Death Notice Book 8: Chapter 56: The Red Robe Mage

The scale of the Hulan trade caravan was not large. It carried luxury goods and precious metal jewelry, so there were only three carts of cargo. Most of the cargo was actually local specialties that the Old Butler, out of caution, had reminded the noble young man to purchase along the way. Otherwise, with just one large chest, everyone would know you only carried valuable items, which would attract too much attention.

After discussions between Robin and the two employers, they decided to take the land route instead of going down the Esmel River. During this season, the Esmel River was very busy. The river surface was filled with hundreds of oars and thousands of sails, bustling with flat-bottomed cargo ships coming and going.

Traveling by river was safe and fast, allowing arrival in Athkatla two days earlier than by land. However, the Hulan trade caravan did not have much cargo. Even if they shared a boat with other caravans, the shipping cost would still be very high. Although the land route took two extra days, the carriages were readily available, and the rations for the mercenaries and caravan workers were cheap. Staying in tents for two more days could save a large amount on shipping costs.

In fact, by the time they reached the Two Rivers Region of Amn, both the water route and the land route were relatively safe. No bandit group in this area dared to defy the whole world by attacking a caravan. After all, Amn was a merchant-run nation. Bandit groups that dared to do such things had long been eradicated.

Qin Lun swayed on a poor-quality horse, slightly raising his head. The gaze from under his hood watched the scenery on both sides of the road with interest. Originally, he did not know how to ride a horse. However, the Moon Elf’s Elf Whispers allowed him to communicate mentally with the old horse beneath him, which saved him a lot of trouble.

The transportation in the Two Rivers Region of Amn was very developed. The road they were currently on was not even a main road, just a branch road. The main roads were too busy. Except for large caravans with many cargo carts, generally small and medium-sized caravans would choose other branch roads.

The gravel road, paved with brown earth and stones, was about ten meters wide. The road was slightly higher than the ground, with a ditch on each side. Every certain distance, there was a small and delicate wooden barrel. Qin Lun looked carefully and discovered they were actually trash bins.

Oak and cypress trees were planted on both sides of the road. The road managers seemed to have intentionally trimmed the leaves, allowing the tree canopies to form a simple cover above the road. Even at noon, the road with large areas of shade remained cool and pleasant, not too warm.

On some lower oak branches by the roadside hung bamboo baskets the size of jars, containing some gray-white stones. Qin Lun did not know what these were at first. Later, he asked the workers in the caravan and learned these were glowstones.

Of course, this could only be used in the wilderness. In cities and residential areas, there were not so many glowworms, so they naturally could not serve as lights. Due to too many limitations, glowstones were not very valuable, and there was no worry about them being stolen at night. They were completely different from the luminous gems used in Ironstar Fortress.

The more they saw, the deeper the surprise in the Apostles’ hearts. It seemed that although this world did not develop technology due to the influence of magic and gods, various aspects of social life seemed quite developed.

Not to mention Amn, which already had convenient transportation, even thousands of years ago, the Ironstar Fortress built by the Dwarves, and the World Tree fortresses of the Qiongda’er Elves and Anker Elves, all displayed superb architectural craftsmanship and scientific structure.

While traveling with the caravan members, the Apostles did not give up their instinct for gathering information. Despite the caravan workers secretly looking at them as country bumpkins, they asked the people around them for various kinds of information.

Of course, as the Apostles’ profession, even the Apostle who was worst at communication knew what to do at this time.

Their questions were very broad and not focused on any single aspect. Among these many topics equivalent to casual gossip, the Apostles would very keenly pick out valuable intelligence, then summarize it in the Team Channel. This had almost become their instinct.

Various skillful questions, no less effective than psychological counseling techniques, made Qin Lun feel he learned a lot just by listening. Thinking back, this was only natural. Apostles who could not gather intelligence in the Quest World would never succeed in their Class Change and had probably long been eliminated by the harsh world missions.

Among the many Apostles who deliberately curried favor with the Plot Characters, the one who interested Qin Lun the most was the hot-tempered Philip. The Mage from the Fortress Team actually managed to strike up a conversation with the Mage Angelo in the caravan, surprising everyone greatly.

“Angelo, are you a Red Robe Mage?” After some conversation, Philip found Angelo to be knowledgeable and talkative, so he asked with a curious expression.

“You mean why I’m not bald and covered in tattoos?” Angelo looked at Philip with a half-smile.

“Oh…” Philip felt a chill and became more cautious in his speech. He did not understand what Angelo was talking about. Fortunately, Angelo quickly explained himself.

“I understand what you mean, but I am not one of those academic Red Robe tyrants. I am just an ordinary Red Robe Mage.” Looking at the cautious Philip, Angelo said somewhat amusedly.

Through the conversation with Angelo, Philip quickly understood. In fact, in the southwestern part of Faerûn, the term Red Robe Mage had two meanings. Saying the wrong thing could easily cause misunderstandings.

In the most ancient legends of Faerûn, at the beginning of creation, the world was a period of eternal nothingness. Light and darkness were two separate things, with a misty shadow realm between them. Eventually, the essence of shadow merged and gave birth to a pair of beautiful twin goddesses, who were opposed to each other. One was light, the other was darkness.

The two goddesses created the Celestial Body, manifesting the Toril World as life. Toril became bright because of Goddess Selûne’s radiance and turned dark because of Goddess Shar’s embrace.

Goddess Selûne went to the Fire Elemental Plane above the world and used the pure fire to ignite the Celestial Body, bringing warmth to Toril. Gradually, it could nurture life and creatures on its own. However, Goddess Shar held a different view on this. The two began to fight. From their divine natures emerged gods of war, disease, assassination, death, and others, while some fallen powers were also born.

Goddess Selûne tore the sacred essence of magic from herself and threw it at her sister. This energy tore apart Goddess Shar’s form, and parts of the light and dark energies mixed together, becoming the Goddess of Magic, Mystryl. Mystryl was composed of both light and dark but preferred her first mother. She played a balancing role in this battle and helped the two sister goddesses establish an unstable truce.

Mystryl once had to sacrifice herself to save the Magic Web during the period when humans abused magic in Netheril. This also caused the floating cities of Netheril to fall, ending the first, and to this day, the greatest and most glorious human empire and magical civilization in human history.

Although the Goddess of Magic was soon reborn as Mystra, this time, the Goddess of Magic restricted all Sapient Races from abusing the Magic Web, limiting the height and destructive power of magical forces. Mystra’s Priests were told that the fall of Netheril was a warning, so such a thing might never happen again.

To this day, it has become almost impossible for Mages to become Demigods by stealing power from the Magic Web. So the Mages on the continent began to turn to the magic recorded in the Nether Scrolls, some of which did not rely on the Magic Web but only on their own magical power.

In the long history of magic, Mages were categorized into three types. The first type of Mages, with Mystra’s Priests as the core and foundation, advocated using magic to improve the lives of Sapient Races, using magical energy peacefully, and using magic to fight against darkness. Since most of these Mages in the beginning were Mystra’s Priests, wearing holy white robes, they were also called White Robe Mages.

In contrast, another group of Mages pursued pure power. Whether it was stealing magical power from the Magic Web or using the magic from the Nether Scrolls, they believed the ultimate goal of a Mage was to become a god. To achieve this, they would use any means, even including drawing upon the power of death and darkness.

These Mages, because they would stop at nothing for power, had biased personalities and were not understood by the world. So, to distinguish their philosophy from that of the White Robe Mages, they simply started wearing black robes in the post-Netheril era and were also called Black Robe Mages.

The last group of Mages tended to be neutral. They thought the White Robe Mages were somewhat hypocritical and childish in using the Goddess of Magic’s name. They agreed with the Black Robe Mages’ views on magical power but were unwilling to use the despicable methods of the Black Robe Mages. They oscillated between the two. To distinguish themselves from the White and Black Robe Mages, they wore red robes and thus were called Red Robe Mages.

However, this broad concept of Red Robe Mage did not apply to the southwestern part of Faerûn. Because in the regions of Tethyr, Amn, and Baldur’s Gate, there was an academic Mage organization called the Red Robe Mages.

The Red Robe Mages had great ambitions. Their actions leaned towards the Black Robe Mages, but they claimed the organization was neutral. Overall, among Mages, they were particularly biased academicians. Most members focused their efforts on studying a particular school of magic, making them masters of that school.

However, the people of Faerûn viewed them as both evil and cruel tyrants. Some local residents would even leave the country to avoid the threats of political intrigue and slave uprisings.

Prospective members of the Red Robe Mages had to choose a specialized school of magic, then receive specialized magical runes, which appeared as tattoos to outsiders, before they could become full members.

All Red Robe Mages possessed the skills of specialized academic Mages. They also devoted most of their energy to researching their specialized school, though they would also dabble in other spells. The leadership of the Red Robe Mages was an eight-person council, with one representative from each school.

In fact, in the eyes of true Red Robe Mages, the Red Robe Mages were just Mages who neglected their proper duties. Mages themselves were learned and wise scholars. Specializing in a single school seemed both snobbish and foolish, merely a shortcut choice made for quickly enhancing combat strength.

Orthodox Mages, like Angelo, looked down upon the practices of the Red Robe Mages. Therefore, when Philip asked his question without knowing the context, Angelo immediately clarified his relationship with the Red Robe Mages.