Magic in Ithekshem

Like everything, the foundations that underpinned the working of Magic has been changed by the End of All Things. Where magic was once a subtle weave across the skein of the world, a quiet background noise that was everywhere, carefully tended and groomed by the gods of magic, abuses checked and hubris constrained, it is now more akin to a broken mirror. It is sea of jagged shards of glass, of competing magical forces, and where their edges meet friction erupts into cataclysmic rends of power.
Magic is flows more freely into the world than ever before, with a thousand planes all collapsed into one place, but it is also more unpredictable and wild. Only tattered rags remain of any arcane theory of the Old Worlds, and wizards fumble their way forward, trying to figure out where to work.

Magic Concepts

Magic is everywhere in Ithekshem, and has become physical force that twists lands and births monstrosities unbidden by any guidence. It is a natural force gone out of control, imbuing those who can tame it with incredible power, but at equal risk. Below are some of the concepts about Magic in Itheksehm.

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Elements & Types

All magic come in one of several types, usually based on what Plane it might have originated from or what foul sorcery has since tainted it. In the Old World, most magical theory used the classical elements, but that has proven woefully inadequate after the End of All Things, and new types of magic energy is discovered every day.
An incomplete list of Magical Types include:

Astral

Derived from the Astral and Ethereal Plane, it is considered a higher form of magic, often able to affect spellcasting on its most fundamental level, empowering, weakening and twisting magic.
In addition to that, it deals with spells and effects that target the mind, soul, or 'ether'. Esoteric to be certain, but very powerful - mages who specialize in Astral are feared by all.

Blood

The end result of every blood ritual sacrifice ever conducted in the pursuit of Power, Blood is a foul energy that deal with sacrifice, pain, and raw power. Blood Magic always leads to evil ends.
Blood has always been used to summon demons, devils, and other horrors. That has not changed, though with no planes between ritual and demon, it has become more complicated.

Necrotic

The energy of death, undeath, and entropy, Necrotic can raise the dead as slaves, rot a foe to sludge in seconds, or stall entropy to allow a spellcaster to extend their miserable lives.
Areas tainted with Necrotic energy tend to be particularly unpleasant places - fetid swamplands of ghoulish hunger, plain of rattling bones, and everything else suitable for a nightmare.

Before the End of All Things, there was a little-known Plane of Blood, said to be filled with every drop of blood spilt in magical ritual. Should the remnants be found in Ithekshem, it is certain to be a potent boon for any spellcaster who manage to obtain its blood.

Earth

Often depicted as immobile and unchanging by those who have never survived a violent earthshake or thunderous avalanche of angry stone, it is one of the classic elements, well-established in arcane lore.
Earth still inhabits much of its traditional tropes in the new worldl of Ithekshem, though - as with demon summoning - dealing with elementals has become a great deal more complicated.

Fire

Like Earth, Air, and it's eternal counterpart Water, Fire is one of the classical elements used in the Old World. It is the fury of a wildfire, the smoldering of embers, the roar of a fireball. It is primal and often uncontrollable.
Fires from the Plane of Fire are near impossible to extinguish, and places of power made from the force of Fire are seldom particularly subtle.

Air

The howling wind, the gentle breeze, or a violent hurricane - air is everywhere. It is often associated with weather and lightning.
Unlike its more solid brothers and sisters, the plane of Air has suffered particularly agregious from the End, and been dispersed across Ithekshem, but sometimes sustains itself into permanent places of power.

With the End of All Things, magic have begun to mix in ways it was never supposed to, and it has given rise to entirely new, rare types of elements and energies. Some mages have begun to alter their spells to use these new, strange powers, and it changes them in turn.

Water

As vital to life as air, the elemental force of water has long been the subject of worship and sacrifice. Rain can save a kingdom from starvation just as surely as a tidal wave can wipe it from the map.
Once an endless ocean, the Plane of Water has become more finite since the End and have mixed with the many of the seas and oceans of Ithekshem. Such waters have pockets of vibrant energy, changing life around it.

Nature

The primal forces of nature in its entire glory, from wild woods to wind-swept plains. Before the End, it was often wrapped together with other forces, but with so many civilization reduced to nothing but rubble, few deny it.
It was often part of other Planes and other Power, but is now its own, potent force in a wild and changing world. It deals with growth, animals, and all things wild or feral.

Divine

Like smoldering embers or a dying star, the power of the divine is a fading force in the world. Gods no longer hold the power they once did, and have lost their grasp on the energies that made them divine.
It is a potent, raw form of energy, similar in some ways to the Astral energies. Often considered the very fabric of creation imbued, those who wield it are always one error away from being reduced to dust.

Prior to the End of All Things, there was a law of reality that elements did not mix in magic. That is no longer the case, and mages can (and are) freely experiment with various blends of previously impossible spells and forces.

Once such force is Banefire - a mix of death and fire which rots flesh and matter rather than burning it, all while spreading just as fire does.

Spellcasting

Though magic flows more freely than in the Old World, it has become wild and unpredictable. The world is charged with competing forces of magic and spellcasting has become just as much as the right spell in the right place as anything else.
Spellcasting come in two forms; Standard and Ritual Magic.
Though Standard magic is generally immediate, more powerful spells often take longer to cast. Ritual Magic is always an elaborate process, taking at least ten to thirty minutes, and often much more.

Places of Power

Leylines

Leylines are streams of magic - sometimes visible to the naked eyes, but just often not. Like arteries, they feed magical energy into places of power, or burst apart through the journey to flood a place with raw magic. Magicians and magical creatures of all kind draw power from these leylines, and are drawn to nest along their routes. Many spells or magical abilities interact directly with the Leylines, while other depend on their proximity for their power.

Demesne

A Demesne is where leylines converge or a particular well-spring of raw energy. They are places of power, and they change the land around them, twisting stone and forests, and mutating living things. Depending on the power of the Demesnse, these changes can be subtle or extreme. They often give rise to unnatural creatures or change those living there over generations of immersion in its energy. The fights to own powerful demesnes are vicious affairs, as they are sought by all who wish the exploit their power.

Manses

Manses are buildings made to channel and focus the raw power of a Manse into more productive, stable means. Even in the Old World, there were a reason why wizard chose a home for their towers so carefully. But where such places were subtle in comparison to the untamed energies of a powerful demesne, and the value and potential of a Manse have risen correspondingly.
Wizards will go to war to own a manse of the right type of energy, and take years if not decades to craft the perfect cage for the energies of strong demenses.


All places of power have a type of magic energy associated with them, and it determines both their own appearance and how they infect the land around them. A Demesne of Blood might turn all creatures within it into blood drinkers or taint all water within its influence with a strong taste of iron, while a powerful Fire Demesne might look like an never-ending wildfire, ending just at the edge of its dominion.

Witches, Warlocks, Wizards, Sorcerers

No matter what they call themselves, all spellcasters draw on the same energies of Ithekshem now. Those who relied on patrons to provide power, whether through prayer or unholy pacts, have had to change or perish. On the other hand, all such bargains have been rendered null and void with violent force from the End of All Things.
Clerics, priests, paladins, and other holy types have been hit particularly hard, as their magic were geniune manifestation of divine favor. Now, they have to make their own path.

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Magic Friction

The landscape around places of power and leylines are anything but smooth - often forming jagged edges and crashing into each other like tidal waves. Such friction manifest as intense eruptions of force and magical pollution, sometimes giving rise to creatures such as the Arcanoplasm.

Shards

Shards are vast expanses diluted magic power, regions and nation-sized compared to the concentrated pockets of immense power found within Demesnes and Manses. There are the piece of glass in the metaphorical broken mirrors of Ithekshem magical landscape, coloring the magic in an large area with faint background buzz of power. Even the strongest Shard is nowhere near the power of a Manse, but often enough to significantly change how magic - and life - functions within a region.


Where Shards meet, the clash of energies form Scars - magical wounds on the world and festering eruptions of contrast. Such places are dangerous and magic hungs heavy in the air. Spells work in unpredictable manners, if at all, in the area of a Scar, and the intense friction of magical forces produces strange environments and stranger creatures.

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by Miguel Eins