Writer’s note: this is probably going to be a continuous story, so i’m just naming this first arc the First Era.
Junker Jon: Knowledgeable side character, ‘wise old-guy’
hes lit
Badger: Budding friendship, companion, muscle in the group
badass fighter muscle, athletic and strong
Warlock: Good intuition, strong magic user
comedic relief, center of the story, connector of people
not a skilled fighter
Durnan: Keeper of secrets, very knowledgeable
hes lit
Ravadi: Secretly one of the 9 Dragons
office baddie
Chapter length: Issue is 22-26 pages
First Arc: Approx 10 issues, by Issue 4 starting to kill dudes
Potential story arc: Badger and Warlock reunite once they come across 10th tool, discover history
Warlock, a young private-sector detective, investigates a strange murder in the once-magical city of Fragrance to uncover a government conspiracy before the case gets swept under the rug.
Decades ago, a group of nine ambitious anti-magic entrepreneurs set out to find a Wish scroll, and somehow they did. Historical records show that these nine people used the Wish scroll to universally nullify all magic across the world, an event now referred to as The Repeal (1). Off the back of their skyrocketing popularity amongst non-magic citizens (which is a good majority), they founded a new government regime, The New Authority, or The NA for short. The NA’s mission was to herald in an era of peace, equality, and prosperity, where nobody had to worry about magic.
There is a lie. Not the part about The NA’s peace mission, that part is true. The lie is the Wish scroll. The entrepreneurs did not universally nullify magic; they Wished for the blueprint of a particular machine, a technology of impossible design. The Selectively Limiting Antimagic Territory Emitter, or SLATE. It radially projects an anti-magic field that affects every magic user except certain selected individuals. This technology allowed the nine founders of the NA to nullify all magic in Fragrance except for a select few people. There are nine enchanted items, corresponding to the nine founders’ unique toolset (2). Whoever is attuned to one of these items, called Tools, can wield magic freely within SLATE territory. These people inevitably become the nine most powerful people in Fragrance, and are referred to as the Nine Dragons (3).
There is another lie. The nine founders of The NA were once a group of ten. The Tenth Dragon. They have been missing for decades, last seen at the beginning of the excursion for the Wish scroll over 70 years ago. Where the Tenth Dragon is and who they are is a mystery to most, but my source tells me the Tenth Dragon made it to the Wish Scroll! Even more intriguing is that they managed to enchant a Tenth Tool.
And, and… the Tenth Tool is right here! Someone brought it in last night, charged me a fortune to buy it off of him. Its in pristine condition for a piece of scrap- I mean, pre-owned item! Heck, its the nicest piece in the whole Nightmarket!
I’ll sell it to you, pal! Let’s say… fifty five hundred rems? Okay fine, fifty two hundred, just for you, Warlock.
Hey where are you going? Don’t walk away! Don’t you want the Tenth Tool?! The ability to get your magic back?? Hey, I’m still talking to you man!
Fine fine, I’ll do five thousand rems flat. Final offer!
(1) Historical records also note that magical artifacts and equipment were unaffected by this, which is how we still have arcane tools and technologies such as Regenerounds, Porting cubbies (i.e. teleportation endpoints), and infinite refrigerators!
(2) Nobody knows the full list of Tools, but rumor has it that they are tools used by the nine founders during their excursion for the Wish scroll and the construction of the SLATE. These include a pencil, a lamp, a pocketwatch, a wrench or screwdriver or some other tool (kind of hazy on this one), and some sort of blade. That’s the only five we know of.