Records: ROM demos Magic

A week after the transition from the *Order of Merlin* to the *Royal Order of Merlin*, the OM-ROM made another appearance in the Crown Prince's Regent Court. This time they were back to spread the love – and the royal court was floored. This was no less a selective class on how to use a wand.

The OM-ROM instructed the court in the nature of toxicity and hazards – what that meant, exactly – and how magic could be both. They introduced them to the most basic aspects of *wandism*, and for the royal court, passed out introductory wands.

*That worked*.

ACTUAL MAGIC WANDS.

It wasn't easy, but suddenly, technically – *there were people who weren't actually in the ROM that could operate a wand*. Albeit very basically: *arcanokinesis*... but it was freakin' magic!

The word spread from the royal court like wildfire. Magic was a whole new level of *real*.

## **The nature of magic itself…**

It was a given that Richard knew magic. It was that the rest of the OM demonstrated simple, wand-based telekinetic magic. It appeared effortless to pick up, set down, push, pull, and carry light objects – and the royal court was absolutely flabbergasted.

It was nothing special, just being able to effect physical change at a distance, but that alone spoke of *amazing* power. It was unlike anything the world had every truly seen before. The word went out from there, through London, through England via the courtiers and courtesans, across the channel to Paris and so on.

While most believed in magic, many didn’t believe the demonstrations had actually taken place, or were quite sure it was smoke and mirrors. It was far easier to believe in something that couldn’t be pinned down, than believe in something amazing *owned by your enemy*.

Richard instructed the court on some of the basic behaviors of magic: once something was done in the mundane, it could duplicated in the arcane.

This was the principle of *Objective Extrapolation:* a magician was able to feel the *natural motion* [physics] of a series of actions, and recreate it magically. Often, for those clever enough, they could amplify and modify it. That was the principle behind *arcane movement* [arcanokinetics].

### **For a week, demonstrations continued in London**

This was throwing a big boulder in a small pond. The first few were for the natural philosophers of the RANP, then after that, it was for the general public – and they went absolutely crazy for it. The OM magicians were able to teach a few commoners how to do it, using a wand, including some of the chroniclers of the time.

There was a promise that the OM would “soon” release magical wands for purchase. But it would require several hours of basic instruction, which would then certify a basic competence.

## **Creating the certification class was the next step**

The syllabus and lesson plans were already prepared, but there weren't currently enough ROM personnel to teach it – or safe facilities where it could be taught.

Again, due to the hazard and toxicity, they didn't want to teach at Leeds Castle. Even the magic classes, comparatively innocuous, was still dangerous. That meant they couldn't teach this like an English class in central London.

There were two concurrent steps that had to happen, and they would both require money. Fortunately, gold, hard cash was in no shortage for the alchemical agency.

### **Personnel**

It was part of the future business model to turn magic into a market. That meant selling wands, scrolls, spells, potions, and education. But it had to be taken slowly and responsibly, or England was going to blow itself to kingdom come.

This meant bringing in another wave of ROM personnel, in this case specifically to train other people.

### **Facilities**

The thought was to put another manor east of London (and just west of the Royal Company in Rainham). This would be out of the way enough to keep some discretion, but not so far out that logistics was a problem.

Having an Arcane Academy semi-close to Rainham also ensured that the magic practiced there would be low-level.

## **The Order’s Deepest Secrets**

### **Functional Arcano-Sensitivity (FACS) discovery**

*Learning the (Art and) Science of Crystal-assisted Casting*

Arcanocrystallography was now crossing over with cognitive Arcano-Sensitivity (ACS). In technical terms, they were studying the effect of human thought on projected energy from a ***charged crystal***. This was the beginning of “thinking *through* the crystal.” In very short order, it was discovered that the energy could controlled to a high degree in a combination of visualization and intent.

The process of activation of an energy release was called actuation. Depending on intent, there could be different styles and intensities of actuation. In short, this was casting. The categorical description of casting was termed Functional Arcano-Sensitivity (FACS).

The methodology ranged from casting while holding the crystal, to touching it (both resulting in various injuries), to touching it by extension. Most anything could be a magical conductor of controlling energy but also an insulator of energies actuated.

This again was a phase that required a great deal of medical care on the team, including a few direct extreme interventions from Prince Richard. There were some deeper social implications to these near-death episodes within the group, but those were rarely spoken of.

In terms of Field Effects actuation, it could be done remotely as well, with SNS sensitivity substituting for touch. This was experimented with *twice*, and at very small scales. Nobody wanted this secret getting out, and if SNS signals wound up mixing with the Field Effects, *Foreign* factions would detect it.

This also created some radiative feedback effects the Prince, but he was able endure and otherwise suppress those until the symptoms seemed to disappear altogether.

### **Crystal-assisted actuation down to a science**

In very rapid succession, once the process of Functional Arcano-Sensitivity (FACS) was discovered, experimentation began on different modes and methods on varying the visualization and intent of of the actuation. *That is, they were creating different “spells.”*

Having found a fairly standardized method of keep the crystal close but not too close, and with abilities to change the crystal, led to the rise of wandism. Various dynamics of wand casting were being discovered, recorded an analyzed every day.

By this stage, all 9 members (even the accountant) were carrying wands of varying sizes, most with hidden, encapsulated crystals. All of them were able to utilize some level of articulated arcanokinesis and all had some type of defensive projection.

They were able to develop a great deal of techniques, tactics and procedures that heavy SNS users could do, but usually with no SNS/psychic residue (unless it was a form of magic that affected psychic energy, in which case *it got messy*).