Arcane Lore

The world Dunia contains multiple different magical disciplines. The main mana related branches can be roughly divided into divine and terrestrial magic. The terrestrial branch of magic involves focusing mana both internally and externally to produce some desired result. Divine magic is thought to have the same basis. Only it uses a different type of energy, sometimes referred to as divine mana or, more commonly, arcane energy.

Unstructured magic:

Unstructured, sometimes referred to as amorphous or raw, magic uses the mind to direct the body’s mana and aura (often inaccurately called the soul) to directly manifest an effect. No verbal or physical gestures are required. This makes creating complex magical spells very difficult. In contrast, structured magic involves using devices, verbal components, and physical gestures to guide the magic into various geometric shapes and energy types.

Unstructured magic can be roughly divided into two types, internal and external. Internal mana perception and manipulation are mostly focused on building and strengthening the meridians and inner reservoirs of energy located in the core and bones. Over years and decades, mana is slowly concentrated and condensed in three main stages.

At first, mana is likened to vapor, which is thin and difficult to concentrate and control. Next, mana condenses into a liquid-like state, and a mage has much greater magical reserves upon which to draw. In the last stage, a typical mage can achieve, mana condenses into a form with both liquid and solid properties, and is often referred to as a liquid crystal phase.

Each stage represents a sizable increase in a mage’s mana reserve and a slight increase in youth and longevity. Perception of mana and aura are naturally developed at the same time, along with some control of autonomous nervous functions – promotion of strength and healing effects.

Directing and controlling mana, starting from inside the body, and proceeding to the outside environment using your mind and aura are aspects of external unstructured mana perception and manipulation. External mana perception is developed when the mage discovers how to combine mana with the senses. Next, the mage learns to manipulate the environment with their mind and aura by generating the following simple effects:

Telekinesis Pyrokinesis (generate fire) Lumokinesis (generate light) Audiokinesis (generate sound) Electrokinesis (move electrical charge) Magnetokinesis (produce magnetic effects) – This is a subdiscipline of Electrokinesis. Manipulate Fluid (The term fluid is inclusive of gases and liquids) – Audiokinesis is a subdiscipline of this technique Manipulate Earth or Solids – This is a more sophisticated version of telekinesis.

Developing these abilities allows the mage to adjust a structured spell on the fly. Otherwise, every arcane construct a mage uses would have to be hyper-specialized.

Structured magic:

Structured magic is much easier to use when generating complex magical structures and effects. Mana is woven into speech to alter the mana’s form and imbed it with intent. Using gestures makes it much easier to pattern mana into sophisticated geometric configurations. In addition, specific gestures and phrases can be keyed to particular mental states necessary to construct spells.

Terrestrial magic (more commonly if inaccurately referred to as human magic):

Human magic is roughly divided into different disciplines:

^Divination – Divination is the magic of information and relies on the subtle connections between all material objects. Finding lost items, understanding the properties or makeup of an object, and tracking down information are all aspects of divination. Skill in divination rests heavily on internal mental abilities like Focused Concentration, Visualization, and Memory to help the mage pars vast amounts of information. ^Conversion – Conversion is the magic of altering substances, breaking down or rearranging molecules to produce different materials, etc. ^Alchemy – Alchemy is the art of combining the inherent mana and mana channeling structures intrinsic to different materials to produce the desired effect. It is strongly related to chemistry and includes elements of conversion and conjuring. ^Enchantment (more commonly referred to as Technomagic) – Enchantment utilizes the material properties of matter to create mana channels and anchors within a physical object to create spell-like effects. This discipline is heavily reliant on mathematics, conversion, warding, and to a lesser extent, alchemy. Illusion – Illusion is often related to the control of light and sound. This discipline also contains aspects of conjuring and mind magic. ^Conjuring – Conjuring refers to the manipulation of various fields (most often the electric field) into semi-stable crystalline structures that mimic the properties of matter. This ectoplasm simulates the properties of matter. Conjuring a cup to drink out of or creating a fireball without using a substance like wood to fuel the fire are two examples. Summoning – The summoning of non-corporeal entities (so-called spiritual entities). Warding is an important subset of this discipline. Summoning also includes the art of attracting various animals, monsters, etc. (they arrive by standard methods). Healing or Medical magic – Medical magic is used to cure disease or injury. It makes extensive use of technomagic, divination, and unstructured magic. ^Transformation – Transformation is the art of (seeming) to change one type of creature or object into another. Transformation is often heavily reliant on conjuring and illusion, but at higher levels includes conversion and even dimensionalism (phasing). Dimensionalism – Phasing is the most common and accessible form of dimensionalism skills, but it also includes speeding up or slowing down time, contracting or expanding space, and teleportation. Aside from phasing, no reasonable sized group of mages can generate even a fraction of the power necessary to create these effects on the macroscopic scale. This discipline is heavily reliant on enchanting. ^Warding – Wards are usually some long-lasting defensive or protective magic. They are either draw energy from an ambient mana source, are connected to batteries, or built with an energy reservoir. Warding relies heavily on conversion, technomagic, and alchemy. ^Combat magic – Combat magic is simply the art of fighting with magic. It rests heavily on the disciplines of conjuring and wards but also requires knowledge of illusion, conversion, and transformation. Unstructured Magic – Unstructured magic is a type of magic that does not require verbal or physical movements to cast. *Mind Magic or Psychic – (Highly restricted). Mind magic forms the most common magical lineage. A mind mage, in addition to being able to develop incredibly precise and powerful unstructured skills such as telepathy, mind-reading, memory manipulation, and telekinesis, will also be able to create mental states such as Memory, Visualization, Parallel Thought, and so on. (An ordinary mage can eventually manifest all these abilities, but they will never have the same depth and power as a psychic.)

^ ~ Core Disciplines taught in the first three years at Ithalaan. These disciplines are sometimes referred to as the basic eight or core branches of magic.

* ~ The psychic disciplines

Forbidden Magic

Soul Magic – (Some low-level soul magic is unrestricted, i.e., adjusting the aura or soul to help heal a person. Assistance magic, such as a familiar bond produced by combing soul magic with mind magic, is also acceptable.) High level soul magic, like creating a simulacrum by fusing conjury and mind magic, is forbidden. Foundation Magic – Foundation magic is a subset of soul magic and is commonly used by the nobility along with alchemy and conversion magic to create magical lineages. This type of magic is associated with ritual sacrifice (frequently of human or sentient beings) and core theft.

Legendary Magic

Arcane or Divine magic – This is as much a core transition as it is an ability. A mage’s mana is transformed into a far more potent kind of energy. While they can still convert their arcane energy back to mana, they can also turbocharge their spells with arcane energy and use it in entirely distinct ways.

Mana Capacity (human):

A person’s mana capacity, given in mana units or just mana, changes slowly with their cultivation stage. One mana is more than enough to power most spells. Historically it may have been the amount of mana needed to lift a horse telekinetically nine meters high, sustain the horse at that height for one-quarter of an hour, and lower the house to the ground. However, this estimate is widely disputed. In modern times there is an agreed upon standard that can easily be measured using an aura reading device. There does seem to be both a lower and upper limit internal energy capacity.

Vapor stage mana capacity – 3 to 18 mana Liquid stage mana capacity – 14 to 102 mana (many mages never make it past the liquid stage). The average mage has mana reserves between 25 to 40. Most mages hit this stage between 14 and 18 years of age. At least those that are serious cultivators. Starting as an adult, reaching the liquid stage takes between four to eight years of serious study. Solid (Liquid Crystal) stage – 88 to 600 mana. From the Liquid stage, it will take a serious cultivator working two to four hours every day and incorporating the practice throughout the day from six to fourteen years to reach the liquid crystal stage.

Most mages in the vapor stage initially start with an average vapor range of four to eight mana. Unfortunately, for low-powered mages, their mana will only increase by a factor of forty, leaving them with low mana compared to their brethren. In fact, most academies don’t bother to measure mana capacity until the beginning liquid stage...and from there, the mage will only see a total mana increase of at most six times.

Mage Levels:

Civilian – about a third of the population can cast a handful of utility spells Hedge Magi – about one in three Civilian Mages have some unstructured magic, can cast a couple of dozen utility spells, and know a few adapt or higher level spells (technically illegal).

Can Officially take the Mage Title

Adapt – have passed the basic Mage exam

Mages core condensed to liquid phase

Mage – have passed the advanced Mage exam

Mages core condensed to liquid crystal phase

E’magi – Expert Mage in one or two fields Archmage – E’mage who is an expert in three or more fields

Mages core condensed to diamond or arcane phase

Magus – There are thought to be only a few hundred of these Mages in the world. A Magus’s mana is automatically converted to arcane (divine) mana unless they deliberately convert some of their energy back to ordinary mana. They channel energy rather than having to rely on their own energy reserves, although their energy reserves are vast. (The size of their energy reserve is important because it determines how much energy the mage can channel.)

Teleportation and Hidden Worlds:

Teleportation, slowing or speeding time, or creating a pocket dimension require energies vastly beyond what any single human mage can hope to wield. There are ancient artifacts capable of producing these effects, but they are largely considered to be divinely created. In modern times teleportation networks have begun to be built in the most prosperous of countries. They require vast amounts of mana, raw resources, and highly technical knowledge to create.

Teleportation networks, platforms, and relays:

Teleportation platforms generally take the rough form of a tower. The towers themselves are advanced technomagic structures composed of rare minerals. The buildings are directly connected to thin tubes running in a root-like network that extends kilometers underground and are used to harvest vast amounts of mana to power the device. The mushroom cap-like top of the spires contains a room of highly malleable space-time. This space-time region can be folded and bent using human-scale energies to form a space-like wormhole between two regions. Two towers acting in concert can teleport people or objects from one location to another, with the second tower or relay helping to stabilize the wormhole.

It should be noted that time-like wormholes and, therefore, time travel have proven impossible to create. Theory suggests that time-like wormholes, if they are physically realizable, would be equivalent to traveling to a parallel universe.

Souls, Soul Magic, and Cores:

The word soul is an incredibly imprecise term that refers to many different subtle layers that make up all living beings. The innermost stratum is the immaterial, indestructible soul, usually referred to in scientific circles as the ket. The ket cannot be directly perceived or harmed, only inferred. It is the immortal component lying at the heart of all matter and energy.

The ket’s primary container is the core, a subtle energy center that usually sits at the exact physical center of a living being. This core, often called a nucleus, mediates the immaterial soul’s interaction with the body and environment. It is the bridge over which pure consciousness starts to become material.

The nucleus is directly linked to the next grosser layer, the aura. The aura is an energy field the core creates and uses to manipulate the material body and mana, the energy of magic. Many people consider these three components ket, core, and aura to be the soul’s sum totality. In contrast, scientifically minded magical practitioners have found that the physical body and mana fields are simply an extension of the aura.

Modern practitioners speak of the layer soul as being composed of five parts. Starting at the innermost tier, these are the ket, core, aura, mana field, and physical body. All together, they make a living being’s soul, with only the ket being genuinely immortal.

Soul magic, Bloodlines & Mage Lineages:

There are three critical components to building a noble house, political power, wealth, and magical power. Magical power can be acquired using advanced training, access to rare resources and potions, and secret or outright forbidden magical knowledge. In addition, to these advantages, nobles and other powerful mages seek out and develop bloodlines, also known as mage lineages. They create and pass on powerful, intrinsic magical abilities to their descendants.

There are several ways of acquiring a bloodline. A god may bless the mage and their line of descent. A powerful additional core may be created through cultivation, or soul (foundation) magic, alchemy, and medical magic can be combined with the remains of a magical creature’s core to grant intrinsic magical skills. Convincing a god to give a unique magical blessing or cultivating an extra core are both incredibly difficult.

Soul magic is by far the easiest route to take. Once the necessary material components and cores have been harvested from a suitable magical creature, they are processed with alchemical materials. Patterns are then cut into critical locations in the recipient’s body while performing a foundation magic ritual. If all goes well, the recipient will then have a brand new unstructured magical skill along with the instincts to use them.

Simulacrum and Psychic Cores:

It is possible for a mage to make an ectoplasmic copy of themselves. This copy is called a simulacrum. There are many variations of this spell. At the lowest level, the simulacrum is directed entirely by the mage and has no autonomous ability. To manage two sets of sensory data, the mage must either shut down the senses in their real mind or have a strong skill in the mental discipline of Parallel Thought.

At the next tier, a mage will construct a rudimentary magical mind. This temporary psychic core makes the simulacrum capable of some independent behavior similar to a golem and eliminates the need for Parallel Thought. The simulacrum will still have no real sentience.

The next evolution of a simulacrum involves creating a more elaborate magical mind. While still not genuinely sentient, it can mimic a human being in specific, narrowly defined roles, often to a startling degree. Using Parallel Thought with either of these advanced simulacrums vastly reduces the mage’s mental burden, freeing the adapt to focus more heavily on other tasks while the copy fully simulates a human being.

Simulacrums are not capable of generating their own mana. However, they can absorb and use ambient mana. A well made simulacrum will have a mana storage capacity similar to a warding spell but much stronger. If it is also supplied with a battery, it can also assimilate mana slowly from the battery as well as its environment to cast spells. Of course, this makes a typical simulacrum’s ability to cast spells vastly weaker than the original.