1st Cycle 3rd Rotation, Year 1367 GF

Log 8,

They measure our affinities. I’m not sure how to feel about it. It turns out my affinity is Life. It sounds good doesn’t it. Except I don’t really want to be a healer. I want to help people sure, but I want to be a battlemage, not stay at the back. And the only other path I can take if I want that is the path of Necromancy. It will also stay back but it can also fight by itself. I just don’t think the Academy will support me.

I think I will devote this half of my Logs to Cecilia. She told me that her affinity was air. It makes me jealous that she got a fighting affinity.

The Duality of Life Mana, by Lich Archon Verill

Copied by Church of Illustria

Part 1

Life mana has been the subject of my research for the entirety of my life (and death I suppose) ever since I found it was my affinity. Life mana can either rejuvenate living matter or control dead matter by giving it a semblance of life. The most known users of Life mana are Healers and Necromancers.

Healers operate by rejuvenating the body during a period when it needs energy. Often this can be if the body is sick or infected, during which the Life mana seems to help the body fight it off. If the body is just out of stamina, then it will bring them back to peak energy. However, Life mana is not equivalent to food. It may alleviate the symptoms of hunger and thirst, but it most certainly does not feed the body. Many Life Magi have come close to death due to relying on their magic to feed them and keep the healthy despite dying from hunger. While sleeping, some may even die since their magic is no longer saving them.

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And yet, there are stories of healers regrowing entire limbs in days. The answer? Necromancy. These are the true masters. Those who have explored every avenue in order to save lives. The way they regrow limbs is through extreme knowledge of anatomy and substituting dead matter into the whatever form they need. Then they use their mana to encourage the body to regrow into the place where the replacement limb is using it as a blueprint, scaffolding. It is, obviously, easier to re-attach limbs though it uses the same principles. Using dead matter to connect the tissues and then encouraging the body to regrow into its place.

And so, we come to my side of necromancy. The use of it to kill. Even here there are subtleties. Two necromancers could use it completely differently. Personally, I used my knowledge of healing to the opposite effect. I fooled my enemies’ bodies into believing it was what it was not. I could make their body try and grow a limb out of their head, I could make the body grow tumours that would kill them slowly with no trace of magic. Others could raise bodies from the dead and give them orders. But not just bodies, any dead matter – including blood – for reasons I haven’t managed to find. These could be reinforced, changed by Life mana into anything that the user could imagine. It is from these that Necromancers gained their reputation as demonic and monstrous. It is certainly less noble.

I was never as good at traditional necromancer – the use of life mana to raise dead matter to do one’s bidding. That being said, I knew the theory. Of the many ways to raise the dead this is the simplest: merely accumulate dead matter from any source and flood it with Life mana. Normally, Zombies as these are categorised go on rampages with no sense or intelligence. However, the overflow of life mana within their bodies allows them to spread that mana to others so that if they kill a living creature or come into contact with dead matter, they can spread the mana and raise them too. Zombie lifespans depend on the mass of the creature and the amount of life mana present within them. As such, the more they kill and raise, the shorter they will live. Another effect of the life mana and method of production is that they are usually durable and cheap. Moreover, the life mana within them will prevent any exhaustion as long as it is present.

As a combination of these factors, they become incredible in places with enormous body counts and chaos. Such as battlefields.