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MAGIC & SPELLS:
Overall:
Magic
in the Thurian continent is not common – the average
person working their shop or field has likely never seen a true
wizard or seen a spell cast or held a magical item. Magic is
generally feared, and most sorcerers and wizards (but not all)
are associated with dark curses, evil gods and unbearable
secrets which Man Was Not Meant To Know. Even good clerics and
wizards are held in awe and often with trembling and reverence.
Many of the barbarian nations (Asgard, Vanaheim, Brythunia,
Cimmeria) revile magic, though in some places, magic is the
power of the ruling class (Stygia, Hyperborea, Kambuja,
Vendhya). In the Black Kingdoms (and Pictland) magic is widely
feared and misunderstood, the province of tribal witchdoctors
and shamans, who protect the rest of the tribe from the vengeful
spirits and demons that surround them.
Arcane Magic:
Arcane
magic is alien to mankind – generally inmical to his
nature, and continued delvigns into the arcane can result in
madness, deformity and worse. Arcane Magic has it's source in
the Far Realms (also called the Outside), the space outside the
Inner and Outer Planes, where the Old Ones reside, unspeakable
entities of immense power and alien reality. Magic is spawned
here, and can be taken at a price. There are two roads to
gaining Arcane power:
- Wizardry: The
study of complicated, ancient formulae and mystic equations, and
study of the stars and the Planes of existance, an occultist can
learn to send his mind out into the Far Realms while his body
remains on earth. In this trance, he can capture the energies of
magic spawned in the Far Realms using the formulae he has
learned. Once bound and held within his mind, he can return to
his body and unleash the spells at will, only to lose their
power until the next time he makes a foray into the Outside.
Exposure to the Old Ones and their domain is damaging to the
mind – many lesser wizards go mad, irrevocably, and others
who do resist still suffer the twisting of their bodies (see
Alienist prestige class).
- Sorcery: for those who
are illiterate, impatient, or simply not intelligent enough to
grasp the fundamentals of the studies of Wizardry, there is
another path – Sorcery. To the layperson, there is no
difference, but to the enlightened, the gulf is clear –
Wizardry is a path of power in which the mage seeks his own,
solitary path. In sorcery, the power is not discovered, but
given by an extradimensional entity as part of a bargain. Most
often, this bargain is volountary, but there are instances where
unwilling or unwitting victims have been so bound, for any
number of reasons. Fiends, Demons and Elementals are the most
common entities contacted for this purpose. Once the bargain is
struck, a mark is made on the sorceror, either in the form of a
tatoo or scar or birthmark, which completes the connection to
the entity. Through this connection the sorceror may draw power,
and cast spells without the Wizards's need to visit the Far
Realms or use complicated and incomprehensible equations.
However, there too is a price- as time progresses, sorcerores
often come to resemble their dark masters more and more (see
Elemental Savant and Acoyte of the Skin prestige classes), and
eventually they are heard from no more, vanishing under
mysterious circumstances, likely as part of their bargains for
power.
Divine Magic:
The
gods are real, and they offer power to those who devoutly give
them worship, the source of their strength. Priests of good
dieties are revered and respected by their populace, while
priests of evil and dark gods are held in fear and awe. Through
proper worship and observance of ritual pleasing to the god,
they are loaned power through their prayers to affect the world
around them. There is no need to visit the Far Realms, as the
power is sourced directly from the divine entity or one of it's
avatars. Many gods have their avatars reside at their temples,
particularly during high holy days, and most priests can expect
to see their god or his avatar at least several times in their
life.
Druids also worship the divine, but do so through
more primitive beings, such as powerful spirit totems, ancestral
spirits and wild and feral gods who despise the ways of
civilized men.
MORE INFO TO COME –
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