Antimagic versus Xar-Scar

Those are two concepts you will find people who was born and raised on Sharitarn misplacing, taking one for the other and ignoring that difference exists. Even High Caste individuals frequently ignore the practical differences, even if they have a general notion that those are distinct concepts instead of two names for a same thing.  
           

ANTI-MAGIC

      "The useless Way of Magic" (popular saying)


     What magic users deal with in their daily live is anti-magic. Anyone who wishes to build a fortress, or a simple vault, and has resources to even take magic into consideration, will be thinking in terms of anti-magic. Ideally this person will rent an anti-mage (whether it will be and anti-mage sigrax or an anti-mage mage depends on the scale of this investment). Alternatively this person may acquire anti-magic materials and give them to a number of alchemists with Builder Caste skills, and ask them to make the best possible use of what they have at hand. 
     Anti-magic spells are used in duels between magic users,  and in build static defenses against spells of other Ways. They may block a Way in particular, several, or all Ways of Magic. Or even a single spell. Is also possible to use anti-magic to block magic-like powers inherited by some species and Paths of Magic. Usually the anti-mage design his spells to not interfere with is own magic and the magic of his allies.   
     So, anti-magic is a Way of Magic like any other, and the reason why it is object of jokes is that all anti-magic spells have no effect in anything that is not magical. That is where the "useless" in the saying came from. If you are fighting enemies from a specie that does not depends on Xar to breath (what is most of them, humans included) and those individual foes do not have magic potential awaken to allow the use of magic weapons, armours or spells (again, almost all individuals haven't), then you gain nothing from anti-magic. In theory you could be an archmage and still be defenseless, if you are an anti-mage who never  learned any spell for other Way. 
       Evidently, that archmage does not exist. Every follower of anti-magic do learn a portfolio of basic spells from other Ways (as most magic users do, any way). Believe if you will: some anti-mages even found a number of spells that seems to be particularly effective when the enemy magic users in the room have no magic to use, or are severely weakened in what they have.          For those who are not partial against the Way, anti-magic is a valid option of specialization. Despite the big defect of being "useless" so often. Because an anti-mage sigrax is enough to turn the table even in large conflicts. If he has time to prepare defenses and inside a well build castle this one fellow can keep his side safe against hundreds, possibly thousands of enemy sigraxes. Even slow down a mage, with some luck.   
       Despite being effective, and practical, the Way is no definitive weapon against spells. Any anti-magic spell can be surmounted and erased by brute force. If you Xar is pure enough, you will overcome the anti-mage and eventually wash away his work. That is why no anti-magic spell can protect someone against the Mage's Brotherhood, when the Brotherhood decides to put its weight in a blow. 
 

XAR-SCAR

     Xar-Scars are places created when a negative reaction of Sharitarn magical body to something brought by the Vortex, or some other magical calamity, taints the Xar nearby. 
     Is impossible to make them on purpose, prevent their occurrence, or heal them faster. They are the main reason why some mages feel that would be worth to develop more the Vortex Way of Magic, despite the immense risks implied; because in theory if there is a possibility of protect Sharitarn against occurrences that create those Scars  that possibility is to be found in future advances of Vortex Magic.   
     Any nation with a Magic University deeply fears the day when a Xar-Scar will open and make all magic useless in their region. That is a real possibility always present, remote certainly but impossible to exclude. 
     No "brute force attack" can be made against Xar-Scars, no possibility of overcome the polluted Xar in and make spells work. For all practical purposes is like if ostensible magic did not existed in the borders of those territories, which can be as small as a room or as large as a continent. There was a time (know as Xar-Scar Age) when almost all surface of Sharitarn was covert by Scars and remained that way for dozens of thousands years: was not predicted that if was about to happen, and no one knew how long would take for thing to go back to normal.  
     Well informed Scholars always knew it would eventually. The general level of Xar is a constant in each Universe, regardless the punctual variations. All Xar-Scar do heal, eventually.  




   There is a place in the middle of the South Continent, a State City build by Earthlings during the last Transition Period of the Vortex. It was founded by involuntary immigrants from Portugal whiting the limits of a Xar-Scar, possibly the larger one on the planet today.
About the size of Luxemburg, give or take fell square-miles, this territory free of Magic is rich in fertile land and rivers. The Xar-Scar itself had been there for about two centuries before the State City, it isn’t far from a Vortex Line and has moderate temperatures over the year. Hot summers, cold winters, but without the extremes experienced by most Sharitarnes. Culture in places like that must deal with specific problems, and can apply solutions forbidden to other regions.
In theory, the Scars are subjected to the Exclusion Law as much as the rest of the planet is. In reality, they are “blind spots”. Polluted Xar makes impossible to reach this places with spells, the Mage’s Brotherhood can’t know what happens on this places by using divination spells, and can’t punish violations with their green flame. That does not protect the inhabitants of those areas from the Brotherhood, but gives them some ground to explore forbidden technology.
The mages do send spies to Xar-Scars, and sometimes diplomats as well. They may mobilize armies of Warriors when necessary, to stop the development of disruptive technologies. If that fails (what is frequent, because warriors caring swords and shields are not well equipped to fight fire-guns and similar tools) the mages can surround the entire Xar-Scar by mountains using creation magic. Then they have the option of create water on the top of those mountains, which despite being created by magic is not magical in nature; the entire Scar became a lake in a matter of hours, with the water level reaching the top of the mountains. Instead of water could be mud, mercury, or poisonous gas: all these options have been used in the past.
Not everyone living inside a Xar-Scar realizes the danger, most times they isolate themselves as much as possible from the rest of the planet to establish a way of life unique. No two Scars are the same, but most of them develop some level of xenophobic feeling toward the rest of the Planet. No one can avoid cross-cultural contamination entirely, but some do try. Not New Coimbra and it’s neighbours through.
In this case, the Xar-Scar made the polluted Xar a business. They attract tourists from all places with tours on balloons and hunt excursions where the visitor has the chance to shout a rifle forged by some Iron-Worker Caste of New Coimbra.
All Xar-Scars are healing, and eventually they disappear. Magic is the constant on this Universe and it can’t be kept at distance for ever. That’s something the average person born inside a Xar-Scar don’t realize, and even those who realize it try not to think about. They have centuries, possibly a couple of thousand years, no more than that. Them the nations they have build will be open for magic and will have to fully adopt the Exclusion Law or perish.
Time is coming for New Coimbra, the border of the Scar is now just three or four miles distant, more one century and it will reach them. There is still the option of migrate to escape the return of magic for a little longer, but those families who choose to stay will have to give up their way of life in a few generations.
That situation makes New Coimbra the perfect place to understand how much magic influences the live of common people on Sharitarn. They do have a cosmopolitan mind, more open to external influences than any other community located on a Scar, as far as I know. However, they are scared up to the core of their souls right now. What separates them from the amazing world of monsters and marvels and makes them special is coming to an inevitable end, they must find some other identity, learn new habits, study magic in all forms and get as much sigraxes as possible to not become easy pray for raids and invasions.
Is just natural that this people look to anti-magic before anything else. That being my magical Way I am doing my best here to explain how it works and why it cannot replace the polluted Xar they are used to rely on.

Localization

To a mage, or a sigrax_ or any sort of  Path follower, or still any one who has natural powers similar to spells_ there is a dynamic and somewhat wide border surrounding any Xar-Scar. Is impossible to say exactly where normality stops and the polluted Xar takes place. Perform spells became gradually harder and more expensive in will and energy as you walk in a given direction, for kilometers, before it became impossible. 
    Some plants and animals, talking or not, survive better in levels of polluted Xar that are higher than normal but not as high as those found deeper inside the Xar-Scar.  Even with no sensibility to magic you could notice the peculiar change in color and size, and the plants that only grow in the limits of a Xar-Scar.  If a mage continues in that direction he will soon reach a point where his spells will be only as strong as those of a sigrax, and a fell steps after than he will have not magic. 
    To the Brotherhood on the contrary the border of any Xar-Scar is a sharp edge, closer to the Geometric Definition of line than any other thing in the Universe. 
    That happens because the Mage's Brotherhood, acting as a institution, has immense magical power. The Xar available to the Brotherhood is so pure that all the additional effort made by a single mage to overcome the resistance of polluted Xar become meaningless. Therefore, the Brotherhood jumps from the point in space where make spells is possible (and therefore normal) to the point where make any spell is impossible: nothing in between.       
     However, even for the Brotherhood itself the line that separates Xar-Scar from normal Sharitarn isn't static. It may appear to be from distance, but when the mages concentrate their attention closer they notice the constant oscillation. The border of a Scar moves like sea water on a beach. Divination Magic gives you every information you may wish for about the grains on one side, number, size and history, but absolutely nothing about those in the other side. 
    Is not noticeable usually, because the process is too slow, but all Xar-Scars are shrinking. They start close to their maximum size, may grow a little for as long as half decade, in rare cases, but after that they only loose size.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane

Shelter Treaties 

      Shelter Treaties are accords celebrated between nations which have Magic Universities for the case o one of them be engulfed by a Xar-Scar. Those mutual agreements allow the Mage Caste of the city in difficulty to move temporarily to the other nation and make use of its Mage University for as long as necessary, without give up their citizenship.


     Any nation welcome mages (they do go to large scale wars to steal each others mages, the victorious side keeping the defeated people hostage to persuade their mages to accept the change of address and nationality) but without the Shelter Treaties is implied the obligation of adopt a new citizenship. Scars may last for thousands of years, usually they last at least a handful centuries. The Mage Universities inside it are useless, as ate all magic defenses and weapons. The only way for a nations not to loose the capacity of form mages is to keep educating new generations of them somewhere else. By those treaties generations of mages can live in a foreigner nation, waiting for the day when their own land will be properly healed. 
     That us a complicated situation both for the exiled mage castes and for the city that shelters them. Mages are the capital resource in the disputes between global powers on Sharitarn. They are the definitive weapon of war. 
     Any city that receives a large number of mages will bend under the temptation of try persuade them to became citizens for good. The obligation assumed in the Shelter Treaty is give the mages back to their original nation, which is likely to be far away (make less cense to celebrate those contracts with neighbors, since those are likely to end up in the same Xar-Scar you are) and it do not exclude the mages who want to stay in their adoptive home. 
    Those are people who lived all their lives as guests, and have parents how did the same. They may even not be descendants of those who came from the other city but of apprentices of them (since potential for magic is not actually hereditary the only way to keep about the same number of mages from one generation to the next is welcome in the Caste those who are not blood relatives of Mage Castes).  Despite all that, they are bond by honor to travel to the city from where their magical Professors came. 
      Which is likely to be a very grim and miserable place by now, specially in the eyes of a mage.   

FOR INSTANCE 

      Mimbao do has a treaty like that with Lauwriin. Lets suppose it has to make use of it.
     If one day in the future a Xar-Scar opens that covers one of this cities the other will receive all mages and sigraxes of the other nation, and their families. In the case of this two cities in particular some of those mages are likely to make part of the travel inside boxes, since we are talking about nations where Necromancy is taught. And undeads, no matter how powerful, are just dead corpses when inside a Xar-Scar. 
     You have different laws, among many other cultural nuances less obvious but equally disturbing in the long term. Undead citizens are beloved relatives, and respected citizens, on Mimbao. On Lauwriin they are little more than slaves or tools, and little less than second class citizens. But the undead of Mimbao living at Lauvriin would be mostly living by the laws of Mimbao, and vice-versa. 
     Most magical treasures of Mimbao would remain in the island, if that was the city abandoned by the mages for being inside a Xar-Scar. The people of Undead City would remain up there as well, except for the Mage Caste, living their lives and protecting those treasures. 
     The mages of Mimbao would have free access to Ice Tallow University, and conduce their own  First and Second tests up there. The students passing in those tests would have to swear an oath to loyalty towards Undead City, would be subjected to the laws of Mimbao while living on Lauwriin, and would also have to move once the Xar-Scar heals. On the other hand, would be Lauwriin enduring the costs for all that educational process, and each student being educated by Mimbao mages would mean one student less for became a mage of their own city.  
     Then in some moment, perhaps one thousand years later, the Xar-Scar would retreat enough to free Mimbao from its influence.  
     Lauwriin could be at war when that time comes, and still the mages of Mimbao would be packing to leave. Not a simple situation for any side involved, you see.