Category: Mythiverse

It is commonly understood among students of magic that non-magical persons are at greater risk of harm from exposure to raw magic. But discerning users must understand that the ways in which two casters’ essences interact can greatly alter the effectiveness of certain spells.

Most spells used in mage combat are glorified magic missiles. They simply generate a great amount of raw essence and propel it towards the target. Because this lacks refinement, it is particularly devastating to objects or persons with little to no essence of their own to mitigate it. However, a person with any significant amount of natural essence can absorb or resist a corresponding amount of magical damage. In other words, raw essence is effective for physical damage, but less effective in a magician-on-magician scenario.

But in order to apply a lasting effect, the caster must exert some energy refining their magic as it leaves their body. Any sort of refined magic will interact with another person’s innate essence in a different way. The target can choose to attune their own magic to embrace or resist the effect. Using healing magic on a willing target, for instance, will result in the target passively channeling the magic throughout their body, increasing its effectiveness.

On the flip side, resisting an effect exhausts some of the target’s reserves, and their own casting abilities will be temporarily inhibited. Resisting a spell may also cause physical damage similar to improper channeling. Experienced battle casters have learned to discern when it is more favorable to allow the effect or to risk the damage. Or, as is more often the case in that specific profession, they have great enough essence reserves to simply tank it and keep blasting.

Certain spells are known to exist that actually overload and hijack a target’s internal essence channels, causing truly painful and lasting damage. These spells are restricted by magical authorities and rarely encountered.

Every spellcaster has certain affinities, or types of magic which come more easily to them. However, some have unique abilities, ones which allow them to use normally complex spells on a whim or passively possess supernatural faculties. These sort of effects are classified as “gifts” by scholars of magic.

A gift is defined as an ability, permanently granted by an initial spell, that has one of two characteristics:

• Allowing the gifted to cast complicated, high-level, or taxing spells with greatly reduced effort, or
• Granting a constant magical effect to the gifted.

For example, Van’s gift allows him to cast large-scale illusions without the need for additional foci, and Varis’ gift allows her to passively sense the emotions of those around her.

In most cases, a gift is bestowed by another spellcaster or by a magical item. It is widely regarded as impossible for a spellcaster to bestow a gift on themselves. Gifts are complicated to grant and very difficult to remove, though they can be limited by normal magic suppression means.

Examples of gifts granted by another person include those granted to Hanna and Chelsea Wilder. Since the source of such gifts’ power becomes the gifted themselves, attempting to remove them is extremely dangerous and often deadly.

Gifts bestowed by a magical item include Varis’ gift, granted by the Polaris Stone. Since the source of power rests outside the gifted, these gifts can sometimes be removed (with no harm to the bearer) by simply removing or destroying the item. However, as with the Polaris Stone, these items may have other enchantments that make them difficult or impossible to remove or destroy.

Very rarely, a gift may be passed through a bloodline. For example, Van inherited his gift from his father. There are no records of anyone attempting to remove a bloodborne gift, with most historical mentions ending in just putting a sword to the gifted and being done with it.

It is certainly possible for “gifts” to have generally “negative” effects, or a mixture of positive and negative. While the academic term applies across the board, those gifts that are less desirable are typically called “curses” in everyday use. In contrast, more beneficial gifts may also be called “blessings”.

”The Awakening” refers to a series of events stemming from the mass realization of magic in society. This period was largely characterized by violent uprisings both in support and opposition to magic use. The severity of these uprisings ranged from small riots to acts of terrorism.

The Awakening marked the final shift of sorcery from being practiced only in secret to being able to be practiced openly. While it remained less than commonplace, the average person would not be shocked to see the occasional spell cast in public.

Mythikos had long been working to civilly integrate magic into the everyday. On the government side, he did this primarily through the behind-the-scenes work of Chief Warr Arrna, assisted by Rich Williams and others. At a grassroots level, his goal was to train as many as possible in the responsible use of magic so that they would be equipped to understand, if not respond to, arcanely-enabled threats.

The passing of Mythikos left a void of authority, as Josh Macintosh understandably did not command the same level of fear as his predecessor. This void emboldened certain elements that were reluctant to make themselves known while the all-seeing Mythikos was alive.

The most destructive actor during this time was an organization known as the Inheritors. Largely composed of magically adept youth left stranded after the collapse of the Elect, this group primarily organized through anonymous online forums. The Inheritors were responsible for numerous attacks on public buildings throughout the U.S., with the stated objective of abolishing existing society and establishing one dominated by magic users. The majority of their actions were ultimately tied to a single figure, known only as The Beacon.