On magic

I promised shiney things and background of the otherworlds, and so here it is. Before I start proper I would like to say that magic, majik, magik, majic, etc. or however the hell you spell it it's all good. I'm using magic, so get used to it. Some people seem to make far to big a deal out of that...

Magic is using various methods to manipulate energies in the world. The energies are called mana. Mana can be grouped into four major groups - fire, earth/ground, water/ice and air/sky. These groups were made by the four Titans (who will be explained in another post): K'z'k (associated with fire), Sharna (associated with water/ice), Gorim (Earth/ground) and Aegia (Air/sky). These four elements are what physically makes up the Otherworlds. Each of these energies flow through and around things of that element. Therefore fire mana flows around fires, deserts, etc. whereas earth mana flows around the ground, but particularly near trees, swamps, etc. However these manas are not interchangeable. Just as crows, parrots, sparrows, kookaburras and eagles are all birds but are not the same, the mana from swamps, trees, dirt, farmland, etc. are all earth/ground mana but are not the same. They can be transmuted to a degree, but this is complicated and difficult.

In adition to elemental mana there are other kinds of mana around. The 4 ancients (who will also be explained more fully in a later post) all have mana energies of their own. Ani is associated with life, Morr with death, Wyrd with fate, destiny and arcane magics, and Hojo with Chaos/change. When creating the world the Titans and the Ancients used their energies, and all lesser beings/things are made up to a degree of these energies. However at this stage it is enough to know that magic is made up of these different energies, and their permutations.

There are different ways of controlling these magics, and I will address each of these briefly, by the type of magician.

Mages have an innate control over magical energies. They are usually limited to control over certain elements/aspects of magic (eg. a pyromancer is a mage who uses fire magics). A mage can be identified by adding the suffix -mancer to the type of magic he uses (eg. aquamancer, necromancer, etc.). Very rarely one happens to be born with the ability to manipulate multiple energies. Mages are rare in most races, but in some they are almost unseen (ie. dwarves, ogres, etc.), in some they are more common but still rare (ie. gnomes, humans) amd in elves they are most common of all (so only mildly rare). In my novella (Spectral Knight - chapter one is here) Ægon and Iryl are mages (a cyromancer and a necromancer respectively).

Sorcerers use a different method to manipulate mana to create magic. Certain words, symbols, shapes, runes, gestures, etc. can manipulate the flow of magic. Sorcerers study these to gain their powers. Sorcerers are common among gnomes (whose armies are made up largely of sorcerer-cadets), and rare in dwarves (who have little trust for magic, with the exception of runesmiths), elves (because of their relatively large proportion of mages), and Ogres (who are for the most part unlikely to devote their lives to years of study).

Warlocks use daemons, spirits, elementals, genies, etc. for their power. They summon and command them in a variety of ways (summoning circles, sacrificial rites, etc.) and many use sorcery to boost their abilities. They also can commune with the world spirits and create portals/rifts between the worlds.

Priests are sometimes blessed with magical abilities from their deity. These abilities range in strength with the ammount granted to them by their deity. As gods gain there power from followers, and a larger god would spread their power across more priests whereas a smaller god would have less priests (who would gain a larger percentage of their gods power) the powers given don't vary in magnitude from god to god. The powers granted range from god to god, but are directly linked to faith/prayers from the priests.

Shammans are crude magicians from less cultured societies. They use a blend of warlockery, god-magics, crude (and often dangerous) scorcery and occasionaly magery (as a mage will almost always become the tribe's shaman) to create a crude but effective magic. The powers manifested by shammans vary greatly, and often are highly electic.


First poster to point out the sluggy reference will get a starfish. Starfish may be hypothetical.