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Kaethos283 notes · 3 chapters

Magus

5 min read

The Arcane Casino-City · the preternatural metropolis of Kouréas

A city that runs on magic the way other cities run on gold — a Vegas of spell slots and ledgers, ringed by an opalescent wall and watched over by a High Mage who lives in everyone’s head at once. What happens in Magus stays in Magus.

RegionTypeEconomyRuler
Magus, KouréasArcane city-stateMagic-only (no gold)[[Altirius

Overview

Magus is the great magical city of Kouréas — “the preternatural city,” a living manifestation of arcane power and home to the University / School of Magus. It is ringed by a giant opalescent “haunted” wall (~4–5 miles around) with four gates, the barrier itself a color-shifting gel that cleans anyone who passes through. Inside, the city is built as concentric rings — the outer Arcade (the “circle of fun” where most people stay), with the center reachable only by clearing successive gates “through the infinite void at the end of time,” each guarded by a rising magical skill-test.

The defining feature is its economy: there is no gold in Magus. Everyone barters spell slots, magic items, and scrolls, tracked on a personal ledger and cashed out casino-style on the way out — and a negative balance means you physically cannot leave (“Hotel California”). The city is patrolled by self-cleaning gelatinous cube creatures, hosts shadow-battles (people fighting as resurrecting shadows for entertainment), and boasts 9,652 taverns — but no blacksmiths, since all gear is magically made and mended. Presiding over all of it is Ulterior, the High Mage, an omnipresent host-entity who installs himself as a guide-voice in newcomers’ heads (“everywhere and nowhere”).

In the Campaign

  • Veil stones & the Lycoris connection: the rare gems that power Magus gear were hunted here by Ollus Au Lycoris — a thread linking the city to the House of Lycoris.
  • The Forbidden Fruit Cavern — the “Applebee’s of Kouréas” tavern chain — is the franchise grown from Zen’s orchard.
  • The Battle of the Bands (Chapter 2) is held on a fairground outside Magus — which becomes the stage for TBD’s dream-loop. The School of Magus (TBD’s alma mater) is where he hid the forbidden Chronomancy spellbook (in the gymnasium), recovered in Ch 2.9.
  • The party’s first deep look at the city is the Magus one-shot (Basil & Renata) — the densest source of its worldbuilding.

Appearances

  • 250626-ch3.3 (⏱ 03:17:06) — Magic school competing in the Sky Rush Showdown (vs the ITYS/Bridgeman team).
  • 250816-ch3.5 (⏱ 04:59:46) — A rival university that does ‘odd things,’ including a magical sorting chair; Xeros previously sat in its sorting seat. The School of Idios considers Magus its rivals.
  • 250911-ch3.6 (⏱ 05:08:11) — The vast rival city/school of magic, described as having seven ‘rings’ of magic and seemingly infinite; the Idios team’s Skyrush rivals. It mass-produces ethereal glass chalices and its star team are local celebrities.
  • 251009-ch3.7 (⏱ 02:43:27) — The rival school/house that long dominated the Skyrush until the party’s team beat them; ‘Magus’ also appears circled on Mutatio’s map near Trinity.
  • 251023-ch3.8 (⏱ 04:39:49) — A place from the PCs’ past where ‘the library’ was actually a bar/hookup spot; referenced in a running ‘going to study at the library’ joke.
  • 260403-ch4.3 (⏱ 20:30:14) — Where TBD studied as a wizard, learning the Sculpt Spells feature that lets him shield allies and trees from his evocation blasts.
  • 241113-ch2.1 (⏱ 00:23:53) — A ‘preternatural’ city of learning and living arcane power (Vegas-like), home to the Magus School of Magic and host of the annual Battle of the Bands, held in a cleared forest fairground outside the city.
  • 241130-ch2.2 (⏱ 00:07:51) — Massive magic-based city ringed by an opalescent white-granite wall with four entrances (~10-mile circumference); its economy runs entirely on bartered magic/spell slots, ascending to inner rings requires higher-level spellcasting, and it is ruled by the High Mage Alterius. The Battle of the Bands is held here.
  • 241219-ch2.3 (⏱ 00:53:12) — The school of magic (and city) where TBD studied as an apprentice wizard and kept his journals and scrolls in the library. Its wizards provide the light show at the festival; ‘a typical Magus wedding’ is a running joke.
  • 250103-ch2.4 (⏱ 00:31:27:26) — A locale/city; its University’s junior representatives spent a year building the Tent of Holding as a senior project. Referenced as a place Bacon might travel from.
  • 250131-ch2.5 (⏱ 00:07:29) — The preternatural city (the ‘Magnificent Metropolis of Magus’) whose fairgrounds host the Battle of the Bands festival. The party spends the session midday at its venues.
  • 250303-ch2.7 (⏱ 00:09:46) — The wizard university TBD attended and is an alumnus of; its interning mages create the light-show special effects, and there is a dentist there who could fix LaDonna’s teeth.
  • 250412-ch2.9 (⏱ 03:04:50:25) — The wizard university/city where TBD attended school and hid the chronomancy book in the gymnasium. The Dreamweaver ambushes the party in its gym; leaving, they are magically ejected (‘what happens in Magus stays in Magus’).
  • 251118-ch3.9 (⏱ 02:00:41) — The arcane city of Magus in Kouréas, home of the magic-university culture; referenced offhand as a place to visit (‘Magius, it’s a pretty solid place’), source of the ‘PhD / The Octagon / PHDead’ running joke.
  • 260701-ch5.1 (⏱ 00:12:26) — The city of Magus; setting of Basil’s early one-shot (where she first met, and nearly died to, the three Lepus ‘bunnies’) and of the Battle of the Bands.

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