Introduction to Magic

"Master?"
The young rabbit looked up from the book he was reading, the old tomb seeming quite large in the child's lap. A dog was sitting behind a large mahogany desk looked up over the many piles of books, papers, and weird instruments of magic Drought had not yet learned about to stare at his apprentice. He quirked an eyebrow up and let out a small smile.
"Yes? You know, you won't ever get through that book if you keep stopping like this. Do you have a question about the text?"
"No sir, but I think it might help me contextualize the text better. What is magic?"
The surprise on his master's face was obvious. "Why, its the thing you've been studying this whole time." He said, "surely you know that."
"I know what magic can do, I even know how to do some magic. But I don't know what magic is."

Nature of Magic

What magic is is often debated amongst scholars and academics with many schools of thought, each hotly debated with no clear final answer.

Some claim it is the fifth fundamental force. Proponents of this model point out its similarities to gravity, how it both shapes and is shaped by the natural world around it. Opponents to this idea point out that magic functions more as a resource. It can be produced, stored, and run out. But you cannot run out of gravity.

Other claim that magic is the very essence of life itself. They point out that life is the source of all magical energy, given off through the organisms natural processes. Opponents to this point out that magic isn't technically a form of energy as it does not react to the world the way other forms of energy do, and does not fully adhere to the conservation of energy principal.

While the exact nature of what magic is may be unknown, the study of the nature of magic has resulted in many discoveries about the nature of magic.

Origins of Magic

Magic, as stated above, is created by the natural processes that an organism will do over the course of its life. Whether that is during the hunting of prey, consumption and digestion of food, the navigating ones environment, coupling with a mate, or even sleeping then magic is produced. Even actions typically more associated with sapient creatures, such as the act of creativity, can produce magic.

The nature, or 'shape' as it is often described, of the magic produced is based on several key factors, the nature of the organism is the biggest factor in play. A tree will always produce magic shaped within the plant focus, where as a mushroom will always produce magic shaped with the death/decay focus. Not only can the nature of the creature involved change the magic produced, but also the action taken, as well as the aspects of the individual organism. Studies into magic production have found that even individual single celled organisms produce slightly different shaped magic than other members of their species completing the same task.

Once created the magic can go into one of two places.

If the organism in question has a mana pool within them, and that mana pool is not full, some amount of the magic produces will be stored by the creature within this pool. Once within it will mix with the magic there, blending their shapes together. This is often believed to "even out" some of the shapes within the magic based on the source that created it, leaving only the nature of the species and the nature of the organism left within the mana pool. But truly skilled magic users know that that is not fully true. They will try to keep to a regular schedule of events, knowing that any deviation will alter the starting point of the magic within them enough to have devastating effects on their more delicate spell-weaving.

Mana that is not absorbed into a mana pool is instead released into the air around it. Similar to within a mana pool the magic will mix with the magic already there, smoothing out its shape. This is the closest known to the theoretical construct of a "flat" shape to the mana. But it is never truly flat, as magic will be shaped more heavily by the environment it is in. Magic within forest will be different to magic within cities.

Magic in the air has many affects on the world around it, from altering the evolution of species, to changing weather patterns, to helping to support the very life that created it. The world would not be what it is without magic. Many predict most species would die off without a rich magical environment around them.

Shape of Magic