On Aquilar, the presence of magic is an integral part of the surrounding world and indeed of life itself. Without the presence of magic, there would be no life on Aquilar and nothing to bind the elements together to form even a single grain of sand. It is the essence from which life is created, the source of power for the mage, and the malleable tool of the advocate.

Pure magic is derived from the perfect combination of the five elements in the purest of forms. It is the source of power that all druids strive to tap into, but very few can ever achieve the ability to control pure magic and those that do can become extremely powerful individuals and do marvelous things. Pure magic, on the other hand is inconsequential to the advocate who strives to achieve spiritual enlightenment through the embodiment of the elemental properties in their own lives.

Sorcerers are a different breed than the advocate and believe that the study of ancient language, ritual and invocation can manipulate the elements into whatever forms of spells are desired and learned. Sorcerers follow the ancient ways of spell casting and use words of power and body motion to generate and call the energy for their spells. Through meticulous study and practice, the sorcerer uses the invocation and particular motions to call the proper response from deep within their subconscious, generating and releasing the natural energies within their own bodies and minds.

The essence of magic is created and maintained by the elemental energy of all living things and the elements that comprise the worlds they live on. The energy used for magic permeates everything and is available to anyone who knows how to draw upon these natural resources. They are the basis of definition for all of magic where spells and abilities are governed by these ‘rules’ of the universe. Those who obtain mastery in a single element can become very powerful individuals.

The secrets of magic are defined by the basic principles of the Five Elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Aether. The four material elements (Air, Earth, Fire, and Water) each have an opposite that can cancel the effects as it does naturally in nature. Each element also has two copasetic elements that have a synergy with it and they work together in nature. When opposite elements conflict, whichever is in greater concentration or strength will eventually destroy the other. We see this all of the time in nature. When there is a great fire, a small amount of water will only delay the spread of the fire because the intense heat will evaporate and destroy the water. However, in large amounts such as a heavy rain, the water smothers the fire and cools it, dousing its flames.

Copasetic elements can work together in nature and although they have the power to destroy one another, it is often a long and tedious process if ever at all. When a river flows over the earth it does not penetrate the dirt and rock very much at all, but over time, the water eventually wears down the earth and digs deeper creating great chasms and deep river beds. The earth is strong and holds the water together, forming the river or the lake, thereby working together to sustain that ecosystem. By the same token, a fire cannot breathe without air, but together they can become powerful and destroy an entire tract of forest.

The elements themselves are the materials and building blocks for everything in existence and as such generate energy fields that permeate their surroundings. In high concentrations, such as being underwater, the magical energy of the other elements is muted and often cannot be sustained. The magical energy of water, on the other hand, is more powerful and can be sustained for much longer, drawing energy from the water itself. Aether would be the only element in this case that would not be affected, because it is the element of life and there are high concentrations of life forms in the water. However, in an environment where life cannot be sustained, the power of Aether dwindles.

Each element holds dominion over a particular class of magic called a domain. Within each domain there are sub-domains, which define the combination of the element with its two copasetic elements and their relationship to Aether. Spells that create fire are classified under the Fire domain, whereas spells that create lightning or electricity can be further classified under the sub-domain of Lightning. Table 5.1 below shows the relationship between the various domains.

Aether (pronounced ‘eath - err’) is the only element that is copasetic with the other four elements because it is the element of energy and can coexist with everything or destroy anything. It can be positive, negative, or even neutral where positive and negative energies coexist in equal amounts. Aether exists in the four material elements and forms the basis for which each element generates its own distinct energy forms. Aether is made up of two distinct forms of energy, creating what is known to sorcerers and advocates as ‘synergy’. This synergy creates a distinct relationship, which can coexist or conflict, in the latter case destroying the other form. The divergence between the two energies is most commonly associated with Life (Positive) and Death (Negative), both of which are studied heavily and form two distinct classes of advocates. Other common divergence’s are: Light and Darkness; Consciousness and Unconsciousness.

This synergy forms the basis of enlightenment for many different sects of advocates, usually called cults by the more civilized. To study and become an advocate of Aether one must choose one of the forms and become one of the Aetis or one of the Netheril, one cannot study both as eventually the two will conflict and destroy the advocate, consuming him into the light or the shadow. Sects who follow the ideals of light and darkness or any other divergence must also be one of the two classes, but could quite possibly have different views upon how that power is used for enlightenment.

Aether is the most commonly used source of power for all sorcerers, since it is the most malleable and easily accessible of the elements. Because Aether exists in everything and comprises the life-force in all beings, it is easily drawn by the mage who learns to tap into its power and use it to draw the other elements to do his bidding. Conjurers utilize Aether’s light and darkness properties in nearly all of their spells. The concept of harnessing Aether is difficult to grasp for many individuals and requires intense concentration and discipline, which is why the study of Aether is limited to two classes of advocates. An example would be the sunlight, the sun shines and generates light, it is a fact of life and many people do not look past this.

The four elements of Fire, Air, Water, and Earth are referred to as ‘material elements’ because they can affect or be touched by all five senses of Touch, Sight, Hearing, Speech, and Taste (no one really cares to taste Fire however). Not everyone can touch Aether and it will not affect your speech nor can you taste it, but you can see it and sometimes hear it. Earth can make your speech echo, tastes like dirt, creates sound, feels coarse, and can be seen all around you. When two elements are combined to create something, it is called a compound. Salt, for example, is an easily defined compound. It is a combination of earth and water as in the oceans. Iron is another, although a little more complex. Great heat within the earth heats up trace minerals within the earth and trapped oxygen to eventually cool and create iron. Iron would be a compound of earth, fire, and air. The clouds in the sky are considered a compound as well, a combination of air and water.

Each flavor of elemental advocate studies one of the four material elements or their sub-domains, forming different sects or temples depending on location and philosophy. Since it is easier for people to understand the aspects of earth, fire, air and water, it is easier to accept the philosophical ideals held by the advocates who study them and are the most commonly chosen paths to enlightenment. Study within one elemental domain grants benefits and spell ability to its copasetic elements, although it is rumored that some sects of advocates have learned to focus primarily on a particular sub-domain, granting them access to only two elemental domains, one greater and one lesser.

Because sorcerers use Aether to draw upon the other four elements when needed, they only use domains to classify their spells and to help them study the scientific aspect of their relationships. This classification system helps the mage create and research new spells, using what they know of the domains to test new theories and experiments.

Druids seek to find balance in all things they do and although they understand the relationship between all of the elements better than any other class, they teach and practice only the concept of the elements to understand nature and do not use any classification system in regards to how they use magic. To a druid, the natural world and the balance of the five elements is what generates magic and it is thought of as a single source of power. More than any other class, druids idealize the truest concept of magic.

Aether: includes spells that manipulate life, death, light, and darkness. It affects dreams, the unconscious and the senses, includes most illusions and spells that affect undead. Common spells: healing, regeneration, light, darkness, raise dead, fear, phantasm, livid nightmares.

Air: includes spells that deal with weather, the winds, flying, thought and sound. It is also considered the domain of dragons and combats earth. Common spells are: flying, control weather, gust of wind, fog of war, sound burst, telepathy, and charm.

Earth: includes spells that deal with stone, mountains, strength, stability, and longevity. Also includes spells that eliminate or combat air. Common spells are: manipulate stone, strength of the earth, stoneskin, and wall of iron.

Fire: includes spells that deal with war, volcanoes, cleansing, and change. Also includes spells that destroy or eliminate water. Common spells are: fireball, burst of flame, spiritual cleansing, wall of fire, dry spell.

Water: includes spells that deal with coldness (ice), rivers, the sea, illusionary, deceitful, and things in a constant state of change. Also includes spells that eliminate or combat fire. Common spells include: watery double, ice storm, tidal wall, cloud of mist, shapechange, and morph.

Entropy: includes spells that create an imbalance in the elements or that combine opposing elements to form destructive and powerful energy. This is the domain of the entropic mage. Common spells include: darklight, explosive fire, chaotic earth, transform element.

Balance: includes spells that react with all elements and help keep them in balance. Includes spells that deal with plants and animals and weather. Nature oriented spells. This is the domain of the druid. Common spells include: Control Weather, Speak to Animals, Sticks to Snakes, True Seeing, and Eyes of the Forest.

Sorcerers take a more scientific approach to how they utilize the available energies to perform spells. Sorcerers understand that the element Aether exists in everything and is a part of everything, even themselves. They understand the relationships and laws that govern the elements and how it affects the world they live in. They study and research how each element reacts to one another in different environments and when more or less of one, two or more elements is involved, how they react to produce different results. In basic terms, the sorcerer uses Aether to manipulate the four material elements and shape them into a desired result.

More importantly, sorcerers understand the basic principle that Aether can control and guide the material elements and can be used with any of them without fear of retribution. They use ancient languages, gesticulations of the body, and words of power that were developed long ago that produce subconscious effects in the mind to tap into the natural Aether inside their own bodies. Once they have control of this energy, it is only a matter of shaping it and reacting with the material elements available to them.

The mystical languages of magic, of which there are many, all relate to one particular fact. The combinations of words and phrases help the sorcerer reach into the depths of his or her mind, places that are normally inaccessible otherwise, to tap the natural energy source of the body. This is a difficult process to understand and emulate and requires years of study and practice. Furthermore, gesticulations of the hands and particular movements help generate additional energy that the sorcerer can feel and shape into whatever form is necessary, releasing it when the spell is completed.

Sorcerers also use devices that are called foci, or focus for a singular device. A focus can be any device that the sorcerer can use to represent one of the four material elements. Staves are the most common devices, being fused with elements of air, earth, fire, and water in their making. Wands, amulets, powders, and herbs are all common foci that the typical sorcerer uses to help him create the necessary reactions to produce their spells. In similar fashion, powerful spells that are permanent or produce a powerful elemental effect often require components that represent the elements needed and must be used up in the spell.

Conjurers work in much the same fashion as sorcerers do, except their spells rely on affecting the perception of the elements by other individuals, affecting their senses. They focus on using the element Aether to produce combinations of light, shadow, magnetism, lightning, heat, and cold. These illusions are real to the individual who sees them because they can see it, taste it, feel it, smell it, or hear it depending on the mastery of the spell. Simple illusions deal only with sight or sound, while more powerful and complex illusions seem all too real.

Because of their training and focus on illusion, conjurers are more limited than sorcerers in their choices of spells and can only use spells that are included in sub-domains, where two or more elements are combined. The only exception to this rule is spells included primarily in Aether. The full range of both positives and negative Aether are available to conjurers (unlike the advocate). Conjurers also differ from sorcerers in that they only require a single type of focus for their spells. This is usually a crystal or gem of some kind that can reflect and refract light and is almost always contained in a staff or amulet.

The most dangerous kind of spellcaster is the entropic mage who focuses on using the highly chaotic mix of opposing elements. The entropic mage relies on these destructive reactions to produce large amounts of energy to power their spells, such as mixing the energies of fire and water, or earth and air. This state of conflict is known as entropy (chaos).

This kind of spellcasting breaks the normal boundaries of magical practice and is extremely dangerous and difficult to wield the destructive forces that are produced. Casting entropic spells can have random effects that the mage did not desire, such as an explosion of water when a fireball is needed. Oftentimes the results of the spell cast can be as deadly to the mages’ companions as it is to their enemies as the mage has little control of the final effects.

Some might ask why would anyone want to tamper with such powerfully destructive forces? The simple and most accurate answer is power. There are many who strive to become ultimately powerful and rule over whatever it is they desire. As such, many of these mages are inherently evil and malicious and thankfully there are very few. In other cases, it is simply a matter of curiosity and discovery. Some believe that they can control the mix of elemental forces and focus them properly into powerful combinations. They believe that eventually they will learn to control them with practice and research, but many of them make the mistake of going too far too quickly and wind up a victim of their own spells (curiosity killed the cat).

Advocates believe that the path to enlightenment relies on their ability to master the elements they try to embody. They use meditation and discipline, both physically and mentally, to achieve mastery over the elemental energies of their chosen path. They believe that through the strength of their will, they can reach a state of consciousness through which they can draw the elemental energies into themselves, much like a magnet draws metal. The more they embody the element whose path they wish to follow, the more energy they can draw in and use for their spellcasting.

Advocates, as well as the Aetis and Netheril, tune into the elemental energy and throughout their training, they have learned to store that energy within them, using their bodies as a repository. As they develop themselves throughout their careers, their meditations and increased discipline develops their ability to store this energy and increase the output into more powerful spells.

As they draw in their chosen elemental energy, advocates also draw in portions of those elements’ copasetic elements, allowing them to utilize spells within those domains and any sub-domains that their element has contact with except for Aether. Advocates only use material elemental energy.

The Aetis also channel energy into themselves much like any other advocate, but they only utilize the element of Aether. Because their training is strict and very disciplined, they have a greater range of abilities that this energy can manifest into as well as greater spellcasting ability. They focus on the positive side of Aether and manifest their drawn energy into spells that heal, cure disease or poison, protect, cleanse, and manifest light or positive energy. They can also manifest their energy into a special form of magic that allows them to destroy undead creatures. Aetis are believers in life and light and detest abominations such as undead. Since undead are creatures of negative energy (death), the Aetis can use their powers to counteract the negative energy and wipe it out.

The Netheril are focused, disciplined advocates who channel the negative side of Aether into themselves and utilize only this element as it applies to the powers of darkness, death, pain and controlling the undead. Commonly called Necromancers by other spellcasters, the Netheril revel in the power and control they gain from delving into this energy. They are believers in the power of death and darkness, seeking only to dominate and cause pain using their magic. Netheril can use their powers to raise the dead in many gruesome and horrifying forms and sometimes can even trap the souls of those who have passed, turning them into slaves.

The nature-oriented druids are powerful spellcasters able to draw any form of elemental energy they see fit from the world around them, indeed from the world itself. They have one simple rule that governs their spellcasting and the way they live their lives. A druid may cast any spell as long as it does not cause an imbalance in the elements or nature.

Much like any other advocate, the druid meditates and concentrates on drawing inside themselves the natural elemental energies around them, able to call upon this energy at any time when necessary. Unlike other advocates, druids are able to call upon only one domain for their spells, choosing only what is best for the current situation. Because of their own restrictions on what spells are practiced and allowed druids have developed their own spells over the years and draw from their own domain, the domain of Balance. These spells incorporate elemental magic that affects plant and animal life and helps to protect nature. Even more importantly, this domain grants benefits and power over all domains.

More on magic and spells in game usage and rules coming soon!

Realms of Aquilar, Child of Gaea, and Aquilar.net are Copyright © 2002-2006, Jeff Ehrmann. All rights reserved.
Terms of Use | Webmaster