Forbidden Magic

**Forbidden Magic** is an outlawed branch of magic that uses living sacrifices, robbing sentient beings of their **true essence** (life force + mana) to subvert the laws of magic and upset the balance. It can be used to obtain effects such as creating life, gaining immortality, even stealing part of someone's soul, etc. It is the most horrible thing one can do, using the life of others to empower one's creations, and an unnatural process, almost impossible to balance. It is by definition is consuming the essence of someone else for one's own gain.

It is very powerful but also very volatile - one mistake can turn the miracle into a nightmare (e.g. the creation of the Black Star). Like any kind of magic, to perfect a single spell requires several attempts and each one of them can bring consequences comparable to a natural disaster. The highest forms of Forbidden Magic require using the lives of others to empower spells or magical objects. Such magic can give birth to miracles, but only at the cost of many lives and pose huge risks. Examples of Forbidden Magic in human civilizations are slave collars or creating Greater Undead, since both rob living creatures of their free will.

Part of the responsibilities of Awakened Regional Lords is to prevent the use of Forbidden Magic in their territory.

## Tier Classification

Forbidden Magic can be split into two tiers:

**Tier 1** means that it doesn't harm the people, only its laws. Tier 1 can be performed as long as the mage has Royal Authorization. **Tier 2**, instead, can never be employed. Even if the King himself were to be caught in the act, he would be immediately executed, as it happened for Arthan. Tier 2 leads to immediate execution whereas Tier 1 Forbidden Magic is one of the greatest achievements a craftsman can receive. It means that they've outmatched the known restrictions about magic and that the law needs to be changed to keep up with a single person. It's something that usually happens only when a Magus shares their knowledge.

## Lost Cities

Lost Cities are abandoned ruins or places of power, abuses of Lochra Silverwing's legacy by those who sought to exploit the less fortunate in their quest for power and longevity. They are sealed by powerful barriers that only army mages know how to disable and left standing by the Guardians as a reminder of the foolishness of men. The silver lining of lost cities is that every monstrosity born from these experiments are common enemies that allow people to put aside their differences and rethink their way of life.

## Arthan's Madness

***Classification**: Tier 2*

**Arthan's Madness** is the collection of Arthan Griffon's attempts at achieving immortality to overcome the limitations of fake Awakened and is one of the parameters that define Forbidden Magic. It uses lives of others to prolong the life of the wielder, renews their life force, and refines their body similar to what happens to an Awakened. Tyris destroyed its blueprints and specifications, leaving behind only a few fragments that could be used for medical research.

It isn't as effective as Awakening, as it leaves behind impurities while strengthening the user's core, causing a lack of stability and leading (in Thrud Griffon's case) to a rainbow core. Arthan's Madness has a low energy assimilation rate, but Thrud fixes this issue by converting her victims into clones before harvesting them. She improves Arthan's Madness to modify her cells to be able to generate a vortex that absorbs world energy, though is unable to activate the vortex without having her core poisoned.

Arthan's Madness is filled with purple liquid, which lose its color becoming as clear and transparent as water as its subject absorbs the fuel.

### Stasis Pods

Vastor's **stasis pods/field** is a variation of Arthan's Madness that he used for himself to become a human-Abomination hybrid. The stasis pods are used in conjunction with meat puppets that were created using death row inmates, their minds killed using Body Sculpting and leaving their bodies ready for use as body doubles. The stasis pods ensure that if anything happens to the puppets, their magical items will lose their imprint.

## Ambrosia

***Classification**: Tier 2*

The culmination of Arthan's Madness and Thrud Griffon's research. **Ambrosia** is derived from the condensation of the life force of several undead through Arthan's Madness, particularly undead children due to them being universal donors of life force. Ambrosia takes the form of a liquid within the blood and evolves lesser beasts with the powers and traits of their greater cousins.

**Subjects**

* Iata (Scorpicore): evolves to Sekhmet.[*Reference needed*]
* Ufyl (Hydra): evolves into a 7-headed Dragon.[*Reference needed*]
* Xondar
* Pretion (Sphinx): gains Life Maelstrom.[*Reference needed*]
* Tark (Lindwurm): gains Origin Flames mixed with the corrosive breath typical of his species.
* Menia (Behemoth): gains Life Maelstrom.
* Kunia (Drake): gains Dragon Eyes allow him to understand tier five spells after seeing them once.
* Zogh (Sphinx): gains Life Maelstrom.

## Slave Collars

***Classification**: Tier 2*

**Slave Collars** are Forgemastered tools used to take over the will of those forced to wear it. It uses a form of Body Sculpting to alter the victim's life force according to the received orders. Body movements are controlled as well since they are just electrical impulses from the brain to the body.

Those enslaved are forced to do whatever their master wants. Most victims of a slave item commit suicide within a year of their rescue due to the immense trauma. It was first invented by the Gorgon Empire's ruling hierarchy - when Lochra Silverwing gave her magical legacy to the world, voiding the nobles' monopoly over magic knowledge, the nobles Forgemastered slave collars to take control of all mage candidates.

Centuries later, several old noble houses in the Griffon Kingdom crafted slave collars under the lead of Coirn Hatorne, Archmage Lukart, Duchess Pontus and Professor Valesa Nalear. The new slave collars were disguised as accessories such as necklaces, rings, or bracelets. They were controlled by a master ring which, once its owner dies, turns to dust as do all the slave items as Hatorne's safety feature to leave behind no traces.

## Body-Swapping

***Classification**: Tier 2*

**Body-Swapping** involves transplanting one's life force into another body, effectively preserving one's life. It also kicks out the original soul and replaces it with the user's. A more complicated and mana-expensive version called Life Merging was successfully adopted by the Odi. The process is considered as hard as achieving Lichhood, but the process has been standardized, making things much less risky compared to undeath. The key differences are the need to build the apparatus and find a replacement body. Its biggest downside is the loss of the mana core, body, and even muscle memory, though all artifacts and knowledge are retained.

## Life Draining Array

An array developed by Gadorf the Wyvern and the Master. It appears as an eight pointed star inscribed in a circle made of pure white energy. At each extremity of the star was a small white marble altar covered in light magic runes. Living beings are placed on the altars, their mana cores sucked dry to empower the array's master. The array was linked to Gadorf's black core, feeding it with the accumulated energies inside the array. The black core absorbed and refined the energy before transferring it to his cyan one, hence achieving an artificial version of Accumulation. However, due to the array transferring life force directly into his core, any damage to the array also reflected on Gadorf himself.

## Cursed Objects

***Classification**: Tier 2*

The most common case of Forbidden Magic is when the mage is so obsessed by someone to resort to magic to bind him/her to an object. The victim becomes doomed to an eternity of slavery, and after the death of its captor, the only things that awaits is madness - still a prisoner, incapable of free will, doomed to obey whoever holds the magic's focus. Creating a cursed object demands an enormous amount of mana and a very complex array to contain the energies released in the process.

Cursed objects are called **Living Legacies** by Abominations, since for them they are more a blessing than curse. Abominations have no body that a living relic can corrupt, nor can their minds be swayed with promises of power since Abominations are power made flesh. They actively seek cursed objects to enslave them to their will. Living Legacies would never help their masters; they only wait for their captor's destruction to regain their freedom and find a victim they can subdue. Abominations and cursed objects are like minded - they seek slaves, not companions.

Cursed objects are designed to eventually fuse with their host, sharing both their mana signature and life force, making it impossible to distinguish between the two. A cursed object is more vulnerable as long as they are connected to their host. Any wound the host receives would badly affect the relic's mental state and drain its energy. Only special artifacts can break the bond between a cursed object and their host, if only temporarily. However, cursed objects need consent to bond with a host.

A Living Legacy can't be separated from its host - they are one. No matter if the physical form of the relic is a crystal, a pebble, or a sword, they are permanently fused. To break the bond, it takes a special artifact or a specific ritual, and both are risky. Mind and body are merged so usually the host dies in the process. Even the few who survive become mad in the process due to the trauma. A slave usually only has two choices: empathize with their master and survive, or resist until the slave spell and the abuse breaks them. Either way, they would lose their mind.

Cursed objects often spread their plague even in death. The sudden release of wild energies after their destruction would taint the land, making them inhabitable for prolonged periods of time unless someone knew how to do it properly (e.g. Lith with the Black Star).

Cursed objects use the term "family" only because they lack an alternative. Living Legacies are no race since each one of them is unique - not even being crafted by the same hand gives them any sense of kinship. Even though the most dangerous living legacies draw their power from mana geysers, Guardians can easily dispose of them with sheer might. The Three Horsemen are above any living legacy that any race can make.

* Black Star
* Dawn
* Night
* Dusk
* Sevenus Hystar

### Abilities

* **Dual casting**: Cursed objects are able to use someone else's memory to cast dimensional and offensive spells together.
* **Shared memories**: Cursed objects and hosts are one in the mind and the body, which means that the host can access the Living Legacy's techniques, spells, and even muscle memory.
* **Extra life**: As long as a cursed object has a host, they can sacrifice them to heal any kind of wound since their energy signatures would become identical. A host is akin to an extra life to a cursed object, a disposable tool.
* Mastery of imbued enchantments: cursed objects have have no need to study their spells or abilities since they master all the enchantments they are imbued with as if they were born with them.

## DoLorean

***Classification**: Tier 1*

Crafted by Lith, Solus, and Friya as a gift for Lith's parents for safe travel. It is loosely modeled after Earth's DeLorean and inspired by the flying cars from the Lost City of Kolga, though equipped with safety measures the former lacked. Lith was forced to abandon the idea of reproducing the iconic time-traveling means of transportation in the early stages of the project and settling with a blocky van shape - the original DoLorean looked much cooler, but it was also much less practical. There wasn't enough space for the kids and both the trunk and the hood had no purpose. Baggage would be stored inside dimensional items and the power source took less space than an orange.

As the DoLorean was crafted with non-mages in mind, it requires a high level of automation that can only be achieved by embedding all of the required protocols into a single string of runes. This is the reason Lith decides to craft his first power core. The Warp Drive and Construct pseudo cores were combined first, their respective runes alternated as if cutting a strand of DNA in multiple places and filling the gaps between the various extremities with short strings of base pairs from a different strand without compromising the stability of the resulting DNA. The red and golden runes were rearranged according to Lith's will, forming a Warp core capable of using Light Mastery.

Once assembled, the power core resembles a white dwarf whose heat spreads evenly throughout the car, exerting a heavy mana pressure. After each enchantment that comprises the power core bonds with the section of the car it is intended to control and oversee, the runes disappear forever from sight. Thanks to its cloaking system, even Invigoration only shows the magical equivalent of a Pollock painting.

Following the evaluation of the DoLorean, Queen Sylpha classifies it as Tier 1 Forbidden Magic and outlaws its production, though commissions a copy for Marchioness Mirim Distar and the Royals.

* A sealed, silver, minivan shaped chassis with custom-made sofas inside equipped with seatbelts. The sofas' frames are made out of metal rather than wood, allowing Lith to fuse them with the rest of the car, while the belts keep both the children and the adults safe.
	+ Due to Mogar's lack gum trees, Lith was forced to use four wooden wheels to keep the car lifted from the ground.
	+ Due to the absence of the engine and of the trunk, the DoLorean can comfortably accommodate eleven people by adding two more backseats.
	+ A gear lever sets the speed, and the steering wheel is pulled towards the driver to set the altitude.
	+ The wedge-shaped wind blade in front of the car works as a windshield, protected the inhabitants from insects and dust since, at that speed, even a fly would hit them with the energy of a bullet. It also creates a slipstream effect, allowing the propulsion spell to achieve great speed while meeting minimum resistance.
* **Gyrostabilization**: bringing the DoLorean to zero gravity would mean that even a sneeze can topple it and that the slightest wind would make its flying path highly unstable. The reduced weight coupled with the Tier 1 spell Float, instead, makes the interior of the car as if it is gyrostabilized, preventing any kind of motion sickness.
* A reusable imprint to control the vehicle via handprint on the dashboard, right between the driver and the passenger seat.
* **Warp Drive**: serves as a complex focus that allows it to handle both dimensional and gravity magic. The dimensional runes shine with a red light due to the abundance of fire element needed to boost at the same time all the other elements that comprise gravity magic. Friya engraves on its casing specialized water runes that suppress the excess fire until it is needed. As the Warp Drive the most complex incantation, it serves as the base of the power core, placing it first on the dashboard. The red core is comprised of dimensional runes whose complexity is on another level compared even with the golden Light Mastery core that Solus crafted.
	+ Uses gravity magic to make the device capable of floating on its own rather than require a constant flow of air magic to lift it. It makes the flight path more stable and allows the vehicle to go faster since only a small part of the energy is needed to keep it in the air.
	+ A button labeled "Land" in bright letters returns the wooden wheels to their original position and descends the car slowly until it touches the ground. Gravity gradually returns to normal as the system makes sure the DoLorean has stable footing.
	+ **Emergency Warp Gate**: an emergency measure to return Lith's parents to the safety of the arrays surrounding their home in the blink of an eye, no matter if they are afar and if they can't use dimensional magic. When the DoLorean is being pushed to its utmost speed (past 88 mph), a red button lights up which when pressed transforms the world energy from the violet crystals and the accumulated kinetic energy into a Warp Gate that brought it exactly above a Home Stone. The only issue is that the crystals need time to recharge after being one use.
* **Construct core**: a golden pseudo core that conjures and holds several different kinds of hard-light constructs according to the circumstances. Light Mastery is the perfect solution since no one uses light sealing arrays and the versatility of the constructs allow the same spell to shape them according to the situation at hand. It can form an external armor to protect the occupants from attacks while also filling the interior with a protective foam in case of impacts or crash landings.
	+ When explosions occur near the vehicle, conjures a sphere around the vehicle comprised of revolving panels of hard-light infused with the air and water elements. The sphere moves so fast that the air barrier dissipates the brunt of shockwaves, the water that of the heat, and the panels whatever gets past the first two layers of protection while also leaving the driver's line of sight clear often enough to allow the driver to know where they are going.
	+ In the event of a crash landing, the panels are replaced by a multi-layered barrier of hard-light while a porous foam-like construct fills the inside of the car, surrounding its passengers from head to toe. The former deforms to nullify the impact before it reaches the DoLorean's silver chassis while the latter disperses the ensuing shockwaves to the point that all the occupants only experience a series of weak jolts akin to moving over a bumpy road.
* **Air core**: grants the car speed, maneuverability, and stability. It also keeps the vehicle pressurized so that inhabitants have no trouble breathing when high up in the air. When the Warp Drive is disabled by a dimensional sealing array, the air core replaces it with a mix of Float and Flight spells.
* **Fire/water cores**: serves both in contingency situations and to create air conditioning.
	+ Consists of knob whose left side is painted blue and the right red. Right beside it is a small lever with knots numbered from zero to five.
	+ In the presence of air and dimensional sealing arrays, the fire core usies controlled bursts of fire to keep the car in the air.
* **Earth core**: softens a crash landing.
* **Darkness core**: keeps the car clean.
* A variety of contingency measure pseudo cores necessary in the case of an encounter with an elemental blocking array.
* **Tracking device**: Lith installs a tracking device in the car that allows the Queen's Corps to always know their position and to follow them from a distance.

## References

1. ↑ Legion on Discord
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 430: Death from Above (Part 2)
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chapter 78: Interludium (2)
4. ↑ Chapter 1560: The Price of Success (Part 2)
5. ↑ Legion on Discord
6. ↑ Chapter 759: Diamond in the Rough (Part 1)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Chapter 1329: Domination (Part 1)
8. ↑ Chapter 370: Symphony (Part 2)
9. ↑ Chapter 399: Wrath (Part 1)
10. ↑ Chapter 999: Bonds of Trust (Part 1)
11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Chapter 473: Overwhelming Power (Part 1)
12. ↑ Chapter 197: A Shadow in a World of Lights
13. ↑ Chapter 472: Royal Pains (Part 4)
14. ↑ Chapter 489: Warg (Part 1)
15. ↑ Chapter 1408: Two as One (Part 2)
16. ↑ Chapter 1488: Means and Ends (Part 2)
17. ↑ Chapter 1487: Means and Ends (Part 1)
18. ↑ Chapter 1389: High-Master (Part 1)
19. ↑ Chapter 1383: Eyes and Charms (Part 1)
20. ↑ 20.0 20.1 20.2 Chapter 1406: Altered Beasts (Part 2)
21. ↑ Chapter 1405: Altered Beasts (Part 1)
22. ↑ Legion on Discord
23. ↑ Chapter 305: Escape (Part 1)
24. ↑ Chapter 97: Progress
25. ↑ Chapter 198: The Watcher
26. ↑ Chapter 316: Final Struggle (Part 2)
27. ↑ Legion on Discord
28. ↑ Chapter 737: Menadion's Story (Part 1)
29. ↑ Chapter 278: Unnatural (Part 2)
30. ↑ Chapter 282: Light and Darkness (Part 2)
31. ↑ Chapter 503: Hollow Victory (Part 1)
32. ↑ Chapter 877: Master and Servant (Part 1)
33. ↑ Chapter 895: Real Magic (Part 1)
34. ↑ Chapter 546: Eyes and Wings (Part 2)
35. ↑ Chapter 901: Predator Versus Predator (Part 1)
36. ↑ Chapter 912: Apprenticeship for Two (Part 2)
37. ↑ Chapter 1385: Rebellious Phase (Part 1)
38. ↑ 38.0 38.1 Chapter 1152: State of Sorrow (Part 2)
39. ↑ Chapter 881: Bad Manners (Part 1)
40. ↑ Chapter 1110: Yurial’s Legacy (Part 2)
41. ↑ Chapter 1007: The Mark of a Genius (Part 1)
42. ↑ Chapter 1392: The Third God (Part 2)
43. ↑ Chapter 1399: When All Are One (Part 1)
44. ↑ Chapter 1541: New Life (Part 1)
45. ↑ 45.0 45.1 45.2 45.3 Chapter 1273: Power Core (Part 1)
46. ↑ 46.0 46.1 46.2 Chapter 1274: Power Core (Part 2)
47. ↑ 47.0 47.1 47.2 47.3 47.4 47.5 47.6 Chapter 1275: Craftsman’s Pride (Part 1)
48. ↑ Chapter 1276: Craftsman’s Pride (Part 2)
49. ↑ 49.0 49.1 49.2 49.3 49.4 Chapter 1277: Test Drive (Part 1)
50. ↑ Chapter 1279: Test Drive (Part 3)
51. ↑ 51.0 51.1 Chapter 1272: Family and Gifts (Part 2)
52. ↑ Chapter 1278: Test Drive (Part 2)
53. ↑ Chapter 1281: Safe Travels (Part 1)
54. ↑ 54.0 54.1 54.2 Chapter 1328: Royal Summon (Part 4)
55. ↑ Chapter 1327: Royal Summon (Part 3)
56. ↑ Chapter 1286: Keeping Busy (Part 2)