Ways of Magic
List:
0: Generic 1: Creation 2: Divination 3: Healing 4: Necromancy 5: Illusion 6: Teleportation 7: Anti-Magic 8: Somatic Transmutation 9: Enchantment/Incantation 10: Shadow 11: Tattoo Magic 12: Vortex Magic 13: Mind Carving 14: Mind Whisper 15: Fire 16: Pestilence 17: Breeding 18: Shield 19: Dimensional Magic 20: Ork Magic 21: Insect Magic 22: Transmutation
Magic Ways on Sharitarn
On Sharitarn Mage Castes are composed by two people Mages and Sigraxes. The first group are the ones who finished their magical education, surviving the second test, they are godlike individuals, talking nuclear bombs to be respected and feared. Mages are the difference between the most powerful human Estate Cities and the rest.
Mages are also the one factor that makes humanity the dominant specie on Sharitarn. Because only Mage Universities are capable to form mages, and all mage universities are in the human hands. There is no "Wild Mages" properly speaking.
Sigraxes are the ones divided in Wild and Civilized. Wild Sigraxes exited long before the first Mage Universities, they teach disciples in initiatic basis and learn how to do that costs them some Xar and magical flexibility, what makes the average civilized sigrax more powerful than the average wild sigrax. In simple terms the sigraxes are what in most scenarios of fantasy you would expect from mages. But unlike mages of games like Dungeons and Dragons they aren't weaker than the warriors necessarily, they usually don't focus as much time and energy in practice mundane fight skills as a warrior do but they are perfectly able to. Magic adds a recourse, a powerful one, what makes a single sigrax as powerful as dozens of warriors; and makes a epic achievement to a warrior defeat a mage, when it happens.
A third category is included in the Mage Caste on some (few) cities, it is the alchemists. Alchemists are the ones who failed the first test, the one sigraxes passed to became sigraxes. Don't follow the Ways, because they can't make spells. Their magic potential is awaken, but it only allows them to use magical items, repair magical objects (weapons and armors for instance) using magical tools, and mix magic substances to make potions. People without magic potential, or with magic potential not awaken can't use the magical objects as what they are: a magical sword in the hands of such a person will be just a very good sword, unbreakable and always sharp but with no active spell.
To the purposes of this text the word “mage” will be used for both true mages and false mages (or sigraxes). Those aren’t all options for mages and sigraxes, some Ways relevant to the story are here, a few others which may not be present in Altair’s story, yet (but will be sooner or later if The Traveller survive beyond one book).
Not all mages follow a Way. Those who don’t are called “generics” or sometimes “generalists” (the second being more polite). Wild mages (who are all “false mages”) almost always have one “option”, the only Way thought inside the tribe or stay generalists: that if the mentor who accepted them has Way. A civilized mage can choose between the Ways thought on his city, sometimes it is the same number of choices a wild mage has, sometimes the Magical Caste on his city has 3, in rare cases even 7 Ways to offer.
0: GENERIC
Few mages who have the option choose to stay a generic for a long time, most already know which Way they will follow a day after they learn that they do have magical potential. The generic has more options, his Xar is more ‘flexible’ and adapts better to different spells, but it is also less powerful. Generic’s Xar does not last long. More importantly: only a Way opens the doors for the powerful spells most mages look for, and dream about.
The main reason why the mages who expend their first years as generalists do so is the desire to learn how to teach magic. No one is capable to teach magic one day after became a mage, take years to mature the Xar enough to even try. Generalists have a much better chance to became “masters of magic”, because they do have a natural intuition for the Xar essence than the followers of any way: generalists do learn how to teach faster, and better. The mage who became a master after he choose his way will never be as competent teaching as the one who waited to choose a Way after start teaching.
Besides, a generalist can leave that condition any time (if he has someone to teach a Way). No other mage can do that. Once you start a Way, you can’t leave it. Legendary mages are know for have 2 or even 3 Ways, but that’s why they are legendary.
Your Way (or your first Way, if you believe the Legends) filter every magical; and most common, mundane, things; in your life. No matter how strongly you regret your choice.
1: Creation:
Creators are mages specialized in generate things from nothing. Altair’s scientific mind, trained on Earth, keep asking if the Creation do work ex nihilo: that seems to be the case but, oddly, Altair don’t feel comfortable with that possibility. Once you accept ostensible magic is real, why feel bad about magic create things direct from the state of non existence ?
True mage who follow the Way of Creation are called “Tower Mages”, because the first thing they learn is to manifest a personal fortress (traditionally a tower). That is a singular spell, the Tower appears and disappears without any effort once it has been build, and it is very hard to damage or invade. Another true mages has to be much more powerful than the one who created the Tower to have any chance to affect what is inside it.
As the Tower mage develops his tower expands, frequently it grows up, and, after some point, also became larger inside than it is outside.
At first the Creator can not let live things inside his Tower when it disappears, every lining thing inside it stays on reality; he can not make time pass inside it, time stops; but there is spells to change both problems. The most powerful Tower Mages can even enter their Towers and left existence, they just need to establish the exact moment when they will came back before they go into nihilo.
Some Creators do not care as much for their Towers as they are supposed to. Instead, they specialize in create life. Sigraxes Creators can make a moving think, capable to behave by itself, and to pass as a living being on the eyes of anyone how isn’t a mage. True mages, well, they can actually create new species, living beings, capable to reproduce and change by natural selection exactly as any other living specie: for some Creators that seems a more worthwhile investment of time than add floors to a building.
2: Divination:
A Earthling philosopher suffered a deep personal crisis when he realized that there is no logic connection between cause and effect in the objective world. All predictions of future are based in the naive supposition that things will happen in the future the same way they happened in the past, billiard balls will kick each other in certain predictable angles instead of pass through each other or explode. There is no necessity sustaining the behavior of those things, only habit makes us believe they ought to be as we are used to see them. Would be impossible to accumulate knowledge of nature without start with that naive assumption, but it is a naive assumption regardless. There is always a chance that things happen completely against our expectations next time you play billiard, everything we think we know about physical reality could be wrong. Probabilities of any of those things being the case are small, they are not zero. That's why Earth scientists who worth what they eat never make a prediction with 100% of certainty. Divination magic gives to Sharitarnes a better access to the core principles of their Universe. The spells of this Way do reach the essence of things and can separate the contingent accidents from the necessary laws without the need of repeat controlled experiments. Sadly, one thing Divination magic cannot do any better than science is predict the future. You get no direct information about the non-existent by using Divination magic, and the future in Sharitarn Universe do falls in that category: it is not.However, to most mages read the past and the present is good enough. The educated people on Lutianen can learn in books written by Soothsayers as much about their Galaxy and the Universe as people on Earth in the year 2090, or more. And they don’t even have lunets, much less telescopes. The History of Humanity on Sharitarn include the names and words of people who died long before the first written text.
They do know who was the first person to learn how to make fire, where and when that happened, and a astonishing variety of minor personal details about all involved in the brakethrough: all thanks to Divination spells.
A more practical use of Divination is communication, spells capable to translate between any two languages spoken by intelligent beings are accessible even for callow sigraxes who choose Divination as their Way.
Other application of this Way very popular even among those who are not soothsayers is to expand or replace physical senses. Divination spells do not allow a person to "see" or "hear" better, not in literal sense, but they do provide information about the surroundings fast enough to count as "dark vision". Usually, they are better than just see since they tell you what you are seem and are a lot harder to misdirect.
Naturally, most days people look for the services of a soothsayer what they want is to find something or someone. False mages are the ones who create problems for common people. Since find what some would like to keep hidden by money is, mostly, how Soothsayer sigraxes make a living. 'True' mages don’t sell their spells very often. When they do that the client is either a king or someone at least as uncommon as a king, and the questions seldom have anything to do with conjugal infidelity. Unless the infidelity in question happens to be essential for the destiny of nations.Divination is a “cheap” Way: it uses less Xar than normal. Therefore the Way is a option for mages who want to keep as much flexibility as possible after choose a Way.
3: Healing:
Most necromancers are a bit more dramatic and scary than the average mage, they can kill with their spells, sure, but Healers do the same just as often.
Healers feel welcome, as few other mages will ever feel. They have a natural aura of healthy and energy, beneficial for any living being around them. They also have the spells for save lives, make lost arms and legs grow back, cure diseases and in some cases even to ressurect the recently dead. [p/]There is no “free magical healing” on Sharitarn, except maybe if you belong to a nomadic tribe and the healing came from your tribal wild sigrax. Healer mages will ignore all sorts of sick and injured on the streets of their cities, no one expects their help. Actually, they are not supposed to help anyone who can’t pay the fair price for their magic: other Healers will not take lightly if some fellow ever decide to make ‘voluntary’ work. Friendship is another matter, of course one can help a friend, for free, question that would go against the moral core of any civilized man on the planet: but there is a point when too many friends can be taken an insult against your Caste brothers. Also, of course, against the non mage Physicians; who need, as much as any false mage, to get by.
Healing is among the few Ways which allows the mage to survive beyond the time possible for a human (or for his specie). Healers sigraxes can stay healthy and look young for centuries, exceptional ones, sometimes reach one thousand years. True mages can reach absurd ages. All that without bear the intrinsic cost of Necromancy.
4: Necromancy:
Necromancers deal with Death, dead corpses, creation and control of undead, and related subjects. If you are a human_ or someone who belongs to any other species which also die of old age_ and your dream is not just to stay alive for a very, very, long time, but to exist indefinitely and potentially forever: then Necromancy is your only option. Necromancy itself isn’t seemed as evil or forbidden knowledge on Sharitarn. Except by the people of Micula City, who fight a long War against the most powerful necromancer nation on the planet.
Most necromancers are a bit more dramatic and (perhaps) scary than the average mage, but not to make a fuss about. They can certainly kill with their spells, but Healers do the same with theirs just as often.
In fact use necromancy to hurt living things requires indirect approach and a degree of imagination. While healing magic is the most perfect tool you could ask for the job.
Of course, necromancers do raise corpses: no one else do that. They create obedient mindless undead to use as weapons. Or workers. Clever and winsome undead capable to remember everything they used to know when they were alive, use every skill they had, and a some more given to them by the necromantic spell used to recreate them as undeads. Both low and high undeads are subjected to the mage’s commands. Necromancers can also be hired to transform the client into undead. The price for this service will change accordingly to the 'model' of undead, and to the optional resources to be added. In any case, the timeless existence granted by a necromancy will never be cheap.
The client always want to be a intelligent undead, a "high undead model" so to speak, and to make that sort of creature is a very heavy work for any sigrax. Even for a mage that sort of thing takes some time, and mental effort. The existence as an undead is never ideal, and never identical to what living beings can have. Even so, the “forever” part of it still part attracts more clients than any honest necromancer can deal with.
The Necromancer finds on his Way the tools to control low undeads. He has a “natural” influence over any undead created by him. Almost unintentionally summon those beings, and direct their actions with minor effort even when the undeads have intelligence and strong minds. The “almost” is important here, because no honoured necromancer will violate a contract by forcing his client to do anything not fixed in the agreement, after the client honour his obligation. Another necromancer can try to control the low undeads created by you, but he can’t be just a feel steps above you on the Way to have a chance of success. Only a extremely more powerful necromancer can overcome the natural bond between you and your creation; and even this very powerful necromancer will not keep the control forever. It will go back to the undead’s creator sooner or later unless either him or the undead are destroyed. Undeads created by accident, or by necromancers who no longer exist, are easier to control.
The goal of any true mage who chooses Necromancy to exist forever is to became a lich. Those are almost indestructible forces, with very little limitations.
Liches are by far the most powerful undeads, and unlike any other model they cannot be created by someone else. Only necromancer mages (extremely powerful and highly skilled top-examples of that category) can perform the ritual spell that creates a lich, and they can only perform that to one individual: themselves. Each existing lich made his own transformation. Notwithstanding all notorious advantages of not cease existing most necromancers still choose to age and die as normal human beings (or normal members of their race, whatever that is.
5: Illusion:
Illusionists need less Xar for their spells than the normal. Illusion, like Divination, is a Way for the mages who look for versatility. Illusionists have the image of being less serious and inclined to hard work and magical study than most mages, there is some true behind that but and most things about illusionists one can’t believe too much on what look to be fact. Many illusionists are obsessive perfectionists who obsessively pretend to be perfect vagabonds. The archetypical illusionist, carefree, irresponsible, is real enough and one can find the fellow walking on the streets on any city were Illussion is thought. That sort of person however are far less usual among the illusionists than the serious mage who just pretend to behave as a illusionist is “supposed” to. As a matter of fact illusionists are the best lovers and the best torturers on Sharitarn. They have spells to enhance pleasure and pain to levels beyond any experience possible without magic: that is what they do. Illusions can’t hurt the body, directly, therefore the illusionist can go as far as his skills allow him, and start again, and again, let their patient rest for a moment, then raise the sensations to a next level. Many illusionists came from the Artistic Caste, and even the sigraxes who have other origin at least once consider the possibility to use their magic to create profitable shows. There is more wild sigraxes than civilized ones following the Way, a curious detail about this Way is that wild and civilized illusionists frequently go along easier than usual for mages following other ways. One can see a civilized sigrax, even a true mage sometimes, learning a new spell from a wild sigrax, and sometimes a wild sigrax visit a educational institution, even stays for some lessons: no mage from other Way of Magic would think that free communication possible, let alone accept things like that as normal. All that light attitude may give the impression that Illusion isn’t a Way relevant for war affairs, would not be wise to take that impression as more than a illusion. The way has spells to make armies and walls, false but believable enough to force the enemy to change plans, unable to trust his own senses; spells to send their enemy into darkness without affect their own troops; even spells to make people invisible. Being less elegant the illusionist can drop is enemy on the ground with excruciating pain, or equally distracting pleasure. Just make a group of warriors immune to pain for a period of time already make some difference, sometimes.6: Teleportation:
Long time ago Teleportation was a Way as common as Healing or Illusion, many mages knew a teleportation spell or two. The Mage Brotherhood made a campaign to discourage the interest for that Way, starting 5.000 years ago: they never really stopped it. Prohibition was never made, even so is very hard to find someone able to make even one basic teleportation spell. The Way is hard to learn ( already was when one could find the places teaching it) , it also demands far more than usual from the mage. A teleporter sacrifices almost all his Xar: a sigrax could hardly became able to make more than a few spells of Illusion and/or Divination. The true mage endure a proportional lost. The reason why people who had the chance would frequently choose Teleportation, despite the cost and the hard work demanded, is self evident. A advanced teleporter _ if any still exist_ sigrax can travel between cities in the blink of an eye; a true mage can change the city itself from a Continent to another in few trips. Only the Brotherhood itself know why they have chosen to suppress the Teleportation Way. Neither the less, no Mage Caste man on Sharitarn actually believe that Teleportation is gone for good: obviously the brotherhood still allows some institutions to teach the way; in secret and to pre-approved individuals. Would be reasonable to assume that some wild lineages of teleporters remain, keeping a very low profile.7: Anti-Magic:
Since the first wild sigrax began the Way there is debate about if it is actually magic, or some other kind of thing. Matter of fact: it uses Xar, and follows the same basic rules valid for other Ways. However, it does not deal with any aspect of existence outside the Xar itself. Anti-magic spells block other spells, dissolve them or interrupt their effects; they also can protect places and people against any harmful use of Xar, and/or against benign spells. Sometimes is even possible destroy magical objects and weapons. One cannot take away all magic from someone who as it awaken, not for life, but is possible to make a mage or a alchemist temporarily loose his access to Xar. Without that access they became, for all practical purposes, common people. When you must deal with common people, on the other hand, the Way is useless however. Find anti-magical spells is less impossible than find teleportation spells. However there is no civilized institution teaching the way since 20 years ago. The last master of anti-magic decided to cloister himself home refusing to speak with anyone, for personal reasons. Only people still learning the way are wild sigraxes. Wild people who know and high regard this Way more often than not scorn magic itself, and don’t see anti-magic as part of it. Sometimes they hate mages, and even magical animals. Anti-mages became incapable to use any other kind of spell during some periods. For instance, they can only use anti-magic when they are learning a new spell from their Way. Some rare and powerful anti-magic achievements leave the mage unable to use his Xar to do other kind of magic during decades. Normally, when he neither is recovering nor blocked by some periodic period of concentration, the anti-mage can use spells normally. The Way does not take more Xar than the average.8: Somatic Transmutation.
ST has two main lines. Auto Somatic Transmutation and Hetero Somatic Transmutation. Both are followed only by wild sigraxes. They are very rare and kept by tribal lines older than most, the AST is specially old. AST affect the sigraxe’s body, brain included. Some traditional lineages look for animal forms, that kind of transformation is advanced, hard to master, and take some time to perform: one could say it is extremely gratifying to the sigrax, on psychological level, but less practical than most people imagine. The pragmatic branch deals with animal energy as well, but do not fixes in any animal shape, it is founded on develop claws and make them so powerfull that they cut throught anything, even true mage’s Energetic Perimeters sometimes (a sigrax will hardly kill the true mage, but if capable enoug he can spill some true mage’s blood before he dies burned by the true mage’s EP: that possibility is more than any other kind of sigrax could brag about). The pragmatic ASTs change their bodies permanently, adding strength, velocity, resistance, in order to survive long enough to reach the foe with claws. Most also develop senses beyond the possible for humans, and some risk to experiment deeper in their brains to build better reasoning faculties. Since the changes are permanent, and each new spell only advance what the previous ones have achieved, that Way is very resistant to anti-magic. The claws, when they aren’t permanent, must be summoned, and that takes Xar, but everything else is there and will stay after even the more powerful anti-magic. The claws themselves demand very few Xar to be summoned, and more often than not the AST will still have access to them long after every other mage be disarmed of all spells. Legends tell about wild sigraxes who dared to tranform their own sperm in order to have children with magical potential, or with some other power. That, according to the legends, never ends well. The AST has a place in the list of Ways with prolong human life. The followers of this way can survive for many centuries, is impossible to know how old they are. Enter the way has a high price, since one must perform radical changes in the nervous system to gain access to anything beyond the most basic spells. Between one and two years studing, in some rare cases more or much less than that, the apprentice awaken a second mind. This , the feral mind, is necessary to really access the Way. However, it take full control for years, before the sigrax be able to thing again and deal with his internal animal. For at least one year the sigrax run free, as a irrational beast. The wild predator will attack humans as much as other animals, friends as much as enemies, it is impossible to control and far more powerful than the future sigrax will be short after he came back to humanity. Many appretices will be killed before they find their way back to reason, some will stay irrational for centuries and never again awake their humans minds. On the other hand, the ones who walk back to their tribes are deeply changed. The experience takes away all magic, leaving the sigrax only the gifts left by his feral nature. He can learn again spells from other Ways, but is hard to do so because the AST don’t leave enough Xar to do much. Most pragmatic wild sigraxes will pay as soon as possible the price in personal effort to get some sort of “force field” (since the Way itself gives little to no Energetic Perimeter: “I AM my EP!!” say the purists), and will also look for one spell or two capable to reach enemies at distance. The sigrax modifies the body other people, using animal parts to give new faculties to common people. The tribes lucky enough to have a HST often choose one paricular animal, and every single member of the tribe will get more or less the same improvements: reptive wings, poison, gills, the six-legged low body of some wild animal. Not knowing the tribe’s history one has no chance to say if they are humans or not. Not until one sees a baby: they will still be born with normal human shape. A sigrax like that will be frequently the only one in his tribe who looks like a human. He can’t do much to help himself using the spells found in his Way. If his tribe lives bellow water, breathing by gills, you will probably find the sigrax’s home near to the beach in a small island; if they fly in the skies with wings their sigrax will be found on some inaccessible mountain. There is no need to change only humans, one can give characteristics of any animal to any other using HST. However, the changes a sigrax can make on himself are small: one jaguar eye, poison fangs; that small things are advanced exercices, challenging even for fine sigraxes.9: Enchantment/Incantation.
Every single magical weapon and magical object came from that Way, every magical elixir, every magical grove and castle started in the hands of a Enchanter, or more than one. Almost always the person who chooses to became a Enchanter is a true mage. Sigraxes have less motivation, since they must settle for ephemeral effects. As lucrative as sell elixirs can be, short lived weapons and objects as well, is a bit frustrating to be a sigrax following that Way. Eventually the sigrax will manage to create a “true” magical dagger, or something similar, which will not have any power except be indestructible and always sharp, as magical weapons are. What Enchanter’s do takes a huge amount of Xar, demand time, a expensive workshop and very expensive raw materials. In top of all that, the Enchanter can not give up all other Ways. Not if he wants to do anything more than create magical objects without magical powers: a advanced domain is needed in each Way you intend to take spells from to inbue your creations with. Therefore, take longer demand more effort to get anything useful from Incantation. The way by itself give you no immediate effect, even for the most powerful true mages. The faster way to use it demand hours in absolute concentration. Therefore the mage found naked with only Incantation spells to use is as well prepared to face his enemies as a common man would be (hard to imagine any true mage being caught in such trap, but a sigrax would frequently have to risk it). All that would make Incantation a terrible choice for anyone who has a choice. One small detail complicate that, only one: wen properly used that Way produce magical treasures which are eternal, or close enough to that to make no difference if they aren’t. Mountains will be transformed in lowlands by the natural work of the winds, oceans will became deserts, and your magical canteen will still be full of water, vine, or what ever you have chosen to have in it (as long it is in the hand of someone who has awaken magical potential your magical sword will still be sharp and capable to drink the enemy’s blood to restore it’s user; the castle you enchanted will still be floating in the sky were you put it. Nations have felt in wars trying only to keep or get a particular magical object and that will happen again: that magical object was always maybe by a Enchanter. Since the Way is that hard most Enchanters will work in circles of mages, if that is possible.10: Shadow
Shadow Magic basic spells are frequently taken by Illusion spells. Their effects can be replicated well by more advanced Illusionists. However, as soon as the apprentice steps beyond the doorway and enter the Shadows the mistake end. A shadow mage starts with invisibility spells, and a little after that he became able to hide himself from every single natural sense available for humans or animals, all that a skilled illusionist can do with just a little more effort. The next step, however, is beyond the Illusion Way: Shadow mage’s spells hide him from magical detection. By it’s own nature Shadow magic opposes Divination. The soothsayer plays that game in disadvantage, however. Takes a remarkable sigrax with large experience to surpass the ordinary shadow apprentice, and he needs to know what he is looking for to have a chance. Specific Divination spells to deal with Shadow magic are hard to find this days: can take a year for a Soothsayer sigrax find and learn what he needs, even a true mage would have to invest several minutes. Without look for Shadow magic, with the proper spells to find it, even an soothsayer archmage may never find a common sigrax. Shadow mages can also erase specific memories, they frequently surround themselves with a permanent spell which makes common people and most mages forget them as soon as they leave. Shadow Way does not focus direct mind manipulation, as much as it does not focus sensorial results, those are fields of expertise for other Ways. What is involved here is more primordial. Advanced levels allow the Shadow to go through solid objects, preparing the mage to enter a level of reality only accessible by Shadow magic. Beyond that there is only inexistence: the mage don’t die or even leave reality, once the apex of his power is reached he never existed, that is the ultimate goal chased by a Shadow mage (or at least should, in theory, be: not all Shadows are equally commited with the essence of their Way). The Way does not take much more Xar than most other Ways, but is almost impossible to find anyone to teach it. Even the simple spells any sigrax from other ways would be able to learn are only mentioned in Ancient History. No civilized institution teaches the Way, no wild lineage of Shadow mages remain.As far as most sigraxes and true mages can tell the Shadow Way was never more than a curious legend. From time to time suspects are raised about a person or a city, stories are told with little to no foundation and attract Mage Caste people who want to buy Shadow spells by any price. However, no one ever finds the base of true behind the rumor. Still, shoothsayers with heart of scribes have been able to find spells designed only to cope with Shadow magic, and on some cities they have found books and magical artifacts related to such spells. Some very old mages, most of them undead, do know enough Shadow magic to teach it. They don’t teach it, however: not without a very good reason. Besides, find out their names and were reside is never a easy task.
11: Magical Tattoo
Only a few magical lineages of wild sigraxes know that Way. Tattooist’s work looks like enchanter’s Way, and some enchanters will even make magical tattoos. The tattooists work faster and their art cost little, but that isn’t the main difference between their art and the other.Enchanters can create magical objects_ and draws_ given them one or more spells, or none. They can’t let the Xar free inside their creations. Tattooists create power vessels which make any sigrax capable to do his magic as he want for longer than he should given his personal level. That’s not all.
Normally alchemists can’t do magic, but tattooists make it possible. Unlike a sigrax their tattoos will not recharge with their own power, a Tattoo spell is needed to keep them useful, but as long as they have Xar the alchemist may learn and perform magic as if he was a sigrax. No other Way allow that kind of deviation from the Universal Laws of Magic. It changes the game for the few tribes were the secret is know, but, still is not the more extreme difference between tattooists and enchanters.
One basic characteristic of universe is that only people born with magical potential can use magic, any kind of magic. Magical objects don’t work on their hands, some magical potions do work on them but they can not manipulate the basic extracts made by Enchanter Way spells to make magical potion. The potential for magic isn’t enough, to gain access to the magic inside objects one has to awaken this potential, at least enough to became an alchemist. That’s always true, or almost always.
Tattooist can give magic to common people. The magic in their tattoos will not recharge itself, unlike the one made for sigraxes. It can’t have free Xar, as it can for sigraxes and alchemists, but it do work. Someone without potential can make spells, specific spells, basic ones, but that creates a universe of unique possibilities for any tribe with a tattooist sigrax.
If used freely that Way would change the foundations of Sharitarn. Tattooists keep their art secret, and only work inside their own tribes, by good reason. The Mage’s Brotherhood will destroy their tribes and kill them all to avoid the trivialization of Xar, if necessary.
12: Vortex Magic.
That Way was used only once, according to Official History. When the Mage’s Brotherhood made the Vortex lines, to do that was necessary a to create a whole new Way of magic.
Those who know better will not say out loud, but Official History about Vortex Magic is less than perfect: on purpose. Let Vortex spells loose would be worse than have a tattooist sigrax on every corner of the World.
Extra-dimensional mages follow a dangerous path. Their sanity irreversibly deteriorates, a few in have been capable to avoid that side effect and stay functional but that’s a personal conquest. No one know how they keep their minds immune to their spells, not even them, therefore that can’t be thought.
The extra-dimensional mage’s identity is kept secret for obvious reasons. The list of mages authorized to learn vortex spells is kept secret, and the list of Vortex mages is know only for a dozen archmages. Most extra-dimensionals have their homes on Urshawa, know as “The Mage’s City”, the place where the Mage’s Brotherhood hides most dangerous secrets.
Extra-dimensional sigraxes have better chances to stay sane than their fellow true mages. However, one thing is certain: madness became inevitable and came fast every time a mage try to step beyond the Vortex natural direction.
Try to send things to other Universes instead of bring them don’t destroy only the mage’s mind, it has caused catastrophes of Global proportions several times.
To spy beyond the vortex and evoke people from other Universes is relatively save in short-term, although dangerous and probably unhealthy after years or decades it can be done. Use a ii as focus and search for the people he had sex with is be better way to reduce the personal risk for the mage. Look for “anything from anywhere”, with little or no parameters, is almost as save for the mage’s mind as the precious option; however, it can be dangerous for the mage’s body. And for anyone else in the room.
13: Mind Carving.
The Way deals with mind control, and reaches both intelligent and non intelligent beings. Is used frequently to tame animals faster, and to teach them complex tricks. Can be used to do the same with slaves, but do that attracts a less than commendable reputation: no self-respecting slaver, Merchant Caste or not, would contract a Carver. Their work can be fast and effective, durable and very hard to undo, but also attracts a bad reputation of “bogus”. That bad reputation usually proves to be more durable and harder to undo than any Mind Carving spell.
Carvers can read minds, command people to tell the true, or make memories forgotten a long time ago come back. They make people sleep, feel safe, or hate someone they never saw before. All that is available as fast and basic spells.
Using the Way is possible to cause hallucinations similar to the ones created by Illusion, or erase memory as shadow spells do. On both hypothesis Mind Carving is a heavy, slow, and ungainly tool to replace this other Ways were they do a far better job.
The strong application field for Mind Carving is to perform deep and durable modifications, changing taste and developing skills. Is possible for a good Carver sigrax to duplicate decades of non magical knowledge obtained with hard word from one mind, learn it meditating alone during the next two weeks, and then share any part of it with as many people as he want. Things less abstracts, like musical ability or fighting skills, are more complicated for Mind Carving spells than theory: the transference of relevant memories and solid theory can make the learning process easier, but a considerable among of time expend doing exercises will still be necessary to achieve results.
Fortunately the Carver can make almost anyone, including himself, actually like to do the kind of exercise demanded to learn what his spells alone can’t teach.
That Way does not work to transfer magical knowledge. Xar has a cruel way to turn against the Carver who dares to try apply the principles of his Way to learn or teach magic. Disciplines like History of Magic, on the other hand, are as easy to assimilate and transfer using spells as bread recipes are.
The mage can heal himself or others from traumas and phobias. The Way actually give the follower the same control over his own vices the other addicted are famous for frequently lie about have. Dealing with the same subject, the Carver is able to introduce a addiction direct in someone’s mind and be the only source of satisfaction for that need; or he can (investing some time and effort) erase a addiction like that created by another carver, that if the other carver was not someone more capable than him.
Cities where the Way is thought are perceived by other Nations as being, in general, a bit more tyrannical than normal. Albeit the fact that every thing Mind Carving can do, Mind Carving itself can undo: there is a shield designed to protect against every weapon you can find on Mind Carving, and that shield is a Mind Carving spell just like the weapon he protect against. The way does not eliminates conflict and disdain, it just complicate the politic game a bit.
The most famous Mind Carving spell is certainly the “magical oath”, which make impossible for the person who promise to escape from it. That’s a easy spell to make but extremely hard to brake. Has melted the minds of many people unfortunate enough to see their honest promises became impossible to fulfil given circumstances they had not predicted and could not control.
Mind Carving is a Way just a little more expensive than normal.
14 : Whisper Magic :
Whispers are mind readers, as Mind Carvers, both ways have took to establish directly communication between minds. Unlike Carvers the Whispers lack the amazing power to deeply explore a mind, and make large transformation in a person’s cognitive structure.
Whisper spells are superficial, they touch the current thoughts close to conscience. The Way deals with mind communication at large distances, and with the power to keep vigilance over a large number or minds at same time. Last, but not least, Whisper magic is the way necessary to build invisible figures of Xar capable to carry the mage’s conscience and perception.
The Mage’s global net of communication works thanks to Whisper Magic, one can establish a link between any number of minds, and keep conversation sharing words, feelings, images, sensations. The Way don’t have spells to force someone to do something, or make the person change a opinion, but is possible to whisper a idea subtly enough to induce a behaviour if the mage has enough experience and skill. To communicate with one person, or a group already touched by the mage’s mind, distance make no difference. Antimagic can block or brake the link, Mind Carver can shield a mind against contact up to a limit, and the Whispers themselves have spells to control and close the communication.
The second important use for the Way is to keep vigilance around the mage. Depends on how powerful the mage is, but a advanced sigrax can be constantly aware about the dominant ideas and feelings going on for miles, and detect anything strange on that pool of information, and identify the source of divergence. The same kind of sigrax can keep feeding the ambient with one concept of feeling, and slowly push a large number of people to conformity or revolt, reverence for some leader or institution, or rage against it.
Last, but not least, the whispers can travel the Universe with their Xar wings letting their bodies behind. They can make forms of Xar, and let them vigilant on a point distant, sending information if something happens there or can transfer their perceptions to that bodies and go as far as they want, as fast as their skills allow them. Advanced mages can make spells from other Ways using the magical body, but that demands some previous preparation.
The magical body has senses based on the Whisper Way, but can also see and feel the objects where no mind is present. Some whisper mages who particularly like to use the magical body improve it with time, and give it specific powers, such as the capacity to became visible and move solid objects for a brief period of time, wings to fly faster, or weapons to fight the dangers constantly present on the Xar.
Is possible to hurt and kill a magical body, depending on how it is done the mage can just wake back on his body being unable to leave again until he build another magical body or suffer more serious consequences: like death. True mage Whispers are famous for build magical bodies to use after they die, becoming very powerful ghosts hard to stop. Unlike the undead created by Necromancy the magical bodies do no ‘last forever’, until something destroy them, they are affected by the passage of time and the mind they carry loose conscience and memory. Years, decades, a few centuries, the whisper’s mind extinguish itself inside the magical body and it continues it’s existence but no longer is the mage.
Despite it’s lightness and finesse, he Whisper Way is very expensive. More than the Mind Carver Way, but less than Somatic Transmutation.
15: Fire Magic:
Developed by the people of Agoioven, The Ring City. It deals with all sorts of energy, conversion of it mostly. As developed to allow this people to adapt their unique cybernetic technology (tolerated because it was brought to Sharitarn before the Age of Spiders, but highly controlled despite the fact that if does not inflicts the Law of Exclusion) to the limitations of Sharitarn. It is also essential to allow the city to survive where it is located: in the internal side of the crater of an active volcano.
One could debate about the convenience of allow the way to continue, and the argument exists. There is a contradiction between several policies of restriction and that permission, because to learn Fire Magic one must study and apply principles not allowed to any other city. Strictly interpreting the Law of Exclusion that means that those principles arrived on Sharitarn before the end of the Age of Spiders, and therefore do not violate the Exclusion Law. However, allow Fire Magic to run free would lead to electric lamps and a universe of other things likely to would compromise the balance of forces on the planet.
So, this imperfect solution was improvised: Fire Magic can be uses as long as it stay strictly in the limits of magic. The permanent armours (perms) brought to Sharitarn by the founders of Agoioven can mix science and magic, but new armours must be restricted to the second. The large motors needed to keep the Ring City survivable are allowed, but the principles behind them can’t leave the Mage Caste of Agoioven and no new device can be build following the same concepts. The mage caste feeds this machines with Xar, usually stocking the energy in rocks with fire spells.
Fire Magic is not practised by mages, because Agoioven had lost it’s Mage University centuries ago. Now only sigraxes practice the Way, what technically makes it a Wild Way, even those sigraxes being all civilized citizens of a given Estate City.
The way is a little more expensive than average, in terms of Xar. It does not have any particular incompatibility with other Ways, but demands a sort of knowledge rare and difficult for the natives of Sharitarn, and constant practice. That large and constant study makes hard for those who follow the Way to find time for learn a fair number of spells from other Ways. [p/]
16. Pestilent Magic
Pestilence is a Wild Way created in distant times from derivation of the Healing Way. It is unique in the sense that instead of spells the sigraxes accumulate diseases. Pestilent can absorb any disease they came in contact with, and keep it to transmit any time they want.
The sigrax fell no symptoms, in theory. In fact small signs of a condition or other appear from time to time on most followers of the way. They are discreet and don’t take long to be controlled by most sigraxes. On the other hand, the diseases transmitted by a pestilent are far more serious than the ones he contracted: impossible to cure by mundane means and hard to cure even by magic.
This sigraxes can moderate the effects of their “spells” but don’t control the diseases once they are transmitted. That make this sigraxes dangerous people for any community they visit. Even more so considering that sometimes a fail in discipline ends with a “spell” spreading by accident.
Pestilent have no particular difficulty to learn spells outside their Way, but have affinity with Healing Magic. They usually pretend to be Healers and let only the members of their tribes know the true, unless they are going to battle. In battle they use a characteristic mantle over the armour, with a mask and a hood to protect their identity.
Another school practiced more easily by them_ just not as easily as Healing_ is Necromancy.
17: Breeding
Created by the non human race obuju in Aquibar, their older and larger city. The way deals with reproduction of living things, allowing the sigrax to select with precision characteristics of the future individual.
The most noticeable results are obtained mixing two species distant to each other, to create another one with selected traits of each parent. Is perfectly possible, and far easier, to improve a single specie instead of mix two elements which would be incompatible without magic.
The way costs more Xar than average, but breeders have a strong affinity with Healer Magic. More than enough to compensate the Xar disadvantage when it comes to learn and use healing spells.
Talking about spells, some have escaped to other races. However, only obuju sigraxes follow Breeding Magic as their Way.
There is no mage obuju. Therefore no mage Breeder exists, making that a Wild Way.
18: Shield
Shield Magic creates barriers in space, selective in their effects. Originally developed in a world where conditions of temperature, radiation and gravity where extremely beyond the possibilities of life non-magical adaptations this way was brought to Sharitarn from involuntary immigrants who considered the potential to learn magic a natural capacity. Those men and women where human, but in their Universe only those born with a special physical organ where able to learn magic, and each one of those who had the organ could only learn spells of their own way (or the equivalent to it). Among all magical ways they had Shield magic was the most prestigious, since it had been essential for their survival for the long period when Humanity had been trapped in that deadly condition. Shield spells share some of the properties of anti-magic spells, but by one side they are able to affect non-magical matter and energy and by another they are less efficient in affect Xar. Shields also may reproduce some of the effects of Illusion Magic, hiding the space inside them and even projecting a false image in some cases, but they have a tendency to last a bit longer and cost a lot more magical energy than Illusion spells do. In terms of how spread the Way is in current times we have a circumstance somewhat curious. A lot of sigraxes, bot wild and free, know a couple of Shield spells. Almost any mage is able to make half dozen, at least. However, followers of this Way are very rare. The products of Shield Magic can endure for a long time, but usually not for free. Magical Shields will loose effectiveness and fade out from existence naturally unless they are given a source of magical power. One way to prolong their existence is by ritual sacrifice of talking people, preferably of people who have magic potential awaken. Was usual for great Shield Mages and sigraxes to sacrifice their own lives to create or reinforce the barriers that protected their people. It was more often than not a voluntary act performed when the follower of this way was in the apex of his power or had just passed that fase of life. The ritual sacrifice was a tradition brought from the parallel Universe where the basis of the Way came from. Up there all those born whit magical capacity and who developed it where considered mages, and all mages (regardless the school they had been born to follow) had to sacrifice themselves in suicide at 71 years or younger. Because the billha (their magical organ) would keep developing and jump to astronomic levels of power at this point, but the mage's brain wasn't able to deal with the change. Resulting in dangerous psychotic mages, walking around like hurricanes, who where too powerful to be contained. On Sharitarn neither those old mages needed to go crazy not they had chance to became that dangerous in their madness, simply because Sharitarnes have a lot more magical tools at their disposal. Still, the suicide was maintained as a tradition, but became optional and received a different purpose.19: Dimensional
All State Cities are equally sovereign but they are clearly not equal, some are more powerful than others. All free men are free in the same basic sense, but some are Low Caste, others are High Caste, and among each category there is a large range of possibilities, some imply more power and influence than others. Regardless city and caste, personal reputation carries a lot of weight on Sharitarn, and no man can build that for another.
As cities and men are not the same in power, neither are magical Ways. Dimensional magic is the poor cousin of Incantation, while Enchanters can make timeless objects that will carry practically any spell of any Way the Dimensional mages create only one sort of item and their creations seldom last for as long as one thousand years.
Seems odd that anyone would choose to follow that Way instead of Incantation, Healing, Necromancy or many other alternatives. You shall keep in mind that most do not have that many options, one need a tutor to enter a Magical Way and those do not exactly fall from trees. Unless you happen to shake the right tree in the right time. So most Dimensional mages and sigraxes had the alternatives of stay Generalist or go Dimensional mage, and took the one that provided more chance of growing in power. As bad as Dimensional magic is, it remains preferable to stay Generalist.
Cutting right to the point: Dimensional spells create things that are bigger inside than they are outside. As simple as that. Those things must have a opening of some sort, that can be closed, and preferably not more than one. The internal space can be divided as many times as convenient but any new point of contact with the exterior raises exponentially the difficulty and the risk of catastrophe.
The average Dimensional sigrax makes pockets, handbags and backpacks able to hold something between 20 and 60 times more that the mundane objects would. Weight is not a issue, but like any magical object those only work when in contact with someone who has magic potential awaken.
If your magical backpack full of things is opened by a mundane fellow it will be empty or he will only find the last things you put there. Next alchemist, sigrax or mage who opens it will find all items. Takes practice with this sort of item to learn how to look inside and find out what is there, or take out the exact item without have to empty the bag. One thing about those items that make their creators less respectable in the eyes of most Sharitarnes is that Dimensional bags do not last for long, usually half century more or less a decade for the very best products.
Surprises no Earthling to be informed that "despite" that weakness Dimensional bags are actually a very lucrative product. Always in high demand.
Same logic applied by individual sigraxes to pockets and backpacks is used by mages, and by groups of mages and sigraxes working together, to rooms, houses, and castles. Is dangerous: those architectonic marvels are know to explode, implode, spread the people and objects inside across the globe and even toward Mirror Dimensions, when something bad happens. They can last a dozen centuries or more, but that is still not a decent period of time for a magical item (or a mundane building for that matter) endure according to Sharitarne standards. You can have just twice or three times the normal space, and reduce the risk to a minimal, or go bold and give yourself one thousand times that. More space, more risk to you and your neighbors, and less likely is for your house to last.
There is moments when you actually want your magical broom cabinet to explode and kill two thirds of the city. Usually that is not your city. One common use for Dimensional Magic is as a weapon, taking advantage of the weakness of the Way. Those bombs are not easy to detonate or as precise in their effects as one would prefer, but an dimensional sigrax expert in make bombs can obtain very effective results under favorable conditions.
NOTE: Dimensional magic brings a necessary consideration. What was described here is the magical Way know all over Sharitarn, normally recognizable.
In recent millennia the city of Alkavalla became famous, and object of envy, for its amazing development in Dimensional Magic. Was assumed by most that the plant people had developed some sort of natural capacity similar to magic that allowed them to make a large quantity of very reliable Dimensional spaces in architecture.
What actually happened was that a involuntary immigrant arrived from a parallel planet very rich in magic looked for shelter in Alkavalla. The Blue Lady of Alkavalla, as she is know, brought her citizenship and her place in society with her magical expertise. Her Dimensional magic has no connection with the one practiced on Sharitarn, and is restricted by different rules. It do allows the construction of buildings larger inside than outside, cannot be used to make bags or pockets.
20: Ork Magic
"Ork Magic" is not the most precise term, but is how the Way is know on Sharitarn. There is a limit to how far from original meaning you can go without make yourself a liar, while you are translating a term or expression.This Magical Way is only know by the wild sigraxes of Ork race. Specifically by those of the people who arrived with the extreme climatic phenomenons that mark West Piwag Desert and set it apart from the rest of Sharitarn.
Other orks, arrived from different parallel planets and on different periods, know nothing about what Sharitarne humans call "Ork Magic".
Those orks are live on nomadic tribes, perhaps not very different from wild humans of East Piwag, but their magic is far more dependent of their social structure. Since it is based in accumulation of magical energy over generations, and interacts with the willpower of all members of the tribe by necessity.
The core of Piwag ork tribes is a box where they keep the bones of their founder. Each tribe was founded by a founder-hero, and cannot exist without the bones of this individual. The ork shamans became more powerful when they are close to the core of their tribe and loose power as they walk away from it. Ork wild sigraxes having adapted their practices to optimal efficiency in Sharitarn Universe remain bond by the same principles and limitations of mere shamans.
Ork magic has a variety of applications, from healing and making people strong to invoke and command members of the elemental specie called "dijinns" by some Earthlings. Apparently the only place where those djinns exist on Sharitarn is the West Piwag, they have some relation with the extreme environment that exist up there, and by working whit them the ork sigrax can obtain a level of control over the atmosphere. Except for that, all uses of ork magic affect the members of a tribe as such. Eliminating dissent by manipulating emotions and thoughts; making the members of the tribe stronger and more fertile; connecting the minds of all warriors at distance to make them act as one in battle. Or they affect the enemy tribe, diminishing its power and demoralizing them, but without aim any particular individual.
21: Insect Magic
Another great example of bad naming process. "Insect Magic" has a variety of meanings, it can be applied to a vast sort of magic Ways that arrived in different Ages. The only thing all those Ways have in common is being incomprehensible for most mammals, and not mastered by humans. In Current Age (not yet named by Scholar Castes) Insect Magic is the Way created by citizens of Ziicrix, the insect city. All intelligent insects are welcome in Ziicrix, and recognized as citizens. Or that is how the humans talk about the subject, deep down I doubt any human is sure if the insects consider themselves citizens or if they have a concept for "city". They seem to understand each other well enough, and they are very clear about not want any association with humans or other mammals. The one noticeable exception are the giants of Giant Mountains. Neighbors of the insects. The giants keep commerce with Insect City and their sigraxes even learn Insect Magic. When humans see insect spells those are usually being done by giant sigraxes. All explanations any human can give about the subject came from a translation of giant language. (In general you don't get to talk with insects, because they don't want to talk with you. One cannot blame them for that: endoskeletons are kind of gross, and that mammalian proclivity to place the mouths of cubs on nipples ought to be disgusting. From the point of view of an intelligent insect). Like Ork Magic the Insect Way is based in collective entities, but not in the same fashion. Insect spells seem to materialize living swarms of angry insects to fight for them and obey their wishes, they seem to produce poison and honey, and a wild variety of potent drugs from their own bodies. They seem to communicate with each other at great distances too.In reality Insect Way would be better compared with Pestilent Magic than with Ork's Way. Like Pestilence followers cultivate diseases in their own bodies and shape them to many purposes insect mages have colonies of para-natural animals living in the fibers that connect their magical bodies to their physical ones. Insect magic depends on contracts with colonies of insects, hive minds that administer the ecology in the body of their host, providing advice about possible courses of action and consuming the sigrax's Xar.
That is a very expensive Way, about as expensive as Self-Somatic Transmutation. On the other hand, the spectrum of possibilities provided by the Insect Magic compensates the difficulty in learn or use spells from other Ways. Insect magic can heal, provide information about the world and fast communication at large distances, and is a strong weapon to be used in combat.
Insect magic is more dependent from environmental aspects than most Ways. The followers must invest time to harmonize themselves with the area where they are when they travel to a different region of the world. Until they do, their magic is weaker and less reliable. Some regions (particularly the extremely cold climes) are harder for Insect Mages, they need to expend a lot of energy and can do almost nothing with their spells. Long and rigorous cold waves are problematic sometimes, even in the tropical regions of Sharitarn: hot wet environments seems to be ideal, but the insect sigraxes achieve good results in dry desert as well (after they expend the necessary period adapting themselves)
22: Transmutation. Not to be confused with “Somatic Transmutation” this Magical Way derivates from Enchantment. It is a evolution of cheap and fast applications of Enchantment. A follower of this Way during the early days of its development once called it “weaponized incantation”. Enchantment was always a hard Way, that asks a lot from the follower. It demands a level of understanding of basic magic, Metamagic, that few magic users of other Ways can boast. Also, to work properly Enchantment depends on his follower invest a huge effort learning advanced spells of other schools. Spells the Enchanter will never be able to use under practical circumstances. But that he need to make is magic items, even if he has the assistance of some mage of the Magical Way adequate for each spell he intends to infuse in a magical item. This high demand is a disadvantage Transmutation shares with Enchantment. Enchanters have the reputation to be an elite group of highly weak mages. Their work changes the balance of power between nations, over time, but caught by surprise your average enchanter is not the most imposing foe. He is reduced to the basic spells of other Ways, mostly, since his own Way provides nothing that does not take too long to be of any use in a fight. That is a disadvantage Transmutation, very noticeably, do not share with its mother discipline. The signature spell of catalysts (that’s how followers of Transmutation are called) gives the liquid substances in the body of their foes gain the property of being inflammable in contact with the air. Sweat, tears and saliva are exposed enough to catch fire immediately, and this fire burns hot enough to melt about any non-magic metal you could usually find in armours and weapons in a couple of seconds. The effect of that in moral dispositions is considerable. To purify poison wells and wine bottles, and poison pure ones, are typical tools of catalysts. Make newly forged metal fall into dust is another spell the followers of Transmutation employ very often, finding it a low investment spell in terms of Xar. And liking the results. Catalysts can make glass trinkets from the dust in the air, in some regions, and are know for make objects more resistant. Those spells cost Xar, but between combats they are a viable survival strategy. Change any juice into a potent acholic drink is easy enough, and if the alcohol turns back into juice 20 hours later that many not matter much. If Sharitarn was like Earth, or like most settings of medieval fantasy, the catalysts would be able to make fortunes changing all sorts of metals into pure gold. That’s easy enough to them. Unfortunately, almost no nation uses common metals as coin on Sharitarn. What is probably at least in part due to the existence of transmutation spells. Those nations where coins are made of metal (like Erevi, the Elven City) use substances from Universes with different laws of physics, and chemistry; materials harder to influence and that easily loose their characteristic properties when subjected successfully to transmutation spells. Eliminating structural imperfections, and changing the nature of some elements they make wood and leather became more resistant than black iron, even more than red iron sometimes. Then they may add to it proper magical resistance: for a couple of hours. Not as good as actual magical weapons, but pretty decent. The typical catalyst is a wild sigrax, but not a wild men. Least not in his own definition. The Way is found in Feudal Domains and villages. It does not fit the style of wild tribes and few among them follow it. On the other hand, few large cities have lineages of wild sigraxes catalysts. While global powers, with Magic Universities, don’t value the Way much. From their perspective the magic user with enough talent to follow Transmutation would be best invested in Incantation.
To be Continued.
Important Reminding
2 Alternatives
2 OTHER THINGS TO CONSIDER:
NATURAL POWERS AND MAGIC PATHS
NATURAL POWERS
Some living species natural from Sharitarn have capacities that are similar in some aspects to magic. They are not deliberate, or flexible, like magic spells are, because those species aren't talking species. But they can be both powerful and effective against spells. Creatures arrived from other Universes also came with characteristics that are similar to magic, in some cases. And in that case, some of those living beings happen to be talking people. In some cases the iis keep impressive powers, or get a mix between the capacities they had in their home Universe and the laws of nature here. The Giants who live in the Giant Mountains in South Continent can change size, becoming about as small as average humans. Their women do that naturally during gestation but outside that period it takes study and practice. The same specie has potential for telepathy, similar to the potential humans have for complex math or for music. In this case the ability comes later with age (they grow for all their lives, and never weaken with the passage of time) and size. Rare giants can use telepathy before they pass 20 meters in size. They can also change their bodies from flesh to stone, but that capacity cames even later, and is even rarer among young giants. Potential for magic has nothing to do with those "natural powers". Potential for magic is something all talking species have in them, and in all such species only a small number of individuals are born with it. It is essential to learn Magical Ways. Natural Powers are usually something that all individuals of a given specie have, in some degree. And even when that is not the case, the potential to develop it has no relation with the potential to a Natural Power.MAGICAL PATHS
On the other hand, some Universes have magic, and mages. What allows a individual to develop magic habilites changes from a Parallel Universe to the next, and what are those habilites also changes. Often enough magic users arrived on Sharitarn find out that the lost completely their powers. When that is not the case, at least their magic was changed in some important aspects. Those "magic schools" from other Universes that work in Sharitarn, to any degree, are named "Magic Paths". As often as not only individuals from the Universe of origin of that Path have any chance to learn it, and any limitations of lineage that existed in the Universe of origin still apply. So, if on Planet Kajlall only the bastard sons of a list of noble human families conceived and born under a moonless night sky can learn magic, chances are that the Path of magic evolved from Kajlall magic will have the same restrictions. Or at least most of them. Some natives of Kajlall will be born with potential to learn the magic Ways, and some may even learn both. In general Magic Paths are weak when compared to Magic Ways. Magic Ways are Sharitarn Magic, they take the best of Sharitarn soul and spirit, so to speak. When a warlock (expression sometimes used to name the followers of Paths) manages to "adapt" his magical expertise to Sharitarn a new Way is born. The limitations of the Path are no longer in place (unless they are kept by tradition) but those of magic Ways replaced them. Ork magic is a example of Magic Way evolved from a Path. In this case the Path still exist, and is practiced by Ork Shamans. Some Shamans are also wild sigraxes, but most of them are not. Even being less powerful than the Ways the Path provide some chance. And the fact that Ways are more well know than Paths on Sharitarn is an advantage in itself. Since fewer foes know what to expect when they face a warlock, or a shaman who is a Path Follower.ABOUT XAR-SCARS
Most forms of life who have habilites that are similar to magic either loose those habilites or die inside Xar-Scars. They need some levels of Xar purity to stay healthy. However, exist exceptions. Shadow Fathers, for instance, are just as invulnerable inside Xar-Scars as they are everywhere else. Almost all Magic Paths stop working in Xar-Scars, as fast as Magic Ways stop.Remove these ads. Join the Worldbuilders Guild
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