Post by Melody Leeas (Hotpocket) on Jan 1, 2012 20:49:12 GMT -5
This thread will cover the beginning of magick history, the different affinities, the physiology of magick, and give some examples of magical abilities that the characters could do. All of this is optional reading. However, it is highly recommended that you at least read the section on affinities.
Affinities:
An "Affinity" is an element of magick. At first there was only fire, earth, air, and water. The four basic elements - the originals. Over time though new forms were developed through the process of being born in certain circumstances and being raised. That will be covered in the physiology section. For now though let's get onto what the affinities are and give some examples of them.
Fire: The affinity of fire grants the character the ability to manipulate, control, and conjure flames. For example, one could conjure a flame in the palm of their hands then manipulate it into a ball and then shoot it towards the target - controlling the direction it goes in with the movement of their hand.
Water: Having the affinity of water grants the character the ability to manipulate, control, and conjure water. They could walk on water, swim at extremely high speeds in it, have a longer breath under water, and not to mention make and control water balls just like a fire sorcerer would make fire ones.
Air(or Wind): Air, or wind as some people refer to it as, is the ability to manipulate the very air around your character. They could do things such as conjure miniature tornadoes, cause extreme wind within a mile(more or less depending on how powerful), and the defining factor is the ability to fly by manipulating the air around them. Lightning magick also falls under this category.
Earth: Earth. You could say that characters with the earth affinity tend to always have an advantage seeing as how they're surrounded by ground. They can manipulate the very earth under their feet in any number of ways. They can raise up pillars from underneath their foes, hurl massive heavy chunks of rock, sculpt statues, and so forth.
Shadow: Shadow is the manipulation of light and dark. Characters with the shadow affinity can generally do things such as emit light or cause things to stop emitting light. One example could be a fire sorcerer shooting fire magick at the shadow sorcerer and the shadow sorcerer would be able to stop the fire from emitting light(but not actually be able to stop the fire). So basically be able to turn anything that emits light into darkness, and vise-versa. Another fun thing they can do is turn invisible by manipulating the light around them.
Madness(or Illusion): Madness, or illusion as some call it is the affinity which allows you to really mess with somebody's head. You could force your opponent into sleeping and then fill them with such nightmarish dreams that they would wake up insane. They can also make people see things that aren't really there and even move through time and stop it for a very brief moment. For example, they could stop time for several seconds to move behind an enemy or away from an attack, or they could use a massive amount of their energy to travel back in time just a few moments.
Industrial(or Sound): Industrial is the magick of everything mechanic and modern. Sound also falls into this category barely. Characters with the industrial affinity could do things such as summon a familiar made out of bronze with 6 arms and swords in each one or perhaps cause such a sharp noise that it temporarily deafens anybody who can hear it. Maybe summon a weapon such as a magical violin and then play a song with each note being a deadly beam of sound sent flying towards the opponent.
Life(or Death): Life - or it's opposite, Death - is the affinity of, well, life and death. A character with this affinity can do things such as cure ailments in the body(which makes them popular as healers in hospitals) or do things such as create a deadly poison that could instantly kill(which also makes them good for assassins). A powerful enough life sorcerer could even raise the dead or kill something smaller than an adult human with the touch of a finger. It's even possible to temporarily instill life into animate objects such as dolls or weapons.
Negation: Negation is the anti-magick magick. This affinity has almost no offensive value but it can defend against any magick without fail. It would take a truly powerful sorcerer to be able to break a barrier that a negation sorcerer could conjure. Negation sorcerers are popular in the government and law as the sorcerers who keep other sorcerers in check.
Void: Void. The magick of magicks. This is the first true affinity to ever exist - all other affinities come from it. Void is simply magick in it's truest form - energy. It's both the weakest and strongest of affinities at the same time. Weak in the sense that it isn't particularly strong against anything in general such as water being strong against fire, but it's also not weak against anything either. Void is possibly the hardest affinity to master and actually work with. The only person to have ever truly mastered void magick was capable of creating a black hole which left a mile wide and deep crater in the ground... and when the black hole vanished the caster was nowhere to be found. It's presumed that he was killed by his own magick.
There is one thing that every sorcerer is capable of doing no matter what their skill level and that's creating a labyrinth. Creating a "Door" is the first step to creating a labyrinth. A "Door" is how you get in and out of your labyrinth - the only thing connecting the world to the labyrinth. Now, what is the actual labyrinth? Once you step into the "door"(which can look like whatever the sorcerer wants, by the way) they enter a small pocket dimension in an alternate universe. Only the sorcerer can get into their own labyrinth unless of course they open the door for others. When inside the labyrinth, the sorcerer who owns it is literally the god of it. Anything possible can happen inside except the creation of living beings. Does your character decide to make their labyrinth a giant ocean? Maybe a giant clockwork tower with never-ending stairs? It could even be an air bubble inside of a volcano with no gravity if that's what the sorcerer wants. Anything created inside of the labyrinth can not be taken out. Only things that enter from the normal world may leave the labyrinth.
Physiology of Magick
Not much is known about magick at all. What is known though is that all magick comes from a special sort of energy which fills the body - that energy is called "Vis". Well, the "technical" term for it is "Vis". Generally everybody who doesn't actually have "Vis" just calls it "Mana". Now then, where does "Vis" come from? Nobody knows. All that's known of it's origin is that it randomly entered human bodies on Dawn. Then it stopped entering random humans on Arrival and could only be obtained by being born with it. Now, how much Vis can be stored in one person's body? Well, that depends on the body. The bigger the body - the more Vis that can be stored. Somebody who is 6'7 and weighs 300 pounds would be able to have more Vis than somebody who is 5'3 and weighs 150 pounds. Does that mean the bigger person is stronger though? Well, not really. They do have more energy and are capable of doing more things with their magick though. Some sorcerers are currently trying to develop a way to store Vis into stones and gems which can be carried around and temporarily boost the total amount of Vis in the user though. However, the first time they tested it the subject ended up dying from the body not being able to handle so much Vis.
So, how does one gain an affinity? You could say that every sorcerer is born as a Void sorcerer. They have magick capabilities, but no affinity. Just plain magick. Over time though - usually the course of a year - they gain an affinity depending on their surroundings. For example... a child born into the family of a blacksmith and tends to be around fire and steel would probably end up having the affinity of fire or industrial. Or a child around lots of musical instruments could also be industrial. Somebody born near the ocean or that spends a lot of time around water would have the water affinity. Somebody who is around so many different things could either end up staying void or going negation. Of course though the parents also depend. If one of the parents is a fire sorcerer than there is a strong chance that the child will be one too no matter what the surroundings. And even somebody born into a normal family of humans could have a completely different affinity than something close to their surroundings. An example could be a child born to human parents and raised near an ocean that spends lots of time swimming could end up having a fire affinity. That would be pretty rare though.
One last thing is that there is only so much Vis in an area. Vis is constantly being generated by who-knows-what, so it never really runs out. However, it can get so low in an area that casting magick spells becomes nearly impossible. This means that in places such as cities where dozens of people are generally casting magick all day long in order to help with daily tasks - there wouldn't nearly be enough Vis to have a battle. All sorcerers can feel the Vis in an area. They can feel if an area is filled with it or if it's void of it. Vis is everywhere though and like stated earlier - more is always being generated.
The History of Magick
Magick. Magick was first introduced into the world approximately three-hundred years ago - the same time that abominations, horrors, and demons arrived. It just randomly happened one day. People were doing the normal daily chores when suddenly they could manipulate fire, air, earth, and water. At first, those were the only things people could control. Some of the sorcerers these days refer to those 4 affinities as the "first generation" or "originals". They are usually treated with more respect than sorcerers who have other affinities. They also tend to act elitist. Nobody has ever mastered the abilities of all four first generation affinities. Now then, we got off track - back to where we were. When the people of Maetossa discovered their abilities they were frightened and had no idea how to control their new-found abilities. What was the government's response? Kill them all. Everybody who was found with magical abilities was publicly executed for witchcraft. They had been doing that before actual magical abilities - but nobody was actually capable of performing magick until then.
Most of the people who received magical powers immediately went into hiding after word of the public executions got around. They were afraid. They wanted to turn to the government for help but they couldn't. The government had always been a respected and kind one up until then. Or maybe they had always been that way but the people just didn't realize until it was their lives being put on the stake. Rumors also started to spread of nightmarish fiends roaming the country side and brutally killing anybody they came across. Nobody had any proof though... until approximately half a year after the "Dawn". What is the "Dawn"? The "Dawn" is the official name given to the day that humans were blessed... or maybe cursed, with their magical powers.
On the nineteenth day of March, year 2339, the day that has been called "Arrival" in the history books took place. A massive six headed beast besieged the capital city of Maetossa - Resheniya - and completely obliterated it. After the main defensive walls were broken down by just a single blow from one of the heads of the beast a legion of horrific looking abominations poured into the city and began to kill and devour every single living thing they came across. It only took 20 minutes for 90% of the population to be killed. The population was around 70,000 at the time. By the time the entire siege was over less than 500 were left.
After that day, nobody saw the beast that became a legend again and nobody has been within 50 miles of Resheniya either. Anybody who goes near that place.... well, they won't be coming back. Let's just say that it's rather popular among all things evil now. Back to the story. That was the last day that a human just randomly received magical powers. No longer would somebody wake up with the ability to conjure flames in the palm of their hand. From that day forward - only newborns would be able to gain magical powers. Not just the newborns of parents with magick either. Just any newborn, although, the children born from parents with magical powers did have a higher chance of also having powers. After the government was utterly destroyed during Arrival, the people of Maetossa recognized the new threat as more than just rumors floating around and instead began to prepare defense against them. One of the most important defenses was the complete stop of all executing of humans with magick and instead employing them against the legions of those that would seek to destroy them. Now that the basic founding of magick and the acceptance of magick has been covered, we can move onto the more important things.
Magick. Magick was first introduced into the world approximately three-hundred years ago - the same time that abominations, horrors, and demons arrived. It just randomly happened one day. People were doing the normal daily chores when suddenly they could manipulate fire, air, earth, and water. At first, those were the only things people could control. Some of the sorcerers these days refer to those 4 affinities as the "first generation" or "originals". They are usually treated with more respect than sorcerers who have other affinities. They also tend to act elitist. Nobody has ever mastered the abilities of all four first generation affinities. Now then, we got off track - back to where we were. When the people of Maetossa discovered their abilities they were frightened and had no idea how to control their new-found abilities. What was the government's response? Kill them all. Everybody who was found with magical abilities was publicly executed for witchcraft. They had been doing that before actual magical abilities - but nobody was actually capable of performing magick until then.
Most of the people who received magical powers immediately went into hiding after word of the public executions got around. They were afraid. They wanted to turn to the government for help but they couldn't. The government had always been a respected and kind one up until then. Or maybe they had always been that way but the people just didn't realize until it was their lives being put on the stake. Rumors also started to spread of nightmarish fiends roaming the country side and brutally killing anybody they came across. Nobody had any proof though... until approximately half a year after the "Dawn". What is the "Dawn"? The "Dawn" is the official name given to the day that humans were blessed... or maybe cursed, with their magical powers.
On the nineteenth day of March, year 2339, the day that has been called "Arrival" in the history books took place. A massive six headed beast besieged the capital city of Maetossa - Resheniya - and completely obliterated it. After the main defensive walls were broken down by just a single blow from one of the heads of the beast a legion of horrific looking abominations poured into the city and began to kill and devour every single living thing they came across. It only took 20 minutes for 90% of the population to be killed. The population was around 70,000 at the time. By the time the entire siege was over less than 500 were left.
After that day, nobody saw the beast that became a legend again and nobody has been within 50 miles of Resheniya either. Anybody who goes near that place.... well, they won't be coming back. Let's just say that it's rather popular among all things evil now. Back to the story. That was the last day that a human just randomly received magical powers. No longer would somebody wake up with the ability to conjure flames in the palm of their hand. From that day forward - only newborns would be able to gain magical powers. Not just the newborns of parents with magick either. Just any newborn, although, the children born from parents with magical powers did have a higher chance of also having powers. After the government was utterly destroyed during Arrival, the people of Maetossa recognized the new threat as more than just rumors floating around and instead began to prepare defense against them. One of the most important defenses was the complete stop of all executing of humans with magick and instead employing them against the legions of those that would seek to destroy them. Now that the basic founding of magick and the acceptance of magick has been covered, we can move onto the more important things.
Affinities:
An "Affinity" is an element of magick. At first there was only fire, earth, air, and water. The four basic elements - the originals. Over time though new forms were developed through the process of being born in certain circumstances and being raised. That will be covered in the physiology section. For now though let's get onto what the affinities are and give some examples of them.
Fire: The affinity of fire grants the character the ability to manipulate, control, and conjure flames. For example, one could conjure a flame in the palm of their hands then manipulate it into a ball and then shoot it towards the target - controlling the direction it goes in with the movement of their hand.
Water: Having the affinity of water grants the character the ability to manipulate, control, and conjure water. They could walk on water, swim at extremely high speeds in it, have a longer breath under water, and not to mention make and control water balls just like a fire sorcerer would make fire ones.
Air(or Wind): Air, or wind as some people refer to it as, is the ability to manipulate the very air around your character. They could do things such as conjure miniature tornadoes, cause extreme wind within a mile(more or less depending on how powerful), and the defining factor is the ability to fly by manipulating the air around them. Lightning magick also falls under this category.
Earth: Earth. You could say that characters with the earth affinity tend to always have an advantage seeing as how they're surrounded by ground. They can manipulate the very earth under their feet in any number of ways. They can raise up pillars from underneath their foes, hurl massive heavy chunks of rock, sculpt statues, and so forth.
Shadow: Shadow is the manipulation of light and dark. Characters with the shadow affinity can generally do things such as emit light or cause things to stop emitting light. One example could be a fire sorcerer shooting fire magick at the shadow sorcerer and the shadow sorcerer would be able to stop the fire from emitting light(but not actually be able to stop the fire). So basically be able to turn anything that emits light into darkness, and vise-versa. Another fun thing they can do is turn invisible by manipulating the light around them.
Madness(or Illusion): Madness, or illusion as some call it is the affinity which allows you to really mess with somebody's head. You could force your opponent into sleeping and then fill them with such nightmarish dreams that they would wake up insane. They can also make people see things that aren't really there and even move through time and stop it for a very brief moment. For example, they could stop time for several seconds to move behind an enemy or away from an attack, or they could use a massive amount of their energy to travel back in time just a few moments.
Industrial(or Sound): Industrial is the magick of everything mechanic and modern. Sound also falls into this category barely. Characters with the industrial affinity could do things such as summon a familiar made out of bronze with 6 arms and swords in each one or perhaps cause such a sharp noise that it temporarily deafens anybody who can hear it. Maybe summon a weapon such as a magical violin and then play a song with each note being a deadly beam of sound sent flying towards the opponent.
Life(or Death): Life - or it's opposite, Death - is the affinity of, well, life and death. A character with this affinity can do things such as cure ailments in the body(which makes them popular as healers in hospitals) or do things such as create a deadly poison that could instantly kill(which also makes them good for assassins). A powerful enough life sorcerer could even raise the dead or kill something smaller than an adult human with the touch of a finger. It's even possible to temporarily instill life into animate objects such as dolls or weapons.
Negation: Negation is the anti-magick magick. This affinity has almost no offensive value but it can defend against any magick without fail. It would take a truly powerful sorcerer to be able to break a barrier that a negation sorcerer could conjure. Negation sorcerers are popular in the government and law as the sorcerers who keep other sorcerers in check.
Void: Void. The magick of magicks. This is the first true affinity to ever exist - all other affinities come from it. Void is simply magick in it's truest form - energy. It's both the weakest and strongest of affinities at the same time. Weak in the sense that it isn't particularly strong against anything in general such as water being strong against fire, but it's also not weak against anything either. Void is possibly the hardest affinity to master and actually work with. The only person to have ever truly mastered void magick was capable of creating a black hole which left a mile wide and deep crater in the ground... and when the black hole vanished the caster was nowhere to be found. It's presumed that he was killed by his own magick.
There is one thing that every sorcerer is capable of doing no matter what their skill level and that's creating a labyrinth. Creating a "Door" is the first step to creating a labyrinth. A "Door" is how you get in and out of your labyrinth - the only thing connecting the world to the labyrinth. Now, what is the actual labyrinth? Once you step into the "door"(which can look like whatever the sorcerer wants, by the way) they enter a small pocket dimension in an alternate universe. Only the sorcerer can get into their own labyrinth unless of course they open the door for others. When inside the labyrinth, the sorcerer who owns it is literally the god of it. Anything possible can happen inside except the creation of living beings. Does your character decide to make their labyrinth a giant ocean? Maybe a giant clockwork tower with never-ending stairs? It could even be an air bubble inside of a volcano with no gravity if that's what the sorcerer wants. Anything created inside of the labyrinth can not be taken out. Only things that enter from the normal world may leave the labyrinth.
Physiology of Magick
Not much is known about magick at all. What is known though is that all magick comes from a special sort of energy which fills the body - that energy is called "Vis". Well, the "technical" term for it is "Vis". Generally everybody who doesn't actually have "Vis" just calls it "Mana". Now then, where does "Vis" come from? Nobody knows. All that's known of it's origin is that it randomly entered human bodies on Dawn. Then it stopped entering random humans on Arrival and could only be obtained by being born with it. Now, how much Vis can be stored in one person's body? Well, that depends on the body. The bigger the body - the more Vis that can be stored. Somebody who is 6'7 and weighs 300 pounds would be able to have more Vis than somebody who is 5'3 and weighs 150 pounds. Does that mean the bigger person is stronger though? Well, not really. They do have more energy and are capable of doing more things with their magick though. Some sorcerers are currently trying to develop a way to store Vis into stones and gems which can be carried around and temporarily boost the total amount of Vis in the user though. However, the first time they tested it the subject ended up dying from the body not being able to handle so much Vis.
So, how does one gain an affinity? You could say that every sorcerer is born as a Void sorcerer. They have magick capabilities, but no affinity. Just plain magick. Over time though - usually the course of a year - they gain an affinity depending on their surroundings. For example... a child born into the family of a blacksmith and tends to be around fire and steel would probably end up having the affinity of fire or industrial. Or a child around lots of musical instruments could also be industrial. Somebody born near the ocean or that spends a lot of time around water would have the water affinity. Somebody who is around so many different things could either end up staying void or going negation. Of course though the parents also depend. If one of the parents is a fire sorcerer than there is a strong chance that the child will be one too no matter what the surroundings. And even somebody born into a normal family of humans could have a completely different affinity than something close to their surroundings. An example could be a child born to human parents and raised near an ocean that spends lots of time swimming could end up having a fire affinity. That would be pretty rare though.
One last thing is that there is only so much Vis in an area. Vis is constantly being generated by who-knows-what, so it never really runs out. However, it can get so low in an area that casting magick spells becomes nearly impossible. This means that in places such as cities where dozens of people are generally casting magick all day long in order to help with daily tasks - there wouldn't nearly be enough Vis to have a battle. All sorcerers can feel the Vis in an area. They can feel if an area is filled with it or if it's void of it. Vis is everywhere though and like stated earlier - more is always being generated.
