Magic

## Aeather and its Vessel

**Aether** is the mystical energy that permanents trough all of existence and from which all life originates. The act of giving Aeather form and purpose is most often called **Magic** or a **Miracle**, depending on the perception of the observer and the practice used.

A **Soul** is needed to be able to use Magic however. Grown from a single **Spark of Life** and nurtured by the Aeather, a soul is the vessel trough which Aeather can pool and flow from living creatures, it is what gives the inanimate life and the power to alter the very reality around them.

A **Will** is needed to make use of that power and steer the flow of Aether. This can be simple as a plant's instinct to live, grow and reproduce but for more complex lifeforms desires, emotions and dreams are all a representation of the Will. A being possessing a Soul but lacking any Will would be no different from any lifeless object and would not be able to survive on its own.

Finally, in order for a Soul and a Will to exists in one place a **Body** is required. For Mortals and Magical Beasts this body is made of flesh and blood, but for creatures like Spirits they can even be places or seemingly abstract concepts. Even Gods (both Good and Evil) possess a body that resides in their own respective realm and the have to assume a mortal form when they enter the Material Realm.

## The Mystery of Aeather

The "proper" use of Aether is something that the Mortal Races have struggled to find ever since they first attempted to touch the flow all around them. A process made seemingly impossible by the fact that there are as many ways of perceiving supernatural phenomena and using them as there are people in The World.

Over time, as people with similar views and beliefs came together, different methods and approaches to the supernatural were passed down and refined until they became so-called **Traditions**. Depending on the fundamentally different set of techniques and principles they utilize, the various Traditions tend to excel at very different tasks or applications. Furthermore, due to the extreme variations in appearance and method, most mortals and even many immortals are not aware of the concept of Aether - instead assuming that the different instances of Aether are in fact energies of their own such as **Life Force, Mana, Qi, Divine Power, Spiritual Energy** and many more.

### Lifeforce

The **Lifeforce** is believed to be the fundamental power of life itself that runs in the blood. Manipulating Lifeforce of a being directly influences that beings health so tapping into it to perform Magic is considered taboo by most cultures and banned as Blood Magic or Forbidden Techniques.

### Mana

Wizards use **Mana** to cast spells and lose it in the process. They gather it from the world around them and store it inside something they might call their "jar of stars", "vessel" or "well" (not knowing that it is actually their Soul).

### Qi

Many martial artists use what they call **Qi** to perform feats that surpass the physically possible. Opposed to Wizards they rarely gather and store Aether in other vessels. Instead, they harness it directly in their body and use it to empower them, some even using it to affect the world around them. Practitioners that make use of Qi and use it to reach greater spiritual, mental and phisical heights are often called Cultivators

### Divine Power

Priests talk about **Divine Power** when they channel the will of the Gods. Consequently, the God they serve has a strong influence on the process and result of casting.

### Spiritual Energy

Many Shamans call upon their **Spiritual Energy** during their rituals while, in fact, it is not the Shaman himself that provides the power but the Spirits around him.

## The Fundamental Laws of Magic

Generations of research and investigation have been invested by mortals and immortals alike yet still the core principles that govern the flow of Aeather still elude even the wisest and knowledgeable beings in The World. As these rules, often referred to as "The Fundamental Laws of Magic", were laid down long before any Mortal (and even before any immortal) existed the exact nature of them, as well as their purpose and their creator, remain unknown to this day.

Practitioners of The Art that have dedicated themselves to studying these laws have created several **Theories** trough trial, error and observation. A list of some of them can be found here.

## The Mark of the Magic-user

Magic is always accompanied by side-effects. As Aeather is so tightly bound to the Body, Will and Soul, the use of Aeather, even unintentional, has an influence on The World and the person using it. This influence can be as negligible as slow, purely cosmetic, changes or as drastic that they involuntarily change the very World in their wake. This can seem as mundane as someone who uses the energies of Death getting a paler complexion over time to something as extreme as drastic changes to Body and Mind.

But while creatures and people unconsciously using Mana tend to get some very general side-effects active practitioners of Magic, who regularly move Aeather trough their own Soul, get a very specific Mark.

This Mark, called **The Mark of the Magic-User**, is a kind of glyph or sign that appears as a certain practitioner of Magic uses the so-called "The Art of Magic" and it grows in complexity and scale as the user becomes more adept at using Magic and the trifecta of his Soul, Body and Will all acclimate to more intense and more advanced use of Aeather.

What appearance the Mark takes is unique to each individual. Some of the more common ways it can manifest are as a symbol that seems to etch itself into the practitioner's clothes over time or as a symbol that appears in objects they conjure. Some nations, like the Ein Sof Magocracy, actually tattoo their skin with a kind of magical ink - wearing their Mark as a symbol of pride and status.

The miraculous thing about the Mark is that it is, in fact, not designed by the one who wears it. A true Mark appears all by itself and grows and changes with the ability of the Magic-user, increasing in complexity as the Magic-users grows in skill and power.

## *Druidic Magic*

### *One with The World*

For Druids Mana is the life energy of all living things that flows trough the universe and they are a part of it. If Wizards gather Mana from around themselves to power their magic then Druids let the Mana flow trough them naturally. Only when one reaches a state of mind capable of this Will the Wold respond to their wishes. In a sense, Drudic magic is far closer to Divine magic despite it using Mana from the same sources as Wizardy.

### *Watchers of The Cycle*

While there are different approaches to Druidic Magic based on the environments in which it developed all of them are usually closely tied to the cycle of life and death. Some believe harmony with the can only be achieved trough non-violence while others posses a "survival of the fittest" mindset. Because all Druids "borrow power" from the world around them they usually act as guardians of their regions as a way of "giving back what they had gotten".

Downright evil Druids are rare, as the world will rarely respond to the heart of somebody who is wicked, but they can exist (though they tend to taint the world around them).

## *Meta Magic*

The school on magic that targets other spells and magic itself – is one of the youngest schools and the least understood. One reason for this is that most practitioners of magic only ever have access to exactly one type of mana / color: their own.