Wizards (Runiverse)

There are 7 dominant political factions in the world of Forgotten Runes, which are generally (but not always) denoted by hat color. They are Red, Yellow, Brown, Green, Blue, Purple, and White. (It is worth noting that just because a Wizard may have a certain color hat, it does not necessarily mean they fall into one of these factions.)

Read more about the factions here. Learn about them in Elf's Rant This article details Runiverse specific aspects of the Wizards. For meta-information regarding the Wizards, see the main article.

Forgotten Runes Wizard's Cult
A Forgotten Runes wizard

The Color Cults

There are 7 dominant factions, or Color Cults, in the world of Forgotten Runes, which are generally denoted by hat color. They are Red, Yellow, Brown, Green, Blue, Purple, and White. Warriors, too, can adhere to these factions through armor, shield, or weapon color. It is worth noting, however, that many Wizards and Warriors wear colors for other reasons and colors are not always an indication of political allegiance.

Red Hats

Based in Red Wizard Capital, Red Hat culture revolves around a love of money and finance. They congregate in metropolitan areas, live in high rises, and live generally cosmopolitain lifestyles. Well dressed with expensive tastes, the Red Hats are power brokers and are known to engage in political intrigue. Oligarchic in nature, Red Hat Wizards seem to be less concerned with magic, compared to their peers, and to the extent they use it, it is leveraged for financial and political gain. The "magic of money" seems to be their greatest talent, and to be sure, they wield it masterfully and to great effect.

Strengths: Cunning, strategic, politically powerful. Very wealthy and influential.

Weaknesses: Elitist, greedy, not well liked by other factions. They are often materialistic and wealth obsessed.

Yellow Hats

Youthful, exuberant, energetic, and full of life, the Yellow Hat lifestyle is pure hedonic joy. Chronomancer’s Riviera, the Yellow Hat hotbed, is a paradise where time itself seems to have no influence. Dancing, carousing, and borderline debauchery are in perpetual motion all day and night, without end, as the hot and sexy Yellow Hat Wizards manipulate time itself to achieve these never ending festivities. Bliss on the beach and lounging by Atlanta's Pool, the Riviera offers a popular vacation spot for the people of the Runiverse, truly a place to forget the stress of daily life. The "pursuit of happiness" is a decree that has taken spiritual significance, and nearly all magic here is used to achieve this joyous liberation. They have not a care in the world, even as the Quantum Shadow itself looms on their borders. Lucky for them, Battlemage Mountains seem an impenetrable protection as for their debaucherous partying.

The Yellow Hats welcome everyone to the Riviera, but the Red Hats in particular are fond of coming here to expend finances on all the excessive luxuries of the Riviera.

Strengths: Vitality, stamina, energetic, carefree, happy and joyful.

Weaknesses: Shallow, unfocused, debaucherous, and unwise.

Brown Hats

Rugged, blue-collar, and provincial, the Brown Hat Wizards are good-natured and love simple, country living. Loyal to family and friends, the rustic Brown Hat lifestyle finds its home in the northern delta. Brown Hats use magic for everyday practical tasks, like housekeeping, farming, and hunting. Rarely seen in the cities, they can be found in the fields and forests, or the local country tavern enjoying a beer with good friends. There is a pervasive aversion to machinery and technology in the delta, as Browns prefer the familiarity of "old fashioned" ways. The farming equipment is remarkably outdated, and yet they continue to produce impressive yields with their crops due to their use of magic. Brown Hats tend to keep to themselves, but if they venture outside, they are known to feel some kinship with Green Hats. The Blue Hats, however, are regarded as obnoxious, impractical know-it-alls who seek to disrupt tradition with new scientific discoveries.

A little known secret about Brown hats is that their hat color used to be Orange, but rustic country living has faded and tarnished their bright colors to an earthy brown.

Strengths: Practical common sense, loyalty, always well-prepared and very dependable.

Weaknesses: Overly simplistic and can be a bit xenophobic. Resistant to change.

Green Hats

Thriving in the equatorial jungles of the Runiverse, the Green Hats live in harmony with the natural world. This concordance allows natural magic to flow through the Green Hats effortlessly, from deep within the earth, through the plants and animals, to the hearts and minds of the wizards. They do not seek to dominate nature, but instead coexist with it in perfect homeostasis. This form of magic is potentially older than the Quantum Shadow itself, and can be expressed through weather manipulation, bio-hacking, and communication with plants and animals. Green Hats often form alliances with Brown Hats, for their cultures have overlapping interests. They both love natural world, but whereas the Browns seek to dominate it, the Greens seek harmony. And though this may be a fundamental disagreement between the two, the Greens find more disagreement with the Red Hats, whose materialistic cosmopolitain ways are the antithesis to harmony with nature.

Strengths: Healthy, durable, long lifespans, and stable. They can communicate with plants and animals.

Weakness: Somewhat eco-facist, prioritizing the lives of plants and animals over humans. They can be slow to action, and are a bit aloof to the affairs of the human world.

Blue Hats

Scholarly, academic, and technical, the Blue Hats are the only faction to embrace magic and science simultaneously. Their Blue Wizard Bastion houses the Runiverse's largest libraries, which contains tomes on every subject including alchemy, medicine, biology, history, literature, and of course, magic. The famous Forgotten Athenaeum is also here in the Bastion, which holds various relics from around the world. The halls of the Bastion are filled with the worlds most respected philosophers, teachers, scholars, and scientists. Science is empirical, predictable, and methodic, qualities which are seen as the opposite of magic, which is intuitive, emotional, and unpredictable. Thus, the merging of science and magic- a seemingly impossible task, is the grand mission of a typical Blue Hat Wizard.

Strengths: Highly intelligent, well-learned, if anyone can build tech that would challenge magic, it would be them.

Weakness: Overly intellectual,i vory tower type of academic. Have tons of knowledge but sometimes don't apply it to the real world.

Purple Hats

The quintessential Wizards. Purple Hats are extremely talented in all sorts of magic, particularly the deep magic of the cosmos. Their magic is complex, powerful, and esoteric, much of it coming from the Psychic Leap, the Sacred Pillars, and other extremely magical vortexes in and out of the Runiverse . But because of this deep affinity for magic, the magic often controls them rather than the other way around. They are often perceived as clumsy and even a little goofy at times, for they can be rather disconnected from reality. Their spells are often loud, explosive, and colorful, and their spell books are generally incomprehensible. A Purple Hat's home is often a chaotic mess, and it is believed the Weird House once belonged to a Purple Hat. You never know if a Purple Wizard is very powerful or has simply lost their mind, but perhaps a bit of both. Rarely will you find a true Purple Hat carousing with the Yellow hats in the Riviera, for the party in their minds is enough chaos for anyone to endure.

The Purple Hats are concentrated on a large island in the West, where the infamous Purple Pavilion sits.

Strengths: They are unpredictable, probably powerful, seemingly wise, in possession of great secrets and lore.

Weaknesses: They are unpredictable, chaotic, unorganized, having their rationality permanently altered by exposure to the Psychic Leap.

White Hats

Detached, empty, zen-like sages who sit quietly and meditate for days on end in the White Wizard Tower. Rarely speaking, in fact rarely ever seen, the Whites live minimalistic lives oblivious to the rest of the world. They almost never ally with other factions, nor do they oppose them, they simply stay aloof altogether. Their magic is subtle, quiet, and unassuming, if indeed they posses any magic at all, for their power level is totally hidden. This furtive nature has lead some to believe that White Hats are actually powerless, and their secretive nature is merely a pretense. The counter narrative, however, is that the White Hats are engaged with yet another even more secretive faction, the mythical and otherworldly "Shadow Hats."

Strengths: Guarded, calm, secretive, possess deep wisdom.

Weakness: Aloof, unfriendly, unemotional, and unapproachable.