MAGIC SUMMARY
Magic is a force of nature, present everywhere. A naturally talented human, any Sidhe, Bahtak, and in some respects the Beastmen, can draw in this power into their body and mind and shape it to form a spell. The more complex the spell the more concentration and power is required. If a mage draws in too much power into his mind, it can damage it, perhaps even destroy it. The casting of spells will also tire the user, as the channeling of magical energy is taxing on the body. Only the Mechanica cannot use magic themselves, because of the Enchanted Crystal, but can use magic imbued weaponry and items.
After much training, a person can learn to cast powerful magic with just their mind, using foci and such only when they want to increase the power of their magic.
However, not everyone has the ability, or will, to manipulate magic. Some even outright reject the use of it.
THE WIZARD AND THE SORCERER
All practitioners of the arcane arts are known as mages. Mages are divided into two major categories; wizards, and Sorcerers. Wizards are most common in Sidhe populaces but are notable in other populations as well. Wizards spend a great deal of time studying the natural laws the guide and control the use of magic. These are the only types of mages who can reach a master level of the arcane arts. Many Wizards have an almost obsessive approach to magic, but not all. Sorcerers are folks who have an innate tendency for certain uses of magic. They tend to be more restricted in spell variety, and spell efficiency. They typically improve by usage of spells rather than study, and describe their magic use as a gut feeling rather rational thought. It’s much more common for Sorcerers to have physical combat skills, as they cannot rely on magic as much as wizards can.
WAYS TO USE MAGIC
There are several ways in which more complex and powerful magic can be cast more safely. Using magic with just your mind, relies solely on the mages ability to shape and hold the spell in his mind. If something goes wrong, the repercussions on the mage’s mind can be severe. Using foci, verbal incantations or magical arrays adds protection for the mind of the mage and helps in drawing in and shaping the spell.
Magic is shaped with the mind; with or without a tool, and can do anything than person can wish it to do, unless it is widely out of their range, or inapplicable due to certain limitations of magic. The stronger the magic to be used, the more damaging it can be to the caster, especially one who is using pure mental prowess to manipulate the force of nature. This is not to say that a person requires some type of magical anomaly, or that they can't eventually learn to use stronger magic with their mind.
ITEMS USED TO EMPOWER MAGIC
FOCI
A focus, a magical item that is designed to contain and draw in part of the magical energy of a spell and shape it, so the mind of the mage doesn't need to handle it all. Thus the mage is safer from the negative effects of using magic and gains a help in drawing in magic. More complex spells would also be faster to cast using a focus designed for that spell, as less time is needed to shape the magic. Almost any inanimate object can be turned into a focus, creating a focus takes time and effort but the result is usually worth the effort.
VOCAL INCANTATIONS
The mage can use chants or incantations to help him concentrate on the magic. The mage can associate certain effects with the words, and so it helps the mind of the mage shape the magic. Shorter incantations are generally weaker than longer, more complex spoken spells. This lends to the fact, shorter chants are faster to send off, but weaker than longer chants.
MAGICAL ARRAYS
A symbol or series of symbols that is charged with magic to hold part of the spell. The array itself will not draw in magic like the foci, but it does a great deal to help shape the magic into the effect required. The symbols may be carved or etched into items, maybe even the focus that is used in the spell casting. Or they could be drawn on the ground or paper. Anything that can hold the shape of the symbols. The more complex and powerful the spell, the more extensive arrays of symbols would be needed.
MAGICAL ITEMS
Items can be charged with magic to create all kinds of effects. The item is modified with magic so it will draw in magic and shape it into the effect required. This could mean, given that someone can find an enchanter or a naturally magically imbued item, a person that is not a Mage could have a magic weapon, like a sword magicked to be covered in flames, whenever the runes are activated by certain words. This is not limited to weapons, it could very well be applied to a shield, or rather such things.
To divulge further into this, a Non Mage could get a staff charged to release five magic blasts, though the price may be hefty. Once the blasts are used the staff goes back to being a regular staff, until such time as the staff could be recharged.
Any magic can be cast without any foci/chants/arrays, but the risk for the mage is great when casting complex and powerful spells. A good mage could shoot a fireball in a straight line using only his mind, but if he wants to control the fireball in mid-flight or add more explosive force to it, he would need some help shaping the magic.
MAGICAL LIMITATIONS
While magic opens many possibilities with minimal tools there are also some serious restraints to it as well. Certain actions are nigh impossible to complete without godlike mastery of the art. Even ageless masters whom have attempted such things have died from the backlash of failed spells. The most common killer among foolhardy mages is attempting mind control. While masters of the arcane arts can subtly influence others, full blown mind control typically leads to insanity and complete destruction of the mind. Attempting to look into the future, past, or even distant locations is near impossible. Typically people do not die from attempts, but they do lose their sight, hearing, and other senses. While it is not known if teleportation is entirely possible, it is notable to consider that no one who has cast such a spell has ever been found. Those who have clearly fail the spell burn in an unfathomable hot flash of light, leaving only ashes.
Working magic directly on living things is difficult and the power that can be put to such spells is limited. Magic that works directly in the body of another living being is dampened by the mind in the body.
Any magic has a limit on range; most spells are line-of-sight only. Fluctuations in the ambient magical field causes a spell to dwindle the longer it has to travel.
LOCATIONS
Magic exists everywhere, though the dosage of magic varies. Some places have less magical potential than another place. Alternatively, places with significantly high amounts of magic, may have natural effects caused by the energy. This could be alternate colored floral, higher heat, etc., etc. Magic is highly concentrated in ley lines, streams of magical energy. Places where two ley lines cross have extremely high amounts of magic. Working with magical forces in such places is extremely risky, as it is almost impossible to reliably control the massive magical forces.
ADVANCED MAGICAL PROPERTIES
This section of the guide expands upon the basic section, but is not required reading. However we do encourage all players to be as educated as possible about the PW world.
THE LEARNING OF MAGIC
A mage, be it a wizard or a sorcerer, uses their mind to shape magic into the effect they desire. When a mage uses magic, their mind becomes more adapted to handling magic, slowly becoming more effective at it. When magic is used, it affects the mind, shaping it subtly towards the type of magic used. So a mage that keeps using magic to form fire would have his mind bent to the use of magic to form fire. It would become easier and easier to use fire in spells as more is used. But at the same time as the mind is already shaped by magic used for fire, it becomes harder to shape other types of spells in one’s mind. The aforementioned mage would need to force his mind through willpower to form a spell to heal a wound, or to control a body of water. The more used the mind is to forming something with magic, the harder it becomes to shape other things with it. Yet even a true master of fire would be able to form very simple spells to form other effects, as his mind is adapted enough to magic to be able to shape such spells.
So a mage has two choices: To either strive to become a master in one use of magic. Or to keep practice in a wide range of uses for magic, in which case the mage would never be able to become a true master of using magic, but be a competent mages of a lot of different uses for magic.
SPELL FAILURE
When casting a spell there is always a chance of failure and this chance of failure significantly increases or decreases alongside several factors. Those whom practice magic in a manner identical or similar to a sorcerer are at a much greater risk then say, a wizard. For wizards, overlook factors and lack of study brings the risk up greatly. For sorcerers the risk goes up with unfamiliarity, and poor emotional states. Should there little magic power in the area then the spell will almost always fail, although notably with less backlash than usual. Should a spell fail, then the backlash typically reflects the type of spell that the caster was trying to cast. For example should a mage attempt to throw a fireball and fail, then it will burn his hand. Attempting to cast spells beyond the user’s skill level drastically raises the likelihood of spell failure
Master Wizardry;
After years of study and practice some mages become the best in their field. This may take only a decade, but usually it takes several. They typically are proficient in using magic for many things, but have mastered the shaping of magic to a certain effect. They are capable of wielding magic more effectively, thus they use less magical energy and have spell failure less often. Unfortunately because a master mages spells are so powerful, their backlash is of incredible strength. It is common for lifetime practitioners to have scars from past mishaps.
NECROMANCY
Necromancy, the raising of the dead, is strictly used by wizards. The processes of casting even simple necromantic spells are beyond the skill of beginners, and sorcerers. This is because necromancy is a highly mechanical branch of the magical arts and a refined understanding of the arcane arts. For example the process of decay causes the effectiveness of undead minions to deteriorate. Because of decay, and stresses applied to the body from magic, a zombified creature simply falls apart after ten days. This time period can be extend by transfusing blood from other zombified creatures, but this is typically reserved for only the most powerful undead beasts. Should the mage who zombified the undead creature die, then the creature becomes a mindless killing machine. It will go on a rampage until it is killed, or its body falls apart with time.
LICHDOM
The pinnacle of necromancy is the art of skipping death and achieving biological immortality; to make oneself undead. It is one of the most difficult and dangerous magical procedures and many have perished while trying it.
In short, this is done by anchoring yourself, your 'soul', to the physical world, specifically an item in it. In almost all cases this is a book, as this particular piece of magic is so insanely complicated and requires so much runes that using any other phylactery would be highly inconvenient and impossible to carry around. After binding one's life force to the book, the aspiring Lich has to commit suicide. Their body dies, but their spirit remains in the mortal world. Using terrible, black magic, the spirit re-inhabits its now dead body and presto: a Lich is created. The re-inhabitation process is very lengthy (several months), so a significant amount of decay will have occurred, resulting in the Lich's zombie-like appearance. However, the Lich will not die due to aging, will never require sustenance nor oxygen (and thus they can "breathe" underwater) and becomes very hard to kill. The phylactery must be destroyed, or the Lich will never truly die and remain 'alive' in the book, posing a danger to anyone who touches it, as the Lich can invade the mind of anyone in physical contact with his phylactery. To this end, some Liches have created multiple phylacteries (which is even more dangerous than the 'normal' procedure), decreasing the chance of total annihilation. These Liches are known as Demiliches, and can be counted on one hand.
After successfully achieving Lichdom, the Lich will have to keep itself alive and moving by 'feeding' on its own magical power. As a result of that, a Lich cannot use the same amount of magic to perform spells as it could before achieving Lichdom, as a portion of it is constantly used as substitute sustenance. Laymen's terms: they become weaker.
To destroy a phylactery, all the runes in or on the object will have to removed: the easiest way to accomplish this is to simply burn the phylactery and reduce it to ashes. Because of this, Liches usually keep their phylactery with them at all times so they can protect it from harm; others hide them in a desolate, secret and hopefully inaccessible location.
CONTROLLING THE THOUGHTS OF OTHERS
Working magic inside the mind of another is impossible by magical means as the caster of the magic would have to know the mind of the target completely, he would have to know every little detail of the mind he is trying to affect in order to be able to shape it. At best a master mage may be capable to give very slight suggestions into the minds of others. No more than a passing feeling that is ignored most of the time. Yet projecting your thoughts to someone else is relatively simple, as long as the target and the caster are in the same area. The thoughts do not alter the mind of another, but simply give a message. To ensure the message is received correctly, the mage should know the target pretty well. If you try to contact a stranger on the street like this he would not receive the message correctly, if at all.
SEEING OR AFFECTING DISTANT PLACES
Is almost impossible because the magical field in the world is not constant, the spell would simply falter and diffuse in the magical fluctuations. Any truly long-range spells would suffer from this effect.
SEEING TO THE PAST OR FUTURE
The future is not set in stone, anything can happen at any time, and so the future cannot be looked into as it has not happened yet.
The past may be looked at, but only the recent past (a few days) of the place the spell is cast in. But the spell needed is extremely complicated and requires a lot of power, so it is beyond the reach of but the most skilled wizards.
TELEPORTATION
Teleportation suffers from the same diffusing effects of the magical field that hamper any long-range magic, but also suffers from other problems. The mage would need to keep the shape of not only the spell but also the structure of the object teleported in his mind, and such a feat would not be possible by a human mind. Also if the mage teleports himself, the magical energy would not be held by his body no more and would flow free, so the mage would never arrive in the destination. Even if teleportation is theoretically possible, only very small things could be sent over short distances, as the spell would diffuse over long distances. With also the great power requirements of such a spell, it is not simply practical, even if someone manages to do it
DIRECTLY AFFECTING LIVING BEINGS
The sentient mind present in a living being works as a dampening field against magic that has been shaped by a mind. So any harmful magic that anyone tries to work directly inside the mind or body of another being is greatly weakened. Any spells that hit the being from the outside are not hampered by the mind.
The dampening effect becomes stronger the more power is thrown at it. If someone tries to make another’s heart explode inside them, the spell would be completely nullified by the dampening effect. So the best way to affect another being is with a steady and weak stream of magic. Thanks to the range limitation of magic, such a stream would require close proximity to the target. Any negative effects attempted this way would be noticed long before any lasting harm comes to the target.
Because of the weak stream, magic that affects the body of another have slow effects. Healing magic is not an instantaneous way of healing something. All one can do is boost the healing process, making the natural healing faster and assisting in the healing of serious injuries that might otherwise lead to the death of the target.
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, I also think that turning lead to gold has to be really hard. You need lots of chemicals and stuff, it takes a long time and other things which will stop people just continuislly doing it.