An Introduction to Magic

Magic is a powerful art. Not everyone can easily use magic, and it takes many forms. Magic can be used to manipulate the world around us in ways far exceeding what can be done with one man’s hands and feet alone, and some things that are done with magic are impossible for a mere non-magical human to ever reproduce.

Magic can be broadly categorized into 2 broad varieties. There is natural magic, also known as chaos magic. This is a powerful and mysterious force used by the spirits and magical beasts, and sometimes the very land itself. Chaos magic is also the magic of demons. It is powerful, and it is also destructive. However, as poorly understood as it is, chaos magic is also the true magic of the world. The modern study of magic all originated from the study and imitation of chaos magic.

Us mere humans do not have the ability to access chaos magic in any way. It can only be imitated. This brings us to the second broad category into which magic is sorted. Formulaic magic, also known as the magic of order.

The majority of all order-school magic is in some way a pale imitation of the natural chaos magic of the world. It is the attempt by humans to in some way reproduce the activities of the vicious magical forces that chaos magic brings to bear.

There are few who also speak of a type of balance magic which utilizes both. Those who make this claim often point to the druids who can use the chaos magic of the spirits while also casting their own spells of the order school. However, this is not the case. A druid is someone who possesses the ability to communicate with the spirits of the forest. If they are well liked by the spirits, they can get the spirits to use magic on their behalf. The chaos magic, as such, is not truly being used by the druid.

While humans and even most fey are largely unable to utilize chaos magic, it is still the basis of nearly all magic of the order school. As such, before you can properly understand the magic of order, you must first have at least some knowledge about the various types of chaos magic.

Chaos magic: A primer on natural magic.

Magic of the Spirits:

The spirits are creatures who’s bodies are made from pure spiritual energy and who’s blood flows with the mana of the fey. In this way, it is often said that spirits are an incarnation of magic itself. Most magic of the order school uses spirits as it’s inspiration, as can be seen from the spell structures involved within formulaic magic.

Each spirit is an incarnation of only one type of magic. It is either a spirit of one of the four primary elements, Earth, Fire, Wind, or Water, or it is a spirit of the land, the most famous of which are the tree spirits who live in the fairy forests. There are also said to be advanced elemental spirits corresponding to all 12 of the pseudo-elements. However, no spirit of the 2 greater elements, life and nihility, have ever been confirmed to exist.

There is a theory that it is impossible for a null spirit to exist as the nature of the null energy is destructive to both mana and spirit energy, and the energy of life is likewise too powerful to be contained within any form of incarnation.

The spirits can exercise control over the element or natural force which corresponds to them as easily as breathing. However, spirits can be very fickle creatures and often act in erratic or uncontrollable manners.

Elemental spirits are especially dangerous, and it is recommended that one stay away from them unless they know exactly what they are doing. Land spirits will often be more stable in their behavior, but the elves and the druids are the only people known to have the ability to communicate and cooperate with the spirits. Even this is limited to only tree spirits.

Although there is a great deal about magic that can be learned from studying the spirits, doing so is one of the most dangerous things a person can possibly do.

The Magic of Beasts:

Some creatures known as magical beasts are born with the ability to use magic. This magic is usually not in the same tier of power as the magic of the spirits which is an undiluted manifestation of a pure element or force of nature. Rather, the magic used by magical beasts often has a more practical effect involved with enhancing the creature’s ability to go through their daily life or respond to an emergency situation.

Many magical beasts possess strength or speed well beyond what should be possible for their bodies to exert. This is a product of magical augmentation. There are also snakes and spiders who can produce a quantity of venom that exceeds the volume of their own body. This is also the product of a spell.

The petrifying stare of the legendary basilisk is perhaps an example of one of the most feared and fearsome spells possessed by any magical beast.

There is no true way to account for all the varied types of magic possessed by magical beasts. There are likely as many different bestial magic spells as there are different types of magical beasts themselves, each spell unique and fit to the purpose of that creature’s natural life style.

Demonic Magic:

The magic of demons usually takes the form of a weakened version of the magic that spirits can use. It is believed that the magic of demons is connected in some way to their bloodline, making them somewhat similar to magical beasts in a twisted sort of way.

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The most frightening difference between the magic of demons and the magic of spirits though is the fact that several magically oriented races of demon possess the ability to access magic related to the null element. This magic from which the school of necromancy was born has the power to twist life and raise the corpses of the dead, but the most frightening ability of null magic is the fact that it can destroy the spiritual and magical energies of others.

The frightening spells of necromancers can destroy the hard-won spiritual energies a mage may have spent decades cultivating, or just as easily crush the spiritual body that a warrior uses to enhance their physical strength. Several warriors who have fought and won against a necromancer have said it would have almost been better if they died in the fight.

Magic of the Land:

On occasion, the land itself can produce some form of powerful magical effect across a wide area. This phenomenon is not at all understood, and the magic of the order school has yet to reproduce the effects seen from the magic of the land.

The effects are often minor, but the sheer scale of the magic created by the land is something that speaks to an unbelievable amount of power that is needed to fuel the spell.

Areas of land that produce a magical effect such as increasing the vibrancy of plant or animal life, or eliminating disease, are said to be blessed lands. Meanwhile, there are also magic effects from the land such as decreasing the fertility of plants or wearing away at the health of any creature who crosses it. These are said to be cursed lands.

The Magic of the Gods:

It is unknown whether the magic used by the gods belongs to the order or chaos school as it is all beyond human comprehension. It is said that any person who’s study of magic was advanced enough to know would be able to become a god themselves.

The gods occasionally grant the use of specialized magic to their priests in a manner similar to the aid which tree spirits give to the druids and the elves. However, the magic used by the priests of the gods is something that the magic of the order style has never been able to reproduce.

The magic wielded by the gods is the only thing that has been known to be capable of manipulating the life element.

The Magic of Order: An Overview on Magical Formulas

Magic Formulas and Mage’s spirit:

Magic of the order school seeks to reproduce the effects of the magic seen in nature. Order magic is generally less powerful and has several serious limitations. However, it is largely more controllable and predictable.

Order magic is primarily based on the study of the magic used by spirits. The order school seeks to imitate the manner by which a spirit filters mana through it’s body in order to produce a magical effect.

From studying the spirits, we learn that magic is created when mana is introduced to a spell structure made from spirit energy. It is these spiritual spell structures that gives magic it’s form and function. In order to duplicate this effect, a mage of the order school must write the spell structure onto their own spirit. These spell structures are known as magic formulas.

A person’s spirit can only contain a certain number of magic formulas at any given time. This number is limited by the strength of one’s spirit. One of the greatest limitations of the order style though is that the spell formulas can often not stand up to the force of mana being put through them and are instantly destroyed after only a single use of the spell that was prepared.

There are some exceptions to this rule. Those who possess a magical bloodline can often retain a spell structure so long as it is the structure for a spell that agrees with the nature of the bloodline.

The only way to write more spells onto your spirit is by strengthening the spirit. The spirit is largely strengthened through meditation. Many are familiar with the warrior meditation which uses the spirit to strengthen the body. In a mage’s meditation however, much of the mental energy involved goes directly into writing the spell structure onto one’s spirit. This slows one’s ability to strengthen their spirit using the methods of a warrior.

Fortunately, the mage usually does not need to put effort into the traditional warrior methods. Every time a mage’s spell structure is destroyed through spell casting, some of the residual energy dissipates into the spirit and strengthens it. For this reason, although bloodline casters need spend less time on restoring lost spells, their growth is often much slower as they loose the benefit gained from this dissipating spiritual energy.

Tiers of magic:

The spells accessible through the use of prepared magic formulas are divided into 9 tiers in accordance with the space taken up within a person’s spirit. For the most part, each higher tier takes up the same space within one’s spirit as two spells of the next lower tier. Additionally, a person’s spirit tends to be stressed excessively by increased numbers of the highest tier spells available to them, and therefore it is advised that a spell caster only use 1 of the highest tier spell that is available to them unless they are attempting to train themselves to advance to the next highest spell tier.

Spells of higher tier represent an increase both in power as well as complexity in the spell. First tier spells are usually just an expulsion of magical energy. If it is an elemental spell, it would be the release of a small belch of flame or something of the like. If it is a first tier spell that imitates the magic of a magical beast, it might be something along the lines of increasing the subject’s muscular strength for a quick 10 second burst.

Higher tier spells often focus on adding complexity. A tier 2 spell would often focus on something like a water elemental spell that fills a jar with exactly the amount of water you need without overflowing the vessel. There is an increase in power for higher tier spells as well as they can handle the channeling of more mana, but this is always more of an after effect.

This association between complexity and power is one of the larger things that separates the order school from chaos magic. Chaos magic used by any creature other than the spirits is usually only at the same level of complexity as first tier spells of the order school. However, the amount of power a spell of the chaos variety can produce far outstrips that of a first tier spell of the order school.

Spirits however are a special existence within chaos magic, and are thought to be the holders of true magic. They seem able to freely control magical energies that align with their element or special domain as easily as a human can lift their arm. They do seem limited in both power and complexity in accordance with their maturity as a spirit, but this is about the extent of their limitations.

Further information on this subject can be seen in the study of spirits chapter of this book.

-Introductory chapter of “An Introduction to Magic.”

(First year textbook for students of the Academy of Stone)