Spellcasting

Introduction

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?

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.

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.

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.

The Laws of Spellcasting

Several incontrovertible laws bind the act of spellcasting that mortal man has yet to be able to break. 1.) caster cannot fuck with the laws of the aspects 2.) conjuration is easier than destruction

In echo of the Spirits who gave spellcasting to mortal-kind it is often

3.) spirit detria restrictions