Text-based but *very* mobile friendly -- might turn it into a mobile game of some kind.
Exploration/sandbox. There's a lot to do and potentially do with its magic system, which has an impact on the world in a LoLP way. Tons of systems here to experiment with.
A huge amount of worldbuilding involved -- deities (tied to schools of magic) + philosophical schools of thought + economic groups + political groups, with varying levels of overlap. Learning the lore (and taking tests) improves skills / capacities / general reputation. This knowledge acquisition is a puzzlish system in itself -- you'll be hunting down documents, working with contradiction, navigating testing environments, etc.
A blend of handcrafted and procedural content in the Saepes/LotLP tradition.
The overall goal is unraveling deeper mysteries -- you aren't explicitly pushed towards them, but there's various hooks and that is how you get game endings.
There are multiple schools of magic, each with their own patron deity(s), which provide the actual magic effects (at least according to the mainstream "deified magic" philosophy).
Creation -- the creation of new content of whatever type. This particular deity requires balance -- creation must involve irrevocable destruction of something with the same amount of "right to existence". This doesn't need to be the same thing though -- you can destroy powerful instruments to create buildings for example.
Envoid -- a destructive school of magic in the literal sense. The deity here seeks the spreading of "void" specifically -- a thick material where nothing exists except by its allowance. Destroying, say, items, doesn't cause void to form or spread, but it's one of the perks when working with this school of magic. The deity is very choosy with its acolytes, seeking those who have the biggest impact on forming and spreading voids and fighting against those who are against it, not just those that wish to destroy things.
Enchantment -- enchantments are powerful long-lasting effects attached to objects and environments. Weaker ones can be dispelled, while some are so powerful they are ubiquitous in those areas and sometimes believed to be perpetual and set up by local gods (though that's silly as you can test the power of them yourself). Enchantments have the most complicated system with multiple paths to an effect and multiple drawbacks, as well as a convoluted means of ramping up enchantment power. The god, meanwhile is hands-off, rewarding ingenuity with a deeper knowledge that comes in dreams and only if the enchanter swears to keep their biggest insights secret.
Cadaceus -- The twin effects of restorative and afflictive magic that affects all living beings. This is ruled over by the twins that both seek fulfillment of their aspect -- ie, the restorative twin seeks immortality and invulnerability of all beings. There's kind of a delicate balancing act here as granting too much power to one twin increases the desperation of the other, leading to events like plagues or whatever. There are some schools of thought that address this however, since mages in this school generally seek immortality. Both of the twins communicate actively with their followers/enemies, attempting to convert followers of the other twin as well.
Simulacra -- This school of magic creates temporary copies of various objects, particularly food. These objects will do whatever their native forms will do (like nourish the body), but have a short lifespan if unused. The school of magic is relatively easy to learn (analyze + "summon"), ubiquitous, and knowledge/technology sharing is encouraged. The patron goddess gives cryptic advice using a series of code words wrapped within basic stories without morals.
Realms -- realms are alternate dimensions with their own rules. Heavily utilized for a variety of reasons (as a Curator you have your own as a general living space / testing grounds). Some are infinite in scope. Instead of a single patron god, there's a whole pantheon whose members vary depending on your school of thought and local tradition. It's hard to tell which ones are actually real, nor which property aspects even control realms in the first place.
Instruments -- instruments are ubiquitous and are how anyone performs magic in the first place, via specialized artifacts with some kind of limited charge and various means of recharge. The god here is notably absent and has been relegated to myth -- there are few followers of the absent god accordingly, though it's believed that the greatest insights come from its communication. Many people deep into this school of magic act as atheists.
Fishing -- the fishing school of magic pulls resources from the world. Obviously, actual fishing plays a big role, but things like gaining specific compounds from plants and animals are also included. The magic system here is complex, though not as bad as Enchanting, and fishing itself is celebrated with knowledge freely available in fishing communities.
Husbandry -- this school of magic focuses on farming and animal domestication, as well as genetic tweaks thereof. Taming wild plants or animals is ruthlessly complex, so there's a kind of monoculture going on with things that are used frequently.
Industry -- Industry is complex, ubiquitous in economic groups and a huge part of society -- it's involved in creating machines and factories that refine materials and combine them into items, etc. This school is notable in that its practitioners are barred from learning other magic -- some kind of enchantment or god-effect makes knowledge elsewhere erase existing industry knowledge. High-level industrialists are basically nonmagical as a result, and there are some philosophies that have a *huge* problem with this (as well as several gods).
Mind -- the mind school of magic manipulates the mental states of brained beings. Manipulating your fellow human for any non-consensual reason is obviously frowned upon in wider society, and so the groups operating here tend to be secretive and selective. The god here is a kind of memetic mind-virus -- manipulating people requires planting some kind of seed of worship of that deity, or reinforcing existing beliefs. The other gods also have a huge problem with this, with the exception of the envoid god who uses people with their minds broken in this way as ready converts -- this god seems to also be okay with this, considering the envoid god as a necessary ally.
Curators are a loosely religious group that enacts powerful changes in the world. They're basically given free reign and have some amount of positive reputation from the outset (though that can quickly change if they're too destructive/imbalanced). The thinking with other groups is that they would like to manipulate you to their own ends, so they allow you to do whatever you want within reason and try to steer you on a path that serves them.
One Curator can exist in the world at a time, and this also only happens rarely. Your patron god is communicative and seeks only those big mystery-solving changes -- it doesn't matter to Curatus if you make the world a better place or utterly destroy it.
Stabilists are a philosophical group that *hates* Curators. Throughout the game they'll seek to impede your progress and otherwise convince you to quit the game so things stay the same.
As a Curator, you have access to Curatopolis -- an area of the world that's very hard to access since it's surrounded by shields and the path goes through a complex series of interactions which change daily (real-life daily). Curatopolis does give you more background information on past Curators, what the people in the city are currently doing, and your overall mission. You can visit your friends/family and unlock background characterization as well.
When they're not explicitly Curating, Curators analyze the data brought back by past Curators and use this to seek out first principles and get a sense of what's *really* going on (and why). They aren't tied down to any particular religion or school of thought and treat all of them equally. The patron god actually encourages this, preferring active discovery rather than blind worship.
Curator changes warp the world so irrevocably that new systems emerge in their wake and a new Curator has to go around hundreds of years later to make sense of it. Indeed, a lot of Curator lore is based of magic systems that no longer exist -- shattered worlds, personal magic without instruments, potions, dragons, etc.
Curators are a fixed group. While they have long lifespans, they aren't immortal. When a Curator dies, another Curator gestates in a womb and it's believed that they reincarnate (though death itself is one of those deeper mysteries that you can unlock).
World Curators are chosen by a reincarnative hierarchy -- it has to be those newly born who are presumed to be reincarnations of a simultaneous death. Higher-ranking Curators get chosen first and will supplant other Curators, up until the actual Curation ceremony. There's a guy in the city that really resents you, as he was chosen first and only a year out from his own Curation ceremony someone on a higher level of the hierarchy died. He's still next on the list because of how that works but will have to wait hundreds of years after your own Curation, assuming he doesn't die in the meantime.
Curators aren't allowed outside of Curatopolis unless they're actively Curating. All of their isolated knowledge comes from past Curators --- they try to keep their knowledge secure. Curators that disobey are killed and presumably reincarnate -- this tends to be those lower in the hierarchy.
The whole thing is pretty dystopian, and if you explore Curatopolis enough you'll discover some of these grim realities that up until that point you were unaware of. This might inform your Curator decisions later, as some world changes will absolutely affect Curator society itself (particularly the death one).
Curators are isolated and self-sufficient. Those not actively Curating practice Lost Magic -- old systems that no longer work in the wider world based on known first principles. There's a big enchantment with a huge power that keeps Lost Magic from working elsewhere, though this is one of the things you can change. Food production is particularly interesting -- transmutation of fast high-yield crops into a variety of mythical forms like dragon soup.
As part of your ceremony, you were encased in a Linguas -- a sort of limiting protective shell that keeps you safe from harm and allows you to access magic and move around/interact with stuff via a keypad but heavily restricts your movement. It's also pretty dystopian -- there is actually a way of removing it in the game which will piss off the Curators and lead to a very different set of endings but it'll give you a heck of a lot more leeway in what you can do -- I'm thinking it comes from befriending the Stabilizers + discovering the dystopian side of Curatopolis. As an added bonus though you can use Instruments directly without the arcane Linguas system.
