Magic

Magic is a mystical force that has escaped scientific studies since the dawn of mankind. Magic is born of human thoughts and beliefs. Through rituals, magic allows sentient beings to impose their vision upon reality. Although everyone may technically do magic, only a select few people are blessed with the talent and power to perfect miraculous acts, the lesser magicians being limited to merely nudging the odds.

A person who practice magic is typically known as a magician, although many titles are used; witch, wizard, sorcerer, warlock, shaman, theurgist.

Magic does not care for physical reality but rather for beliefs and thoughts. When performing magic, one must create and hold the proper mental construct and fuel it through their mystical powers.

When affecting the physical world, the effect of a spell will match the image within one's mind's eye, which may result in unwanted effect if one's image and knowledge is insufficient; one must understand the properties of gold to transmute lead, one must understand biology to heal properly.

## Magical Methodology

### **Thaumaturgy**

"Miracle Workings" Thaumaturgy is the big and loud type of magic that matches the power of many Parahumans. Only High Magicians may perform thaumaturgy.

Although Thaumaturgy can be done without tools, most magicians use focus objects such as wands, staves or talismans, along with gestures and incantation linked with rote memorization to enhance their visualization and focus.

Thaumaturgy however has its limits;

* It is mentally exhausting and consumes a lot of magical energy.
* It is limited in only affecting people the magician can touch or see.
* It is unstable and only persist as long as the magician actively sustain the spell.

### **Theurgy**

Theurgy is the term used to designate ritual works. Unlike Thaumaturgy, Theurgy is slow and laborious works, the shortest rituals taking minutes and some taking days. Wheres Thaumaturgy creates a sudden affect through sheer force of will back by occult powers, Thaumaturgy weave complex spells by recreating the intended effect in a symbolic scale and fueling the ritual with magical force.

* Theurgy may affect people all over the world but requires a link to the person: Body fluid, hair, a deeply personal object.
* Unlike Thaumaturgy, Theurgy may employ many magicians working in concert.

### **Invocation**

The last method of performing magic, is Invocations where instead of using one's own power, the magician pacts with the spirits of the otherworlds to perform certain tasks for them.

Invocation require the magician to summon the spirit from its realm by invoking its true name and binding the spirit within a specially prepared circle where it may remain in the physical world safely. Invocations require a circle lined with something antithetical to the being's nature to imprison it, as well as offerings to appease the entity.

As a rule spirits do not like being summoned and bound and will almost invariably attempt to escape and use the few moment they have in the physical world before vanishing to teach a lesson to the arrogant magician.

## High Magic or Magical Superpowers

High magic is the most common term used by the mystical community of Earth Aleph to differentiate dabblers from those with true mystical powers.

Every high magic practitioner is connected to what is known as a Mantle, a mystical bond with a powerful force that empowers a specific magician and a select few to whom they are connected. Mantles have many origins, some are created by miracles, some granted by divine forces, some are forged by magic.

Mantles can be inherited, either passed down voluntarily or passed down upon the bearer's demise. There are two inheritance methods: Magical Lineages and Magical Apprenticeships.

### **Lineage**

Some mantle run in a particular family's blood, passed down from parent to child. The rules differ, some are exclusive to one sex, some pass down to the eldest, but all have the same requirement; That bond between family.

It is not enough to simply conceive a child, there must truly exist a parent-child or a sibling-sibling bond for one person to inherit the power. As with all magic, the power of the mantle cares not for DNA, an adopted child is as valid as one linked by blood.

### **Apprenticeship**

Other mantles instead pass on from master to apprentice. But the process of making an apprentice is long and complex, one does not simply teach an apprentice, it must be indoctrinated into the proper frame of mind and paradigms, made to accept the reality of magic and the power to impose one's will upon reality.

The process is quite abusive and cult-like, breaking down the potential apprentice until their sense of self and grasp on the world has shattered and then rebuilding them.

## Spirits

The Spirits is a generic term used for all inhabitants of the Mystical Realms, the dimensions where magical beings hail from, whether they are angels, demons, ghouls, fae or goblin. As magic wax and wanes with the ages, spirits come and go from the material to the spiritual worlds.

As magic decreased, spirits were locked away save for those places with the physical and mystical worlds overlapped. Those spirits who did not escape into the mystical realms were bound into the world, as Familiar, Fetish or the animistic spirits living within all things.

Unlike those who are magically unaware, Magicians may always sense the presence of spirits within them without them needing to fully manifest.

## The Magical Senses

Everyone touched with the gift of magic possess an extra mystical sense they may open and close as they desire.

Although often called magical sight, the senses manifest in a way appropriate to each person. As such a blind person would perceive magically through sound, touch or another sense they strongly rely on.

Magical senses reveal several things invisible to mundane senses; the nature of magical beings, the presence of spells and enchantments, the interpersonal bonds between beings, the animistic spirits residing within all things and auras.