Binding

No man is an island for all lives are bound: Though all bonds change, sever, and grow.

-- Manatza saying

Binding is, in a sense, the manipulation of lives and fates. The magic is founded on the principle that all living things influence one another by their actions, no matter how small. Even creatures on separate continents can feel the tug of the living threads between them. Perhaps put most succinctly by the Manatza people, life is bound to life and no living thing can exist without affecting another life. There is a power in this and, like any power, it can be observed and manipulated.
Generally, Binding refers to the active manipulation of this connective force, whether directly and purposefully or subtly and over time.

The Thread All-Encompassing

In a natural form, Binding magic is a subtle presence in the world. It crosses physical barriers and tangles itself in everything, manifesting in sometimes surprising ways. A way of observing its influence is through what is called a Death Cause-Effect Chain which illustrates how a death of a single thing, though the mechanism of Binding power, can ripple through many other creatures. For example:

The loss of a limb causes the loss of a son's whole body. The death of the son begets that of the mother. The father, an important smith, performs his work poorly, and the weapons he crafts are brittle and faulty, causing unneeded injury and further death.

The relations are near limitless and indeed boggle the mind with complexity. How a child squashes a toad or a politician's death begets a war, how a single harvesting of crops leaches the soil of its nutrients and brings famine in the centuries to come. But Binding is not a negative force by any means. It is necessary to enable the life of countless things. How can goats feed without destruction of the grass? Or, most apropos, how may a child be born without their mother? This "connective force," though correctly called Binding, is often referred to as another term, usually adapted from that of the local culture. Those used most prominently among sorcerers are Sozbuan, a Manatza word, and the Cantran Alifaur which both roughly translate to "the thread everywhere/all-encompassing."

The Sorcery of Binding

In short, Binding magic is the manipulation of the Alifaur, though typically in ways that strengthen or create new bonds within it. Passive Binding is a natural strengthening of these bonds without "tampering" with the Alifaur directly. This could range from caring for or nurturing other plants, animals, or creatures, involving them in some task, or simply spending time near them. These examples are considered magic by some but are generally refuted by sorcerers of a higher caliber whose interests lie solely in Active Binding.
Active Binding requires direct manipulation of the Alifur, sometimes instantly but also over an extended duration. A few beings have an innate ability to bend the threads of life to their will, notably the Gods and, to a limited extent, the Earthenborn. These creatures expend great energy to draw the very forces of life closer to a desired goal. More often, they will expend less energy to draw living creatures close to others, even themselves, to further their aims.
This second effect is primarily what sorcerers seek to achieve though lacking the ability to do so directly, they resort to the other mechanisms of magic. Earth Impel, Patterns, and Prayer. Through faith in their god or in the Earth itself, the lives of things can be connected and their fates intertwined. A man can be empowered with the life force of his god or a vicious beast made docile or subservient. Pattern magic allows for more specificity and control than the other methods. It is also limited only by the pattener's time and skill. A very large pattern, like that used in [??], can be used to foster complex connections between hundreds of beings. However, like with all such spells, the binding can be destroyed (with detrimental effects) if the pattern is compromised.

A note on the Mysmians

In the world of Mysmy, where time falters, dark creatures wander shadow bridges, seeking a way into our minds here on earth. These Mysmians have an extraordinary ability to bind our lives to theirs, dragging us from this world to walk among Mysmy's bridges. How this functions is poorly understood. It is believed by some that the Alifaur crosses worlds and beings sensitive enough could theoretically sense and manipulate it even cross those vast distances.

History of the Magic

Many examples of Binding litter history. The greatest feats involve the binding of the fates of gods or important lords, such as those of the Western Lords and the Juniper of the Wood. Artifacts capable of Binding magic have passed in and out of many hands, some famous examples include the Wicker Crown, the Shadowbind, the Madoridac, and the countless sets of binding stones used by street wizards and archmages alike.
Binding was speculated in the writings of the Drin Honne, ancient beings that disappeared in the year 0 Anterior. Early sorcerers rediscovered the concept but applied it broadly, including the sense that the interactions of physical matter, of molding and combining, is also a form of "binding magic." It wasn't until the rise of the druids in the early 900s that the Alifaur was truly understood and Binding magic formalized.
By 1400, the topic was well understood and Binding Stones were a commonplace trinket first in Nilofaur then in every major city on the Continent. The stones connect the consciousness of the holders so that one can sense the location, sight, and--in some more powerful stones--thoughts of the other.

Unbinding

Things that stick rarely come apart.

-- Maryeddi Dipa, Master Sorcerer

Perhaps the most hotly debated topic among sorcerers is the practice of Unbinding and its difficulty. For many years, the idea was a theory: that one could separate the dependence of one life an another seemed impossible without harming life itself. In the 1200s, experiments by the sorcerer Maryeddi Dipa successfully "severed" the dependency of a plant on its soil and later a calf from its mother's milk. But the experiments took immense power to perform and were not lasting: the Alifaur sought a way to reconnect itself even after the bonds had been severed for several days.
The [elves] have a natural gift for Unbinding in a small sense. They are able to perceive the Alifaur by sight and hearing and cast spells by prayer to their all-father, [Kektomm], which snip at small bonds. After Maryeddi's work, elves were almost exclusively those who experimented with more complex Unbindings or "detanglings" as they were sometimes called.

Type

Natural