Despite appearances, magic in Archaios follows strict laws just as physics, chemistry, and biology. Indeed, magic is, in some ways, a culmination of these three fields. The Great Tapestry, or simply the Weave, is the most commonly accepted model for magic in Archaios, taught in one form or another in the halls of arcane academies and the depths of druidic domains alike.
In essence, magic is described as a great tapestry of interwoven threads that overlap and "weave" together to form magical phenomena. These overlaps can occur naturally or be coaxed into existence by a spellcaster. Generally, the more powerful the spellcaster, the more individual threads they can influence and the more power they can exert. Particularly powerful beings, like celestial deities, genie lords, and on rare occasion, mortal spellcasters capable of casting the
wish spell, can all but unravel these threads and re-arrange them into something entirely new.
For wizards, interacting with the Weave is an exact, articulate science. Arcane chanting "primes" the Weave for alteration while precise gestures and movements alter the individual threads. Sometimes, these threads need to be coaxed through a specific material to achieve a certain effect: vocal, somatic, and material components of spellcasting. Other types of spellcasters do this as well, though their methods tend to be more individualized. This is possible because of the second component required to interact with the Weave: mana.
Every living being possesses some level of mana, which is generally described as a sort of energy or resonance held in the body like white blood cells or synapses in the brain. Those with enough can exert palpable influence over the Weave. Mana also bears some similarities to muscle cells in that it is something that can be strengthened and increased with training and exercise. Again for wizards, this comes down to a science; like a body builder (ironically) precisely shaping his muscles with dedicated and focused training. For a sorcerer whos power tends to manifest more innately, their power grows through use, like a warrior whose muscles grow strong through constant travel and combat.
Lastly, there are areas across the land where the individual threads and tendrils of the Weave become clumped and tangled. Whether these clumps occur naturally or were coaxed into being long ago, they present uniquely strange and unexplainable phenomena and also result in connectivity between multiple planes (many believe it is the Weave that tethers the many planes of existence together). These "clumps" are the
Foci that can be found scattered across Archaios.
Classes of Spellcasters
While the manipulation of the fabric of the Weave is universally consistent amongst spellcasters, the means by which they do this differs wildly. Generally speaking, there are three major avenues through which one can use their mana to influence the Great Tapestry.
- Intellectual Precision.
Through intensive study and and persistent practice, a magic practitioner can reach out and manually pluck at the threads of reality. The more mana one possesses, the more threads they can manipulate at a time, and thus achieve greater magical effects. Wizards do this in the more traditional sense, using precise somatic motions, chanting, and magically sensitive materials to manipulate magic, while Artificers achieve similar effects by way of channeling threads of the Weave into magically resonant mechanisms and tools. In either case, spellcasting of this method is a purely "external" act; it is reaching out and altering the natural flow of magic to achieve a desired effect.
- Force of Will.
By some means or another, some mages have been imbued with internal threads of the Weave; something linked to, but wholly separate, from their mana. For these individuals, spellcasting is releasing their inner Weave to intermix with the external Tapestry and adding to or manipulating its natural state to achieve magical effects. In this way, strengthening their mana effects how much inner magic they can expel at once (like altering the width of a nozzle to allow more water to flow out of a hose). For this reason, practices that might help increase the mana of a wizard would be ineffective for a sorcerer, as the mechanisms of their magic are so distinct; it would be like asking a cross-country runner for tips on improving your weightlifting form at the gym.
Practitioners of this style of spellcasting are sorcerers, who's internal magic is either inherited through the blood or bestowed by some sort of magical encounter, warlocks, for whom their power is imbued (knowingly or unintentionally) by a greater being, paladins, whose holy oaths (often, though not always, performed with the aid of a magical ceremony) imbue them with internal strength, and bards, whose powers actually skirt the line between intellect and willpower. Bards are something of a unique edge case, as they do not inherently possess any internal power like a sorcerer. They generally use music to exert their influence on the Weave, but despite the intuition and training needed to perform in such a way, they are still using their "personality" to force change in the Weave as opposed to manipulating it like a wizard. For this reason, many believe bards are actually tapping into a very old and fundamental means of spellcasting by manipulating the Weave's resonant frequencies in order to alter it.
- Environmental Harmony.
The final means of spellcasting utilizes the spellcasters sense of self and attunement to the world around them. This method requires the mage to be highly perceptive of both their surroundings and their inner selves. For these types of spellcasters, magic is both an internal and external practice. They are like a loom weaving thread; they gather raw magic from the Tapestry, shape it within themselves, and then project it back into the world. This high perception of the self also allows these mages to easily effect the self of others, which is why magic of this persuasion is often utilized in healing and other restorative magic. Strengthening mana with this practice is best conducted through intensive meditation or prayer, opening up the spellcaster to the divine domain they serve, the nature around them, or their own inner harmony.
Classes that use this method include clerics, who through faith, prayer, and meditation open themselves up their deity(s) and domains, druids and rangers, who in a very similar vein attune themselves with the flow of magic through nature, and monks, who, while not "spellcasters" in the traditional sense, still channel the Weave and personal mana to augment their physical bodies (which they often refer to as ki), which they achieve through meditation, introspection, and the conditioning of the body through martial arts.
While these are the major means of spellcasting, there are many more esoteric means of achieving magic (some of which seemingly defy what are understood as the fundamental laws of magic). The most "common" of these rarer magic arts are Psionics (magic of the mind, which differs from intellectual spellcasting in that it behaves more like willpower spellcasting but through raw strength of mind), Hemocraft (magic of the blood that draws power directly from the mana pulled from blood let of the practitioner or their target), and Innate Magic (in which creatures saturated in magic can force changes in the Tapestry without any focusing materials that "normal" spellcasting begets).
Comments