Cracking

An Explosion of Arcane Energy

"Imagine a container, a vase if you will. Inside this vase, you fill it with water before connecting it to a bellows and sealing it. You pump and you pump until no more air will fit inside and then you keep pumping. The vase cracks. And then it shatters, shards of ceramic slicing everything in the immediate area. That is the danger of sorcerers." - Kresh Sturmson, second bearer of the Circatrix Arcanum

Little is still known about the source of the energy that is manifested in the use of arcane magicks. Many have theorized that this magick comes from an entirely unknown realm full of raw energy that can be transmuted in a manner similar to the powers of the gods. Magi will manifest this energy through the use of learned spells in a precise and effective conjuring with the aid of a wand or other arcane implement. Sorcerers will pull this energy from within themselves, using their very bodies as the conduit. When untrained magi pull too much of this energy, their spell will fizzle or fail, or even be cast back upon them. With sorcerers, drawing too much of this power into their body can result in a limited state of extreme power, that is nearly guaranteed to be followed by an explosive death.
Cracking is the condition in which a sorcerer has channeled so much arcane energy through the conduit that is their flesh and bones that they begin to overflow and come loose at the seams. Its namesake comes from the visual cracking of the sorcerer's skin. The eyes will develop an ethereal cosmic glow, with large cracks spreading out from the eyes like crows feet before slowly enveloping the entire body. This brilliant, multi-colored light will pour out from every crack in their body, filling the area with an almost divine radiance. After a blinding light, the afflicted sorcerer will explode in a violent outburst reaching upwards of one hundred meters around them.
In this brief period where the Cracking is taking place, the affected sorcerer experiences an output of power incomparable to any level they had experienced before. Their arcane abilities are multiplied in size and scope and their control becomes that of a master. However, this overflow of arcane energy must be used. The sorcerer must be casting repeatedly in an almost constant fashion to expend this energy in order to avoid an early detonation. The longer and greater the spells cast, the farther off their inevitable death will be delayed. On record, the longest a sorcerer has persevered through Cracking is just shy of thirty hours.
This dangerous power is not something that can be conjured willingly. All Risen sorcerors have a natural instinct, a limiter of sorts, that stops them from pulling too much energy into their body. This limiter can only be surpassed in moments of extreme emotional and physical distress. Instances of Cracking have most often been moments where the sorcerer has been pushed to the brink of death following or followed by the death of a loved one. The sorcerer, having lost all sense of self-preservation, unknowingly conducts more arcane energy than their mortal flesh can handle.
Cracking occurs and in their brief time left in this life, they become a walking force of arcane destruction.

The Danger of Sorcery

The first case of Cracking on record was a La Patrian sorcerer who had lost their entire platoon in an ambush that pushed them out into the midst of one of the Göttsturms. The soldier, who remains nameless in the records for the sake of their family's anonymity, was found caked in the blood of their slain allies and fleeing an active tornado when discovered by Das Konigreich forces.
Survivors' reports claimed that the sorcerer's eyes and face were splitting open with an intense light when a lightning bolt came down from the heavens to strike them. As it came within a hair's breadth of the La Patrian sorcerer, they reached their hand outwards, redirecting the lightning to course through the ranks of the opposing soldiers.
They continued to unleash a barrage of hellish wind and peals of thunder that wracked the Das Konigreich forces and sent them into an immediate retreat. The survivors called him a 'living storm' with prowess beyond any they had seen before.
Were it not for the close presence of Kresh Sturmson, second bearer of the Circatrix Arcanum and Master of the Arcane, the sorcerer would have raged uncontrolled and caused the deaths of hundreds. Kresh engaged the sorcerer and reversed his spells back upon him, resulting in their death and ensuing explosion which engulfed him and is partially credited for his death in the years to come.
Since the discovery of the possibility of Cracking, sorcerers have been persecuted throughout all of Nora. Many treat them as walking bombs with extreme fear and disdain. The Arturians in particular have been prejudiced against sorcerors ever since this discovery. Many argue, however, that it is this exact prejudicial treatment that has caused the exponential increase in cases of Cracking.