Board Thread:Custom Lore Development/@comment-26258526-20160530212127/@comment-26237442-20160601173754

Ok so I've had them since I was in primary school (year 5 I think) and I've been developing them since then they live on (but mostly inside) an island in the middle of a vast lake covered in ghostly fog. Their leader is the Slugblager Monster of Misty lake a mage tortoise of gigantic proportions with no small amount of Magical prowess.

Mage Torti are roughly human sized, sentient tortoises that range in size and appearance depending on their role in the colony. Your average joe Torti looks a bit like a snap jaw turtle holding a spear (or plough or pick) and is shorter than an elf but taller than a dwarf. A Mage Hexer is a larger spike shelled thing with an affinity for all things acedemic. There's also Mage Torti Gigantus the toughest of the Mage Torti (they don't even need armour in battle), and the mage Torti artisans (who have long fingers instead of little stubby things).

Mage Torti culture is a weird mixture of ant colony and Aesthetic (with a bit of Maritime thrown in on top) for instance the main island has 2 layers devoted to mining and forging both of which are done with utter control and co-ordination (picks all hit in unison etc.) but it also has a floor devoted to museums, art galleries and pattiserie. Mage torti magic works by attributing spells to certain symbols or inscriptions and some form of activation switch. The energy for this comes from a central volcano in the island's centre which is used for the entire city's warmth, metal extraction and thaumatic collection services. when a mage torti gets to far away from his or her home their magic is severly weakened (mage torti only found new settlements on areas with high background thaumatism).

the mage torti also possess one island and a small settlement near a waterfall