The Complete Guide to Magic

By

Japheth Arcane
Mathghamhna
Nyrond

560 CY

Young magic student, you are about to embark on one of the most fantastic learning experiences available to you in this world. The world of magic is strange and wondrous and there is nothing a skilled wizard cannot do with magic. It has shaped our world and it will continue to do so forever.

It is a common lament wizards make that the world is dominated by the daft warrior class. I would say that such wizards are particularly unimaginative, undiplomatic, and totally not observant. In other words, they are probably not the best wizards in the first place. And you too, if you cannot achieve a basemind consciousness within the fourth year of your studies, will most likely end up in the warrior class. Magic isn’t for everyone.

Let me just say, then, that each of you, right now, is a potential soldier in the king’s army. And being a man of honor, offering dignity to all of my fellow men and women I will not disrespect you for it. This world is a vast and fantastic place, a fact which makes magic all the more potent, and the extirpation of just one variable can have profound consequences. Wizards without this timbre of consideration are mere hacks who ultimately disgrace the very magic using profession.

Everything in this world has its place; the least of which is you.

The history of magic is…well…unknown. It has always been a part of our world and understanding. We truly do not know from whence it has originated. Clues and speculation lead us to believe it was a logical consequence of faith.

Though they are hard to find, there are some primitive civilizations which do not have any wizardry in their midst. Still they usually have some sort of holy person or cleric with them who uses magic to minister to the wounded, predict the weather, and perform the gods’ will. This is still magic, it is just less controlled than arcane magic. Clerics have less influence in the effects that they create. They more or less go with the flow.

I imagine an ancient tribal holy man one day began to think that the power that passed through him was his and that he was responsible for it. He took back the power that he formerly thought was granted to him and claimed it because now he understood that it was his all along. He began to truly understand that his body was his, his thoughts were his, his soul was his; his very power was his from birth to death. Shaking away the vapors of servitude, he unfettered his mind and discovered within the capacity for logical analysis. He began to consider the power he had with his gods and how it came about. He looked at his components, he considered the words he spoke and what he thought, and he began to piece together a way to summon the power within him. He found it.

This individual was probably a more adept thinker once he discovered his basemind. He probably strengthened his community by thinking in ways formerly unimagined. I would not doubt that his analytical approach to life changed the way they grew their crops, trained and bred animals, made tools, and created protection, which then enhanced their lives to create spare time for them to make art and discover the inward selves that make them human. Yes, I would not doubt if early magicians enabled the creation of human culture.

Accepting this explanation would also help explain the general antipathy divine magic users and arcane magic users have for each other. Early mages stood for free thought and autonomy; they rejected the commandments of the gods and insisted that they could live following their own path. To the clerical establishment, magicians are anathema and they take their flock from them and teach them irreverent behavior. Magicians unravel the fabric of the community. The gods’ laws are false and if the gods’ laws do not need to be heeded, then we need not heed our parents, our tribal leaders, and certainly not our holy prophets. These magic users bring chaos.

And more to the point they weakened the power of the clergy over the people. Arcane spellcasters revealed to common individuals that the world was actually theirs and with focus and hard work, they could bring a great personal satisfaction to their lives. Of course, the slavers find it unacceptable to admit the potential of the liberators of their captives. Even today we suffer the barbed glarrows of our priestly friends despite our entrenched positions and our proven efficacity in many circumstances. But what should we expect from unreasonable people?

We know that at the earliest recorded history the magical center was the Suel Imperium. The way they explain it, they brought magic to the rest of the world. They admit to having a natural proclivity for manipulating energies and despite proven masters of other races the Suel claimed that no other people could match their best. For the Suel, antipathy for divine spellcasters is standard, since it was the Baklunish high priests of several mighty gods that ordained the Rain of Colorless Fire and quelled the Suel hubris. The Suel diaspora that followed relocated the peoples all throughout the Flanaess and they brought with them their knowledge. This is why magical terminology is often couched in old Suel tongue, particularly basemind methods and descriptives.

Now magical knowledge is spread across the civilized world. Many variations have been adapted by peoples over the years so that now they can call the way they work magic their own. There are regional baseminds, regional components and spell variations…and then from those we know there are personal variations. What few mages were taught on the Thillonrian Peninsula tend to cast electrically baseminded magics. Thorvane in Ratik is known by many for his red lightning bolts that turn into chain lightning on the first strike. His basemind schooling was electrically focussed and as a skilled spellcrafter he tweaked his lightning bolt to make it work differently.

So there you have the history of magic in a page. It is rather ordinary. Most pages that would excite are usually darkly shadowed for they are secrets and lessons that we mages do not like to admit. The glory of magic comes in living with it today, not in knowing what it has been before.

A few terms to start you out. We call these the Foundation Qualities of magic.

Subject: The subject of a magical spell is that creature or thing from which the magical aura or energy is derived. It is the originator of the power which then brings about effects.

Object: The object of a magical spell is that creature or thing or space which is effected by the magical spell which comes from the subject.

Components: Components are the actions, words, and objects/materials which conduct and transform magical energy into spell effects. Various components have certain effects and those effects determine the nature of the spell. There are three kinds of components: somatic, verbal and material.

Somatic Components: Somatic elements in the spell are motions and physical actions which describe and create some spell effects.

Verbal Components: Verbal elements in the spell are sounds and words which describe and create some spell effects.

Material Components: Material elements are the symbolic and representational objects, models, materials, compounds, and aggregates that describe and create some spell effects. Material components which rely on compositional natures are called reagents.

Area of effect: All spells can be categorized by the size and spread of their effects.

Point Spells: All point spells effect the subject only.

Point to Point Spells: All point to point spells are from subject to one or several objects. Methods of conduction to the objects can be by touch, spontaneous generation, or conventional motion (which means the spell travels through consistent space and time to the object.)

Central Spells: Central spells take the subject as point of origin for an expanding area of effect.

Focal Spells: Focal spells adopt a distant object as the point of origin for an expanding area of effect. Methods of conduction to the objective point can be by spontaneous generation or conventional motion.

Duration: All spells can be categorized by the amount of time they continue generating effects.

Instantaneous: Instantaneous spells expend their energy quickly and manipulate a nature only momentarily to cause persistent collateral effects.

Limited Duration:> Limited duration spells have a course of time in which they stay active and effective from seconds to days. The objective natures are altered for this period of time before they revert to their natural states. Collateral effects from the change may persist.

Permanent: Permanent spells alter the nature of the object at the most basic level so as to change the nature of it forever, or until permanently altered again. It is very difficult to actually obliterate the most natural aspects of things and usually permanent spells only mask the original natures, so the right reversal spells can once again revert the object.

Magic works primarily upon the natures of things. Everything, known or unknown, has a compound or composite nature including physical items--living or non-living--thoughts, emotions, and energies. If it has existence it has a nature. In fact, existence itself is a nature, however, the nature of contingency describes how the thing in question exists since we know that all things exist—we just don’t know how.

If it has a nature it can likely be manipulated by magic. The only true caveat is that if one does not know or consider the natures of things, magic can fail or have unexpected effects.

Generally speaking, identifying natures of things is most useful in creating spells or magic items. A magic-user must be familiar with natural qualities to even begin shaping new magic. For example, creatures of the outer planes tend to have a standard anti-temporal nature so using temporal alterations would not be an effective choice in creating an item that would oppose them.

Many spells in most wizards’ repertoires are tried and true, no longer requiring much consideration of natures to be cast with efficacy, though on occasion spell casters receive some surprises that an advanced analysis might have revealed as to be expected. Most magic items are in a sealed dweomer containment bubble so that opposed energies do not start effecting natures outside the item thus preventing the kinds of catastrophic events that might occur with an unshielded ring of protection in proximity to a weapon of disruption.

Given that all things have natures, including energies, natures are the base that all magicians must begin with. So too shall the lesson begin there.

The nature of contingency is more or less merely a placeholder for all other natures. What it does is hold the natures of things within a known reality. We may know that the Mace of Cuthbert exists, but we may not know where. If it exists in this reality then it has contingency, but if it exists in another reality it does not have contingency…in other words it doesn’t exist. This is preposterous since we all know that the Mace of Cuthbert exists, but until we can locate its tag of contingency we don’t know when it exists, what shape it has, if it does what it is supposed to…we cannot identify any of its other natures. For all intents and purposes it does not exist.

The unfortunate situation about this explanation is that though the situation has a pragmatic essence it is much more than that. It at its foundations concerns reality which itself is a sticky issue. Reality is described in two ways: how spellcasters define it and how it defines itself.

If you are grasping the idea behind the nature of contingency you may already be aware of various applications for this nature, particularly in divinations. A locator spell would search available contingency tags all about and search for certain subsets of natures. When the single or combination of natures is found the object that they are attached to exposes its contingency tag to the spellcaster. But a spellcaster who uses a secret door locator and does not define parameters for the spell in terms of space and time will quite literally go mad as every secret door throughout time in his or her known reality will attempt to make itself known. By regulating the area of effect in time and space we define a practical recognizable reality. Nothing is contingent outside those parameters for the purposes of the spell. So in a sense magic-users can define reality on which contingency is based.

However, the nature of that sort of reality is merely a technicality. It is more or less fooling the magic into believing that reality exists, for example, only now in a twenty foot by twenty foot by twenty foot cube. If we leave it alone reality means something very different. We are well aware that existence is not the same outside of space. There is a different existence through a thin veil of being. Imagine your life and everything you’ve ever known as merely a painting on a flat canvas. It’s a special canvas that you can walk into and move about in, but if you can step out of it and view it from the outside, you can cut it. Through the tear behind the first canvas is another active painting anywhere from almost exactly the same to completely different from the first and behind that is another. But even this is not a perfect analogy because this suggests an order to these alternate realities. For some this is true, as in the infernal or abyssal realms, but most realities are not stacked upon each other, so through a tear in the canvas you may find any particular new reality depending upon the nature of the rift.

This I might add is mostly theoretical. Wizards who create portals into other realities are very rare, powerful and don’t often explain what they are doing. Opening gates to other realities is also extremely dangerous.

The nature of true contingency is based upon these realities. If we don’t define the parameters to our spells these extra-dimensional barriers are the natural defining lines for contingency. Luzolumol proved in his Mathematics of Contingency that all possibilities are contingent. The key here is that not all possibilities are contingent to each other. If we sought a mountain with a demonstration of the odor of rose and felt, we can be confident that it exists in some time and in some reality, but no divination can cross the barrier between realities. The mountain is not contingent to us, but to some other time and place beyond our reality it is.

So in our investigations if our gold locator does not discover gold in the vicinity, we say that no tags of contingency are present. If our gold locator spell has no parameters and we still do not discover gold in all our reality, then we say that gold does not have the nature of contingency and therefore has no nature at all.

Contingency is the first step in all magic. The necessary energies and objects must exist for there to be an appropriate effect. Therefore, though contingency must be a natural presence for magic to work, it is often, except in divinations, an ignored step. Most spellcasters don’t even realize that the forming of basemind prior to casting a spell is in effect attaching a tag of contingency upon their own magical energies. It is a necessary action that one does not need to understand to perform correctly. But once the energy is labeled it has more potency to behave as required.

Though any spellcaster worth his or her snails knows this, most common people find it difficult to grasp that such entities as energy and emotion and thought are real things that have a contingent nature. Like living creatures and objects, these things have existence and because of that fact, they too can be manipulated by magic. Where the confusion often exists is that common people depend upon other natures such as form and composition and even function to decide if something is real or not. Those with greater wisdom know that when we close our eyes, the world outside us does not vanish.

Now I have a quill in my hand. I am writing with it at the moment. If we want to describe its nature of contingency all we need do is recognize that it is existent and it has presence. So the quill’s nature of contingency is that it has one relative to my reality or merely that it is contingent.

All things have a temporal nature. What this means is that everything experiences time in a certain way. There are two assessments for temporal natures. The first is the rate at which the object experiences time. Against some things time is more debilitating, for some it is less and others not at all. The standard is based upon the rate at which iron rusts. For example, some creatures live at a different rate, so are born, grow old, and die before rust first appears on an iron rod. This is despite metabolic rate and standard life span of the object. Others have a reduced rate of decay, most notably undead, which still deteriorate with the passage of time, but can often outlast a rusting iron rod. And most extraordinarily there are things that suffer no ill effects from the passage of time. They last forever.

The second way for objects to experience time is either in linear or non-linear fashion. This applies to creatures or things that do or do not consistently shift out of the linear time stream by their own methods and not by artifice. Some creatures may shift with regularity to various time frames without casting spells or using items, as such affectations are not natural. It is just automatically part of their nature to move out of the linear timeline.

Most creatures experience time in a linear fashion. Radical and frequent time shifts are debilitating to creatures of this temporal nature. Chronomantic magic is still in its infancy and experiments thus far show that it is less useful and much more dangerous than wild magic. As such, it seems, temporal natures are central to beings and tampering with them can cause great harm.

Temporal effects on objects are much less severe mostly because they have no mental capacities and usually it is the mind that is most altered when its temporal nature is changed. As such, emotions and thoughts and energies do tend to change fast in time, almost outside the realm of time itself it would seem, but they are actually highly reactive to the passage of time. It is their abilities to exist at the same time and in the same space that make some theorists think that thoughts and emotions and energies operate outside the influence of time. They would say that the non-corporeal are also non-temporal.

More common theory is that the natures of contingency and temporality are inextricably entwined. A thing that is non-temporal would theoretically also be non-contingent. If the thing does not exist in time then it does not exist at all since merely existing in a space requires some time. As previously mentioned there are no entirely non-contingent things. Everything does exist some where and since existence necessitates time then all things participate in temporality and have such a nature.

The argument that could be made is that we don’t fully understand the nature of time and that non-corporeals move through it like they do matter, in other words, as if it is not there. So maybe for emotions and thoughts and energies the rate at which they move through time and the order in which they experience it is inconsequential, however, they still have temporal natures. We just are not sure how to describe them.

Now this quill that I have been using to write this book also has a temporal nature. Since we have decided already that it is contingent then it must be temporal. Described in the two ways that we recognize temporal natures, it has a fairly rapid rate of decay compared to a rusting iron rod and it would disintegrate through the passage of time before the rod would rust completely. Also it has so far existed consistently as expected in a singular stream of time. It does not leap forward or backward in time and every time I have required its use it has been here in the present awaiting my hand. So we would say that its temporal nature involves a moderate decay and a regular presence.

The nature of space is a very curious one. It is essentially the open space that is filled with a thing. Like contingency is a placeholder for a thing’s existence, space is a placeholder for a thing’s location. But it’s not exactly location, because that is a different nature entirely. It’s more like a dimensional area that contains the thing in question.

The nature of space is another one of those central natures that seems to play a very significant role in the total natures of things. Like contingency and temporality it seems it seems to go hand in hand with them, but for some things the nature of space may not play a role. Non corporeal things like emotions, thoughts, and energies have no spatial nature at all even though they must have contingent and temporal natures. They may actually be in space but they are not occupying it. Other things may share that space too. Thus they do not realize a spatial nature. This is the first marked point where things can not participate in a nature and yet it’s still a simple sort of relationship. Either something takes up space or it doesn’t. The only other variation involves the quantity of space involved and that distinction is really not too significant.

Now this seems like a far flung and useless nature to describe, but it is important in some magics. The most obvious alteration which uses space alone would be that of a growth spell wherein the only nature to be effected is space as only the physical space the object takes up is altered, not its shape, definition, or composition, not anything else.

Once again I am examining my quill. It is a physical object so it is not of the same class as the non-corporeal things. It has shape and mass and so therefore occupies space. The space it takes up is about nine inches long though slightly curved and very thin. So its nature of space is exactly the dimensions I have described.

Another more prime nature we must discuss is that of definition. This one is really very difficult to relate to. The nature of definition seems to be the main header for objects and creatures that can be defined. In other words, all other natures fall under this as categories for the thing in question.

But this is actually quite false. Definitions are always made by the viewer. It is entirely a perceived nature. This is why the nature of definition contains sub categories involving other natures because the nature of definition contains perceived natures. This is the realm of illusion.

Illusions themselves are just definitions. Sometimes they are emotive illusions, sometimes they are illusions within one’s own imagination and sometimes they are external multiply viewed projections. It is important to realize, though, that illusions are entirely definitive. They do not have contingency or temporality. They have perceived contingency and temporality; it is the viewers thoughts that have contingency and temporality in place of the illusion. And such is true then of all other natures, shape, space, location, purpose…they all have only perceived value under the heading of the nature of definition.

Certain potent illusions have powerful natures of definition. The perceived contingency of such an illusion can actually cause harm to the individual as the viewer’s mind makes the harm contingent. Powerful illusions will also fool spellcasting because a magician can be fooled into locating a perceived contingency instead of a real tag of contingency. It is the fact that perception is inescapable that makes this work so well. The viewer has no point of reference to undefine that which presents itself to the point that layers of belief stand opposed to every bit of doubt. The only defense against this sort of attack is to not have a definition for what one sees.

A magician confronted with the illusion of, say, a cess beast who has never seen one before might have difficulty defining it enough that random divining spells used to determine its nature will repeatedly turn up as non-contingent. If the magician truly has no idea what the illusion is supposed to represent then no manner of investigation will reveal a contingency. The moment the magician chooses an hypothesis is the exact moment the perceived natures begin to formulate. It is in these situations that perhaps ignorance is best.

But I make it sound as though all definitions are attached to illusions. Strictly speaking, this is not so. Perceptions are not just of things that do not actually exist. Perceptions and therefore definitions are attached to all things that we experience. Definitive natures are responsible, however, for all perceptual descriptions such as color, odor, taste, our personal experiences and opinions of things, names of things…all of these perceptual natures come together to create a whole nature of definition.

This also means that natures of definition are entirely subjective. The idea that we all perceive the sky as blue is more or less miraculous until we take a step back and realize that what we are really agreeing upon concerning the color of the sky is merely the name of what we perceive blue to be and each of us may actually see something entirely different. This means that life itself can for all intents and purposes be considered as entirely illusory in terms of our points of reference.

What we approach at this point is quite an existential muddle. But contingency is absolutely separate from perception when we discuss reality. The difference here is that things that exist do so in their own way regardless of what we think of them. It is in these qualities that contingency separates itself from definition. You may know a goblin as Blurg and I may know that goblin as Glurb and either way it only makes a difference in our minds, but to know whether that goblin is behind a locked door or standing right behind us is more significant on a real much more practical level. Where we think the goblin is makes no difference to where he actually is.

So there are things with definitive natures with contingency and we would call those things regular. Then there are things with definitive natures without contingency (they actually are contingent, just not as what they represent. They are contingent thoughts) and those are called illusions. What about things that do not have definitive natures but do have contingency?

This is basically saying that the thing in question does in fact exist. We just don’t know what to call or think about it. Eventually most of these difficulties get worked out through analysis using our perceptual capacities to create perceived natures and thus eventually develop a taxonomy and ultimately a name for the thing in question. “I’ve never seen this creature before but it has four legs, is soft to the touch, is striped with variations of orange, makes a deep rumbling noise inside it, and likes to claw up all of my important papers. I think I shall call this a cat.”

But there are creatures that defy analysis. They have developed abilities to thwart our perceptions and morph into various shapes to trick us. Creatures that behave this way actually do have definitive natures. Beside each perceived nature is located the term “varied”. Perceived shape: varied. Perceived color: varied. Perceived space: varied. Essentially the nature of definition for these shapeshifters is varied.

Finally there are beings that have contingency which have no nature of definition. That is to say that even though these beings exist they are beyond all perception, emotion, and thought. We simply cannot imagine them in the least little bit. We consider these beings divinities of some kind or other.

Now some folks in the world view divine beings as the greatest power that exists. We cannot disagree that they are quite powerful and do seem to defy all natures, but they still do depend on contingency (and purpose, but I’ll touch on that later). So essentially we can say that gods exist, but we can’t really discuss them in any terms because they are generally not definable. Why? Isn’t the nature of definition really about what we perceive and not what the thing is actually? Can we not describe a deity such as Xerbo or Yondalla?

Frankly, no, and here’s why. Gods have a direct relationship with us and with our understandings, perceptions, and dreams. They made us (if the stories are to be believed). We are their illusions and illusions do not perceive their makers or more to the point what we see is through their vision. Our vision is that of the gods’. Our perception, our hungering minds are god given. So in a way when I see a cat so do the gods. However, if I turn my gaze upon a god it is like vision looking into itself, it is the infinite reflections of two mirrors facing each other creating infinite possibilities. It is not that deities are defined as varied, but are simultaneously seen as all and none. A god looking into itself seems an unfathomable abyss and all our feeble minds can do is pick out a single aspect that we can understand and relate to while unimaginable potentialities go whizzing by unnoticed because we cannot relate. We are the illusions and dreams of the gods. Can an illusionist ever be fooled by his or her projections? More about deities later.

We actually make them; we give them existence through our hopes, fears, thoughts, and dreams. They are illusions that collectively all of our cultures and peoples have given the breath of life. There is so much emotive and mental energy flowing into them that they now have power over us and in turn begin shaping our worlds. Now they live and feel and sense through us, however, they are still a conglomeration of our hearts and minds. So when we witness a god it is them looking at us from inside us. Let’s say I am going to have tea this afternoon with ?????. When I see ???? for the first time I will see an image created in my mind of what I expect to see and if I were to surprise ???? that may be what I see.

The definitional nature of my quill is simple. It is gray and black striped, light in weight, smells kind of musty, I shall forego tasting it. I can also say that thus far it is my favorite quill I have used. It’s tip is deeply dyed the black of the ink I’ve used and very soon I shall have to recut the nib on it. All of these things are part of the definition of this quill and these are unequivocal facts about this quill because it is how I experience and therefore define this particular quill. When my experience of the quill changes then so will its definition.

All things can be described by the physical shape that does or does not contain them. The nature of shape is prevalent for us in identifying things even if false. A dagger made of chalk would still be identified as a dagger even if we know it could not be used as a dagger. We would not call it a chalk. This suggests that the nature of shape is closely connected with the nature of purpose and the nature of definition. It is also very much connected to the nature of space.

It’s a common difficulty when first discovering shape and its nature to confuse it with composition. We want to say that water has no shape, but water when frozen solid has a shape, but then it can have any number of shapes in that form. It can be carved or naturally form into the shape it just becomes. So water as liquid, ice, or steam has shape, it is just variable. As an added note, alteration magic is easiest when the object has a variable shape. Those things that have no shape at all have no physical matter. Emotions and thoughts and pure undefined energies have no shape until forced into solid composition. I would say their most natural state is completely formless. My quill definitely has a nature of shape. In fact, it’s nature of shape is quite similar to its nature of space. It is also my guess that its nature of shape is very close to if not exactly the same as its perceived shape…seeing as I don’t expect anyone has altered its definition with illusory magic.

The nature of composition seems a lot easier than it actually is. Composition, of course, is about what a thing is made of. I could say I have a dagger. That dagger could be made of iron, stone, or wood. That dagger may not be effective if it is wooden, but we would still recognize it as a dagger and define it thus despite it not actually having the same purpose as a metal dagger. So a nature of composition rarely changes a thing’s definition. This being said, composition is a very alterable nature because it has very little effect on other natures.

Where the nature of composition gets tricky is in its layers of recognition. When the chill of winter descends upon us I wear a warm cloak. It is a fur cloak. It is a beaver cloak. So which is it? Is it a fur cloak or is it a beaver cloak? It is both, so which do we say it is? The floor in my study here is wooden, specifically oak. Is it wood or is it oak? Is my dinner composed of meat or is it composed of chicken?

You will notice that in each case one compositional nature is the header for the more specific compositional nature. My cloak is fur, but more specifically it is beaver fur. My floor is wood, but more specifically it is oak wood. My dinner is meat, but more specifically it is chicken meat. Generally speaking specificity can increase potency in magic if it is required. If a spell calls for beaver fur and all you can get is rat fur, the spell may be weaker, be altered, or outright fail. If a spell just calls for fur then specifics in fur usually create unimportant variable effects if any at all. And let’s face it, if the link is obvious and the difference is easy, it most likely has been done before.

Sometimes compositions from creatures that have linked natures to the spell may make it stronger.

Fur is actually a consumed material component for a lightning bolt spell. If my cat were to be struck by a lightning bolt, thus definitionally linking it to the spell, and then I took a tuft of its remaining fur, it might make a little more potent lightning bolt if I used it for the lightning bolt material component. Now if we extend the link the other way, and instead of fur we used the skin of an electrical beast, like I have heard some Amedian fish are, we may be able to get some other effects to occur with a lightning bolt spell. However, if all we had was a chicken feather, most likely it would not work at all as it is neither fur nor electrical in nature…unless it was a lightning chicken. And let me just say right now that this discussion of substitutions is for the most part only to expand on compositional theory and that the effects of making unconsidered changes can be random and hazardous if not governed by a knowledgeable spellcrafter.

Discussions of composition, as this one has so far, often assume discussion of reagents and components in the course of spell casting. Alteration spells often attack the nature of a thing’s composition. These spells are often quite devastating and tend to be some of the more permanent ones.

Now looking at my quill I examine its nature of composition. Right away I know that I can say that it is made of goose. If I had a spell that required any part of a goose I could use this quill and be confident of success. This quill is also made of feather materials. If I had a spell that required a feather I could use this quill and be confident of success. If I had a spell that required a goose feather I could still be confident that using this quill would ensure my success. If, however, I had a spell that required a goose foot, I might try using this quill, or if I had a spell that required an eagle feather, I might try using this quill but in both cases it might work, almost definitely not as well and it may cause me harm instead.

Finally, an important distinction. If a spell required a quill a goose feather will most likely not suffice. A quill’s nature of purpose is different from that of a plain goose feather and the crossover issue involves differences in actual nature of the components which makes the substitution extra tricky. I won’t say it’s impossible, but it is certainly not an option for even some of the most skilled.

The nature of purpose is considered that of divinity. Some of my brethren value this nature foremost because they have more of a connection with the divine, but I find that this nature is as standard and unexceptional as the rest and so I see no reason that deities necessarily are that significantly special other than powerful elements in our lives.

Why do I say it is of the divine? Deities themselves are existent almost purely in purpose. They exist for a reason and that is about all you can say. They remain undefined, but why they remain is pretty exact. I guess one could say they are closest to a sentient manifestation of our collective hopes and fears. How and why remains a realm for theology to invent.

Purpose is the child of definition. These natures are particular in that they are both only created by sentience. Without analyzing and creative minds neither nature truly exists. Definition is how we see things; purpose is why we make things. It could even be said that by definition purpose evolves. The definitive natures of things lead us to problems for which we seek answers. Often the answers include the construction of objects for which there is a specific purpose, so the nature of purpose comes from definition and therefore comes from us.

This nature is difficult too though. Created things and named things are not quite the same. Here is the difference. I need a hole. In order to have a hole I need a digging tool. So after collecting the materials and making a design I come up with some form of a shovel. The only reason for that shovel to exist at all is for me to have a hole. Its very creation was dependent upon having a purpose even before it actually took a physical shape. The thought of the shovel had existence and purpose even before the actual shovel came into physical existence. This kind of purpose is extremely pure and if the nature of purpose is required in magical endeavors this is the best kind to have. The next kind of purpose is that of name. It is not so pure and can get kind of muddled if one is not careful in how it is used. A king needs soldiers. Soldiers have a purpose which is to protect the king and the country. (I know this is simplistic…just play along) But the soldier existed independently merely as a person before being named a soldier and granted a soldier’s purpose. At the earliest point of existence a person is a baby conceived of in heart and mind first to be sure, but almost never with an exact purpose in attached to it. It is merely a baby; a thing that has come into being and now exists for no reason whatsoever. The baby does not now have the purpose of protecting king and country, though maybe it will, it may instead have the purpose of thwarting king and country, we simply can’t tell until the baby grows up and becomes a soldier or an enemy. What we have is a definitional or perceptual purpose. The actual nature of living things contains no purpose; they simply exist (for the most part). But through time we can begin to attach labels and purposes to creatures and in that way they become definitional aspects of that being. If you mean to change the purpose of a being, you most likely will only change the illusory purpose of that being, which means almost nothing in most situations where it might matter.

Where it may matter, however, is where a created object is covered by a perceptual purpose so as to shield its original purpose. In a tavern brawl, chairs and mugs often adopt an immediate purpose alteration and become weapons. A chair was originally made to sit in and a mug is made to drink from. These purposes supercede all perceptions of what they may be. The reason why they were created is more significant than how we may define that creation, however, our immediate perceptions are important for immediate reactions. A spell cast to disarm a woman from her weapons will not cause that woman to drop the mug she is holding if she is casually sipping it at the bar. If she raises it to strike the man seated next to her, a spell cast to disarm her will work because she has altered her perception of how the mug is being used. It would fall to the floor. Also, if she was using her dagger to cut her meat at dinner, at that time she would not be forced to drop her dagger if the spell were cast. The conjoined elements of such a spell involve intention, which is determined by thought energy, which is usually the basic substance in definitional natures.

A spell designed to turn all weapons to sand regardless of intention would actually attack the original purposes of the weapons. In such a case, the woman with the mug, even if she was repeatedly clubbing the man next to her with it, it would not turn to sand. If perceptual purpose and intention are not factors then only the original purpose of the mug as a drinking vessel will matter. At the same time her dagger in her sheath would become sand and spill out onto the floor even without her drawing it. And usually such attacks on original natures tend to be more permanent and matter more as more than just a mind is being changed.

A good rule of thumb concerning original purposes is that the first purpose one encounters after simple contingency is the original purpose. Whereas humans don’t have any purpose, parts of them do. Humans exist on their own, but hands have a purpose in grasping and generally manipulating the world. Iron ore merely exists, but iron worked into a dagger now has an original purpose. But wait. That’s not right either.

Even I know that iron ore isn’t immediately shaped into daggers. It’s separated from the slag and shaped into easily transportable ingots. So the first purpose iron comes to is to be transported and shaped. But in this case even its purpose is transitive. It’s first purpose is to come to another purpose. This is where we realize that purposes of nature can be stacked. Once it becomes a dagger, it almost loses its purpose as an ingot, but not entirely and it lingers as would a forgotten identity. The object undergoes a physical transformation that changes its nature in a very real way and not just in an individual’s mind. We see the iron ingot; we know it is an ingot and we know what it is for. It is crafted into a dagger and we see the dagger; we know it is a dagger and we know what it is for. It is very different from altering an object’s purpose only through intention. These natures are stacked.

Finally, sometimes objects are created with dual or displaced purposes. A weaponsmith will make a weapon usually with the purpose to kill, however, usually weaponsmiths are artisans who seek profit. If they tend to practice their craft more as a vocation than an art the purpose may be split between killing and making money or entirely displaced toward making money. What you get in this case is a battleaxe with the purpose of making money. This is not helpful. Many costly and time consuming magic items have been half created before realizing that the original crafted item was impure in purpose and so worthless as a magic item. This is why craftsmen with a passion for their art are highly desired in the manufacture of such items and they are contracted to produce the object rather than objects being picked at random from curiosity shops. Generally, also, aside from necessary reagents in the production of magic items, they are quite ornate because an artisan of quality will require that his or her works are magnificent and will accept nothing less. So when searching for an item to infuse with power magic-users will search for well crafted items and signs that an item was loved as it was created. Wizards with skills at appraising such things have an advantage in this area. Or when hired, an artisan will make a fantastic piece. Less of a performance may indicate contamination in purpose. As such, wizards have to make different deals than would be normal in order to ensure a quality item—if the artist is too aware of the reward upon completion of the project, it may occupy or fuel him or her to complete it, and that would be unacceptable. However, a craftsman with a personal mission, grudge, or passion for something in particular is the best manufacturer of an item designed to have a purpose involving such a personal passion.

Again, as with composition, the nature of purpose tends to be most involved with reagents and components, but then also with the completed experience of a spell. Though sometimes purpose manipulation is the course a magic will take, every spell itself has its own purpose, except the most wild in origin. Spells are just tools each constructed for a specific purpose. This is one of the most popular ways that magics are dispelled, simply erase the nature of purpose and it becomes an inert magical expression, aura, or energy. After all, what is a spell like that has no reason to be?

Let’s look at my quill again. Its nature of purpose is quite simple when first imagined, but becomes a bit more convoluted with further consideration. The feather itself has an original purpose to aid a creature in flight. Drastic alterations would have to be performed to divest the quill of this basic purpose. However, when I carved the tip down to a nib, I basically stacked the purpose of writing atop that of flying. Thus the predominant purpose is now that of writing.

The nature of a thing’s energy is one of the most important aspects of magic. It is usually the carrier or moving force of magic’s effects, but can also be a necessary component in the subject or object for certain spells to take effect.

Energy is all around us. It exists in stationary things, in things in motion, in the formulation of thoughts and emotive responses. It causes life and decay. It is a moment of epiphany and religious exultation. Everything has an energetic nature and all of these energies interrelate to each other.

The natures of specific energies dictate how they are used by spellcasters. Sometimes this has to do mostly with the actual energy and how it behaves. Many times the nature of the magic concerns how the energy is derived. It can be pulled from the main energy source and manipulated for effect or energy can be summoned into our material reality and manipulated for effect. Relative heat of energy also effects its reactivity and its heat determines its state. Spellcasters can use state dependent magics or play with reactivity levels to make magics work in a certain way. All magic depends upon energies. Energy is that which separates magic from the mundane.

There are three basic types of energies and beneath those are subdivided characteristics of those energies. They are: Positive, Neutral, and Negative energies.

Positive energy is the force that causes change within a thing. Its nature of purpose is change. There is an entire reality that acts as a reservoir for all of the positive energy in the universe. Like an interdimensional ocean all positive energy in existence comes from this source and all positive energy goes back to it. Many call it the positive energy plane as it is a self-sustained reality, but such explanations are pure theory because nobody has been there and survived its dynamic nature. We know of its existence because we have looked into it and analyzed the flow of energy to and from things in this reality and by theory we have ascertained that no structured being could exist in such a place without the fabric of their regularity torn asunder.

Literally, contingency of all things at all times in all space is what can be expected in the positive energy reality. This makes positive energy a wonderful source for summonings since it is quite easy to locate what you wish to find on the positive energy plane, but controlling the energy once the object is summoned is a different matter since it is really only a generated simulacrum of energy pressed into service as an actual thing for a period of time.

There are many uses for positive energy. Wild mages rely on pure positive energy to fuel their madcap magics. Magic items with variable or random results are usually hot links directly to the positive energy plane as is the effects of presenting a deific symbol of power in the presence of negative energy emanations. Positive energy occurs naturally in living things, fire, acid, and trace amounts in anything that invokes change. In places where it occurs unnaturally, it usually appears in short bursts that cause strange and random things to happen. Reactive positive energy is a rare thing to encounter.

Positive energy generally flows through our world along very restrictive conduits. In me is a steady and constant stream of energy running through me. It is that which creates life and gives my muscles the power of motion, my chest the inward breath, my spirit to laugh. What confines it and prevents me from dramatically exploding into a chicken are a well ordered and designated group of systems and processes which are actually neutral energy constructs. The positive energy flowing through me is corralled and given a structured direction and method to release its dynamic expression. In a sense the presence of order keeps positive energy from becoming too hot or reactive. See neutral energy following.

Positive energy is also in the domain of emotion. Pleasant feelings, laughter, passion, love, joy…these are all positive energy effects. Actually, it is a two way effect. Laughter in a room generates trace amounts of positive energy sparking invisibly through space and positive energy lingering in a space creates good feelings. This is why often laughter is so infectious. So why hasn’t the entire world turned into a fun, fun, fun place of happiness and warm feelings? Why hasn’t there been a build up of positive energy as we generate it and it makes us happy and then we generate more…and on and on? Positive energy does not linger. It flashes quickly into our world and in small amounts does very little as it flashes back out of existence. If real joyous momentum takes a population in its grip and positive energy keeps generating, usually during festivals, eventually the steam will blow out as the neutral systems take hold and force the population to rest. In any case it takes an enormous amount of true joy at a constant rate to sustain any positive aura through emotion. We need not worry about a dynamic positive energy explosion at the next Needfest.

But this does indicate a kind of susceptibility of positive energy upon us at even very low levels of reactivity. If dramatic effects are not witnessed in the presence of positive energy we can pretty much assume that it is not very reactive. Yet the mildly euphoric positive energy emotive signature is quite evidently present even such that merely being in the presence of another creature (life energy itself is positive) will help keep spirits up. There are those now, however, considering theories about positive energy effects that claim positive energy is so completely morphic that it will turn against itself and actually begin to admit negative emotions which then causes negative energy pools which cling more tenaciously than positive energy sparks. The idea has yet to be examined fully.

In the non-living positive energy agents we see things that tend to be fairly reactive alone. They begin dynamic processes without the introduction of intention. Things like fire, acid, poison, wind, water--all have a positive energy influx but they are all controlled by a strict set of neutral rules. What makes these agents so interesting is that they actively set neutral energies opposed to each other. Poison is set as a substance that attacks the substance of life, not the life energy itself, but the flesh and blood of creatures who are in themselves a living system infused with positive energy. Poison uses its own very active systematic approach to disassemble the systematic state of living creatures. The same can be said of fire, but fire also attacks inert systems of non-living things too. So even non-living agents can contain positive energy infusions, but like living creatures, this energy is carefully controlled by the agent’s neutral and systematic nature.

Magic uses positive energy in many ways. Most alterations depend on positive energy to actually perform the change required. When we use somatic, verbal, and material components we are often using their natures to symbolically, and therefore instrumentally, define the system through which the positive energy will instill change. Without that control a pure blast of positive energy will most likely do nothing or on occasion result in completely random effects. When positive energy is put into magic items, it usually operates through the natures of the items to cause them to perform in a more dramatic way. A perfect example is magic weapons. Positive energy makes the change they cause more significant…swords move faster and cut deeper, clubs move faster and impact harder…causing generally more damage. Basically, wherever an object’s nature of purpose is to cause some change, put positive energy into it and it will do it better.

Neutral energy is kind of a misnomer because it describes potentialities and limits possibilities rather than effects anything, but it is the guiding energy of our world and the most pertinent energy to master if one is to become a mage in our existence, excluding wild mages, of course. It is the actual definition of change, how change will be allowed to occur when it can be controlled, or the description of how much something will stay the same, describing a natural rate of decay. This is also a non-emotive energy; this is the energy of thought.

Unlike positive and negative energies, there is no neutral energy plane, or more to the point, we are in it. We are the kings and queens of neutral energy and it has been supposed that we describe its very nature through our thoughts. Whereas positive and negative energies create matter called light and dark matter respectively, neutral matter is just matter. All things in this existence, unless somehow changed by leaks of positive or negative, are matter composed of neutral energy. This matter is all governed by rules it exists by so that when acted upon through a positive momentum it moves in a predetermined manner. Negative energy influences are almost entirely unnatural; they disengage neutral energy instructions and eventually make the matter inert.

Now depending on who you ask, some sages say the world is a carefully structured and organized tinker’s clockwork toy that runs with all of its parts to make the total universe. For them chaos is not the norm. But others view the world as a chaotic morass of unconnected things and events that merely buzz about colliding with each other with no method or course. Taking the strictures of neutral energy as the guidelines to envision a world model one would think that the former view of the material world is more likely, or some sages suggest that as time progresses and more neutral system become interlocked with others the world becomes steadily more and more regulated by systems. For them eventually every action, event, and object will be ruled by logic and consistency wherein the course and purpose of everything in the universe can be determined through a logical deconstruction of its contingency. All of these ideas hold interest in theory, but for fieldworkers who do the analysis and measurements, they often declare that chaos and order combine to manufacture the world. More exactly, not all neutral energies are compatible.

Not unlike the clash between two kingdoms, each with their system of rule, many neutral energies have opposed systems. Just because two kings are human does not mean that both aren’t competing for the same land or disagree on some points which cause them to hurl their legions upon one another attempting to vanquish for all intents and purposes the other’s system. As I mentioned above, some neutral systems clash, such as poison versus a living body. Both are neutral systems actuated with positive energy. Each has a method, per se, of existing and has a plan as to how it will react in the presence of other objects and systems. So here we see the clockwork structures of a highly ordered universe. The contingency of the interaction has no methodology. The foundations of our actions are based upon understanding and information which are both spurious at best, and so provide no dependable structure. For example, poison when it enters a king’s body has a predictable and prescribed result. It is for this actual systematic result that poison is introduced to the bodily system of the king. But when we ask why it is done, our intelligence falls upon this long path of interconnected events and understandings that may or may not have happened in another way and would be almost impossible to reproduce with any certainty. A farmer builds a fence across his lands, which causes a prince’s horse to fall during a hunt which kills the prince, which causes the princess of the neighboring kingdom to swoon for her fallen love, which causes one king to contact the other for the use of his physician to help the ailing daughter, which causes the king to send his physician who on the long journey drinks spirits when he travels to quell his fears of brigands, which causes the man’s judgement to be impaired, which causes him to improperly prescribe a remedy, which causes the death of the maiden, which makes the king angry and suspicious of the motives of the other king, which causes that king to hire an assassin, which then introduces poison to the body of the other heirarch. Look at all of the systems coming together to cause expected results, but then look at all of the connections between them which arise from a cause, but not a necessity. Our neutral world is one of regulated chaos and this is why the world is not a predictable place.

Neutral energy is not emotive. It is in rationality and structure that neutral energy courses. Analysis and contemplation floods reality with a neutral aura. In a way, thought cools the heat of positive and negative emanations as the cold eye of analysis views the circumstances and dissects the possibilities. Neutral energy limits when the bounds of reality are expansive and is unfettered when possibilities are nil. As stabilizing thought it seeks the middle ground of understanding. In part, this is why the skills used by a wild mage are so hard to relate to. They are using magic beyond rational understanding. It doesn’t seem particularly emotive, but its foundation energy actually is. We guess that wild mages work rationally with emotive potentials, but they can’t tell us because they do it so naturally.

It is through neutral energy that magicians practice their work primarily. Basemind concentrations, components and objective factors are the defining variables and between those the neutral energy forms and takes a shape as controlled by those variables. Basemind is what makes magic magical and is required to gather the energy to the subject. Components and objective factors define the magical effects through various inherent natures. The neutral energy is the reactive part of the whole process as it forms to the mind and then the rules of the natures make it become something that will have an effect in the material existence. In effect, it reads all of the situational factors and interprets them into an actual physical result.

Negative energy is considered most unnatural to this world. There is nothing in this world that contains negative energy as a basic necessity. Negative energy is an aberration to matter. Anywhere negative energy is found is an otherworldly contamination.

What we expect in our world is impermanence and change. Sometimes we view things that last a very, very long time as permanent, but change is constantly occurring within the swirling chaos that is existence in this material realm. Eventually even the hardiest of magics will falter or the circumstances associated with it will cease to matter, unless it is effected by a negative energy signature. Negative energy in sufficient amounts will slow or completely stop neutral energy systems from their normal course. If you really want something to last forever then pack it with negative energy.

But, really, don’t do that. Negative energy does not behave like positive energy. When it enters our existence it usually must be somehow still attached to the negative energy plane to keep from being dispersed rapidly by all of the life forces and overwhelming neutral energy systems. It maintains its negative energy link and keeps flowing like a spigot into our world. It forms an invisible three dimensional pool of badness around the entry point and it continues flooding the area faster or slower depending on the severity of the leak. If it is attached to a space, then it will sit and infect the whole area over a period of time, converting matter into dark matter. If it is attached to an object, it will move with that object leaking negative energy into our world as it goes. The latter is preferable since it may not remain stationary enough to create a sizeable pool. Tombs are notorious areas for negative energy pools, for several reasons, one of them being the presence of magical items containing small amounts of negative energy buried with the dead. People don’t understand the danger of such practices. After several centuries of slow leaking negative energy rifts, the dead will start to rise. In life those warriors who wore that magic armor saw no negative effects (maybe they were a little grumpier while they wore it) because as it moved with them it had no chance to pool and become hot. In retirement, that same armor kept lovingly in a closet will cause tragedy.

In addition to stopping decay and neutral energy effects, negative energy is also emotive. This is the most natural aspect of negative energy and this is the only place where negative energy enters our realm as a natural matter of course. Like positive energy, negative energy feeds itself through sentient emotion to perpetuate and grow. Anger, jealousy, fear, sadness, even boredom all exude a negative energy flow. Also the presence of negative energy inspires these feelings in people trapped in it. Prolonged periods of immersion in a negative energy pool will turn one sour on life to the point where eventually the life force will flee the body and an undead creature will be formed. In the most nightmarish of environments where not even the barest light of hope can be seen, those trapped will expire silently and the dark life will replace the life energy with one smooth transition. Even the gaolers in such a place will feel the effects and will in time also become negative energy creatures if they cannot be away from the evil. In tales of tragedy it is quite common that tragic events continue to spiral out of control and one suicide begets another until the whole place becomes abysmal. If the sadness continues unabated, a hole will be punched through the dimensional barrier to the negative energy plane where reality grows threadbare. Such a situation will make the negative energy pool permanent and not even happy thoughts will disperse it.

Other than through emotions, negative energy by its nature does not want to exist in this reality; it doesn’t really want to exist at all. That is what it is; a soup of power that stops everything as much as it possibly can, to the point of non-existence. It is assumed that if negative energy were to swallow all realities so that even fundamental temporal natures and contingency natures were obliterated, then negative energy would itself cease to exist until there was absolute nothingness. Unlike positive energy which tends to rapidly alter the natures of things, negative energy actually systematically detaches neutral energy processes until the object becomes totally unreactive to outside forces and then it begins to totally denature the objects until they cease to exist. In places of total evil where the effects of negative energy have denatured the very stones in the walls, diviners can get virtually no readings from the dark matter since there are no natures to which they can attach their specific contingency tags. At that point the dark matter can really only be altered by a positive energy blast.

Once again we have to ask, why is not the world completely swamped by the creeping nothingness that is negative energy? First of all, even when it is most reactive, it is extremely slow. The very hot negative energy leaks dribble out and slowly pool around the source. Rate of expansion depends entirely on how large of a rift has been made to the negative energy plane, so after a year the pool may expand only an inch or maybe several miles. Second, is how easily negative energy leaks can be sealed. If it is attached to an object or creature, destroy that thing and generally the leak will be closed. Leaks through open space are a little more tenacious, but the careful ministrations of a priest of a certain ability can usually wipe them out. What makes negative energy leaks so problematic then? They seem to pop up rather quickly. Every time atrocity is committed, whenever suffering is so great, when people seek to do harm, if a whole town is grumpy…negative energy leaks burst into our world. We are constantly seeking out these hot spots of black light and trying to erase them before they get out of hand, but sometimes they are buried deep and protected by the evil minions they create. It is a constant battle to quell the encroaching negation.

But this dire circumstance doesn’t prevent even the wisest of us from using it in the manufacturing of our magical items. If a mage seeks to create an item of power which will not suffer the effects of decay or actually protects from certain neutral systems, often negative energy is the best way to have this happen. Magic armor is a perfect example. The negative energy within it is designed to impair the systematic effects of physical impact on the body. The metal itself is less likely to dent or get shorn and the body less injured because the metal accepts the blow and unravels the systems of force delivered by the attacking weapon. Rings of protection, bracers of defense, neutralize poison spells…they all tend to dampen effects of outside attacks by enshrouding the protected individual with a light negative energy field…some directed against certain natures and some more general. Though there are other ways of affecting an abjuration by manipulating contingency natures and spatial natures, etc, abjuration is most easily performed through the judicious application of negative energy fields. Abjurers, not necromancers, are the true masters of negative energy.

The energetic nature of a thing is, of course, based on the kinds of energy it utilizes. If one wants to manipulate energetic natures then one must be very specific as to what is being changed. I am a being that has a life energy signature and so I contain positive energy. My blood, flesh, and bones are naturally formed of common matter and so participate in neutral energy signatures and systems, and on my finger I wear a ring of protection that is ever so slightly surrounding me in a negative energy aura. If a mage chose to alter one of my natures she would have to decide exactly what she wanted to do. There are spells which will cool positive or negative energy and make them less reactive therefore effectively disabling those natures. Or she could just kill me to be rid of the positive energy presence or shatter my ring to be rid of the negative energy presence as both are matter dependent signatures. Or she could introduce other neutral energy assaults that would oppose my flesh if that was the intended target instead of my soul or magic ring. So when it comes to energetic natures specific understanding is required to effect the correct change.

There are schools which think that understanding of energies is all that is required and the whole taxonomy of Natures should be done away with entirely. The idea is that when a nature is altered, it is really an aspect of the energetic nature that is being altered. When a nature of composition or shape is changed, it is the material neutral energy system being changed. Purpose and definition relate to emotive and thought energies. The taxonomy of natures is an easy way to categorize and locate particular systems within the natures of particular energies. It is the best way to teach and understand the operations of magic. The point is well taken, though. The more we invent descriptive and placeholding devices, the more separated we become from the actuality of the situation. Natures aren’t real. They are devices used to focus our attentions upon aspects that are too abstract to work with on the whole. It’s like the old saying, “The only way to eat a cow is one bite at a time.” I’ve spoken to the wizards of the Urnst states, who refuse to coddle their students with natures, and I must admit that their graduating students are top notch theoretical magicians, but their graduating classes are roughly an eighth of our graduating classes and for all intents and purposes our alumni are just as potent with a magic missile as theirs are.

Once again, here I sit with my quill. I expect, though I haven’t done the tests, that this quill’s composition is composed of regular matter. Being composed of normal matter we can say that it is energetically neutral. I believe at this point I have fully described the complete nature of my quill.

Manna is a fancy word for life energy. Us wizards are fond of our affectations. It is the positive energy that activates the neutral energies that is our material bodies and sets the neutral systems in motion. Without it we will die.

It is hard to describe the actual process that occurs and most of our knowledge on life energy is theoretical. For spellcasters, manna is the pool of oil to fuel our spells and basemind is the spark. When the basemind spark strikes the pool the positive energy flashes outward, but the neutral energy systems convert and guide the energy release as a controlled medium. The life energy is actually converted into neutral energy or as needs be, then summons a positive or negative energy flux. In any case, that energy burns away and is lost. It also constricts the life energy vessel within the body making it less capacious. Less life energy is actually contained now within the body. Do not worry. This loss is temporary and can regain the standard capacity once the body rests and the matter that takes in the energy can again be flooded.

Manna has a tripartite energy structure in the body. Remember to take this not so literally because this model has been contrived through analysis of effects and truly we don’t quite understand what the model looks like or really how it works, but this is the effective model we work with out of necessity. Primary manna force is central to the body. It is the core energy that makes all of the parts work. When our body undergoes physical assault, it is this vessel that is drained of life energy. As we lose blood or we slowly starve this energy flows out of us and will not gain it back until the harm that was done has been corrected.

Secondary manna energy is the vessel of our awareness. This cup is relatively small compared to the primary energy. Unconsciousness is an almost complete emptying of the energy. Fatigue, drowsiness, and befuddled behavior indicates a lessened content. Primary manna will resupply this vessel thus reducing core life energy to maintain the active mind even when sleep takes over or to keep a minimum of consciousness when rest is not possible. This vessel is completely empty when the primary vessel is not permitted to fill the secondary and so the creature is effectively mind dead.

Tertiary manna energy is the least necessary to creatures and acts only as a psychic buffer. Magicians take their power from this life energy resource as it is not an active energy level and serves virtually no purpose other than to shield the mind from thought and emotion attacks. It is what we consider mental fortitude or willpower. It is the smallest vessel and this is why it serves as no protection against exhaustion or bodily harm as emptying it to fill other empty vessels will drain it quickly. Incidentally, it does not come to the aid of either the primary or secondary vessels.

A magic-user’s manna comes from the tertiary positive energy shell. The amount of energy it takes to bring magic to fruition is rather small, but it is still hard on the body. Initially the manna is drained slowly from the tertiary energy level and it drains very little, depending on the spell, of course. When that vessel is empty it will pull energy from the secondary level and in this case the withdrawal is dangerous. Expenditures closer to the core energy are experienced at a greater deficit. Mages using energy from the secondary level will become exhausted, unfocussed and confused. If a mage ignores the assault on his or her mental capacities, quickly the energy will begin to be taken from the primary energy core and then physical harm actually comes to the spellcaster. Thankfully, after the secondary vessel is drained there is no consciousness to continue casting spells, but some spells require so much energy, and it has happened often enough, that a mage has slain him or herself in a final expenditure. It is usually a last ditch suicide attack or a mistake of a rank amateur. We call it The Kiss Goodbye.

Game Terms: Every spellcaster gets an additional 50 manna points over initial and reason level increases. 25 of these points are secondary shell points and 25 are core points. If manna use dips into the secondary shell the spellcaster will suffer mental fatigue and exhaustion. The percentage decrease in the manna points will likewise decrease the reason and willpower scores an equal percentage. All spells cast in this stage are automatically lost and in order to cast spells or perform anything that requires mental attention will require a check. Wizards will have to succeed at a reason check to cast spells. Priests will have to succeed at an intuition check to cast spells. Every round of mental activity will require a willpower check to perform or the individual will just stop in confusion or exhaustion.

If manna expenditure dips into core life energy then percentage of points used will likewise decrease hp an equal percentage from the caster’s full hp total, thus an injured mage runs serious risk of dying if life energy points are used for magic. At this point all secondary shell points are used and the mage is unconscious.

For some beings, negative energy acts as the surrogate positive energy for life and manna use. It works the same way as positive energy, for the most part, being the catalyst for summoned or altered energies. However, unlike positive energy beings which experience positive energy as a flow into them and then out of them constantly, negative energy beings just dump their energy into our realm and let it pool. Often the creatures themselves are the source of the leak and the negative energy contamination. Cut the ties and the puddle will rapidly disperse. Just like a living being, kill them and there will be no otherworldly energy source entering our reality. This is why stabbing a ghoul is an effective way to destroy them even though they are not technically “alive.” An attack on the being is usually an attack on the link. Whether you cut off the creature’s head or stab it in the hand, both reduce negative energy flow through the creature as the whole of the dark matter it is composed of suffers change. Once the link is severed completely, beings that have been in unlife for a long time will undergo the rapid decay that the negative energy has been holding at bay for many years. The dark matter dissolves rapidly and all that is left is what remains undecayed through the processes of time.

The real danger here is that for an undead being that can cast spells, they are basically immersed in their tertiary energy shell. They have a core energy source, and a secondary shell just like positive energy beings, but the tertiary shell, which is extremely limited in a living being, is the growing negative energy pool that surrounds them. If there is no way of reducing the size of the negative energy aura, an undead mage can potentially cast spells all day long without becoming weary. Tomb robbers beware!!

One can easily see that this discussion of manna or life energy actually encompasses much more than what can be discussed in a magicians’ primer. Healing, willpower, stamina, and much more all tie directly into this aspect of energy and there are many ways of influencing or working within it to create effects. Many knowledgeable sages and mages and even clerics have discussed the inner workings of life energy and I am sure it is a discussion that will continue for many years to come.

Basemind is the difference between just anyone saying a word and pointing their finger and a magician. Energy courses all about us. Positive, neutral and negative energy pools, courses, flashes into and out of our material realm. It exists through and around us but for the most part does not concern itself with our matters. It is true that it relates to us, is created by and naturally changes us, but it does so according to its own method. Our presence is merely circumstantial with its presence.

What basemind does is causes energy figuratively to sit up and take notice. Basemind is the whispers in our head and heart that rise unbidden to us. It is our intuitions and sudden revelations and total understandings. A friend of mine likens it to an understanding so complete it seems that no actual thought occurs. I would also say true combat specialists, dancers, and musicians also reach a basemind state such that they draw energy to themselves as they perform. Though sometimes the coalescence of this energy creates exhilaration in the spectator or stimulates the mind, (it is the rising energy level that is gripping the audience in its effects) it rarely causes spontaneous magical effects. I have heard of artists, musicians, and warriors finding this energy and using it to more magical ends with intention, but they don’t have the training to sustain the basemind and apply it to components and an object as would a knowledgeable sorcerer.

Therefore, in essence, the difference between raw energy and magic is intention or just thought. To reach basemind is a conscious act with the intent to take energy and make it take a shape and function of your own choosing. When we reach basemind we begin the process of attaching thought to energy. Once thought and energy are conjoined we have magic.

True magic-users reach basemind and know how to listen to the intuitional whispers. They can “communicate” with the energies of the universe and then give it instruction. So when a wizard reaches basemind he or she gathers surrounding energies, adopting the appropriate basemind to attract the necessary types of energy, and it then is ready to be applied.

Application has everything to do with the nature of the required energy. Most magics are neutral energy based and that requires that the spellcaster actively consider the process and make all of the necessary links in the subject-object-component relationship. It is knowing the connecting natures and how they apply that actually causes the magic to work. Knowing the systematic approach lets the neutral energy follow the path the wizard mentally creates, however, an unstructured approach or unsupported connections will cause the energy to spill away and spell failure will occur. Neutral energy requires rationality and consistency and if the path makes no sense for it to follow, it simply won’t.

Positive and negative energies can also be used but they are more reactive and potentially more hazardous and require a bit of imagination that most logically minded wizards cannot muster. Drawing positive and negative energies requires an emotional expenditure that actually has to be felt. It is hard to act so sad that you actually become sad. But once the appropriate energies are summoned they can be manipulated for the desired effect sometimes requiring a neutral energy conduit to lead the dark or light energies to the readied components. As an interesting side note, whereas it is often easier to use neutral energy to cast a spell as the logical connection between natures is often better prescribed, there are usually options to cast any other spell using positive or negative energies instead. All one must do is feel the positive or negative relationship between the subject, objects, and components, and if you’ve never done it before, hang on tight and hope your understanding was sound.

It is the basemind process that actually drains a wizard’s energy. Though it may occur rather quickly it is a deep level of concentration and consciousness that if repeated will tire a being out. Eventually, without rest, a wizard will be too exhausted to concentrate on very much at all. I’ve seen some wizards get bleary, red, watery eyes and their whole body sags while others respond by becoming fidgety, anxious, and unfocused and their body becomes shaky and weak. This is the point when their manna energy is completely drained; the mind is unresponsive to all stimuli. This is why it is never a good idea to have a battle wizard as general of an army. After one long day of battle usually a wizard can’t make lucid decisions and is sent to bed by the commanding officer. This is also why charged magical items are so valuable.

The actual charge in a wand, ring, scroll, or other item is an actual portable basemind thought. The user of the item doesn’t have to delve deeply into the basemind consciousness, maybe has to define the parameters of the effect, but expends no personal energy. It is a very odd concept but there are detached thoughts trapped within the object which when released attract the required energy to trigger the spell. The components of the item reflect the spell effect through their natures and generally do it without the somatic arm waving, loud verbal odes and limericks, pouches and pockets of disposable reagents…why bother learning the magical arts at all? If you’ve ever tried to make one of these items you would understand why casting spells followed by a good long nap is preferable. The cost is exhorbitant first of all, but if money is no object that certainly doesn’t guarantee that you can actually find the necessary components. I challenge you to find a strip of cloth from the burial shroud of a virgin princess slain in her eighteenth year by her lover through the application of deadly nightshade in her tea. Even if you through some amazing circumstance find a source for such a thing, how do you get it? Or you could go through the rigamarole of actually contriving such a thing which would probably lead to greater tragedy than the item is worth. And then once you have all of the parts assembled and are going through the process of infusing the dweomer into the item, you discover that one of the components has an impure nature and the whole thing is off. It makes a good wizard want to kill. Quite literally it makes one want to find a bloke who already possesses one and remove it from his or her cold hand.

It is worthy of note to mention the aspect of divine magic and holy manna. Clerics do not need to reach basemind. This is why in mage circles we call them Godswands. They act as conduits for the gods’ will and their manna energy is like the rechargeable source for their influence; really no different than a mage casting a spell from a wand. Try telling a cleric this and they will spit fire in your eye. They are apparently above a common conception of magical energy release. Usually mages have to rely on logical construction of magical works and so requires active mental participation whereas divine magic is faith based and therefore, we believe, operating in the realm of emotive energies which one must admit are a lot less comprehensive than thought energies. Priests don’t know the process by which their magic works, but that doesn’t change the fact that it is not far removed from what we do. We achieve basemind, total understanding; they achieve satori, total consciousness. The fact that they don’t have to study the processes of their spells suggests that they are in fact pawns to the powers they serve—just like charged magical items.

Basemind comes in flavors. Each has a name, but remember basemind is gained through concentration and not verbal components. The names we use just help us define a mental process and negotiate the differences. Rarely do basemind variations alter the way a spell performs, but mostly they effect the way a spell looks or the compositional nature the energy takes. Basemind is often the signature for spellcasters since attaining a certain basemind discipline requires a total understanding of its form and most magicians only understand two or three basemind forms.

Basemind has two parts. The first part is called the method and describes the mage’s understanding of how the energy is transferred. There are several common types: praxis, sum, and objetivium, to name just three, and there are always more being developed. Some are compound methods and have descriptive additions.

The second part of the basemind formula is called the descriptive. This is the form the magic takes, commonly an energetic or elemental form, such as positive energy--positatum, electricity--, fire--, but also sometimes common things such as weaponry--armorum, plants--, animals--. Praxis: This is a compound method that means “acts like” with a descriptive addition. Usually, the addition matches the descriptive so a praxis ???? is usually praxis ???? ????. This means the spell will act like fire and look like fire. A praxis armorum lucis means a spell that acts like a weapon but looks like a beam of light. Sum: This method means that the descriptive is suddenly generated. A sum ???? means that fire is spontaneously generated and creates the spell effect. Objetivium: This method means that the descriptive effect is generated through an object and because of this descriptive additions are usually a part of this method, in most cases this is the wizard’s staff. So an objetivium ???? means that fire springs forth from the chosen object and then creates the desired effect. An objetivium armorum ???? means that the spell releases fire specifically from the mage’s weapon. Descriptives: Generally speaking the form the magic takes behaves minimally in that form. A mage using a ???? descriptive is not in danger of starting fires if that is not the actual purpose of the spell. It wouldn’t be a very good magic detection if the spell burned up the items it found. And also eventually the actual nature of the spell takes over and creates the effect, so a sum aquarimus may cause a spring of water to spontaneously spout up from the ground, but that is just the carrier method, and a moment later the fireball may explode in its devastating conflagration from that very spring. Here is a list of common descriptives:

• Water—aquarimus (increased area of effect; increased casting time)
• Weapons—armorum (
• Light—lucis (increased range; decreased duration)
• Force—visia (decreased casting time; decreased duration)
• Metal—ferrum? (increased duration; decreased range)

Common spells taught in schools are humdrum universum. These common versions are less malleable and indicate no skill from the caster. Every mage should be able to cast these spells. So there is a standard, particularly at lower levels. Why would mages create basemind variations? There are several reasons. For one, it makes their spellbooks less desirable to thieve as learning an alternate basemind variation may be too much work for the thief. If a mage cannot immerse him or herself in the understanding of the method or descriptive qualities, then the spell is unavailable to be cast. Mages also choose basemind variations for particular artistic flair. Many have signature basemind effects and seek out spells with common basemind potentials. Believe it or not, spells with rare basemind components have also become collectible. Finally, spell variations tend to have more dramatic effects upon the viewing public and can instill fear even more than the standards.

Basemind variations also act as an indicator of ability. Working understanding of several basemind descriptives and methods demonstrates great potential in a young mage and indomitable versatility in older. Artifice of magic items and creating one’s own spells is virtually impossible without greater basemind understanding. So a wizard with a laboratory, summoning chamber, scroll workshop, etc. usually has a good understanding of at least five descriptives and methods in order to make their ventures worthwhile. Spellcrafters, the tinkerers of the magical profession, also tend to have a few more basemind varietal components than your average mage as they tend to know the ins and outs of magic. Often when a mage becomes more specialized or of greater power he or she will erase his or her old primer spells in place of basemind varietal versions. So while Acererak’s spellbook likely does not have any humdrum universum spells in it, when he was a student, most likely all of his early spells were of that sort, he just upgraded when he became more able.

Game Terms: An encountered mage is 10%/level likely to have basemind variation spells. Once determined the chance is the same/spell level. If there are variations in a level the number of spells is dlevel of caster-spell level. If we know that the mage has a laboratory of any sort, he or she has minimum of five varietal basemind parts, and each will be reflected in at least one spell in their book.

PC’s who want to learn a new spell with basemind parts they are not familiar with are at a learning deficit. If the mage knows both basemind parts then he or she must overcome the standard learning percentage failure indicating incapability of learning that spell. If the mage knows one part then he or she must try to understand the other part. The percentage is 35%(for the known part)+knowledge% with success indicating that the basemind part is understood whereupon the mage must attempt the standard learning check as above. If it is not understood then once the mage obtains understanding of the basemind part he or she can attempt the standard learning check. If the mage does not know either part of the basemind variation then he or she must attempt to learn both. The percentage is knowledge%+knowledge% with success indicating that both basemind parts are understood whereupon the mage must attempt the standard learning check as above. If it is not successful then once the mage obtains understanding of at least just one part the attempt can be made again as above with eventual success leading to the standard spell learning check. Spellcrafters get +20% at their attempts to learn the basemind parts. And please, as before, once a spell is owned it is not to be shared.

Schools of magic are considered important, but the importance is overblown. What schools tend to do is tell us what our jobs will be and create division between otherwise amiable people. Basemind components cross over throughout the schools, manna expenditure is the same, value and need for each is comparable; how we care about schools of magic mostly have to do with prejudices and preferences.

There are opposition schools which specialists find as a limit. Specialists become so single minded that there is one form of magic they cannot grasp, so much so that they don’t even believe in opposed magic items and their basemind condition interferes with the aura. Transmuters just don’t relate to abjurative magic as their magic tends toward dynamism and abjurative magic is more static and about limitations. Transmuters cannot wear protection rings because their doubt of them is so sincere it attacks the neutral energy systems within the rings and disables them. It seems odd that someone who is basically ignorant can be more effective in their lack of knowledge with a magic item but a peasant wearing a protection ring will gain its benefits while a transmuter will not. Unfortunately, this limitation is one directional. A transmuter cannot cast or use protection magic, but he or she sure can be limited by it. A ??? cannot cast a fireball, but their lack of understanding will not affect their being on the receiving end of one. See nature of definition.

But true specialists are not the average spellcasters. It takes real focus and attention to limit one’s mind like that, meaning that specialization is more work than most wizards are willing to approach. Wizards who choose this path, however, hit the books hard initially and make one school such a second nature habit, they get back time later to diversify their lives, usually in non-magical pursuits, such as making pottery, gardening, teaching animals to fetch, and other such nonsense.

When we speak of mages, we generally refer to a more well rounded and open minded sort of individual who takes his or her time to learn all of the schools equally. Every student is urged to pursue a specialty, but this is not at the expense of learning all of the other schools. It’s not a real limiting kind of specialization. It’s more just a focus toward which to devote one’s life of study. The enormity of magic is hard to take all at once and it is better to learn it in parts. Students start with a focus in a school and with continued learning and gradual experience over time they gather more knowledge to help them understand other schools.

Spellcrafting is not a school and it is not a behavior limited to a specific type of spellcaster. Spellcrafters are magic users, even divine magic users, who understand the interrelationships of natures and energies to a higher degree. They can manipulate the components, the natures, and basemind varietals to formulate theories that can allow them to create magic items and spells from the bottom up if given time and the correct facilities. At a moment’s notice a spellcrafter can alter a spell factor to fit his or her needs. These are the jokers who can enter a basemind descriptive and tweak it to make rainbow ice storms and spiritual hammers that look like legs of mutton. Once they have a working understanding of all the parts they need and they possess the actual components, then they can open up a mess of unexpected havoc. Generally speaking, most wizards of relative potency are spellcrafters.

Below are discussions of each magic school and its practitioners. I want to mention briefly that I describe the personalities of mages in each school, but these are basic templates and the personalities run the gamut within each school. It is just that certain schools tend to attract certain personalities and often personalities are altered by the demand of the schools. So I do not hang my hat on these descriptions, but my voluminous experience gives me comfort in making these observations.

The school of abjuration is about protection spells. Abjurers typically deal with really hot stuff. The easy way to make a protection spell is to slow everything down, to limit its effect/existence in reality. Of course, this is best achieved with negative energy.

The common conception of negative energy is that it is evil and then it follows that necromancers dealing with concepts of death, which is also evil, are practitioners in the manipulation of negative energy. This is naïve. First of all, we need not label the energy in such a way; it’s not its fault. It just does what it does, it just happens to be very bad for us. Second, necromantic spells often require too much motion, direction, and change to rely too heavily on negative energy. So abjurative magic is not evil, but it is primarily negative.

Abjurers tend to be calm, organized and meticulously careful. Being surrounded with so much nasty energy would cause and/or require it. Every time they establish a negative energy link, their very being is assaulted by the depressive stuff and it certainly numbs their excitability. At the same time, they are very aware that they work in “poison” constantly and take measures to neutralize it. It wasn’t so long ago that abjurers would open up a negative energy rift and study and live within the growing negative energy pool or keep constant very powerful protection fields active. The event of aged abjurers succumbing to the malaise of the negative withering became epidemic and inspired concentrated study of the qualities of negative energy by noted energy specialists, including the famous and infamous Quusto and Rivestus. With new found realization of the danger, lazy abjurers became a scorned nuisance. Now, abjurers make sure to seal all negative energy taps they make and seek items with positive energy dweomers to counteract the lingering venom in their lives, such as magical weapons and certain positive energy spells that wash the area clean of harmful vapors.

True specialist abjurers find alteration and illusion magic incomprehensible to them. Though they have an understanding of natures, abjurers tend not to think of natures as malleable elements. They are very attuned to the idea of stopping and starting and regulated flow, but changing an object’s natural course seems less possible to them. Their trouble with illusion is their discomfort with definitional natures as non-realities. For them definitions apply only to real things so they cannot fathom the notion of a definition as a floating phantom. They use definitional natures to impede a contingent object and limit its existence. Illusions are not contingent and so they have no relationship with them as an idea. Unfortunately, this makes them extra susceptible to illusions because they tend to believe everything.

The school of alteration is most likely one of the first arcane magics devised by early magicians. Essentially, it takes what is already in existence and alters an aspect of it (what we would call a “nature”). It is important to note that in this school the nature of the object’s definition is always changed, but never just the definition (because then it would be an illusion). Usually the important natures that are altered are composition, shape, energy (which includes motion)

If I were to characterize most transmuters I have known I would say that they tend to be very active and impulsive, curious and inquisitive, not very self aware but very outwardly aware, in fact, they tend to be gossips and busy bodies. They constantly seek to make changes in the world, mostly out of curiosity, to see if they can do it, and to see what will happen. For some, this need to alter things becomes a mode of expression and for some an obsession. A failed experiment becomes a challenge and they are determined not to be thwarted. In extreme cases they become closed to everything but the completion of their end goal and when this sort of mania takes hold, it will wreak havoc on all around. Mostly, though, transmuters are the spine of any magical organization, classically trained, highly motivated and active members in any community, but seeking to maintain order even in change. They are only moderately innovative and are always the first to object to a new basemind variance being taught or a new school, such as chronomancy, becoming mainstream.

True specialist transmuters find abjurative and necromantic magic difficult to understand. They deal in a realm of vast possibilities which they know how to change and the processes to govern the change. They are completely flabbergasted by anyone who would want to utterly stop or limit this wealth of potential. It is so opposed to the very core of their being that they limit themselves from the limitations. Protection magic is reviled. It is quite interesting, though, because it is not negative energy they so despise as much as the stopping power of it. Negative energy that merely slows or inspires fear seems to be acceptable, but if it denatures or stops systemic motion then they refuse to embrace it.

For transmuters, except as it applies to policy, if you don’t like something, then change it. That simple statement sums up why they can’t understand necromantic magics. The very basis of necromantic magic is an unchangeable fact. The nature of death cannot be altered to make it something else. It is too powerful and too central to how we live to be changed. The fact that necromancers get along with this idea gives transmuters the creeps.

Another school we assume to have been practiced back at arcane magic’s inception must have been divination. Our ancient wizard forebears probably sought guidance and information from the world around them. Knowledge and information was valuable to keep his or her people alive. Even today this is still a valuable role played by the priestly class in all of our communities. This is probably also why divination is so unpopular and least respected.

To be fair, the name of the school is invaluable in degrading its relative value. Any large community who has wizards as a resource yet does not have access to divinations is bound for peril. Many tales are told of rash responses and tragic results from wizards who reacted without making the appropriate inquiries as to the natures of the events and objects involved. Here at the College of Wizardry we say, “It’s never the diviner’s fault.” Our meaning is that a diviner can tell you what is actually happening despite what anyone thinks or feels. It is also the task of the diviner to reveal his or her findings bald faced without interpretation and let the interpretation of the facts follow. The diviner tells us what there is, and then it is upon all of us not to misuse the information. The diviner here at the college is very good at stopping and correcting us when we overstep the bounds of interpretation into the bounds of assumption.

Diviners are the best listeners I know. My divination instructor when I was a student once wrote a ten page report on the silence he experienced after he cast a clairaudience spell. Not only did he hear nothing at all, but he immediately knew what that could possibly mean. They pick apart everything. Have you ever seen one eat a meal? It’s like watching a careful dissection in progress. Their training teaches them to see, smell, hear, feel and sometimes taste everything and analyze it as objectively as they can. Their training also makes them almost totally indecisive. Diviners are not supposed to commit to any ideas and must not allow feelings to get in the way of their analyses. If they have to, they will take the extra time to step back and analyze themselves before they continue a project. It’s maddening. If you’ve ever wondered why it takes a whole twelve hour period just to determine the magical nature of a lesser dweomered dagger; this is why. But typically their professional thoroughness is appreciated when they come to you with a list of possible answers and extenuating circumstances, not courses of action mind you, and you know that they considered everything else already and disposed of those possibilities handily. Also the school of divination does not breed malevolent practitioners as it doesn’t often give much option for them to affect change in any harmful way. If you can show me an evil diviner I’ll eat my hat. To want to be a diviner is often proof of devotion to a simple, unassuming life.

Specialist diviners are opposed to conjuration magic. Typically diviners deal with only one reality at a time. They cast their spells, search for particular contingencies, read results, and interpret the findings. But they generally do this in one well defined reality. If they had to conduct their searches into other realms they would never accomplish anything. Conjurations reach into nether regions and pull something out and splat it into our reality; it’s not a prolonged search and exploration. If a diviner tried to cast a summoning spell they would get stuck in the search for the perfect object to call forth as they would continue to examine the contingencies they located and their confidence in picking the “right one” would wane and falter. Conjuration takes a precursive surety that diviners lack.

The school of enchantment is also assuredly one that has been around a long time. Old world fables often tell of magic which brings people under the power of the magician or causes them to fall asleep. In all time periods people have desired to control other people and magic does this without the large scale conflicts that attempts at domination usually cause. It is in this school that we explore the thought and emotional natures of objects and attempt to change those aspects. Enchantments also place less active and non-protective dweomers on objects.

There is a fine difference between illusion and enchantment. Enchantment actually alters the mental and emotional energies in a being whereas illusions utilize the definitional sub-context within us to create images in our mind’s eye which we then respond to appropriately. Both illicit a response, but enchantment forces the response by actually changing our thoughts or emotions and from the inside the object cannot detect the change.

It takes a certain kind of maladjusted individual to learn magic with an enchantment focus. I just know every time Meloedy teaches the charm person spell that various unsuspecting women in the outlying area will willingly be submitting to the sexual predations of young randy students discovering the advantages of these powers. Eventually, every class has individuals who will rob travelers on the roadways or bilk tavern keepers of their payment using their new enchantments. These students are not wise enough to know that the locals have been living here for some time and know what to expect being in the vicinity of such a notable magic school as the College. Our relationship with our neighbors is friendly and when we hear of nefarious activities (the villagers know what to look for by now) we stop the behavior handily. This is not to say that enchantment magic is only good for evil, as many court wizards use enchantments to protect the regent, battle wizards neutralize forces in battles to reduce the killing, and enchantments allow law officers to stop volatile situations without using lethal force. But there is just something about altering people’s minds without their consent that regardless of justifications takes us on a slippery slope to abuse of power and wickedness. Of all the evil wizards out there, some of the worst I’ve met are enchanters. Manipulative, underhanded, self-hating and cowardly they watch like a snake under a rock waiting for a time to strike. But to be fair, to be a good enchanter a wizard must be able to read people well to know how best to use their magic. Enchanters that are also very self-aware tend to be the best because they can mesh their personalities with the object’s to make a more effective and believable alteration to the appropriate natures. Even if no spells are cast a king would do well to have an enchanter advise him at his negotiating table.

Specialist enchanters are opposed to invocational and necromantic magic. Enchantments work by changing natural mental and emotional aspects within an object. Invocations aren’t really about changing existing natures as much as making something from nothing and then letting the neutral energies within that created object act on the world. Enchanters are at a loss when it comes to trying to create something from nothing. They’d rather manipulate objects that already exist.

Necromantic magic entirely escapes enchanters more on a philosophical level. If necromancers as a class of individuals could hate another class of individuals it would most likely be the enchanters. The question of why enchanters do what they do is always asked and usually the answer involves some pathetic idea that is graven originally in self promotion. What a paltry end is the result of any enchantment. And necromancers are right about this. Enchanters tend to be shallow. One of our best magicians and a great personal friend of mine here at the College is an enchanter and it pains me to say it, but the fellow is bored by metaphysics. Numerous conversations at dinner have him staring up at the ceiling or excusing himself to go have a chat with some students while we hammer out some debate on appropriate illusions to influence the entirety of the bicameral mind. Enchanters neither have the desire or attention spans to understand necromantic depth.

The school of illusion is a popular one to try to gain admission, but it takes an artist’s mind to do it well. Most starting illusionist students end up doing alterations instead. What isn’t realized is that effective illusions encompass an entire experience and exacting attention to detail to make the most attentive analysis fail. It is knowing the experience one wishes to create, fully and deeply, from both heart and mind owing effectiveness to experience. We teach effectiveness through context as well, meaning that to make an effective definitional phantom it has to fit in well to the circumstances that prevail. In a way illusionists also have to be good storytellers to be able to in effect tell a seamless lie. Typical bad illusionists will have horrible creatures raging through village streets; good illusionists will have two peasants get into a scuffle as a form of distraction. After two years of low marks in imagination and effectiveness, most failing illusion students will move on to the less demanding school of alteration.

Illusions are contingent floating definitions. If we could know something without experiencing it with our senses then we would discover that there was nothing in the spot of the illusion. Everything that does know the world sensationally will perceive the prescribed illusion, but even then it is limited to an understanding of the viewer. If the illusion is unfathomable to the perceiver, then it will spit out intermittent illogical images and/or sounds. What makes illusions more harmful than enchantments is that the mind of the viewer is its own and so when the viewer accepts the vision they are open to psychic attack which can cause actual harm from undue stress upon the mind. Because illusions are created through external contingency tags that create images for us to believe, when we feel the strain of the experience our bodies must bear the brunt, whereas enchantments will break and the mental and emotional natures will revert back to their original positions if the stress is too great.

Illusionists are comedians, jokers, showmen, storytellers…generally any kind of performer. They know what jokes or stories to tell because they get a feeling for the audience that is being entertained and thereby know what will give the best response. They tend to be talking constantly and meaning none of what they are saying. These rascals are the proverbial good time guys, the life of any party. But they are so steeped in their magical influence they don’t seem to value truth of any kind. They lie as a matter of course because they don’t see what bearing truth has on anything. The only thing that really has importance is what you believe at the present moment in time, whether factual or not has no value. They justify their philosophy on the idea that people are going to think what they want to anyway, so there is no sense in clinging desperately to some vague ideology of truth which in itself is a vanity espoused by those who can afford the leisure of thinking that what they think everyone else cares about. It really can develop into a mania of insurmountable proportions.

Specialist illusionists have trouble with three schools of magic: necromantic, invocative, and abjurative. Illusionists don’t respect abjurative magic, moreover, they don’t get the point of it. Like transmuters, they think that limitations are a bad thing, particularly limiting definition making minds and would rather try to cause someone to believe something to achieve an effect. If you just stop the imagining minds around you, there is only one result possible.

Invocative magic is too fast and doesn’t offer an active relationship with the object at all. Illusionists really do crave the response they get from their targets. Throwing a lightning bolt will kill outright often before they even know they are going to die. For an illusionist this is a hollow victory. It is craftless, uninspired, the work of magical thugs. Then again maybe they just don’t want to admit that every time they attempt an invocation they can only create an image of a lightning bolt, a fireball, or a wall of iron. Contingencies are never easy for illusionists, especially when they start with nothing.

Necromancers and illusionists have in common their passion for their focus, but their basic philosophies are completely and viciously at odds. Necromancers are steeped in truth and they like to present it and force people to see it while illusionists will argue at length about how the very term is ludicrous; despite living in a soup of truth that is life itself they refuse it not only viability but even existence. There is a tale of an illusionist and necromancer debating the nature of truth. The necromancer surreptitiously prepared a spell that caused him to appear suddenly as a rotting corpse. The illusionist was startled and sickened and vomited upon the ground. The necromancer smiled a triumphant grin and announced, “That is truth.” Necromancers end the tale there, but illusionists say that the illusionist pointed at the mess and countered with, “Nay, you cuckold, it is bad fish.” Some even say that after the statement the vomit vanished and the illusionist bid the necromancer good day.

I’ve mentioned it before and I believe it is time now to discuss the school of necromantic magic. When I first encountered mages with a focus in necromantic magic I was utterly repulsed by the whole idea. My opinion of them was that they were shallow scavengers assaulting people through their own fears. They are jacks and knaves in the deck of magic; they do nothing seriously; they bring nothing to the art. Even listening to them speak they seemed almost entirely divorced of the whole magical process which gave them power. They dressed in dark colors and all of their spells involved skulls and bones or the whiff of tomb air; it was like a show that was designed to make me fear them through their affectations.

It was much later that I understood what they were all about and the amazing boundaries which they were crossing through their particular magic. Before when I was so loathe to accept them I thought that they were putting on a show. This is true. Necromancers are creating a kind of show. I also recognized that this show was designed to instill fear in me. This is also true. Their show is about fear. But I ascribed the affectations toward this end to be theirs, but it is not; they are my own that are attached to what all living beings fear and that is death.

What they do is create an image that I, a being fearful of death, expect to see when confronted with the idea of death. In a sense, their creations are my own and they use my own feelings against me. They use my own emotions to power themselves. Does this sound familiar at all?

The moment I understood the nature of their magic was the moment that I realized that necromancers were crossing over into the next stage of magical evolution. What they do is akin to what gods do. They take the feelings within us and shape the world with them. Their magic typically only has power because we give it power through our need to understand the great unknown that is death just like gods take the power we give them when we need to understand death, love, the ocean, storms, battle any number of grandly encompassing human ideas and perceptions regarding our world. What makes them different from gods is that they still use manna, they still reach basemind, they still need components, but unlike most mages where they are the center of activity from which the spells arise, necromancers are not the center of the magic; the outside world is the center of the magic. Some scholars say that the next frontier in magical research will follow the wild mages. I say it is not so; it shall follow the necromancers. It is just unfortunate that their subject matter is so icky.

The thing about necromancers is that they aren’t necessarily bad people. Once again, the stigma that is attached to their craft is attached to them by us. It is often thought that they work in negative energies, but many of their spells tend to be positive energy works. The necromancers I have known tend to be very deep soulful individuals, looking down into themselves at that black pit that they recognize as their own eventual demise, walking beside death their entire lives, existing in its shadow and offering up its images only to be taken by it like any other common creature that does not understand or share in its wonder. They live and breathe the reasonings, the conclusions, the philosophies, the symbols, the questions and ideas surrounding death. It is their study. They are absorbed in its possibilities. This tends to make them rather daft in knowing the price of a cup of wine or any other basic thing. Necromancers don’t pay attention to moment by moment live-a-day kind of events. Such things have no value when death is looming before us. Nor should they care if the tavern keeper charges five nobles for a cup of common wine. Such things bear no weight in a world of such depth. Out of circumstance, then, necromancers become introverts because it is difficult for them to find people who can relate to them. In any happy gathering, they are the ones sitting in the corner quietly staring into their overpriced wine.

Specialist necromancers cannot practice spells from the schools of illusion or enchantment. Necromancers cannot work in the realm of falsity that illusionists do. Honest to the point of being unsociable necromancers view the practitioners of illusion as cowards. Some necromantic magic does use definitional natures to make something appear as it is not, usually dead, but they view this as a truth, like looking into a future mirror…they are messengers to the mortal fools of the world who will not look into this mirror without their insinuations.

To necromancers, enchanters are also cowards and shallow to boot. They generally have no desire to warp minds. They want minds to warp themselves. But this attitude is surely born also out of their inability to grasp common desires of most people in the world. Necromancers think on a level so disparate from simple folks that they wouldn’t know how to change a person’s mind or make a suggestion that wouldn’t break the spell. They can’t relate.

The school of invocations is a popular one. It is spells from this school that are referred to when someone speaks of the power of mages. It is also the school that tends to get mages into the most trouble. Invokers place tags of contingency and use their energy to then create something from nothing. The resulting effects come into existence when they are attached to the tags and set loose. The whole process is rife with potential for things to go wrong. Taking energy, shaping it into something, and unleashing it upon the world is most catastrophic when the invoker goofs and brings something unexpected about or fails to judge correctly the power of the thing he or she will bring to fruition. And yet, despite their popularity, invocations tend to be the easiest to disrupt because it is simple to prevent a mage from manufacturing an existence. Placing a tag of contingency is a bit more work than altering a pre-existing nature.

Students who do best in this school tend to be hyperactive, hot heads. To say the least they are not filled with wisdom or temperance. On councils they are the ones demanding action. They are the ones ready to welcome new magic schools to the cadre. Results are the end; consequences mean nothing if the end goal is achieved. It is this quick mind that propels them and others around them to “do something” that makes them effective when they need to be. Never play chess with an invoker; they will win every time. They are logical strategists which makes them perfect battle wizards for kings and queens of any land and this attention to detail keeps them from fireballing friendly troops if that course of action is unacceptable. When engaged in any task they obtain the available parameters from their employer and make rapid tactical moves to obtain the end goal always within those parameters. Typically they assess several options quickly and act toward the one that will satisfy the end result in the shortest time. They don’t deliberate and they don’t always recognize the fullness of their options, but they get the job done. Their major problem is that they intuit nothing. They see what there is and from that point make the assumption that each thing has a reason that they don’t know and need not know. Strange behavior does not illicit any questions. Students found creeping around the halls at night are best caught by Master Rolvsbakken because the students could tell him anything as the reason and that would seem plausible. They are too forward thinking, always moving to the next step to achieve victory even if that is successfully conquering the laundering of ones socks.

Specialist invokers cannot operate within the enchantment and conjuration schools. At first glance conjuration seems to be not so different from invocation. Basically, it is bringing something into existence that formerly was not there. It is, however, an entirely different process to take a tag of contingency and relocate it, which is what conjurers do, versus creating one from scratch. The opposite of diviners in their difficulty with conjuration, they don’t get bogged down with the options, invokers don’t have the patience to make the search for the thing they want to summon. In fact, they get testy and start throwing things. They would much rather just make the object in question.

Their trouble with enchantments is their problem with intuition. They don’t pick up on behavioral cues that people may exhibit to really assess the value of changing someone’s opinion. Quite often invokers get into unnecessary arguments with people who are in agreement with them because they expect everything is a hurdle to be gotten over and they don’t have the patience to listen and realize the nuances of what is being said. Obviously, it is quite difficult for diviners and invokers to work together without someone getting cudgeled. To say the least, enchantments just don’t work well for invokers.

The last of the core schools I want to discuss is conjuration. Conjuration spells are basically a combination of a starting divination (which searches for available contingencies to the spell) and then a sudden relocation of the object’s tag of contingency. It is that simple. The real work of the spell is in defining the parameters for the divination.

Conjurers are natural leaders. They have to be charismatic, whether forceful or friendly, they must convince those entities, which they call, that they are their master. To be sure, this is about confidence and certainty, to the point even of ego-centricity. They must demonstrate by presentation to the beings suddenly yanked from their lives that they are the masters in this spontaneous and contrived relationship. But they don’t fool themselves about the possible danger they put themselves into when they summon a minion from another reality. There are plenty of beings that would never submit to mastery by a mortal and in this case severe abjurations must be carefully made. This is where precision and certainty become important personal attributes. A careless mistake could lead to an eternity of torment. Needless to say, most conjurers never involve themselves this deeply in summonings because of the risk and stick to summoning mortal beings with limited powers. This command of personality spills into the social life of the wizard. They are the most gregarious in any gathering. Not particularly skilled at entertainment and performances and not necessarily attuned to how other people think and feel, as enchanters are, they succeed at having everyone else pay attention to them. This, however, has no bearing on whether they are spewing claptrap or are making pertinent comments which is why it is best to listen carefully to what a conjurer is saying so as not to agree to rubbish only through a desire to agree with him or her. They are true masters of small talk and extraneous verbiage. Also they usually choose to sit with their back to a wall or corner and always know how many exits there are in a room. My personal worst nightmare is to find myself at a conjurer gathering

Specialist conjurers cannot relate to the schools of divination and invocation. Though part of the summoning process does involve a preliminary divination to locate a creature for the summoning, actual divination spells require too much objectivity for conjurers to cast. Their own overwrought opinions will get in the way so much that all of their readings will be one hundred percent correct to what they thought it would be—because their opinions actually falsified the spells. I’ve known conceited diviners before, but they are conceited about being diviners, not about being right. Their inability to accept being wrong is the conjurers’ stumbling block in this field.

I think conjurers are secretly jealous of invokers because they think simply creating from nothing the beings they want to have serve them would solve many of their danger concerns. Invokers would be quick to correct them as invocations gone awry have their own nasty consequences. Nevertheless, conjurers deeply immersed in their craft find it difficult to understand the idea of creating something from nothing.

Components Revisited

As I have indicated before, basemind understanding is the core of spell variations. The best way to ensure success in casting a spell variation is for the wizard to know what to expect. It’s possible to cast spells blindly, but the risk is enormous. It is ill advised.

Components are definitional nature focussed. Above I regarded components most in my discussions of compositional and natures of purpose. This is true, but really what is most important is the spell caster’s definition of compositions and purposes. It is what we truly believe about the components that matters. And this is where technical possibilities and total faith are most difficult to separate. When we alter a tried and true spell by changing a component and it fails, did it fail because the component change was totally incompatible or did it fail because we were not sure enough of ourselves that it would work. As such, a safe and wise magician sticks with what he or she knows. But, admittedly, that’s no fun.

I could actually watch another wizard cast a variation of burning hands (the second spell I ever learned in my career) that I am not familiar with and still not believe that it is possible. Or more to the point: I have no idea what was going through that magician’s mind. I might spy the component she used or discover it in her pouch when she is neutralized and guess how it was applied, but is their something about that component that is special which I don’t know about. If I see she is using red sulfur balls instead of white for her fireballs, I don’t know why that is important to her. And I saw she directed the spell with two fingers instead of one; why? And why did she use the term “marigolds” in the verbal component? What significance does that have? Unless I get a hold on her book, which might tell me answers to these questions, I am at a loss in recovering her spell variations using her components.

Thankfully, these differences don’t matter much if you know the basemind parts. You can learn the spells with the appropriate basemind understanding and use the components that you are familiar with to get the effect you expect. The red sulfur and the two fingered pointing won’t get you anything unless you understand it and only a surface understanding is not enough. If the spell is entirely new to your repertoire, then you will have to piggy back your faith in casting the spell their way and just know by the recipe in the book that it works. This is hard to do, especially if you’ve never seen it cast before and if there are personal references used, such as “marigolds” in the above example, then this acts as a lock to the spell, which unless divined, has no key at all.

Experiential links and metaphors in magic are best used in creating items, but wizards who start connecting spells with past experiences and personal beliefs associated with components that are removed from the norm, effectively lock that spell to them because nobody else can glean an understanding from such an experience unless it is pieced together from an ESP and emotional divination. Also, experience often enhances spells with an emotional nature that can boost spells’ characteristics. The reason spellcasters don’t do this as a rule is that their ability not only to cast, but rememorize the spell depends entirely on their pristine memory of the past. Through time memories grow fuzzy and as such, so will the spell. Or if memory is ripped from the caster’s mind, his or her spells will go with it too. Also, emotional power can grow weaker when the emotion that feeds the image no longer applies or means the same. I once knew a magician who learned the art to become powerful to hunt down his father’s killer. All of his spells’ components were fed by his emotions of vengeance, and they actually made his spells more potent, but once he completed his mission, his spells dribbled out when cast because their emotional attachments were no longer immediate. He had to relearn all of his spells with new components.

In magic items these emotional attachments often work the same way, but there is no hindrance from the frailties of the human mind. This is why command words can be names or ideas that make no sense to the user, because the creator fused the emotions and their meanings and attachments into the item. Like the energy stored within, the items also have the means to release the energy; they contain the creator’s mind, the creator’s methods and thoughts. The components most likely actually make up the item, the somatic components are stored inside it and translated into one simple motion, and the verbal components are likewise stored inside it and translated into one simple word or phrase.

Material components are items or substances that help bring forth and focus the energy into the form it is intended to take. Mind joins through understanding with the material and produces the magical form. Thus the material must be related to the magical form in the mind of the spellcaster. Standard components are explained to students in classes (and in this book) and they are tried and true. Variations depend on the defined experiences of individual casters.

Somatic components are movements of the body, usually just the fingers, hands, and arms, but sometimes the whole body is used to aid in bringing forth and focussing the energy into the form and direction is it intended to take. Mind joins through understanding with the movements and produces the magical form and sometimes the direction. Thus the movements must be related to the magical form or direction in the mind of the spellcaster. Standard motions are explained to students in classes (and in this book) and they are effective. Variations depend on the defined experiences of individual casters.

Verbal components are spoken words or phrases that help bring forth and focus the energy into the form it is intended to take. Mind joins through understanding with the words and produces the magical form. Thus the words must be related to the magical form in the mind of the spellcaster. There are few standards in verbal composition and usually this is left to the student to discover what works best, though it has been found that rhymed cadences seem to be most effective. Casting time will limit the length of the utterance.

Spellbooks

Once the College has determined that you can be a capable spellcaster and you won’t be a waste of paper and binding, then you are issued your first spellbook. A wizard’s spellbook is his or her most protected possession and without it eventually a wizard will become a normal man with a lot of useless knowledge. This is very serious for starting spellcasters. Purchasing spells is costly. Without having generated enough revenue with your skills as a starting magician, if you drop your book in the Nyr Dyv you will lose all of your spells and be forced to come up with a lot of cash for doing nothing, which isn’t going to happen unless you hobnob with the Nyrondese upper crust.

For as important as spellbooks are, it is amazing how not special they are as well. They are not magical items. They need not be made with special paper or ink. All they must do is contain the pertinent recipe’s for spells that the mage knows or is learning. This will include descriptions of the material, somatic, and verbal components required to cast the spell from beginning to end with a description of how the spell will appear and what it will do when finished.

Since the spellbook is so integral to the life of a wizard they often become journals that they compose their life into. Usually they write once or twice per year though some mages I’ve known have really taken to writing lengthy journals and their spellbooks take on the likeness of autobiographies. Truly there is nothing wrong with this, except for the cost of paper to continue this practice. As an interesting note, elven magicians do not write in their books, their masters do, until the point when they become accomplished in their own right at which time they usually just consult their book for study or to jot down notes.

Doodling and taking notes in a book is often common. Organizing one’s thoughts, written meditations to recall a basemind style, mandala circles to relax the mind, ideas for alternate components to various spells or potions or magic items, golem creation,…whatever; mages who process their thoughts on paper do it in their spellbooks. Sometimes the little meaningless scribbles in a mages book hold greater mystery and value than the spells they contain.

Why is it that you, young student, must protect this book as though it were slightly less precious than your life? Magic is a funny thing. It requires your own life energy to perform it at all, but we aren’t too concerned because the magic pulls energy from the most external psychic shell. However, sometimes the magic dips into the secondary consciousness shell and prematurely takes some of that energy out even before the tertiary shell is drained. Why? We have no idea. The resulting effect is that all memory of what was on the magicians mind at the time of the expenditure (always the spell being cast) is completely forgotten right down to the fact that they even had the spell at all. This is why your masters will instruct you to flip through your book every day to see if there is a spell that you don’t recall. I must admit it is the strangest thing to me even now to go through my book and see a page I don’t ever recall having seen, and I know, as my friends can verify this fact, that I have known the spell for over thirty years.

This is another reason why having several variations of the same spell available is a good idea. For one, if you forget your preferred version, then you have a backup. Also, if you start casting a less effective version of a spell than the one you forgot, your friends will know that you forgot it and will make sure you study your book.

Spells

Spells are truly wonderful things! Magic itself is limited only by the mind and the energy within us. With a proper understanding of methodology we can describe virtually any process and work toward its actualization. This is the realm of research and invention. There is, however, no need to reinvent what has come before.

Why try to rediscover how to bake a cake when you have a recipe close at hand? Spells are the basic recipes of our profession and there are a great many that we have mastered to where we understand how to change them for our own special needs. Take any spell and in the hands and mind of a capable mage there are hundreds of ways to cast the spell. Through basemind variations, component substitutions, and familiarity with spells and the natures they effect, you can alter the foundation qualities and sometimes the effects in virtually any way imaginable to you.

Detect Magic

This is a professional standard and a must for any diviner and just all around useful for anyone else. What the spell is actually detecting is energy, but more specifically it searches for contingent energies that have joined with thought through basemind. This is standard and any wizard with a star on his cap can do it. It will not detect energy, though it can quite simply, because energy exists all around us and an energy reading proves less conclusive than an actual detection of magic.

Technically what it is doing is taking the wizard’s energy and forming it into two contingency identifiers. Since this is a detection spell the primary nature to be accessed is contingency as we are searching for the existence of, but we must also know the definitional nature of magic to find it. One identifier locates the contingency tags of all of the various energies in the area of effect and the other seeks thoughts in the area of effect. The effect is as follows: I see a fountain. I cast detect magic to determine if it is magical. Half of the spell locates all of the energies swirling about the area. The other half locates all of the thoughts in the area. If there is any duplication between the two contingencies (as from basemind thought becomes one with energy and energy one with thought) magic will be detected.

If one wanted to use the spell for energy readings, it’s easy. Just discard the thought contingency identifier and you will be able to note the energy patterns swirling about. Without more familiarity with the spell a mage cannot discern the different types. Though you may not be able to tell the energetic nature you can definitely see energy fluxes and flows. So if the fountain never had an actual spell cast upon it to make it magical yet suffered an energy contamination a detect magic spell would fail, but disabling the thought locator would show the energy leak.

There are other versions of this spell which compare past natures and present ones or try to locate purpose natures, but this one is the typical, and I have found, most reliable way to cast the spell.

More permanent spells, such as stone shape, when finished tend to jettison the energy that formed the change. Unless there is a custodial energy preventing the object from reverting to its original nature or enhancing it somehow, there is no energy remaining and no magic will be detected.

Magical Items

Scrolls:

Scrolls are nothing more than charged magical items except that on cursory examination it is easy for a mage to tell what it does and how much. There are three types of scrolls: mage scrolls, priest scrolls (which mages are not privy to), and protection scrolls and each basically works the same way at the level of mechanics. The important thing about scrolls that most people do not realize is that every scroll made was made for a purpose. Mages don’t produce scrolls on a whim because they have a few components left over from last night’s potion party. A scroll making environment costs money. It takes the right furniture and requires some existing auras to be placed in the space. Once the lab is made then only minor alterations are required for each different scroll, but each scroll will also require different material components which usually are quite expensive and time consuming to gather. If you find a scroll in some dark corner or shoved in a book, you can bet that it was made with care for a specific purpose. Usually there is no preamble with the scroll, as there is with spellbooks, so you cannot tell why it was made, but by looking at the spells, guessing who made the scroll, examining where it was found, you may be able to discern what it was to be used for.

Mage spell scrolls require material components some for the scroll magic itself and some for the actual spells they manifest. These components are worked into the paper, the ink, the quill, the blotting sand, even the writing surface to make the scroll. At the very least premium quality paper and ink, usually squid sepia, is required, but if one is used then the other must be of a special sort more attuned to the magic in question. If you want to make a scroll with all fire spells upon it then you might be able to write the whole thing on a hellhound hide using high quality ink or you could use high quality paper and a hellhound blood based ink. Sometimes changing the inks or quills to scribe spells of varying natures is easiest, though, obtaining the special components can be challenging. If special materials are used for two or more variables in the scroll, you can start getting increased effectiveness, but it starts getting tricky because you don’t want to use opposed natures. For a scroll containing both a fireball and a teleport, the whole thing could be written on a hellhound hide, though the teleport may have been scribed with a brush made of phase spider hairs. What won’t work is an ice wall spell written on a hellhound hide unless there are significant divisions created in the scroll’s construction. It would be easiest just to make two scrolls or use vellum instead of hellhound skin.

Things that don’t have a shape are the more ephemeral thoughts, energies, and emotions along with liquids and gases. Arguments have been made that liquids have the shape of their container, and some successful versions of elemental magic have used the containment approach, but it is really not customary to describe the shape by its container. Water, for example, in and of itself does not have a shape that is attached to it. Neither does ice.