Mages of Aquila

Though the religion of the Old Ways has long been suppressed by the nationstates which lord over the lonely realm of Aquila, in many of its darkest corners - especially in the wake of the Aether War - the lost arts of "magick" are slowly being rediscovered, threatening to invert countless social and political structures which have relied upon their obscurity. Here, under leave of the Society, shall the various tendencies of this forgotten practice be documented to the best of our scholarly knowledge in an effort to understand and prepare.

## Overview

From ghastly sacrificial rites to simple incantations of fortitude, magick takes many forms in the mortal dimension of Emanation owing to its conspicuous origin. All strains of the Old Ways are based upon the identification and manipulation of a mysterious phenomenon known as quintessence - the namesake of both the omnipresent scalar field which binds all matter in Emanation together and an undetectable form of energy permeating all known forms of life. As the primordial and essential prerequisite for all that exists, the successful taming of quintessence allows the most intrepid and cunning of us to achieve feats unthinkable to the layman.

When sufficiently "excited" either through unintentional misuse or deliberate experiment, quintessence may undergo a phase shift to its more volatile form known as phantom energy. This state of matter warps and distorts the natural world in often unpredictable and dangerous ways, making the growing levels of phantom energy in the Aquilan underworld a serious cause for concern. Should enough phantom energy accumulate in one region of spacetime, the quintessence will begin to rapidly cannibalize itself and then collapse completely, always with calamitous effects. What remains is a region which lacks any quintessence at all, making it impossible to sustain life until such a time as a natural phenomenon restores luminance. Deserts and other barren climates are examples in the natural world of areas with naturally lowered quintessence levels, while diverse biomes such as rainforests or urban centers tend to foster abnormal quantities of phantom energy.

Quintessence is rarely, if ever, observed in a "neutral" state as research suggests that the scalar field adjusts itself to the predominant elements of its dwelling. For example, oceans are obviously replete with quintessence strongly aspected towards Water, while a mountain summit will strongly tend towards Wind, and etc.

Outside Emanation and other confirmed dimensions such as the Slip and the ethereal plane lies the Void, a vast tract of nothingness utterly devoid of any signs of quintessence. This gloomy and unknowable realm was once the heart of the Aetherial source, though it now serves as a lonely abyss beyond the boundaries of existence where only the forsaken dwell.

## Tendencies

### Noumenons

Translating to "old masters," the Noumenons were the first known practitioners of the Old Ways on Aquila. Their leader was Hades Sinnwalker, traitor to the gods, whose legendary sacrifice allowed the mortals of the realm to take up the sacred magicks theretofore reserved only for the divine and their angelic servants. The archmage's most trusted students became the Noumenons (a modern term prescribed to the group, who had no formal name in their time), who according to legend practiced nearly every branch of magick, even mastering both the Light and Dark, a feat which has gone unreplicated in the thousands of years since. The divide within the order brought about by Hades' death led to the modern rift between the so-called right and left handed paths of magick, with half of his remaining disciples interpreting his teachings to suggest that the dark arts were the way of righteousness, while a splinter faction believed that his dark aspect was a mistake and thus took up the light.

The Noumenons have long since gone extinct, leaving the true nature of their incomparable magicks a secret lost to time forever. Scholars on occult history tend to agree that compared to the old masters, the mages of today are little more than children playing with toys.

The omnimancy practiced by the Noumenons is theorized to have mostly been enchantment-based, eschewing complex incantations in favor of empowering their own vessels beyond mortal limits.

### Druids

The most common manifestation of the Old Ways, druidry is the catch-all term for individuals with strong attunement towards specifically aspected quintessence. The famous cryomancers of Outer Zetia and the dryads of the Great Vankoorian Wood are excellent examples of similarly gifted individuals with a supernatural command of the given element. The exact cause of this phenomenon is unknown as there is currently no way to directly observe an organic lifeform's quintessential makeup; outside of isolated cases it does not appear to be possible to "become" a druid through training, nor is an individual's material circumstance at birth always a reliable predictor of what sort of quintessence they may be aspected towards; there are incidences in history of powerful individuals attempting to foster pure bloodlines of druids to no avail, ruling out the influence of genetic factors in the phenomenon.

As druidry is by all accounts an inherent gift, its practitioners do not employ spells in the traditional sense, relying upon their natural gifts to command the element of their aspect quite freely when compared to more formal mages. Study and meditation seem to be capable of enhancing a druid's abilities even further. While naturally born druids are far from common, their occurrence in mortal society is theorized to be much higher than what has currently been observed, as due to cultural pressures these gifts tend to go unnoticed or outright repressed.

### Sorcerers

Often colloquially known as dark mages or maguses, the sorcerer is a master of the forceful manipulation and domination of quintessence, warping it into the elements of their choosing almost always to disastrous effect. Untamed magick such as this is often regarded as the most dangerous school of the Old Ways, as the callous mishandling of the natural world is almost certain to exact a heavy toll upon the body and soul of the magus. As such, the dark arts necessitate a variety of methods such as fetishism and spirit-binding (necromancy) to protect the sorcerer's mortal spirit from irreparable damage; if torn beyond repair, the soul may be corrupted, warping the foolhardy into twisted beings known as vampires, who live only to supp upon the souls of the innocent for sustenance.

Should this heavy price be accepted, the walker of the left path may become harbingers of destruction through a variety of methods. Being a learned craft unlike druidry, sorcery requires a sufficient conduit by which the mortal may manipulate quintessence to any significant effect; the most common practices include patronage to the dark angels of the Void (usually entailing complex rituals or other acts of service), the learning of forbidden tongues whose words serve as incantations for specific spells, blood sacrifice and other acts of self-mortification, or a combination of all of these combined with decades of strenuous practice and study. Most who attempt to claim the title of Sorcerer are either dissuaded from the path or consumed by their recklessness or sloth; those with the cunning to truly master the dark art of sorcery invariably become avatars of chaos whose names are permanently inscribed upon the walls of history, most reliably as cruel tyrants and harbingers of misery. Still, there are those who have dedicated themselves to the study and practice of the Shadows so they may become stauncher, if darker, guardians of peace.

Nevertheless, as an inherently destructive and unnatural practice, acts of sorcery are known to wreak havoc upon local quintessence to the point that their ritual sites regularly become nexuses of phantom energy, sewing chaos by warping both the land and the magus into strange facsimiles of their natural states.

Sorcery encompasses countless obscure spells and incantations of individual make, but these samples taken from the *Ars Goetia,* one of the most common occult grimoires in circulation (written in the tongue of Shibboleth), may be taken as the norm, expected to be mastered by any who claim the title Magus.

* Enflame - Fire & Dark-aspect, summons a projectile of dark fire which violently bursts upon impact.
* Sol - Fire & Dark-aspect, violently pulverizes the quintessential molecules in an area to beget a concentrated explosion with concussive effect.
* Engulf - Ice & Dark-aspect, conjures three shards of ice to impale targets from afar.
* Glaciate - Ice & Dark-aspect, freezes a target in a tomb of ice.
* Entwist - Wind & Dark-aspect, disrupts air currents to briefly incur a minor tornado. May mix unpredictably with other elements.
* Enquake - Earth & Dark-aspect, ravages the surface of an area to dredge of clumps of rock and dirt, usually for blunt attack or impromptu shield.
* Enthunder - Lightning & Dark-aspect, conjures a brief burst of directable ball lightning.
* The Swell - Ice, Fire, and Earth-aspect, disrupts atmospheric quintessence flow into an amalgamation of elemental chaos, wreaking mass havoc. Weakens the resolve of enemies.
* Reanimate - Dark-aspect, enthralls a suitable corpse into servitude.
* Invoke Spectre - Dark-aspect, summons a captured mortal spirit for defense, knowledge, or as a weak but resilient ethereal ally in battle.
* Invoke Beast - Dark-aspect, conjures the simulacra of a creature recently defeated in battle.
* Invoke Daemon - Dark-aspect, summons a lesser angel from the Void for one favor. Will ask one in return; refusal is ill-advised.
* Assail - Time & Dark-aspect, attempt to influence the mind of a lesser foe.
* Enchant - Capable of enchanting inanimate objects with supernatural properties aligned with the left hand path, such as elemental aspecting or soul-wreaking. Usually performed with the aid of Invoke Spectre or Daemon.

The Sorcerer usually eschews traditional armor, preferring to travel in light gambeson or simple robes. Their tools of choice are the grimoire and the enchanted staff; every learned spell is stored within their personal grimoire and usable at will by reading aloud the required incantations from the text. Staves, meanwhile, require no incantation, instead "remembering" a set array of spells as designated by the sorcerer. Staves require periodic re-enchanting to remain potent and may weaken in memory over time; the most powerful enchanted staves usually hold around 8 spells, to be used approximately a dozen times each before losing magical potency.

### Wizards

Also known as light mages, magicians, and priests, the wizard is the right-handed counterpart of the magus, deriving their magicks from harmony with natural quintessence rather than its domination. As such, white magic is often regarded as being "quintessence neutral," sacrificing the raw power of the dark arts in favor of greater longevity. With some exceptions, wizards tend to specialize in defensive and healing spells, striving to achieve synchronicity with nature so as to become nigh-invulnerable protectors of peace. They are stronger enchanters than dark mages due to their greater connection to animated quintessence, and their magicks are capable of manipulating nature to a much higher degree, sometimes earning them the honorary title of "archdruid" in light of their ability to control the elements more freely and readily where their counterparts would generally require incantation.

While subject to much the same repression as their left-handed cousins and druid-folk, the wizards of Aquila have on occasion found ways to legitimize their practices by offering their services to sympathetic holy orders and even governments. Many of the realm's monastic orders, namely the Templars and the Sons of Eos, have long incorporated mages of the light into their ranks as clerics and war-mages, lending their holy enchantments and healing services for spiritual guidance and even battle.

**Spells**