Source of Magic

The energy that fuels magic and other "supernatural" events is the same energy that makes up the souls of living beings. Anima.

Anima Cycles

Anima is formed within a soul when the soul creates new memories, grows, absorbs information--in general, through the process of creation. When a living thing dies, its spark (the portion that creates anima) passes into the Shadows (for intelligent beings) or back into the Mortal plane (for plants and lower animals). That energy is pumped up into the Astral by the Great Mechanism and passed among the gods and used to maintain the universe itself, with a large portion passing into the elemental planes to be aspected and used to continue the natural cycles of the Dream (such as replenishing the air and water, rebuilding the minerals and rocks, and keeping the earth-fire and Eua burning).

Some of the anima created is lost into the Abyss or consumed by great workings (great acts of creation, usually involving artifacts). Most magic does not consume anima, but creating matter from "nothing" does, as that is the source of the matter. In extreme cases (such as the cleansing of North Ithemba in 211 AC, the local ambient anima density is severely depleted by such great acts, diminishing the power of magic temporarily.

Instead, most "magic" (fantastic abilities) works by altering the aspects of the anima. Since all matter and energy is comprised, at its core, of anima, aspects are the part that distinguishes fire from water, the flesh of a bird from a stone, etc. Aspects can be altered and shifted by magic either temporarily or permanently. But in general, externally-imposed resonant transformations of aspects fades when the resonance does. But the effects caused by that transformation do not--fires lit by magical fire do not go out, cuts from blades of slashing wind that came from no-where do not automatically heal, etc.

Aspects

Note: this discussion follows the categorization scheme developed in Western Noefra during the 3rd age. Other places and cultures have their own categorization schemes. None of them are fundamental; all of them describe the same underlying properties in different ways.

Aspects can be divided into 4 Elements, each of which has one of three Characters (Umbral, Neutral, or Luminous) and one of two three (Diffuse, Condensed, Balanced). There is anima that is so strongly Characterized that the Elemental nature is irrelevant--these are called Lumina and Umbra; there is also anima that is so neutral that it is called Unaspected (and is almost always diffuse). Thus, there are 36 aspects, but at the ends they all merge into two possibilities. All matter can be categorized as having different admixtures of each of these aspects, although scholars generally divide things into a few groups depending on whether they contain only one Character of a given Element (regular matter) or contain parts of both Characters of a given element (Paradoxical). Most "normal" matter is Regular; many things that have "magical" nature include some element of Paradox.

Elements

The elements are those of the core elemental planes: Fire, Earth, Air, Water.

Characters

Anima can be of Umbral character, meaning it is sluggish, downward sinking, and stable. Luminous anima is effervescent, changeable, and rises upward.

Solidities

Diffuse anima is imperceptible to "normal" senses, but its effects can be felt as it interacts. Examples include the umbral fire associated with a hot (but not glowing) rock, warmed by the sun or a flame or the thunder of a lightning bolt (diffuse neutral air). The vast majority of anima is diffuse and unaspected, called the "ambient aether". This is the medium that spells and other resonant effects work in. Condensed anima is perceptible--the flame of a fire is condensed anima mostly comprised of Luminous Fire.

Examples of Matter Dominated by One Aspect

Substance	Dominant Aspect
Radiance/Positive Energy	Lumina
Entropos/Negative Energy	Umbra
Magical Force	Condensed Unaspected
(liquid) water	Neutral Water (Condensed)
Ice	Umbral Water (Condensed)
Flames	Luminous Fire (balanced)
Air (the stuff around us)	Neutral Air (diffuse)
Wind	Neutral Air (condensed)
Stone (generic)	Umbral Earth (Condensed)
Soil	Luminous Earth

Anima Cycles

Magic vs Fantastic Abilities

Generally, the term "magic" is reserved for abilities that form resonant patterns in the ambient anima, like spells and magic items. But all "fantastic abilities" (anything that would not be possible on Earth, nor are truly normal among the people of Quartus) are also fueled by anima. But the forms and properties of these fantastic abilities differ.

Spells

Living spell-casters accumulate anima in knots in their souls. These knots come in varying strengths--two lower level "slots" do not equal one higher slot. These knots are used to fuel patterned resonances with the ambient anima--these patterned resonances are spells. Some spells (cantrips) can be cast solely with the caster's mental energy and do not use up these knots. Without special training, these slots reform over time but require a night's rest to be usable again. There are rumors of some who can force energy into their knots faster, but those are not widespread. Some casters can cast certain spells by relying on ambient anima (and thus without using a knot or slot) at the cost of significantly increasing the time required, making them act much more like rituals (described below).

The number of spell-slots available to a caster depend on their level of soul-growth. For many (if not most) people, the ability to cast a single (or at most two) of the lowest-powered spells is the maximum they will ever attain. Some grow quickly, some more slowly. Those who focus on spell-casting tend to grow faster than those who split their efforts with martial pursuits.

While all spell-casters gain power from the ambient anima, the source of the spells (that is, the patterns through which they manipulate reality) differs. Those differences are described in the Varieties of Magic. The primary sources are

• Harmonic magic is the use of rhythm and music to manipulate anima. This is most associated with bards, common chants and Leviathan.
• Arcane magic is direct pattern-based symbolic manipulation of anima, associated most with the gwerin and with wizards and the more magically-oriented fighters and rogues.
• Channeled magic is sourced from another creature, where the caster acts as the channel. Associated most with druids and clerics, as well as rangers.
• Personal magic comes from within, often via birth or revelation. The casters rarely can articulate how they cast, and their magic is tied to their state of mind. Most associated with paladins, sorcerers, and warlocks.

For most mortals, casting spells requires components: gestures, material items, and/or patterned sounds (usually in the form of arcane-sounding phrases). These are not intrinsic to the spell itself; they're merely devices used as crutches to compensate for the limits of mortality. The truly strong beings, such as dragons, angels, demons, etc. generally require fewer such components; those beings with magic in their blood also rarely require components. The exact components are fairly standardized due to a scientific study of magic during the Old Western Empire period. Other parts of the world use different components. Verbal components show the most variation--the exact words aren't important. The cadence, rhythm, intonation, volume, and other sonic factors are what matter. Different schools (especially of wizardry) often obfuscate the truly important parts, and every caster does things slightly differently. They're more mnemonic devices than fundamental facts of reality.

Rituals

Most magic use on Quartus is not really in the form of spells, those discrete, individual patterns of resonant anima. Instead, it's in the form of rituals. With ritual work, the energy needed is gathered by the participants and shared through complex workings; the patterns are formed by the participants acting collectively. Single practitioners can perform rituals, with their ritual objects acting as foci. The oldest and most powerful rituals involve sacrifice of a living being, voluntarily or not. See Blood Magic for more details there. Often, blood magic is used to spike the power or shorten the time needed, as the concentration of anima in a living being is huge.

Rituals take much longer than spells to perform. For those spells that can be ritualized, it generally takes 10x as long to perform the ritual as to cast the spell. During this time, the caster (or casters) are vulnerable to interruption--they must maintain their concentration throughout. One benefit of larger rituals is that a practiced group can substitute members seamlessly during the ritual, allowing the longer rituals (some lasting weeks of constant work) to go on without killing the participants.

Rituals require ritual foci--implements, stories, chants, objects that all have relevance to the caster--like spell-casting components, these foci are more for the sake of the caster than for anything fundamental about the universe. Common foci include candles, diagrams, ritual knives, parts of creatures, gemstones, and chants.

Unlike casting spells, even those without "knots" can participate in ritual work. In general, rituals scale with the number of participants more than with the quality of participant--this is why cults prefer many disposable members rather than fewer, more powerful (and thus more dangerous) ones. This is also why village rituals work so well, despite not having anyone of any strength. Quantity has a quality all of its own, after all.

Items

Since all magic is mediated through souls, permanent magical items that can actively manipulate anima (cast spells or spell-like effects without needing to be recharged) are quite rare. In fact, some theories suggest that imbuing an item with enough anima to persist and gather anima by itself would by necessity involve the creation of a soul (and thus would make the item intelligent to one degree or another). Temporary magical items such as scrolls, potions, or spellstones (stones that can be charged to unleash magical energies) exist but the creation of these requires an intelligent being to contribute anima and, once used, are rendered inert or destroyed. Items with charges draw on the ebb and flow of the ambient anima to recharge, usually once per day at a fixed time (often midnight or dawn). Creating items generally involves a key item or location associated with the effect desired.

Some more powerful items require the active involvement of a suitable host for their power to be realized--they interface with the nimbus of the wielder and resonate with their souls. Due to this resonance, it is impossible for normal mortals to attune (become bonded to) more than 3 such items simultaneously, and attuning to an item requires time (as does breaking the attunement).

At the current time, items of Uncommon rarity and below can generally be created (given the key items) in the Federated Nations; those of Rare rarity and above remain the source of adventuring wealth. Imperial Legacy is the Adventuring Company most devoted to magic item creation and research. Potions and other consumables are easier to make, with occasional Rare-quality consumables going on the market for connected buyers. Generally, unless you're a member of Imperial Legacy, buying and selling magic items other than consumables is difficult if not impossible.

Innate and Learned Abilities

Dragons fly, when their wings are not nearly large enough to carry them. And they breathe energy. These are examples of innate fantastic abilities. There are many others--most monstrosity-class creatures (defined as those with fantastic abilities in a neatly-circular fashion) rely on these abilities. But many adventurers and other powerful people also use these abilities. They cannot be taught, they can only be gained by personal quirks and intrinsic nature. Most often, these are inward-directed and modify the wielder's own body, enhancing it with anima drawn from the environment. Often, these abilities are not consciously controlled--they merely are. As an example, a barbarian draws in power mediated by his emotional state, enhancing his own body to deflect blows and strike harder.

Other abilities can be learned by someone of sufficient mastery. A fighter blurs into motion, striking like a whirlwind for a brief moment. Another fighter calls out a command and his allies find an opportunity to strike yet again. A rogue wraps himself in shadow for a brief instant, shunting the force of a fireball into liminal space and coming out unharmed. Another rogue climbs as if his fingers were claws. One common characteristic is that these abilities can't be used continuously--they deplete the user's internal reserves. They're not magic, and they can't be countered by dispelling magics; they're merely effects that stretch the boundaries of the possible.

Arcane Glyphs, Arcane Phrases, and Language

When a spell-caster chants magic words or a scroll covered in arcane writing is found, a common question is "what language is it in?" And the short answer is "it's not really a language, at least as we know it. But it's distinctively magic." The long answer is...well...longer.

In the beginning of the Mortal plane there were four main types of "spells" (although that terminology came much later). Runic Inscriptions (also called Rune Magic), True Words (or True Sorcery), Essential Harmony (or the All-song), and Blood magic (the power of sacrifice). This discussion will only cover the first three, as blood magic is, to this day, different.

Runic Inscriptions

Wielded by the titans, this type of magic involved empowering (or scribing magically) written "words" or "runes". Much more complex than the current runic scripts, these runes were usually written across the wielder's body, forming part of them and responding to their will. The nature of these runes was most attuned to description--creating and reshaping things by describing its behavior. In 21st Century Earth terms, it was a programming language for the universe. Some of the basic symbols were reused in High and Low Runic, the language used for communication, but carefully bereft of the magical properties. To a practitioner of rune magic, magic happened in total silence as well as without unnecessary motion, but did require the material on which to write. Hence the use of the caster's own flesh as the parchment. If you could read the inscriptions, they looked more like mathematical equations, written in 2 and 3 dimensions out of interlocking pieces with every path through the extended glyph adding nuance to the whole. It was best at modifying existing matter, reshaping it according to the will, knowledge, and endurance of the wielder. The titans believed that the Dreamer wrote the world into existence.

True Words

The spoken form of the runic inscriptions (or were the runes the written form of the true words?), this was wielded by wyrm. In essence, they spoke the names of the elements and of matter, commanding them. These "words" were in the language used at the beginning to dream the world into existence--the wyrm believed that the Dreamer spoke and the world was. Use of True Words wasn't as simple as knowing the right sounds--you had to understand the nature of the things described and have the strength of will to bend them to your purpose. As well as some innate authority over those elements. The inverse of the titan's runes, use of True Words mostly revolved around breaking down existing matter, commanding it to return to its elemental state, pure and available for reuse. Before the Dawn War, titan shaped and wyrm broke down the excess, cleaned up the mistakes. After the War, wyrm used it to shape by subtraction. True words needed no canvas to write on, only that the voice could be heard.

Essential Harmony

Song and motion, dance and drum, wordless and free. The specialty of Leviathan to this day, it neither shaped brute matter nor did it break it down. It aligned matter, especially living matter. Shaping the will and hearts of others as they resonated to the melodies and formed living counterpoints. More than anything, the song remembers. Leviathan's role was to preserve continuity, to carry the plan between the other workers; after the War, it chose to become a living repository of all the world's knowledge. And that song still echoes through the deep.

Wizardry

Two of the three primal forms came to an end with the unleashing of the Orb of All Might. Some say it was the Great Mechanism, acting to preserve the balance and viability of the Mortal plane. Others say it was backlash. Yet others claim merely that the change wasn't to the magic but to the casters; that the reduced forms could no longer wield the true language. But regardless, the names that bound reality became inaccessible to both titan and wyrm in their degenerate state. The Second Wish changed that, reassembling the broken pieces of written and spoken words, combined with fragments of harmonies into a new route of access to the power of magic. This was the birth of "wizardry". That's not really properly called, as the scientific field of wizardry known today is but one fragment of this essential form. In fact, all mortal spell-casting is a variety of this ur-wizardry.

In essence, the wizardry combined writing (mostly in the form of the material components who carry fragments of the names), spoken words (verbal components) and harmony (motion, also known as somatic components) into a way for mortals to access power. In the Third Age, even divine magic followed this paradigm. True wizards learn to write down and (more saliently) learn from writing. What are they writing and saying?

Material and somatic components and glyphs

• Glyphs (found on scrolls, spellbooks, and as containment and definition for spells) are fragments of ancient runes. Not that an ancient titan would recognize them as such--they're the equivalent of taking the curved part at the top of the lowercase "f" and calling that a letter. But some fragment of their power still remains and they can be used as a crude syllabary, a circuit to channel power. Each tradition uses their own subsets of the shattered ur-runes, but the patterns formed are usually fairly distinctive and identifiable across traditions and across centuries, making written spellbooks and scrolls a fairly safe (hah!) method of conveying magical information across generations. However, the patterns are also almost trivially identifiable as magical writing.
• Verbal components are nonsense words...but contain within them phonemic fragments of True Words, spoken at rhythmic intervals (the echo of Essential Harmony). Most casting traditions intermix these necessary fragments into mystic-sounding words; many practitioners don't even realize that most of the phrase is just meaningless filler, there to pad it so the rhythms and emphasis work properly. Different traditions use different fillers, leading to a diversity of verbal components. Due to the inhuman rhythms and phonemes involved, it is nearly impossible to mistake the fragments of True Words for anything but mystic words of power. They sound, by necessity, like no other language.
• Material components contain aligned aether, serving mostly as a catalyst for the spell. Some powerful spells use things like gems as actual fuel, since the caster's power alone is insufficient (and inappropriately aligned). Foci can be used, containing glyphs and important symbols carved into aligned matter. Unlike the other components, very little variation is possible here (although foci confuse the issue)--without the correct catalyst, no resonance can be formed.
• Somatic components align the caster to the flow of the world, both helping them remember the necessary patterns of the soul and enter the correct state of being. Of all the components, these are the most varied because they're the most personal. But for most practitioners, they involve large, unsubtle motions of at least one hand--circular passes, contortions of the wrist and fingers, etc.