Wow... this topic had been dormant for so long... i didn't expect anyone to post here again. Nice to see i was wrong.

I have no idea if it will work with the current map tools... i haven't used it in quite a long while myself.

If it doesn't, please post about it. I will then try to make it work again.

I know that codex alera and the dresden files is happening around the same time at least.

Alera and Dresden are connected in that the original settlers from Alera are from earth. They are the lost roman legion

I know the WoJ about Dresden and Alera happening at the same time. That comparison was to illustrate Alera's historical development. It did not suggest conneted universes, at least not to me.
Both the Alera and Dresden Storyworlds are fictional versions of our own, yes. But are they the same fictional version? There is nothing to suggest that.

Unless that WoJ about Harry and Tavi sharing a bloodline exists, which i don't know.

I think the population should be much higher...

So a habble is 2 miles by 2 miles.
That's about 3.2km by 3.2km.
That brings us to 10.24 kmē

Let's assume that 1/3rd is actual living space. (that's a complete fabrication on my part based on nothing.)
That would bring us to ca. 3.41kmē of living space.
3.41kmē = 3410000mē
Let's assume 9mē or rather 10mē (for easy math) of space per person. Close, but not too close quarters. (a little lower that what is deemed minimum appropriate living space by social services in Germany.)

341000 habitants per habble

a habble would then have a population density of 341000 / 10,24 = 33300 people/kmē

Which would be higher than Paris with around 21000 ppl/kmē but less than paris' highest density districy which has about 42000 ppl/kmē

We probably need to cut the number of inhabitants down a bit to account for the fact that you probably can't have more that 2 or maybe three story buildings in the habbles.

So let's just cut the number of inhabitants in half.

That would bring us to roughly 170000 people per habble and about 17000 ppl/kmē

which would then lead to a theoretical maximum population of
...
250 habbles * 170000 people
…
42.500.000 people per spire.

Sound's like a Borg-Cube to me.

General Stuff
I don't think the reader should take the characters' opinions to heart so much.
As long as the characters are working as characters and not just as vehicles for the author's opinions.
In Windlass, and indeed all of Butcher's work i have read, the characters and their viewpoints are diverse and believable enough to stand on their own and make sense inside the story world.

A little Detail
We have seen assholes among the Albions as well as the Aurorans, and we have also seen honorable folk among both. Also, i think it works in the setting for the characters to be somewhat bigoted. Apparently most people in the spires never even leave their home habble. Even less people would be leaving their home spire, resulting in highly insular cultures in the spires.
And then there's the fact that we are seeing that world mostly through soldiers eyes in wartime... no wonder that we are dealing with a certain amount of prejudice.

To sum up again: No i don't think one should be offended in general. And also not in this particular case.

I'd start with the most basic way to model musical magic:

• Ritual (Fiddlers Magic)
• Stunt (Musical Magic) Use Performance instead of Lore for Rituals

everything else would then be flavor text.
I think Ritual would be the way to go, instant effects being a little out of character here.

From there one could go ahead and modify.

As mentioned before: Sponsored magic instead of Ritual for the Devil aspect. would be a possibility.

As for Alternate Magical Paradigm. It's basically three stunts into one, so at -1 Refresh it's already dirt cheap. No need to make it free of charge.

For me Enchanted items and Focus Items need to be external.

I'd just go and run it all as normal magic with a tattoo theme,
maybe use the tattoos as a justification for rote spells.

Tattoo behind the ear, sensory rote
Lightning bolt on the arm, attack rote
etc.

Compel the Tattoo Artist aspect to block those sometimes, maybe when the tattoo is covered or maybe to say you have a really minor scratch that won't compromise the tattoo once it's healed up.
And for longer lasting damage use it in consequences, so instead of having a twisted wrist or something you have a cut through the tattoo so that it has to be touched up and you loose access to the rote while you have the consequence.

However, I like the idea of potions as one shot tattoos that fade after use.
The character could easily sell those too.
And you could have enchanted tattooing needles as foci that give potion/tattoo power and such.

I have an organization called AMBOSS in a game I GM which is basically a German version of that. I've never gone into detail about their organizational structure, but I can talk about their ideology and the way they operate.

[...]

My Invention!!!! 

It's an acronym for: Amt des Bundes für Okkulte Sichtungen und Sicherheit

Nice to see it's still active :-)

The typical wizard doesn't have recovery. 

(click to show/hide)

But Harry probably does by Cold Days, so that might account for some extra spell-casting.  Maybe?

Yes, I agree with what you are saying, but if you have wizards constitution, you can recover from a minor consequence after "the next scene" because you don't really need an excuse to start healing.  But if you run 3 scenes that are all the same combat, you probably don't want to allow that...but by RAW, you could...even without a recovery power. 

So technically, in scene 1 you take a minor, scene 2 you still have the minor by scene 3 you've recovered.  Given my example above, it probably doesn't make much sense.

I think we're just agreeing with each other here.
Wizards constitution takes away the "measures need be taken to start healing" aspect of justification to heal. It does not take away the "down-time is needed" part.
During Combat there is no down-time to start healing... hence no recovery without a Recovery Power.
As we all know, the RAW in the DFRPG often rely heavily on people not trying to squeeze them for every little advantage. This is one of those cases.
Wizards constitution is not meant to provide a hands on advantage, it's more a narrative device... which is why it costs 0 refresh.

But we're starting to drift away from the Spell Endurance issue here.

I think the harsh limitations on how many spells a magic user can manage per scene are highly important in terms of game balance.
Magic is already extremely potent in the DFRPG, and if one took away those limitations it would go totally of the rails.

One way to increase the number of spell per scene i would consider, would be the sponsored magic route. Take on debt to cover the base stress of a spell. that would, theoretically, give you an unlimited number of spells per scene, but at a cost... a potentially really high cost. One Compel per free spell thrown... it's something to use in desperate situations... as it should be.