The Abandonments of Magic

## What is Known

The Rising of Chaos is a massive plot machine; the concepts of Abandonments or the corruption of magic and those that use it is a huge part of the story. What is written here is an overview of what has been learned through the story along with a touch on mechanics to make sure we are all on the same page. These are theories and opinions and much of it has yet to be proved but it gives a basis both IC and OOC of what is going on.

Magically speaking there is only so much space that is available in our world and there are many forces that seek to occupy that space. In the first days there was only the Gillieabad and the world was filled with the Wyld but we corrupted them and many of them diminished and some even died. There was more space in our world for things that were not the Gillieabad and from the actions that we had taken Abomination was born. This was the first of the Abandonments of Magic.

## Abomination

* There are five “types” of fettered Gillieabad but as far as they are concerned there is only one "type" of Spirit and that is Gillieabad.
* Of the these "types" of Gilliebad the Felakiq and the Galafeli are the smallest and are not always diminshed Gillieabad sometimes they are created things made by misused magics or by the rise in power of a being that is chanelling the Wyld when it should not be.
	+ These are simple forms of abomination.

* Other forms are creatures from other worlds that have slipped into the spaces that are available who have magics that are similar in potential to the Gillieabad themselves. They steal themselves in and attempt to harvest the power that is intended for the Gillieabad themselves.
	+ These are more powerful and dangerous forms of Abomination.

* There are certainly more hidden types that can be discovered in games but these examples serve as a basic introduction.

* These abominations can grow to be larger than Felkiq or Galafeli but only in rare examples do they reach the size of Abberundy and never Gilieabad – Most stop at Myrrigun.
* Abominations are powerful but unlike Gilieabad they cannot see all times and things they will also, unlike Gillieabad, directly interact with the world around it.
* Effectively an ambomination will attempt to ape a Gillieabad and steal in to grant the power of rituals to those that would offer gift and sacrifice.
* Feeding on that sacrifice it would seek to become a part of the Riutalilst that was calling on it and gain more access to the world.
* Those ritualists may become abominations themselves or gain some purchase or control over the abomination.
* When you draw a Black Joker or a contact card when you are pulling for Backlash as a check you may be recieving power from an Abomination of the Wyld.

## The Nexus Comes

According the Histories the Nexus came and many of the Great Gillieabad fled from the world in order to avoid the damage that would be done by its power. The moment of the comets arrival was so powerful that it is believed that the Gillieabad could not divine the future past that set point in history yet to come. When it did it spread Ley Lines out across the world. Some speculate that this was done to feed itself on the energy of the lands and the people there whilst others say that it was to spread its magic out so that it could remake the world again in the shape of the place that it came from.

The Nexus caused a number of things to happen either intentionally or coincidentally:

* Source Magic was born into the world and led to the Age of Corruption
* Focus Magic was created of Source Magic and led to the Age of Heresy
* The Astral shook and something awoke there which has plagued us for long years with the White
* The Weave and the Glamour seemed to seperate and the first experiences of the Strange were reported.

In this fashion new Abandonments of Magic entered the world following the lines of new or altered power and tried to find their way into the world.

## The Corruption of the Source

* When Sourcerery came to this world it brought with it a number of beings called the Kaytarr from the world of the Nexus.
* The Kaytarr attempted to alter the magic they had brought with them and created new physical forms to host their beings.
* These were the first of what we call Daemons but their magic was not sustainable in this world.
* In the end they took the bodies of the Fae, who were reflections or perhaps the stories of humans and used their flesh to make new forms
* These corrupted monstrosities were called the Dark Fae Men and eventually Daemons.
* Daemons are made strong by power and that power can come in any form: Controlling large armies, the consumption of the power of others, physical strength. It does not matter.
* The more power that they consume the more corrupted and expansive their abilities become.
* Eventually they attempted to corrupt the Nexus itself to such an extent that the world altered and the Shadowed Lands were created for them, a place where their power was absolute.
* Those that call upon the Source may find that their power is filled by Daemons or creatures like them, flowing through the Ley Lines.
* Some may even directly seek this power uncaring of the corruption of the flesh that it would bring such is the power that it grants.
* Sourcerers deal with this corruption driving it back but many are marked by it in its happening.
* Corruption is believed to be the most common and powerful Adandonment.
* Beings so marked often become hosts for Daemons or become Daemons themselves, a few gain great control over them.
* When you draw a Black Joker or a contact card when you are pulling for Backlash as a check you may be recieving power from a Daemon of the Source.

## The Heresy of the Focus

* Heresy is considered to be one of the hardest forms of abandonment to measure: One nations heresy is another nations faith.
* When the first deities rose however there was no order to Faith but deals were struck between the Fae and the Divinities to allow them to become the Faith bringers that they are today.
* The exact details of these agreements are largely uknown but rules were lain down which instruct the Divine, their priests and their flock on the exact nature of the balance between all three.
* It is believed that at this moment that the Soul was born which is considered to be the greatest treasure of faith and perhaps of the five Auras of the Being.
* When a Divinity is called upon it harnesses the faith of the Priest and the power of the souls that it protects to grant power in a way that is consensual to all involved.
* How and why is still largely lost to time and a knowledge that is sought keenly by followers in many lands.
* However there are other powers; unscrupulous mortals that have gathered power and followers to themselves and managed to gain enough powet to rise.
* They will come, unbidden, to answer prayers and seek the pledge of souls that are destined for other places.
* Should a soul so be drawn to allow such a being to answer that prayer then their soul will begin the journey to the side of such a Heresy.
* What a Heretical Divinity will do with that soul is unknown: Some are lost powers that were once a force of the official Pantheons others are something much more sinister
* Some people seek to become them and rise to Divinity themselves, others seek to follow and operate outside the rules laid down by Divine Pacts and Clergies making themselves more powerful than a standard Pilgrim.
* What happens to those that are heretical to the soul is never pleasant, the breakinng of pacts is a dangerous game especially with the Fae...
* When you draw a Black Joker or a contact card when you are pulling for Backlash as a check you may be recieving power from a Heresy of the Focus.

## The White of the Astral

* The Abandonment of the Astral is something that is only recenttly coming to light Historically speaking.
* There is a power hidden in the Astral that many believe to be an ancient and lost Gillieabad called The Varrow Sight.
* Sightings of a spider like being and legends that echo from old days, long gone, in the lands of the Iskarani lay some credence to this.
* Forming ideas that the Astral is made up of the minds of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of the dead of some previous Duchy screaming out in pain circulate.
* Whatever is true there are greatly dangerous areas of the Astral that are reffered to as the White which are full of anger and fear.
* Something seeks a way into this world with a yearning that is old and terrible.
* We do not understand the Astral, we barely know the Astral. For long centuries the people of the lands murdered and persecuted the Haruspexes of the world.
* Whatever comes from the White it is deplorable and wants you to burn with it.
* When you draw a Black Joker or a contact card when you are pulling for Backlash as a check you may be recieving power from the White of the Astral.

## The Strange in the Weave

* The Weave is the most Enigmatic of the forms of Magic
* Virtually nothing is known of its power save that it was once married to the Glamour and that the Skagriagaard of old relied upon it.
* Ancient Tales are called upon to give power to present day and all people MUST have a story in this world or they are less than nothing.
* But those that keep the Lore of Old Stories state that some have changed, some figures of the past are different.
* We have learnt that there is strange within the Weave, some beings or tales that yearn for form or telling that have fallen through the cracks in the worlds and through time.
* They seek the vital stories of the living and try to wrest control of them from us.
* Some have succeeded.
* Perhaps there are those that encourage this, it is hard to say because where they act the story and fact of the world change around them.
* The strange is the most feared of the abandonments, to have your story stolen, to be undone is the greatest of terrors.
* When you draw a Black Joker or a contact card when you are pulling for Backlash as a check you may be recieving power from the White of the Astral.

These are the Abandonments of Magic