Black Demesner Ideas

Traditions
-20% Shock Damage Received
+20% Siege Ability

The AscendantIn the cosmology of the Black Doctrine, all beings with the capability to use magic are positioned somewhere in a great chain of ascension, sometimes called the 'Ascendant Path'. At the near end of this path are the so-called 'potentiates', people who have latent magical ability but lack the discipline to use it in any consistent and meaningful way. At the far end lies the Universal Mind, the great dispassionate, impersonal intellect which suffuses all the world. The Ascendant is the being who traverses this great path, growing in each stage until they achieve a true union with that purest Intellect. Officially, every Sorcerer-King was Ascendant, though any serious discussion with heretics will reveal that this is a point of much contention.
+20 Maximum Absolutism

The Week of AscensionThe Week of Ascension was simultaneously one of the world's most egalitarian institutions and one of its most stratified. Regardless of social class, all non-magical subjects participated in the same festivals and shared in the same activities during the seven-day celebration of virtue. However, every magic user was kept separate from these festivities, instead joining the Sorcerer-King in the Charred Tower for a week of celebration, debauchery, and furious politicking.
+1 Yearly Prestige

Unrestricted MagicThere have been various attempts to regulate and control magical research throughout the history of the mortal realms. Indeed, perhaps one of the truest signs of a healthy state has been its ability to impose at least some basic restrictions on the activities of mages. In the Black Demesne, to suggest such regulations was not merely seen as foolish, but rather a blasphemous heresy against Doctrine itself. Any law which restricted the development of Intellect was opposed to Doctrine, and restrictions on magic were the most heinous of these.
-5% All Power Costs

In the Eyes of the GreatThough the non-magical classes could not ascend to the highest rungs of state power in the Demesne, and though they had very limited rights, they nonetheless rose in prominence. Precisely because the most powerful positions were restricted to magic users, these same powerful people often chose to surround themselves with those who could not possibly be a threat. They often promoted members of the non-magical class based on pure competence, justifying the high placement on the basis of intellectual virtue. This was in stark contrast to many other kingdoms, where promotion was by right of blood alone.
-5 Years of Separatism

The Reaper's GiftUndead are useful on the field of battle as brute soldiers, but they have very limited capacity to think for themselves or listen to verbal orders. Thus, the Demesne had great need for living scouts, battlefield engineers, and officers. Such positions were an excellent way for non-magical subjects to climb the social ladder by making themselves valuable to mages. Every time war was declared, a great influx of some of the Demesne's most intelligent, driven, and ambitious people came to serve the army in all manner of roles, a pattern that would later earn the moniker of 'the Reaper's Gift'.
+15% Manpower Recovery Speed

Reformulated OrganizationIn most societies, mages are typically reclusive academics who have little interest in battlefield glory, and only a smaller portion have the inclination to take up arms and lend their talents to the field of glory. In the Demesne, it was an expectation and personal obligation for every magical initiate to serve for at least some time in the military. This vastly greater pool of magical manpower allowed the Demesne to turn the entire upper officer corps into the exclusive province of mages, allowing decentralized and responsive magical tactics that were far more impressive than any single sorcerer could achieve alone.
+10% Acolytes Influence
+5% Discipline

Rings of the EightAt its greatest extent, the Black Demesne had eight Acolytes, each of whom wore an ebony ring, numbered from the First to the Eighth in order of magical prowess and prominence within the court. The Sorcerer-King wore a matching ring of dark gold, signifying dominance, which would become known as the Ninth ring. Theoretically, as long as one wore the ring of an Acolyte, one was honorbound to give nothing but absolute loyalty to the legitimate bearer of the Ninth ring in all matters. This reminder of hierarchy and control fortified the political order of the Demesne's upper class.
+10% Governing Capacity Modifier
-15% Liberty Desire in Same Continent Subjects

Ambition
+15% Morale of Armies