Lecture 11: College of Illusions and Creations
Alaconius stood by the entrance into the lecture hall at the college he had been teaching at some 26 years ago. Then, he’d been a tall, clean shaven mage with dark brown hair—who had mastered various disciplines of magic, and whose analysis of magic and society became topics for various lectures. Now, he was no longer clean shaven, his face covered with a mildly unruly beard that his wife somehow loved, showing an age long battle between the younger brown hair still championing the dark color of his youth, being overwhelmed by the newly stirring grey hairs and even white hairs. Yes, the brown hairs were in the minority and steadily losing the battle. As ever, the rest of his face showed signs of whether the day to day life, becoming craggier—yet, retaining a somewhat kindly aspect. His eyes peered out still with a bit of the old intelligence he had in his youth and retained yet as age battled with him. Setting his shoulders back, straightening up, and assuming a posture of uprightness that was expected of a teacher, Alaconius began to walk down the stairs alongside the center aisle of the Lecture hall. Five steps per row of seats, each row somewhat higher than the row before it, Alaconius hardly noticed the 30 steps that he walked down before reaching the Podium. As he gazed at the wand lying atop the walnut colored podium, he spied the tell-tale aura of the wand’s enchanted nature—knowing it contained an enchantment to throw his voice to all in the room in equal measure. Too many were the times he’d say something in a soft voice thinking they’d not hear it, only to discover his pointed comments were heard by all. No matter, today was a simple lecture on the spells within the College of Illusions and Creations.
Clearing his voice, Alaconius looked at the students arrayed before him in their seats, their note taking apparatus displayed in front of them on what could at best, be described as arcs of wood arranged in concentric arcs—the closer arcs to the podium being of shorter length while the desks furthest away were of the longest length. Over 26 years this hall had stood, seating hundreds, if not thousands of students over time. Today, some 20 students sat waiting in a room that could easily handle three times their number. Some where youngsters, barely past their 20 summers on this world, others, were older yet—all advanced students perhaps learning deeper secrets of this realm of magic, or perhaps starting fresh from other realms of magic and embarking upon the study of illusions and creations. In the end, it didn't matter—they were here to listen.
Alaconius began to speak, keeping his voice conversationally light in volume, and spoke to the now attentive students before him. Two students were still talking to each other rather than concentrate on the lecture, but sooner or later they'd stop as he got further into his presentation.
“Hello everyone, and welcome to my thoughts on magic, illusions, and creations. Before I get deep into this, just let me say welcome to the beginning of this semester, and as always, please feel free to contact my assistant teachers Folvius to my left, or with my lovely assistant Pedia. Based upon the class size today, I’m assuming that there will be two classes that will be learning the basic spell Simple illusion so as to begin your journey with this college.”
Simple Illusion
Alaconius gathered his thoughts before continuing. “Simple illusion is the most basic of the illusion spells, from which all other spells will depend. As a spell, it affects only one thing—vision. I need not remind you, that man in general, tends to be a visual being. I need not tell you for instance, that as a rule, mankind tends to believe its eyes foremost over any other sense. For example, many of you are unaware, that one of your number is really a basilisk in disguise, you see what you see and fail to even question what it is you see.” Alaconius watched as some of his more attentive students began to look around, each fearful of their lives as they looked to the students next to them. Others began to concentrate, as if attempting to disbelieve what they were seeing before their very eyes, but with 19 students to test each gaze upon and disbelieve—the basilisk failed to be unmasked. Alaconius grinned as the room erupted in chaos as the shocked students reacted, the noise level in the room increasing as more and more students raised their voices in alarm and panic. The mage knew he had to quell this before it got out of hand! He held his hands up in a placating fashion saying “now now, I'm not allowed to kill students so easily and without provocation! The basilisk is sleeping and is in fact, unable to cause harm. None the less, it should be of no surprise then, that people rarely question their eyes.” Alaconius then waved a hand at the last student nearest to the hall entry door, and the illusion of the student was replaced with a sleeping basilisk. Smiling, he continued by saying “now why is a simple illusion so effective? If the mage casting the spell is careful, subtle, and not overly dramatic—he or she can easily hoodwink the targets of his illusion. The trick is to make your illusions thoughtfully, and not give the subjects any reason to question it. As illusions can be disbelieved, do your best not to give them a reason to even try to do so.” He went on. “If you want to be seen as having gold objects of art in your residence, you can either have a single table with multiple illusory objects, or you can have a single illusion of a table with objects of value on it. Since you can expand on the size of your illusion easily enough, a near expert with the spell could detail items within a radius of 9 feet around and 6 feet up. That is a lot of volume to project wealth with.” He smirked. “But that can backfire. Again, illusions can be disbelieved. If you have a single illusion of multiple objects, once it’s disbelieved, it’s all gone. Whereas, a table with many illusions on it won’t disappear with a single act of disbelief. Most of the time, a single illusion of many objects will be the best path forward. But there are occasions when taking on the added difficulty of multiple illusions might be the better solution.” “Now, if necessary, one can use simple illusions to disguise traps. A mage expert in tracking skills, can create a false trail if necessary. Now here is the subtle part. A single mage who knows the Simple illusion spell, who knows this spell at the basic level of near expert, can cast the spell for zero energy cost. Despite the limitation of casting the spell with penalties for each ongoing spell, as long as his basic knowledge of the spell is near expert and the mage casting this spell is in normal mana or higher areas—he could cast 5 such spells for zero energy, despite his adjusted skill dropping lower and lower with the strain of each ongoing spell. That means five areas of footprints widely spaced if needed.” He smiled, then continued, “So, a skilled illusionist can lead the trackers on a very merry chase, indeed. And once the trackers have passed an area, the illusionist can stop maintaining that particular spell, and cast another, to further lead them astray.” “Now, how else might this spell be applied in its rawest form? The proverbial party favorite of pulling some object from a youngster's ear can be done easily with this spell. A gold coin, a silver coin, or even a copper coin could be done in this fashion. A mage who knows sleight of hand, using a real gold coin the first time—even if the first attempt is disbelieved by the audience, the real coin remains untouched by that simple act of disbelief. Subsequent tricks using illusions may very well pass unchecked because of predisposition to believe from the past times. In short? Always mix reality with illusion wherever possible. If you can create a wolf as opposed to creating a simple illusion of a wolf—send the illusion first so if they disbelieve it they won't fear your second, non-illusion wolf, or vice versa. Always keep them guessing.”Complex Illusion
Alaconius looked around at the classroom, now settling down from its earlier scare, and aware that this lecture will be anything but strictly scholarly. With a subtle gesture with his right hand, Alaconius targeted a young man sitting furthest away from him. The man was suddenly aware of his exact likeness appearing next to him. His copy bent over to whisper something to the woman sitting in front of him, and then the illusion disappeared instantly. What was said seemed to have made the young woman smile and she turned back to him as if to say something. Seeing his look of bemusement, she wondered why he would say what he said and then have the look he had. Alaconius smiled as he demonstrated not one, but two things with his spell he had just cast. It was a complex illusion with the element of sound added in. More importantly, despite the spell having a duration of one minute, Alaconius easily shortened its nominal duration to just that he wanted—a full few seconds, cancelling the spell at will. Had he not planned, at the time of casting, how long he wanted the spell to last, he would have had a more tiring time cutting the spell short. It took effort to belatedly cut a spell off. Once the wagon is rolling, it can be hard to stop. He cleared his throat saying “Um Miss, would you tell the class what it was the gentleman behind you is reputed to have said just now?” The young woman smiled saying “He just asked if I would be interested in getting a lunch after the lecture. I thought he was too shy to ask!” Turning back to him, she smiling, she added “And the answer is yes.” Alaconius smiled—the poor lad had been making cow eyes at the girl, at least his demonstration might be useful in other ways than just education. “Well Miss, I am afraid you're right. He is a tad shy. I had created a complex illusion behind you, had the illusion ask you the question, and then made it disappear before you could turn around. I could have simply used a specific spell to use only the sound component, but the truth is, complex illusion has both the ability to fool the sense of sight, but also the sense of sound. The sign of a creative mage is not necessarily one who has the most extensive repertoire of known spells; it is the mage who can find multiple uses for what he does know. But, getting back to complex illusions, it should be noted that they require twice the energy as simple illusions. This means then, that unless you know it to near or fully expert levels of capabilities—even a single small illusion will be twice as taxing as the simple illusion. Being a successful mage is not just knowing spells, but managing your available energy to the best of your capabilities. Using too much energy could spell the difference between life and death for when you need to cast a spell, but cannot due to lack of available energy. Be frugal where you can.”Perfect Illusion
Alaconius paused a moment, gathering his thoughts and shaking off old memories of his mentor, or perhaps to shake off memories of his adventuring days. It was only a short time, but it was noticeable amongst his students, and they fidgeted a bit as the silence wore on. Alaconius stopped woolgathering, and stated, “Ah yes, the next spell that I'd like to discuss is that of the highest form of illusions—the perfect illusion.” “Many of you may well wonder, how it is that the illusion family of spells wasn't simply a single spell, and how proficient you were at casting the spell, determined how many elements the illusion could contain. The quick answer is that I don't know. The longer answer is simply this—both simple illusion and complex illusion, do not require that intangible quality that has become identified as Magery.” He paused, slightly, for effect. “In some universes where magic can be cast, Magery is an inherent ability that one is born with, and absent divine intervention or greater wishes, may not ever be improved from what one had at birth. In other universes, Magery can almost be thought of as a form of muscle perhaps—one that grows stronger with more use and can simply improve over time. Here, in the universe that I was born in, Magery follows the former path of being almost immutable. I've heard of one universe, where a mage can improve their Magery, but only at risk of their sanity and possibly even their life. A famous chronicler of that universe whose name is Raymond J. Feist, documents it in his book titled Magician. It details the Riftwar saga—which any student here can simply ask about by means of informational servants….” “But I digress—Magery functions differently in different universes. Which brings me back to my point. Only perfect illusion requires Magery in order to learn it. The other two lesser spell versions do not. Mages who wish to become proficient in creation spells, will need to understand perfect illusion before they can progress to simple spells such as create object, which in turn is required for other creation spells. Perfect illusion not only grants you the ability to affect the senses of vision and of sound, but also the sense of smell, and taste.” Alaconius rocked back on his heels. He was wearing a new pair of boots, and they needed more time to be broken in. He shifted his weight a bit, then got back to the lecture. “That in turn begs the question. If I give you a glass filled with the illusion of wine, will you know that it is an illusion when you can't feel it upon your tongue, passing through your lips? What if instead, you had a glass filled with water, and your illusion was cast upon the glass containing the water as if it contained wine? The user drinks water, but thinks they are drinking wine, no? As always, the mage needs to be subtle and must be of higher intelligence than the average man. Why?” Alacanius shrugged, and answered his own question saying, “I don't know. It has been discovered, that unless you're of an intelligence greater than the average man, you can never learn the spells of illusion. How many disappointed apprentices have thought that they could master any illusion spell only to discover they cannot? Sure, it is a waste of time for both the teacher and the student, but that issue is inherent in any teacher/student interaction. In some cases, the issue is in whether or not the student has Magery at all, and in other instances, it is a function of how strong their Magery is. Suffice to know, not all people who set out to study the spell casting of illusions can prove they have sufficient brain functionality to do so.” “For now,” he continued, “all I will say is that perfect illusion as a spell, is a springboard to other spells, rather than a destination in and of its own right. As is common with the other two more lesser illusion spells—as long as the illusion need not be touched, perfect illusions can be useful. The real problem with perfect illusions is this—they are three times more costly to cast than simple illusion spells. For six times the energy cost, even the sense of touch may be fooled. The question that any illusionist must ask themselves is this—is it worth the energy cost involved?” He shook his head. “The sad truth is, in my opinion, no. Why? For only three times the energy cost of a simple illusion of a human being, one can actively create a human servant that is as real, for the moment at least, as you or I. That servant is real to the touch, and can pick up objects and the like. As always, a mage should consider the spells they know, as tools—each has its benefits, each has its limitations. The one real benefit of spending three times the energy on a perfect illusion over that of a simple or complex illusion is this—it cannot be dispelled by disbelief, although it can be disproven. Now, what do I mean by that? Simply this: while it cannot be dispelled by disbelieving, it can be proven to be unreal simply by passing your hand through it.” He chuckled. “Now, a clever illusionist, watching the interaction, can make the illusion react to the ‘touch’ by jumping out of the way, or falling over as if pushed by the hand that tried to pass through it. The person whose hand didn’t feel the illusion would know, but anyone watching from a distance would still think it was real.”Illusion Shell
Alaconius turned his back to the students, and using his finger, and casting simple illusion without words or gestures, lit up the air with letters of fire suspended in thin air. A little showmanship never hurt a lecture. Turning back to face his students, he gave them time to read what he had written in illusionary form. The letters of fire spelled out “Illusion Shell”. “Illusion Shell—is a reasonably useful spell for some. I have next to me on the podium, six separate strips of rope, each less than 4 feet long. These strips do not look all too much more than old frayed pieces of rope right? But watch….” Alaconius bent a finger on his right hand and motioned in a specific fashion before him as he grabbed one piece of rope after another, and cast the rope at his feet. As ever, Alaconius noted the faces of his students who recoiled as the rope turned into living snakes. In rapid fashion, each of the other ropes became snakes, each filling a small area that measured no more than 3 feet in diameter, with the coiled snakes’ heads rearing up, weaving, bobbing—snake tongue flicking in and out rapidly. For some, the snakes were fascinating creatures, for others, the snakes were harbingers of nightmares. “Ok, not to belabor a point, if someone has a fear of poisonous snakes, a simple trick of using the Illusion Shell upon ropes can be beneficial—right? But I'm sure some of you are going to ask me what the difference is between an Illusion Shell and an ordinary illusion, right? If you were to toss a pebble at a Simple Illusion of a snake, the pebble would pass through the illusion. Remember, tossing a small pebble at something is not generally injurious to the illusions, but giving that same pebble the velocity that a sling can impact upon it, is. The net result however, is that the Illusion Shell can withstand some minor testing of its reality before the person can be convinced of its nature. Sadly, Illusion Shell based illusions can be as easily dispelled by disbelief as a Simple Illusion. The real benefit of the Illusion Shell however, is that it incorporates touch, sound and smell as well as fooling the sense of sight. And no, I would not suggest that you take a bite out of the snakes before you to see if it can fool the sense of taste. Why? Taking a bite damages the Illusion Shell—rendering it inert, just as it would its prerequisite, Simple Illusion.” “In the end, this spell can be cast on objects to make them seem as something else. For instance, a sword hung from a belt, could be made to seem as if it were a leather decoration that is part of the belt you are garbed with. A rusted, nearly broken sword can be made to appear as the best tempered steel of the realm. Paste jewels can be made to seem like rubies and sapphires. Now some may wonder if you can cast it upon a living horse to make it seem to be a horse of better quality. Sadly, the answer is no, unless the horse is dead—but you can use Illusion Disguise to produce that effect for a live horse. I’m sure that many of you are going to find other uses for Illusion Shell. It is a highly versatile spell and one that a near master of the spell can cast cheaply and without spending energy to cast.”Illusion Disguise
The lecturer paused, again, remembering a moment in his past, and as if far away from the hall filled with students, lowered his voice to an almost intimate whisper. Sighing a little before he spoke, Alaconius remembered a painful memory with sadness. “As some may know, women and men age differently. It may not be fair that age should rob a woman of her youthful beauty, but it does. Some women never learn that once a woman enters a man's heart, he almost never sees the ravages of time with the same eyes that she does. It is his heart that sees her, not his eyes. But Illusion Disguise is not only a spell that can be put to nefarious use, it can also be put to a more mundane uses. One could for instance, make an illusion of a younger, perhaps more beautiful version of a person, then cast the Illusion Disguise spell to merge the illusion over that of a single person.” “As you might guess, this spell may permit a person to appear to be at two places at the same time, or it may simply permit them to appear as the best they wish for themselves—a vanity as it were. And lest you think that I single out women for this kind of thinking, men too suffer from a feeling in which they wish they could look better than they do in real life: more handsome, more muscular, or whatever. So ladies and gents—the next perfectly dreamy individual you meet, may well be too perfect to be true.” The tone of his voice changed, becoming more earnest, more heartfelt. “But, as a word of advice from an old man, let me warn you of something else that illusions are capable of doing. They can shatter trust. A married man once made a pact. He faced a forced annulment of his marriage, because her guardian did not approve of the marriage, and took his ward away after the marriage on the grounds it was not a sanctioned marriage. The guardian intended to force the marriage to be annulled on the grounds that the marriage had not been consummated.” “So, our married hero, if hero could be the term used, contracted with a witch to not only help him get together with his wife, but permit him to consummate his marriage. She readily agreed to this, but demanded a price be paid. She told him that he had a destiny of sorts—and that his firstborn son would become a great hero, or a great villain depending upon his upbringing. She told him that her price would be that after he consummated the marriage, he would lay with her and produce a child. The net result was that he would do anything to have his marriage deemed proper in the eyes of the religious authority—and did not realize just how much he was placing his trust in the witch.” “In the end, it turned out that it was the witch he was with first—a witch who had a potion of fertility to insure a child was to be had—and then laid with his wife second. The witch wore his wife’s facade and his wife wore that of the witch’s. As there were no mirrors in the room, she had no way to see what she looked like. When his wife discovered his deception and the lengths he would go to consummate the marriage—well, it broke her heart.” “As for myself, I know of a second story. My father took part in helping a woman look youthful for a long time. He kept her illusion so perfectly, that she never saw what aging was doing to herself. The one day he could not be present to cast that spell she had saw what she had become. I shall not bore you with the details of that story, but suffice to say, illusions can do more damage to the heart than many other spells. Be careful.” "It's not this class' function to teach ethics. For that, you will need to see Magister Fandaral's elective class on Magic and Ethical Theory."Independence
Alaconius tore himself from his memories, and cast a brief spell of Know Time. Satisfied with the spell's results and knowing he still had plenty of time, he continue on to the next topic. “All right, some of you may be more interested in this next spell, for with it, an illusionist can become quite capable of manipulating events. It is for when an illusionist has time to prepare his illusions ahead of when they are needed. To clarify, if the illusionist wanted to have an illusion behave and change in a fashion befitting the circumstances, he has to concentrate upon the illusion spell he has cast in order to have it behave a certain way. The spell known as Independence permits the illusionist to prepare a script by which the illusion will respond—all without requiring his direct concentration. Thus, he could have an illusion of a person talking, saying specific things, and even responding to questions if asked in a way he anticipates—all without having to directly control his illusion.” Alaconius took a sip of water from the glass he kept on the lectern. “Let us take an example—one that unfortunately happened. A mage had a magic staff that could not be used unless he verbally gave permission, and could not be given to a new owner unless the current owner said the words that would give the new owner control. A scheming individual well versed in illusions arranged to kidnap this mage's wife and young daughter. Depriving his captive of sleep, our illusionist created an illusion's independence such that the mother part of the illusion would bring out an unconscious daughter, lay her on an altar, and dip a blade in a bowl with some substance that one might infer was poison. The mother was at first simply bound by a rope and told by the Illusionist, to not speak a word or the daughter would die then and there. The mother was to plead with her eyes to her husband, while the illusionist told the husband to give him permission to touch and hold the staff. When the husband balked, the illusionist faked casting a spell of control person on the wife, and then, as she fought her magical compulsion, began to dip the blade in the substance and advance upon the unconscious daughter. Begging for his daughter’s life, he gave permission to hold the staff. Then he was told to give up his possession, speaking the words that would release the staff’s ownership to him.” He continued, “Balking more out of habit than anything else, the mage whose stave was coveted quickly assented and spoke the words that gave up his dearest possession, an enchanted staff with a large powerstone in it. The illusionist then had the wife finish killing the child, and sadistically dance around the newly murdered child. But, even as the distraught mage broke in tears over the loss of his daughter—the illusionist waved his hands, and the door opened up, allowing a duplicate wife to appear—leading a living daughter.” “Distraught, the weeping mage disbelieved in the cruel illusions of his wife and living daughter—unware, that the first pair of wife and now dead daughter, were the true illusions. The illusionist had an ax to grind with that particular mage, but the cruelty that he demonstrated his mastery of illusion spells was driven largely by hate. That he didn't really intend to harm the wife or daughter, nor did he subject the daughter to the image of her mother trying to kill her is perhaps the only clue of the man’s character with respect to any decency. Suffice to say, the use of illusions to mess with people's minds is not always a good thing.”Know Illusion
He paused, letting the students finish writing whatever notes they were taking before moving on to the next subject. “As always, people tend to treat what they see and observe as being reality. And until the frequency of illusions increases dramatically, this will be the case. Subjecting a person to repeated doses of illusions and the unreal, tends to make people ready to question their every moment of life. They become suspicious, and for many, they are gripped with a sense of fear and dread when they can't even trust their senses. The spell Know Illusion on the other hand, can help a person who is distrustful, but the real problem is that it only helps spell casters. Fortunately for ordinary people, if they live in a high mana region, and are smarter than the average person—they can also learn the spell Know Illusion. For the person with average intellect, the problem can not be solved in this manner. The reason? To be able cast Know Illusion, you must also have learned to cast Simple Illusion.” “Probably the only way that people have of dealing with the illusions that illusionists cast, is a simple thing: word of mouth. Once a mage develops a reputation as one who constantly engages in the casting of illusions, the victims of his spell casting may well be inclined to disbelieving anything that happens around him. Once an illusionist invokes what I jokingly refer to as the ‘Angry Villager’ rule, he is forever going to be treated with distrust at best, and open hostility at worst. Imagine being banished from ordinary society because everyone refuses to deal with you out of fear or distrust. Let me warn you yet again, do not engage in the open use of illusions unless you’re ready for dealing with the reputation you will surely gain from it.”Control Illusion
Again he paused, waiting for the scratching of writing implements to stop. “Now, if you want to take shortcuts where it comes to knowing whether something is an illusion or not, one could simply cast the Control Illusion spell. The problem with this particular spell is that if you cast it on a real thing,” he said, his arms out in a type of shrug, “nothing happens.” He smirked, acknowledging the self evident fact of the statement. “If you cast the spell to wrest control of an illusion from its originator, a certain resistance must be overcome for your spell to take effect. The net result if the spell resists your taking it over is that nothing happens. Only if you overcome the resistance of the illusion to being taken over will you gain the fruits of your spell's casting.” “That this spell is so cheap as far as energy cost—on the same order as a Simple Illusion spell—is its only saving grace in my opinion. That this spell is a prerequisite for the study of Dispel Illusion is the primary reason to study it. Dispel Illusion on the other hand, suffers from the same defect of sorts that Control Illusion suffers: the resistance of the illusion must be overcome with either of Control or Dispel Illusion before you are successful. Again, their cheap costs may make it worth the while to have.”Create Object
Alaconius moves his hand in an exaggerated fashion, and shortly thereafter, a cup appeared in his hand. Alaconius then wiggled a finger in a particular fashion, arched an eyebrow, and water globules began to form above the cup before falling into the cup with the sound of a gurgle that could easily be heard in the front row of the gathered students. Taking a moment to sip from the cup, and Alaconius continued his lecture. “Now many of you just saw me create a cup, fill it with water, and take a sip. Nothing special right? Here is the thing: if you learn to cast this spell, you will never be without a needed tool any time you are capable of casting this spell. For example, lockpicking becomes absurdly easy if you can create a lockpicking tool for your friend who knows how to pick a lock. A climb from one location to another when you can simply create the rope literally out of thin air, makes this particular spell highly useful. Because the object is real, if you know how the object is crafted or what have you, you can essentially create anything that you desire—providing that you or someone else takes hold of it.” “The moment it comes out of your hand is the moment that object shall disappear. Do you need a back pack to carry objects that you didn’t realize you would need? Did you need a wheel barrow to cart something to another location? How about clothing? As it just so happens, ordinary clothing generally lasts about one to two years before it starts to become noticeably deficient. Constant abrasive cleaning in a river, pounding on the rocks, etc., will do that to your clothing. Wearing them and patching them will also cause the clothing to begin to break down and become threadbare. With created clothing, you can wear it, then toss it into the air to make it go away.” He grinned, a twinkle in his eye, and said, “I will caution you however, that walking into a no mana region can be embarrassing if in an area with nudity taboos!” “As far as the utility of this spell, I can not recommend it highly enough. That the prerequisite spells for this particular spell are also generally useful is a bonus in my eyes. Bear in mind that there is the other issue that makes this particular spell useful.” He took another sip from the cup he created. “One can create a gold coin, and hold that coin in reserve—making greedy merchants believe you possess a wealth that you do not. Always bear in mind the wizard’s best tool in his arsenal. It isn’t the reality of what you can do or not do—it is what they think you can do or not do that matters. If a mage were to say “Put it on my tab” to an innkeeper who has seen the coin, felt it, bit it, and then handed it back to the mage—at no time has the coin actively fallen out of touch from the mage's or inspector’s hand, right? If he drops the coin into yours, then, and only then will that created coin disappear. Now, how do you get around that issue? Anyone? Anyone?” Alaconius picked the young lady who had previously been the subject of his not-so-subtle match making efforts. She looked pensively at her teacher and, not wanting to appear mentally deficient, thought about her answer before responding. Clearing her throat, as she wasn't comfortable talking to the entire class she said, “I suppose, that if the Mage constantly made coins appear and disappear as part of his routine, having the created object disappear could be seen as part of the act. You can't bite on a gold coin illusion like you can on a created coin, so I guess you have to keep them both expecting that you will make things disappear, and perhaps appear unexpectedly. Probably need to make sure you never give them the chance to take control of the activity.” Her brow creased in thought. “Hmm, are you suggesting that a mage who learns to perform in front of an audience is best suited to this kind of flim-flam trickery?” Alaconius made a note to be particularly careful with this student, as she showed signs that not only did she have a sharp mind, but used it with precision. Most people don't take the time to think before speaking…. “You are absolutely right,” he replied. “Acquiring the skill to entertain people, and using it regularly when doing your day-to-day activities, establishes a pattern of behavior, a habit if you will, that helps to take their attention off of that thing you wish to keep hidden. Stage magicians and pick pockets call it misdirection. Very good, um... What’s your name?” The young woman smiled saying “Blanda is my name”. Her Latin was mostly devoid of accent, but Alaconius detected a bit of a Gaulish accent, which of course, went well with her barbarian looks. The long hair denoted that she was single. Alaconius almost pitied the young boy that was smitten by her. Most men never realize that a man chases a woman until he is caught. But, he’ll learn, and with luck, he’ll make a wonderful husband. Blanda would likely make a wonderful wife, from what he could tell of her demeanor. If not, it wasn’t meant to be. Alaconius smiled, and dropped his surprise on the group. “Well, Blanda, for your answer, you are going to be working with my best assistant teacher. She will help you with your schooling and offer you private tutoring to help accelerate your studies. I will expect that if you're interested, you can supplement your school hours with helping to tutor the other students later next semester—assuming you work hard and are diligent. The College here is always looking for sharp minds and those who can explain things clearly.” As for the rest of you, I have one other assistant left who can tutor. I suggest you find ways to impress either myself or my assistants. That last slot, once filled, will be gone.” As Alaconius finished mentioning that bit of news, some of the poorer students began to pay more attention. Attendance at the college was not cheap. Between having to pay for the costs of maintaining the salaries of the teachers, and the costs of having to pay for access to the college library and materials, there was also the costs of food, servants, services such as the cleaning of clothes, mending them, and providing the students with heat and water and such. Some of these things were done in the more mundane of fashions, while some were done with magic. Either way, tuition at the College was expensive. Moving along with his lecture, Alaconius mentally ticked Create Object off of his list of spells to discuss and launched into the Create Animal spell. Both were highly useful—and both had the ability to be solutions to problems that mages often did not think about.Create Animal
“Ok, next, let us examine the spell Create Animal. This spell permits a mage to enjoy companionship of certain animals such as kittens, puppies and the like.” Ignoring the smiles from several of his students, he continued. “Suppose for a moment, you have a friend who is injured due to a collapsed wall, and you have a huge rock on your friend's leg. Or perhaps rib cage. All you have is a nearby tree limb, and precious little else. The only spells you know are create object, and of course, create Animal—all the other spells you know just can't help you in this situation.” “So, you create a rope. You find a way to loop one end of the rope around your waist, then you loop it over the nearby tree limb. Sadly, you’re not strong or heavy enough to shift that rock. So, what can you do with Create Animal? Create an ape? That falls within the parameters of a normal human sized creature, and it’s pretty strong too, right? Since it will do as you direct it to do, pulling on the rope you've tied around the rock, helps, right? But what if you decide to have two such apes helping you to pull the rope?” “Need a small monkey to clamber through a window, and draw a bolt from the door that keeps you from entering? Yes, that's another way summoning an animal can be useful. Do you have a snake nearby that you don't want around any more? A mongoose that you summon may be just the answer to your problem, no?” “The spell has many benefits. If you’re walking through an area, and you have summoned say, a wolf—his keen sense of smell can help warn you of nearby predators, or of someone or something trying to sneak up upon you. As a created creature, it will attack what you want it to, or defend you when you want it to. In short, it is the perfect trained specimen of a creature to do your beck and call. It may even help to have a real normal trained dog at your side such that you can at least have them work in tandem with each other. So, with Create Animal, you have access to sheer muscle power when or where you need it.” “Creating an animal deep in a cave, a labyrinth, or perhaps the middle of a wilderness, is especially useful when you don't have to feed them for times when you don’t need them. When you need them to open a bolted door or window, they are useful. When you have a sleeping guard whose keys hang on a ring—create a small primate to help you escape. When you're cold, you can summon up an animal, and its body heat can help you keep from freezing. Again, this is only really useful when you are near expert in casting spells to where you can conserve on the energy required to maintain the creature’s existence. Being able to use an animal to attack on command is also helpful. Do you need to make friends with a child? A cute animal almost always does the trick. What child isn’t entranced by a puppy, kitten, or baby dragon?” “But the spell has some limitations, as well, that need to be taken into consideration. If a mage creates, say, a scorpion, it has poison, right? So what happens when it gets dispelled, or the spell runs its course and isn’t maintained? What happens to the poison that it injected into a victim’s body?” He looked around at the students. Most looked confused, trying to figure out how the magic would treat the situation. Alaconius decided to save them the mental effort and continued. “Well, it depends. The magical construct of this hypothetical scorpion is filled with magically constructed venom. However, if the victim’s body processes that venom, then the byproducts of that are now just as real as any other normal materials. It is thus possible, depending upon how fast the venom acts, to dispel the poison before it takes effect, if the dispelling mage is quick enough, or if the poison takes a long time to act.” “The same would go for a created wolf’s scent markers: that is, its urine. While the wolf exists, so does its territorial markers. But since those markers are applied onto a surface, and don’t really interact with that surface, they would disappear when the wolf does. The same thing applies to a created spider’s webbing.” “And here is something that I probably should have mentioned with regards to Create Object, because the same restrictions apply there as well. If you create an apple, and eat it, is it nutritious? And again, it depends. It takes some time for the stomach to digest the apple, so unless you want to be hungry, make sure that the apple is maintained long enough to be processed by the body.” “Now, here is a problem for mages. If you are not awake in order to maintain a spell, that spell will dissipate, no? With the spell needing to be recharged every minute, the moment a mage falls asleep, that created animal simply vanishes upon falling into a sleep. It doesn't matter that you can maintain the existence of the animal if your knowledge with the spell is near expert right? Well, here is how you can get around that little problem.” “One thing to carefully consider is the use of Lend Spell or Steal spell in conjunction with this spell. For example, were I to cast the Lend spell on a creature that I created, its recipient would be able, assuming they were bright enough and had the Magery capability in the second degree—be able to maintain that spell at the same level as I did. Thus, I could for instance, create an animal, hand the spell off to a friend who could have cast the spell themselves, go to sleep, then wake up and steal that spell back from them. The created animal would have an uninterrupted duration of existence—all from the originally cast spell.”Create Servant
The lecturer stopped and smiled, as if remembering something related to the topic at hand, but decided not to share it. The memory likely had something to do with a topic that is generally not spoken of in polite company. Still smiling, the man continued on with his basic theme of created items and animals, shifting the topic to people. “So, some of you are wondering, if we can create objects, and can create animals, and even learn to maintain their existence despite the original caster having to sleep at some point in time, can we do the same with humans or other racial types of sentients? Well, I know we can create humans, and I've no doubt that some elven mages may have researched a spell that lets them create elven servants, or if they were particularly nasty sorts, create servants of other races they like to abuse. When the caster creates a servant, he can make them look like anything he wants: male or female, human, elf, or whatever. However, only the best mages, those with Magery in the third degree, can cast this spell.” “Nonetheless, servants that are created via this spell have one thing in common. They are generally less smart, less agile, less healthy, and less strong than the average adult male human. It was once stated that many of these servants have the strength of comparable to that of a 14 year old boy—but that’s largely a subjective matter. In the words of some physicians, the specimen of servant tends to be below average in all ways of that of a comparable average adult male.” “So, what are we to do with a servant? One thing is that they can be instructed to do tasks. Sadly, being of a sort without initiative, you can’t really tell them to engage in something as simple as skilled house keeping, because servants created this way are not capable of having any mental skills at all. But what they can have, is a physical skill such as boating, or hiking, or what have you.” “One mage I knew, created servants who were experts at acrobatics. He ran a small act of acrobats without needing to pay them a wage or feed them or what have you. The things he could get his acrobats to do was spectacular. He had a great show until he was caught using his acrobats commit crimes of pilfering. He’d create one servant to pick locks. Then he’d use servants to carry things out for which he could claim he was not accountable in the event they were caught carrying the loot out.” “I heard tell of another mage whose creations were very visually appealing, even if somewhat vapid of mind. Where they excelled however, was in their command of erotic arts. As the mage had not achieved a master’s touch with the spell and couldn’t maintain the spell without having to pay an energy cost, he often would charge for the use of his creations, by the minute. Between his use of healing potions coupled with apprentices, he was able to maintain his creations for nearly forty minutes—this without the benefit of powerstones.” “Unfortunately, although he was in high demand, the man was crucified. As crucifixion was reserved for slaves, pirates, traitors, and enemies of the state, he had obviously angered the wrong person. It appears that he had made the mistake of creating a servant that looked like the exact image of a General’s wife, then rented his creation out to the General's staff. He was charged with the crime of facilitating insubordination amongst the General’s staff. Word had it, the general blinded the man, cut his fingers off and cauterized the stumps of fingers before crucifying him.” “What worried the Archmage of Roma was that the mage was destroyed out of hand despite him having the rare gift of Magery in the third degree. For you see, as I said before, only those who posses Magery in the third degree can even cast this spell. So the death of this mage worried the Archmage greatly, and was likely to set a precedent.”Create Mount
“In any event, I digress. A similarly rare spell to see cast, because of the high degree of Magery required, is Create Mount. Unlike similar creation spells, the duration of this spell is measured in hours rather than minutes. That it creates creatures whose weight is often in excess of a half ton, one has to wonder how it came to pass that this particular spell has such longevity instead of the more standard longevity of other spells of similar nature. This is a freak facet of magic that few have been able to speculate upon, let alone understand. The day someone deciphers how this spell was done, and apply the same basis principles to the original Create Animal or Create Servant spells, is the day that certain mages will upgrade those spells to the same functionality as Create Mount. That having been said—this spell seems little more than a variant of the Create Servant spell, but in animal form.” Alaconius waved his fingers in a quick gesture, brought a glass goblet into existence, and with another gesture, filled the glass goblet with water. Whether he was using illusions or not became dispelled when he drank from the container and enjoyed its contents. Shortly afterwards, he dropped the created object and watched as its contents disappeared, but the water continued its path towards the floor, splashing and leaving a puddle. As always, Alaconius was demonstrating possible uses of spells and what comes of them when used in the field as opposed to being taught in a classroom. No doubt, someone would likely find a way to use the properties of a created item disappearing when no longer in contact with a person's touch—and normal physical laws. Continuing on despite the display, he brought up the next topic in his lecture—created warriors.Create Warrior
“Created Warrior—is it a useful spell, or is it a simply useless spell intended to impress others? Because the created warrior has no weapons or armor upon creation, the ability of the mage to armor his creation is somewhat limited. How limited? Let's say that it takes 5 minutes to place a man in full armor. That means for the casting mage, his warrior has cost him energy equal to 20 hours of marching. For those who like to use terminology of mages, that is roughly 20 fatigue energy. Not too many mageborn will have access to that kind of energy, so, more often than not, a created warrior will be one who can put on some low level armor quickly, or possibly fight naked but with weapon and shield. For that same energy, a mage could simply create four wolves and have them attack any opponent.” “Granted, it takes time to cast four such wolves—but mages who specialize in the spell could easily get the cost to create to where it only costs them energy equal to 1 hour’s march per wolf, and nothing to maintain—which is a far superior tactic to utilize when on the march than is to summon a warrior. I don’t think I've seen anything like a single mage voluntarily take to study this spell without some incentives—such as gladiatorial combats. Even there, I can’t think of too many rich patrons who are willing to settle for the contest between two created warriors when they can simply pit two ordinary human beings in gladiatorial combat. Yes, Roma can be brutal, but the managers of those trained athletes make a lot of money off of their gladiators. I’ll not comment on the use of slaves in gladiatorial combat—you can form your own opinions uninfluenced by mine.”Dispel Illusion/Dispel Creation
Alaconius thought about the spells he’d brought up thus far and what he hadn’t. Realizing that he'd forgotten to mention much about Dispel Illusion, he looked at the class and posed the following question to his class, inviting them to answer with hopefully reasoned responses. “OK, we’ve discussed some of the spells of the Illusion and Creation college—not all by any means. But let’s take a moment to ask what you would do if confronted with this….” Alaconius turned around, moved a rug off the floor, which had concealed an inscribed pentagram. Using a piece of chalk to break the pentagram’s circle symbolically, he then turned around inside the pentagram, and erased the chalk mark. The students who bothered to look could tell that the pentagram was a permanent enchantment, and was fully functional by inference with the chalk line being erased once Alaconius entered the pentagram’s interior. He then used his fingers in a subtle fashion and a wolf appeared outside of his circle. “OK, now we have the elements of a hostile engagement. I have created a wolf, and I'm about to send that wolf after someone—trying to kill that someone if at all possible. Quick—tell me what you're going to do assuming that you know the spell?” Pointing to a young man who, up to now, had largely been inattentive, he commanded the wolf to attack. The student looked at the snarling, onrushing wolf, which began to pelt up the stairs towards him as soon as the professor asked him the question. Stammering as he fought to come up with an answer, the wolf was upon him, and leapt for his throat as wolves are wont to do. Throwing his arms uselessly before him with a cry of panic, the bulk of the wolf disappeared before it came into contact with him. Alaconius looked at the student with a face showing no emotion as he said “You're dead.” He then wiggled his fingers and a new wolf identical to the first one appeared. Alaconius pointed to a young woman in the next row up at the very edge of the seating so that the wolf could run up stairs and reach her. Before the wolf could even begin to close the distance, the young woman yelled “I'd cast Dispel Creation!” Alaconius watched as his wolf got to the young woman, and then leapt into the air at her throat. As happened the last time, the wolf simply disappeared as it was in mid-air. “Very good, Naomi. Let’s examine whether or not such a spell is worth the while. Let's say that I have the spell at a mastery level equivalent of Expert. Let's say for the sake of argument, that you’re a trained student of magic and that your capability with the spell is that of professional caster. Do you know how often it can be found that your spell will dispel my creation? In a word, rarely. First, your spell has to be crafted tightly enough that it can overcome how tightly I crafted my spell. If I'm an expert in the spell itself, not only can I cast the spell tightly, but I can also cast it more cheaply energy wise.” “When you cast Dispel Creation, you lose energy equal to that of a man who hikes for three hours on level ground as he carries nothing on him on a normal summer's day. This energy is lost regardless of whether or not your spell successfully unravels my spell. The absolutely easiest way to dispel a creation is to actually kill or render unconscious the spell caster. Put another way, Dispel Creation is one of the least favorite of my spells simply because of how it works…or, rather, how it doesn’t.” “You have to contest the other creation by how well your spell itself is crafted to penetrate the inner workings of my spell. Unless you’re aware of how smart your opponent is, what their level of Magery is, and how well they know their creation spells—you're simply gambling with your spell being able to overcome theirs. Rarely will you see swordsmen or spearmen fight in a genteel fashion—and any mage you oppose on the field, will also likely not fight in a fair manner.” He paused, his eyes twinkling as he grinned. “And what made you think that wolf was a creation, rather than an illusion?” Naomi’s eyes widened. But she rallied well enough. “If it had been an illusion, it wouldn’t have been able to hurt me, so dispelling it as a creation would have only wasted time and energy. If I had used Dispel Illusion, and it had been a creation, then it would have been able to hurt me. So Dispel Creation was the wiser choice.” Alaconius nodded. “That was good, solid thinking. Well done.” He went on. “Find ways to deal with their creation spells that don't involve a gamble. If for instance, I created a wolf for one third the energy that Naomi tried to dispel my creation, I'm already winning. Magical combats are often a battle of attrition—how much energy you bring to the battle versus how much energy I bring to the battle of spell casting. When it comes to winning a contest between mageborn opponents, what you can cast is as important as how much energy you have available. Sometimes a cheap spell, cast many times, may be a better solution than a single, big spell.” “Frankly? Being able to turn flesh to stone is a one shot affair that is an almost all or nothing attack. A warrior who strikes with their weapon, is able to do so time after time after time. My advice? Never go toe to toe with a warrior unless you only have one to go up against, and even then, I would advise you to find ways to get out of their reach and then strike at them with your spells.”Phantom
“So, what other spells have we got to look at and see how they rate? Phantom is one spell I've yet to comment upon, and I have a reason for bringing this up later rather than sooner in this lecture. Why? Again, it is largely a function of preference and that of what tool a spell caster desires to use. Phantom, as a spell, is nearly twice as costly energy wise than is Perfect Illusion. To put it more accurately, it is five times the cost of a simple illusion. A mage of average strength and build, will use up half his available energy reserves simply casting this one spell. Maintaining the spell means that he will lose energy at a rate equal to that of a hiking man walking for three hours. Put another way? Our mage with average strength will find himself going unconscious after only six minutes of the spell's duration. Unless the mage has access to healing potions that he consumes after he initially cast the spell, and then keeps drinking healing potions to gain more energy from the potions—he will fall unconscious in six minutes.” “Such energy expenditure means that the caster had better be safe from where he’s operating, lest an ordinary person with a knife puts an end to his life. That being said, the question now arises:what makes Phantom better than a Perfect Illusion? The answer is that the Phantom, unlike illusion spells, can cause direct injury.” “The problem is however, that there is an innate capability for the target of a Phantom’s attack to protect themselves from the baneful effects of a Phantom. In a way, this innate defense against Phantoms mirrors that of “Disbelief” for simple and complex illusions. The only difference is—this innate defense doesn't require conscious thought on the part of the victim, although the skill of the illusionist matters. If the victim's defenses kick in, all that will happen is that the Phantom downgrades into a perfect illusion.” “Now think about that. Which is tactically better? Creating a wolf or creating a Phantom Wolf? Energy wise, the created Wolf is cheaper, although fewer mages are able to cast it. The innate defense against the Phantom Wolf is such that the phantom will maybe do damage as a wolf, maybe not. A created wolf, on the other hand, will always do damage if it can strike successfully. An ordinary mage who casts create animal—specifically a wolf, will go unconscious, assuming he is of ordinary average strength and body mass, after a total of 9 minutes. The Phantom creator will go unconscious after 6 minutes. Now—when or where does it make more sense to use a Phantom? If one ascribes to the theory that the damage inflicted by a phantom is illusory, then someone who comes across a dead person who died of no actual wounds is someone who died of natural causes, or perhaps poison. But the next question that comes across is this—when is a bad thing to use a phantom outside of its prohibitive energy cost? Phantoms have a little problem built into them. How well the mage crafts his illusionary Phantom determines the maximum damage the phantom can take before being dispelled. If a mage barely succeeds in getting his spell into being—it can only take one successful attack upon it before it disappears. Even an expert illusionist casting this spell can be susceptible to this limitation, although, admittedly, to a lesser degree.” “In short? Phantom as a spell has too many weaknesses to be worthy of a mage’s time. Since it serves no purpose as a requisite spell for something better, I would advise any serious student to avoid learning the spell, unless your degree of Magery is too low for creations.” He took a deep breath, a part of him hating having to mention an advantage that Phantom had over Create Animal. He sighed. “There is one thing that Phantom can do that Create Animal cannot,” he said. “Create Animal is limited to creatures you know. Phantom has no such restrictions. You can make it look like anything you want. While Create Animal can make a wolf, Phantom can create a three headed wolf. Or a wolf with wings. A clever mage can use this to his, or her, advantage. Combined with a bit of mind magic, and a smart mage can pluck their victim’s worst nightmare, regardless of what it is, and send it after them.”Initiative
“My next spell to discuss, and we're almost done, is that of Initiative. Just as Independence permits a mage to grant a certain level of autonomy to his creations, Initiative grants something much more useful. It permits a caster to grant his creations with skills that he himself knows.” “What makes this spell particularly useful is the fact that the effects of the spell will last as long as the underlying creation shall last. For example, a servant that can be maintained for as long as the spell caster is conscious—the effects of this spell are going to be long lasting. A mage who is lonely for companionship for example, may well create a servant, then cast Initiative on said servant, and imbue the ability to engage in housekeeping. Said servant will perform these duties much like any other individual, albeit of somewhat lower intelligence than most.” “For a mage who intends to make a living with created servants, all he need do is arm himself with this spell as well, and imbue a certain functionality to those servants in a way that makes them valuable—more so than had they been simple servants per the spell itself. More importantly, the mage can bypass the normal energy cost of having skilled servants by use of this spell. As long as the skills for the targeted creation are those the mage knows—the servant’s cost to bring into being will be that of the initial cost, plus the cost of this spell. Which would you rather have: a servant with one physical skill only, or one with three skills?”Duplicate
“And last but not least: one of the better spells of the Illusion and Creation spells….” “At times, Duplicate as a spell leaves me scratching my head. I can create a glass container by use of Create Object. I can also touch an actual glass container and create its duplicate. Now, if I wanted to create a glass container with precise measurements in the container that detail how much fluid volume is being used, I’m better off duplicating a real container than I might be if I were to create it via create object. Problem is—like any created object, I have to keep on touching it. An alchemist for instance, is not going to hold onto the glass container that is held over a fire—unless the alchemist is immune to the effects of fire. He likely will not wish to stand there for hours or days on end holding said container! A mage who has no familiarity with a crossbow, for example, probably couldn't produce a working crossbow using create object unless he had the skill that made it possible for him to create such a device. In that respect, perhaps Duplicate is a worthy spell.” “But here is where Duplicate comes into its own. Unlike Create Object, which makes no provisions for creating permanent objects, Duplicate does. For 300 energy, a mage may create an object that is permanent. This means for example, that the best sword taken from Toledo—can be duplicated over and over again, for 300 energy.” “Now, as an example, let’s look at the College of Enchantments for a moment, because we're going to enchant the spell Duplicate into a staff. We're also going to take the time to enchant a powerstone capable of holding 100 energy. Once the powerstone is crafted, we're going to make the staff one that uses that powerstone exclusively. Thus, it will be able to provide the 300 energy required to duplicate a master made sword weighing up to 5 lbs—which is almost all swords save the great two-handed swords—all as easily as it takes to touch the master made sword. This item can also reproduce permanent copies of paintings.” “One might theorize that it can also create exact duplicates of say, gemstones or gold or what have you. Granted, the limit is 5 lbs or less once per 100 days, but hey, that would make for a powerful magic item for any guild to own. Best of all? The duplicate no longer disappears when not in the grasp of a sentient being. The smart and inventive individuals who utilize this staff will be able to reproduce high value items every 100 days—the time it takes for the powerstone to recharge fully.” “Now, that concludes this lecture. If there are questions, feel free to contact me at my office or contact my aides. In the meantime, if some of you are listening to this lecture to decide whether or not you wish to master any of the spells discussed, please let my aides know so we can try to plan a syllabus for you, determine what classes will be taught when, and of course, the fee for attending such classes. It should be noted, that any student caught playing practical jokes with these spells on campus, will be held accountable. I don’t mind being the target of such spells, but I need only point out, that once I am a target, you become a target for me and my assistants. The lovely Pedia here, has been known to exact her revenge in a spectacular fashion. Her sense of humor and judgment is perhaps keener than even mine. You have been warned. Alaconius left the lecture hall, and rapidly walked towards his office that was located in another building. His mind was already bent towards composing his next lecture on the college of Protection and Warning.
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