PATHS TO POWER
By Keeper Bodo.
As long as Humanity and their precursors have walked this Urth, they have sought
means of controlling the world around them without recourse to tools, to ingenuity or
to honest work. Many and diverse are the methods by which Men, Elves, Dwarves or
Orcs may gain some measure of supernatural power. All have their individual
benefits, and all have their downfalls. Ultimately, Magic, Spiritualism, Mathmagic,
Geomancy, Illusionism, and Demon-worship all have at their heart an ignoring of
physical reality and an emphasis of the selfish desires of the user over the betterment
of all men (or Dwarves, or Elves, etc). No Empowered individual can survive contact
with an angry mob, and nothing built on such borrowed power ever lasts forever.
But then, I am an old man who devoted himself to the Spiritual Arts, only to have his
God destroyed in the twilight of his years. So I would say that, wouldn’t I?
Magic
The best-understood means of achieving supernatural power, Magic use has spread
from it’s earliest proponents among Dragons and Elves until Mages can be found of
almost every race. It the easiest form of power to achieve, requiring proportionally
few years of study. The Elemental Lords are also more “distant” masters than Gods or
Demons, and a Mage can easily be forgiven for thinking that they are not the slaves to
an alien intelligence from beyond the Veil. As any Mage who tries casting without a
proper Focus or – in these modern times – trespasses in the Elemental Planes, or tries
to develop Paraelemental casting, knows, though, this is not the case. Mages exist
only at the sufferance of the Elemental Lords, and their power is easily taken away.
The Beginning Mage makes a ritual entreaty to the Elemental Lords (note that this
ritual is, in essence, the only limiting factor on how many Mages exist in the world –
there aren’t enough Ley Nexii in the world to mass-train Elementalists) to empower a
“Focus” – a material object linked to the Mage’s pattern and the Six Elemental
Planes. Very brave individuals sometimes try to modify the empowerment ritual, to
produce Paraelemental Focii or Focii that lack one or more Elements, but these
individuals never seem to live very long. Do not trifle with Elemental Lords.
Technically any material object that is capable of remaining in contact with the
Mage’s skin can be empowered as the Focus, though in the wake of a spread of illegal
magic-use in Greater Albion and the Palatinate of Durholme, both King Edward and
the Durholme Margrave have issued decrees ordering “standardised” Focii in the form
of representative necklaces. Fortunately for the Mage who wishes to be left out of
internecine warfare between Outer Powers, Mages are not expected to make war on
their opposition element, even when a Mage favours one type of spell above all
others. That’s what the Elemental Lords have Elves for, after all.
The Mage then acquires – either through personal research or by being taught by a
more experienced Mage – a “Matrix”. A Matrix can be described as a mental
construct, a “shape” that the Mage devotes their concentration on during casting.
Matrixes always contain some verbal component – usually a “By my power over the
element of…” which serves to focus the mind. The number of Matrixes a Mage
knows is limited only by the time and effort spent learning them, and it is Matrixes
that make up the content of the stereotypical Mage’s “Spell-Book”, transformed into
written diagrams for ease of study and teaching, and usually encoded. Matrixes vary
in complexity – the Durholme Magic Guilds use a system of “Circles” to denote
increasing difficulties.
One a Mage has a Focus and has memorised a Matrix suited to his or her experience,
they concentrate on the “shape” of the Matrix while performing any movements or
verbal components the Matrix prescribes. A tiny (usually about half an inch in
diameter) portal to the Elemental Plane being called upon opens over the Mage’s
Focus, and the Energy flowing from the plane into the world is shaped by the Matrix
into a Spell – interacting with the world until it’s energy dissipates.
For reasons that escape most mages, contact with metal prevents spells from being
cast – the energy “grounds” itself through the metal and vanishes into the world. The
sages of the Ancient Empire suggest that metal is a seventh Element, of which this is
the Elemental Plane. Detailed experiments by Galantran mages two centuries ago
indicate that different metals do indeed “conduct” Elemental energy to different
amounts, but the variation is so small as to be not worth considering. The exceptions
are Cold Iron – which actively draws Elemental energy out of a spell, leading to a
Mage losing control and suffering an Implosion (see later) – and Runemetal, which
does not conduct Elemental energy at all. No-one knows why.
Casting is a strenuous process, and takes great reserves of mental fortitude. The Mage
must hold the Gate open for the required amount of time, yet prevent any Prime
Material matter (such as the Mage themselves) from being pulled through to the
Elemental Plane. Mages usually find they can cast more and more spells between
resting as they become more experienced, but pity the Mage who overextends their
limits. An Implosion usually results. Mages commonly refer to this inner reserve of
strength as “Mana”, originally an Elven term first coined to describe the
transmigration of elemental energy into newborn Elven souls.
In an Implosion, the Mage cannot, for whatever reason, keep control over the Gate
while casting. Everything in the immediate vicinity (including the Mage) is sucked
towards the gate and compressed as it goes until the Mage dies of having his or her
body crushed by the forces involved. With the death of the Mage, the gate disappears
and everything compressed so far explodes out again in a shower of dust and blood.
Some lucky Mages manage to cancel a spell before dying of the Implosion, but the
effect is fatal in nineteen out of twenty cases.
The only multi-Elemental form of Magic that the Elemental Lords will allow a Mage
to learn willingly is “Grey” magic – the practice of opening the Gate to all six
Elements at once. Invented by Human magii working for the Dwarven Roma
Emperors in the great Imperial Age, Grey Magic is specialised towards interacting
with other active spells – either reinforcing the elemental energies and thereby
extending spell durations, or snuffing them out in a “dispel”.
A popular form of spell that bears it’s own discussion is the process of summoning
the denizens of the Elemental Planes to this world. Elementals, as discussed in the
forthcoming treatise on the many Outer Planes being prepared by my learned
colleague Keeper DeCand, vary in size from the smallest Elemental sprite, through
the Elemental types usually summoned by Mages, up through the ranks of Elemental
Titans and Collossii (both, thankfully, a rare sight in these modern times) and
reaching their apex at the Elemental Lords themselves. The Elemental creatures
summoned by Mages tend towards the human to ogre size ranges, and reportedly
deeply resent being summoned to this plane, where the presence of their opposition
element is always felt. It was once common practice for a Mage to summon an
Elemental, Magically immunize their own bodies from that Element and command
the Elemental to take them into the Elemental Plane. This rather fool-hardy form of
fast transportation, called “Gating” as the Mage effectively vanished into their own
spell-Gate, has now expended the Elemental Lord’s notoriously thin supplies of
tolerance – Mages attempting it are set upon by Elemental Titans and devoured, or
(some say) taken to the Elemental Lords themselves to answer for their trespass.
Since the end of the Age of High Magic, hundreds of Spell Matrixes have been lost
when their creators died, towers fell and learning vanished from the world. Rumours
of undiscovered Spells transcribed in lost tomes or other, stranger recording methods
are a favourite topic of Magely conversation – particularly the Matrix for
“Permanency” – the very high-Circle Grey spell that bound another spell into an item
or creature forever, allowing the construction of “Magic Items”, creatures such as
Golems and Permanent enchantments upon oneself. Perhaps it is best that it remains
lost.
Spiritualism
Seen as the socially-acceptable alternative to Magic, Spiritualism relies on making a
pact with a powerful being of the Spiritual Planes – also called a “God” – to serve that
being’s interests on Urth in exchange for which the Priest gains some measure of
command over the servitor spirits of that deity, being able to order them to perform
tasks. The degree of authority a Priest has may increase with their standing in the eyes
of their deity.
Spirits are all around us. Rather than being confined to the Planes of the Gods, as
many suppose, the Urth teems with Spirits – all invisible and immaterial, but moving
around us all the time, performing their functions and furthering the agendas of their
patron deities. The only thing capable of interacting with these spirits are the souls of
living beings – themselves a form of spirit rooted into a particular person or animal.
To cast a “Miracle”, a priest mentally focuses in on their own soul, seeking out with it
for a spirit devoted to the God the priest worships. Once one is found – and there will
usually be at least several of each God’s brood in any given room – the priest
commands it aloud to perform it’s task, and the spirit (if the Priest has the correct
authority in the celestial hierarchy) will hurry to do so. Each Priest has a limit on how
many of these favours they are allowed to call in a day, and must petition their Deity
at Dawn (for priests of the Mace Gods) or Dusk (for priests of the Sword Gods) to
have this “allowance” replenished. It is possible for a Miracle to transfer extra
allowances of Spiritual Authority from priest to priest – these “Power Melds” are
usually used by priests of members of the same pantheon.
By and large, Spiritualism is a much smoother process than Magic use and Spirits are
usually dedicated to their tasks. Things can go wrong, however – there exist forces
that can divert or trap a Spirit that is engaged in performing a miracle, and there are
places – usually very holy to another deity – where no Spirits of a particular god may
enter.
The downside of Spiritualism is that it requires devotion to a particular deity – the
church of each God places restrictions on how it’s priests live, eat, sleep, socialise and
carry out their duties. In many ways, the powers granted by the Gods are no
compensation for the life of service that the Priest willingly enters into.
One aspect of such service that many Priests fail to consider is that the Gods are
organised into distinct societies – two groups of seven Gods each with the fifteenth
God (The Circle of Balance) being a member of both groups – properly called
Pantheons. Worse still, each God has an adversary in the form of a particular member
of the opposite Pantheon, and priests are expected to further their own God’s cause at
the expense of the opposition – even being granted extra miracles for particularly
successful mishaps thrown in the way of the enemy. As long as such fit with the
interests of the God, of course. Also, each of the two pantheons has a “greater” God –
one of the eight who is the acknowledged leader, and whose priests are granted
authority to take the miracles of priests serving subordinate Gods. Truly, being the
servant of divinity on Urth is a delicate process. The two Greater Gods are St John
and Vivamort.
Where once there were many dozens of Gods, as we now exit the turbulent early years
of this Age of Strife there are only fifteen. As such, it is possible to make a short list
of deities, their areas of influence and their opposite numbers. For more information,
contact a member of the relevant temple.
GODS OF THE MACE
GODS OF THE SWORD
St John
vs
Vivamort
(God of Healing and Protection)
(God of Undeath)
Astalon-Ziorbina
vs
Triplicity
(Goddess of Law)
(Goddess of Bards)
Mallan
vs
Crofter
(God of Rulership)
(God of Agriculture)
Light
vs
Luca
(God of Restraint in Power)
(Goddess of Dreams and Nightmares)
Humact
vs
Azrael
(God of Death)
(God of Death)
Ishmund
vs
Sordan
(God of Justice)
(God of Suffering)
Morvana
vs
Bast
(Goddess of Warfare)
(Goddess of Cats and Wild Fury)
Circle of Balance
(God of Neutrality)
Side-note: “Elemental Priests.”
The Elves, of course, have no Gods – instead worshipping the Elemental Lords. There
exists in Elven communities the position of “Elemental Priest” – who has a similar
relationship to the Elemental Lords to that shared between a normal Priest and their
God. The similarity ends there, however – Elemental Priest’s abilities are still Magicbased, and still involve the pouring of Elemental energies through a Gate. Unlike
magic, however, the Elemental Lord itself does the job of focusing the Gate and
shaping the spell energy, making Elemental Priests happily immune to the Implosion
effect.
Side-note: “Necromancers”
A Necromancer is one who has contact with the dead. Technically, ALL Priests are
Necromancers (the Gods being ascended mortals from ages past), but tend to frown
on that being pointed out. Necromancy as it is currently understood was invented by
one of the Mathmagicians and originally used Mathmagics or Geomancy to bind the
souls of the dead back into their bodies. As this perverse art grew in users, it was only
a matter of time before some Necromancers died and became Gods – Hengist, god of
Undeath, and Vivamort, god of Vampires being chief among them. Nowadays,
“Necromancer” refers to an individual, usually a priest of Vivamort (now, thanks to
his rival’s destruction, the one God of Undeath) and often an accomplished
Geomancer on the side, who raises undead to do his will.
Geomancy (a.k.a. “Ritual Magic”)
Geomancy – usually incorrectly called “Ritual Magic” – is the manipulation of Ley
energy to produce changes to physical reality. Only able to be used on the Prime
Material or Planes directly powered from it (such as the pocket worlds constructed in
the Age of High Magic), Geomancy is capable of virtually any result, but
concurrently is the most dangerous form of power still practiced today.
Ley lines crisscross the Prime Material plane, the energy that makes up the Plane
flowing down them from unknown origin to equally unknown end. At places where
ley lines cross – a ley “Nexus” – the energy wells up and may be used by those
schooled in Geomancy, who may order it to produce localised changes in reality, alter
the shape of the world around the Nexus, produce enchanted items, divert the ley line
through the Veil to construct a pocket dimension or any other imaginable end.
The greatest practitioners of Geomancy in ages past were the Dwarves, who built their
Empire along Geomantic lines and used it for vast landscaping projects in the
Underdark. In the modern world, the sages of the Ancient Empire tend to the
Empire’s “Dragon Paths”, and the Empire’s monks Geomantically give themselves
supernatural abilities.
The processes behind each ritual are unique, and the ritualist must be careful to match
his or her ritual to both the intended result and the nature of the Ley Nexus being
used. Some rituals – such as the Empowerment ritual to create a magical focus – are
almost routine, following a tried and tested formulae handed down through the
centuries. Ultimately, it is in these unenlightened times almost impossible to tell how
much of a recorded ritual script is showmanship, how much is simply there “just in
case” and how much is actually necessary to the ritual. It is not advised for beginners,
and experimentation with the forces that create and maintain the world in which we
live is a delicate art indeed.
Usually (though by no means always), a Ritual calls upon some outer power, be it an
Elemental Lord, Demon, God or Fey Noble, to lend it’s support to the ritual. This can
help focus the energies, is good manners if one is intending to affect the entity’s focus
of power and may – in disastrous circumstances – save the ritualist’s life if the being
called upon is lenient and the ritual goes horribly wrong.
It is a wide-spread practice to “Seal” a ritual circle, denoting some boundary at the
start of a ritual to let the Ley Nexus know in some way who is part of the ritual and
who is not. It should be noted, however, that Seals are symbolic things, not physical –
and if one has clearly stated a boundary, having an interloper cross it can result in
death for all concerned.
It is best to work from scripts passed down from the Age of High Magic, or to learn
the Art by careful observation of other (successful) rituals. If you choose to tred this
route, good luck. And may the Ley Lines be forgiving.
One last note – Ley nexii can only support so many rituals. Generally, one a month is
the utter maximum limit. Ritualists exist who have pushed this, but they are rare.
And as I have implied, Geomancy is dangerous – a failed spell or miracle does
nothing, but a failed ritual will tend to severely injure those involved. At best.
Lesser, or Lost, Arts
Demon-worship
Usually incorrectly called Demonology (which is Hellenic for “The Study of
Demons” – technically I am a Demonologist, but certainly not a Demonidolator – the
equivalent word for “Worshipper of Demons”), Demon-Worship is a disgusting
practice that we have the more barbaric elements of Humanity to thank for. The two
races that are truly steeped in Demon-worship are the Orcs and the Vetch, and I pray
that the reader will not take either of those peoples to be an ideal role-model.
Fundamentally, Demon-worship is a bastardised cross between Geomancy and
Spiritualism. The prospective infernalist performs a ley-ritual to attract the attention
of a Demon from the Abyss beyond the Spiritual Planes in which they dwell, and
bargains with it for granted powers. As long as he upholds his side of the bargain (and
the things asked for by the Demons are left to the reader’s imagination), the
Demonidolator is granted supernatural powers resembling either Elemental Magic,
Spiritual Miracles (of the darker, more perverse sort) or both. This has given rise to
numerous incorrect assumptions about both Vetch and Orcs – neither race, contrary to
rumour, is capable of becoming both Priest and Mage in a single individual, but the
borrowed abilities of their Demonic patrons make it appear so to uninformed
adventurers.
Illusionism
The oft-misunderstood art of pattern-shaping, Illusionism is rightly illegal throughout
Albion for it’s potential use by evil-doers and malcontents. As such, I shall write only
a little about it to prevent any potential shaper from finding this document and using it
for evil.
The world is made up of “patterns” – ephemeral constructs that become real when
fuelled with the energy from Ley Lines. Geomancy is the art of using the excess Ley
Energy of the world to create changes to reality, while Illusionism is the related art of
creating false patterns by means of a unique ritually-created focus – much like a
Mage’s but not linked to the Elemental Planes. The resulting “illusions” appear real,
but are insubstantial and fade with time, and illusionists must learn each apparition as
a distinct pattern, making it even more time-consuming an art to learn than Magic.
Mathmagics
The King of Arts, Mathmagics is the lost art of Reality-weaving. Effectively a
combination of Illusionism, Geomancy, Magic and Spiritualism, Mathmagic (the
precise process of which is known only to Mathmagicians) allows the user to rewrite
the patterns making up the world, or to create new ones in a means similar to
Illusionism but which result in real, substantial creations. A Mathmagician can
transmute items, age men to dust, render items “immune” to one another such that
swords pass through armour, control Ley Nexii, create life and do anything else that
they please. The complicated relationships between patterns, and the changes which
need to be performed with each working, are usually expressed as complicated
numerical calculations. Hence the name.