There is no taboo in the study of Magic and its different fields.
However, the use of certain magic disciplines are considered immoral or downright criminal outside of the controlled environment of a mage’s tower or a circle’s study.
For example, in most places of the world, it is considered immoral to use mind magic on a sentient being outside of self defense, and illegal to use it to slave one to their will.
Forbidding the practice of such kind of magic outside of research has been largely agreed in the known world, and there is almost no exception to it.
Certain parts of the world even restrict or completely forbid the use of certain disciplines for a variety of reasons, be it religion or morality.
Sadly, it is no deterrent for the criminals and unsavory characters to realize their ambitions and hubris, and it is a constant mission for the magic circles to punish the abuse of these magic disciplines.
Forsaking morality and often tainting themselves in the pursuit of power, these mages advance leaps and bound into their domains of predilection, going further than any before them, thanks to their more “hands on” approach.
Such knowledge is not to be sought after, and when they are inevitably caught, they’ll be killed on sight, and their research destroyed.
After all, such knowledge ill gained is undesirable for the righteous, and the minor setback of their destruction will be but a minor setback to the road of progress.
Take this as your warning not to stray off the right path, for no one will pity your corpse.
Do not fuck with magic
The study of magic - Preamble and warnings - On the subject of ethics in reseach
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Andrea Lipswick suspended her usual research on lightning magic and its application and storage for later use (LiMASLU as she likes to call it) for the time being, dedicating all her energy into ways to repel the monsters from the village's immediate proximity.
After some research on monster’s corpses and more specifically their ManaCores (MC, the acronym she coined), she discovered monsters were naturally attracted to places where the mana ebbs and flows strongly, making certain parts of the forest surrounding the village more dangerous by the sheer number of monsters accumulating there. Something she would have known already if she had access to a Circle’s library. A small price to pay to keep her from the politicking inherent to such a place, content to only get her stipend and help to collect materials and resources thanks to her superficial involvement with the Serval’s Circle of Mages.
Realizing that, she had an idea.
What would happen if the mana surrounding the village was reduced below the region average ?
She took it upon herself to test her theory.
At first, she tried to repel the mana from a set point in space using a mana core and a few chosen runes. Immediately, she realized she needed to pour so much magic into the core to make the basic enchantment work, that she wouldn't be able to maintain it for more than a couple of minutes. When she almost fainted trying to test it out, she knew this was the wrong way to do it.
Why try to push the mana away when you can instead “Aspire/Absorb” it?
Taking some Mana Ore she usually experimented on to store lightning magic, she applied her modified set of runes on it with a small chisel. Once her prototype primed, the engraved rock the size of her fist was ready to use, she poured mana inside of it to start it up. Immediately, the surrounding mana got absorbed into the stone itself, the Ore slowly starting to glow brighter and brighter. As Andrea was about to celebrate her breakthrough, the Ore started to shake violently, the surrounding magic absorbed faster and faster, and dizziness and sickness overtook her. The Ore was absorbing faster and faster, and its glow was now almost blinding.
Thinking fast, she used her own magical reserves, preserved from absorption by its presence within her own body, to chuck the rock outside her tower, as far as possible.
Now free of the enchanted Ore influence, the ambient mana regularized itself, and the sickly dizziness slowly receded. A few seconds later, a detonation shook the forest and felled a dozen trees, shrapnel bouncing off the tower’s stone blocks.
Andrea took an anxious look outside, eyes widening as she saw the damage her experimentation brought to the forest.
However, Andrea was not a quitter. She would make it work, be it in a week or a month.
She just needed more Cores and Ores.
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Alaster was positioned inside one of the new viewpoints atop the palissade now surrounding the village. He wasn’t alone, Len was here too, a crude bow in his hands.
“Take a bow, Len, You are an Elf, Len, you guys are good at archery Len” he parroted what the newly appointed Sergeant of the guard said to him when he gave him the bow. “Yeah, sure, and you humans are good wallowing in your own shit, I'm not telling you to share a pen with the pigs.” he kicked a rock that somehow made its way into the wooden platform, probably a slingshot stone.
Al chuckled, relaxing his grip on the platform edge. “Don’t worry, Len, I won't tell anyone if you miss your shots.” Earning himself a glare from the Elf.
“I’m decent with a bow, thank you very much. It’s just not what I prefer. Daggers, Swords and Shield, even a spear. But bows? A waste of time, there are so many of us already proficient with them that everyone thinks Elves are talented archers by default.” Len sighed. “It’s wrong, of course. Elves are good with bows because it’s a popular hobby for many of us. Decades of dilettante practice does that for you.” Reading into Alaster’s body language, he decided to add a little ribbing of his own. “It’s as if they’d give you a blowpipe because you are a lizard person. I’d call them racist if I didn't know they were just hicks''. He quickly (and not so stealthily) glanced at Alaster, too late to catch himself after what he thought was maybe a little too much..
“Eh, I doubt they even know what that is, Hells, I myself don’t know what a blowpipe is. I don't even know what a Lizardman’s choice weapon is supposed to be. My Mom doesn’t like to speak about them, and she’s the one who knows the most in the whole village. Bad memories and regrets, she says.” Alaster said, a finger tapping against the rempart. “I think you’ll do just fine with your bow, Len. It’s not like you’ll be hitting anything with your daggers up there. The Sergeant told us to kill any monster approaching the walls.” Alaster said, trying to be the reasonable one. “My Dad told us to get real experience fighting and killing monsters, and he says it’s the safest place to do so. I’m not looking forward to- Ah, here !”
Alaster pointed a claw toward the edge of the forest, where bushes started to shake. Before Len could step up and arm his bow, and even before the creature completely exited the bushes, Al reached inward, calling his own mana to himself, an hand reaching toward the rock Len kicked previously. With a mental tug, and the glow of the magic runes in his mind, the rock suddenly jerked upward in an arc, the air whistling as it became a blur, hitting the unaware monster before it could realize what happened. With an explosion of fur and entrails, the Dire Wolf fell on its side, a smoking ruin replacing his ribs.
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Silent fell between the two preteens until a second later, an arrow shot by Len finally reaching the monster with a wet thud, lodging itself into the monster’s milky eye.
Blushing a little, Len turned away, muttering more as Alasters held himself on the wooden upright of the platform, his claws digging inside. Alaster fought the dizziness coming for him, a sudden spell of vertigo as his mana pool felt incredibly shallow.
Closing his eyes, he breathed in and out, calming himself. Ever since he went OUM at the firing range, he was subject to bouts of dizziness and nausea when using his own magic. His Mom looked into it but couldn’t see anything wrong with him, his Mana reserves about the same as anyone his age.
Yet, Alaster felt ill more often than not each time he casted a spell using his own mana.
He clutched the dagger at his side, the gift from his father. The Mana Core of the first Dire Wolf he killed softly shining blue as he took the mana inside to fill his own reserves. It barely made him feel better, the difference barely noticeable.
He couldn’t really tell what he felt right now.
“Are you okay, Al?” Asked Len, noticing the lizardman’s weird behavior. “You should let me get the next one, you don’t look too good.”
“I’m... Fine, I think. It doesn’t spin anymore.” Al flashed a brave, fake smile, and Len had to keep himself in check not to recoil from the sheer amount of teeth glinting in his direction. “It’ll pass, I’ll just use my own sling instead.” He decided, fishing it off his bag and moving closer to the brasero near them. “I’ll let you have the next one in the meantime. It’s so damn cold here.”
Len stood a moment, mulling something over as he machinally checked his bow for defects. Al couldn’t help but notice how much of an expert his Elf friend passed for someone hating using bows.
Al’s eyes went to his left, where Jek’s friends, Lesk and Nep were busy with their sections of the wall. They seem to have a falling out with Jek, who was on Al’s right, staring dagger at him instead of keeping watch. He was the only kid supervised by an adult, who was too focused on the clearing below us to notice Jek’s lack of focus.
Lesk tentatively waved to Al and Len, and Al waved back before turning his attention to Jek. The two kids had been almost pleasant to be around ever since he rescued Jek a month ago or so. They even started to say hello.
Jek on the other hand, went worse.
Alaster hadn't seen him in a while, but Tanya told him that after the death of his father from the monster attack, Jek was spending more and more time with adventurers, learning to use his father’s wand and to fight. There was even one time he went missing for a week, worrying the whole village.
Alaster focused back to his task, resuming his watch.
Suddenly a blast of hot, pine scented air blew past Alaster as a loud detonation felled a section of the forest not too far to the west.
“What was that ?” Len asked, running to the edge of the platform.
“I .... I don’t know, I think it comes from my Mother’s tower!” Al said, staring at the bright blue ball of mana escaping the blast, quickly dissolving into the air. “It’s not a normal explosion... but the tower is still here, so it shouldn’t be too bad”.
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Andrea stared down at the ruined mass of wood, mud and foliage from her vantage point.
With a handwave and a few carefully chosen words, she extinguished the starting fire brewing within the wreckage.
She breathed in deep as the sinking feeling of magic draining out of her body to feed her spell subsided. Then, she decided to take some time to consider her options.
Firstly, her enchantment worked. Magic was being actively drained around the Mana Ore. Sadly, the accumulation of it all quickly went over the material’s capacity. She basically invented magic explosives. She decided to write this down in her journal (possibly a new field of magic to search into) for herself to think about later.
Now that she confirmed her enchantment worked (mostly), she only had to solve the overloading problem. Maybe she could channel that extra magic into another use ? Or maybe she could redirect the flow of mana to somewhere (or someone) else ?
If she was right about this one, she’ll have, in time, a way to increase the mana concentration into her whole tower, or a chosen location for her to gather mana into herself.
This was all very very promising. Her own “Mana chamber” as she liked to call it.
She heard agitation at the feet of her tower. Taking a look through her window, she noticed Felix and what she assumed to be one of his customers banging at her door. She had some explaining to do.
Little did she know that what she tried to achieve here was already done by countless mages before herself. However, they never shared their secrets outside of their apprentice or their own circles, making this the best worst kept secret in the whole world.
Every mage enjoyed the rediscovery, and fancied themselves innovators.
Andrea Lipswick will eventually enter history as the inventor of the mana grenade.
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“Good job boys, it’s been a couple hours now and no more monsters are coming out of the bushes.” Felix congratulated them, as the next rotation on duty prepared to take their places.”Since you’ve done so well from up there, what do you two think about coming down and giving close combat a shot? Volunteers from the last rotation will be coming too with their chaperones.”
Len seemed about to explode, finally! He'll be able to fight up close and use his blades.
Al himself wasn’t too sure if it was a good idea. He still remembered his last encounter up close with that Dire Wolf not that long ago.
Seeing the hesitation in his son’s behavior, Felix smiled a little, and nudged his shoulder.
“Don’t worry, I'll be there the whole time, you’ll be hunting with Len, and the others will be nearby.” He shrugged “Hells maybe there is no monster around, we will just patrol in the bushes near the walls and go back in.”
Len was so excited his pointy ears flicked about, making it obvious for everyone. Alaster chuckled, feeling his apprehension disappearing as everyone around him seemed in good spirits about it.
“...Okay, let’s go before I change my mind.” Alaster said after a deep breath, hoping he wouldn’t regret it.
On the next platform, Jek was staring at the group, lost in thoughts as they left the safety of the platform, egged on by Felix.
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Dear Sister,
So, you finally remembered you have a brother
After you left home, deserted your position in the family and forgot (i’ll charitably assume) to send news from time to time to tell you are alive for TWENTY years !!! (the parchment is scratched heavily here and a dot making the exclamation point is a hole into the paper)
Not only you kept me and the whole family in the dark on your whereabouts, you left the duchy altogether, you neglected your duties.
You are SO lucky I AM the Count now. Father would have you brought back, tarred and feathered and hanged by the toes under the dungeon’s window for a few days so all that blood in your body does its job and FEED YOUR BRAIN.
I’ll have my intendant come pick him up. You know him very well, I think you’ll be glad to see him after all this time.
Expect him to arrive a few weeks to a month after this letter finds you.
Your loving brother
Armand of Lipswick
Count of Lipswick
Head of Lipswick House.
PS: I saw that. Remember our ways and set up shop nearby so we can keep in touch more easily. My intendant will have the usual ready for you. You have till then to prepare for it accordingly.
Andrea grumbled to herself, resisting the urge to crumple the parchment and burn it to cinders.
Well, one problem solved. Al will get out of this place soon and get to learn with the bests there is in Waxia. Andrea thought, a sad smile on her face as she gave a peanut to the messenger bird who was still waiting for a possible answer. Taking a piece of parchment, she quickly wrote an acknowledgement to her brother’s message, emphasizing how well her son must be treated.
As the bird, now carrying the message, took flight, she stayed at her balcony, watching it disappear in the horizon Eastward to Waxia.
Letting her gaze linger for a bit, it finally trailed down to a group making its way toward the forest. She immediately recognized Felix and her son accompanied by Len, the Elf apprentice adventurer.
What the hell were they doing down here ?