“Reality won’t protect itself.”
Overview: The Paragons are the largest and most visible faction in Wuh-Zhei. Born from the union of Abjuration and Evocation, they believe the Unraveling is not a mystery to endure but a threat to be defeated. They are soldiers, engineers, civic enforcers, and everyday patriots. Their ethos? Stand firm. Shield the weak. Fireball the rest.
You’ll find them everywhere, running the elevators, patrolling the borders, drilling in spellparks, officiating at state functions. From the elevated halls of Plate Two to the cluttered watchposts of Plate Five, they are the system. If your idea of a perfect Sunday is blue jeans, Mom’s warm casserole and fireballs then you’re halfway there.
Philosophy: The Unraveling is an enemy. Not a puzzle. Not a prophecy. A foe. And the Paragons believe that, like any foe, it can be beaten. Their strategy is twofold: hold the weave with wards, and strike back with spellweapons. It’s not a metaphor. It’s not a prayer. It’s a plan. And it’s proven.
Figures: Leadership rests with Arch-Evoker Lord Commander Sutherland Dash, the newest senator and only Commander to ever repel a rupture with his prototype spellweapons. A feat never fully replicated. His second is Commander Gael’da Vorn, an Arch-Abjurist of immense defensive prowess. The Paragons answer to them in a rigid military structure blurred by civic duty: captains double as judges, drill instructors teach in schools, and temple guards handle both divine relics and street crime.
Projects: The Paragons maintain the city’s standing military, run the Enforcers (Wuh-Zhei’s citywide policing corps), and oversee public spellcasting infrastructure. Their spellweapon project, Dash’s legacy, continues despite dwindling results. Some believe they’re the last line of defense. Others believe they’re clinging to an illusion of control. But no one doubts they’re trying.
Plate Relations: Their strongest presence is on Plate Three, the city’s functional heart, where they are both adored and idealized. On Plates Five and Six, they are often viewed as the failing system: still present, still armed, but stretched thin. On Plate Two, they hold immense institutional power. And they control the interplate travel, so even the unconvinced must ride with them.
Magic Affiliation: Abjuration and Evocation. Wards and firepower. Shield and sword. Spellweapons that can deliver higher level spells from a distance with a single arrow, strike with surgical devastation. Protective constructs that stabilize failing districts. They do not pursue subtlety or metaphysics, they weaponize certainty.
Example Hooks
- As a child, an the Unraveling incursion threatened your entire block, and the Paragons stopped it. Now you want to do the same.
- You believe in the system, or you want to fix it from inside.
- Your really like Fireballs.
- Ideal for Eldritch Knights, Arcane Archers, Abjuration-focused Clerics, or Evokers chasing frontline authority.
- Their level one feat choice offers tactical imitative or healing to non-healers.
Tone / Aesthetic
- Smells like: ozone, boot polish, cafeteria gravy
- Sounds like: spellshot target drills, shouted oaths, patriotic radio runes
- Feels like: pressure you mistake for pride
- Symbols: the glowing blue ward circle of safety, their burning pin with a shield inlaid into it
Secrets & Subtext
- Dash knows the spellweapons may never work again.
- Vorn doesn’t.
- The Paragons still train as if salvation is guaranteed, but their best minds are running out of ways to fake it.
- They already utilize Martial Law in the lower plates. It is only a matter of time.