Magic of Andlosheim

[Seperallis]

The Magic of Andlosheim
A Complete Encyclopedia on the Magic of the Vast Realms of the World


: Bibliography :
The Fundamentals of Magic - Archmage Sigismunt Alantund


[Work In Progress]

[Seperallis]

The Fundamentals of Magic
By Archmagus Sigismunt Alantund


In order to begin studying magic or develop magical skills, one must first understand the very nature of magic, for only through a thorough understanding of magic may one hope to work with it in such a way that shall not lead to adverse and very likely devastating consequences, such as death or worse. For example, I recently had a pupil attempt a simple levitation of small dinnerware before he had learned the proper nature of such a feat; his fingers turned to spoons, his tongue shriveled to the size of a raisin, and his anus disappeared - a most unbecoming scene, especially as the episode so frightened the boy as he pee'd himself and ruined my lab's carpeting.

For you see, what we call "magic" might better be described "the absence of reality," similar to how the absence of light is known as "darkness." Reality, of course, is how we expect the mundane world to work: gravity pulls things downward, fire is hot, boulders are solid, clapping your hands makes noise, etc. Reality, therefore, can be removed from the picture, allowing feats of "magic" to be performed: objects that levitate, fire that doesn't burn, babies that aren't ugly, and other such things that defy the natural order of the world. The art of performing magic is thusly little more than the act of dispelling reality and replacing it with one's own by telling the world what you would like happen, in terms it can neither ignore nor refuse.

However! This does not mean magic is a simple affair. The employment of magic can be immensely draining, both physically and mentally, on its practitioners to the point that countless have pressed themselve too far and fallen to become the evil beasts we know as "Blackspawn." Many a wizard has spent lifetimes studying the theories of magical dynamics; many a mage has gone months without sleep or a proper wash in preparation for a complex ritual. The proper employment of magic takes great learning, preparation, and most importantly...effort. This is due entirety to magic's governing law, the Law of Conservation of Reality.


Part 1: The Law of Conservation of Reality

"Anything achieved through magic requires the same effort as though it were achieved mundanely."

In other terms, it always takes the same amount of effort to perform an action with magic as it would to perform the equivalent action without magic. For example, say you want to move a boulder to the top of a hill. Normally, it would take a team of strong men with the right tools several hours and a lot of sweat and strain to move that boulder into position. Using magic, the feat can be accomplished within the span of minutes or seconds; however the wizard would still have to expend the same amount of effort to move the boulder into position as the team of strongmen, and that could potentially be a lot of energy.

Therein lies the greatest challenge faced by any mage: attaining and harnessing the proper amount of energy to perform the desired action.

The First Step in any application of magic is the proper and thorough study of the action to be performed. Just as one may only safely perform magic by thoroughly understanding the nature of magic, so too may one only perform an action by thorough understanding of that action. How is the action performed? What is the end-effect of the action? How much effort does the action require in order to complete? This sort of research is the crux of magical practice, and such studies comprise the greatest portion of a mage's waking life (and sometimes their sleeping life, as well).

If you thought this lifestyle was all lightning and fireballs, or you just don't like to study, then I strongly urge you to close this book and reconsider your choice in becoming a mage.

Anyhow, The Second Step in any application of magic is the proper, controlled release of energy to create the desired effect/action. For this, one will need two things: a source of energy (otherwise nothing will happen) and an understanding of how much energy the effect/action requires (otherwise something will happen, but you won't like the outcome). The latter is especially important; use too little energy and the action will draw energy from the caster, resulting in almost certain death (as explained below); use too much energy and you will suffer overbleed after the effect is completed, causing additional (undesired) effects and potentially harming yourself, your fellows, or (worse still) your equipment.

Sources of energy can come in a plethora of forms. The following is a short list with some explanations, though it is by no means exhaustive:

-Your own life- By far the simplest form of energy, and the one to which your magic will default in the absence of any other energy input, the mage may use the energy from her very life and body as the energy needed to perform magic. However, it takes surprisingly little energy to wind yourself or end your own mortal life, and so it rarely provides enough energy to safely perform more than a few basic cantrips, such as lighting/snuffing a candle, drying a tear, turning the page of a book, and so on.

TAKE CAUTION when using your own life forces to power magics. While being in good physical form can increase your body's ability to handle such strain (just as being stronger makes you capable of lifting heavier things mundanely), it is far too easy to overestimate the effort a task requires. This may result in harm to your person or even the permanent shortening of your life, including instant and probably-irrevocable death.

-Blood- While even less efficient than using your own life forces, blood has the benefit of being harvestable from other living beings, be they willing or not. Of course, the "not" has led nearly every noble state (and many of the others as well) to outlaw the use of blood-fueled magics (often just called "blood magics"). Please note that the Circle of Mages in Sidgard expressly forbids the use of blood as a means for providing energy to magical actions. This done to appease the wishes of the Order, as the use of blood is prone to abuse, and seen by the public as barbaric. I am inclined to agree with this sentiment.

-Potions & magical substances- The art of Alchemy is one of the most ancient known to man, and will be covered in-depth in other publications. However, I will note that ancient alchemists have long known that they may use their creations to fuel small feats of magic when in a pinch, though doing so causes the potion/substance to become inert.

-Deva & Daemon- The process known as Theurgy is oldest form of magic practiced by mortal man, and will be discussed in greater detail in other publications. Unlike other methods, where the mage is not the one creating or providing the effort necessary to perform the magic, instead invoking some other extraplanar entity ("being" is too narrow a term) into performing the magical act on her behalf. The process of Theurgy always includes some form of promise or contract with the entity that will (hopefully) perform the magic; this is only fair, after all, as the Law of Conservation of Reality applies to gods as well.

This does, however, make the practice of Theurgy incredibly dangerous if the entity begins to feel that the contract will not be honored; this is double the case when one deals with Daemon, as these nature spirits often lack higher reasoning or a basic understanding of mortality. Dealing with Fiends is expressly forbidden by the Circle of Mages in every realm, as these malign entities will almost certainly destroy the mage if they so desire.

-Rituals- The most common form of performing magic and also the safest method on the whole, rituals create the energy needed for performing magical acts by having the mage perform some other action that is similar to the magic she wants to perform. Ritual magic is versatile; the same outcome can be achieved through any number of different rituals, and even many rituals that seem obtuse or dubiously related to the desired outcome will work. For example, a mage might repeatedly carry and drop an object up and down a flight of stairs in order to lift or move some other object; a mage might create several small alchemical explosions in order to create one large explosion; a mage might pile some wood and create a large bonfire in order to spew gouts of flame at her enemies. Always be mindful that the total effort and energy put into the ritual will always equal the magical outcome.

Of course, attempting rituals and negotiating contract terms with the natural forces of the world may not always be possible, especially when the task is so urgent as to require immediate action. How, then, are mages capable of performing impressive feats of magic almost seemingly at will? The answer is simple: they store their power in artifacts.


Part 2: Artificers & Magical Artifacts

"A Wizard is only as powerful as his boots allow."

While the quote is not true in a literal sense, the point is that, in order for a mage to perform feats of magic without having to always immediately spend the time and effort, she must have some method for storing and carrying magical energy for later use. Thus, the role of the Artificer was created.

Artificers are those mages who craft/create objects and then imbue them with magical properties. Because the process that allows an object to be imbued with magic can only be performed while the object is being crafted, Artificers tend to partner with and work alongside artisans and other trade workers; it is rare for an Artificer to work alone, as the mage would have to be a master of both her magical study and the trade skill relevant to the artifacts she intends to create, which could take many decades. Even then, not every mage has a hand patient or delicate enough for the work of an Artificer.

Any object with magical properties is colloquially known as an "artifact," even though the term only correctly applies to an object created by an Artificer. From a pendant that shines in the dark, to a key that immolates itself when held by someone other than its owner, potentially anything can be an artifact as long as an Artificer had a hand in its creation.

However, Artifacting shall be covered in other publications, as it is complex magic that does not interest us at this time. What does interest us are the special artifacts whose purpose is specifically to store magical energies for later use. These can include:

-Staves- The most iconic of all a mage's equipment, the staff is typically a long pole-like object usually between one and three meters in length, often made of wood or other organic materials (due to their excellent conductive properties) with either a knob or some manner of crystalline mineral faceted to the end (due to their exceptional storage capacity). Some are even inlaid with jems and precious metals, though these are often little more than ceremonial dressing due to metal's tendency to dampen magical energies unless handled very meticulously by the Artificer that made the staff. While many mages have recently begun to abandon use of the staff in favor of the focus, it still remains the most popular and recognizable symbol of mages and our power amongst the mundane population. Whether acting as a fancy walking stick, knocking sense into idiot pupils, knocking sense into uncomfortably clingy blackspawn, or fulfilling its intended purpose, the staff is one of the mage's most versatile tools.

Regardless of what those foolish bumpkins in Darnathir will tell you, scepters are staves.

-Foci- Any object made with the specific purpose of storing magical energy so a mage might later harness it is technically considered a focus, but they are generally portable items that can be easily carried and held by the mage to perform magic on the road, similar to how one would use a staff. In olden days, the focus was generally a simple disk of hoop of wood or bone with a large gem or crystal inlaid in its center or any other such simple bauble. Nowadays, with improvements in artifacting techniques, foci are more commonly crafted to look and function as jewelry: rings, pendants and necklaces, bracelets and bangles, circlets...even earrings and piercings can be used as foci. However, the size of the crystal or gem required to make something an effective focus has now made such newfangled, fanciful baubles popular targets for thieves. Hence, the superiority of staves.

These are simply the most common forms a focus may take. As stated, they can take any form: the ancient Lenssion warmage Kalliapeccnoi famously rode into battle upon an ebonwood charriot that served as her focus, and the prolific master artificier Knut Borsed's flask (known as much for his artificing skill as for his love of drink) served as his focus in addition to never running dry of whatever drink it contained.

-Wands- While similar in construction to staves, wands are generally no more than a foot or two long and do not allow the mage to store and call upon magical energies to perform whatever action she wishes; if they did, they would be foci, not wands. Instead, a wand is constructed in such a way as to allow a mage to "pre-load" it with a spell ready to "cast" and enough energy to perform its magic multiple times (often called the wand's "charges") before expiring; more powerful magical effects can be "cast" exponentially fewer times as the wand can store much less power than either the staff or focus, and releasing especially powerful magics can run the risk of causing the fragile instrument to spontaneously explode in the weilder's hand. Wands "remember" the magic set within them until they run dry, at which point the mage may freely set new magics within them.

By setting the magical release to occur at the utterance of a specific word or gesture, anyone that knows the word or gesture may use the wand, making them far and away the simplest and most common means by which non-mages may perform magical acts...and a significant, quick, low-cost source of income for many smaller Circles.

Do keep in mind that the source energy stored within the staff or focus, and even the wand, greatly determines the kind of magical effects that can be produced with it. The energy seems to have a specific signature and "remember" its source, and while doing magic from a staff or focus doesn't require the magical effect be tied directly to the source of the energy, it must at least be related in some way; for example, if my energy came from burning a log, I could perhaps ignite a small fire, or warm something, or turn something into charcoal, or create a light to see in the dark...anything remotely related to a burning log. Thus, it is highly recommended that a mage varies the preparatory rituals she uses to empower her equipment.

Of course, a mage may potentially use the magical energies stored within any artifact in her possession to fuel her magics. However, only the above three kinds of artifacts are explicitly built for the purpose; using any other artifact will most likely drain it of its power and render it mundane.