Magic

From Ardesia

Magic is any effect that is beyond the mundane.

The world is magic-rich, but this doesn't make magic ordinary. The source of magic is in this way much like water: drinking, cooking, and washing with water is ordinary, most people can't swim, others can well enough, but only a rare few are at home in the water. Likewise, the inherent magic of the world is an unrecognised part of everyday life, most can't use it, some can use it in some specific way (knowingly or unknowingly), and a rare few can turn it deliberately to their advantage.

[edit] Formal magic

Magical practise is divided into two sorts: arcane magic and essence magic. Essence magic as an art is virtually unknown in Tayel, while arcane magic has a history longer than memory and has been banned since the end of the Witch Wars.

Arcane and essence magic are natural counterparts. In arcane magic, the desired effect, the means of invoking it, and the techniques involved are the art of the magic. It involves studying ancient secrets, developing and honing technique, and attuning one's mind to complex or paradoxical mysteries of reality. Arcane magic focuses on the means and ends.

In contrast, the art of essence magic is in glimpsing, and eventually seeing, the essential nature of some part of the world. Through intimate understanding of the underlying nature of a thing, the essence mage can reach out and influence how it is expressed as tangible reality. Essence magic focuses on the thing itself and the manifold forms it might manifest given the right guidance. Rather than exacting methods that produce specific results, essence magic allows a multitude of possible effects as needed.

Arcane and essential magic are difficult to reconcile. The first demands attention to detail and exactitude that precludes holism. The latter demands that the details of form and appearance be rejected in order to grasp truth.

That is not to say that they don't overlap. Rather, the two approaches are conceptual models of a reality that is fundamentally mysterious. An arcane wizard can produce spontaneous effects by glimpsing the pattern that underlies two distinct spells, while an essence witch can use time-worn ritual and honed techniques to bolster his imperfect perception of an essence. Some individuals can combine the two by conceptually segmenting the teachings, but it is the rare among rare who can practise arcane and essence magic without division.

[edit] Spontaneous magic

Some people learn to do magic without realising what it is. The neighbour's girl who has a knack for finding lost things; the potter whose pieces are impossibly delicate yet strong; the boy who talks about his hound as if on conversational terms; the minstrel who always seems to know the right tale for the mood of the crowd; the farmer who can tell a storm's brewing from a clear blue sky; the woodcutter who can start a campfire faster than anyone and sometimes in the rain.

Since magic permeates the world, some people develop abilities that are strange, uncanny, or just oddly exceptional. Some of them suspect that their skill is magical while others consider it just part of the way things are. Of those who suspect, some attempt to hide their aptitude out of fear, while others pursue it, in secret if need be to avoid the Interdict Arcanum. Those who accept their ability as natural may become wise ones, set out on a spiritual path, or just enjoy the fruits of their skill.

Though they are learnt without formal training, spontaneous magical abilities are also either essence-based or arcane. Someone who learns that he can summon down a hawk from the skies by speaking words of reverence while burning herbs that he believes to be pleasing to it is using a very different sort of magic than someone who always knew that when she whispered to distant hawks that they would hear and sometimes come to her.

Naturally, some abilities will make the magic-user more suspicious that they what they can do is magic than other abilities will. However, arcane or essence-based magic abilities are no more likely than the other to be suspicion-arousing. Those who become suspicious are more likely to believe that what they do is arcane magic, since there is nearly no awareness of essence magic as a form.