Post by Opal on Jan 25, 2016 3:15:42 GMT
Pure Magic
One of the most powerful forces in the world is unknown to the general populace: magic. Magic is not just how the recruits for CAFE are found, but also vital to everyone fighting in this hidden occult warfare. Without magic, humans would be mere cannon fodder, but with it, they have a chance.
Magic first develops in humans in their adolescent years. Generally, young magicians will accidentally use their powers at first. CAFE uses farseeing to find these incidents and snatch up new recruits for Ravensdale. The powers of these young magicians are usually very shaky, and frequently the first spell is deadly. Fae are born with magic.
Magic is categorized into a number of distinct fields based upon how it operates. These fields are Elementalism, Alchemy, Psionism, Ritualism, and Aethomancy. Loosely speaking, Elementalism refers to manipulating the elements and is also called the Attunement Field due to its unique nature. Alchemy is the process of synthesis and animation, creating and taking apart. Psionism is a field of parapsychology, or extending the mind via magic. Ritualism is the field of summoning and controlling magical beasts. Aethomancy is studying the purest level of magic, which is often highly chaotic.
These fields each have their own subfields, which are specialized applications of these fields. Users of these fields of magic can manipulate multiple subfields with practice. The fields and their corresponding subfields are below:
Elementalism
Unlike the other fields, Elementalism does not require special training to be able to use and manipulate the subfields. Instead, users draw runes of their blood to “attune” to the subfields. These runes slowly dissipate over time as the magic is channeled through them. Once the rune disappears, the magic is cut off. A large part of studying Elementalism is not just how to more effectively channel and manipulate the magic, but how to draw the rune to get the most of its power at once.
Each of the elements has a corresponding rune, and to access different the different elements, elementalists must switch their runes.
FIRE
The manipulation of heat and flames. Physical effects are increased body temperature and smoky breath. If one remains in the fire attunement for too long or while using too much magic, the skin can rip open, showing what looks like burning coals beneath. Those in fire attunement are more resistant to heat.
Young fire users will frequently accidentally manipulate candle flames and lose control, setting fires.
WATER
The manipulation of water and ice. In experienced users, they can condense water from the air if the humidity permits it. Their skin is noticeably colder and smoother--in extreme cases, layers of frost can form. They are more resistant to the cold. In extreme cases, their skin and bones become more brittle. For those technically inclined, they have increased tensile and compressive strength, but are much weaker to shear stress.
Young water users have a tendency to freeze things. Deep freeze.
EARTH
The manipulation of rock and stone. Experienced users can also manipulate metals, although it takes precise rune drawing and concentration. Various subforms of earth elementalism exist, from using primarily sand and dust to simply the default rock and stone, to even using tremors in the earth as a sort of rough scouting.
The physical effects of the earth attunement are denser and overall stronger bones (especially to shear stress) and much rougher skin. Their blood also tends to coagulate faster. Mobility and agility tends to be reduced, with its severity increasing as duration and power of magic increases. In extreme cases, this can lead to complications, with the blood being too thick.
Young earth magicians have a tendency to throw dirt or sand with their minds, or to withstand blows that they shouldn’t be able to.
AIR
The manipulation of air and wind. Extremely experienced users can manipulate electricity as well, although it often takes some study of Aethomancy as well. The physical effects of air are much harder to notice than the other elements, but they have noticeably more translucent skin and are much more agile. Over long periods of time, the only noticeable detrimental effects are loss of muscle mass.
New air users will usually be able to concentrate wind into a gust when everything else is still, although great air elementalists have been found after they produce sparks.
Alchemy
Alchemy, in the broadest terms, is the field of animation--synthesizing “life” from inanimate objects. The notion of the construct being “alive” is an outdated idea, as they are more akin to robots than a truly living and conscious being. There are two major subfields of Alchemy, along with the more specialized Transmutation. Alchemists primarily use artefacts and trinkets, along with runes, to do their magic.
The animated constructs do not have any intelligence in them, beside what orders, commands, or instructions the alchemist has instructed them. A large part of alchemy is not only creating bigger and stronger constructs, but also being able to define and expand the intelligence of a construct to serve more general purposes.
NECROMANCY
The first subfield of Alchemy, Necromancy is the study of animating flesh and other organic material. Some particularly ingenious alchemists invented botanical necromancy, or using dead plants to animate magical creatures. Animal necromancy is also performed, although it has a different nuance than botanical necromancy (or necrobotany, as it’s often called).
Necromancers often look more gaunt and sinewy, as their constant usage of magic affects them as well.
Young necromancers will often accidentally animate plant material or skeletons.
GOLEMANCY
This subfield of alchemy deals exclusively with inanimate objects and animating them into “golems”. The amount of magic and artefacts necessary to animate something increases exponentially, with very powerful creations taking numerous alchemists working perfectly in unison.
New golemancers have been recorded accidentally doodling runes required for animation and animating their notebooks.
TRANSMUTATION
This subfield deals with changing the elements into another element. Most alchemists dabble in this field out of convenience, but few truly specialize in it. These elements are defined by elementalism, leading many magical theorists to believe that these elements are somehow important to magic on an overarching scale.
Physically speaking, transmuters are exceptionally bland. As in, exceptionally bland. They never feel particularly warm or cold, and their skin is always decently smooth. This is because they instinctively transmute the elements around them as they need it.
Transmuters are among the most difficult to find, but frequently will be discovered if they’re in danger and shift elements to something less deadly for them.
Psionism
The magic of psionism is one of the subtler fields of magic. Instead of creating fireballs, summoning beasts, or creating personal servants, psionism works by extending the mind. This is also known as parapsychology. This extension of the mind is used in three primary ways: telekinesis, telepathy, and farsight. Psionism carries this subtlety into its casting as well, being cast almost exclusively through concentration and perception.
TELEKINESIS
Exactly what it says on the tin. This subfield simply moves thing with the mind. Inexperienced users of telekinesis often use gestures to help them move things. Most users of telekinesis require eye contact with the object, with only the most experienced being able to do it without seeing or feeling the object. The reason behind this is it requires dabbling into telepathy and farsight, to be able to “feel” the objects without directly seeing or feeling them.
Of note, the amount of concentration required to move an object increases exponentially with object size in most cases. The more experienced the user, the less drastic this growth is.
Telekinetics are able to more easily pick up things, as they subconsciously use their powers. Very useful for identifying magic users, although unfortunately limited to just telekinetics.
TELEPATHY
Again, exactly what it sounds like. Talking or communicating without audibly speaking. This can be done over relatively large distances if the two know each other, and the psionist knows the location of the other.
The amount of concentration required to contact someone increases exponentially with distance. However, advanced telepaths can reduce this slightly by altering their perception. For example, thinking in straight lines as opposed to the paths of streets or hallways, or even through the earth’s crust as opposed to following its curve.
Telepathy users always sound louder, as they unconsciously use their telepathy while speaking. Unfortunately, it makes meetings very annoying sometimes. Young telepaths are frequently discovered when they accidentally say something only with their mind.
FARSIGHT
Farsight is the art of projecting your consciousness across great distances to spy on faraway events. At first, visions appear in black and white. As the farseer becomes more skilled and better trained, they can see colors, and eventually hear sounds.
Requires more energy as distance increases, but at a less steep curve than telepathy and telekinesis. Techniques to reduce the energy required are similar to those used with telepathy.
Farseers are the easiest to spot in a crowd. Even across a long distance, people will still often be able to make out the details of their bodies. Young farseers will often get strange visions of faraway events.
Ritualism
The field of summoning and subduing magical beasts. Ritualism is split into two categories: Warlocks, who summon beasts they can innately control, and Exorcists, who tame beasts (often more powerful). These require numerous artefacts and trinkets, similar to Alchemy, to channel the power. Most ritualists specialize in one of the subfields, although almost all dabble in both.
WARLOCKS
These specialized individuals aim at summoning magical beasts from the Other. The beasts Warlocks summon are almost always under their control, although it is possible to summon a beast more powerful than they can control. Usually this is not recommended, as death tends to occur shortly afterward.
Although it’s not immediately obvious, warlocks look a bit off. The harder you look at a warlock, the more distorted they become. This is because warlocks are always slightly present in the other, due to their constantly being around portals to it. The more powerful a warlock, the more distorted their forms are.
New warlocks are among some of the most difficult and most dangerous to spot. They, like golemancers, will doodle runes, but these runes are to summon demons. Usually the demons are nothing dangerous, but they’re still a hassle.
EXORCISTS
The other side of the coin, Exorcists exist to tame and control beasts too powerful to summon. Sometimes, these beasts are unusually resistant to summoning. Other times, these beasts are simply too powerful to be summoned and then controlled. Exorcists also can banish certain creatures back to the Other.
exorcists have many gay strobelights around them
In everyday situations, exorcists look typical, if perhaps having a slight halo around them of anti-demon magic. Near demons or demonic energy, however, they seem to glow with their energies. Exorcists are incredibly difficult to discover without having a demon nearby, but if they run into demon-possessed objects, their powers activate quickly to help them.
Aethomancy
The study of the major disorder, aethomancy focuses on what is often called “pure” magic. This is magic at its most fundamental form, where it is chaotic and incredibly hard to predict. There are additional subfields of aethomancy, manipulating “pure” magic in a variety of ways, but these are all extremely specialized.
CHAOSMANCY
Chaosmancy is the main component of aethomancy, and it focuses purely on studying the underlying theory of magic, and how fundamental magic interacts across the fields, in order to more broadly understand the other fields of magic. Chaosmancy is actually not specifically a study of “magic” like the other fields are, but rather a study of the underlying magic that is present in all of the other fields. Hence, it is never studied on its own.
Chaosmancers frequently appear more vibrant than the world around them, yet this vibrancy also makes them seem detached from the real world, as if they’re surrounded by something different. With the more powerful Chaosmancers, despite how they stand out, people seem to have a hard time remembering what they looked like after the fact.
Natural chaosmancers do not exist.
ILLUSIONISM
The most popular “true” magical study of aethomancy, illusionism focuses on manipulating light and dark uses pure magic, without using any concepts from elementalism.
Illusionists are exceptionally defined from their backgrounds--specifically, from their shadows. While not necessarily easy to spot like a farseer, these magic users have a larger contrast between the light and darkness around them, as they unconsciously gather and separate it.
Young illusionists frequently are spotted after they instinctively use their powers to save themselves from danger.
Additional subfields exist, but they are exceedingly rare, and only a handful exist within CAFE at any time.
Combination Magic
When magic is combined together, it can produce interesting and unexpected results. These combinations can be done either individually or through multiple casters working in tandem.
Prometheology (Golemancy and Elementalism)
This combination makes incredibly strong constructs, but they are unable to be given any intelligence. These constructs must be “manually piloted” in a sense, but they are much stronger variants of the typical golem.
Chirography (Warlock and Psionism)
This involves writing runes on oneself, which augments the mental abilities of the caster. Ultimately, a demon is bound to the caster, which is where the augmented abilities come from. Some of the more undesirable portions of the demon’s psyche get transferred as well--greed, anger, hatred, et cetera. If one tries to bind a demon too powerful, they can become possessed.
It is vital, in Chirography, to use inks that do not bleed. Demons have a tendency to use bleeding ink to their advantage by warping the rune to make the chirographer easier to possess.
Swarmshifting (Chaosmancy and Skinchanging)
Requires the user to be very well versed in chaosmancy and to also be a skinchanger, which comes with its own risks, but allows one to transform into a swarm. Helpful for getting away.
Demonology (Ritualism, Psionism, and Chaosmancy)
Incredibly dangerous, but allows one to project their mind into the Other. Generally results in insanity and separation of mind and body if not done appropriately.
One of the most powerful forces in the world is unknown to the general populace: magic. Magic is not just how the recruits for CAFE are found, but also vital to everyone fighting in this hidden occult warfare. Without magic, humans would be mere cannon fodder, but with it, they have a chance.
Magic first develops in humans in their adolescent years. Generally, young magicians will accidentally use their powers at first. CAFE uses farseeing to find these incidents and snatch up new recruits for Ravensdale. The powers of these young magicians are usually very shaky, and frequently the first spell is deadly. Fae are born with magic.
Magic is categorized into a number of distinct fields based upon how it operates. These fields are Elementalism, Alchemy, Psionism, Ritualism, and Aethomancy. Loosely speaking, Elementalism refers to manipulating the elements and is also called the Attunement Field due to its unique nature. Alchemy is the process of synthesis and animation, creating and taking apart. Psionism is a field of parapsychology, or extending the mind via magic. Ritualism is the field of summoning and controlling magical beasts. Aethomancy is studying the purest level of magic, which is often highly chaotic.
These fields each have their own subfields, which are specialized applications of these fields. Users of these fields of magic can manipulate multiple subfields with practice. The fields and their corresponding subfields are below:
Elementalism
Unlike the other fields, Elementalism does not require special training to be able to use and manipulate the subfields. Instead, users draw runes of their blood to “attune” to the subfields. These runes slowly dissipate over time as the magic is channeled through them. Once the rune disappears, the magic is cut off. A large part of studying Elementalism is not just how to more effectively channel and manipulate the magic, but how to draw the rune to get the most of its power at once.
Each of the elements has a corresponding rune, and to access different the different elements, elementalists must switch their runes.
FIRE
The manipulation of heat and flames. Physical effects are increased body temperature and smoky breath. If one remains in the fire attunement for too long or while using too much magic, the skin can rip open, showing what looks like burning coals beneath. Those in fire attunement are more resistant to heat.
Young fire users will frequently accidentally manipulate candle flames and lose control, setting fires.
WATER
The manipulation of water and ice. In experienced users, they can condense water from the air if the humidity permits it. Their skin is noticeably colder and smoother--in extreme cases, layers of frost can form. They are more resistant to the cold. In extreme cases, their skin and bones become more brittle. For those technically inclined, they have increased tensile and compressive strength, but are much weaker to shear stress.
Young water users have a tendency to freeze things. Deep freeze.
EARTH
The manipulation of rock and stone. Experienced users can also manipulate metals, although it takes precise rune drawing and concentration. Various subforms of earth elementalism exist, from using primarily sand and dust to simply the default rock and stone, to even using tremors in the earth as a sort of rough scouting.
The physical effects of the earth attunement are denser and overall stronger bones (especially to shear stress) and much rougher skin. Their blood also tends to coagulate faster. Mobility and agility tends to be reduced, with its severity increasing as duration and power of magic increases. In extreme cases, this can lead to complications, with the blood being too thick.
Young earth magicians have a tendency to throw dirt or sand with their minds, or to withstand blows that they shouldn’t be able to.
AIR
The manipulation of air and wind. Extremely experienced users can manipulate electricity as well, although it often takes some study of Aethomancy as well. The physical effects of air are much harder to notice than the other elements, but they have noticeably more translucent skin and are much more agile. Over long periods of time, the only noticeable detrimental effects are loss of muscle mass.
New air users will usually be able to concentrate wind into a gust when everything else is still, although great air elementalists have been found after they produce sparks.
Alchemy
Alchemy, in the broadest terms, is the field of animation--synthesizing “life” from inanimate objects. The notion of the construct being “alive” is an outdated idea, as they are more akin to robots than a truly living and conscious being. There are two major subfields of Alchemy, along with the more specialized Transmutation. Alchemists primarily use artefacts and trinkets, along with runes, to do their magic.
The animated constructs do not have any intelligence in them, beside what orders, commands, or instructions the alchemist has instructed them. A large part of alchemy is not only creating bigger and stronger constructs, but also being able to define and expand the intelligence of a construct to serve more general purposes.
NECROMANCY
The first subfield of Alchemy, Necromancy is the study of animating flesh and other organic material. Some particularly ingenious alchemists invented botanical necromancy, or using dead plants to animate magical creatures. Animal necromancy is also performed, although it has a different nuance than botanical necromancy (or necrobotany, as it’s often called).
Necromancers often look more gaunt and sinewy, as their constant usage of magic affects them as well.
Young necromancers will often accidentally animate plant material or skeletons.
GOLEMANCY
This subfield of alchemy deals exclusively with inanimate objects and animating them into “golems”. The amount of magic and artefacts necessary to animate something increases exponentially, with very powerful creations taking numerous alchemists working perfectly in unison.
New golemancers have been recorded accidentally doodling runes required for animation and animating their notebooks.
TRANSMUTATION
This subfield deals with changing the elements into another element. Most alchemists dabble in this field out of convenience, but few truly specialize in it. These elements are defined by elementalism, leading many magical theorists to believe that these elements are somehow important to magic on an overarching scale.
Physically speaking, transmuters are exceptionally bland. As in, exceptionally bland. They never feel particularly warm or cold, and their skin is always decently smooth. This is because they instinctively transmute the elements around them as they need it.
Transmuters are among the most difficult to find, but frequently will be discovered if they’re in danger and shift elements to something less deadly for them.
Psionism
The magic of psionism is one of the subtler fields of magic. Instead of creating fireballs, summoning beasts, or creating personal servants, psionism works by extending the mind. This is also known as parapsychology. This extension of the mind is used in three primary ways: telekinesis, telepathy, and farsight. Psionism carries this subtlety into its casting as well, being cast almost exclusively through concentration and perception.
TELEKINESIS
Exactly what it says on the tin. This subfield simply moves thing with the mind. Inexperienced users of telekinesis often use gestures to help them move things. Most users of telekinesis require eye contact with the object, with only the most experienced being able to do it without seeing or feeling the object. The reason behind this is it requires dabbling into telepathy and farsight, to be able to “feel” the objects without directly seeing or feeling them.
Of note, the amount of concentration required to move an object increases exponentially with object size in most cases. The more experienced the user, the less drastic this growth is.
Telekinetics are able to more easily pick up things, as they subconsciously use their powers. Very useful for identifying magic users, although unfortunately limited to just telekinetics.
TELEPATHY
Again, exactly what it sounds like. Talking or communicating without audibly speaking. This can be done over relatively large distances if the two know each other, and the psionist knows the location of the other.
The amount of concentration required to contact someone increases exponentially with distance. However, advanced telepaths can reduce this slightly by altering their perception. For example, thinking in straight lines as opposed to the paths of streets or hallways, or even through the earth’s crust as opposed to following its curve.
Telepathy users always sound louder, as they unconsciously use their telepathy while speaking. Unfortunately, it makes meetings very annoying sometimes. Young telepaths are frequently discovered when they accidentally say something only with their mind.
FARSIGHT
Farsight is the art of projecting your consciousness across great distances to spy on faraway events. At first, visions appear in black and white. As the farseer becomes more skilled and better trained, they can see colors, and eventually hear sounds.
Requires more energy as distance increases, but at a less steep curve than telepathy and telekinesis. Techniques to reduce the energy required are similar to those used with telepathy.
Farseers are the easiest to spot in a crowd. Even across a long distance, people will still often be able to make out the details of their bodies. Young farseers will often get strange visions of faraway events.
Ritualism
The field of summoning and subduing magical beasts. Ritualism is split into two categories: Warlocks, who summon beasts they can innately control, and Exorcists, who tame beasts (often more powerful). These require numerous artefacts and trinkets, similar to Alchemy, to channel the power. Most ritualists specialize in one of the subfields, although almost all dabble in both.
WARLOCKS
These specialized individuals aim at summoning magical beasts from the Other. The beasts Warlocks summon are almost always under their control, although it is possible to summon a beast more powerful than they can control. Usually this is not recommended, as death tends to occur shortly afterward.
Although it’s not immediately obvious, warlocks look a bit off. The harder you look at a warlock, the more distorted they become. This is because warlocks are always slightly present in the other, due to their constantly being around portals to it. The more powerful a warlock, the more distorted their forms are.
New warlocks are among some of the most difficult and most dangerous to spot. They, like golemancers, will doodle runes, but these runes are to summon demons. Usually the demons are nothing dangerous, but they’re still a hassle.
EXORCISTS
The other side of the coin, Exorcists exist to tame and control beasts too powerful to summon. Sometimes, these beasts are unusually resistant to summoning. Other times, these beasts are simply too powerful to be summoned and then controlled. Exorcists also can banish certain creatures back to the Other.
exorcists have many gay strobelights around them
In everyday situations, exorcists look typical, if perhaps having a slight halo around them of anti-demon magic. Near demons or demonic energy, however, they seem to glow with their energies. Exorcists are incredibly difficult to discover without having a demon nearby, but if they run into demon-possessed objects, their powers activate quickly to help them.
Aethomancy
The study of the major disorder, aethomancy focuses on what is often called “pure” magic. This is magic at its most fundamental form, where it is chaotic and incredibly hard to predict. There are additional subfields of aethomancy, manipulating “pure” magic in a variety of ways, but these are all extremely specialized.
CHAOSMANCY
Chaosmancy is the main component of aethomancy, and it focuses purely on studying the underlying theory of magic, and how fundamental magic interacts across the fields, in order to more broadly understand the other fields of magic. Chaosmancy is actually not specifically a study of “magic” like the other fields are, but rather a study of the underlying magic that is present in all of the other fields. Hence, it is never studied on its own.
Chaosmancers frequently appear more vibrant than the world around them, yet this vibrancy also makes them seem detached from the real world, as if they’re surrounded by something different. With the more powerful Chaosmancers, despite how they stand out, people seem to have a hard time remembering what they looked like after the fact.
Natural chaosmancers do not exist.
ILLUSIONISM
The most popular “true” magical study of aethomancy, illusionism focuses on manipulating light and dark uses pure magic, without using any concepts from elementalism.
Illusionists are exceptionally defined from their backgrounds--specifically, from their shadows. While not necessarily easy to spot like a farseer, these magic users have a larger contrast between the light and darkness around them, as they unconsciously gather and separate it.
Young illusionists frequently are spotted after they instinctively use their powers to save themselves from danger.
Additional subfields exist, but they are exceedingly rare, and only a handful exist within CAFE at any time.
Combination Magic
When magic is combined together, it can produce interesting and unexpected results. These combinations can be done either individually or through multiple casters working in tandem.
Prometheology (Golemancy and Elementalism)
This combination makes incredibly strong constructs, but they are unable to be given any intelligence. These constructs must be “manually piloted” in a sense, but they are much stronger variants of the typical golem.
Chirography (Warlock and Psionism)
This involves writing runes on oneself, which augments the mental abilities of the caster. Ultimately, a demon is bound to the caster, which is where the augmented abilities come from. Some of the more undesirable portions of the demon’s psyche get transferred as well--greed, anger, hatred, et cetera. If one tries to bind a demon too powerful, they can become possessed.
It is vital, in Chirography, to use inks that do not bleed. Demons have a tendency to use bleeding ink to their advantage by warping the rune to make the chirographer easier to possess.
Swarmshifting (Chaosmancy and Skinchanging)
Requires the user to be very well versed in chaosmancy and to also be a skinchanger, which comes with its own risks, but allows one to transform into a swarm. Helpful for getting away.
Demonology (Ritualism, Psionism, and Chaosmancy)
Incredibly dangerous, but allows one to project their mind into the Other. Generally results in insanity and separation of mind and body if not done appropriately.