or something. 

 

I guess I'd just like the application advice of people who have more of an understanding of how this stuff works, as well as how I incorporate realistic limiters into it, and account for Scathe, Sleep, and all of those other effects which might be important to play around with for a bounty hunter. Also, should I just not use the Black Mage stuff at all? 

 

((There's also just playing a full-blooded Ala Mhigo conscript who can just -do- all this stuff, but that takes some of the fun out of it. Besides, I personally object to playing casters who don't go into some sort of spell exhaustion, which would be artificially represented by the Magitek anyway.)) 

 

If you all managed to stay with me to the very end of this incredibly long and meandering post, I'd just like to say greetings to all of you on this wonderful site. Here's hoping this first post gets a good response, and I look forward to learning from the best.