Magic in FTaWSotR
Fanciful Tales and Wild Stories of the Refuge tends to contain a lot of different magical systems. This is a lexicon examining each one of them.
Administrative Magic
Magic pertaining to running Calamity Refuge. It holds the power to shift, change, build, deconstruct, reorganize, and what have you with any of the buildings on Refuge Isle. It also grants more generalized abilities, such as healing, offensive spells, teleportation, and other as-of-yet unknown powers. These powers only work on Refuge Isle or near a machine powered by Administrative magic (These machines usually have internal 'batteries' in case of a core failure. Ex: SimpleBots).
w-dueck is the prime practitioner of this art, though Jewels also has some power in this circle. Devices have been created to allow non-practicioners to use Administrative Magic. Even w-dueck uses one, as they save him time and effort.
Administrative magic is merely Internet Magic handled through the Admin Tower. However, the Tower changes the magic's properties so greatly that it cannot be considered a subset of Internet Magic in this list. For example, Internet Magic requires a physical link to a db core, Administrative magic 'extends' this physical link to cover the entire Refuge.
Ancient Magic
Ancient Magic is magic in its purest, undiluted form. It permeates through every plane of existence, and can be found anywhere and everywhere. Ancient Magic is the pure essence of chaos; it's bound by no rules. As such, it can do anything with the sole exception of destroying itself. Ancient Magic is often inadvertently what creates and destroys planes of existence.
Ancient Magic exists in incredibly low numbers on any given plane, even deistic planes. This is because higher concentrations often result in the plane dying very quickly due to the random mutations of reality caused by it.
Ancient Magic is the most powerful magic in the FTaWSotR universe. Practitioners often find that even dabbling in it results in incredible amounts of power, power beyond what even master wizards of other magics could ever hope to achieve. However, directing it is incredibly dangerous; because of it being pure chaos and the low intrinsic amounts, it's nearly impossible to tap into any amount of magic from an external source. Most Ancient Magicians therefore internalize a small amount of the magic inside them to act as a metaphorical spark, allowing them to use it reliably and at will. This, however, is where most practitioners die: Without a constant level of vigilance on the practitioner's part, the magic will wreak havoc, changing the person randomly and without consent. Even if the practitioner is ever-careful to keep a lid on the magic, errant thoughts can inadvertently trigger the magic lashing out and turning the thought into reality.
Magical Radiation
Whenever a magical mishap occurs that bends or breaks the rules in any magic circle, there's usually a small chance of what's termed Magical Radiation being created as a result. Magical radiation is in fact a higher-than-normal concentration of Ancient Magic still partially bound by whatever Magic circle caused the mishap. Because of its unpredictable nature, it is extremely dangerous and usually deadly to anyone exposed to it for a period of time.
Magical radiation can be dispersed either by an accomplished mage or by waiting and simply letting it disperse naturally. The problems with the latter, however, are that it tends to do further damage to its surroundings as it sits, and it can take anywhere from a nanosecond to several quintillion millenia for it to fully disperse. It usually disperses completely within a week, though.
Black Magic
A closely-related subset of Ancient Magic, Black Magic can be defined by one word: Evil. Black Magic is a slightly more diluted and more controlled form of Ancient Magic, and is the second most powerful magic circle in the FTaWSotR universe. Despite being a subsidiary of the neutral Ancient Magic, Black Magic is strictly an evil art; it draws from the spirit of its practitioners, and is done almost strictly to bind and destroy.
Black magic relies on using the soul of the caster as fuel; this results in a spell of great power, but also results in emotional and spiritual damage. This damage tends to cause severe emotional and moral lapses coupled with a craving for power, resulting in the practitioner losing their conscience, emotions, and becoming increasingly enamored with the art. The greater the spell, the greater the damage. However, it is possible for someone to dabble in the art and retain moral good-will. In fact, some regular practitioners are not in any way evil. The damage is still there, however, as a regular practitioner will find himself emotionless and unable to pull himself away from the art.
Black magic spells tend to revolve around souls as well. Be it binding a soul to serve the caster or attacking a soul and destroying it. It also revolves around doing harm, usually via dark curses and poisons. Torture is another common facet of Black magic, and some of the most effective spells known are cast as Black Magic. That said, Black Magic can be used to heal or resurrect someone, though usually at a great cost.
Elemental Magic
The 'magic' of elementals is not really magic at all. It is just their intrinsic abilities to do things that normal humans cannot. Like being able to sing well, the ability for elementals to use their magic must be practiced to be very proficient at it. In some cases elementals are naturally gifted and better at magics than others. In the same respect, some elementals are born 'tone deaf' to their abilities and will never be very good no matter how hard they try.
Specific Elemental Abilities
This is a list of known abilities for various types of elementals.
Fire Elemental
- Fire Ball - The most commonly seen and used ability of the fire elementals. To create a ball of fire in their hands and throw it at something.
- Fire Stream - Shoots a continuous stream of fire out of the elemental's hands. The continuous use is rather draining and cannot be held indefinitely.
- Fire Cyclone - Used by Vergil and Jewels in the Time Fracture Incident it is necessary for two or more fire elementals to combine their flames and cause an ever widening plume of flame from themselves.
- Flight - If the need arises, fire elementals do have the ability to heat the air around them in a way that would cause them to fly. It is a difficult thing to master, though, and it uses much energy. It is not uncommon for the first attempt at flying to end in a crash and/or unconsciousness.
- Chokehold - Used by Jewels when Vergil and (find name) first attempted to kill Cinead at his home. It is a drawing away of the oxygen in a small area effectively suffocating anyone in that area. It is actually rarely used since it is considered a crime on the fire plane and punishable by death. Only unreported incidents and provable self-defense go unpunished. It's use in war has been minimal since it has been deemed 'too humaine' a way for the enemy to die, and because few have taken the time to become proficient at it.
Water Elemental
- Water Ball - Like the Fire Ball only with water. Effective at putting out small fires and soaking errant humans.
- Water Stream - Like the Fire Stream only with water and the elemental must be near a source of water or their own supply would be depleted very quickly.
- Invisible Swim - A water elemental may, at any time, turn themselves into water and move just as water would. When done in a larger body of water, they may glide through the water practically undetectable unless someone near has the ability to sense life. To be noted, also, that flowing through pipes and even through cloth is not a problem for them.
- Breathing Underwater - Like a fish, they are able to pull any needed oxygen and nutrients out of the water itself. If the water has become stagnant, though, there isn't much oxygen left in it to pull out and an elemental would need to surface for air often.
Ice Elemental
- Chill - Ice elementals can chill nearby air and/or objects to incredibly low temperatures.
- Weather patterns - If practiced on a large scale, this ability can theoretically change the climate and weather patterns of the area.
- Ice Spear - Can form and throw a javelin made of ice.
- Hibernate - Can lower their internal body temperatures and go into hibernation, commonly covered with a film of frost.
Air Elemental
- Greater Chokehold - A similar but more powerful version of the choke hold used by Jewels when Vergil and Laesp'awn first attempted to kill Cinead at his home. It is a drawing away of the oxygen in a small area effectively suffocating anyone in that area. It is actually rarely used since it is considered a crime on all planes, and that only Air Elementals and extremely talented Fire Elementals can cast it. Only unreported incidents and provable self-defense go unpunished. It's use in war has been minimal since it has been deemed 'too humaine' a way for the enemy to die, and because few have taken the time to become proficient at it.
Dryads
- Merging with any tree - While away from their soul tree, a dryad may become part of any other tree on any plane that has trees. If the tree is connected by soul to another dryad, the merging gives the soul tree all of the new dryad's knowledge almost instantly. It can then share with either dryad whatever knowledge it wishes. Since it is so intimate, the joining of one dryad to another's tree is considered sacred and is rarely performed by dryads that are not mated.
- Accelerating growth - Using their own life force, a dryad may cause any plant to grow at incredible speeds as well move however the dryad wishes. The act varies in draining depending on the size of the plant that grows.
- Resurrection - Though it is not readily taught amongst the dryads, if one is dead or dying because of injuries received to it's humanoid body, merging with a tree can bring them back to life. But only if the life force of the tree is willing as the process transfers the tree's life force into the dryad and kills the tree. This is how Jewels survived the end of The Flames of War. Trees that have no soul dryads or ones that have been orphaned rarely refuse this exchange, though trees that have a soul dryad will only make the sacrifice if their dryad is willing. If a dryad's own soul tree attempts to make this exchange, the dryad can still live since it carries the life force of it's tree with it, though the loss of their tree can drive the dryad mad.
Half-Breeds
The intermarriage and mating of the various Elementals is rather a new concept. Any new ability that is witnessed should be documented here.
- Pure Elemental Form - This is an ironic name that the Half-Breeded Elementals have given this ability. It has the power to morph into a greater version of their two birthrights, rather than simply having a natural state, this is a super charged form, where they have greater combat prowess and abilities mixed in from their two parents. There seems to be some unknown side effects that have only been experienced by Vergil. Opposing Element mixes result in more power.
General Elemental Powers
- Elemental Ball - This power of throwing a ball of whatever element the Elemental affiliated with, almost all Elementals have mastered this power, some take unique forms to it, such as Earth Elementals, which throw molten rock balls, and Air Elementals, which throw chlorine gas balls.
Ermaria Magic
The magical nature of Ermaria allows spells to be cast in two ways: By drawing power from the air around the caster and using that to fuel a spell and change reality (also known as a mage spell), or by drawing power from within or a higher deity and using it to alter reality (also known as a priest spell).
Internet Magic
Internet magic is the magic powering the Internet Plane.
It is one of the most widely-used, if strictest, forms of magic. Internet magic is powered (primarily) by Database Cores, however, some dialects do exist that allow the magic to draw off of the user.
Most uses of Internet Magic are not using it directly, but rather through some other medium (See #Administrative Magic). This allows for greater control over how the magic is used, as Internet Magic in it's purest form can do little.
Database Cores
Database Cores are the core of Internet Magic. Composed of large banks of clear crystals, a database core acts as a 'well' of sorts, aggregating undetectable amounts of Internet Magic for miles around and pulling it all into these crystals.
Spam
Various forms of spam, such as Spam Beasts, derive from a 'mutation' (for lack of a better term) of Internet Magic. This 'Spam Magic' leeches off of the minute Internet Magic in the air to continue growing.
Noobs
One of the top practicers of Internet Magic was working on a crossover project between Internet Magic and Shaping when his research exploded. Later tests showed that the magic had irreversibly altered his genetic makeup, causing him to become the first ever noob.
Corellian Magic
Corellian Magic is the magic of the Corellian plane upon which w-dueck was born and raised. Corellian Magic gravitates towards itself and other types of magic.
To practice this magic, the embryo of the future mage must be infused with this magic at conception. The amount of inherent magic infused directly affects the magical ability, thus a child of two mages (whether or not they are practicioners of Corellian Magic) is all but guaranteed to have any magical ability (the magic gathers around itself, making the amount of magic nearby very high).
There is no dedicated school for Corellian Magic, so most mages learn independently, or from a mage who takes him or her under their wing. This means that the limits of it are not quite known. However, it is known that mages commonly 'specialize' in a certain field, such as healing, earth, air, etc..
