Hi there, firstly, thanks for all the work! Nicely done and well gathered, indeed. I want to dig deeper into this one though: "Q-24: What is this about magic being illegal? A: While there are "forbidden" or highly frowned upon and taboo arts, magic is not illegal anywhere." Alchemy is considered a taboo and a heretical practice with regards to Elionism, and thus it is banned from Calpheon city—excluding the Holy College—though, even this has more to do with a political contention between the Elionian Church and famous alchemists like Gorgath and Alustin gaining popularity. How can you say, anywhere? What about Calpheon City, for example. If you say Alchemy is considered a taboo and banned from Calpheon City, why not magic? There are literally no hints in Calpheon City that magic even exists - excluding the Holy College. I was always under the impression that magic is banned as well as Alchemy; as we have several NPC sources talking about magic and witches and the citizens of calpheon being pretty afraid. How about concepts of Inquisition at this point? Wouldnt they be pointless, if Magic was legally allowed in Calpheon city? And why dont we see it being used on NPCs when it is not legal, like we do in Tariff? Happy to discuss and getting new information on this one!
The Elf healing the wounded guard in Trina Fortress. The fact that elves as a whole are magically gifted and that nobody as a whole in Calpheon speaks a single complaint of them. Valkyries use holy magic. It is as Nascha wrote, The forbidden acts are a reference to those witches. There are no hints or any type of data that would imply for there to be an Inquisition of sorts. An Inquisition, within the context of what is there, is assumed to plausibly exist, but it remains unconfirmed. Assuming my memory serves me well, there are diplomatic relations between Calpheon and Tarif.
Im explicitly asking about Calpheon City; not the battle realms in Calpheon generally and not including elves and elven spiritual magic in this - which is not even considered as magic by the elves themself, if I am not mistaken. Valks use "holy magic" as a gift of Elion and in the favour of the church. I think a statement like "Magic is not illegal anywhere" is very brave without any sufficient proof. And for my point of view, as unconfirmed as a possible inquisition. As long as we have no insight into Calpheon law books or courts.
@Nasche and @Whitrix Are both quite deeply involved into the lore. Whitrix manages the wiki in all regards to lore and some of their lore facts are rather fascinating. How about the other way around. You have stated an opinion, as you are the one disagreeing, the burden of proof lies with you. But can you deliver?
Back in the day among the RP groups there was a lot of people that read the "Alchemy is illegal in Calpheon City" and decided to spread the idea that Magic was also illegal. Even today a lot of people from back then keep saying it. We know that no knowledge entry, NPC dialogue nor quest text says that Magic is illegal, neither in Calpheon City nor anywhere. Same way, we have no knowledge entry, NPC dialogue nor quest text saying "Magic is legal and widely used everywhere". We only know about institutionalized magic in Tarif. Other users of various types of magic live everywhere, among Human and Barbarian races. From simple Imps in Balenos to rogue wizards in the Serendian rebel groups and the magic casters among the Shadow Knights. There's no text saying that magic is accepted. We do have a few mercenary-like NPCs in taverns around the world (if I remember right, in Heidel or Glish maybe?) that are wizards. And the common populace does indeed treat anything that has to do with magic with fear and prejudice, as they have always done in fantasy settings and the real world about everything they're ignorant about. Short summary: There's no written proof about it being legal nor illegal. I would take the FAQ's "magic is not illegal anywhere." more as a vindication of the fact that for the last two years a lot of people has defended the opposite without any proof.
I play the game in German language, so I can only provide via translation: There are several NPCs located around Calpheon City, telling tales about witches who not seduce young men and destroy fields. There is an old woman in the city, near the merchants district. I have also found this piece: https://bddatabase.net/us/theme/5699/ "If you meet a foe that uses the Evil Thoughts of the Witch, hurry Calpheon and seek out the followers of Elion. Their order has a history of fighting against witches, and will be a valuable source of information." At the end, I do agree on you @Whitrix that neither it has been said that it is legal nor illegal in Calpheon City, although I'd rather lean towards the opinion that it is not allowed within calpheon city (for various reasons). But that is just a decision I've made for myself. I just found it rather confusing as a statement in the Questioning, as it has made the impression to me, that this is a solid fact.
@Maevan Between Grandus <Armor Vendor> and Herba Inn in Market Street you can find a group of NPCs labeled as "Hunters". Among them there's a wizard openly doing fire tricks. https://imgur.com/ZeYOJqg
Wow that's a crazy amount of lore. The last time I Rped was in the Ole Vampire Tavern of Yahoo text chat 20 years ago Haha. Is there still a server that BDO RPers generally hangout on?
BDRP (Black Desert Roleplayers). One of the RP communities. You can also join other discord servers with lore channels like EU RP or the general BDO discord server.