Magic

## History and origins

Magic (*kanata*) is considered to be the fingerprint of
the gods, residue of what remained after their fingers brushed across the
earth’s surface to shape its form.
Certain places of the earth hold more magical powers than others, and
some locations are said to be so magical and powerful that they act as a portal
to the realm of one of the gods.  One
such portal is the lake in Temolo.  It
leads to the Reef of Souls, domain of Hazhrahael, but does not lead back out to
the realm of humankind.  Other portals
are rumored to be in Temvah, the temple of Taranvor in the capital city, as
well as in Rivah, although religious authorities refuse to confirm or deny
public rumors.  As is such, few individuals
know whether or not the Valley of Suns can actually be reached within Temvah.

            Humans learned
to harness the power of magic in prehistoric times well over a thousand years
ago.  The first human use of magic is
left to myth, and various people groups pass down different stories to future
generations.  Some of the Felorum speak
of Xhoudaki himself coming to teach humans magic to prepare them for demonhood
in the afterlife.  Still others claim
that the sly Felorum woman Sheylaal sneaked into the Realm of Suns and learned
the power by observing Taranvor’s warriors practice in their afterworld.  Yet others craft their own tales.  What is known is that, even during the
earliest known years of the period of wandering, prior to the establishment of
the Western Peaks Sovereignty, several people groups, including the Taran, used
magic.  Histories suggest that Taran
mages once held a position of shamanistic authority amongst the tribe, acting
as a powerful second or advisor to the tribe leader, but this authority must
have dwindled with the establishment of permanent settlements and the official
Vahim Regaad Sovereignty not long after 0 NS.

            The practice
of magic nevertheless remained largely religious in the Early Sovereignty to
Early Middle Sovereignty times.  The most
powerful mages presided within the temples being constructed across the land;
scrolls documenting successful magical talent were acquired within temple
libraries.  However, by the Middle
Sovereignty, when many religious mages traveled the land to convert the
populace to a Taranvor-centric religious practice, and brought with them the
ideas of constructing shrines within every person’s home and village, they
spread with them knowledge of magic to the common people.  A great increase in commoners practicing
magic eventually led to increase focus of non-religious magical actions.  While magic continued to be a part of temple
work, the decrease in religious temple focus caused a nationwide shift in
magical trends.  Traveling religious
mages largely became traveling rogue magicians.
By the end of the Middle Sovereignty and start of the Modern Age,
magicians almost exclusively acted outside of any religious organization.

            Within the
last two hundred years magicians have lived widespread across the Vahim
Regaad.  Some villagers may learn a
modest amount of magic to increase their skill in their farming or craft.  The most serious magicians tend to become
loners, traveling from village to village wherever their skills may be put to
hire.  Magicians have come to distinguish
themselves through distinct garb, dressing themselves like particular creatures.  A magician who considers herself a “yak
magician,” for instance, may wear the full pelt of a yak and a headpiece or
necklace featuring yak horns.  A
“cockatrice magician” might sew feathers into all their articles of clothing
and create a headpiece mimicking the crest of the animal.  Regardless of how they dress, though,
magicians are recognizable because of the pouches they carry alone: around
their belts, mages will tie a large number of drawstring pouches full of
various substances they may need to ingest for their line of work.

Although magic is widely viewed to
be the most deadly art an individual can learn, being as it is the power of the
gods and demons, humans themselves contain only a marginal ability to harness
magical powers.  As is such, mages (*nekana*)
find themselves with more limitations than power.  Humankind’s magical abilities are negligible
to the power of demons, including both *dena* and *neden*, while the
gods’ power seems almost limitless.

That said, some human mages contain stronger
magical abilities than others.  Typically
those with a closer connection and devotion to a god or multiple gods learn
magic far more easily than the non-religious.
Those who live in regions of magical remnants also perform much better
at the art, though they often experience a severe drop in their capabilities
when they travel away to less potent regions.

## Mechanism

### Tapper

Magic operates
on a consumption-based system in which a mage derives energy from what they
ingest.  Any item consumed can be used in
magic, although both the specific material and the mage’s goals affect that
consumable’s potency.

There are no standard items which must be eaten in order for
specific incantations to be formed; mages must combine what they ingest with
their knowledge to form a proper and successful incantation.  Consumables which are most closely aligned
with the nature of the magical action result in a more potent spell.  For instance, a mage attempting to increase
crop growth rates may find grass, rich soil, or thinly cut bark to be a good
tapper.  However, those same consumables
would not allow the magician to cast an effective water manipulation
incantation.  For the latter incantation,
some other material, such as tea or water itself, would provide a potent
magical tapper.  Because certain
materials contain greater power at evoking certain types of magic, mages tend
to consume similar materials for similar purposes.  Some of the more common materials, along with
their usual uses, are listed below.

Barley beer                 Heat materials, intensify
flames, combustion, disorient, dull mind

Chicken egg                Increase or decrease likelihood of conception,
abortion, strengthen or reenergize, weaken, slow, stiffen, tear muscle,
tendons, or ligaments, repair muscle, tendons, or ligaments, strengthen
emotional bond with a chicken

Cockatrice
feather      Increase or decrease wind
speed, raise keenness of sight and smell

Copper dust                Strengthen forged tool or weapon

Granite

Grass

Ground animal bone   Fracture or break bone, make bones less
resilient to damage or breakage, heal bone fracture or break, crush skull,
increase resonance of bone flute

Juniper bark                Heat materials, intensify flames, combustion,
strengthen woodwork, increase resonance of wooden instrument, increase crop
growth

Juniper berries            Cure upset stomach, bloating, muscle pain, joint pain,
numb wounds, increase crop growth

Juniper twigs              Heat materials, intensify flames, combustion,
strengthen woodwork, increase crop growth

Limestone                   Strengthen building construction or pottery,
commune with Taranvor and Xhavaemaret

Meat                            Strengthen
or reenergize, weaken, slow, stiffen, tear muscle, tendons, or ligaments,
repair muscle, tendons, or ligaments

Potato

Seabuckthorn              Cure arthritis, ulcers, skin rashes, sores, burns,
cuts, and dry eye, boosting immunity to disease, decrease vulnerability to sun
and weather

Soil                             Increase crop
growth, commune with Taranvor and Xhavaemaret

Soup

Tin dust                       Strengthen forged tool or
weapon

Water                          Bring
moisture up to soil, increase water flow, boil water, freeze water, melt ice or
snow, weaken or slow limbs, disorient, dull mind, stop heart, increase or
decrease wind, increase crop growth, dehydrate, dry wet materials, commune with
Hazhrahael

Yak butter tea             Heat materials

Yak hair                      Strengthen carpet,
clothing, or saddle, strengthen emotional bond with a yak

Other uncommon,
but potent materials, are included below:

Human blood

Human body parts

Animal feces              Spread disease, cause illness, heat materials,
intensify flames, combustion, influence animal species

Skin

Just as no one
item is needed to invoke a certain magical action, there also are no standard
“spells”, either; magical actions rely on the mage’s ideas, imagination, and
abilities.  For this reason, the most
successful mages tend to be the most creative.
They can synthesize what materials can be harness in what ways for
potent, useful magical energies, while at the same time remaining mindful of
human magic’s severe limitations.

### Incantation action

Consuming a
material itself does not invoke magic.
Shortly after eating the material, the mage must invoke an incantation
action.  If an incantation action is not
done by the time the materials have become digested within the body, then no
magic can be performed with those materials.
Incantation can occur in many forms, including singing, speaking,
gesturing, or playing a musical instrument.
All that is required is that the incantation action evokes emotion from
within the magician; any emotion, whether positive or negative, can be as
equally powerful as another.
“Happiness,” then, has no advantage over “sadness” or “anger.”

Through this incantation action, the magician stirs up
emotion, focuses the power they have consumed, and directs it toward their
willed action.  Once the magic is put
into effect, it comes out in a one or two time, sudden release burst.  Slow, sustained magic is incredible rare, taxing,
and usually deadly.  Only demons and gods
can hold up continuing incantations for long periods of time.

### Limitations

Human
limitations to magic are severe.  A
magician can only create one incantation at a time.  The amount of material ingested is directly
proportional to how powerful a magical spell can be.  If a magician attempts to create too powerful
of an incantation for them to handle and deplete the material they have
consumed, they may suffer large internal organ damage or even die.  Injury is more susceptible if magicians attempt
to incant when they are ill or injured.

Even when a lot of material is ingested in a healthy
magician, magic can only influence the elements in certain ways.  Magic cannot go against the laws of nature
and physics; it can only manipulate what is already present.  For instance, a magician can never be in
control of flames.  What a magician could
do with fire is manipulate combustion and heat, such as by warming his hands
and touching someone else to cause a blister, creating a small burst of gas and
flames come from one’s hands and mouth, or firing a concentrated ball of
exploding gas.  Water magic cannot create
water nor control storm clouds, but can do actions like bring moisture from the
ground toward the surface or dry wet clothing.
By and large, magical use does not appear incredibly intricate or flashy
because of these severe limitations.

More powerful than human magicians are the demons.  The *neden* are less powerful magically
than the *dena*, and have some of the same limitations that human
magicians have.  Still, *neden*,
like their *dena* counterparts, are able to conjure magic up from inside
of them rather than relying on an ingested tapper and incantation action.  The amount of magic flowing through them is
what distinguishes the magical abilities of the *neden* from the *dena*.  That said, even the *dena* cannot
compare in power to the gods.

Even gods contain limits to magic.  Were all the gods joined together as one
uniform being, there would be no limitations.
Nevertheless, because they gods are separated, different goddesses and
gods contain different concentrations of abilities.  Hazhrahael is strongest with water magic, Xhavaemaret
with earth magic, Taranvor with fire and light magic, Xhoukadi with psychology
magic, and Shivezhah with air magic.

## Use

Human
limitations to magic prevent the art from being used widely in war.  Unless used with practice and creativity,
magic is almost completely useless in true combat.  Since magical abilities fluctuate upon
location, it is challenging to use magic as an offensive.  The fact substances must be consumed after
each incantation also places severe limits on using magic aggressively.  Magic in true combat best arises through a
quickly executed movement incantation in the midst of a mild melee engagement.  Magicians may pull down rocks from above,
grab another’s face to burn it, or use water magic to subtly stop an advancing
enemy’s heart.  Nevertheless, by and
large a moderate knowledge of the sword will outmaneuver a master of magic in a
fight.

For this reason, magic is almost
invariably used for non-war purposes.
Magicians may use their arts for religious ceremonies, healing,
poisoning, assassination, or various crafts.
Clever craftspeople may request the assistant of a magician to
strengthen their wares, such as by adding increased strength to tools and
weapons in a smithy.  The most common use
of magic is healing, and many magicians specialize in this form and act as a
healer for a village or noble family.

## Education

All humans
contain the ability to learn magic, but few actually do.  To learn magic, individuals usually seek
teachers from within their village, or from wandering magicians.  Traveling magicians may journey in pairs, one
teaching the other the finesse of the art.
More rarely, individuals may attempt to communicate with a god, focusing
on magic while revering the god in their home shrine, traveling to a temple, or
seeking out one of the areas of stronger magic within the world.  Rarer still, someone may seek to learn it entirely
by themselves, though typically such “self-learners” accidentally kill
themselves in the process.