A Guide to Reality Manipulation - Magic, Science, and Artifice

Learn how to control reality

Types of Arcana

Arcana is the broad name for magic, science, and artifice. While their applications may have the same results and often can look the same, the specific names often imply the approach one uses. Whether that be the rash yet flamboyant magic, the calculated but cautious science, or the incredible balancing act of artifice

Magic:

Magic, also known by some as science, is the application of universal consistencies and their interactions in order to create mundane and wondrous affects. It is often divided into schools by those who consider it magic, while those who call it science adopt these terms so as to describe their general result. This classification system includes abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation. Some scholars consider there to be more but most agree these are results of interaction between the other schools. Some examples of the unofficial and rumored schools include technomancy and theurgy. You can find details into these schools on the, "Magic Schools", page. Mages, as separate from scientists, are more concerned with the end effect than understanding how one got there. How a fireball is made doesn't weight on a mage's mind as much as what that fireball can do. But this can lead to leaps in logic when trying to research. Leading to much more trial and error for mages than their scientific counterparts.

Magic vs Science:

When beings specify themselves as scientists rather than mages, they're expressing an opinion on how they approach science. They don't identify what is happening in the moment of spellcasting and accepting it, as most mages do. Instead, they go back to try and identify why that happened. How individual aspects came together to ultimately form this spell. Iteration and development of practices is central to both mages and scientists. But scientists, when considered separate from mages, are insistent on experimentation and recording the data which comes from it. Scientists also take advantage of local dimensional aspects to create technology that doesn't require other dimensional power to function.

Artifice - The Difficult Balance:

Occasionally a mage or scientist will decide to learn equally from the other faction of logic. Sometimes called artificers, although to the dismay of said casters along The Grid, these individuals have found good in both sides of the argument. Artifice is the attempt to combine both magic and science into a combined whole while allowing each form of logic to not outweigh the other. This practical combination of magic is consistently found as the peak of civilization. And gaining this understanding often is what separates mediocre dimensions and territories from the most powerful.

Practicing the Arcane

Sources of Energy:

All but the most powerful casters must get energy from somewhere. While these sources can be various, they are often separated into categories defined by scientists of magic. These include Necrotic, Soul (distinguished by whether the source is capable of living afterwards), Chemical, Radiation, Kinetic, Potential, Gravity, Atomic bond, or Interdimensional energies.

Casting Without Energy:

When a caster refutes energy, they may instead be manipulating the nothingness which separates atoms and which energy perpetuates throughout. As such, these individuals may favor void areas such as space, where few others live. Others may yet affect the very probability of the universe of which they are in.

Types of Casters:

Casters are individuals who manipulate reality through magic or science. There are many approaches to being a caster, further detailed on the, "Casters", page. In general, there are three approaches to casting, detailed elsewhere on this page.

Artificial Magic:

Magic is not just limited to natural casting means. It can also be accomplished by machines which mimic these processes. Due to it's artificial qualities, machines are more capable at correctly creating magic affects. Their consistent, regulated, nature also allows for more effects which may need to otherwise be created by beings of extreme power and are extremely able to combine schools through separate systems working in tandem.

Magical Items and the Like:

Magic can become imbued into an item through an extreme level of work ethic applied by one already capable of casting or by a group with such combined abilities. The powers of these items can be accessed by those trained in their use or mechanical methods. Attunement is a method wherein one connects their mental, physical, and/or emotional energies to the item. Through this connection, said items are able to identify their user and connects enough for magical activation. Said attunement may require specific magical, mental, physical, emotional, or even ideology in order to properly connect to those who wish to attune.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane

Effects by casting subtypes-

Learned Class Casters:
Any caster in the, "learned", category must apply mental effort to determine paths to manipulate the universe. They learn how to manipulate existence from experimenting with such factors as focuses, somatic wording, and even the chemical reactions of their very bodies to create a desired effect. While their learning is very practical among universes, and any cross-dimensional traveler worth their sodium chloride adds notes for common universe conversions, their casting has an additional level of unpredictability in realms.
Natural Class Casters:
Some casters have an innate sense of their magic. It's may become almost, if not fully, instinctual. This is the same kind of magic that most beasts use in their day to day life. Chemical processes, biological glands, and other such innate manipulation of existence is what drives their spellcasting. All of these signs, and the lack of signs towards other schools, implies that their magic is a, "natural", kind of magic.
Patron Class Casters:
Those who receive their magic as a gift from another, more powerful being, are referred to as, "Patron class". The patron in question can be anyone, and is likely to be another class of caster. But rarely, a being is so lucky, charismatic, or whatever else, that an aspect of reality is able embody their patronage. For a more concrete example of this, see the, "paladin", caster in the, "Casters", page.