Magic

"All things follow Threads that can be traced to the beginning and end of their existence; paths that interact and lead as Fate decrees. Magic is the needle to those threads. Magic is how we say 'no' to Fate." --Grand Magister Nagant

CREDITS

At the smallest level, everything in the Universe exists in a particular state at any given point in space and time. As an individual particle moves through space and time, it creates a trail that records its entire history from its creation and projects all possible futures leading up to the end of the Universe. This trail is called the particle's thread of Fate, often simply called its thread. It interacts with the threads of every other particle around it in four dimensions, creating a Universe-spanning structure known as the Fabric of Reality. Magic refers to direct alterations made to the Fabric of Reality that would not otherwise naturally occur. It also refers to the practice of making such alterations to these threads.

Schools of Magic

Magic is divided into 4 schools, each involving different bodies of knowledge that study the nature and manipulation of the Fabric of Reality.

Divination

Divination is the school of magic that deals with the logic and patterns of the Fabric of Reality. It is also the word used to mean the act of reading these patterns. By understanding how one thread weaves through the Fabric, it is possible to deduce how threads around it do the same. As such, the study of these patterns is as essential to magic as mathematics is for men of science. Divination is the language that allows different parts of the Fabric to communicate with each other, and one cannot practice any other branch of magic without it.
Divination is divided into the Mantic studies, all of which involve recognition and reading of patterns, as well as communication with the Fabric via different media. Necromancy for example, is the art of communicating with the dead, while Pyromancy is dedicated to foresight through the threads that make up flames.

Psychoturgy

Psychoturgy is the school of magic associated with the mind and soul. The different studies under psychoturgy involve manipulation of perception, cognition, memory, emotion or personality among other things.
Psychoturgy is the most abstract of the schools of magic, as thoughts, feelings and experiences do not exist as threads in the Fabric, but rather as states. This also makes it the most subtle of the magical arts, as every individual is unique, and may respond differently to spiritual influence; a simple dream spell might make some men fall asleep for several hours, but the same spell cast on a different person may leave them in a comatose state for several years.

Pneumaturgy

Pneumaturgy is the school of magic associated with life forces and processes. A skilled pneumaturge can slow, arrest, or even begin the mechanisms that make life possible. On one end of the spectrum, this can be used for powerful healing magic. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it can be used to go beyond the act of killing and trap life forces in a state of undeath.
Pneumaturgy is perhaps the most controversial of the magical schools, though few deny its uses. Bioturgy, alchemy, necroturgy and thanaturgy are all studies within the realm of pneumaturgy.

Thaumaturgy

Thaumaturgy is the fourth, most expansive and most concrete of the schools of magic, and it deals with manipulating the threads to directly affect the physical world. Much like divination, some level of general thaumaturgy is necessary for all magic; after all, one needs to actually pull on the threads to perform any form of spell whatsoever. However, just because thaumaturgy is involved in all magic does not mean it has no unique studies under it as a school. The studies of pyroturgy and cryoturgy each involve manipulation of threads to produce extreme temperatures. Choroturgy and chronoturgy allow a mage to twist and bend space and time respectively. If something exists in the physical world, there is a thaumaturgic study that deals with it.
This is not to suggest that a thaumaturge is all-powerful. Logical fallacies and paradoxes are beyond the capacity of even the most accomplished practitioners. Thaumaturgy does not allow a mage to break the natural laws of the universe; rather, it grants free reign within those laws.

Manifestation

Mechanisms of Magic

Mana

If an object's thread traces its entire history behind it whilst simultaneously projecting all possible futures for it, the question then becomes: how does it know what future path to take? While a major determinant is the position of other objects in the vicinity, as two objects cannot occupy the same space, the factor that makes magical changes possible is the ambient energy field known as mana.
Mana exists throughout the universe. When it interacts with matter, the object's possible states in that moment collapse into a single state, narrowing down the number of potential futures it can take. This single state is what the object experiences as reality. The process is known as spinning, named after the industrial technique of turning raw fibers into threads. The more threads one intends to spin, the more mana the threads must interact with.

Spellweaving

Magic begins when a magus uses divination to perceive the potential realities their selected threads may lead to, before actively choosing the reality they wish to manifest via thaumaturgy. This two-step process is how all spells work, and provided one had enough energy, there is no upper limit to the number of threads one were to manipulate at once.
As an additional note: not all magic is easily observable. Especially when psychoturgy is involved, alterations to the natural order may be so subtle that changes are only perceivable to the subject of the spell. When a large enough number of threads is manipulated however, excess energy illuminates the system. This appears as strands of light emanating from the point of the change.

Rebound

A danger of practicing any form of magic is known as rebound. This is an occurrence where mana interacting with manipulated threads is insufficient to permanently alter their state, causing them to snap back into place as soon as the application of energy ceases. The energy travels through the path of least resistance, often the unprepared caster. For some spells, this is not a huge problem to deal with. For example, the amount of energy required to whisper a thought to another person is so minuscule, any rebound may result in nothing more than a momentary blurring of vision. However if for example, one were to attempt to summon a wall of fire, and the amount of energy provided was insufficient to alter the ground's state to the point of burning, there is a good chance that the energy flowing back through the magical channel will begin to raise the caster's temperature instead (and since flesh ignites at a lower temperature than the ground, the unfortunate magus is unlikely to survive this event). The more energy was invested before the spell failed, the more dangerous the feedback effect.

Scions & Sorcerers

The more a magus practices the manipulation of a specific kind of thread -- for example, those of electrons necessary for manipulating lightning -- the easier it becomes. The magus' own threads begin behaving differently, adapting the movements and patterns of the practiced thread and making it more difficult to perform other types of magic. In exchange, the efficiency and magnitude of spells within the practiced field are multiplied. Past a certain level of affinity with the field, other types of magic become impossible, and the magus becomes a conscious extension of that type of thread. This is known as ascension and when this change occurs, the magus becomes what is known as a scion.
Scions are in essence, magical energies given physical form, with the body serving as a cocoon for the growing power. Few magi are capable of reaching such a state, and among those who achieve it, far fewer successfully emerge. The scion may proceed with daily life throughout the ascension process, and the time it takes to complete varies with every magus. If the mind and body of the scion are not powerful enough, the body rejects the process and dissipates the magic over time, cutting the magus off from magic forever, and sometimes outright killing them. However if the process is successful, the magical energies fuse with the mortal form, turning the former magus into a sorcerer or sorceress; a stabilized avatar of magic.
These occurrences are exceedingly rare. Ordinary men and women lack the arcane capacity to control magic, while magi by and large have weaker physiques tied to an increased metabolism necessary for quickly converting food into usable energy. The last known successful ascension was that of the sorceress Aia, in the year Maiden 37 when she challenged the Lesser Primal Apiiru for the right to move the continent of Eckre.

Localization

Nexus

The Fabric of Reality itself stretches throughout the entirety of the four-dimensional Universe, and potentially the Multiverse itself. The threads of everything that exist weave and intertwine with each other across every point and every moment. However, the Fabric is not evenly woven; some points in space-time have greater density of threads than others. Locations with a higher thread density than the physical and temporal area around them are known as nexus.
Nexus exist on different scales, from the microscopic to the universal. For instance, a universal nexus would be a galactic cluster with a relatively higher density of galaxies within its reach compared to those around it, whereas a planetary nexus may be an historic, physical location on a globe. Meanwhile, a personal nexus is a location in the body where magic is particularly strong. Note that magic is more powerful and magical effects are more observable the more threads there are to manipulate. As a result, these nexus become wellsprings of magic from which magi can draw greater strength.

Ley Lines

Compared to threads far from a nexus, threads close to a nexus have a greater effect on the physical plane when moved. This is because their motion through four-dimensional space-time is more likely to interact with nearby threads, forcing them to move as well. If the threads not only pass close to the nexus but actually intersect, this effect is magnified, allowing even the simplest apprentices to cast spells restricted to archmagi. If enough of these threads intersect to allow the nexus' influence to be felt over a distance, the Threads become known as ley lines. Just like nexus, these lines are classified according to their scale.

Magi

Magi are in essence, living, breathing nexus. The density of threads found within these born spellcasters far exceeds that of their surroundings. In simple terms, an exponentially greater amount of matter and energy interacts with a magus throughout his/her life as compared to those around. This unusual concentration means magi themselves interact with the mana field and are able to --through force of will -- manipulate their own threads to "encourage" change in those that interact with them.
There is a sense of determinism in the existence of a magus: one can only access magical abilities because the necessary threads were always going to pass through the individual at a particular point in time. Paradoxically, the magus' ability to change the outcomes of the Fabric of Reality can be considered the as the intention of the Fabric itself.

FOOTNOTES

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Type

Metaphysical, Arcane

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