Magic

[magicademymods]

Magic Prior to the advent of the Magicademy Order and the accompanying Grand Codifications, magic was a jumbled mess that consisted of “whatever energies the aspiring wizard could wrestle with his mind and cobbled-together gestures and invocations long enough to shape into some vague semblance of whatever he wanted to do”; an undisciplined disaster without rules or sense. Or at least so the Magicademies teach, and those fine institutions certainly have no vested interest in promoting that view. Regardless of what might have been, however, what is in this day and age consists of the Curricula: branches of magic grouped by a broad and common theme, formally described and detailed in the Grand Codifications from which Diatu and all Magicademies teach. Designed from the start to be treated as sciences and fields of study, the Curricula trade the explosive leaps and catastrophic consequences of intuitive spellcasting for magic of far greater scope and comparative safety. Casting a Spell To cast a spell, one must focus one’s will into the world through three means, known as the Factors: sound, sight, and semantics. The sound made by the wizard focuses their mind on one spot, the sight defines the terms of the magic in ways the wizard may not be able to mentally conceive of or control, and the semantics provide the framework that knits the wizard’s actions and will together. Skill at wizardry is thus a synthesis of the wizard’s strength of will and mind, and their knowledge of the Factors they need to create that spell. Thus a wizard with immense strength of will but poor mastery of their spell’s Factors will produce a spell comparable to a wizard who is weak of mind but technically precise with their Factors. By the same token, a skilled wizard may still produce a competent spell with ample willpower and few or no Factors at all, whereas the most taxing spells cannot hope to succeed without mastery of both mind and form. The Curricula Discovery Sight Factors: Sigils traced by a focus (wand, staff, feather, etc.) Sound Factors: Incantation of sigils as they are drawn. Semantic Factors: Osmarius Sigils. The cart clattered down the street, metal-shod wheels skipping sparks across the paving stones, while people scattered left and right to avoid being crushed by the weight of the grain in its bed. Except for one man, who drew a wand from his sleeve with a flourish, then began tracing sigils in the air with it, muttering the name of each sigil in the strange vowel-heavy language of Osmarius. Just as the cart seemed like it would inevitably smash into the man, he spoke the final syllable, and a wall of steel sprang out of midair just in front of the cart. By the time the dust cleared, the cart was a wreck and the grain entirely lost, but the wizard was unharmed, which in the end was all he really cared about. The Curriculum of Discovery is not, as many a neophyte thinks, the Curriculum of divinations and determinations -- that would be ridiculous, as one does not ‘discover’ a bolt of fire, a length of chain, or a rabbit in one’s hat by learning they are there, but by causing them to be there. Discovery, then, is the Curriculum of creation, the forging of magical energy into physical matter and energy. At its simplest level, Discovery creates flicks of flame or splashes of water, but as students master it further, larger forms or even living creatures become possible. The dead language of Osmarius shapes this Curriculum. Modification Sight Factors: Geometric diagrams traced by a focus (wand, staff, feather, etc.) Sound Factors: Mathematical formulae. Semantic Factors: Mathematics. "...a2 plus b2 equals c2," the professor spoke aloud as he drew a right triangle atop the others, finishing the diagram of complicated polygons in radial symmetry. "Reduce all sides and we have proved that a equals d." Unable to argue with this mathematically magical proof, the marble in the center of the diagram abruptly swelled up to the size of a bala-inlota ball. The Curriculum of Modification, unlike many other Curricula, is precisely as it sounds: the modification of existing matter and energy. The most straightforwardly versatile and powerful of the Curricula, it is also the most fantastically difficult. Simple effects such as mending a snapped piece of wood or changing the color of a piece of clothing require only basic polygons and minor multiplications, but as the complexity of the effect rises so too does the complexity of the Factors. The entire mathematical branch of calculus arose out of efforts to create a spell to control the weather, by way of example. Consequently, masters of Modification tend to neglect other Curricula, while most skilled omnidisciplinarians rely on other Curricula to make up for their weakness at the highest end of Modification. Fantastics Sight Factors: The playing or creation of music (can range from snapping fingers to full concerts) Sound Factors: Music. Semantic Factors: Music. The line stretched out two blocks, which simply was not acceptable; he had to be in the theater first to claim the best seat. The doormen looked lazy, though, so perhaps... He quickly brought to mind the bass notes from Lady Dzyrny's newest composition, vocalizing them in a throaty hum at the back of his throat as he walked casually towards the guards. They never noticed him as he stepped right between them and through the doors. After all, nobody ever notices the bass player. The Curriculum of deception, misdirection, and illusion, Fantastics is as much art as it is science. One of the most flexible Curricula and with even its weakest spells being remarkably versatile and useful, Fantastics is admired and revered for its spectacle, yet loathed and bemoaned for its potential for misuse. Indeed, Fantastics was deliberately codified around music, in order to make its usage more recognizable, and merchants and guards all know to be wary of a seemingly-innocent person snapping their fingers or whistling a tune. Fantastics is also notable for being the only Curriculum which readily allows even nonwizards to participate essentially as equals; a Fantastics-wielding conductor can forge the music of an entire orchestra to their use. Thaumaturgy Sight Factors: Midair gestures, performed either with a hand or a small magical focus (wand, feather, occasionally a fork if caught off guard at the lunch table) Sound Factors: The name of the spell in question. Semantic Factors: Fundamental Principles of Wizarding (latest edition). Why oh why had he decided to get into this magical duel? "Force bolt!" he roared, twitching the tip of his wand through a complicated flurry. Pure magical energy leaped out of his wand towards her, only for her to raise a hand palm up like she was telling it to halt. "Reflection," she said, and the spell shot back at him. "Aversion!" he snapped back with a gesture like he was slapping it away, and the force bolt veered around him. "Reversion!" she said, tugging her wand like a fishing pole in miniature. As his own bolt thudded into his back and dropped him to the ground, he could only think that maybe he should have read up on counter-counterspells just a bit more. Magic for magic’s sake, argued either to be the purest Curriculum or the most elementary, Thaumaturgy covers those effects which are, simply put, ‘magic’. Sensing the use of magic, for example, falls under Thaumaturgy. Discovery can get you a blast of flame or frost or wind to launch at an opponent, but only Thamaturgy can shoot magic at your foe. Modification can transform the air around you into a shield, but Thaumaturgy can create a ward of magic that blocks everything you wish it to block. And so on, and so forth; if an effect does not fall under another Curricula, it can be found here. Because of its foundational use in magic, the Magicadamies actively direct and monitor the codification of Thaumaturgy, releasing a new volume of the Fundamental Principles of Wizarding semiannually. Intimation Sight Factors: Gestures of prayer, beseechment, or supplication. Sound Factors: Chants, prayers, or supplications to the Five Gods of Men. Semantic Factors: Religious knowledge of the Fives Gods of Men. "Byronis, God of Love," she murmured with her hands clasped before her, hoping no one was looking her way -- but she had to know! What was the proper form for this -- oh, right. "I, thy loyal supplicant, cast myself upon thy mercy. Know that thy answer adheres to thy will, that thy glory shall be greater for the granting of it. I beg thee answer this: does she LIKE me?" The suffusing glow of warmth inside her was a clearer yes than any word could be. The Curriculum of Intimation is that of knowledge. Scrying, divination, anticipation and prediction all fall under Intimation. The Curriculum suffers heavily from being deliberately codified as answers from the Gods of Men to the pleas of mortals, and in modern times the fact that the Gods have nothing to do with the answers gleaned from these spells is an open secret which is almost officially acknowledged by the Magicadamies; still, the Grand Codifications have far too much history and weight to abandon entirely, and the Factors persist. Intimation differs from Thaumaturgy in that the latter can give better ability to perceive, while the former gives truth without perception. A spell to detect magic would allow the wizard to see magic around a Forged item, while a spell to intimate magic would simply inform the wizard that the Forged item is magical. Sunderings Sight Factors: Magic circles (elaborate diagrams tracing exact paths of Sundering in spellform) Sound Factors: Chanting or reciting. Semantic Factors: High Osmarius. Repeating the same vowel-laden words of High Osmarius over and over, she finished the final drawing of the circle. If everything went well, the next object placed into the center of this three-foot wide diagram of magical energy would be transported across the room to the professor's desk. Taking a deep mental breath, she reached into the bucket next to her, scooped up the frog, and gently tossed it in. With a horrible noise, it disappeared, then coalesced together in the appointed space with a gentle flop as it hit the ground. The entire class let out a breath of relief. "Looks like we won't need that," the instructor said to the student holding a mop. The Curriculum of rending space and time, Sundering has been forbidden for five hundred years out of the seven hundred since the Magicademy Order was established due to the intense danger it poses to all civilization. Misuse of Sundering can cause temporal lock, dimensional breach, demonic invasion, spatial inversion, or simply scattering a dozen people’s worth of body parts across a town, and that’s just with the weaker spells. The forbiddance of Sundering has long been debated among the Magicademies, with proponents arguing that fools will always attempt to use it and only by educating wizards can they prevent these disasters, but only with the arrival of the Sundered has the Order at large acknowledged that wider study of the Curriculum is necessary. As a consequence, Diatu Magicademy alone has been permitted to teach the Curriculum. Metacurricula Rather that codifying and structuring a range of spells with a commonality, the fields of study known as Metacurricula focus on different ways to use those spells. As a consequence, they cannot be learned without at least contemporaneous education in one of the main Curricula. The Magicademy courses in these fields is carefully tailored so that a newly-arrived wizard taking a Curriculum course will be able to learn in a Metacurriculum course effectively. Forging Sight Factors: As spell, plus the materials to be made into the Forged item Sound Factors: As spell, plus the process of creating an item. Semantic Factors: Crafting an item in some way, shape, or form. Forging is the Metacurriculum of creating Forged, or ‘magical’ items: items with spells inherently woven into their being. To create a truly Forged item, one must hammer or smelt the magic into the item from the first moments of its creation; only then will the spellwork be so intimately bound into the object that it will never fade and never falter. As a consequence, most wizards who learn Forging focus on only one or two narrow aspects of it -- ringmaking and wandcrafting are quite popular, while a wizard who can craft the propellers or wings of an airship will likely be one of the richest and most valued wizards in their kingdom of choice. Not for the faint of heart, Forging items of any magical complexity requires the twinned skills of both a craftsman and a wizard, making this a grueling but rewarding discipline Glyphics Sight Factors: As spell, plus glyphs drawn in prepared enchanted ink Sound Factors: As spell, plus the addition of a metronymic sound. Semantic Factors: The inscription of glyphs in perfect time. Glyphics is the art of creating a ‘freestanding’ spell, one that awaits the proper time and place to go off, independent of its maker. Most commonly, glyphics are used to create wards or traps on the wizards’ home or belongings, though warfare can see offensive use of these as occult land mines or ballista bolts with detonating sigils upon them. Glyphics can even accomplish much of what Forging can in practical terms; a Glyphed sword can burst into flames just as a Forged one can. (The tradeoff, for the curious, is that a Glyph is less powerful than a comparable Forged item, and the Glyph will fade while the Forging never will.) As such, Glyphics is immensely popular among wizards. Forbidden Curriculum: Dictation Sight Factors: ??? Sound Factors: ??? Semantic Factors: ??? The banning of Sundering had a fair share of controversy; the Curriculum offered some benefit that might be worth the harm, and its users with good intent but bad outcomes always outweighed those wielding Sundering for malice. Not so Dictation; the Magicademies, the Tenscore Kingdoms, all right-thinking people and most wizards wish every last jot of knowledge about Dictation burned and banished. It is, after all, almost impossible to use mind control for good ends. Main Community  Network Community  OOC Community Premise  Rules  Game Guide and FAQ  Reserves  Applications  Taken Magic  The Six Houses  Diatu Magicademy  NPCs  Familiars Anastara    (First Ring    Second Ring    Third Ring) Adventures  Classes and Student Teaching Hiatus/Drop  Suggestions and Feedback