A Treatise on Advanced Magical Theory
Written in the year 603
By Johan Tandrake, Archwizard of Rifts and Reason
Funded by the Institute of Knowledge, located in the Duchy of Avendale
For the past few hundred years, scholars and intellexia have primarily been involved with the research of new magics. The development of formal magics, cantrips, and harmonic spells have been thrilling advances in the arcane arts and sciences, igniting our ever increasing interest in the field of magic.
However, where we have focused on magic, we have left behind entire bodies of research. We have made some advances in the mundane sciences, but the opinion of the academic scholar is that there is little to be gained from simple physics and chemistry. A mage can channel a dragon's breath much more parsimoniously than one can construct and detonate a flame trap. Magical healing is much more practical than alchemical elixir, and formal magic can make a sword stronger and sharper than the finest weaponsmith.
I implore you this: Do not so quickly discount the mundane sciences, they have life in them yet! With the aid of the Wizard's Sight cantrip and powerful magnifying apparatus, I have seen things no mortal eye has yet beheld. The inner mechanics of the Celestial and Earth Magics are no longer merely theoretical...
The Essence of Magic
Surrounding and penetrating the universe, there are tiny non-corporeal particles which I have called aurons. Spherical, round, colorless, nearly invisible, drifting weightlessly in random directions, they fill the universe around us. They are small enough to be invisible to the naked eye, and yet they are everywhere. Thousands of aurons could fit in a single tea spoon. There are millions of them in a cubic foot, and yet we are unaware of them. These, I postulate, are the very essence of magic.
Aurons have two origins. Aura Astrae emanate from the sun, the moon, and the stars. They constantly float down from the skies, filtering carelessly through the air. Being noncorporeal, they are effected by neither the wind nor the unseen magnetic forces. The celestial magics utilize these aurons, channeling and manipulating them.
Aura Tyrrae are borne of the planet beneath us. They radiate up through the ground from the very heart of Tyrra. They will rise up from the earth beneath us and hang in lower atmosphere of Tyrra, drifting aimlessly. These are the particles manipulated by the earth magics.
There are "rivers" in which high concentrations of aurons sometimes flow, floating in a unified direction. These lines can be charted on a map, and can stretch for hundreds of miles. These highways of aurons have been called Ley Lines. Their function, cause, nature is still unknown to me.
Aurons sometimes cling together, massing up in dense concentrations. In large enough quantities, these can be seen by the naked eye, and appear as a radiant, often spherical glow with a vaguely corporeal form. One can pick up this concentration and bear it in hand as magical aura. The aura that a mage wields is actually a collection of millions of neutral aurons, concentrated into a dense cloud.
The Charge of Energies
Aurons, in their natural state, are uncharged. That is to say, they are neutral, innocuous, and indecipherable from the air around us. An uncharged auron is imperceptible without the use of high powered magnifying devices and magical aid unless it's in a large cluster with others.
There are many natural and arcane means of charging aurons. The simplest, and most common, is through a combination of incantation and intense inner focus. As we all know, it takes a great deal of concentration to cast a spell. During this concentration, the spell caster is focusing internal energies on the effect of the spell, mentally shaping it in his or her mind, and channeling it into physical form. This act of willful channeling causes internal energies to seep into a mass of uncharged aurons held in the casting hand.
The mass of uncharged aurons, at this point, are considered a spell.
Charges can take a variety of forms and types. For purposes of this discussion, there are about thirteen basic types, called spheres: "I Call Forth...", "I Call Forth Mystic Power To...", "I Call Upon Chaos To...", "I Call Upon The Earth To...", "I Command You To...", "I Curse You With...", "I Grant You the Gift Of...", "I Grant You The Power Of...", "I Rid You of...", "I Summon a Force To...", "With Eldritch Force I Build A...", "With Eldritch Force I Grant You...", and "With Mystic Force I...". All of the basic spells learnable by an earth or celestial spellcaster fall into one of these spheres. Each of these spheres has a unique charge.
Furthermore, once the neutral aurons have received one of these charges, they tend to bond together in geometric formations. These formations are natural to each "level" of spells, becoming increasingly complicated in higher levels. A first level spell has no particular formation, whereas the aurons in a second level spell cling together in pairs. Third level spells utilize three aurons per formation, and therefore form triangles. Formations become larger and more complicated as spell level increases, with the largest formations at the ninth level of spells. For example, a Bless involves one particle charged with "I Grant You The Power Of..." energy, whereas a Greater Bless utilizes three linked charged particles.
In the event that a sphere has two different spells at the same level of complication, there are subtle variations in formation. For example, a Cause Disease spell looks like a linear chain of chaos charged aurons and a Help Undead spell looks like a triangle of chaos charged aurons.
Nearly all of the uncharged aurons within a unit of aura will be charged and fall into formation immediately as the incantation ends. This is why the spell has no power if it is released before the incantation is finished -- the spell will contain mostly uncharged, unformed, free floating aurons.
The Effects of Spells
The term "hot aura", for purposes of this treatise, refers to aura which contains charged aurons built into level-specific formations (with the exception of first level spells which have no formation), ie, an active spell.
When hot aura comes in contact with another object, it will react in a number of ways, depending on the sphere of the charge. At the moment of contact, the hot aura will either transfer its charge to its target, or disburse. The Gift sphere, for example, will disburse if it does not contact another spirit. Summoned Force only targets inanimate objects with no spirit. How the aurons interact with their target specifically is contingent upon their formation, though there is a general rule for each sphere. Some examples follow:
Summoned Force Spells (Disarm as an example)
Summoned Force charges with no formation will divide into two roughly equal groups. The first group surrounds the object they target. The second group surrounds whatever holds that object. The two groups of aurons become repellant to each other and will push each other away as would two magnets. After five seconds, the aurons will lose their charge and disburse into the surrounding atmosphere.
Binding Spells (Pin as an example)
Mystic Force charges with simple paired formations will form a noncorporeal vertical rod which pierces the right foot of the target. This rod bonds to both the foot and the ground which the foot stands on. Why the right foot is specifically targeted remains unknown at the time of this writing. As with all line-of-sight spells, the aurons form a chain leading from the target to the caster. Once this chain is broken, all aurons it involves will disburse. The chain can sustain itself and remain unbroken even if the caster puts a physical object to obscure the line between himself and the target, but it will only be able to maintain integrity for ten seconds.
Protective Spells (Greater Bless as an example)
Granted Power charges with triangular formations, upon contact with a spirited being, will disburse from the hot aura but will not lose their charge or formation. The aurons will spread out and surround the target. They are drawn instantly to quick movements or other charged aurons, and will move to physically intercept these intrusions to their territory. For example, if a target is effected by a greater-bless spell, and a magic missile spell is cast at the target, the greater-bless aurons will intercept as much of the magic missile aurons as they can, being eliminated in the process.
It should be noted that aurons from the Granted Power sphere have the potential to block aurons charged with the chaos sphere, whereas their cousins in the "With Eldritch Force I Grant" sphere do not have this capability.
Spell Barriers (Shield Magic and Reflect Magic)
Mystical energies of the fifth and eighth level, upon contact with a spirited being, will disburse from the hot aura but will not lose their charge or formation. The aurons will spread out and surround the target. The charge of these aurons makes them sensitive to other aurons. They will be instantly drawn to any other masses of aurons.
The Shield Magic spell utilizes a cancellation effect. Upon contact with another mass of charged aurons, the Shield Magic aurons will bond to the foreigners. Once bonded, the aurons from the Shield Magic spell will transmit their charge, which has a cancellation effect on the charges of Aura Astrae and Aura Tyrrae.
The Reflect Magic spell works in a similar manner. However, the charges of the foreign aurons will not be cancelled out, but instantly drawn back to their point of origin.
As anyone knows, it is possible to bypass this barrier. There is some degree to which one can consciously control the movement of the aurons, but only if the foreign spell forms a direct link from the caster to the target (or from the caster to himself). This takes a conscious effort to "receive" the spell, otherwise the barrier aurons will immediately attack it.
Celestial Damage Spells
"I Call Forth" energies of any level of complexity directly damage their target by absorption. The aurons transmit their charge directly to the spirit of the target. As with any eldritch spell, if the target does not have a spirit or some similar animating force, the aurons will not transmit their energies, but lose them to the surrounding atmosphere.
In addition to the basic aurons within the spell, some free floating energies from the surrounding atmosphere are drawn to the aura as it becomes hot. An ice bolt, for example, is enveloped in freezing energy which bonds to the charged aurons.
Charms
Commanding energies, including the fear related abilities of monsters, specifically target the brain humors, causing temporary changes to take place. The nature of these changes is still uninvestigated. The Awaken spell serves to reset these humors to their original state.
Necromancy
Necromantic energies have a parasitic effect on the spirit, latching onto it and weakening it through osmosis. Even after the necromantic effect is cured by it's reverse counterpart, the necromantic energy that was bound to the spirit is released into the surrounding atmosphere. Necromantic aurons are sometimes not un-charged by this process, and will remain as free floating necromantic energy that will then bind to other living or dead forces. High concentrations of this energy can cause meteorological aberrations, such as cold days in mid summer, biological ailments, such as trees dying for no particular reason, or magical aberrations, such as the dead rising as if animated.
The create undead spell specifically targets a body which still has a spirit, but only works where the spirit is laid dormant by physical death. The create undead aurons will spread out through the body and cause it to function unnaturally, as if the body tissue had been being directed by a natural spirit. The spirit is in this way supressed and isolated so that a life spell will not effect the body until the necromantic energies are disbursed. The spirit will remain in the body for up to an hour after it's natural time of escape, though as soon as the necromantic energies are removed, the spirit will follow them out of the body and be drawn towards an earth circle.
In areas of high concentrations of free floating necromantic energies, many charged aurons may bond to a permanently dead body, drawn to its absence of spirit. Over time, the energies will fill the body in the same way a spirit once did, though the concentrations of these energies can often be denser than the create undead spell, allowing some undead to randomly arise with greater power than a standard zombie.
Elemental Energy
The raw energy generated by elementals or certain celestial cantrips have unique properties. I believe these utilize a different type of auron charge, though there is currently little data on this phenomenon. An elemental shield spell has success in blocking these attacks much like a shield magic spell will intercept normally charged aurons.
Conclusion
There is still much research to be done in this area. This theory of magical theory is still young and has much to gain from the following years. I advise future researchers to be careful in reporting findings and avoid jumping to early conclusions. Much of this work would have been sacrificed if I hadn't taken the proper time to test and re-test many of my findings.
The amount of testing this work required consumed years of my life and hundreds of gold worth of components and equipment. I would like to thank the Institute for putting up with me and encouraging me throughout this trying time. I would also like to thank Archwizard Mathias Ravaloch for his words of encouragement in my times of stress and desperation.