Post by Piffy on Jul 10, 2013 1:32:38 GMT
THE MAGICIAN'S CODE
All magic is subject to a series of laws, akin to the laws of nature. These laws not only define the true limitations of magic, but help form the ethical base that more disciplined mages follow. "The Code" will often be invoked in response to arcane experimentation which is believed to border on the impossible - even by magical standards. As laws originate from other laws, the code is taught as a kind of pyramid, with the founding principles at the bottom and derived principles at the top. Developed by the College and shunned by the Council, the Code is as follows:
The Base - The Law of Equality
All things possess a cosmic value and a price which must be paid to bring an effect into action. A sacrifice of equal worth must be made for something to happen, and this price is often paid in mental exertion.
Level Eight - The Law of Life
The price of a life is beyond any level of concentration or effort. A corpse may be animated like a cruel puppet, but a zombie is not truly alive and possesses no real life of its own. The only hope to bring back the dead lies in true sacrifice or diabolic intervention.
Level Seven - The Law of Wills
Magic is will made manifest, and can bypass physical limits. The only true shield against magic is a magician's willpower, the raw strength of his mind. Contests between magicians are mental duels, competitions of knowledge and ingenuity.
Level Six - The Law of Intention
Magic does not happen passively. There is always a source. There must be a trigger, such as a sigil, focus, gesture or incantation. Somewhere along the line, a magical phenomenon is intentional and was the product of someone or something's will.
Level Five - The Law of Complexity
Even willpower has limits, and this limit lies in understanding. Conjured objects and energies cannot exist outside of a magician's imagination or comprehension. This law does not cover demonology, as the summoning of magical creatures is not magical creation, but magical retrieval.
Level Four - The Law of Attribution
Ultimately, the effects that a magician has introduced into the world add up and occupy a place in his mind. This applies especially to enchantments, where every object given magical properties without true sacrifice fails to keep those properties after the enchanter's death.
Level Three - The Law of Awareness
True awareness cannot be replicated. The intelligence of a magical construct is limited by the magician's own intelligence, and can never match it. Magical "sentience", in the case of homonculi, is a series of complex, programmed instructions. Demons, creatures of magic, are actually beings of their own and exist independently of the magician. This law does not apply to them.
Level Two - The Law of Influence
Care must be taken in any demonic dealings, as their minds are alien and often greater than our own. Power corrupts. Demons are fickle and not to be trusted, and must not be allowed to hold a significant, unregulated presence in our world. Such an event would doom all magicians, and individual circumstances of demonic influence or possession have always led to tragedy.
Level One - The Law of Discipline
A disciplined mind is a healthy mind, and the greatest form of magical power comes from knowing the underlying principles that govern the unnatural world. For this reason, a specialist is always more powerful than a jack of all trades. Magic is not an art but a science, and logic triumphs over raw emotion. Excessive emotion in magical workings leads to failure and insanity, and it is this that distinguishes wizards from less disciplined mages.
MAGICAL TERMINOLOGY
Mage - Any practitioner of magic.
Wizard - A college-trained specialist mage.
Sorcerer - A mage who gains power from an outside force (eg. artifacts, reagents, enchanted items), rather than themselves.
Warlock/Witch - A practitioner of the black arts, forbidden and evil magic which damns the user.
The Magician's Code - The laws of magic, as defined by the college.
True Sacrifice - Sacrifice that is outside the magician, material or external sacrifice.
Black Arts - Any magic involving deals with infernals, major curses or using the lifeforce of other people to power magic.
Consular - A member of the Council of Thessel.
Brother - A member of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers.
Psion - A mage with innate mental powers, accessed through sheer force of will rather than spells. Psions are born with their powers, and are usually either psychokinetic or telepathic.
Divination - Magic involving fate, time or chance. This includes jinxes, hexes, curses, scrying and foresight.
Conjuration - The creation or retrieval of objects through the caster's own will, and the creation of magical defenses. This includes teleportation.
Demonology - The study, summoning and binding of magical creatures from other dimensions.
Demonic - In relation to magical creatures in general.
Diabolic - In relation to Infernals.
Cambion - Beings born from the union of mortals and infernals.
Enchantment - Magic that adds properties to or enhances an object or living thing.
Elementalism - Magic that controls earth, water, fire and air. Elements can be combined and played with to achieve an array of effects, most of them offensive.
Necromancy - Magic involving control of life forces, both life and death. This includes power over ghosts, magical healing, life draining and reanimation. Reanimated individuals are never properly sentient.
Transmutation - Magic that changes matter from one form to another. This can include living matter, but many transmutations are only temporary.
Illusion - Magic that fools the senses, using the powers of shadow. This includes summoning phantasms and power over the mind.
Alchemy - The creation of magical substances from mundane ingredients known as reagents. Alchemists seek to understand the natural world, creating elixirs with varying effects.
MAGICAL CREATURES
Many magical creatures inhabit Lysilus, stemming often from other worlds and separable into a system of tiers relative to their power.
The tiers of creature are as follows:
Minor < Lesser < Intermediary < Greater < Major
Intermediary represents the point at which a creature is considered equal to a human, in both mental and physical faculties.
All of these creatures can be sorted into the following groups, each having a particular weakness:
Teraphim (Elementals) - Beings of the four classical elements (because aether is excluded) - Fire (salamanders), Water(nymphs), Air(sylphs) and Earth(gnomes). Elemental fire is weak against elemental water, and vice versa . Elemental earth is weak against elemental air, and vice versa.
Eudemons (Celestials) - Beings tied to the celestial realms, usually in the service of gods. They have a weakness to cursed weaponry, quicksilver and their opposite, the Cacodemons.
Cacodemons (Infernals) - Beings tied to the infernal realms or hells, sometimes serving malevolent gods but just as often serving no master, squabbling amongst themselves in constant chaos. They have a weakness to blessed weaponry, quicksilver and their opposite, the Eudemons.
Servitors (Astrals) - Beings tied to the astral plane, the realm of the mind and dreams, Servitors are built from the psychic residue created by the thoughts of all living things. Sometimes, Servitors combine to make Egregores, amalgamations of the thoughts of multiple people. A person's astral identity is called an Eidolon. The largest Egregores, being godlike in power, are referred to as Godforms. Because of their nature, they can only affect things with a consciousness and so cannot really affect the material world or things considered mindless, such as constructs. Rumour has it that Godforms do not possess this weakness.
Phantoms (Ghosts) - The spirits of the dead, called from the underworld back to the land of the living. Phantoms may reanimate the corpse they left when they died, providing a physical form known as a zombie. Without this physical form, however, a phantom cannot stray too far from the company of its summoner without the creation of a phylactery (a container of sorts, which, if destroyed, will cause the phantom to dissipate). Phantoms are weak to silver weaponry and to any magic cast against them.
Fey (Faeries) - Creatures born from the aether, or quintessence - the fifth element which bridges the pathways between dimensions. These include such things as dryads, banshees, pixies, sprites, trolls and warped versions of commonly-found animals such as wolves. Fey are weak to iron and have a fear of phantoms.
Phantasms (Shadows) - Creatures from the plane of shadow, born of literal light or darkness. While one might normally associate light and darkness with good and evil, Phantasms are neutral by principle, akin more to elementals and often called upon by illusionists. Light is weak to darkness, and vice versa.
Homonculi (Constructs) - Artificial creations, the Homonculi are shaped from non-living matter and animated by the will of the caster. These include simple golems and the more complex automatons. Any "thinking machine" counts as a Homonculus. Homonculi vary in weaknesses, depending on the materials they're built from. All Homonculi are immune to mind-affecting powers, as they do not truly think and are not truly living. This also means that they cannot cast spells, but they can still be fitted with magical equipment.
Technodemons (Genii) - Hailing from the realm of Utopia, the place of ideas and thoughts that have yet to become reality, Technodemons are born from the psychic force that drives invention. The most obvious examples of Technodemons are the Gremlins, pests often blamed for things malfunctioning.
THE DIMENSIONS
Material plane - The centre which all other dimensions surround. The home of mortals, non-demons.
Celestial realms (Heavens) - The home of just, benevolent beings. It is thought that gods live here, alongside their messengers. While many faiths promise a safe afterlife, this afterlife is actually served in a portion of the underworld.
Infernal realms (Hells) - The home of evil beings which lead mortals to ruin. The devils and archdevils can be found here, alongside weaker demons like imps. Great care must be taken with devils, for their deals are always one-sided.
Elemental plane - The home of elements made manifest, a reflection on the material world. The elemental plane encompasses the base elements found in nature, in all forms: Fire, water, earth and air.
Astral plane - The home of thoughts, feelings and dreams. The current psychic activity of all living, thinking mortals is captured here.
Utopia - The home of hopes, ideas and predictions. Utopia houses universal concepts, unlike the individual-focused astral plane. The abstract technologies of civilisations past and future are shown here, twisted through time and ambition.
Shadow plane - The home of literal light and darkness. The entities here are neither good nor evil, and barely think at all, as they are only really tricks of the eye.
Aetheric plane - The bridge between dimensions. Entities seen here are generally a mix of the natural and unnatural, and are just as common in the material dimension as they are in their own.
Underworld - When a mortal dies, their essence is sent here to become a ghost. Depending on a mortal's beliefs, their underworld will differ. For some, the underworld is paradise, for others the underworld is endless torture.
All magic is subject to a series of laws, akin to the laws of nature. These laws not only define the true limitations of magic, but help form the ethical base that more disciplined mages follow. "The Code" will often be invoked in response to arcane experimentation which is believed to border on the impossible - even by magical standards. As laws originate from other laws, the code is taught as a kind of pyramid, with the founding principles at the bottom and derived principles at the top. Developed by the College and shunned by the Council, the Code is as follows:
The Base - The Law of Equality
All things possess a cosmic value and a price which must be paid to bring an effect into action. A sacrifice of equal worth must be made for something to happen, and this price is often paid in mental exertion.
Level Eight - The Law of Life
The price of a life is beyond any level of concentration or effort. A corpse may be animated like a cruel puppet, but a zombie is not truly alive and possesses no real life of its own. The only hope to bring back the dead lies in true sacrifice or diabolic intervention.
Level Seven - The Law of Wills
Magic is will made manifest, and can bypass physical limits. The only true shield against magic is a magician's willpower, the raw strength of his mind. Contests between magicians are mental duels, competitions of knowledge and ingenuity.
Level Six - The Law of Intention
Magic does not happen passively. There is always a source. There must be a trigger, such as a sigil, focus, gesture or incantation. Somewhere along the line, a magical phenomenon is intentional and was the product of someone or something's will.
Level Five - The Law of Complexity
Even willpower has limits, and this limit lies in understanding. Conjured objects and energies cannot exist outside of a magician's imagination or comprehension. This law does not cover demonology, as the summoning of magical creatures is not magical creation, but magical retrieval.
Level Four - The Law of Attribution
Ultimately, the effects that a magician has introduced into the world add up and occupy a place in his mind. This applies especially to enchantments, where every object given magical properties without true sacrifice fails to keep those properties after the enchanter's death.
Level Three - The Law of Awareness
True awareness cannot be replicated. The intelligence of a magical construct is limited by the magician's own intelligence, and can never match it. Magical "sentience", in the case of homonculi, is a series of complex, programmed instructions. Demons, creatures of magic, are actually beings of their own and exist independently of the magician. This law does not apply to them.
Level Two - The Law of Influence
Care must be taken in any demonic dealings, as their minds are alien and often greater than our own. Power corrupts. Demons are fickle and not to be trusted, and must not be allowed to hold a significant, unregulated presence in our world. Such an event would doom all magicians, and individual circumstances of demonic influence or possession have always led to tragedy.
Level One - The Law of Discipline
A disciplined mind is a healthy mind, and the greatest form of magical power comes from knowing the underlying principles that govern the unnatural world. For this reason, a specialist is always more powerful than a jack of all trades. Magic is not an art but a science, and logic triumphs over raw emotion. Excessive emotion in magical workings leads to failure and insanity, and it is this that distinguishes wizards from less disciplined mages.
MAGICAL TERMINOLOGY
Mage - Any practitioner of magic.
Wizard - A college-trained specialist mage.
Sorcerer - A mage who gains power from an outside force (eg. artifacts, reagents, enchanted items), rather than themselves.
Warlock/Witch - A practitioner of the black arts, forbidden and evil magic which damns the user.
The Magician's Code - The laws of magic, as defined by the college.
True Sacrifice - Sacrifice that is outside the magician, material or external sacrifice.
Black Arts - Any magic involving deals with infernals, major curses or using the lifeforce of other people to power magic.
Consular - A member of the Council of Thessel.
Brother - A member of the Brotherhood of Sorcerers.
Psion - A mage with innate mental powers, accessed through sheer force of will rather than spells. Psions are born with their powers, and are usually either psychokinetic or telepathic.
Divination - Magic involving fate, time or chance. This includes jinxes, hexes, curses, scrying and foresight.
Conjuration - The creation or retrieval of objects through the caster's own will, and the creation of magical defenses. This includes teleportation.
Demonology - The study, summoning and binding of magical creatures from other dimensions.
Demonic - In relation to magical creatures in general.
Diabolic - In relation to Infernals.
Cambion - Beings born from the union of mortals and infernals.
Enchantment - Magic that adds properties to or enhances an object or living thing.
Elementalism - Magic that controls earth, water, fire and air. Elements can be combined and played with to achieve an array of effects, most of them offensive.
Necromancy - Magic involving control of life forces, both life and death. This includes power over ghosts, magical healing, life draining and reanimation. Reanimated individuals are never properly sentient.
Transmutation - Magic that changes matter from one form to another. This can include living matter, but many transmutations are only temporary.
Illusion - Magic that fools the senses, using the powers of shadow. This includes summoning phantasms and power over the mind.
Alchemy - The creation of magical substances from mundane ingredients known as reagents. Alchemists seek to understand the natural world, creating elixirs with varying effects.
MAGICAL CREATURES
Many magical creatures inhabit Lysilus, stemming often from other worlds and separable into a system of tiers relative to their power.
The tiers of creature are as follows:
Minor < Lesser < Intermediary < Greater < Major
Intermediary represents the point at which a creature is considered equal to a human, in both mental and physical faculties.
All of these creatures can be sorted into the following groups, each having a particular weakness:
Teraphim (Elementals) - Beings of the four classical elements (because aether is excluded) - Fire (salamanders), Water(nymphs), Air(sylphs) and Earth(gnomes). Elemental fire is weak against elemental water, and vice versa . Elemental earth is weak against elemental air, and vice versa.
Eudemons (Celestials) - Beings tied to the celestial realms, usually in the service of gods. They have a weakness to cursed weaponry, quicksilver and their opposite, the Cacodemons.
Cacodemons (Infernals) - Beings tied to the infernal realms or hells, sometimes serving malevolent gods but just as often serving no master, squabbling amongst themselves in constant chaos. They have a weakness to blessed weaponry, quicksilver and their opposite, the Eudemons.
Servitors (Astrals) - Beings tied to the astral plane, the realm of the mind and dreams, Servitors are built from the psychic residue created by the thoughts of all living things. Sometimes, Servitors combine to make Egregores, amalgamations of the thoughts of multiple people. A person's astral identity is called an Eidolon. The largest Egregores, being godlike in power, are referred to as Godforms. Because of their nature, they can only affect things with a consciousness and so cannot really affect the material world or things considered mindless, such as constructs. Rumour has it that Godforms do not possess this weakness.
Phantoms (Ghosts) - The spirits of the dead, called from the underworld back to the land of the living. Phantoms may reanimate the corpse they left when they died, providing a physical form known as a zombie. Without this physical form, however, a phantom cannot stray too far from the company of its summoner without the creation of a phylactery (a container of sorts, which, if destroyed, will cause the phantom to dissipate). Phantoms are weak to silver weaponry and to any magic cast against them.
Fey (Faeries) - Creatures born from the aether, or quintessence - the fifth element which bridges the pathways between dimensions. These include such things as dryads, banshees, pixies, sprites, trolls and warped versions of commonly-found animals such as wolves. Fey are weak to iron and have a fear of phantoms.
Phantasms (Shadows) - Creatures from the plane of shadow, born of literal light or darkness. While one might normally associate light and darkness with good and evil, Phantasms are neutral by principle, akin more to elementals and often called upon by illusionists. Light is weak to darkness, and vice versa.
Homonculi (Constructs) - Artificial creations, the Homonculi are shaped from non-living matter and animated by the will of the caster. These include simple golems and the more complex automatons. Any "thinking machine" counts as a Homonculus. Homonculi vary in weaknesses, depending on the materials they're built from. All Homonculi are immune to mind-affecting powers, as they do not truly think and are not truly living. This also means that they cannot cast spells, but they can still be fitted with magical equipment.
Technodemons (Genii) - Hailing from the realm of Utopia, the place of ideas and thoughts that have yet to become reality, Technodemons are born from the psychic force that drives invention. The most obvious examples of Technodemons are the Gremlins, pests often blamed for things malfunctioning.
THE DIMENSIONS
Material plane - The centre which all other dimensions surround. The home of mortals, non-demons.
Celestial realms (Heavens) - The home of just, benevolent beings. It is thought that gods live here, alongside their messengers. While many faiths promise a safe afterlife, this afterlife is actually served in a portion of the underworld.
Infernal realms (Hells) - The home of evil beings which lead mortals to ruin. The devils and archdevils can be found here, alongside weaker demons like imps. Great care must be taken with devils, for their deals are always one-sided.
Elemental plane - The home of elements made manifest, a reflection on the material world. The elemental plane encompasses the base elements found in nature, in all forms: Fire, water, earth and air.
Astral plane - The home of thoughts, feelings and dreams. The current psychic activity of all living, thinking mortals is captured here.
Utopia - The home of hopes, ideas and predictions. Utopia houses universal concepts, unlike the individual-focused astral plane. The abstract technologies of civilisations past and future are shown here, twisted through time and ambition.
Shadow plane - The home of literal light and darkness. The entities here are neither good nor evil, and barely think at all, as they are only really tricks of the eye.
Aetheric plane - The bridge between dimensions. Entities seen here are generally a mix of the natural and unnatural, and are just as common in the material dimension as they are in their own.
Underworld - When a mortal dies, their essence is sent here to become a ghost. Depending on a mortal's beliefs, their underworld will differ. For some, the underworld is paradise, for others the underworld is endless torture.
