Midirian Magic System

Everything in the world of Midiri or its precursors, from physical objects to metaphysical beings, has an essence. These essences determine which aspect of magic is used in handling them, and how it affects the caster or subject.

Essentially, essences work like alignments: they come in lawful, neutral, or chaotic, and additional aspects are linked to the essence depending on the nature of the thing itself. Five additional aspects are contained within the essence (its morality, its nature, up to two elements, senses, and its potency).

## Morality

 Good
For instance, an angel or its soul would fall under the good category, as it is a sentient creature with good alignment. An angel’s eye or feather would also be considered a good component as it originated from a good entity.
 Neutral
 Evil
For instance, an Aboleth or its soul would fall under the category of evil, as it is a sentient creature with evil alignment. Its tentacles would also be evil components as they originated from an evil entity.
A non-sentient creature with an evil origin (imbued with the essence of evil, or created for an evil purpose) would also be considered evil, as would components taken from it.

### Ancillary Notes on Good and Evil Spells

Some spells are by nature good or evil. Good spells can only be cast with a good component, and evil spells can only be cast with an evil one. Good and evil components used in the same spell cancel each other out and can only be used for neutral spells.

Morality-focused spells are not constrained to elements. For example, demons’ horns are usually fire-type but can be used in a life-drain spell as they originate from an evil creature. For that matter, an angel’s feather is air-type but, as it originates from a holy creature, it can be used in a healing spell.

Examples Of Good Spells: Symbiotic spells such as healing and restoration, along with revival

Examples Of Evil Spells: Parasitic spells such as life and soul drain, along with inflicting pain and curse of death

## Nature

 Physical
 Metaphysical
 High Metaphysical

## Element

 Fire
 Earth
 Air
 Water

### Ancillary Notes on Fire and Light

Fire is a physical element, and its essence can be drained just like any other, as flames are, at their core, merely heated gas and therefore matter. Light is more complicated.

It isn’t physical, as it cannot be classified as matter, nor is it metaphysical. Instead, light is a byproduct. Producing it is typically done by harnessing fire-type essences in alchemical combinations and using them to create light, or in rare cases using metaphysical components that also glow.

### Ancillary Elemental Effect Examples

Fire - Creating sparks to start a fire, conjuring flames around a sword or the caster’s hands, creating a fire vortex, casting fireballs and explosions, heating the caster’s surroundings

Earth - Creating cracks in the ground, shaping stone, turning the caster’s flesh to earth in a shield, turning others to stone, growing plants

Air - Flying, creating tornadoes, conjuring gusts of wind, creating air blades and vortexes

Water - Shaping water, creating whirlpools, drawing water from the air, breathing underwater

## Senses

### Notes on Senses

Not all materials have sense effects. Only materials that originated from living creatures can affect senses in imbuing or alchemical magic. For instance, a combination of rubor and an ox’s eye (either imbued to yourself or consumed in potion form) could give you burning, laser-like vision for a short duration.

### Sense Table

 Sight
 Hearing
 Touch
 Taste
 Smell

### Ancillary Effects Category

* Sight - Invisibility, increased vision, night vision, glowing eyes, eye-based casting
* Hearing - Auditory hallucinations, divination, telepathy
* Touch - Telekinesis, polymorphing, body-based casting, determining properties of an object
* Taste - Transmutation, emotion warping
* Smell - Detection, passive perception, discernment, sense warping

### Ancillary Side Effects Category

* Sight - Recoloring retinas based on element affiliation, unpredictable pupil dilation, eye size alteration, pain in eyes, eye decay
* Hearing - Sensitive hearing, ringing in ears
* Touch - Unexplained pains and sensations
* Taste - Bitter taste in mouth, warped tastes, ageusia
* Smell - Odd smells, anosmia

### Ancillary Notes on Passive Spells and Active Effects

A passive spell is a lingering effect or curse imbued to an object or entity. For instance, an invisibility elixir’s effect would be considered a passive spell, as would increased strength or sight.

An active effect, on the other hand, is a spell designed for immediate casting, such as a lightning bolt or telekinesis. The duration of an active effect is based on how long a mage retains the effect before casting, and how long they can continue to cast it.

## Potency

 Divine
 Refined
 Essential
 Impure
 Drained
 Blank

## Notes on Basic Effect Duration

(Note: Table assumes object being imbued is medium size).

 Divine
 Refined
 Essential
 Impure
 Drained
 Blank

## Size Chart (Maximum Height, Weight, and Width)

Tiny - 2 ft, 8 lbs, 2 ½ ft

Small - 4 ft, 60 lbs, 5 ft

Medium - 8 ft, 500 lbs, 5 ft

Large - 16 ft, 4000 lbs, 10 ft

Huge - 32 ft, 32000 lbs, 15 ft

Gargantuan - 64 ft, 250000 lbs, 20 ft

## Notes On Drained Materials

These materials, when drained of their essences, become completely washed of color and disintegrate to the touch. They have no essence but can be re-imbued.

## Ancillary Notes On Nullstone

Nullstone is a mysterious white stone that is completely impervious to magic or its effects. It cannot be drained or imbued and protects against any spell; however, it is extremely brittle to physical attacks, about the same durability as glass, and can be destroyed with one sword strike. It can also drain imbued effects from soulsteel when coming in contact with it. The essence of nullstone also mysteriously cannot be drained.

## Ancillary Notes On Soulsteel

Soulsteel is a silver metal that retains imbued effects indefinitely. It’s extremely rare, but it cannot be drained. Essences can be removed from soulsteel items when touched with nullstone, but it never enters a drained state and can be re-imbued without becoming brittle. The pure essence of soulsteel also mysteriously cannot be drained.

## Ancillary Notes On Core Materials

Each element has a core material - rubor for fire, upala for water, direarth for earth, and galecrown for air. These core materials are the only physical, raw materials that maintain the Refined category. They are also extremely rare, but powerful.

### Core Materials List

* Rubor

Rubor is a faintly luminous red stone that contains the purest essence of fire. It appears similar to ruby but with glowing orange cracks across its surface. It’s translucent, and extremely hot to the touch - non-magic applications of rubor include use in blacksmiths’ forges, as it never loses its heat unless put in contact with upala. If it comes in contact with it, both the materials are turned to nullstone.

* Upala

Upala is a translucent, dark bluish stone with iridescent highlights, resembling the inside of a shell. It appears similar to opal, yet is much darker and barely lusters. Breaking upala creates a small flood of water proportional to the damage inflicted (cutting a square-inch block of upala would create a half-square inch for each side lost, although this cannot be replicated). It’s rarely used in non-magic applications, bar creating nullstone.

* Direarth

Direarth is a black stone with dark green cracks. It does not luster and resembles volcanic rock such as pumice in its texture. It is an excellent fertilizer and, when ground into a powder, can fully grow oak trees in a matter of days. It’s frequently used for farming and earth casting, though it isn’t easy to come by.

* Galecrown

Galecrown is a beautiful gold stone with a platinum-like texture, found in crystalline formations atop high mountains. Despite being incredibly lightweight, galecrown is extremely durable and repeatedly displaces the air around it twofold, creating small gusts of wind. It’s used for air casting and, infrequently, in crafting jewelry.

## Individual Component Formula

Morality + Nature + Element + Sense (if creature component) + Potency

## Example Component Table

 Eagle feather
 Ox’s eye
 Stone
 Angel’s feather
 Demon’s horn

## Draining

Draining is the process by which mages take essences from objects.

Any species of Midirian origin or relation (humans, eldriel, eladrin, qhaladi, and drakor) can drain an essence due to ancient ties in their blood. It is only possible to drain inanimate objects not connected to a life-force, bar using forcible soul drain, and even then only objects smaller than Medium size can be drained.

When a mage drains an essence, they become imbued with it. A mage could then transfer that essence to another object or entity, but it can only be transferred once - a mage can’t create a chain of essence transfers.

When used in alchemy, essences can also be drained into the potion at large - an angel’s feather (good, metaphysical, air, touch, and refined - therefore good for healing spells) and a rubor shard (neutral, physical, fire, refined) could create a refined-potency fire resistance/healing potion, granting the drinker both their effects.

## Ancillary Notes on Soul Draining

As they are generally high-potency objects, souls are frequently an essential component of magic.

Forcibly draining the soul of a living creature requires draining an evil-aligned artifact and using its power. Souls can also be drained from dead creatures, though the mage must perform this directly following the creature’s death to prevent the soul from passing into the All-Maker’s realm.

Due to the nature of preventing entities from reaching the afterlife, using soul-based magic (even if it isn’t a forcible drain) is heavily ethically disputed, and using it will more likely than not land the caster on shaky moral ground. Tread lightly.

## Imbuing

Imbuing is the process by which mages transfer essences into entities and can use them as if they were the primary components.

For instance, a mage could imbue themself with an eagle’s soul and gain the ability to fly or manipulate wind for a short time. A mage could also imbue their sword with the soul and create air blades with every strike.

Imbuing effects run out after the duration of the spell is spent, and are only as effective as the component is.

The only exception to the duration rule are items made of soulsteel, and as such, soulsteel wands are frequently carried by mages. The effect never runs out in this case unless the item in question comes in contact with soulsteel.

## Ancillary Notes on Violations of the System

Due to being a world in which inbound plane-shifting is possible, the Midirian magic system can and has been broken, and it is completely within canon.

This is incredibly rare, but certainly possible - the most famous example being Jasper Embertide, a founding member of Hester’s Hollow-Hearted (later known as the Wraiths). Though his Aboleth, Thespian, could be considered a component, its usage of him is decidedly non-Midirian.