Pyromancy

Pyromancy is one of the forms of magic of Mundus. It stems from the use of one's own internal flame to produce magical effects.
Pyromancy occurs about evenly in all human populations, but it varies greatly among the Din. Zells have the lowest count, to the point that it is still popularly believed that they simply can't perform pyromancy. 
Inside every living creature, there is a Flame. This is the spark of life. A sort of animal soul that burns and consumes. It wants simple things, sex, food, warmth. In humans, who have a higher spirit, the Flame is not  in direct control, but is subdued and chained.
Because of this, human Flame is much, much more hungry than it is in animals who allow it to rule their every action. It is ravenous, and willing to trade anything in return for a taste of the outside world. Pyromancers are people who, wisely or no, break down the seal between them and the Flame, and trade with it. The Fire is powerful, it is the primal element of life, and  given fuel, it can do great and terrible things.
But what does the Flame want? It doesn't want gold. It doesn't want praise. It doesn't want something petty like  frankensense or burnt cloves. The Flame wants what it has been denied. It wants to live. It wants experiences, feelings, and memories.
So, a Pyromancer feeds the Flame bits of his own personality, burning away memories of times past, good times and bad  times, friendships, emotional attachments, records of experiences, and whatever else he has, in return for the power to  control this primal life-force.
Pyromancers can influence living things. They can heal, or hideously harm, dominate the mind or the body, create and  manipulate fire, and communicate with the fires of other living things, even to the point of asking them questions after death.  (The fire, you understand, never truly leaves, it just changes hands as a body decays or is eaten.)
The most powerful Flames in general are those of people--ancient beings which lay dormant for long periods tend to actually have rather small Flame presences, which makes them harder to detect before they wake up. Eskarne for example is a blinding presence to Firesight, because she has both been alive for a long time, and accomplished a lot (as she defines accomplishment) in her lifetime. Seeing Eskarne coming is not hard at all if you are a Pyromancer, she's like a walking chemical fire. The same is true for those who can see into the Spirit-Realm, for different reasons.
Genosus craves order and constructive behavior. He has succeeded tremendously in imposing these values on the world, and so his Fire is very, very powerful, to the point that it manifests physically. It is also partially his nature, he is a tremendous being who predates the universe--and his entire life's purpose since the birth of that universe has been in doing exactly what he is doing.
Bocanadessia is also powerful in this manner, but she has encountered more serious setbacks than her brother, and she is also less fulfilled in her purpose, so she does not shine so brightly.
A mechanical way to put it would be that the more Arc a person has earned and spent relative to the length of his life, the greater his flame is.
Category:Magic