Using Magick

Sources of Magic Power

Alright. Do you felt that? This feeling? It's magic. Now, try to put it into the toy you are holding. Slowly. Don't get scared if it starts trembling. If it breaks, you did it too fast. If it won't even budge, you did it too slow.

Magician to its new student.

There exists several ways of gaining magic power (known shortly as mana) and thus becoming a magic user. The most widespread is making a contract with a daemon. He serves as a medium, giving power of the Dark to the person he was contracted with, also teaching him basic knowledge about the way it is used (unless there are no magicians to do it for him, in most cases). The stronger the daemon, the stronger the magician, although it defines only the ammount of power he has and the speed of its regeneration.

There exist two basic types of contracts, with one of it having two subtypes.

Symbiotic Link

Symbiotic Link is a connection that is beneficial for both sides and voluntary, it is also the one that has two subtypes. In first, known as
Strong Symbiotic Link, daemon is heavily linked to one's soul, to the point of nearly fusing together. It is rare, but immensely powerful type of link. Daemon sees, hears and feels everything that the magician has. Magician - if experienced enough - sees, hears and feels everything the daemon has. Daemon can slightly alter senses of the magician to 'display'itself to him as a type of invisible friend. Link of that type is in most cases lifelong, much closer and... intimate than even marriage. It can even lead to madness if magician and daemon are somehow mentally incompatible. On the other hand we have a massive increase of strenght and extreme ease with which magic user can summon his companion into the Light.

There is also Weak Symbiotic Link. It does not allow daemon to contact the mage unless he wishes that to happen (which requires summoning the daemon, a procedure much harder than in case of Strong Symbiotic Link). The ammount of power gained is much slower, but the link can be unraveled and replaced with different one, for example with stronger daemon. On the other hand, however, it gives lesser boons for the daemon (the achievements of the magicians meaning fame and general belief of strenght granting power to the daemon). Which also means that such magicians tend to require more links to be able to grow in power equally to those with only a single, Strong Link.

Parasitic Link

Parasitic Link is a variation of Symbiotic Link developed in Imperium of Karadia following the general 'problems' with number of magical anomalies growing all around its territory. While great sources of daemons to contract, they suffered from the fact that most of them were actively malevolent. With Symbiotic Link generally requiring consent, they were simply useless for Imperium as a whole, if one were to exclude the ability to use them (in some cases) as enthralled stormtroopers or guardians of laboratories belonging to archmagicians capable of binding them to their will. This made a most notable source of daemons in the Imperium nearly completely useless, which was something the Imperium couldn't stand. Thus an expansive research commisioned by the Imperial Magic Guild.
Finally, after long and ardurous research, a Parasitic Link was developed. Bound daemon is forcefully linked with an aspiring magician (in most cases one rather low in terms of talent), with sorcerer quite literally draining the daemon's power in exchange for practically nothing. Daemon is then simply banished into the Dark, not capable of severing the connection. It's the least useful type of the Links in terms of gained power, but it allows to 'use' previously unusable daemons to produce magic users/sorcerers (for example magic-using adventurers) en masse, making it a very important boom to industry of Imperium of Karadia, a pillar of crawling industrial revolution.

There are also two special sources of mana, much rarer and in most cases playing a supportive role to contracting a daemon.

Hereditary Mana

Hereditary Mana is mana that was inherited from parents. It is a rather rare case, that has place mainly among the very magic-attuned species (for example ice elves that are naturally capable of using magicks, or in case of descendants of daemons (for example those whose parents were mortal and a nymph, which is the most often happening case). Such cases happenn surprisingly frequently, especially at the borders of civilization where daemons coexist (to a point) with mortals.
A sort of variant of this are species like lamias, that while do not possess natural mana, are more attuned to it and thus will be able to to gaing more power from a daemon via typical Links than other mortals, making them naturally stronger magicians. This happens especially oftenly among the species created by Command AI, for reason unknown.

Outside Sources

Outside Sources mean mana gained for example via drinking diluted and refined aether (local version of mana potion) that are ultimately secondary as a source, since this won't give anything to a person that doesn't naturally knows how to use the power they received. Similar cases are various types of technomaturgic machineries that draw power from ambient magic in the atmosphere, allowing to use it - you are still limited to power you can contain and control. There are also rituals that allow to 'burn' emotions into power or gain powers from eldritch sources - but with the same limit as those above.
The only outside source that allows you to become a magician or have your limits of power pushed farther are blessings of the gods. Otherwise it would be pointless to Chose non-magicians.

Mana Overuse

Dont try it. Unless the only alternative is death. Though, to be honest, closely to 300% the advantages over dying are debatable.

Teacher to his students over mana overuse.

While every magician has a strictly defined limit of magic power, depending on strenght of its contracted daemon and his own experience in magic, he can theoretically cast spells requiring up to 300% of its magical power. Which, however, tends to not be the best possible idea unless someone is really desperated. Thus most of magicians have a certain mnemonic 'limiter', that is normally lifted only by experienced magicians.
Up to 150% the usage is more or less safe. Effect is loss of strenght and suddenly paled skin. Between 150 and 200% the pain begins, sometimes nearly paralyzing and debilitating, and bleeding from nose and eyes, vomiting and loss of consciousnes. Between 200 and 250% problems like temporarily lose of ability to use magic or small brain damages (mostly possible to heal over time). Up to paralysis, although not permanent. Beween 250 and 300% paralysys, brain damage and loss of magic powers are permanent.

Spells and Rituals

Most of the magic books are the same. Incantation... and three to four pages about the spell creator, its origins and possible uses. And so on. Makes you wonder why they waste so many pages on it, when you could just print booklets. Personally, I believe that magicians' libraries filled with brochures wouldn't be... venerable enough.

Unnamed magic student of Imperial University.

The most basic form of both thaumaturgy and theurgy - aside from summoning - are spells, made from incantations varying in lenght depending on strenght of the spell. In fact they are more of a mnemonic tricks, implemented as much into magicians as in magic itself. They allow mages to focus their minds on neccessary actions and thoughts, allowing them to cast even when in panic or under effect or some weak disorientations spells. All of this while limiting magicks as a whole to certain formulas, making world as a whole much more stable.
Menorian Empire had its own, separate language called menorian thaumaturgist, wrote with completely different, 'runic' alphabet. This system was introduced in Imperium of Karadia at its very inception, thus creating completely new language, known as karadian thaumargist or, even more popularly, as thaumaturgic imperial. Over time, however, it splintered into a multitude of local variants, including for example thaumaturgical niflheimian, thaumaturgical visenian, thaumaturgical vhessan and so on. Some of them even have local diallects of their own. More typical spells - like stereotypical fireball - have their own versions in most of the existing thaumaturgical languages. Others, like for example Firestorm (theurgical archspell of Ember), exist only in certain languages (in this case - thaumaturgical imperial). Theurgy as a whole is problematic, since some of the spells are in thaumaturgical languages, some of them in normal, and some - for example inrithian God's Judgment - only in lithurgical languages used by priests of their respective religion. Unification is next to impossible.
Most of the thaumaturgical languages have certain common elements. First one is using 'runic' alphabet, different from this used to write 'mundane' verison of this language. The runes itself are magical to a point, thus even in strictly magical books 99% of the text is written with non-thaumaturgical languages. Second is extreme level of complication of the spoken version of thaumaturgical language, due to the need to maximally 'compress' it. Mainly due to avoiding the risk of someone putting a knife in the stomach of the spellcaster before he finishes chanting. Thus a system of different intonations, with the same words made from the same letters but with different tones can mean something completely different. The rule that the longer the incantation the stronger and/or more complicated the spell remains, but the incantation are shortened (with very difficult to pronuance word being equal in meaning to three or four normal).
Uneducated magic users require catalysts - wands, staffs, certain 'mundane' weapons, more exotic elements like censers, grimoires, totems and so on - to cast spells. It is easier to imagine a fireball that moves from the very end of the staff to target than the one that is created from nothing. With the difficulty in imagining - however small - meaning quite a lot in terms of magic output. Not to mention that most of the catalysts are enchanted in a way to strenghten their magicks. This better educated - namely trained mages of Imperial Magic Guild or talented adventurers and other magic user - can abandon the incantations (at least at 'basic' spells, the better they are at it the more spells they can use without them), and catalyst becomes optional, as they can equally easily fire spell from for example finger or their hand (with the bigger the 'barrel', the stronger the spell). The best magicians can say the name in their thoughts and materialize it from thins air, while Awakened use magic similar to this of Primordial Chaos, literally unbounded and working through direct manifestation of their thoughts - however conscious, which makes their magic controlable.
Alternative form of magic are rituals, sometimes theurgical, sometimes thaumaturgical. The first tend to allow summoning and binding certain daemons, the second one... vary. Some of them allow to strenghten magician by giving him greater power or attempt to achieve Awakening. Some of them is sacrificial in manner (including theurgy) - sometimes requiring even sacrifice of sentient beings, which Imperium for some reason dislikes. They can also look like religious rituals... or include some sorts of sex. Which is a sort of remaining influence of Old Magicks. Imperium consequently erases these rituals that include sex too 'perverted', with some them requiring things like necrophilia, bestiality and so on, but erasing them completely is extremely hard and they can still exist on some faraway area's of the world, within closed societies that still practices pre-imperial Old Magicks. Sometimes even magician try things like that, because some of them allow things that modern magic is incapable of.