Understanding Sorcery, by Aurora Derther

Pt.1: Sorcerers

Sorcery is easily the greatest thing that Deos has blessed Eternity with. Greatest in that many a sorcerer has done great things, things that even a draconin's colorful imagination cannot comprehend such events. Were it not for the truly immense power struggle we find ourselves in the middle of, (One of the divine and arcane versus the inferno of the Eternals) then what I write here would be considered a work of fantasy. But we live in this struggle, and throughout history, sorcerers have continuously protected the common man. However, a sorcerer's life is one of trials, tribulations, and sorrow. Though, I speak from personal experience when I say such trials are not without reward. Along with said tribulations, and sorrow, Deos is sure to bless his sorcerers with companions, loved ones. He gives his sorcerers people they can count on, people who love them and vise-versa.
This is true even for those who are not born a sorcerer by Deos' hand. Even those who become by the hands of the dragons often find love and companionship very shortly after their becoming event. When I say "Becoming event," I am referring to the event in which a sorcerer whose magic manifests in some traumatic event as opposed to being born with it. Such examples include the draconin sorceress and Pillar Warrior, Etaria Haedros. She was the only survivor of a cultist raid. The same cult which I have faced in recent years. She lay bleeding, and dying in the aftermath under a burning sky. The dragon named Matrias was among the first to see the aftermath, and found Etaria. Matrias gave the draconin a portion of her own arcane magic, making Etaria a sorcerer. This pushed Etaria to ascendence. This is a method of expanding one's potential arcane strength, unique to the draconin, but we'll get to that later.
She received her sorcery from a dragon. She was not born with it. Even then, after she joined the Pillar Warriors, she found love. There has not been a single sorcerer in history who has live their life alone. They all were given someone to rely on, myself included. However, as I had said before, a sorcerer's life is filled with trials, tribulations, and sorrows. Deos gives purpose to his sorcerers. If the templars are his soldiers, the sorcerers are his generals. They often either deal the massive blow to the Children of the Eternals, or clear the way for others to do so. In fulfilling this purpose, they often are faced with obstacles, and loss. Friends, family, one's self, more often than not, this is the cost of fulfilling the sorcerer's purpose. Deos still grants us our free will, and though rare, such losses have caused the sorcerer to give up, or step down from their divine purpose.
That being said, sorcerers aren't the only ones who wield magic. There are examples in nature of mere animals wielding arcane magic in some ways. Some may at first think of the dragons, but they are far from animals. In many ways, they are wiser, and more sophisticated than any of us. On top of that, they are the single strongest wielders of arcane magic. They are the strongest of sorcerers. When I speak of animals wielding arcane magic, I am referring to things like the arc hawks, which trail lightning, and strands of arcane magic behind them as they fly. Or the ghost wolves, which turn invisible to hunt their prey. There are things beyond sorcerers that wield magic from within.

Pt.2: Function

All things have function. This is an integral law of nature. Arcane magic, in particular, sorcery is of no exception. In my time wielding sorcery, and taking time to make my own mistakes, and miscalculations has allowed me to come to an understanding of its function.
Casting a spell using any magic requires some sort of equivalent exchange. Unlike most other magic, with sorcery, the caster is provided the means to meet the arcane magic's demands. These means take the form of an arcane reservoir which lies within each arcane caster, including the dragons. A sorcerer's power is measured in the size of this arcane reservoir. The greater the reservoir, the greater the potential effect, or quantity of effects. This reservoir grows over time as it is expended, making the potential power of any given sorcerer truly immense. Many uneducated individuals have called me one of the most powerful beings in existence. While this is flattering, with many of the stories told of me being true, I cannot claim such a status. Many templars, who wield divine magic outclass me in way of raw power. Though the magic they use differs wildly, and is maybe a form of magic for my husband to write on is he so chooses.
To convert this reservoir into a spell is easy, almost instinctual. We sorcerers speak to this arcane magic with our thoughts, and intentions. We pull the formless magical energy from this reservoir, and, (for lack of a better way of putting it) tell the magic what we want it to do. We tell it what form to take. Be it fire, water, lightning, or just pure arcana, sent forth to perform a physical task. We think of what we want the magic to do, then we shape the formless magic into this with our thoughts, as well as manipulating it with our hands. This is the second measure of the strength of a sorcerer, their ability to manipulate the formless magic from within them, and the ability to give it form.
Even just by arcane magic standards, I am far from the strongest. While others live with the purpose of smiting the vicious cult that plagues all of Eternity, and have grown quite powerful, my own duty is only to my king, and my beloved. Rightly so, too. I could never dream to perform the feats of magic performed by those who live to hunt the cult. There are sorcerers that are stronger still. Though they are draconic, they are not the dragons themselves. Of course I am referring to the draconin. While munren, brimbarian, dwarven, and halfling sorcerers often reach a limit to their power, (though not always) the draconin have a mechanism within themselves to expand this reservoir they reach a point in which their bodies cannot hold the power as they are. This is referred to by them as ascendence.
I can speak very little on draconin ascendence do to the plain fact that I am not a draconin, nor am I ascendent. I cannot speak of what it is like to be ascendent, and I cannot speak of how ascendence effects one's life. I would be angered in a non-sorcerer were to try and depict life as a sorcerer, and I will not become such person. That being said, I can detail the science behind the magic, and I can detail what exactly it is. Like I said before, it is the draconin sorcerer's method of expanding their own arcane reservoir. They do so through expanding their bodies. Once a draconin's power reaches the point in which their physical body cannot contain it, they take one more step towards their draconic origin. They sprout massive draconic wings, capable of carrying them through the sky faster than many of Brimbaria's fastest sky ships.
The draconin were made from the dragons, and therefore have a closer connection to arcane magic itself, making draconin sorcerers the most common, and most powerful of sorcerers. Their draconic origin already gives them a larger arcane reservoir. Once one hits ascendence, their arcane reservoir increases dramatically. Literally dramatic. Any, and all records of a draconin reaching ascendence is accompanied by a massive display of the magic which pushed them to ascendence, be it arcane, or divine. I say theoretically because never once has it been recorded that a draconin has reached his or her peak in power, making a draconin sorcerer's power theoretically infinite. Once again, I cannot properly detail ascendence on a personal level what ascendence is like. Only what it is. Once again, this is due to the lack of draconic blood in my veins, and the lack of wings on my back.

Pt.3: History

Since the Old World, sorcerers have been the stuff of legend, of myth, though I assure you, as living proof, we are not myth. We exist, and we serve a very important purpose, given to us by Deos. Most of us are selected before birth to hold this power, and are assigned a normally impossible task. The power he gives us makes it possible. Some of us come into power during life. Here, I will give a summarized history of sorcerers based on texts I have read, and some speculation on what a future of sorcery may hold. Please bare in mind, I cannot hope to go over every sorcerer to ever exist in one text. Though we are rare, there are enough of us, with deep enough stories that entire tomes could be dedicated to them. And there have been. I can only cover the extraordinary among the extraordinary.
The beginning of sorcery itself dates back to before the first written language, (being ancient draconic) shortly after Deos created the Old World. Until the draconic writings were conceptualized, legends of people with vast arcane power were passed down through oral tradition. This results in many of the ancient texts likely being unreliable. Pair that with the scarcity of Old World texts, and piecing together anything about the Old World becomes that much harder. That being said, there are a few references to the sorcerers of olde. One draconic text, titled the Balled of Aarbex details a draconin sorcerer blessed with arcane magic from within.
This is the oldest of these texts, and it tells a tale of a draconin with scales of copper, and eyes of blue who was among the purest of souls. There are many writings that are far older, but this one is from around the time we believe to be when sin first touched the Old World. The timeframe for this, being the oldest, and potentially the first text on sorcerers, in a time when sin had only just touched the hearts of us mere mortals serves to further prove the notion of sorcerers serving Deos, and his grand plan. We believe this to potentially be the first text on sorcerers because never once does it call Aarbex a sorcerer. The text doesn't seem to have a name for what he was at all. Only in what few later texts there are do the authors of such texts call these gifted individuals "sorcerers".
Only after the Day of the Rift does texts on sorcerers become more readily available. It seems that every sorcerer that ever there was has written something regarding their abilities, though they are all lacking in way of understanding for those that do not possess the same gifts. The first sorcerer of the new world was a child of two from the old. A munren sorcerer from the northern end of Heodar. While some vilify the name of his closest ally, and some don't, I cannot hide the facts. The sorcerer's name was Ian Vikret, and he was a close ally to Sojern Orias. Assuming the Eternals exist, (as their cult would claim) and assuming his own writings are true, he is the first, and only one to refuse the direct influence of the Eternals. While some can resist the temptation offered by a member of their cult, none except this man have resisted the Eternals' direct influence. His own family could not. They lashed out at him, or rather, the shells of their former selves did. The only merciful thing he could do was to put them down. He would die in battle against the orc hoard alongside Sojern.
In the dawning of the second age, during a Doom Cage storm, a draconin by the name of Thraous was caught in the middle of the crosswinds. Desperately dodging the arcane bolts that pummeled the ground around him, and striking the arcane conductor rods nearby. He was not anticipating a double strike. The rod was able to catch the entirety of the first strike, and left Thraous unharmed. It could not absorb all of the second strike. It did however, absorb enough so he wasn't vaporized on the spot. Instead, his body was instantly filled to the brim with arcane magic, and he became ascendent instantaneously. He did not realize this until he reached his home. For the rest of his life, he fought the Children of the Eternals cult in the draconic nations to the south. Early in his life of doing so, he lost his brother to a cult leader, and spent a large portion of his life hunting that one man. He did, however, find love among the Pillar Warriors. She too was ascendent, which I've heard is the epitome of physical attractiveness among the draconin.
The most recent sorcerer, besides myself, is another draconin by the name of Etaria Haedros. She too was involved in the fight against the Children of the Eternals. Like I had said earlier about her, she was the sole survivor of a cultist attack, and was dying by the time the dragon, Matrias found her. The dragon gave Etaria a portion of her own power to the dying draconin woman. This made her a sorcerer, and instantly pushed her to ascendence. Though Etaria was not a templar, wielding the magic of the divine, (with which the arcane is often confused) the sheer power she wielded was simply too much to place her among non-magical soldiers. She was assigned to the Pillar Warriors, alongside templars like I had mentioned earlier. Her task, given to her by Fafnia's royal court was to stop the cult, and prevent further loss at their hands. During her time fulfilling this task, she too found love. The man was named Termar, and without his aid, she simply could not have fulfilled her task.
There are many more sorcerers throughout history, many that have served Deos' plan, have found love, have lost loved ones, and have done things the common man could not even dream of. Many already know my own journey through hell and back against the cult. Many know the friends that I have lost, and many know the love that now stands by my side. Many say that the templars are the bridge between the earthly, and the divine. I think this to be false. To truly associate themselves with the divine, one cannot seek the power in the way the templars do. Sorcerers do not become as such by choice. They are chosen by Deos himself, and perform deeds greater than any templar ever can.

---

Written by Aurora Derther, a munren sorceress in the year 516 P.A. This one text has singlehandedly transformed the way normal people look at sorcerers, and arcane magic as a whole. Often read alongside her husband's own text, Understanding the Divine by Aryas Derther, which was directly inspired by Understanding Sorcery.
Author's note: Thank you so much for reading! This is probably my longest article yet, and it took a lot less time to write than I thought. That being said, I know it can be improved. Any, and all feedback, and criticism is welcomed. As always, God bless, no stress, and have an absolutely outstanding day!