Difference between revisions of "Magic"

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{{Note|This page includes old lore! It is no longer relevant to the current Verdict storyline|error}}
To be a mage is to wield mana as not only a weapon, but as an ally. Some believe it alone holds the key to humanity's salvation, or to their ascension- others believe it is a tool of the damned, born only to tempt the greedy into unraveling all that humans have accomplished. In either case, only a fool would claim magic is without influence... Especially as of late. With the Convergence approaching, the magical abilities of the denizens of Rhyst are surely escalating.
[[Category:Outdated]]
To be a magician in the world of Verdict is akin to being a scientist in a more modern one. Of course, there are exceptions to the rule- sorcerer-esque individuals exist, who draw upon naught but natural talent- but most who manage these great feats are those who've studied and practiced all their lives. After the [[Void Crisis]], this changed drastically, and not necessarily for the better. The increased influence of the [[Spirits|Patron Spirits]] caused a swell of magical ability in nigh-all of humanity. Regardless of whether or not someone draws on their wisdom or their spiritual connection for power, however... one thing is certain: magic is a volatile tool for both good and evil.
==The Nature of Magic==
It'd be incorrect to say that magic is omnipresent throughout the [[Elemental Planes|Planescape]], as it simply isn't. However, that isn't to say that magic is impossible in the universe; quite the opposite, in fact. Magic is borne of the five [[Aspects]], firstly. The five Aspects are pieces of the five elements present throughout the planes, and [[Mana]], which most living things have at least some regenerating portion of, can be thought of as a neatly-packed box of said Aspects. It contains a decent chunk of each, and to cast magic is to unravel this packaging and construct a spell from the contained Aspects.


It's worth mentioning that this process isn't always for the best, as a firebolt would obviously use up far more of the Fire Aspect, Ignis, than any of the other four. The result is plenty of waste that, simply put, doesn't get recycled well. That being said, it's very difficult for even adept mages to accumulate enough of these consequences for it to matter. This is called [[Backlash]], and is only rarely observed in the most boisterously unstable of archmages. [[Spirits]], at least as far as humans have thus seen, are seemingly incapable of suffering said Backlash.
Magic in a literal sense is simply a manipulation of mana. The five Schools of Magic have different philosophies on how to do this, but the general theme is the same: use the mana generated by your body and soul to accomplish something.
==Spellcasting==


Casting magic is inherently a dangerous thing. It is opening up your body and your soul to the primordial forces that comprise existence to try and reshape them at your behest. A common analogy taught to young mages is that casting a spell without the proper training and tools is like trying to make a snow golem in the middle of a blizzard with their bare hands. In ancient times only a rare few could ever touch the powers of creation and reshape and mold existence as the Spirits did before the Void Crisis. Now their gift lies out in the open, available to any who would reach out and seize it. Little remains of that age's spellcasters; the majority of their mysticism and their designs were lost in the apocalypse. Some of the traditions that they followed and the tools that they used to mitigate the consequences of magic however remain. Each school of magic addresses the key problems that caster's face trying to do their art in a different way: where does their power come from, how do they shape it, and how do they deal with the consequences?
==The Five Schools of Magic==
Long ago, around 700AC, humanity discovered that magic was not just conjuring fireballs and shaking the earth. To those with talent, there were other paths available, many of which allowed for vastly more interesting techniques to arise. These techniques diverged and became what we now know as the Five Schools, each with their own opinions and knowledge on the art of magic.


In the beginning magic was a boon given to those favored followers of the Spirits who had earned their blessing. It was not so much an acquired skill like it is now. Instead it was a true blessing where the boundaries of their flesh and the world around them were eroded, permitting them to touch the worlds as the Spirits did. These early Weavers did not have the same flexibility that casters do now: instead they had to hunt and peck across the world for magical energy to fuel their works, often settling down in the rare locations where Mana lay in abundance for a Weaver to tap. Some few others drew directly from the minute amounts of excess energy their own souls produced rather than stalk the land for the smallest trace of power to harvest. The abundance of magical energy in the Void keeps modern Weavers from having to bind themselves to sacred sites and sacrifice themselves in this fashion. Instead of those archaic methods a Weaver can now often find the Mana their spells need everywhere in the eternal darkness around them.
===Elementalism===
Elementalism is the root of most magic. It is the simplest form to access as an aspiring mage, and thus many mages proceed to this path without even considering the other four. While it was the first to unfold in Rhyst, though, it is not at all the most limiting or limited. Since 700AC, Elementalism has expanded vastly in every direction. Where before a masterful Pyromancer would own at best a handful of fireball-related spells, now a Pyromancer of the same tier may conjure explosions or liquid fire from their fingertips instead.


The act of shaping a spell varies drastically between the schools. There are three dominant methods that survived the destruction of the Void Crisis. Signers cast through their performances where each movement forms an elaborate runic symbol that stitches their spell into being. Masqueraders cast by disassociating with their own identities and echoing the Spirits who shaped creation, mimicking them so they might imitate the act of creation. Temporary school does temporary things. What a Weaver can feasibly accomplish with their magic is retrained by several universal laws that no spellcaster has yet been able to break. Those laws are the ones that govern Aspects and their manipulation as well as three more: the Law of Conjuration, the Law of Restraint, and the Law of Backlash. The act of creating out of Mana and breaking it down into the raw Aspects to work with is infinitely easier than trying to change and destroy complicated substances. Instead using raw energy to create something out of nothing is perhaps the easiest way for a Weaver to cast. The Law of Restraint is so named for a caster's inability to easily work their magic on other people. Any creature bearing Detria is more difficult for a mortal caster to work their magic on.
It is unique in that, unlike most Schools who have split themselves down the middle, Elementalism has instead split into four equal disciplines: Pyromancy, Aquamancy, Geomancy, and Aeromancy.
 
Just as an artist stains their hands with clay and paint a Weaver stains their flesh and soul with the spells they cast. Magic is a messy art. A Weaver cannot work with the primal stuff of the universe without dirtying themselves in the process. To weave a fireball a Weaver must work with their own flesh or some intermediary instrument; it is inevitable in the process that the magic they work with will end up embroiled in their own skin or tools. This process, called Backlash, slowly warps and possibly even kills unprotected spellcasters. Weavers usually stop this process by using their tools to cast just as a painter might wear gloves to keep the hues of their palette off their hands. Others make mutually beneficial pacts with Spirits to bare the brunt of the Backlash for them. A scant few casters choose to pay the price alone and without the protection of tools and Spirits.
 
===Traditional===
 
The most common implements used in casting magic are tomes, wands, and staves, with no respect to order given. They individually represent a unique style of traditional casting, mind, but ultimately achieve a very similar goal: channeling magic through an intermediary focus to amplify its strength. Tomes are associated with wisdom and experience from age. Wands are associated with haste and quick wits. Lastly, staves are- as the most popular choice- associated with potency, strength, and confidence.


===Weaving===
===Weaving===
Weaving is a step beyond traditional Elementalism. Where a Geomancer conjures earth and may derive metal or magma upon greater learning, Weaving is the art of combining elements in such a complex manner that they start to look like something else entirely. The best example of this is the absurdly difficult practice of Arcanery, or more specifically the practice of Arcane Magic. Arcane Magic is the combination of all four elements, resulting in a pure, almost mana-like energy capable of feats of incredible power. Arcane mages are among the most gifted and/or talented, yet they frequently lack endurance due to the excessive amount of studying required for their field.


[[Weaving]] is, in truth, not so much a method of casting as it is the cultural belief ''surrounding'' casting. Those who practice magic will undoubtedly cross paths with at least the concept of Weaving. In short, it is the understanding that to cast magic is to "edit" the [[The Tapestry|Tapestry]] in a sense, and thus to practice Weaving is to show respect to this fact. Many believe this to be a sort of magic-centric religion, wherein the goal is to maintain a healthy balance between self-promotion and environmental consciousness.
On the other hand of the School of Weaving, you have Druidry. Much like Arcanery, it is a complex mix of multiple elements in one- primarily earth and water, but occasionally with influence from fire and wind for more advanced spells. They're known to be connected beyond compare to nature, and their magic revolves around using that connection to their advantage. They can create nonsentient life on a whim from their mana, which cleanly separates Druidry from the same tier as other magic.
 
===Maskcasting===


Some mages would opt to fixate upon folklore, tradition, and history rather than modernity and lexiconic memory. Those who follow this path often arrive at [[Maskcasting]], which entails donning the (imagined) visage of an ancient figure as a magical implement. This takes time, of course- often as much as it'd take to study the utilization of a spell with any wand or staff- but ultimately results in incredibly potent magics resembling that of said ancient figure. This art is one without precision or nuance, but with great ancestral devotion.
===Battlemastery===
Battlemastery is the art of empowering your weaponry with mana and other types of magic. It is split down the middle into Bow- and Blademastery, each of which takes a different stance entirely in combat. Bowmastery, despite its name, also includes some extraneous groups of armaments like throwing knives and other projectile weaponry. It fixates on empowering the projectiles themselves, and talented Bowmasters can even conjure poisons, blights, and elemental afflictions to coat their arrowheads. They are notoriously swift and viciously frustrating to catch due to their propensity for high dexterity physiques.


===The Three Basic Laws===
Blademastery, on the other hand, isn't as cohesive. Blademasters are known to use any number of weapons to achieve their goals, ranging from spears and swords to axes and even hammers in some extraneous cases. Their dexterity is typically high, but many praise the value of strength instead; in either case, their force is one to be reckoned with. Most fixate on drawing blood from their targets or empowering the weight of their weapons to excessive degrees.


1. It is impossible to change the basic five aspects. While it is possible to combine and separate them from more complex substances, it is impossible to break them down further for they are the basic building blocks of reality.
===Augmenting===
Augmenting is the least developed of all existing Schools of Magic thus far, but it'd be a mistake to call it undeserving of a title as one of the five. Augmenters are those who empower their bodies and physicality with mana and magic, becoming monstrously strong and tanky behemoths that cannot be taken down with mundane weaponry alone. This is most commonly classed as Berserking. While Berserkers must still wield weapons and armor to match the best mages in combat, they tend to need them less, and no mage serves better without such tools than a Berserker in their prime.


2. It is easier to create than destroy. Combining aspects to create new and more complex substances is easier than separating a pre-existing one.  
Theories exist that claim far-off lands may bear extensions of Augmenting, focused on self-healing and physical, hand-to-hand combat. Some think these techniques may soon leak into the world of Rhyst...


3. spirit detria restrictions ( add onto this later, need more information )
===Sorcery===
If Elementalism is the art of unpackaging a box of blocks and creating a fireball from said blocks, Sorcery is the art of hurling the entire box at your opponent. Among novice Sorcerers, this is as complex as it gets: you're merely firing mana wholesale at your target in a demonstration of extremely inefficient but similarly powerful magic. And for many years following this level of expertise, its methodology doesn't change much. However, once you approach a degree of mastery, it expands into a much greater talent encompassing complicated mana manipulation, Blood Magic, and even some Fae and Void Magic.


==Elements & Hybrids==
It is commonly organized into two categories: Witchery, which deals with Blood and Blight Magic, and Incanting, which deals with the closest approximations of Fae and Void Magic we humans can manifest. Witches are renown for their ability to manipulate the mana latent in human bodies before it is made manifest, making them adept at controlling existing life and degrading it. Incanters, on the other hand, specialize in manipulating existing magic, and are exceptional in the pursuit of controlling other mages' magic as well as denying it.
As mentioned above, there are five [[Aspects]]- one for each element: Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, and Essence. Generally speaking, mages will attribute themselves to at most two of these elements, fixating their lives on practicing each to their very core. In exceptional cases, though, especially powerful and skillful wizards have been found capable of mixing these Aspects and elements in unique and strange ways. Many combinations sputter out uselessly, but some produce absolutely incredible feats of magical ability. Nature is a particularly decent example, which draws on the caster's [[Mana]] to accelerate natural growth. Gravity, too, is quite fascinating; one can alter the pressure of air by combining the inherent manipulations of Wind magic with the density-altering properties of Earth magic.


By the time of the [[Void Crisis]], nearly all ordinary elemental combinations- now deemed "Hybrids"- had been hashed out between the archmages of humanity's millennia. Each wields a primary element and a secondary element, with the primary attributed roughly two-thirds of the Hybrid's form.
==Relic Magic==
*Fire +
Relic Magic exists in the realm beyond the magic we're currently aware of. It is what the Schools have yet to catalogue, and what they likely never will; the Necromantic methods of Vul'Karik, or the Fel Magic of Paschia Fel. The mass-sacrifice spells of Oberon, or the Planeshifting of Titania. Yet it is not only the magic of the Eidolons that classifies, as some masterful mages can accomplish creation of a spellcraft at this tier with a lifetime of work. Some say talented Druids may prove capable of one day melding into the trees for a lifetime... Others believe Sorcerers hold the key to creating pocket planes, or to delve into the depths of the human psyche.
**Earth =
***Magma
**Water =
***Steam
*Earth +
**Water =
***Nature
**Wind =
***Gravity
*Water +
**Wind =
***Ice
**Essence =
***Body
*Wind +
**Fire =
***Lightning
**Essence =
***Sound
*Essence +
**Earth =
***Crystal
**Fire =
***Light

Revision as of 03:01, 24 July 2021

To be a mage is to wield mana as not only a weapon, but as an ally. Some believe it alone holds the key to humanity's salvation, or to their ascension- others believe it is a tool of the damned, born only to tempt the greedy into unraveling all that humans have accomplished. In either case, only a fool would claim magic is without influence... Especially as of late. With the Convergence approaching, the magical abilities of the denizens of Rhyst are surely escalating.

Magic in a literal sense is simply a manipulation of mana. The five Schools of Magic have different philosophies on how to do this, but the general theme is the same: use the mana generated by your body and soul to accomplish something.

The Five Schools of Magic

Long ago, around 700AC, humanity discovered that magic was not just conjuring fireballs and shaking the earth. To those with talent, there were other paths available, many of which allowed for vastly more interesting techniques to arise. These techniques diverged and became what we now know as the Five Schools, each with their own opinions and knowledge on the art of magic.

Elementalism

Elementalism is the root of most magic. It is the simplest form to access as an aspiring mage, and thus many mages proceed to this path without even considering the other four. While it was the first to unfold in Rhyst, though, it is not at all the most limiting or limited. Since 700AC, Elementalism has expanded vastly in every direction. Where before a masterful Pyromancer would own at best a handful of fireball-related spells, now a Pyromancer of the same tier may conjure explosions or liquid fire from their fingertips instead.

It is unique in that, unlike most Schools who have split themselves down the middle, Elementalism has instead split into four equal disciplines: Pyromancy, Aquamancy, Geomancy, and Aeromancy.

Weaving

Weaving is a step beyond traditional Elementalism. Where a Geomancer conjures earth and may derive metal or magma upon greater learning, Weaving is the art of combining elements in such a complex manner that they start to look like something else entirely. The best example of this is the absurdly difficult practice of Arcanery, or more specifically the practice of Arcane Magic. Arcane Magic is the combination of all four elements, resulting in a pure, almost mana-like energy capable of feats of incredible power. Arcane mages are among the most gifted and/or talented, yet they frequently lack endurance due to the excessive amount of studying required for their field.

On the other hand of the School of Weaving, you have Druidry. Much like Arcanery, it is a complex mix of multiple elements in one- primarily earth and water, but occasionally with influence from fire and wind for more advanced spells. They're known to be connected beyond compare to nature, and their magic revolves around using that connection to their advantage. They can create nonsentient life on a whim from their mana, which cleanly separates Druidry from the same tier as other magic.

Battlemastery

Battlemastery is the art of empowering your weaponry with mana and other types of magic. It is split down the middle into Bow- and Blademastery, each of which takes a different stance entirely in combat. Bowmastery, despite its name, also includes some extraneous groups of armaments like throwing knives and other projectile weaponry. It fixates on empowering the projectiles themselves, and talented Bowmasters can even conjure poisons, blights, and elemental afflictions to coat their arrowheads. They are notoriously swift and viciously frustrating to catch due to their propensity for high dexterity physiques.

Blademastery, on the other hand, isn't as cohesive. Blademasters are known to use any number of weapons to achieve their goals, ranging from spears and swords to axes and even hammers in some extraneous cases. Their dexterity is typically high, but many praise the value of strength instead; in either case, their force is one to be reckoned with. Most fixate on drawing blood from their targets or empowering the weight of their weapons to excessive degrees.

Augmenting

Augmenting is the least developed of all existing Schools of Magic thus far, but it'd be a mistake to call it undeserving of a title as one of the five. Augmenters are those who empower their bodies and physicality with mana and magic, becoming monstrously strong and tanky behemoths that cannot be taken down with mundane weaponry alone. This is most commonly classed as Berserking. While Berserkers must still wield weapons and armor to match the best mages in combat, they tend to need them less, and no mage serves better without such tools than a Berserker in their prime.

Theories exist that claim far-off lands may bear extensions of Augmenting, focused on self-healing and physical, hand-to-hand combat. Some think these techniques may soon leak into the world of Rhyst...

Sorcery

If Elementalism is the art of unpackaging a box of blocks and creating a fireball from said blocks, Sorcery is the art of hurling the entire box at your opponent. Among novice Sorcerers, this is as complex as it gets: you're merely firing mana wholesale at your target in a demonstration of extremely inefficient but similarly powerful magic. And for many years following this level of expertise, its methodology doesn't change much. However, once you approach a degree of mastery, it expands into a much greater talent encompassing complicated mana manipulation, Blood Magic, and even some Fae and Void Magic.

It is commonly organized into two categories: Witchery, which deals with Blood and Blight Magic, and Incanting, which deals with the closest approximations of Fae and Void Magic we humans can manifest. Witches are renown for their ability to manipulate the mana latent in human bodies before it is made manifest, making them adept at controlling existing life and degrading it. Incanters, on the other hand, specialize in manipulating existing magic, and are exceptional in the pursuit of controlling other mages' magic as well as denying it.

Relic Magic

Relic Magic exists in the realm beyond the magic we're currently aware of. It is what the Schools have yet to catalogue, and what they likely never will; the Necromantic methods of Vul'Karik, or the Fel Magic of Paschia Fel. The mass-sacrifice spells of Oberon, or the Planeshifting of Titania. Yet it is not only the magic of the Eidolons that classifies, as some masterful mages can accomplish creation of a spellcraft at this tier with a lifetime of work. Some say talented Druids may prove capable of one day melding into the trees for a lifetime... Others believe Sorcerers hold the key to creating pocket planes, or to delve into the depths of the human psyche.

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