The Basics
● Magic is an integral part of the fabric of the universe. It helps drives the ebb and flow of the world’s rhythms, and is intrinsically linked to the lifeforce of everything on Earth.
● Magic, however, is not spread out evenly across the earth. Some areas on the planet contain more magical energy than others. Same with people – you have those who can only cast one or two spells, and then you have those who can cast pretty much any spell they can find. Even certain dates and times can be more magical than others:
○ Halloween thins the veil between the living and the dead, and allows a certain normally very-high-level magical spell to be cast by anyone from dusk to dawn.
○ The first and last strokes of midnight tend to give a little extra magical boost to people who manage to cast spells at those times, given their prominence as magical deadlines in fairytales.
How much magical energy places and dates contain can change (typically as a consequence of what people believe to be true of said place or date). However, magical energy in people is set at birth and cannot be increased or decreased in any way. It’s all purely luck of the draw.
● That being said, almost everyone is born with some magical energy – only one person in a million is born completely without magic. And even then, that one person can still use magical items or have spells cast upon him or her – he or she simply cannot cast spells of their own. At the other extreme, about every two people in a million are born with massive amounts of magical power. These people enjoy the pleasure of being able cast just about every spell known and do things most other people can’t (particularly if they know where to get some of the rarer reagents). Magic is also completely useable after death – many residents of the Land of the Dead take advantage of little magical tricks and items to make their time there more enjoyable.
● Magical energy works something like a pool that is fed by a spring. When someone casts spells, makes potions, or enchants items, they draw energy from their personal pool to fuel the spell involved. After the magic is used up, the pool refills in preparation for the next spell. Think of it in terms of those video games where magical “mana” regenerates automatically. People with little pools use up their magic quicker, but also fill it up quicker. By contrast, people with big pools use up their magic slower, but also refill slower. Recharging almost never takes more than a hour, though, and totally burning yourself out takes casting a LOT of magic (particularly whatever counts as “high-level” magic to the caster in question) in a short period of time. Burnouts force the caster to rest and not use any magic for two hours as a penalty.
● Examples of magical ability:
○ Bonejangles has average magical talents and has learned one spell, Shadow Play, to perfection. He could learn three or four others, but he has no real interest in doing so.
○ Elder Gutknecht has is one of those lucky people who have ultimate magical ability – all spells are available to him. Couple that with the fact that he’s studied magic throughout his living and dead lives, and you have a formidable magician indeed.
○ Victor and Alice are somewhere in the middle – they have a rather bigger supply of magic than Bonejangles, and can cast a number of different spells, ranging from the simplest stuff to some of the higher mid-level enchantments. Alice also happens to have a natural gift for a certain illusion spell, False Flesh, and can cast it without cost.
● Everyone also has a magical signature – an aura around their bodies that indicates their magical strength, their general health, and whether they’re living or dead. This aura is invisible unless one uses a specific spell (Signature Sense) to see it. There are three main components to the signature:
○ Base Color: Living people have an aura with a gold base. Dead people have a greenish-blue base.
○ Internal Colors: These are colors that float around on the “canvas” of the main base color. They come in two varieties:
- Shifting colors are hallmarks of a person’s general health. A bright rainbow of color means the person is feeling great. Muted or greyish colors means the person is not doing well. The auras of the Dead always have muted colors.
- Stationary streaks indicate natural affinities for spells. They radiate outward from the person’s body. Each spell has a particular shade, although in some cases it takes a practiced eye to tell the difference.
○ Glow Strength: All auras glow when visible, but how brightly they do so depends on how powerful the caster is. The average person has a rather faint aura, barely visible in a bright room. A particularly powerful caster, on the other hand, could accidentally blind an unwary watcher.
● Examples of magical signatures:
○ Bonejangles: Greenish-blue base, faint glow
○ Elder Gutknecht: Greenish-blue base, immensely bright glow
○ Alice: Bright gold base, radiating streaks of bright green matching her eyes indicating her affinity for False Flesh, strong glow
○ Victor: Bright gold base that is edged with greenish-blue (this is a side-effect of being affected by Emily’s vow – he’s seen as both living and dead), strong glow
● There are no specific, formal titles used by spellcasters around the world – names vary depending on region and what the caster personally likes. That said, there are a number of titles that keep popping up:
○ Witch: generally used for female casters; can be a self-claimed title or an insult (due to its historically negative connotations)
○ Warlock: generally used for male casters; has the same issues as “witch”
○ Wizard: generally used for male casters; typically a self-claimed title
○ Magician: mostly gender-neutral with a slight bias toward males; some casters find it insulting due to associations with stage magic, others find it a useful way to tell people what they really are without breaking the masquerade
○ Spellcaster/Caster: gender-neutral; typically used in spellbooks for ease of use
○ Mage: mostly gender-neutral with a slight bias toward males; typically a title either claimed by or bestowed upon those with massive amounts of magical energy and who have studied magic most of their lives
● While magic is capable of many different wonders, there are a few things it definitely cannot do:
○ Magic cannot force two people to fall in love (either someone with the caster, or two separate people the caster thinks look cute together). Magic can boost attraction (this is typically what so-called “love potions” do), and it can help casters find people that they would be compatible with, but the true connection of love can only be built over time. The best magic can do is temporary infatuation.
○ Magic cannot allow one to time travel in a way that changes the past. There is an extremely high-level spell that does allow a caster to observe the past, but that’s it. Time is too dangerous for magic to muck about with. Similarly, there’s pretty much no way to observe the future – it’s in such a state of flux magic cannot provide anything to observe.
○ Magic cannot resurrect the dead. Once a soul is firmly anchored in the Land of the Dead (that is, formal braindeath has occurred and all that), there’s no way of restoring it to the body. In fact, the soul gets its own sort of solid body once down there, so the previous meat body becomes entirely superfluous. Those who attempt to raise a dead body get nothing but an empty shell that must be controlled like a puppet. Necromancy can be used to contact dead souls, and the dead can visit the Land of the Living on their own terms, but such instances are rare. The veil between life and death is another dangerous thing magic doesn’t like to muck about with too much.
● Magic, however, is not spread out evenly across the earth. Some areas on the planet contain more magical energy than others. Same with people – you have those who can only cast one or two spells, and then you have those who can cast pretty much any spell they can find. Even certain dates and times can be more magical than others:
○ Halloween thins the veil between the living and the dead, and allows a certain normally very-high-level magical spell to be cast by anyone from dusk to dawn.
○ The first and last strokes of midnight tend to give a little extra magical boost to people who manage to cast spells at those times, given their prominence as magical deadlines in fairytales.
How much magical energy places and dates contain can change (typically as a consequence of what people believe to be true of said place or date). However, magical energy in people is set at birth and cannot be increased or decreased in any way. It’s all purely luck of the draw.
● That being said, almost everyone is born with some magical energy – only one person in a million is born completely without magic. And even then, that one person can still use magical items or have spells cast upon him or her – he or she simply cannot cast spells of their own. At the other extreme, about every two people in a million are born with massive amounts of magical power. These people enjoy the pleasure of being able cast just about every spell known and do things most other people can’t (particularly if they know where to get some of the rarer reagents). Magic is also completely useable after death – many residents of the Land of the Dead take advantage of little magical tricks and items to make their time there more enjoyable.
● Magical energy works something like a pool that is fed by a spring. When someone casts spells, makes potions, or enchants items, they draw energy from their personal pool to fuel the spell involved. After the magic is used up, the pool refills in preparation for the next spell. Think of it in terms of those video games where magical “mana” regenerates automatically. People with little pools use up their magic quicker, but also fill it up quicker. By contrast, people with big pools use up their magic slower, but also refill slower. Recharging almost never takes more than a hour, though, and totally burning yourself out takes casting a LOT of magic (particularly whatever counts as “high-level” magic to the caster in question) in a short period of time. Burnouts force the caster to rest and not use any magic for two hours as a penalty.
● Examples of magical ability:
○ Bonejangles has average magical talents and has learned one spell, Shadow Play, to perfection. He could learn three or four others, but he has no real interest in doing so.
○ Elder Gutknecht has is one of those lucky people who have ultimate magical ability – all spells are available to him. Couple that with the fact that he’s studied magic throughout his living and dead lives, and you have a formidable magician indeed.
○ Victor and Alice are somewhere in the middle – they have a rather bigger supply of magic than Bonejangles, and can cast a number of different spells, ranging from the simplest stuff to some of the higher mid-level enchantments. Alice also happens to have a natural gift for a certain illusion spell, False Flesh, and can cast it without cost.
● Everyone also has a magical signature – an aura around their bodies that indicates their magical strength, their general health, and whether they’re living or dead. This aura is invisible unless one uses a specific spell (Signature Sense) to see it. There are three main components to the signature:
○ Base Color: Living people have an aura with a gold base. Dead people have a greenish-blue base.
○ Internal Colors: These are colors that float around on the “canvas” of the main base color. They come in two varieties:
- Shifting colors are hallmarks of a person’s general health. A bright rainbow of color means the person is feeling great. Muted or greyish colors means the person is not doing well. The auras of the Dead always have muted colors.
- Stationary streaks indicate natural affinities for spells. They radiate outward from the person’s body. Each spell has a particular shade, although in some cases it takes a practiced eye to tell the difference.
○ Glow Strength: All auras glow when visible, but how brightly they do so depends on how powerful the caster is. The average person has a rather faint aura, barely visible in a bright room. A particularly powerful caster, on the other hand, could accidentally blind an unwary watcher.
● Examples of magical signatures:
○ Bonejangles: Greenish-blue base, faint glow
○ Elder Gutknecht: Greenish-blue base, immensely bright glow
○ Alice: Bright gold base, radiating streaks of bright green matching her eyes indicating her affinity for False Flesh, strong glow
○ Victor: Bright gold base that is edged with greenish-blue (this is a side-effect of being affected by Emily’s vow – he’s seen as both living and dead), strong glow
● There are no specific, formal titles used by spellcasters around the world – names vary depending on region and what the caster personally likes. That said, there are a number of titles that keep popping up:
○ Witch: generally used for female casters; can be a self-claimed title or an insult (due to its historically negative connotations)
○ Warlock: generally used for male casters; has the same issues as “witch”
○ Wizard: generally used for male casters; typically a self-claimed title
○ Magician: mostly gender-neutral with a slight bias toward males; some casters find it insulting due to associations with stage magic, others find it a useful way to tell people what they really are without breaking the masquerade
○ Spellcaster/Caster: gender-neutral; typically used in spellbooks for ease of use
○ Mage: mostly gender-neutral with a slight bias toward males; typically a title either claimed by or bestowed upon those with massive amounts of magical energy and who have studied magic most of their lives
● While magic is capable of many different wonders, there are a few things it definitely cannot do:
○ Magic cannot force two people to fall in love (either someone with the caster, or two separate people the caster thinks look cute together). Magic can boost attraction (this is typically what so-called “love potions” do), and it can help casters find people that they would be compatible with, but the true connection of love can only be built over time. The best magic can do is temporary infatuation.
○ Magic cannot allow one to time travel in a way that changes the past. There is an extremely high-level spell that does allow a caster to observe the past, but that’s it. Time is too dangerous for magic to muck about with. Similarly, there’s pretty much no way to observe the future – it’s in such a state of flux magic cannot provide anything to observe.
○ Magic cannot resurrect the dead. Once a soul is firmly anchored in the Land of the Dead (that is, formal braindeath has occurred and all that), there’s no way of restoring it to the body. In fact, the soul gets its own sort of solid body once down there, so the previous meat body becomes entirely superfluous. Those who attempt to raise a dead body get nothing but an empty shell that must be controlled like a puppet. Necromancy can be used to contact dead souls, and the dead can visit the Land of the Living on their own terms, but such instances are rare. The veil between life and death is another dangerous thing magic doesn’t like to muck about with too much.