I've always wanted to be a warrior mage, ever since I can remember. My parents brought me up on stories of a distant ancestor who used sword and spells when he wasn't telling endless tales of his own devising. (Or crafting something referred to as "a disk." Whatever the nature of this might be, it is lost to history.) My basic education was barely finished before I was knocking on Gauthus' door, east of the Crossing, eagerly requesting his tutelage.

My apprenticeship as a warrior mage began at that point, and I can't really say it has ever ended. You're never too old to learn, after all. The heads of our guild are always researching new spells, while new, deadly critters regularly turn up to haunt the countryside, snacking on the inhabitants. Like my mother always used to say, pray to whatever gods you want, Willonde, but keep a friend at your back and a lightning bolt readied.

So I can't promise to give you the last word on maging it in Elanthia. There is no last word. Here you'll just find some of the basics and my ideas, as well. You're welcome to them...or not, as the case may be. If you find any benefit in anything you read in this guide, though, hopefully you'll pass a word or two as well of useful advice onto the next mage wannabe you encounter in the lands.

Starting Off

East of the Crossing is where you'll discover the first of our guilds. (More are scattered about Elanthia.) It's a pretty spacious place, if nowhere near the scale of the moon mages' guild. 'Course, we warrior mages also don't spend a lot of time standing around slack-jawed in our guild headquarters, casting spells over and over, oblivious to everyone and everything around us. We don't practice magic just to get better at it. We practice it on the field of battle, killing critters.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. The first thing to do when you enter the guild (ask someone politely how to get there, if you can't find the place) is ASK GAUTHUS ABOUT JOINING. He'll tell you if you lack certain statistics necessary to become part of the guild, like enough strength, wisdom, intelligence, etc. If any of these are too low to join, I recommend reentering town and dealing with them yourself at the proper locations. (For instance, you can raise strength at the Armory.)

Raising stats requires money and TDPs (time development points), which you acquire as you gain general experience and rise in levels. The higher you raise a stat, the more expensive it is. (Stat raising also costs different amounts depending on your race. A physically weak race like the Elotheans pay more to increase physical stats, while Elves pay more for the discipline stat, being a little weak in that area.)

Although Gauthus will offer to apply his own magic and raise your stats automatically, I suggest you decline. He takes an additional fee in coins and TDPs for all his efforts, and it isn't worth it.

Training Your Skills

Getting ahead in our guild isn't an accomplishment. It's an acknowledgement of an accomplishment, of the dogged persistence you've put into learning a warrior mage's skills.

Our primary skills (the ones you should learn the most) are magical in nature. They include:

Primary Magic, which is increased everytime you PREPARE a spell and CAST it.

Harness Ability, which is increased whenever you use mana to cast a spell. (The more mana you successfully apply, the more this skill will advance.)

Power Perception is improved when you PERCEIVE an area, examining it for mana content. A lot of mana means more more spells to cast before your harness (think of it as a slowly filling storage bin of mana) runs out.

Targeted Magic improves whenever you TARGET and CAST a spell.

Magical Devices involve wands, orbs, runes, etc, all magical items that bear spell charges. RUBbing them casts the spell, but that eventually depletes the item. FOCUS [item] [mana amount] attempts to renew the mana charge. So does the command, CHARGE.

Your secondary skill areas are Lore, and Weapons. In the former, let me just spotlight a few which are particularly useful:

Scholarship. You can learn this by READing books in Elanthia's libraries. (Check out Aesmath Library in the Crossing, in particular. It boasts a good selection.)

Teaching. You can TEACH and LEARN most skills in Elanthia from anybody who has more of them than you do...which, when you're starting out, means practically everybody. Don't be afraid to courteously ask a person who's teaching a class if you can learn, too. (Most teaching is inate, but if you want to teach a weapons class, you have to be holding that weapon.)

Appraisal gives you the approximate value of an item, along with some information specific to type. (If it's a weapon, for instance, APPRAISE will tell you how good it is at slicing, puncture and blunt trauma.) Appraisal improves as you use it, like anything, so don't take its statements of monetary worth at face value. Traders are best at this skill.

The gods in their infinite wisdom have provided an easy way to instantly acquire more information about lore skills and a lot of other knowledge any citizen needs. Type HELP in Elanthia, and you'll have the opportunity to find out about many things in the wonderful world we all inhabit. (Few people use this, or even know about it.)

Advancing in our guild will sometimes give you access to new spells. It will always get you some more TDPs, which should be spent wisely. There are many theories about how to spend these. My advice is to focus on Agility, Reflexes and Discpline at first, then build on Wisdom and Intelligence. Strength you can add later, and Stamina, last of all. Charisma? Don't make me laugh. It's important to bards and paladins, but not to us.

Starting Spells

Once you're admitted to the warrior mage guild, our noble guildleader will offer you your choice of a few simple spells. These are drawn from five of our six spell books, Fire, Water, Air, Electricity and Earth. Your initial choices follow:

Gar Zeng is a melee-range electrical attack. It hits your victim easily and throws them slightly off-balance. When you're just starting out on your new career you don't even want critters to get within melee range, though. Gar Zeng's damage isn't much to write home to your warrior mage parents about, at that point. Pass on this one, at least for starters.

Fire Shard used to be THE spell to learn when you first started your training. It's still one of the best. The spell shoots a fist-sized shard of elemental fire at a given target, and should be cast as close to maximum range as possible. The intensity of its damage varies with the amount of power you've invested in it, and the concentration you bring to bear on that power. Fire Shard seldom kills or even hurts significantly, but it often connects, and that helps you learn Targeted Magic.

Paeldryth's Wrath is the first spell from the air manipulation book that you'll have a chance to learn. Put in its most unromantic light, it's a blast of air that blows an opponent out of melee with you, and possibly damages them (depending on the mana you can pump into it). Since they usually aren't damaged and can return melee once again, this isn't a very effective first spell.

Frost Scythe is a great spell that hurls a blade of ice at a critter. Like Fire Shard, you should AIM the spell after you PREPARE it, so that it has a better chance to connect. Unlike Fire Shard, Frost Scythe remains a prime spell for warrior mages throughout life. It can do excellent damage, even killing some of our nastier adversaries. Highly recommended.

The earth spell Fist of Stone pulls a stone from the ground beneath you, and hurls it at your opponent. Like Frost Scythe, this targeted spell can do deadly damage as you acquire more power and concentration.

Spell Development

There's a catch to learning spells from our Fire, Air, Water, Earth, Aether and Electrical books. Some desirable ones can only be after you've chosen other, simpler ones in the same book. Spread yourself too thin, and you'll never pick up those better, tougher spells. It pays to specialize.

I can't tell you which books to pursue, fellow warrior mage. I've personally chosen to concentrate on Water, Fire and Electricity. Others in our guild will offer contrasting advice. My feelings on some of our spells are summarized here:

Ice Patch (Water) is one of the best and most under-rated spells around. It's cheap to cast, requires no aiming, and knocks over many critters. In some cases, it will even break a critter's neck, causing their immediate death. Few things are quite as satisfying as watching something eight feet tall trip, slam into the ground, and die, when it was just laughing at you not five minutes ago.

Sure Footing (Air) gives extra balance to whomever you cast it on. Handy for those times when you're under attack from multiple foes. Sure Footing won't keep you from falling over, but it will lessen the likelihood of it. In combat, as in life, success means maximizing the odds in your favor. Sure Footing is one very good way of accomplishing this.

Lightning Bolt (Electricity) is among my personal faves. Pump some power into it, target it, and let fly: instant death, if the critter you're attacking isn't agile enough to dance out of the way. (You'll probably do some nasty damage even if they escape being fried.) Don't cast this one in a watery area, though. Loose a Lightning Bolt in the swamps, and you stand a good chance of short circuiting everything in the area, including yourself.

Multiple Ethereal Shield (Aether) protects all members of your party from some of the effects of elemental magic. It's especially useful when you want to fireball a critter, because such spells have an area effect. Make sure your shield doesn't run out in the middle of battle, though. That could be potentially very embarassing. Do an occasional PERCEIVE to check on the time remaining.

Tailwind (Air) helps with the accuracy of all ranged weapons, while Swirling Winds (Air) helps parry and evade attacks. These can be quite useful, depending on the way you fight.

Zephyr is another useful air spell later in life. It raises a refreshing breeze which improves fatigue recovery for all people in the immediate vicinity. (Casting this spell where empaths are healing people will make you more popular. It aids their efforts.) Critters do not benefit from Zephyr, probably because they never stop to admire flowers and sniff the air.

The Warrior Mage's Other Side: Battle

There are a few professional types that can hunt happily alone, without much fear of being suddenly overwhelmed by numbers, spells, or a lucky shot. Paladins (who are metal drums) and barbarians (who are just plain crazy) come to mind. Most other Elanthians shouldn't try this, though. It may be macho, but it's also foolish. You don't lose any combat experience by sharing your hunts with a party. Conversely, you don't gain anything when you're a solitary corpse. You also leave yourself open to graverobbers. Time tends to drag, too, when you're a ghost just hanging around in the hopes of a sympathetic passerby.

So it's my word of advice to hunt in groups. Hang back at first, and let a better armored or more powerful friend get in the first hit to draw a critter's attention. Then stride forward and do your best, or hurt it badly from a distance with targeted spells.

Leather armor is probably the best choice when you're starting out in life. Its encumberance is pretty low for warrior mages (relative to chain or plate), and it's light. After making a few circles and adding to your reflexes, consider switching to chain. (I'm aware that a few warrior mages actually train in plate, but most members of our august profession regard that as plain contrariness.)

Medium-edged weapons are also a good choice for warrior mages. They do more damage than the tickling of light- edged blades, but have lower recovery times than heavy- edged ones. A good compromise. The scimitar is my standard fave.

I'm not suggesting you abandon heavy-edged weapons altogether. Just don't fool around with them on the field of battlem at least not until you know them well. Learn heavy-edged from a teacher, in a nice, quiet room with a roaring fire and some mulled wine. For that matter, keep learning all your weapons skills off the battlefield, as well as on. These tend to advance more slowly for us, since they aren't a primary area of concern. Later in life when you get really good you can purchase a nice heavy-edged blade and damage all the local lifestock you want.

You'll want the standard accessories package from the local shops in the Crossing. This includes body armor, a helm, armguards, legguards, gloves, shield, and something to protect your neck. All of these items go by various names throughout the provinces, and a wealth of types with different appearances and effects they are, too. Start simple, however, unless you've got an older relation in the area. You can always upgrade as you kill critters, grab their goods, and sell whatever's found acceptable back at the pawnshop and jewelry shop.

Open your carrer in the goblin area/hogs area to the west of the Crossing for the first few years. It's sometimes a little crowded, but usually has the best selection of easy to kill critters without a shred of intelligence. The goblins also pack an occasional treasure chest. Find a friendly thief (after first depositing your coins in the bank, since there's no reason to tempt fate) and ask if they'll open your chests for a small fee.

(You can always learn trap disarming and lockpicking yourself, but these are very dangerous skills to practice without the benefits of an empath in constant attendance. I did so, but mostly to please my sneaky elder thief sister. It took a long time before I was pretty good at it, too, and I got badly hurt plenty of times. I'd suggest you think about ignoring these skills, and concentrate instead on mechanical lore and foraging for medicinal herbs.)

Be kind when you're on the hunt. If you find other inhabitants that don't want you waiting in their area for the next critter to show up, wave and leave. Don't challenge them for the area. There are a few things worth living and dying for that I've found during my years, but none of them include the next beast to show up. Don't pick up anything lying on the ground in an occupied area, either. Ask for it, first. The hunters there may have discarded it, or they may be leaving items on the ground to temporarily lessen the load. Just because it's down there doesn't make it yours.

Cougars, wood trolls, and dryads are all grist for young warrior mages as they advance. Somewhere around the completion of your first decade of work, you'll want to join a party and head to the region owned (they think) by the rock trolls. (Be sure you aren't heavily encumbered. These creatures cast earth spells that will knock you to the ground!) Interview marauders and gargoyles still later in life. When your discipline becomes a power to be reckoned with, check out the Adan'f mages. They're not fellow citizens, contrary to the mage identifier. They hate the sight of any other Elanthians, and use powerful magics to destroy their foes. Adan'f mages provide good training for those doughty warrior mages formidable enough to damage them, however, and there's always the thrill of living through a battle.

Because that's what it's about, when you get down to it, here in Elanthia. Not the battle itself, but coming out the other end intact. Testing your mettle, improving yourself, learning something new and going back to the local tavern, or your home, or the guild for a discussion with friends that lasts into the small hours of the sun's rising. Enjoy it all!