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#1 pitiless_interfector Jun 12, 2007 16:05:57

Magic is a form of energy of an unknown source that can be used to accomplish wondrous things by those with the necessary ability. Spells consist of energy patterns that are sculpted by the mind of their caster. On its own, magic is just energy, intangible and invisible. What gives it its power is the pattern of that energy. Whether they arise naturally as products of the relentless advance of time and probability, or as the work of a dynamic (though not always intelligent) entity, these patterns are what makes magic emerge from its intangible torpor to effect change in the physical world. The changes can be trivial, such as telekinetically rearranging books on a shelf, to the transcendent, such as spurring the genesis of another plane of existence. This power can be yours to learn, if you choose to do so. There are many paths to arcane power. Most learn their magic from tomes such as this one, studying intricate formulae with fervent dedication. But a few are born to it. Drawing upon a font of power that comes from a hereditary attunement to the ebb and flow of magical energy, they can work magic with ease. They memorize patterns of magic that they can then sculpt with less effort due to the familiarity that comes from endless practice. At the price of versatility, they gain the ability to cast spells with greater frequency than those who learn their magic from books. Their understanding of patterns is more intuitive than intellectual, and their hereditary gift allows them to do without the intricate equations that allow the less gifted to manipulate magic. Thus, they have little to gain from the study of tomes such as these. But there are things all mages should learn about magic: Magic is difficult: Any idiot can learn to play a song, cook a dish, or even speak a language, given time, but learning to cast even the simplest of spells requires months and years of study for even the most gifted minds, and progressing to the highest levels of magical power requires an intellect and strength of will few people can ever hope to possess. The practice of magic requires the deepest commitment and the most serious mind. It is not to be undertaken lightly, and success is not guaranteed. Magic is dangerous: Accidents happen. This is a fact of life, and nowhere is it more apparent or costly as magic. The patterns that make up spells are complex to begin with, and grow exponentially more convoluted the greater their effect. Even the smallest mistake in visualization or lapse in concentration can cause the spell to fail, with nothing to show for your effort other than substantial mental fatigue. And if you are able to generate an effect anyway, you’ll probably wish you hadn’t. From embarrassment to inconvenience to injury to death, the effects of a miscast spell are almost invariably unpleasant, far more costly than any other mistakes you have made in your lifetime. And if you attempt to create an entirely new spell, the probable will become the inevitable. Magical experimentation is fraught with tales of disaster and death. And furthermore, the mere act of manipulating magic is innately damaging; the mortal mind was not designed for such levels of detailed concentration on alien ways of thought; every time you cast a spell, successfully or not, you cause damage to your neurons proportional to the spell’s complexity. Reckless use of magic will lead to headaches, nausea, and, eventually, insanity, as the neurons in your brain begin to burn out from electrical overload. There is a preset limit to how much magical energy a mind can manipulate in one day; overuse will cause the neurons you use to visualize the patterns to burn out from fatigue. You will find yourself with a splitting headache that makes it impossible to concentrate hard enough to tie your breeches, much less cast a spell. Only a full, uninterrupted night’s sleep can refresh your mind sufficiently to regain your magical powers. Magic is powerful: The use of magic is the path to ultimate power. There is simply no better method to manipulate reality on such a massive scale. One skilled in magic can topple buildings, control the weather, or rearrange the landscape the way a child might play with blocks. Beware the skilled mage, for there is scant little in this world that can stand in his way, save those who, like him, have mastered magic. Now that those concepts have been illuminated, we will move on to the basics of magical study. These, too, are useful regardless of how you work your magic. First, find a quiet, well-lit place to study, away from other people (and flammable or frangible objects, if you are going to actually practice with magic). Distractions are a huge impediment to your studies and are likely to prevent you from accomplishing anything at all. Avoid them if you can. (Also, most people would rather not hang around while an apprentice mage is experimenting with their first spells, just as a precaution.) Second, keep a good supply of materials on hand. These will vary depending on the specifics of your studies, and many aren’t strictly necessary, especially if you have an inborn gift for magic. The basic materials every aspiring mage should have on hand: [INDENT]1. A supply of paper, quills, and ink 2. A transparent prism of crystal or mineral 3. A copy of this manuscript (or other arcanamacha) [/INDENT] (None of these are strictly necessary if you have an innate gift with magic. But for the most part this book will be written for the benefit of the average person). Third, make sure you’ve had a good night’s sleep, or else you will be unable to concentrate. Now we will discuss the magical theory that every mage should learn. Magic itself has no form or function; it is merely an ambient energy that is present to a lesser or greater degree. Most places have a natural background of magical energy that a mage can draw from to power their spells. Certainly it is not a bottomless font of power, but rest assured that you will be exhausted long before the localized magical energy is. But some places are aberrant; magic at these locations functions differently, or not at all. There are places where there is little or no magical energy to draw upon, making spellcasting difficult, if not impossible. (Obviously not a good place to study). Conversely, there are some places where there is an excess of magical power. At such places, it is possible to accomplish more with less. These places are a boon to mages, and if you can find such a place, it would be wise to keep a note of it. Last, but not least (and possibly the most dangerous) are areas where magic itself is unpredictable. Here, random patterns that change unpredictably are already inherent in the magic; attempting to reshape the energy into a spell will likely disrupt the ambient patterns, triggering an effect quite different than what you had in mind. Sometimes the effect is a boon (in fact, it’s possible that you may be able to cast a spell without fatiguing yourself), sometimes it is inconvenient (the spell fails) or even amusing (having your spell produce a rain of rotten fruit that pelts you with spoiled cabbage, for example), but often it is downright harmful (having the spell affect a random target or area or even simply rebound on you, or having a deep pit appear beneath your feet). Avoid these areas if you possibly can. Magic itself is a featureless continuum, devoid of pattern or purpose; to study magic is to study the patterns by which magic is manipulated. These patterns take a bewildering array of forms, but overall, there are certain similarities that can be catalogued. It is from these similarities that mages have devised the system of schools, a way of categorizing a given spell by the overall structure of its pattern. All spells of a certain school share certain structural characteristics, and by reading and analyzing these characteristics, one can identify the school or schools of magic involved. There are 8 known schools: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation. Each school has a certain theme or function, as befits a grouping of spells with a similar structure. Some schools can be further divided into subschools, which are groupings of spells within a school of magic that share a particular structural element. There are also themes, such as fire or darkness, which are embodied by particular mental patterns but can be found among several schools. And certain spells include elements from two schools or more, though for the most part such spells are for advanced mages with many years or decades of practice under their belt. Magical study involves feats of mental visualization that boggle the mind. And, in truth, no ordinary human could hope to learn more than a handful of spells in their entirety; without the hereditary gift that lends their brains the highly-developed structures necessary for magic, most spells are just too complex to hold in one’s mind all at once. To facilitate the study of magic, mages have developed a system of symbols and nomenclature that serve as a sort of mental shorthand for various concepts. In effect, each symbol takes on a concrete meaning akin to a word, much like certain languages in the far-off lands of Rokugan or Kara-Tur. These symbols can be combined to form a string of related mental images that, when concentrated on in the proper sequence, create a spell. More complicated spells might be arranged in a diagram, with each symbol’s position relative to another denoting its order and importance in the sequence. There are countless variations on these arcane languages; in fact, each mage’s system is different. No matter how greatly they might have taken after their master, eventually their grimoire develops idiosyncrasies unique to them, and unintelligible to others without substantial effort. Of course, with the right application of magic, these writings can be deciphered like any ordinary text. Learning to read magical script is difficult; each symbol must be laboriously analyzed and linked with a particular mentation. No ordinary human possesses the proper brain structure to cogitate these patterns in any useful fashion. Therefore, these structures must be developed through constant experimentation and practice. It can take weeks or even months to learn a single sigil, and there are dozens of sigils that must be memorized before one can begin to develop even a rudimentary understanding of basic spellcasting practice. However, these first few dozen provide all the foundations necessary to continue on to the full breadth of arcane scripture. Most sigils include combinations of elements from different basic sigils to form a single, more complex sigil. These compound symbols typically correspond to a “middle-ground” between two or more mental patterns and see more and more use as spells increase in complexity and power. The mental effort of spellcasting can be lessened through the use of certain rituals and incantations. In effect, one is supplementing their ‘magic lobe’ by shifting some of the burden of concentration and visualization onto more mundane neurological structures. A spoken incantation and ritual gestures can serve as a ‘placeholder’ for one’s concentration. However, if they are disrupted, your concentration (and thus, the spell) fails. These components can be forgone, but at the cost of burdening your ‘magic lobe,’ causing it to burn out more quickly. Beyond words and gestures, certain props can be utilized in the process of spellcasting. Rather than serving as a ‘mental crutch,’ these items function as more of an ‘imprint,’ interacting with the budding magical pattern as it materializes, and imbuing it with similar qualities, much the way a flamingo’s plumage turns bright pink by consuming krill and shrimp and absorbing their pigmentation. Certain items are absorbed and consumed totally by the pattern, which requires their energy to manifest itself. Certain items, however, simply serve as ‘lenses’ or 'molds,' focusing the magic in a certain manner and imbuing it with similar properties. These items can be reused again and again, and the more expensive and finely-crafted of these items are treasures sought after by all manner of mages and wizards. Finally, certain spells involve channeling such massive energies that they cause permanent brain damage. These spells destroy the delicate neurochemical traceries required for spellcasting, in a way no amount of rest and recuperation can heal. These connections can be reforged, but it requires that one practice magic by casting spells in new and unusual circumstances, stimulating the brain to begin knitting new neurons to replace those that were lost. While these setbacks make for a strong disincentive, in most cases the power offered by the spell is worth the sacrifice.