Written by Nate Winchester. Posted on Feb 7, 10:53 PM.

Magic for your review

I’ve been working on both my writing and world building for their setting. One of the central parts of that world is obviously the magic system, so here is the “wiki” entry for it. I’ve been a little scattershot putting it together so I’m sure there’s plenty of typos. Please point them out and anything that’s unclear and/or needs to be fixed. (yes, this is also part of my viral marketing ideas ;-) I also apologize for the formatting here, it didn’t transfer well from word.

Magic

“Only those who have never studied it say that magic can do anything.” –unattributed saying

“No, a wizard didn’t do it! A sorcerer maybe but not a wizard.” –Ludien I to trainee

What is magic? Seer, the inventor or discoverer of magic said that it “was the act of altering natural reality to one’s wishes.” In detail he said that under everything visible, and beneath everything not visible, was the indescribable foundation of the universe. Consciousness, an ill-fitting spark within reality, could reach the foundation and through it affect reality to their whims. In a philosophical paper, Fahavun the wizard theorized that reality itself is not true, but an ocean of infinite possibilities. What’s defined as reality or the laws of it are merely the dominant or “more likely” possibilities. Thus magic was forcing a possibility to occur regardless of dominance or defaults.

Facets
Aspects or features of the universe are divided into different realms of magical influences often referred to as ‘facets’. Each magic user has a limited number of facets they can naturally affect determined by their race. To cast any spell affecting a facet beyond their range, a user needs specific guidelines and reagents. Guidelines are directions designed to concentrate a caster’s will toward the correct aspect of the universe (example: chants). Reagents are items and object innately tied to facets of magic. Natural users rarely have any need for reagents whereas other casters must rely upon them.
Sensing vs Manipulation
Every magic user has the ability to perceive facets of magic and how they affect the world. This perception is unique to each individual. Note that while the extra senses allow users to detect all magic, their ability to manipulate is still limited. Fahavun once described it as: “The facets of magic I can affect all appear in bright, vibrant colors while the remaining facets all have a common shade of gray.”
Methods and Results
Note that while magic users each utilize different facets, different methods may have the same result. The most common example is levitation (something all known magic users can do). While some might sever an object’s gravity, others manipulate wind and others utilize true telekinesis, to an outside observer the effect will be the same: the object will float. Thus, the most common misconceptions of magic arise.

The Divine Debate
An ongoing debate among users is whether the facets of magic are the lowest base or whether it also rests upon one other foundation. Seer labeled the theoretical “bottommost” the Divine facet and claimed that all consciousness is a fragment of it which allows access to magic in the first place. The other position, first put forth by Seer’s student, Fahavun, is that the concepts of facets themselves is meaningless, the efforts of finite minds to deal with the infinite.

The Seven Impossibilities
Magic has many difficulties and limitations. All living things exhibit some natural resistance to spells, with more complex forms requiring greater finesse and effort. Self-aware persons are the most challenging of all (thus the ongoing debate about whether all people might become users with enough training) though there are variations between races (Minotaurs appear to be the most vulnerable to spells, Humans among the most resistant). There are several acts which are considered magically impossible. While there is some debate over whether these might one day be possible with further study, they cannot be accomplished currently.
1) the Stability Impossibility – Often expressed as “the universe does not take kindly to being altered”. The more complex a spell (the more it violates the universe’s natural state) the more difficult it will be to cast and the faster it will eventually be dispelled. For this reason, magic users prefer to use subtle, less violating spells.
a. Corollary: No enchantment is eternal. Given enough time, all enchantments will fade.
b. Corollary: All other impossibilities stem from this one. A spell that violates the universe’s natural state too greatly will result in injury, if not death, of the caster.
c. Corollary: The universe’s natural state is defined as the universe before the spell was cast. This also means that spells can impact each other, thus the encouragement for spells to be small. Example: When spell D is cast, the universe beforehand had spells A, B & C, thus, those three will have an impact on D. D will then have greater pressure to dispell from pre-A, pre-B, pre-C and pre-D states. In magical equations, the symbol [] stands for “universe0”, reality before any spells are cast.
2) the Impossibility of Infinity – The effectiveness of spells is directly proportional to the concentration, knowledge and energy of their caster. Thus, in order to cast any “infinite” spell would require infinite concentration, knowledge and energy. (While multiple casters can pool their talents, an infinite number would still be required.)
a. Corollary: All spells have a maximum effective distance.
3) Finality of Death – After a period of time, a corpse cannot be returned to life. The longest revival observed has been twelve hours after death. Current theories place the absolute limit at twenty plus hours.
4) Absolute Creation/Destruction – Matter and energy cannot be created from nothing nor can they be removed from reality; they can only be changed or moved.
5) Absolute Slavery – Any self-aware being cannot have their selves/minds/being/souls altered against their will. Examples: A puppet spell might be used to kill someone by taking control of someone else’s body and then using said body to commit the murder, however one cannot make the person a psychopath unwillingly.
6) General Impossibility – A spells have to be extremely specific in order to work. Example: There is no “death” spell. In order to kill someone, the spell has to induce a specific mode of death (heart attack, suffocation, etc). Because of this and the general interference caused by any living being, the most common method of death by magic is using a levitating object. (not unlike killing by non magical means)
7) the Facet Limit – No magic user can ever comprehend all facets of magic.
a. Corollary: Every object is linked with a particular facet and this cannot be changed. The only exception is talasite, a rare mineral that is tied to all facets and can be “set” to favor a particular one by any magic user (becoming a ‘talisman’). Until set, talasite cannot be used for any spells.
Exception: Proponents of the divine facet of magic theorize that it can accomplish all of the impossibilities.

Magic User
Magic user is a racially neutral term to refer to persons who are able to perceive fundamentals of the universe and exert their will upon them. The term ‘magic caster’ can refer to either a user or nonuser (who is using instructions) who’s casting a spell. More descriptive terms are usually used for quick reference. Example: If someone tells you, “I encountered a wizard” then you know they are referring to a Human magic user. The terms are supposed to refer to only users but confusion often leads them being applied to any caster. Most of these terms are original and unique to Mythopia, making them meaningless to translate, therefore many historians use terms adapted from Earth for ease. The following are the recommended user terms and the races they correspond to in male/female format with the following exceptions:
1. Some races appear to have sex-exclusive magic users. Examples: all Minotaur magic users are male. All Chamalon users are female.
2. Although many races have sex-neutral terms, some denote their magic users as truly sexless (predominant among those with high body-altering tendencies). Example: it is pointless to describe a Lycanthrope shaman as male or female; they are asexual. One might refer to a shaman as formerly male or female but the physical warping they experience over time will eventually make this determination impossible.
3. Any term marked with a * is a literal translation of the proper term.

• Dragon = Prophet/Prophetess*
• Human = Wizard/Wizardess
• Elf = Master/Mistress
• Minotaur = Warlock
• Lycanthrope (wolf) = Shaman
• Chamalon = Witch
• Fairy = Sorcerer/Sorceress
• Dwarf = Alchemist
• Averian = Shaper

Tagged as Critique, Magic, Nate Winchester.

Comment

Name
E-mail
Website

Textile Help

© 2008-2012  ImpishIdea and Nate Winchester, all rights reserved.