[Usually, and probably only found in the Arcane Tower, this tome awaits for the right hands to open it, greeting with the words:]
The Anatomy of Magic (Unabridged Version)
- A summary of reality by Veritas Doplehaulserman
Forewords: I am writing this, for it seems too many of us forget the principles of magic. Too many are the wizards, the researchers that sink the nose so deeply into their own arts, that we forget where we've come from, what have we done. We forget the pillars and the shoulders where we stand.
This is my tribute, to the experienced wizard, to the avid and curious researcher, to the wondering mind and the knowledge-hungry scholar, my ode to you.
Much of the content of this book is not a matter of opinion, but rather, an explanation of different universal concepts that every magician must come to grasp in a way or another. The concept the paradigm still stands.
Chapter 1: On Magic, in all its forms.
We will start with something other than magic: Information.
Information is the name we give to all matter and energy that exists in the multiverse. Everything that does exist is composed of information - you, the quill I am holding, this tome, the air you are breathing, even your very thoughts. Everything is information, all arranged in a different order, given a different purpose. After all, you are not as solid as a solid block of diamond, nor that diamond will be as light as a feather of the same size, even if they are composed of the same properties.
Now, magic - magic is a natural resource which can be found nearly anywhere in the multiverse. Its purpose? Modify information. Nothing more, nothing less, but since we established that Information is everything, we have yet to find something that magic cannot find a way to do.
Magic is perpetually gathering and flowing streams, invisible to our eyes. We have methods to perceive it, and many are the stories of the young apprentices that once graced with the sight, coveted nothing more than see it forever, only to be driven deeply insane. Magic, however beautiful it may be to perceive, is everywhere, and our brains are simply not designed to stare at it for long , very much like we should not stare to our sun as it may do more than hurt our eyes.
The problem with magic in this state is that it is nearly impossible to access directly. It takes a method to access magic, to reach for it, decode it, give it format, and basically, tell it what we want it to do for us. These methods usually require something that we know as Connections.
In our reality, there exist countless services, forces, systems and entities that have the inherent ability to translate magic for us. All we have to do is learn the proper language to reach to these many "decoders", and we will forever earn the label of spellcaster. It does sound simple in principle, doesn't it?
Let's start by naming a few of these decoders. Perhaps you have heard of the Weave before? The Weave is an extension of the Lady of Mysteries, Mystra herself. She alone permeates reality with this 'fabric', that we can simply reach out to as one of our many connections. We call all the magic that is performed through the Weave... Arcane.
But there are more. The gods for example. You've seen them in action, the mighty priests of the many gods and goddesses that watch over our mortal lives. Those that preach their word through agreement, drawing a holy (or unholy!) connection toward them to exercise their magic. We call all magic that comes from the gods Divine.
And we could go on for days naming formats of magic, but I do value your time, reader, so let's revisit something important. I wrote before that learning to employ magic was a matter of language and drawing Connections, didn't I? It is time to delve into this.
Every form of magic employs its own... technique, its own method. The priest must come to terms with their gods. The innatist must synchronize with their magic, like a living being, and the wizard must carefully study the semantics of the arcane. Why this is so, why our words carry power and command magic, nobody can explain for certain, and it may simply be the nature of magic to obey the instructions that we give it. We will be seeing the method more closely next chapter.
Contrary to the belief of many, magic is not born in the Weave. The Weave is a massive facilitator, a system offered by Mystra to allow a different form of magic. Magic would not cease to exist if the Weave or the gods did, but Arcane and Divine magic would cease to exist as we know it, and we would have to employ other methods to access it.
Chapter 2: Spellcasting
In the previous chapter we defined magic. Now, in this we will work on the most known method to employ magic and give it purpose: The spells.
A spell is a sequence of instructions written to explain to Magic how do we want to use it. These instructions are summarized in different equational segments - each called a Component. Some of these Components that we will organize in order at the time of writing a spell are Length, Energy, Target, Descriptor, Power, Range, Area, Foci - and most importantly, Purpose. All of these components, with the exception of Purpose, can be altered with Metamagic (seen next chapter). Purpose is the one true component that defines what sort of Information will the spell alter.
For example, a spell may have the Purpose of altering a piece of information from a mind, rewriting the perception of "Threat" as "Friend". We may modify the duration it is intended to take, we may override defenses, we may use a different variant of the spell that reaches out to a group of individuals, rather than one, but the Purpose is the tip of the spear of the spell. We will be seeing Metamagic later on.
What we can do with our spells is limited to the nature of our Connections, as the gods may offer different formats to channel magic than what we would see with the Weave, though there are ways to override these limitations.
These spells are not held merely in a tome or appearing out of thin air. Depending our format of Connection, we may have to spend several hours in studious memorization or prayer. During this moment of memorization, we will also create a sequence of triggers that will serve to release the spell from our mind, in the act properly known as spellcasting.
At this stage, our spells are like tense arrows ready to be released with just our intent. Upon casting, the spells are erased from our mind, lost like arrows in flight, until our next re-memorization.
A spell is something that we impress in our minds, no matter the style of our Connections. The priest may feel that they are being granted by their gods these powers, directly writing them in their mind. The sorcerer may feel that they are simply there, much to their dismay, without being able to truly appreciate the depth and complexity of the magic that is written in their minds. Only in the case of the wizard, that we have to study, write and carefully memorize these spells, we can be truly aware of the true composition of the spell.
A spell exists in the mind, as a sequence of written information, like a well-rehearsed poem waiting to be recited - or unleashed upon the activation of the in-built triggers that we may have constructed for them, usually taking the form of a sequence of motions of hand, verbal declarations and using a specific focus to help us process the complexity of the spell in real-time as it is being cast.
The complexity of the spells is something noteworthy. Not only that we use a complicated system to selectively organize and label the nature of our spells (which we call schools), but that we organize how hard, and how powerful a spell may be to cast simply by its complexity.
Complexity is, simply, the mathematical length of the sequence of components of the spell. A Magic Missile may seem - to the versed magician - a basic exercise, as it would be simply multiplying by five and ten, whilst a Gate conjuration may still seem like an unapproachable, unassailable equation that would need days to be even uttered correctly - as it would be having to rehearse and memorize an extremely large poem with perfect accuracy, that happens to also change depending where you are, the hour, the color of the sky, what are you wearing and what was the last thing you ate.
We categorize complexity in usually Twelve tiers. Cantrips - The Nine Circles - the Tenth Circle, and very rarely, the Eleventh Circle. Cantrips compose initiate-level magic, and are defined as the baby steps of every would-be magician. The Nine Circles are a direct escalation of complexity in magic. The ladder of the proper arcanist. The Tenth Circle is the territory of what we call Epic Magic - spells of overwhelming potency, that basically require their own personalized, constructed space in our minds to exist at all.
The Eleventh Circle is the distant land that no mage should ever tread, for therein lies such power that it could damage the fabric of reality itself. Luckily, even in the island of Arelith, we have hardcoded protections in magic that prevent anybody from remotely delving into this territory.
Chapter 3: Metamagic
As we previously mentioned Metamagic, this is due a more in-depth explanation.
The formulas of the Components of the spells are usually dependant of our own power, and occasionally, hooking to other seemingly random factors (we'll ignore those for now). Though comes the time of every magic user that wonders "what if we remove this part, and change it with something better?", in which case, they have begun to delve into the nature of metamagic.
Metamagic is the art of modifying the formulas of the components with more defined, sharp, attuned versions of the same.
For example, we could hook into an Extension script into the length part to double the duration of the spell, or Maximize the power output to guarantee that our fireballs achieve a maximum degree of destruction.
There are a plethora forms of metamagic, and while this may seem like spell optimization for free, it has two severe drawbacks:
Firstly, unfolding the comprehension of a single aspect of metamagic is a tedious, tiring task and it toils on the mind. Often, the very comprehension of an aspect of metamagic weighs forever on those that unfold it.
And secondly, since the formula that we are adding to our spells is increasing their complexity, it means that we will need to regard it as a spell of a higher Circle to fit its complexity.
This latter drawback, for the expert magician, will come as a bonus in disguise, as once the many Circles unfold, we will be left with a greater versatility to where we may allocate our spells in our minds.
Chapter 4: Hybrid Disciplines
Usually, it is encouraged to use a single Connection. Each of them are their own idiom, a language that takes years for one to even grasp correctly.
And even if one were to grasp two Connections, they would seem like two completely separated forces with no cohesion whatsoever.
However, there are cases and disciplines which have successfully managed to combine different sources into a single stream, often resulting in amazing new heights of potential.
As such, the combination of Arcane and Divine is what makes the Mystic Theurge, Arcane and Luck makes the Wild Mage, Arcane and Eldritch makes the Warlock, Arcane and Void the Enthropist, and so on.
There are thousands of disciplines that disappear with the passage of time, and are found, invented, recreated and widespread anew in booms of popularity, only to disappear again, as many arts that in years prior weren't as predominant in the island of Arelith and the rest of this archipelago as they are now, and that one day in the future may become widespread once again in these lands.
An example of this was the predominance of Favored Souls - innatists of the divine world - that upon a time were abundant in the island of Arelith, and simply are not anymore for reasons that are entirely unknown to us.
Now, all these disciplines usually rely on magic as a resource to operate, but... what if magic wasn't available?
Chapter 5: Null Magic and Dead Magic
Previously we mentioned that Magic as a resource could be found nearly anywhere in existence. There are two notable exceptions to this, and we will explain their difference now.
Null Magic are zones where the Connections are disrupted, and thus methods to access magic that require the Decoders (gods, Weave, etc) are impossible to achieve.
Depending the nature of these zones, they may have defined in-built limitations, as it is known for Sharrans to create their own zones where the Weave cannot be accessed, but the Shadoweave can.
Much to the surprise of many, magic still exists in a Null Magic area. We are simply unable to reach it directly - thus lingering spells and magic artifacts retain their properties.
Dead Magic areas aren't so gentle. No. Not only that magic does not flow and draw in a Dead Magic area, but it is also completely denied and wiped out.
Artifacts become mundane, dragons lose their flight, spells held by mages from either side are completely undone. Even the mightiest of the archmages is but a peasant here. But despair not! Because there simply are no known areas where true Dead Magic exists in the island of Arelith. Just the same, keep that sword on the belt, for you never know when magic may fail you.
However, whilst most common methods to manipulate magic are lost, there are exceptions, which we will address now:
Chapter 6: The Extraordinary and the Supernatural
While we know there are methods, conditions and individuals that have the inherent ability to replicate spells, these are still magical abilities that require the Connections.
However, there are other methods to alter reality that don't require the Connections. These spell-less abilities, these forms of pseudomagic we know as the Supernatural.
These abilties still rely at some extent on magic, and thus they could not function in Dead Magic areas, but depending their nature, they may still bypass Null Magic areas.
Notable cases of this are Bards. Bards employ for the greater part an Arcane Connection, but the magic component of their Art is not drawn from the Weave, but directly from the environment. Directly from Magic itself, using oneself as decoder to give it format.
Now, the Extraordinary pushes this a notch further. These are known methods and abilities that may seem magic, they may seem even impossible without magic, but they aren't.
The Extraordinary does not draw from Connections. It does not draw from Magic. Instead, the Extraordinary employs oneself as a battery of reality-altering power.
At some extent, those individuals that achieve extraordinary abilities are their own Connection, building power that exists in their own, personal reserves to employ.
Every creature that has ever been is capable of expanding in this department, as Power is a concept built for within. However, deliberatly fostering and manipulating it becomes a discipline.
The most common individuals that you may see employing this manner of power are what we regard as Monks and Ki Masters, and the study of the Self is something that merits its own book, and as this tome has grown quite extensive enough, it may be due time to drive it to its end.
Closing Words:
Even in the unabridged version of this tome, I still feel that this is offensively abridged, as I touch and skim over many components of reality which, I simply hope, mention sparks the fire of interest to research further. No, not just that: To push further, delve further, grow further. Find new methods, new Connections. Invent new magics and new styles, and no matter the result, be proud of your Art.
You may as well find that it could be proud of you.