Magic Part 3: Different kinds of magic users

There are hundreds if not thousands of different magical traditions, not counting individuals who create their own variations of the traditions and whose apprentices in turn create their variation of that variation and so on ad infinitum. However, all magic users and their traditions can be categorized into one of several groups. Mage, magician, magic user: These are generic words that can be used of anyone who uses magic. Other words used sometimes: Wizard(for old magic users), warlock(for magic users who serve demons).

Spirit binder: Spirit binders are magic users who focus on creating, modifying, controlling and using permanent or long lasting spirits. If a spirit binder needs fireball, he will simply summon or create a fire-spirit and control it into creating one. Depending on his skill and intention, the spirit might be permanent or last only a few uses. Since creating and summoning spirits takes time, a spirit binder is likely to have a number of spirits following him around, ready to be used as necessary. Created spirits rarely have any kind of physical presence, so it can be difficult for the uninitiated to tell spirit binders apart from other people.

Spellslinger: Spellslingers are magic users who focus on casting spells, as opposed to creating spirits. Since spells are single use and made in moments, spellslingers lack the raw power of spirit binders who often spend hours or days - and sometimes much longer - feeding energy to a single spirit that can grow to a tremendous power. However, spellslingers make up for it in versatility: Not only can a spellslinger use any spell he has memorized on a moments notice, a skilled spellslinger can create entirely new effects and put them to good use within minutes while a spirit binder, however skilled, is limited to a few dozen effects he can achieve via his available spirits at best.

It should be noted that while spirit binders and spellslingers are clearly separate categories, few practitioners fall purely into one or the other: Almost all spirit binders know the theory behind spells and can, at the very least, use some basic spells for simple tasks that just aren't worth creating a new spirit for, like lighting a campfire and or shaving his beard, as well as a few more advanced tricks. Similarly, spellslingers tend to know the theory behind creating and summoning spirits and may very well have a spirit or two following them at all times. Some even go further than that, and attempt to strike balance between the two, though such balanced approach rarely accomplishes anything that wouldn't be better done by focusing on one aspect and merely dappling in the other.

Priests: Priests are agents of local gods that have access to some part of that god's power as long as they stay within the god's area of influence. Most priests are also spirit binders of some kind as well, though their skill is often fairly limited. More rarely, a spellslinger becomes a priest, complementing priestly rituals with their spells. Even rarer are towns where each priest is taught spells in addition to priestly rituals.

 Summoner: Summoners are a kind of spirit binder who works complicated rituals and bindings to bring Outsiders into the world and control them. Since both angels from Heaven and demons of Oblivion are openly hostile to life or at least naturally inclined to causing destruction, summoners are generally viewed as highly suspect at best, and lynched upon discovery at worst, no matter what their intentions. Naturally, many who gravitate towards the path of a summoner are already inclined towards either Lightbringers or Diabolists and others, even if they start with good intention, are often seduced by the lies - or perhaps the truths - of demons or angels. Even the ones who are righteous are, at best, playing with fire as any angel or demon who escapes bindings is sure to cause harm if it's not quickly banished. Thus the hostility summoners face is very much earned, even if there are a few of those who are both righteous and skilled enough to command the power of summoning with little risk to themselves or others.

Necromancer: Though they are in many ways similar to summoners as they, too, summon beings from another world, necromancers deserve their own entry. Necromancers are spirit binders who focus on summoning and communing with spirits of the dead from the Beyond. Though the uneducated sometimes view necromancers with suspicion, most people show them respect, even reverence. Most necromancers spend their time seeking and talking with the spirits of the dead and sometimes summoning(or banishing) them either for their own reasons or because their paid to do so - for example, many a child has wanted to exchange a few last words with a parent who died suddenly. Properly bound souls can also perform other services for the necromancer, such as guiding them through tunnels or lending them their power, though forcing the spirits of the dead to perform such tasks is highly frowned upon where it isn't banned, so the legitimate necromancers are reduced to merely bargaining with the dead for their services.

Mystic: Mystic are spirit binders focused on dealing with and studying natural spirits as well as creatures such as the fae. They, like necromancers, are often called for when an Outsider or a spirit of the dead needs to be banished, for they are often experts at banishing that which does not belong in this world.

Evoker: Evokers(or sorcerers, as they are also called) are spellslingers focused on quick and dirty magic. Unlike most other spellslingers, they often do not memorize spells at all - instead, they memorize components of spells and use them to create whatever effect is required on the spot or even disregard the use of spells completely and merely use their natural affinity create a suitable effect. Only the most gifted spellslingers become evokers, and highly trained evokers are truly a sight to behold - combining versatility greater than any mere spellslinger with personal power allowing them to rival many spirit binders.

Adept: Adepts are warrior-mages, combining magic with skill in arms. Most adepts focus solely in either spells or spirits, for splitting their already split focus is something only the most talented among them can afford. A spellslinger-adept will most of the time focus on destructive spells and short duration boosts to their physical abilities, while spirit binder - adepts bind spirits within themselves, their arms and their armor to increase their physical prowess and make tools that not even a master craftsman can match.

If I had my way

If I had my way
I'd kiss you,
I'd date you,
I'd take you home.
I'd hug you,
I'd comfort you,
I'd lift you off the ground.
I'd make love with you,
I'd get away with you,
I'd mark you mine.
And in the end,
I'd tenderly
place the tip of my blade
to your heart.

Magic part 2: About spirits

Spirit is defined as a permanent or long-lasting formation of protospirits. These fall into three categories as follows:

Artificial spirits: These are spirits created by magic-users.They vary in complexity and power by their purpose and the skill and power of their creator. There are many reasons why someone would want to create a spirit, but the most common ones are wanting to create a permanent effect or wanting to create a spell-effect beyond his or her normal means. Creating a permanent effect is fairly simple: you simply force the spell already in effect solidify into a spirit. This takes a lot of effort and usually a long time. Creating a spell-effect beyond your means is more difficult: you start by making a small part of it suspended and then solidifying it. Then you create next part and keep doing it until the effect is complete. This can take anything from days to months. At the end you simply trigger the effect and it happens, provided all the parts fit together seamlessly and you didn't make any mistakes. Otherwise the result might either be something close to what you intended or completely different depending on the degree of failure. Since solidifying the parts means it's permanent, you could then recharge it, or let the ghost of the spell simply fade away.

Natural spirits: These are permanent formations of proto-spirits that appear naturally. They vary in power from barely detectable to something that would take several magic-users decades or even centuries to match. Their effects vary from obvious(like ever-burning flame) to non-detectable. This has nothing to do with their actual power: A vast formation could appear to do nothing at all, where a small one might do something that something so small couldn't possibly do if it had been crafted by humans. Some of these are beneficial, like clearing the air or creating a barrier against nightmares. Some, on the other hand, are harmful or even deadly to anyone in their presence.

Man-influenced spirits: These are born either from carefully observed rituals and belief or from the raw influence of human emotions, thoughts and dreams. They belong to three different classes: gods, dreams and nightmares.

Gods are born from ritual following of humans from particular village or town. The villagers follow a set of customs and rituals which, due to the force of human emotions and beliefs channeled via the rituals form a god. The god begins as a simple automaton and gradually gains power and sentience, eventually reaching human-level sapience. The presence of a god acts as a ward against nightmares and more concrete dangers like cave-ins and raids as long as the rituals are being followed. It is time, rather than the number of followers, that gives a god its power. A millenia old god is powerful indeed, outmatching even the most powerful humans and protecting its home from almost all dangers. A few decades old god, on the other hand, could at best give moderate protection against nightmares. On the other hand, gods also have one severe limitation: they cannot reach beyond their area. This is usually the village or town and some of the closest tunnels and farms, but can extend several miles beyond that or be limited to the village proper. The limits seem to be completely random, but the older the god, the more absolute the limits are: a relatively young god wouldn't be able to step far beyond its area, but could influence things a day's travel away. An old god, on the other hand, couldn't step outside its area of influence anything beyond what it could see. The exception to this is if there is a shrine to the god outside its area of influence: the god couldn't actually be in the shrine, but its protection would extend to there.

Dreams are spirits created from thoughts, ideas and emotions of humans. Most of them are simple ghosts without sentience or much power beyond evoking the emotions and thoughts that created them. They and their kind can be found everywhere and they can be easily attracted or repelled with magic, as suits the magic-user. Some dreams, on the other hand, grow more powerful and eventually gain sentience. They can use magic like humans can, although it's usually limited to effects related to whatever the dream is associated with: One associated with with lust couldn't move a rock or cause two humans to fall in love with each other, but it could make someone look more attractive or make two humans drawn to each other by lust.They can also manifest physically, appearing vaguely humanoid, with associated emotions and thoughts clearly warping their form: A dream associated with lust, for example, might appear like a physically attractive, but not necessarily beautiful woman where as one associated with anger might appear as a hulking, beast-like figure. Dreams like this can't be attracted or repelled like ordinary dreams, but they can sometimes be summoned and bargained with.

Nightmares are like dreams, but created exclusively from negative emotions and thoughts. Like dreams, most of them are mere phantasms, easily repelled with positive thoughts or, indeed, any human presence at all. Also like dreams, some of them gain power and eventually sentience and ability to manifest physically. They can also be summoned, but unlike dreams, they usually can't be bargained with as most of them, while sentient, lack necessary intelligence or indeed, any motivation to see humans as anything but food or victims. These nightmares regularly are attracted to traveling routes and often assault travelers in order to kill or kidnap them for their twisted purposes. They are difficult to kill, and killing them is indeed impossible without powerful magic, but as they manifest in order to attack, they can often be repelled even without magic and they shouldn't pose any threat to a competent magic-user. Exceptions exist, of course. These are called demons, and they are very powerful nightmares indeed. Where other nightmares can't be bargained with, demons delight in dealing with mortals as long as there is gain in it. A demon can even appear inside a town if it's summoned, though they're usually reluctant to do so as their presence is enough to alert the god and even a weak god can at the very least repel most if not all demons and the stronger ones can destroy any demon outright if one happens to get inside it's sphere of influence. Where as most nightmares manifest as humanoid, with little magic in their disposal, a demon can take many forms ranging from fully human to something directly out of the worst nightmares and they have powerful magics in their disposal.

Wings of dream

With wings of dream I fly,
as time is passing by.
My soul may go to heaven,
yet reality is leaden.

With wings of dream I fly,
as years are moving by.
My wings are made of fantasy,
my home - of reality.

With wings of dream I fly,
as lives are flying by.
Time is an illusion,
my dream a delusion.
With wings of dream I fly,
as time is passing by.

Magic part 1

Let's talk about magic a bit. I need the Lightless to have some kind of magic in it. But what, exactly? An idea occurred to me today while reading Celia Friedman's Black Sun Rising.

To put it simply:
1) There exist a spirit world, which co-exists in the same space with reality. The two universes are separate, but they interact with each other.
2) The spirit world is filled with protospirits, which are shapeless figments of...well, energy, for the lack of better word. You might think of them as sort of ectoplasm.
3) Nearby thoughts, ideas and emotions manipulate these protospirits so that they take form.
4) When they take form they can interact with the reality. This interaction can take many shapes, but the effects are mostly so minor as to be undetectable. For example, dislike of something causes repulsion, lust creates the sensation of heat, etc. These are normally unconscious and very, very weak.
5) Someone talented and trained can, however, manipulate these protospirits consciously. This is called magic.

Magic is, in essence, very simple. If you need a sword, for example, you form an image of a sword, fix it in place, and focus in making it real. This creates an illusion of sword. With enough concentration the sword gains substance. This is the essence of much of the magic: with enough concentration, almost anything can be created this way. However, whatever created, ceases to exist once the magic-user stops concentrating and concentrating takes energy, so that even the most gifted can't maintain something substantial for very long periods of time.

Manipulating what already exists is much the same: The magic-user forms an image of what he wants to happen, and the forces it to become real. Sealing a wound, for example, is done by creating a mental image of the skin without the wound, placing the image into the same space where the wound is, and concentrating very hard. Note that actually healing a wound is actually fairly complex procedure, since it involves knowledge of anatomy: it's not enough to merely recreate the outer layer of the skin, if the wound has damaged muscles or other tissue. Merely sealing a wound stops blood loss, but doesn't replace the lost blood.

Creating permanent substance is more difficult. Once the substance has been created, the protospirit or protospirits of which it consists must be formed into a real spirit. That involves reaching into the spirit world where the substance exists, and forcing it to become solid. It requires enormous effort on the part of the maker, and the success is often incomplete the first time, meaning that the magic-user will have to reach into spirit world again to repeat the process or the spirit will fall apart eventually: depending on the degree of success, that could take from minutes to weeks.

The guardians

What is to be a Guardian? To serve the people, to help those in need.
What is the oath of a Guardian? To Never draw a weapon except to protect the innocent, himself, or fellow guardians. To never kill in anger, for even those serving the light deserve mourning for their souls. To dedicate his life for all people; even murderers, even those too arrogant to see the need, even those who serve the light.

The guardians is an international organization of monks who are fiercely dedicated to darkness. They are widely respected, if not always liked. They come from all walks of life and serve in different roles from warriors to preachers to healers.

The organization is divided to several factions which are: Guardians of Blade, Guardians of Spirit, Guardians of Life, Guardians of Knowledge and Soulguardians.

Soulguardians is the faction with most members and least standing. Soulguardians are people who have taken the pledge of Guardian, but haven't dedicated their lives to the Guardians completely: They're mostly ordinary people who have earned the honor of becoming Guardian, but haven't taken the training(although some of them choose to take the training later) required to become member of one of the other factions. Some of them also act in some minor role in the organization as clerks, for example, and all will help the organization when needed. While most of them will pass some information to Guardians, if something important comes to their attention, a few will become informants(or spies, if you will). Most of the them wear their role publicly however, and are honorbound to keep some information from the organization.

Guardians of Blade are the second most numerous in their members. While their main purpose is to serve as bodyguards to members of other factions, few of whom are trained in their use and even fewer who actually carry any except when expecting confrontation(like when traveling through wilderness), they also represent a military power, should need arise, and act as thiefcatchers in some communities. Their garrisons and patrols also serve as a visible reminder of the dangers of wandering to light. Their combat prowess is legendary: it is said that while a Guardian of Blade will rarely start a fight, it's even rarer for one not to finish one. While that's somewhat exaggerated, their prowess in single combat is equal or better to that of most elite troops and their training for larger confrontations almost on par with that.

Guardians of Spirit are the third most numerous, while far behind Guardians of Blade in numbers. They are the preachers and ministers as well as masters of ceremonies. While not all villages have a Guardian as priests, they're fairly common and there's usually one in every big village, even if he isn't acting as a priest, and almost always one or two in towns. Their main aim isn't necessarily to act as priests, but to help people who have spiritual problems, persuade those who have chosen light to return to darkness and to keep people from going to the side of light. Many of them also know minor spells, but primary spellcasters are rare.

Guardians of Life act are healers. They usually live in cities and bigger towns, but if need arises, they're also willing to travel where ever needed. In villages where the healer is communal they are not needed, but in towns and cities where the poorest people can't afford to pay for healing, they are needed; unlike other healers, they help all the people, even those who cannot afford to pay. From those who can afford to pay nothing, they charge nothing. From everyone else they only ask what is freely given; lots of people pay in favors, few in money. Even so the Guardians of Life rarely live in poverty. Most of them use magic to aid in healing, but again spellcasters of notable power are few and far between.

Guardians of Knowledge are the least numerous faction. They are teachers and scholars. Some of them act as traveling teachers, teaching some of everything to children in villages, but rarely staying in one place for very long. Others have permanent schools in towns or cities, sometimes multiple Guardians teaching different subjects under same roof. Yet others act as private teachers for children of nobles and wealthy merchants. And some are just scholars, focused on gathering knowledge, new and old. Every Guardian(except Soulguardians) has been taught by multitude of Guardians of Knowledge. All Guardians of Knowledge know at least a little magic, and all different degrees of magical learning can be found amongst them.

Mayfly

False alarm. Sorry, everyone. I still haven't come up with the motivation to finish the economy. I'm posting only because a)I happened to stumble upon this piece I'd forgotten I ever wrote(how that happened is a mystery, since it's only less than a year old) and b)at this point I pretty much have to post something or admit to defeat as far as the blog is concerned. Oh well, here I go.


A life not unlike that of a mayfly, just a flash of light within an eternity of darkness. Yet a kiss lasting another eternity to end it. Or maybe it's the same eternity: a twilight turning into darkness during an eternity of not quite change. A loss of life or a loss of soul? Perhaps both or neither. Or both and neither: the loss and rebirth of both without knowing what changed, it's hard to be sure.

The first taste, the taste unlike any other: sweet as sugar yet bitter, so perfect like a beauty of a sunrise. My body in an ocean of pleasure, yet my soul weeping for mercy. A container empty. My hunger both bottomless as the nightsky, yet sated. The darkness brought by the rising sun sweeps away my tears...