E) Combat Systems
Magic and the Tlāzōtlalpan
Magic in Hextor is a field. It is a pressure gradient that responds when will, pattern, and power align. It converts fuel into ordered alteration. It inscribes itself upon heat, stone, blood, wind, and time, and leaves residual traces in frost, ash, echo, and memory.
The Tlāzōtlalpan is the body’s arcane gland. It is seated behind the heart’s furnace and above the gut’s fire. It is simultaneously tissue and abstraction. It drinks energy and exhales current. It retains patterns as lungs retain breath. It routes power along marrow tracts and skin sigils. It regulates risk. It is the operative distinction between a controlled miracle and self-inflicted catastrophe.
Casting follows a consistent sequence.
Intent. The mind specifies the desired change. Cold, bind, lift, burn, still.
Pattern. Breath is counted. Words lock into place. Hands, glyphs, or tools align. The Tlāzōtlalpan copies the path into itself.
Priming. Kcal is converted into arcane current. Noise is smoothed, spikes are damped.
Release. The field departs the body and enters matter. The alteration proceeds until the pattern concludes or the fuel ledger empties.
Feedback. The gland samples the result and bleeds off excess into ground, water, or a bound conduit to prevent destructive recoil.
Magic does not abrogate physics. It negotiates with it. Cold manifests by extracting heat. Force emerges by redirecting mass and momentum. Light is bent through phase and path. Sound is structured in pressure waves. The Tlāzōtlalpan tunes the field so that nature accepts the adjustment rather than tearing the caster apart.
Fuel, pools, and what “60,000 kcal” signifies
All working requires fuel.
Kcal are the body’s endogenous stores. They burn rapidly and exact a physiological price.
The Tlāzōtlalpan burns kcal. Greater magnitude requires greater expenditure. Finer control also raises cost. Waste manifests as chill, sweat, tremor, hoarfrost on lips and lashes, and a characteristic resonance in bone.
Global baseline rules:
Newly created OCs in this framework begin with a 30,000 kcal casting pool. That is the canonical starting reservoir for an unseasoned caster.
The standard mortal growth ceiling is 80,000 kcal. Beyond this value, ordinary anatomy and psyche become increasingly unstable.
Due to her insectoid taint and hive-derived modifications, the sanctioned absolute upper bound for her lineage has been set at 90,000 kcal. Values beyond 80,000 are not cosmetic inflation; they require explicit, earned boons and narrative justification.
For this character at present: her personal reserve is 60,000 kcal. She thus holds approximately double the default pool of a new caster. That increase reflects accumulated play, severe trials, and deliberate growth within the setting’s internal logic.
Outside genuine combat, physical kcal does not drain. Walking, drilling, sparring that never crosses into lethal intent, and ordinary exertion are treated as metabolically negligible at this abstraction level.
Magic may burn kcal at any time. The ledger is indifferent to whether the context is battle, ritual, travel, or experiment.
When the fuel ledger reaches its end, the working ceases. If the working is forced to persist, the body pays the deficit.
Death, Starved State, and the Debatable system
Death threshold
If current kcal ever falls to 0 or below, the character dies.
If a spell or effect would drive the pool to 0 or less, the working completes in full. When it finishes, the caster dies of total metabolic collapse. There are no death saves and no stabilisation checks. The system assumes irreversible failure.
Starved State
Between 1 and 9,999 kcal, the character is considered Starved.
All passive competencies operate at approximately 50% effectiveness. This includes strength, speed, reaction time, durability, regeneration, and similar always-on traits.
Any passive that is strictly spiritual, divine, eldritch, or arcane is fully disabled while Starved. It does not function at all until the character is restored to 10,000 kcal or higher.
The Debatable system
The Debatable system overlays combat with a hard biological bias. It assumes that bones, organs, and soft tissue obey uncompromising realities unless explicitly and expensively subverted. It is dubbed debatable as I can wane on this point if you prefer.
Every serious hit is resolved in one of two ways:
A. Full realistic damage. The blow is treated as though it occurred under real-world biomechanics. A warhammer to the skull, a fireblast to the thorax, a spear through lung. Armor, cover, angle of impact, and prior conditions still apply. If the outcome would realistically be lethal or permanently ruinous, it is resolved as such.
B. Survival burn. The character forces survival by catastrophically spending fuel.
Cost: 8,000 kcal paid immediately.
Result: the blow is downgraded from lethal to severe but survivable. You may structure milder injury profiles by design if you also escalate cost, but the exchange must remain consistent and punishing.
Requirements:
The hit would realistically be lethal or permanently maiming.
The character has at least 8,000 kcal remaining.
The character is not in Starved State. Current kcal must be 10,000 or higher before the survival burn is paid.
Below 10,000 kcal, the survival option is no longer available. The character cannot purchase their way out of death. Lethal impacts must be evaded through positioning or accepted at full consequence.
Spell cost tiers
These values define the baseline metabolic cost for an average caster. They quantify how expensive each class of pattern is before discounts, items, or growth are applied.
Touch – 1,000 kcal Short range; direct contact. High risk, relatively low cost.
Strike / weapon imbue – 1,500 kcal A melee blow suffused with magic: elemental edge, force, necro-ice, and similar.
Movement skill – 2,000 kcal Short, decisive repositioning: dash, leap, blink, or equivalent vector shift.
Cone effect – 2,500 kcal A wedge-shaped emission in front of the caster: gouts of flame, frost sprays, corrosive fans.
Defensive skills – 3,000 kcal Robust shields, wards, barriers, and significant damage reduction constructs.
Area denial / crowd control – 4,000 kcal Persistent terrain alteration: walls, snares, bog zones, choking clouds, and similar.
AoE burst (explosion / nova) – 5,000 kcal Instantaneous radial detonation with significant battlefield impact.
Beam – 3,000 kcal High-intensity, linear discharge, governed by the beam range rules below.
Summon (basic combat aid) – 5,000 kcal Conjuration or animation of a single combat-worthy ally. No sustain cost.
Buffs – 4,000 kcal Strong, short-term enhancement of the self or an ally.
Debuffs – 4,000 kcal Significant curses or crippling effects imposed on opponents.
Healing – 5,000 kcal A major, combat-relevant restoration with clear tactical influence.
Ultimate – 20,000 kcal Cataclysmic, encounter-defining magic. In structured combat it also requires two full uninterrupted turns of channeling. If casting an ultimate reduces the pool to 0 or less, the effect resolves, then the caster dies.
Charging
Some spells may be declared chargeable.
The caster spends one full turn doing nothing except channel that specific pattern.
Upon release:
Range is multiplied by 2.
Damage is multiplied by 2.
Kcal cost is multiplied by 1.5 and rounded up to the nearest 100.
While charging, the caster cannot dodge, block, attack, or cast anything else. Being knocked prone, stunned, grappled, or voluntarily aborting the process causes the spell to fizzle. The full cost is still paid.
Hard range caps remain in effect. Charged beams, cones, and AoEs cannot exceed system maxima without a specifically granted exceptional boon.
Ranges
All distances are expressed in real-world feet.
Beams
Base range: 50 ft.
Maximum range without exceptional boons: 250 ft. Beam width is assumed to be narrow, on the order of a foot or less.
Cones
Base cone: 20 ft reach, 10 ft width at the far edge.
Maximum cone: 80 ft reach, 40 ft width at the far edge.
AoE bursts
Base radius: 10 ft.
Maximum radius: 50 ft.
Charged versions double reach or radius but are still capped at these maxima unless a specific boon authorises an override.
Other spell types define their own ranges case by case, using these values as a sanity framework.
Summoning
Cost per summon cast: 5,000 kcal.
There is no sustain cost; the summon persists until its duration ends, it is destroyed, or it is dismissed.
Starting control limit: 1 active summon at a time.
Absolute cap without severe boons: 3 active summons.
This applies to undead, animated constructs, spirits, and analogous entities.
Physical stamina in combat
Physical kcal costs only apply during genuine combat: structured rounds, lethal or maiming intent, and real danger.
Outside such contexts, walking, conditioning drills, climbing within settlements, and low-stakes scuffles are treated as metabolically negligible in this abstraction. Magic, however, may still burn kcal.
In actual combat, for an average martial body:
Basic attack – 400 kcal The main exchange of strikes for that round. Multiple small motions abstracted into a single action.
Heavy attack – 800 kcal A high-commitment blow: overhead smashes, impales, decisive counters.
Full dodge / evasive roll – 600 kcal A complete bodily commitment to evasion: dives, rolls, and similar maneuvers.
Combat sprint – 500 kcal A hard rush, closing or opening significant distance under fire.
Athletic burst – 600 kcal Clearing a substantial gap, vaulting a major obstacle, or climbing in a way that defines the round.
Any shove, tackle, or grapple that dominates the action is costed as a heavy attack. Ranged combatants are not exempt; if they sprint, dive, and vault, they pay the same physical costs.
Even short, intense engagements can therefore remove several thousand kcal from the ledger. Once the pool falls below 10,000, Starved penalties and loss of the survival burn option immediately apply.
No dice, no stat checks, sheet as contract
This framework uses no dice and no numerical stat rolls.
Writing “I can do X” on a sheet does not confer automatic success. It defines what you are permitted to argue for in play.
Outcomes are governed by:
Internal consistency with the role and sheet.
Biological and physical plausibility.
The kcal rules and the Debatable system.
The setting’s internal logic and basic deductive reasoning.
The character sheet functions as a contract and reference document. It does not overwrite reality.
If you claim to survive a fall, you must articulate how. If you claim your spell resists dragon breath, you must demonstrate why that is coherent inside this system.
Two combat modes I will use
For each scene, participants select one of two modes. I will use either, provided everyone in the scene agrees beforehand.
1. Narrative Combat
Combat is treated as a story first.
Participants discuss stakes and tone in advance: death, dismemberment, capture, or minor injury.
That discussion functions as an explicit agreement.
All parties act in good faith. There are no concealed invulnerabilities and no un-telegraphed powers suddenly introduced mid-fight.
The fight is written cinematically. Afterwards, or periodically, what has been described is compared against the kcal ledger and the Debatable system. If the narrative overspends or violates plausibility, the narration is adjusted.
Narrative mode has soft structure and hard consequences. Staff only intervene in cases of egregious abuse.
2. Homebrew structured combat (T1-inspired)
This mode is explicitly turn-based and tightly structured.
One post constitutes one turn.
You describe attempted attacks. You do not auto-hit.
Your opponent narrates result within reason: hit, glancing blow, or miss.
Plausibility is paramount. Existing injuries, terrain, positioning, and Starved State must be respected. Teleport-style dodges and wound denial are not permitted.
On your turn, you may move and choose one primary action, such as:
Basic physical attack
Heavy attack
Cast a spell
Full dodge or evasive roll
Block
Grapple, shove, or tackle
Use an item
If you choose to block with shield, weapon, or body, that block is your entire turn. You devote all attention to defense and do not attack or cast.
Kcal rules and the Debatable system apply directly. Ultimates cost 20,000 kcal and demand two uninterrupted turns of channeling. If casting an ultimate brings you to 0 or below, it still resolves, then you die.
Homebrew mode has rigid turns, explicit costs, and sharp consequences.
Death and what comes after
Death in this system is real in-world. It is not the end of play.
You may die by:
Reaching 0 or fewer kcal.
Receiving a lethal hit that you cannot or will not buy down via the survival burn.
Any jointly accepted final condition such as decapitation, complete disintegration, or equivalent.
When this occurs, the character’s mortal chapter ends. There are no casual resurrection handwaves or quiet retcons.
The story can, however, continue in post-mortal contexts. The soul may enter Hextor or other dead realms appropriate to faith, history, and sin. The character may continue as shade, servant, petitioner, inquisitor, or other afterlife role. You lose the living body, position, and worldly status. You retain the person and their narrative trajectory.
Personal note for partners
Kcal pool: she presently operates with 60,000 kcal, within a standard mortal cap of 80,000 and an insectoid-lineage upper limit of 90,000.
Combat modes: I will only use Narrative Combat or Homebrew structured combat (T1-inspired) as defined above. There are no dice and no stat rolls. I care about prose, internal coherence, and a shared cost ledger. If you are comfortable with that, we can structure fights that are both lethal and fair.
Magic System
Magic in Hextor is a field. It is a pressure that moves when will, pattern, and power align. It converts fuel into ordered change. It touches heat, light, stone, wind, blood, and time. It leaves a record in frost, ash, sound, and memory.
The organ that makes it possible
The Tlāzōtlalpan is the body’s arcane gland. It sits deep in the torso, behind the heart’s heat and above the gut’s fire. It is flesh and idea at once. It drinks energy and exhales current. It regulates flow through valves of nerve and will. It holds patterns the way lungs hold breath. It routes power through marrow lines and skin sigils. It prevents spill. It meters risk. It is the difference between a miracle and a wound.
Fuel and cost
All working needs fuel. The common fuel is kcal from the caster’s own stores. The refined fuel is CEU drawn from an external source. Vitae Crystals carry CEU like a battery carries charge. The Tlāzōtlalpan can burn kcal, sip CEU, or blend both. More force needs more fuel. Fine control also costs. Waste heat appears as chill, sweat, tremor, or hoarfrost on the lips. The ledger is strict. When the fuel ends, the working ends or the body pays.
How casting functions
Intent sets the aim. Pattern gives it shape. Fuel gives it push. Release delivers it to the world.
Intent. The mind names the change. Cold, lift, seal, bind, still.
Pattern. The caster traces a path. Breath counts. Words click. Hands and glyphs align. The Tlāzōtlalpan copies the path and prepares it.
Priming. Kcal and CEU are converted into arcane current. The organ smooths the flow and removes noise.
Release. The field leaves the body and enters matter. The change proceeds until the pattern finishes or fuel runs out.
Feedback. The organ reads the result and damps recoil. Safe practice vents excess into ground, water, or a bound conduit.
Interaction with natural forces
Magic does not replace physics. It negotiates with it. Cold forms by drawing heat away. Force forms by pulling on mass and direction. Light bends by shifting phase and path. Sound carries messages by pressing air in measured waves. The Tlāzōtlalpan tunes the field so nature accepts the adjustment. Strong gradients resist. Clean channels obey. Impurities in metal, salt in water, and fear in breath can change the yield.
External sources and tools
Vitae Crystals store CEU and lighten the body’s burn. Bone capacitors hold small charges for quick rites. Weapon runes act as valves. Armor sigils act as heat sinks. The Whispering Vein network moves signals and charge through living conduits. Each tool widens control. Each tool also adds failure modes. Misaligned runes leak. Cracked crystals spike. Poor venting scalds the mind.
Limits and risks
Overdraw chills organs and scars memory. Hands shake. Vision narrows. The Tlāzōtlalpan can cramp. Patterns can slip. Backlash can bite the caster first. Holy force can cross-trigger hostile reactions in unbound frost. Safe practice uses locks, seals, breaks, and counters. Rest restores kcal. Silence cools the organ. Moonlight can steady frostcraft in Hextor.
Example: shaping Necro Ice
The caster fixes intent on preservation and cold. Breath falls to a steady count. The Tlāzōtlalpan pulls CEU from a Vitae Crystal and a measure of kcal. The field couples to water and shadow. Heat leaves the air and the ground. A lattice grows along a runic seam. Bone memory anchors the crystal habit. The result is cold that holds shape and story. The ledger closes when the lattice stands and the fuel is spent.
What to remember
Magic is a conversion. The Tlāzōtlalpan is the converter. Kcal and CEU are the fuels. Patterns are the maps. Nature is the partner. Preservation or ruin depends on control. In Hextor the wise leave clean channels, pay their costs, and keep the ice honest.