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#Post#: 1309--------------------------------------------------
Cha’asii and Cha’asi Magic | DL Saga
By: Dungeon Master Date: February 20, 2026, 12:15 am
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Cha’asii and Cha’asi Magic | DragonLance Saga[/center]
#Post#: 1310--------------------------------------------------
Cha'asii notes -Things to remember
By: Dungeon Master Date: February 20, 2026, 12:21 am
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Cha'asii notes -Things to remember
Cha’asii appearance is startlingly different. They are a small
race, averaging about 4’9” in height. Rare is the individual who
reaches five feet. Their bodies are slender and
well-proportioned for their height. Their hair is dark brown to
dark green-black, and their eyes are deep forest green. Most
notable is their skin, which seems to reflect the colors of the
jungle from deep wood brown to shades of green.
A savage people living in the warm jungles, the cha’asii wear
little in the way of clothing, and what little they wear is
similar to that of their kin, the hulderfolk. Males go most
often naked or with a simple loincloth of woven leaves, while
females wear a barely modest covering of leaves.
During the rainy season, they weave simple rain capes from
grasses and palm fronds. Under the hot sun, it is typical to
improvise a quick, simple hat from a palm frond.
In addition to their clothing, the cha’asii love bright
decorations. Both sexes make and wear necklaces of exotic
feathers, earrings of shells, and hair ornaments of carved
weapons. Brightly colored ribbons and trinkets are prized
treasures of the cha’asii. This is not because they are
simple-minded. Those who deal with the outside world are
perfectly aware of the power of money; it’s just that they have
no use for it.
The weapons of the cha’asii are particularly suited to their
world. The thick jungles make most long-range weapons, such as
powerful long bows, impractical. The cha’asii use some small,
light-weight short bows but more often favor carefully lacquered
blowguns. Slashing weapons such as swords are also impractical
for combat, since they are too easily tangled in the thick
undergrowth. Throwing javelins and heavy thrusting spears Large
outcroppings of workable ore or hard stone are rare, so most of
their weapons (and tools) are made from the wood of the
irontree, elaborately carved, polished, and sharpened. Much use
is made of other natural materials, too. Blowgun darts are made
from the five-inch thorns of the inya vine, whittled to barbed
heads.
Throwing bombs is another favored weapon of the cha’asii. Crude
gas bombs are made by stuffing the cleaned bladders of monkeys
with certain noxious fruits. These are then allowed to ferment
in the sun and swell up with the rotting gases. Once ready, they
are carried in gourd cases until needed. When it bursts, a
bladder fills an area with a foul stench intolerable to nearly
all animals and effective for foiling creatures that track by
scent. Hornet’s nests, collected at night inside leather bags,
are used to drive off dangerous monsters, flush beasts out of
dens, and cast enemies into confusion. Inya vines, woven into
balls, are carried on strings inside bags. These are used like
caltrops or are hung from low branches and concealed by leaves
to act as traps. The metal weapons they have are prized
treasures, valued more often as tools than actual weapons.
The cha’asii are also skillful herbalists and have the
pharmaceutical wonders of the jungle at their fingertips. They
can prepare salves that speed healing, poultices that draw out
inflammations and poisons, powders to relieve headaches, potions
to bring forgetfulness, and subtle juices to bring sleep. They
eschew the use of poisons, and the art of poison-making is
taboo. However, they have no qualms about dipping their darts in
sleeping juice or building fires to carry sickness smoke (which
causes fierce bouts of nausea) into the camps of their enemies.
The herbalism of the cha’asii is much more than just a minor,
though interesting, aberration because of their exceptional
skill in the arts of nature magic.
The cha’asii have mastered the arcane secrets of their homeland.
Many of their people are able to cast magical spells, and among
them, there is an almost universal specialization in spells of
nature.
This specialization is far different from the known schools of
magic, those divided according to the theories of principle. The
cha’asii view magic differently from all others, seeing the
source of all magical energy as either coming from nature or
from unnatural sources.
To their minds, the differences of conjuration versus abjuration
versus enchantment are nothing more than differences in
methodology. Instead, key in on the source, use, or
constructions of the magic cast, and these identify it as
natural or unnatural. The cha’asii have no use for unnatural
powers, something they equate with the yaggol, and thus rare is
the cha’asii wizard who learns something other than natural
magic.
Another aspect of their philosophies of magic is that everything
is imbued with hidden magical energy. A wizard does not create a
magical item by instilling it with energy; he invokes it by
bringing out the hidden power within it. Thus, creating a
magical item requires that the wizard learn what power is within
the item that can be tapped. The more aesthetically perfect the
item, the purer and more powerful the magic. Perhaps this is a
better understanding of the magical creation process, for the
cha’asii are masters of the art. Around the fires, the chanters
sing the old legends about the great wizards who could bring out
the magic of a thing simply by touching it.
Whatever the method, the cha’asii make many magical items, most
of them unfamiliar to the outside world. A wondrously shaped
tree, a naturally veined and rounded pebble, a colored turtle
shell, all of these can become magical items in the hands of the
cha’asii wizards.
The very forest around a cha’asii village is alive with magical
creations of the wizards’ enchanted vines, stones, and flowers.
Of course, such an approach has its limitations. Foremost of
these, at least in the belief system of the cha’asii, is that
the wizard has no control over the power hidden within the item;
he can only bring forth what was in it. Certain items may have
relatively consistent properties, but effects could also be
widely different between two similar items.
Part of a wizard's training is to learn the different categories
of things and what magic each is likely to contain. He must
learn to recognize the different types of plants, the small
signs that differentiate between stones, and so on. It is said
throughout the League and elsewhere that great wizards are born
with the magic in their eyes; in the jungles of Neron, it is
said that a great wizard is born able to see the magic through
his eyes.
The cha’asii live in small groups in the deep jungle. Since they
live by hunting, the groups are widely scattered through the
jungle valleys. Nonetheless, the groups all share a close
feeling of kinship. In their tales, there are no accounts of one
family ever attacking another. Those in the village are members
of the same family or sometimes several families. Males and
females are considered equal. Tasks are divided between both,
and, with the exception of childbearing, there is little
difference between the two sexes. Females are welcomed as
warriors and hunters and are often fiercer than their male
counterparts.
From life, the cha’asii seem to ask little. Their homes are
simple grass huts built on the ground or in the broad spreading
branches of trees that grow along the streams and rivers. The
huts are arranged around the central fire pit, where the cooking
and feasting are done. Some time each day is spent hunting or
tending the small gardens nearby, but most of the day is spent
lazing in the heat. During this time, they work on wood carvings
and repair their equipment.
Their carvings are works of art, combinations of intricate
detail and natural grains and curves. These carvings, along with
the exotica of the forests, are desired by those few traders who
have found and befriended the cha’asii. In exchange, the elves
receive trade goods such as jewelry, knives, cloth, pots, and
magical spells. This last item commands great prices, but many
traders have received interesting rewards for the spells they
provide.
Given the apparent simplicity of the cha’asii, it is usually
assumed that they have always been a primitive and barbaric
people. Some, upon finding the strange ruins that crop up in the
jungle, assume that the cha’asii were once the masters of these
ruins and have culturally regressed. The cha’asii singers have
another answer in their secret songs. (Through these singers tap
the power of nature to cast spells, and thus the songs are kept
secret to prevent dilution and weakening of the great magic they
contain.) These songs suggest the cha’asii did not regress but
advanced, reaching the stage where they chose to abandon the
trappings of civilization to return to harmony with nature.
It is certainly true that the cha’asii are more a part of the
jungle than just villagers trying to live in spite of or off of
the jungle.
Sometimes the traders ask about the strange ruins found in the
region, massive halls of stone-like wood. Vines wrap around
fallen pillars, insects swarm over eroded carvings, saplings
crack through the floors, and steaming rays of sunshine filter
through the fallen roofs. It is clear that the cha’asii never
built these places. To answer the questions, the cha’asii shake
their heads and say they do not know, but their eyes belie their
words.
In truth, the cha’asii know much more about the ruins in the
jungle, for these have an important place in their secret songs.
These songs tell of a time when the ruins were home to the
ancient ancestors of the cha’asii. At one time, the ruins were
part of a great empire, more enlightened and far older than the
Cha’asi magic
Cha’asi mages are practitioners of an ancient and nearly
forgotten type of magic,
one that defies the accepted understanding of schools of magic.
According to the writings of all the known theorists, cha’asi
magic should be impossible. The cha’asi have never delved
greatly into theory and so have no clue that what they are doing
is impossible. Oddly enough, it seems to work for them perfectly
well.
Cha’asi magic is built on an intuitive understanding of nature.
The wizards are specialists and gain the benefits accordingly.
But their spell selection does not follow the normal arrangement
of schools. Instead, they specialize in spells that affect
nature and sometimes the elements. They can learn some spells
outside of this area, but certain spells, especially ones that
create mechanical and unnatural results, are denied to them. The
spells in their school and those disallowed are given on the
Cha’asi Spell Table. Aside from their spell selection, cha’asi
mages also have a distinctly different approach to magical item
creation. Most mages fashion an item and then imbue it. The item
will be done by what they put into it.
Cha’asi believes that all things, minerals, plants, or animals,
contain magical power. Sometimes the power is great, sometimes
it is negligible. The power may have a useful, constructive
effect or may possess an odd and pointless effect. It is not
their business to choose the power that is determined bythe
nature of the thing. Generally, the magical power of a thing
reflects its nature. Thus, a stone may have some power
associated with strength, hardness, or force; a medicinal herb
may relate to healing; a water-smoothed stone may give speed or
slipperiness.
Although the mage may have some general idea of the power, he
can never be certain until it manifests itself. Cha’asi mages
produce magical items by drawing the innate power out of an
item. Thus, the Cha’asi way of creating magical items is
slightly different. First, cha’asi attempts to use items in as
natural a state as possible. The less carving, whittling, and
shaping that is done, the better. Second, the item must be in
the form of a stone containing more potential power than just an
ordinary rock. There must also be some connection between the
item and the power desired.
Thus, a lightning-struck branch might be suitable for a wand of
lightning bolts but would be unsuitable for a wand of flame
extinguishing. It takes skill and wisdom to select the proper
raw materials for a desired item. A check against artistic
ability
must be made secretly by the DM when selecting the piece to be
used for a magical item. If the check fails, the magical item is
flawed.
Finally, the wizard does not cast spells into the item. Instead,
he must use the enchant an item spell to bring out its power. If
this is successful, the DM determines what the item becomes,
based on the success of the saving throw for the item. The
greater the difference between the number needed to save and the
actual saving throw, the better or more powerful the item. If
the saving throw is successful, the character has 24 hours to
determine just what magical power is manifested in the item,
either by trial and error or magical spells.
NATURAL SCHOOL
SPELLS
First Level
Affect Normal Fires
Burning Hands
Change Self
Dancing Lights
Find Familiar
Light
Mending
Spider Climb
Wall of Fog
Second Level
Alter Self
Continual Light
Darkness, 15’ Radius
Fog Cloud
Fool’s Gold
Glitterdust
Summon Swarm
Whispering Wind
Third Level
Gust of Wind
Protection from Normal Missiles
Water Breathing
Wind Wall
Fourth Level
Fire Charm
Fire Shield
Hallucinatory Terrain
Massmorph
Plant Growth
Polymorph Other
Polymorph Self
Solid Fog
Wall of Fire
Fifth Level
Airy Water
Animal Growth
Cone of Cold
Distance Distortion
Hold Monster
Stone Shape
Transmute Rock to Mud
Wall of Stone
Sixth Level
Chain Lightning
Conjure Animals
Control Weather
Death Fog
Lower Water
Move Earth
Part Water
Transmute Water to Dust
Seventh Level
Charm Plants
Reverse Gravity
Shadow Walk
Eighth Level
Incendiary Cloud
Mass Charm
Polymorph Any Object
Ninth Level
Crystalbrittle
Shape Change
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