I was just thinking on that sort of plotline. The kind of 'No ones died in an arena combat in years/ever..... and someone, or both combatants, end up dying.' sort of thing. Creates not only intrigue/mystery, but potential faction related struggle.
my setting is very High Fantasy, a mysterious sorcerer calling himself the Warlord has taken control of a black obelisk, an Artifact of Mana called the Jet Tower; granting him phenomenal necromancy powers. His armies of undead have already destroyed a few key cities and capitals of the known world. His threat is already established and well under way
The 'Warlord' , unknown to the current players, belongs to a race of beings that aren't unlike the Eladrin race of Elves from Wizards of the Coast; but more magically inclined
low constitution, pale, not very physically strong; they make up for it with incredible magical potential
this particular character was born lacking that potential. Making him not only physically weak, but magically weak as well....almost useless
Vastly intelligent and calculating however. He found himself providing his talents as a strategist to an Order that helped keep balance in the land. They had access to knowledge of artifacts and other potentially dangerous spells and items, so they could police their whereabouts.
our under appreciated Strategist finds a book with forbidden magics in it and decides that's how he'll gain the power he never had, what he believes to be the birthright of his race. From there he obtains the knowledge on how to locate and activate the Jet Tower
in my setting the world is exploding and the only thing holding it back is a line of wizard's towers around the north end of the world. the "explosion" is also a portal to the plane of law through which aberrations are streaming through trying to muck up the wizard towers and society in general to cause the world to blow up
it gives me a lot of freedom with where to take adventures because the explosion affects everything, and a bunch of ancient evils are starting to come back while everyone is distracted by it
the aberrations want the world to explode so that they can transfer the magic energy into their patron dragon who's trapped in the center of the plane of law
and he's trapped there because he tried to kill time itself, so him getting out is a bad thing
@DavidReeve Neat. Also, it's interesting how that's exactly what Chaos is about in Glorantha (turning back the Great Mistake of starting time up), but in your setting it totally makes sense for it to be Order (law) striving for that.
(Maybe it's only that Chaos is just misunderstood and misnamed in Glorantha. But that kind of doubt is par for that setting...)
Funny you bring up Sotn/Alucard . Me and my coworker (he plays a sorcerer in the campaign I also play in), were discussing Gaseous Form and he asked me what it was like. I was like; you know Alucard's Mist Form? Just like that.
We didn't have soundtracks back in the day......so when I wanted to listen to One Winged Angel during the final Sepiroth Fight in Final Fantasy VII , I had to cast a spell and pop the Playstation open so it wouldn't load past the spell, but the music would keep playing
that song was so damn long....but epic
Front Mission III had great music as well. FFTactics. Xenogears. Breath of Fire III ....they don't make them like they used to :/