>All Mages are children, and only Mages can see the Fiends that infest the world.
>>54581438
>All Mages can see past the material, into the deep darkness that flows beneath physical reality. They can see the Fiends that now away at the roots of the world.
>>54581438
>The fiends all mean well, but with their strange sense of perception and morality, their best can have all number of insidious effects.
>>54581605
>By "mean well" it is usually some manner of eldritch behavior, such as poisoning well springs of pure water, or turning forests into semi-living perpetually haunted wastes from their very presence. Fiends also have a tendency to seek out humans to give them what some call "Gifts".
>You do not want to get a "Gift".
>There is an inquisition that hunts down mages
Mages are technically angels, the last breath of a dead or uncaring god to save the world.
>>54581680
>The Inquisition is not a group, but an entity that possesses non-mages to hunt.
>>54581680
>This Inquisition is known to scour whole towns in search of a single Mage, destroying families and lives in their desire to kill a single child.
>>54581438
>>54581584
>Everything material has an essence, roughly comparable to a soul. The essence of children, who have only recently become material, is less fixed than that of adult creatures. This is why the only known Mages are children, and it is also why children are exceptionally vulnerable to the manipulation of the Fiends.
>Everybody knows that all Mages are children. It's not certain whether or not it's possible to become an adult Mage. Most of them don't make it that long.
>One way for one to tell if a Fiend is near is if one hears discordant laughter, whistling or humming, or other unnerving and impossible sounds.
>>54581605
>Some adults have suggested that Fiends are benign, or neutral at best. Some children believe them. Mages usually don't. Those who encounter Fiends are usually changed, either way. Mages can see these changes.
>>54581680
>The Inquisition began as an emergency measure to investigate why the parents and guardians of children who claimed to be "mages" more often than not perished in disturbing and seemingly impossible ways.
>>54581724
>Certain adults whisper now, though, that the "investigation" has turned into something dramatically more sinister than that. Some adults also whisper that maybe the strange children are right about the invisible threats, and the ways they can "change" people. The Inquisition officially discourages this kind of talk.
>Mages have a tendency to speak in various seemingly made up terms and cryptic phrases, saying things that most people just can't understand
Many adults, and many teenagers are of the belief that the whole 'Mage' thing is just one long game of pretend that those children will eventually grow out of, and that there is nothing "strange" going on, that there are no 'monsters' and its just some sill kids imagination.
>Any Mage can tell you that this is a massive lie.
Bump.
>The darkness descends on the old wood, this I have seen.
>It comes, creeping in the night, to snatched away all of the joy and hope, this too I have seen.
>When it finally descends, the day shall be snuffed out and all things good and right shall fade away.
>This I have seen well...
Bumping this.
>>54581755
There are eccentrics, manic/demented/schitsophrenic, who were incredibly powerful in their youth, but never lost the magic.
>>54583333
>These eccentrics possess terrible power, but with no ability to direct it.
>As a result, many Mages have taken to simply killing them when they find them, lest they bring the Inquisition down upon their heads.
So what happens when a mage gets older?
Doesn't the original premise of this (Maybe sans the mage part) sound like "What if all children were Constantine?" ?