Fildegard - Magic System (I): Essentials

Essentials &  Attributes

Magic in the Seven Realms of Fildegard all originates from one shared point: the Sidereal. Simply put, it's the highest layer in the realms, even above Welkin (the realm of the gods). Magic flows from the Sidereal into what we call the Cycle, where anyone can call upon it and channel it using their bodies as temporary vessels. There, the energy heats up over time or by the caster's will until the magic is given shape and discharged, at which point it returns to the Cycle to cool off before it can be used again. Spells that create something like water bubbles, for instance, will crumble once the caster's focus is broken or shifts, allowing the magic to fly free and making permanence one of the most difficult feats to achieve. 'Permanence' is a deceptive name, as in most cases, all it will do is make the shape of the magical energy subject to natural erosion. This brings us to how a caster may shape the energy inside them.

Although native magic can be harnessed by every living being, plants and animals included, it's worth mentioning that another kind of magic—dubbed "given magic" by the humans of the Old World—used to be much more widely used. Given magic is a warped and dangerous abomination created by a spurned god with the goal of crippling all of humanity, and hopefully causing a mass reset through its parasitic occupation of the poor souls unlucky enough to receive a piece of it. Given magic stemmed from an artificial source erroneously considered to be the Core of Magic. It has since been destroyed and its magic returned to the Sidereal, where it was dissolved back into its purest form to rejoin the Cycle. No more humans were born with given magic after this. The way it differed from native magic (the knowledge of which was lost for a long time) was always too good to be true on the surface: practically no casting time, no runes on the skin, and no need to spend years learning to master a single attribute. Its drawbacks were never publicized when discovered simply due to the fact that it would have been inconvenient for the corporations of the Old World if their working class mages began to measure their magic use, or worse, stop altogether. For those curious, the main drawback was that once a mage had exhausted their magic supply, further attempts at casting given magic would chip away and burn the caster's soul. Vicky says that's "not corporate's problem" or whatever, so I'm assuming we're better off than the Old World was.

Back to real magic. Before an apprentice ever casts a spell, let alone a magic circle or formula, they spend a good amount of their time drawing the runes for the attribute or sub-attribute they're studying. Each and every person is fully capable of learning magic, courtesy of the life magic that inherently runs through their veins, but everyone is born with what we refer to as an affinity. This means that whichever attribute they were born most attuned to will be the easiest for them to learn. Some peoples have natural dispositions towards certain attributes, and the most universal by far are Nature affinities. For instance, dwarves are often found to have an affinity for earth and fire magic, with water being rare and air not being in our records, while merfolk almost always have an affinity for water and never fire. Unicorns tend to be good at life magic, yet their affinities are statistically more likely to be Nature sub-attributes. Affinities do not limit the caster to a single attribute of magic, they only raise the threshold of possibility in the field and make it easier to learn. This is essential for rarer attributes because they are exceptionally difficult to learn otherwise. Casters with an affinity for attributes outside of the Nature magic family are rare and sought-after.

Spells are the simplest form of magic casting. Humanity first learned them from animals, who use spells in their daily lives without a second thought, simply to enhance their quality of life. A bird summoning an updraft, a boar raising a piece of the earth beneath it to reach some food, etcetera. Better-attuned humans are likely to see these simple runes in their mind often, making their replication easier. Now, spells have the lowest casting time and are the most widely used level of magic. Completely untrained people are perfectly able to harness this with practice, even though they are not the most powerful nor accurate, as they are the bare basics of the art. Magic circles are the practice of a mage combining multiple spells by weaving their runes together, which lengthens the casting time required; the reason for the change in casting time is usually that either the caster requires more magic than their body can hold at a time, or they must direct it very carefully. At the very top of the pyramid, there are those of us who have mastered the use of formulas. Formulas are the natural progression of a magic circle, and are made up of either many spells or multiple magic circles. The former is inefficient and rather useless most of the time, since it can be difficult to weave spell runes into the traditional formula patterns, which are made to hold magic circles. Delightfully, this configuration allows formulas to grow infinitely complex. Although a mage will first begin to learn how to create and cast them by merging only two magic circles, there is no limit, theoretically, to how many you can stack and combine—as long as the runes fit together and the caster has the necessary power and channeling skill to pull it off unharmed. For formulas, it's vital to remember each rune due to their high risk, unlike with magic circles, where mistakes aren't so consequential.

That brings me to grimoires. Grimoires are a crucial tool for most humans who wish to master any magic discipline. They enable their users to store complex magic circles and formulas within their pages, not only for memorization and teaching, but also casting itself. Since the "ink" is magic etched into paper, rapid-fire techniques are made possible. The paper of a grimoire comes from an alchemical concoction that makes it resistant to any magic discharged from it, for the most part. The biggest inconveniences are that the user can only discharge each recorded circle or formula once and that they must navigate to the page they want to use first. This last thing is what makes it difficult to use another person's grimoire in most situations.

Here, we'll take a moment to go through each attribute and its color, as well as some of the most well-known sub-attributes of each:

• Star (white)
• Time (gold)
  • Time Travel
  • Deconstruction/Reconstruction
  • Acceleration/Deceleration
  • Past/Future Vision
• Space (navy blue)
  • Portal
  • Construct Creation
  • Gravity Control
• Life (vibrant green)
  • Life Creation
  • Healing
  • Shifting
  • Plant Control
  • Enhancement
• Death (deep purple)
  • Resurrection*
  • Curse
• Nature (brown)
  • Fire
    • Electricity
  • Water
    • Ice
  • Air
    • Sound
  • Earth
    • Metal
  • Light
  • Darkness
• Mind (hot pink)
  • Dream
  • Illusion

*Resurrection magic is discouraged simply because in order to resurrect a living being, you must take the life magic turned to death magic in that being's blood into yourself and inject them with your own life magic. Needless to say, there are side effects to this, and they go beyond healing magic's simple side effect of tiredness.

This list is not exhaustive by any means, but it does include the six original attributes. Humans are notorious for having created two magic attributes outside of the seven we've just covered: blood magic and animation magic. They can be learned and mastered by anyone, although they both have special requirements. Blood magic was invented many millennia ago by an unknown alchemist seeking to find his lost daughter, and it mostly consists of using the blood of oneself or others to accomplish certain tasks, such as locating a blood relative. Multiple nations through the ages have used droplets of blood from their citizens combined with blood magic to create an automated civil registry. Speaking of automation, that brings me to the other human-made attribute. Animation magic was created by Catherine Cramoisi when the Zerzuran Empire had just grown from a kingdom to an empire, many thousands of years ago. Despite potential other uses in animating inanimate objects, to this day, the primary use of animation magic is in the creation of  golems, which helped bolster Zerzura in every area during its impressively long golden age.

As for star magic, it's important to understand the distinction between star magic and astral magic. Although astral magic is the closest relative of star magic, only a select few groups of families are able to learn it—admittedly, this is already more than the number of people able to use star magic. Star magic is the primordial foundation of everything that exists inside and outside the Realms, the fabric of our reality, and as such, the only entities that are able to channel this magic are the Sidereal itself and, under certain conditions, its chosen vessels. These vessels have only ever been the Parent God of a given generation (temporarily), or stars themselves, as any mortal would be torn to shreds by a mere droplet of star magic coursing through them. Stars have seldom been recorded to descend from the Sidereal, but when they do, they have a mission and will stop at nothing to fulfill the Word of the Sidereal.

All of this aside... I'd be remiss if I neglected to explain magical disabilities and alternate channeling methods. The latter is exactly what it sounds like. Whether it be because a caster is just starting out or because they need a little extra help, they might benefit from making use of special tools to cast their magic. Traditionally, these are wands, staffs, orbs, and similar objects, but in theory, one could use any object that conducts magic well, and some even choose to make their soul weapons or items of emotional significance into their casting tools. Given that these tools must be attuned to a person's soul, similar to how those of Zerzuran descent are able to forge unique soul weapons, only one can exist for an individual at a time. Alternate channeling methods are not only reduced to tools, of course. Zerzura popularized the use of musical instruments, voice, and dance as aids for channeling magic, with the last one developing into its own channeling style. The alternate channeling methods I've gone over have been historically invaluable to the disabled population, particularly those with magical disabilities. I can't provide an exhaustive list, much like with the previous list, but below are four examples of magical disabilities and how each one affects the people who are either born with them or gain them later in life.

• Vascular Misconduct Syndrome: A congenital malformation that makes casting magic excruciatingly painful due to the usual conduits for magic overlapping with a person's blood vessels. As the caster attempts to channel magic, it sears through their blood vessels, and it has been compared to the feeling of hot molten metal coursing through their veins. This would severely limit spellcasting due to the sheer agony it inflicts. Normally, as mentioned above, it is present from birth. Although, there is the exception of Victoria Winterway, whose internal anatomy suffered severe changes during the human experimentation she and other subjects underwent. She is the only living example of a case like this, all others being congenital.
• Rebound Membrane Disorder: This is a dangerous condition where any attempt to cast an external spell results in the magical energy reversing course and blasting back into the caster. It can cause internal injuries, magical burns, and even death, were the attempted spell strong enough. Specifically, the condition can be something one is born with or it can be gained when on the receiving end of a curse. It's caused by a thickening of the membrane that allows us to hold magic within our bodies and release it at will. Internal spells, like life magic enhancement formulas, can still be used without issue.
• Punctured Membrane Disorder: One of the more common magical afflictions, due to its low mortality rate and the possibility of contracting it during battle. It could be considered completely inoffensive. For those with this disorder, a faulty membrane causes any channeling attempts to leak out of the body. This results in weak, inefficient spellcasting—like trying to write with a dripping pen—and a temporary magical aura that forms while channeling, due to the magic constantly spilling out of the would-be caster.
• Soulburn: This is explicitly a condition that only users of given magic can present, emerging once the caster has shaved away the last of their magic reserves and decided to continue casting regardless. This primarily causes fatigue and shortens the lifespan of the caster. Once the caster has used their soul as fuel the first time, the risk to suffer from this condition permanently increases exponentially.

Lastly, sacred law. These laws, even though the name may imply otherwise, were not created or decided upon by the gods, but by the Sidereal itself. For example, sacred law prohibits necromancers from singing at all, in an effort to protect those around them from the potential side effects of their songs. In the far past, this led to many necromancer congregations taking vows of silence and individual ones becoming selectively mute so as to not scare people. Notably, sacred law also places many constraints on biomancers to ensure a responsible usage of life magic. Additionally, it's the single thing that can bind the gods themselves, since one of the most important sacred laws states that a god cannot fight for mortals unless all the Realms are in grave danger. Sacred law can be broken, albeit a Lawbreaker can expect the punishment to equal the weight of their offense. The gods are important to the flow of magic because they act as stabilizers, ensuring magic stays on course, and each Seat that is vacant causes their tethered attribute to spiral out of control until a new god takes over. (More on this in the religion lecture my fiancé was in charge of.) Minor gods are simply delegation of power on the part of the major seven gods that must be present at all times, so they are not necessary.