Magic

Magic is the generic term for the method through which people, places, and things cause things to happen in ways that cannot be explained "normally".

=In Elysia's Fall=

A specific race of people, hailing from the Great Northern Magocracy, performed what other people would consider anything from miracles, to works of art, and even to the work of God. It has several different interpretations, names, and understanding dependent wholly on the region. Despite these different interpretations, there are a certain set of rules upon which magic, in general, works.

The Five Elements
In the first age, it was generally assumed that five levels of magic of existed, although the fifth was given a conditional value since, in the minds of the people, it was so rare as to be impractical. These levels are divided as such:

The Element of Fire
A student of magic may learn to bend fire to its will, if they will first bend themselves to fire's will. Fire is considered the second hardest magic to learn because in order to control it, students must fight against their very instincts- after all, all magic use requires that the user be in constant contact with the magic.

Using fire, a student may never be in danger of freezing to death, nor burning to death. A fire user has the ability to manipulate fire's endurance and existence, as long as their concentration and stamina allow it. More often than not, fire users try to practice a secondary magical art to combine the two into something of practical importance- blacksmithing for instance- although lighting a hearth or campfire is child's play to them as well.

Fire is one of two inherently destructive elements, and as such fire magic is heavily regulated; In addition to learning the often harsh meditation required to even touch a flame without being burned, fire students are taught a number of ethics regarding its use, and unauthorized use on another person, with or without intention to harm, is highly punishable.

Perhaps it is because of the kind of people fire magic tends to draw, or because of the pressure that goes with working such a dangerous element, fire users tend to be hot-headed or headstrong- they are often prone to angry outbursts, which are occasionally followed by a spontaneous combustion of some kind. As such, along with the path of air, the greatest fire users often take the appearance of hermits, or people who otherwise spend their days in deep meditation.

The Element of Water
Considered the second easiest magic to learn among the Magocracy's people, the path of water requires students to immerse themselves in liquid and to meditate on the manipulation of all things liquid. It is safer than fire or lightning in that there is little risk involved- even students who are in danger of drowning can, in a burst of panic-driven adrenaline, push themselves to the surface of a riptide.

In addition to having complete control over the flow of water, a proper student of water has control over a liquid's state of matter. Although it is rendered significantly easier with some knowledge of air magic, a water user can turn water into gas, back into water, and then into ice, with little difficulty. With even further mastery over the phases of matter, a student can develop water into an ice that will outlast even the worst heats, or at least longer than normally created ice.

Because water magic is surprisingly easy to manipulate and relatively versatile, some water students join Magocracy's Guardian Corps soon after graduation. Unlike the expensive metals required by other nations to forge armor and weaponry, the Magocracy uses students of water magic to forge their own equipment and weapons, ensuring a relatively cheaper to produce field army with the same, if not better, quality of training. Sometimes referred to as Frost Warriors, these corpsmen and corpswomen are a sight to behold, wearing ice cuirasses and wielding ice swords and spears, often a fraction of the weight of their metallic counterparts.

The Blood Insurrection
With the majority of the Magocracy's army consisting of water users, it was not long before, even with their years of ethical restraint and allegiance building to the nation, dissent spread through the ranks of the Guardian Corps. The dispute began simply enough- a few students had discovered that in addition to almost all liquids, a water user could manipulate his own blood, or the blood of others, in a similar fashion. This was discovered completely by accident at first, according to an unnamed soldier:

"...the barbarian had shorn through my shield, and I had tripped over in surprise, over a comrade... he had given me a serious gash, somewhere up the shoulder, and I was bleeding plenty... he rose to finish me off, and, in desperation, as I couldn't find my sword, I threw bloodied dust at the fiend's face. How was I supposed to know, in my panic, that I had turned the blood itself? He screamed allowed and I saw sizeable holes where once there'd been eyes. He was taken from the back soon after."

Although the soldier was forgiven his act as a means of survival, the Senate moved to declare any use of one's own, another's, or even an animal's blood as a means to an end, declaring it an "Abomination". There were arguments from within the Corps and even the Senate itself as to this ruling, as both parties argued over the practicality and ethics regarding its use. Defying the order, another soldier showed his mastery of the now named "blood arts" during a police action-

"There was a big oaf, an enormous fatty, if you'll will, and he was a chargin' and a yammerin' with this great old log. I ran him through the gut with my spear, but I must be thinking, 'there's too much fat there, it didn't go through'. And sure enough, he's about to clobber me, and I wasn't ready to meet the Maker. So, I did what came naturally. I jammed it further, until it went through his dear ol' spinal and out the other end. And then I pull it out, and what do you know? A nice, red, meaty piece of halberd. Now, I'm not one for polearms, y'see, but when your spear's about fifteen feet or so long, and consisting entirely out of your enemy's own blood... well, let's say the ruffians didn't stay too long."

Subsequently, in what is considered one of the first truly rash, emotion filled actions of the Senate, the entirety of the "Blood Corps"- almost a full third of the standing army- was discharged and exiled, bereft of their property and removed with their entire families. There was outrage on both sides of the issue but, as far as anyone was concerned, exile was far favorable to a magical civil war.

The location of the remaining "blood mages" is lost to time, although they were the subject of superstitious rumors and children's nightmare stories for years to come.

The Element of Earth
Considered the easiest of the magics to learn, students of the earth are encouraged to walk barefoot and to play on the ground while other students are nose-deep in literature, while their masters watch for any signs of creativity in the making. Often this consists of children making miniature castles out of soft clay or creating primitive dolls from pebbles they had merged together. Often the latter is not even realized by the students- some children report that they "thought the rocks were just soft."

Earth is considered the second least destructive after air, although in most's minds it is also the most useful. Earth users are often responsible for the creation of new buildings, the flattening of the ground, or working with the earth to create subtle, but safe passes up mountains or hills. They may also sometimes work with fire users to forge metal items and sometimes weapons, although most of these have little demand in the army.

The Theodorian Wall
As part of the pact made between the Theodariaian Empire and the Magocracy, and as a sign of good faith, a number of earth workers volunteered to create the enormous, nearly fifty-feet thick wall of earth that surrounds Theodaria. The wall is completely smooth and is nearly impenetrable- the only way into the city is through the main gate or through its many secret side entrances. Sappers attempting to undermine the city walls often encounter rock that seems unnaturally thick. Creating this wall served two purposes- one, it showed the Theodarians that the mages came to them with good intentions. Two, it passive-aggressively showed which nation is the more dominant. This second irritates politicians every now and then, but the emperors have learned to be thankful that the Magocracy has asked for little else than peace.

The Element of Air
The study of air, aside from lightning, is the hardest of the elements to learn. In fact, it requires no study, but rather a number of deep meditations on air in all its forms: The air one breathes, the wind, the wind generated by another person or thing, the lack of air, and even the air that circulates everyone at all times.

Like the other elements, in order to best learn about the path of air, students are required to experience it through every means possible. This can be anything from sitting on a windy hilltop or jumping from a particularly high ledge into a lake or pool below. Regardless of all these exercises, it can be particularly difficult for any student of magic to grasp air since it has very little if any tangible quality- historically, the number of air users as opposed to the other forms of magic has been quite small. The experience of finally learning air magic has sometimes been described as "something clicking."

In addition to being among the hardest of the magics to learn, the path of air is also considered by most the least destructive, at least at first. There are tales of powerful air mages sometimes controlling the forces of nature herself, and on at least once instance, a cyclone has been called to deal with enemies of the Magocracy. These instances are almost so rare as to have originated in folk tale, as most philosophers agree that the stamina required to call upon a cyclone would most certainly kill the user. Equally mythic, it is in theory possible to fly after learning the path of air well enough, but for obvious reasons, not many students are encouraged to attempt it.

The Element of Lightning
Lightning is a newly discovered element, and was not "controllable" until recently- unlike the path of air, the path of lightning only has one known user. The discovery was initially made by an air user who, during his apprenticeship, decided to create a series of storms over an open, uninhabited field broken by a single tree. Bored as he was with the small rainstorms he conjured, he gathered a number of them and forced each to collide with one another, using the tree as a focal point. The clouds, having reached critical mass from the young mage's whims, turned as black as coal and let loose what the young man described as "a bright, firey wrath like a rip through space," which quickly ignited and engulfed the single tree. Despite the rain that followed it, said tree quickly burned to a crisp, and the mage, both confused and distraught, dispelled the storms and ran back to his cottage.

It seems odd that any person from the Magocracy would not have heard of nor seen lightning in its purest form before, but it's possible that because of their powers, the weather over the lands of the Magocracy were well controlled- thus, thunderstorms rarely had a chance to form, unless by a mage's command.