Arcana Castigo

I pity you, mage. Yours' is a skill you have spent a lifetime developing. You may rival the gods themselves.
I pity you because you stare at me in confusion and disbelief. You are still so dependant on your power that even now you desperately try to cast the simplest of spells. You rely on this power too much.
You thought it made you a god? you were wrong...

— Baylim, Judge of Law, addressing his prisoner

The arcane art of negation, Arcana Castigo is an Arcane Genre that focuses on negating and stripping magical energy. This is done in many ways but the effect is the same. A warrior closes his eyes and the spells cast his way seem to bend and twist around him having no effect. A mage mutters a series of mantras and the fires set by an arcane arsonist slowly die down and seem to repair the damage they caused. A judge waves her hand and the criminals before her find they cant even cast a spell in their defense. The art of negation is a rare gift. It is a skill that requires considerable effort, practice, and in many ways sacrifice.

The Philosophy of Negation

Negation is a strange effect that occurs when one cancels the arcane power of another. There are three ways to accomplish this that have been studied and developed over time:

Polar Cancellation

Initially, it was believed that the only way to accomplish this goal was to cast spells that utilize energy that directly opposed the spells that are cast toward you. The energies of fire would be cancelled by water, light with dark, earth with air, death with life and so on. Practitioners would train night and day to build up the reaction time needed to do this in a real fight which leads to the ideologies main faults. The skill and training needed to be able to command so many different forms of Arcane Energy ask far to much of most practitioners. Its near impossible to have the reaction time and arcane talent to be able to counter every spell sent your way. This led many to stray from this ideology in search of more feasible methods. The concept is still taught and considered quite useful by many. This concept however is taught as a tool rather than something practitioners should specialize in.

Negation

Many practitioners believed that using energy in its many forms led to the impossible standards of polar cancellation. The began to research and experiment with other methods of negating arcane effects. This led to the present day concept of negation.
The idea is that one can radiate an aura or create a telepathic barrier around themselves that can deflect or at the very least, decrease the severity of incoming spells. This novel method of telepathy led to further advancement. One can extend the aura or barrier in a radius or even cast it on separate objects. Negation, put simply, allows one to cause change in magical effects in their environment. Powers include both auras and barriers as previously mentioned but as the genre grew, other methods of negation became prominent as practitioners experimented with other arcane manifestations These include practitioners focusing in on magical effects and simply breaking them down before impact or reversing effects of magical energy. The major factor of negation is time. The best among practitioners can completely negate magical effects in the short span of time they have to do so. others can only lower the severity of those effects or build resistance to them. This factor, while greatly diminished, is still a major flaw in the genre. This led to the development of another method of negation that goes hand in hand with what is already established.

by Howard Lyon

Limitations

The art of negation is regulated to some degree. Stripping is only used by the The Judges of Law and Merit and they hold the secret well. Few even desire the genre as it takes so long to master and doesnt work on everything one would call magic.

Mediums, shamans, bards, Oathbound, and Scions are all immune from the effects of stripping, and nullification. General negation however, can effect the abilities they use. Mages and druids are the most susceptible.

Other Methods of Negation

Many have tried other methods of accomplishing negation. Various enchanted items have been developed that perform the same way that a practitioner of Arcana Castigo would.

by chasestone

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane

Nullification

To nullify arcane energy one must have a deep understanding and control over magic. The first examples of this were in the form of prayers and verses from religious texts belonging to gods of arcane power. Reciting them can actually nullify magic in one's environment. In an effort to recreate this power, practitioners sought advice from these divine beings. The beings explained that the only way to effortlessly render all magic inert is to simply will it so.
With the rise of Intent as a concept in magic, being that the only real thing needed to cast a spell is an understanding of the casters intention for that spell, this caught on alarmingly quick. Those who understood could simply will the magic away. It took effort, and training as well. One must have no doubts when they stand in the face of a dangerous spell. The power of nullifying spells causes fatigue and most never get to that point in training.

Stripping

Arcane stripping is a controversial topic. It is unclear whether the arcane causes harm to reality. Many blame magic for the existence of Universal Maladies. This has yet to proven, however, and is most certainly not true. Stripping magic from the world, on the other hand, most definitely does. A small group of mages in Estoya banded together and tried to find some way of making Arcana Castigo more efficient. They came to the conclusion that while canceling out magic when its cast is useful, it would be far better if the opponent simply couldn't use magic at all. They began gathering subjects and conducted many horrible experiments on them. When they were discovered and their damage reversed, The judges that caught them were given an interesting proposal.
It turns out, magic needs to have some measure of faith to work. If one can convince themselves that magic does not exist, they can literally cancel magic at will and prevent magic from even existing in their environment. This is a form of Mediumship and requires a meditative trance that convinces the mind and soul that magic doesn't exist. This grants the ability to temporarily remove magical abilities from any around you. The cost of using this power is great. One will find it very difficult to learn other forms of magic if they learn and some find it's impossible to do so.

by Shi JinMengYuan

drop down for The Brooke Experiments

Of the experiments that were done, removing organs to determine where magic originates, using telepathy to tap and scratch on nerves in an attempt to "block" magic from coming through, and even trapping others in barriers to see if magic would work within are all examples.
Subjects were alive and aware, feeling every agonizing moment of it.

Those trapped in the skin tight barriers often drowned, burned alive, or were simply eviscerated by their own spells, unable to move as the barrier simply traced their form.
The mages were caught by The Judges of Law and Merit after the judges in question heard agonizing screams from their base of operations. The judges found them guilty of many crimes, and sentenced them to death. They burned every bit of research save for one single document. One of the mages succeeded in stripping magic permanently from a human male. The document went into terrible detail and in the end, the only way to permanently strip magic from another, is to sever the connection between a soul and the metaphysical. This is a heinous crime as a soul upon death can never venture to the afterlife from that point forward. The judges petitioned many of the most talented arcanists in Estoya to restore the connection. All attempts failed. Then fate intervened as a young woman from the provinces of Mhirriah answered their call. It was a Shaman who reconnected the soul with the metaphysical realms. The soul moved on and the shaman understood what had truly happened and offered to teach a safer method to the judges who took this information and made it a fundamental part of their orders.