Microscope: The Age of Miracles

 I ran a Microscope game on A Night at the Opera a few weeks ago and these are the results. We (including myself) are fairly new to the system, so this was as much a game as it was a tutorial for myself and my players. I'm fairly happy with how it turned out. 

Towards the end we started doing things play-by-post which turned out to be a mistake because people would sit on their hands for entire weeks and not take their turns, something I feared would be an issue. It was cool for a while, if I do it that way I'll probably just install a time limit, take your turn within a day of being notified or be skipped like a chump. It's unfinished, and this was also our first major game of Microscope, so this probably is poorly done. Anyways, here's your history:

THE AGE OF MIRACLES

Theme: "The Discovery of Magic Leads to Major Theological Upheaval"

Palette:

YES			NO
Magic has side effects			Divinity is unknowable and ambigious
Magic is not a science, is jazz (is not reproducible, and unique to you)			No "Fantasy" Races / No other "sapient" species other than mankind.
There are places of power			Magic & Technology do not mix
Floating islands exist			No Fantasyslop Spells
Magical Precursor Civilization relics on aforementioned floating islands			No "Magic" and "Technology" Factions
Magic can manifest via hereditary, via tutelage, and via spontaneity			No "Outer" beings. No Daemons, no Angels, no Elemental spirits.
			No Resurrection

1. MAGIC RETURNS TO THE WORLD (LIGHT)

• Yrasmus is the first to publicy use magic and is promptly lynched by a crowd for it (Dark)
• The Wailing Mountain. A rock formation rises out of the ground in a major city. Named as such because of stories of parents watching their children floating into the sky. Massive casualties. (Dark)
• The "Great Trial of Yrasmus" concludes, nobody is able to determine who actually killed him [Light]
• The Feast Of Flowers. Shortly after Yrasmus' death, the Corn Famine swept the grain basket of White Soil and starved thousands. The famine only ends when Yrasmus' grave sprouts endlessly regrowing flowers. Population rebounds thanks to this new foodsource. Believed to be the start of the Church. Pilgrimage site to this day. (Light).
• A war between nascent Wizard-Kings is stopped by threat of excommunication. This new form of clergical sanction is shockingly effective as a soft-power tool, and ushers in an age of peace that eventually results in the Great Rediscovery (Light).
• A slave rebellion breaks the iron mining efforts in the Redine Mountains when the slaves develop magic, turning the overseers into trees. The resulting species becomes known as blood-pine, dormant cones waking eagerly wherever battlefields and mass death occur. (Light)
• The Redine Slaves forge a small fleet of riverboats out of the blood-pines of their transmogrified overseers. Their new armada is one part freedom fighters, one part smugglers, all parts river pirates. From this tradition of piracy will eventually arise the legendary sky-pirates of later ages. (Light).
• The development of magic that animal speech magic leads to major disruptions as beasts of burden start labor rights negotiations and cattle begged for longer lives on the monastic granges until it was decided that animal communication magic is heretical. though a few of the monks broke off and formed "vegan" ranchs far from civilization. (Light)

2. The Formation of the Early Church. The disparate sorcerous orders and mystery cults coalesce into a monolithic transnational theological organization. (LIGHT)

• The Yrasmic Verses, a book of fables, parables, and accounts of the life of Saint Yrasmus, is published. It becomes a foundational text for the Church. (Light)
• The Early Congregations of the Orders begin, originally as ways for communities to discuss and further understand the world and the early manifestations of Magic. Hierarchies and variety of Dogmas soon follow (Dark)
• The wandering prophet Emmiteth settles in the city of Nervae. Hundreds of congregants flock to her as she multiplies existing blessings, drawing other mages and civilians to her side. (Light)
• Emmiteth the Wanderer is seen as Heretical by a few members within the controlling factions of the Early Church, leading to a schism in the leadership. (dark)
• A moral panic begins over the consumption of powdered lodestone from floating islands. The Church struggles to enforce their prohibition, given smugglers' tendency to levitate away from anti-narcotics checkpoints (Dark).
• The followers of Emmiteth begin to covert local principalities to their cause convincing smaller rulers of the worth of their cause. (Dark)
• Ghonz of the Dry Plains, One of the first "Farm Mages" is recorded to have made a series of farms in the dry plains of the south. Reliant entirely on magic rain and enriched soil. Their success drives others to do the same, even in environments already suitable for farming. [Light]

3. The Great Rediscovery othwerwise known to Scribe-Saint order of Recorders as the 2nd Restoration begins. (DARK)

• Mage known as the Goldenhand discovers their technique is gold transmutation.  The Economy crashes shortly after before changing forever. (Dark)
• After he is killed by bounty hunters, Goldenhand's corpse is paraded through the streets of Isaam. The King is Isaam is transformed into gold and dies after mockingly slapping Goldenhand's severed head. (Light)
• The Corpse of the Goldenhand is inherited possessed by the heirs of Goldenhand who possess variations of the same transmutation power. The Guldhund dynasty founds their first bank in exchange for a pardon from King Solomon of Issam for killing his cousin. (Dark)
• The Order of Guldhund is formed to protect the newly formed banks it quickly becomes a major military power. (Light)
• The Festival Of Sparamogos is canonised by the Church, where a giant fetish of Yrasmus filled with gifts and ritually torn apart by the entire town. (Light).
• To try to understand the phenomenology of magic, The Church ordains the Scribe-Saint Order of Recorders to travel throughout the land and study magic. (light)
• Heralt the Brazen attempts to steal the hand of gold from the Grand Bank of Midas. While he does not suceed, his daring plan confirms the existence of the artifact. (Dark)
• The Fleshforgers are formally attainted and are declared anathema for their abominable experiments in embewing magical power in the unitiated bear horrific but successful results. (Dark)
• A man's heart begins beating after their death and producing small amounts of blood. This is regaled as a miracle and the man is posthomously declared a saint, until a conference of academics discerns it’s actually a rather common post-mortem phenomena (Light).

4. Emergence of "Holy Evokers". A religious movement that embraces magic. (Dark).

• Saint Wylla the Gentle, a travelling shaman from the steppelands, gains a popular folk following as a healer. Travelling from village to village healing the sick and purifying food and drink. (Light).
• Wylla's healing spells cause people's hair to fall out. Many begin hunting her as a pariah and cultist, but her most loyal followers shave their bodies out of respect and gradually become more militant. (Dark).
• Hieromonk Zakkarija of the Scribe-Saint Order of Recorders announces an edict to begin writing the Codex Occulta. (Light)
• The Order of Lyll is the First Order of Saints to embrace the Evoker Movement [Dark]
• The Order of Lyll is recognised by the Church and sicced on the increasingly militant Followers of Wylla. They secretly plan to kill and butcher Wylla for magic items. (Dark).
• The remnants of the Followers of Wylla retreat to the hinterlands with Wylla's secret daughter and heir: Inalla, hoping to raise her to one day reignite the movement.  (dark)
• Inalla returns to her homeland to begin a new followers of  Wylla. After scant victories the movement is quickly snuffed out by the Order of Lyll who remain in control. (Dark)
• Inalla conquers several flying islands. Sects of her cultists pilot these above populated areas, spreading heretical doctrine to the commonfolk. The Order of Lyll encourages faithful peasants to start forest fires to suffocate the floating cultists. (Dark).
• Inalla, long since believed to have not inherited her mothers gift of healing, unlocks her sorcerous power while isolated in the mountain necropolis, hiding from the Order of Lyll: The raising of spirits and wraiths that are bound to her will. (light)
• The Order of Lyll send out missions to the Thurgi nomads to convert others to their belief, using inter clan rivalries and their powers to crush rivals. (Dark)

5. The Thrugi Terror. Nomads from the Steppes unite and sow terror across the land. (Dark).

• Enterreggi Thundercaller, a sorcerer, unites all the tribes of the Steppe. Enterreggi's power is that he can see through the eyes of all animals within eight miles of his person. (Light).
• The Church, fearing of a fracturing bases begins to offer rewards for evokers in their ranks [Dark]
• Thundercaller engages in pillage of the the Great Tutelages, seeking to eliminate possible rivals on the Steppe [Dark]
• Thundercaller uses magic learned from the raids on the Tuteluge to solve a famine in the Steppe.(Light)
• Thundercaller's great horde disintegrates after he is assassinated by his three eldest sons, who immediately begin warring with one another. The capital city, along with its massive repository of meticulously arcane tomes burns after a baker's fire goes out of control. Without soldiers around to stop it, it burns uncontrollably and consumes all. (Dark)
• Inalla, the daughter of Wylla, destroys the hordes of Astarki, the eldest son of Thundercaller with a raised army of "wraiths", liberating the territories under his control. (Light)
• After routing the hordes of Astarki, Inalla's followers test a weapon against Kubla, the son who inherited his father's bird-sight. The weapon is a modified waterbreathing spell that adds gills to the target. Cast enmasse, it mass suffocates all birds in 5-miles, blinding Kubla's armies. (dark)
• According to the records of the Eclesical Recordia, Evokers in this time peaked, with future records to indicate a slow but steady decline in their numbers going forwards (dark)
• Followers of Inalla repsonsible fro the bird-killing spell are murdered by enourmous flocks of random birds, including birds in prey-predator relationships. A druid claims the birds witnessed their kin slaughtered by Inalla's followers and vowed vengeance. (Dark)

6. "The Spring of Righteous Men", a decades-long period following the death and destruction of the Thrugi Terror marked by major societal upheavals and changes (Light)

• The Lyllic Mutiny. Rikkardu Cesira, a Yrasmic monk militant of the Order of Lyll, confronts and deposes the Order's leadership after learning of the its role in the murder of Saint Wylla. Cesira and his followers announce the Order's return to "traditional teachings": rejecting all Church material save for the Yrasmic Verses (Light)
• The pillageing of the Great Tutelages decades ago has caused a decline in magical study and practitioners. The once flourishing and vibrant community of practioners among the Steppe has declined to a handful of survivors too scared to share their knowledge [Dark]
• Scholars depart from the city-state of Nervae on a pilgrimage across the war-torn lands. Their intent is to share their knowledge of magic after the decimation. (Light)
• The smaller floating islands begin to crash into the land and sea due to magical lodestone overmining. The Aerial Admiralty is formed to curb the illegal mining for recreational use. (Dark)
• Legendary sky-pirate Mordiggan the Black kidnaps the Nervaen Scholars and their cargo of invaluable tomes. After negotiations fail, the Admiralty wages a 2-day aerial battle with Mordiggan's flotilla. The engagement cripples both fleets and results in the death of the scholars and the loss of their recovered knowledge (Dark).
• Inalla's daughter, Licia, manifests their technique at a young age. Licia is able to absorb the magical potential of people she encounters and convert it back into pure life force. She is able to use this power as a healer, but it renders those she heals permanently unable to utilize magic. (light)
• The death and horror wroughty by sorcery in the past leads to sorcerers becoming increasingly ostracized and suspected by the public. Sorcerers not ordained by the church are frequently chased from towns or even attacked

7. The Aerial Wars (Dark)

• Wild magic surges from a toddler throwing a tantrum. All within range of the sound become deaf, then report hearing "the words of the mind". (Dark)

8. Magic is lost (Again). The world is plunged into a serene dark age. (Light)

• Order of Lyll and the Order of the Guldhund Go to war (dark)
• Scene: "Q:How did the war end? Where: The Big Treary Signing marking the end of the war"
• A: It was meant to be a peaceful treaty signing, but both sides attrit each other until neither side could continue. Animosity remains, but the will is gone. (Dark)
• The last recorded act of magic was the ending of a drought by Saint Erin, who brought rain that was only slightly oily. (Light)
• The Recorders publish the final volume of the Codex Occulta, a collection of tomes detailing all of magic and metaphysics. (Light)
• After The banks fall Frop the Farmer King ushers in 100 years of peace. (light)
• In the era after Thundercaller is remembered as a folk hero and a famous uniter of people. (Light)
• The 100 years peace ends when a farmer crossbreeds a new type of pepper used in creation of highly toxic gases used in a terror attack against Frop's heir. (dark
• The Erinites, followers of Saint Erin the Last, begin to appear, seeing the cessation of magic to be divine punishment for its misuse, arguing that pious behaviour, when enforced, will enable its return. (Dark)