Magic

As it does elsewhere in the vast cosmos, magic on Arc Arjet takes many forms, but is governed by strict rules. These rules were codified by the Anur goddess Darja in an ancient age, and are, from a mortal perspective, inviolate. Even the Jade Heron, whose rule over the forces of magic is believed to be absolute, does not (or perhaps even cannot) alter these Laws. In turn, the Darjic Laws are based on older, even more pervasive Laws which govern all of reality. These are the Inuric Laws, which are described in more detail below.

All students of magic, be it arcane or divine in origin, study as much of the Laws as can be comprehended by mortal minds. This study of universal traits and rules is called ''Spellcraft. ''Every cleric is schooled in at least the basics of Spellcraft and its importance to the divine order of things, and rare is the wizard who didn't spend the early years of her apprenticeship working through wearisome tomes on it. Sorcerers can call upon strange and instinctive memories of Spellcraft, words burned into their minds by the very nature of their power. Oracles hear these laws whispered to them by ethereal, godly voices in their sleep.

To understand Spellcraft is to understand something of the fundamental rules governing power itself.

When metamagic is employed, a delicate "revision" of the Darjic Laws is temporarily enacted. The phrases which describe an effect – the size of a fireball, for instance – are modified, changing what the spell will then do. It takes skill and practice to effect these "revisions," and those who try to change the words and gestures required for a spell on a whim will quickly find their magic behaving in highly undesirable ways. (The most common, of course, being that the spell simply fails.) Because forcing magic to behave differently is a difficult process, it requires more energy and concentration to perform these alterations. However, a small and obscure school of arcane prodigies, who train in a strange college located "somewhere outside of the flow of time," have learned to make numerous alterations by taking advantage of loopholes and exceptions in the Darjic Laws. The training to use these "exploits" is intensely specialized and appears to require taking a burgeoning sorcerer and then rigorously schooling them in methods similar to those used by wizards.

Inuric, the Tongue of All Creation
Amongst the various obscure languages used by practitioners of the magical arts – Shevrandi, Draconic, the elemental tongues, Celestial, Abyssal and others – there is one which holds a special place.

Inuric is a mysterious language; no culture speaks it, and in fact there are perhaps two scholars on all of Barram known to be even close to conversationally fluent in it. It has thousands and thousands of words, each carefully weighted for precision and descriptive ability. In Common, one might describe a flower as 'red' or perhaps a more poetic synonym to more closely name its shade; in Inuric, the color could be described so precisely in only four words that it is impossible to mistake it for any other red flower. Its sheer precision makes it unwieldy and bewildering as a spoken language, which would be bad enough; this difficulty is redoubled when one finds that Inuric words can be altered in meaning and specificity by using simple gestures and adjustments of posture.

The truth is that merely speaking Inuric can be dangerous.

Inuric is the literal "language of magic itself." Its staggering vocabulary and vast arrangements of words are somehow, when used properly, able to briefly alter reality. Inuric can change the Laws which govern a plane – gravity can be reversed, the air can blossom into flames, water can become a deadly sword, an ally's strength can be bolstered. Even the magic granted by the gods is rendered in this language. Few creatures can learn Inuric without years of intense study. A powerful wizard knows a vast arsenal of phrases, each carefully constructed and repeatedly tested for effectiveness, and spends long hours in study of each formula. For a witch, their own Inuric vocabulary is taught to them by their familiar, speaking on behalf of their mysterious patrons. The magi chant and practice their gestures while learning to master weapons. Clerics and paladins simply pray for miracles and are granted the words and gestures they need in brief visions sent by their gods; druids and rangers hear the words whispered in the wild and the gestures in the clouds, but the effect is much the same.

The magic-laden blood of a sorcerer conveys an instinctual recollection of Inuric phrases which cause specific effects, and for this reason every sorcerer's spells are iconoclastic, differing subtly from every other caster's. (To a skilled observer, these individual differences can be used to identify a caster with a Spellcraft check, DC 20 + spell level.) For an oracle or inquisitor, the knowledge of the proper phrases to use is conveyed directly by the gods they serve, an effect described by some as their mind "being inscribed with letters of light." Bards have a strange relationship with the Inuric language; for a bard, a new spell is a puzzle to be solved, hidden in old songs and in their observations of the world. For a bard, it is equal parts intuition and cleverness that leads to spellcasting. Summoners, on the other hand, gain their knowledge of spell-words through the same mysterious link that allows them to call forth their eidolons from whatever unknowable world they come from. Some scholars believe this inherent knowledge is a sort of memory carried by the eidolons themselves, and shared with the summoner once their link is forged.

Magic, the Void, and Inur the Maker
Somewhere beyond the Astral Plane is another plane, separate and sealed by mighty, impervious deific wards. The barriers which seal this plane are impenetrable and layered in the hundreds, which is why they are sometimes called "the Countless Gates." A poetic term for spell-casting is "to open the Countless Gates."

This elusive and infinitely-barred plane is sometimes called "the Spellstorm," though it has many other names; a particularly common one being "The Potential Plane." It is a name with the virtue of being simple and accurate, for it contains seemingly limitless potential and possibility. It provides the raw energy which powers all magic, and were it to be released it would rapidly and destructively render all of reality just like it: a roiling, formless, ever-changing chaos. For that reason it is also named "The Protean Plane," and indeed, the serpentine, chaotic proteans are the only non-deific beings that can be described as "native" to it.

Most students of planar and arcane lore, however, simply call it "the Void."

Entering the Void is considered beyond foolhardy; very few beings can withstand its touch for more than an instant, as the Void is infinitely changeable and changes anything that enters it. It reacts to the thoughts of all intelligent beings, and any stray thought can tear the thinker's physical form apart, warping it into a thousand new shapes in mere seconds. Spellcasters in the Void can accidentally unleash tremendous spells simply because their minds are used to the tool which most easily manipulates the Void, the Inuric language. Only gods seem impervious to this mutability, and it is believed this is solely because their forms are held together by the faith of their worshipers outside the Void. Even so, gods very rarely enter the Spellstorm for any reason.

A singular being inhabits the Void, and it is for this god-like being that the language of magic is named: Inur, the Maker. Sometimes called 'the ur-god,' Inur seems to unconsciously create other gods and planes, sparking worlds to life on a whim. Those rare scholars who make a study of the Maker cannot agree if Inur is aware of everything, or oblivious to everything. They cannot even determine if the Maker's use of the Void to create realities is even deliberate or if it is simply a byproduct of whatever mysterious purpose Inur labors towards. They cannot even pick a pronoun to describe the being. Few worship Inur, and it is apparent that the Maker never answers prayers anyway. Attempts to communicate with Inur via magic have generally produced only befuddling, if poetic replies which are either (depending on who you ask) completely meaningless or profound prophecy.

The rules which govern what the Void does and does not do, and by extension all of reality (since it is constructed from the Void) are called the 'Inuric Laws. Fundamental principles - natural forces - are described and governed by these Laws; magical principles - supernatural forces' - are governed by Darja's Laws. The Inuric Laws dictate that a force such as gravity will always behave a certain way under certain circumstances; Darja's Laws dictate that a precise application of concentration and the Inuric language can cause gravity to temporarily invert itself. The rule of Darjic Law can only ever temporarily supersede the natural effects of Inuric Law, unless there is a continual source of energy enabling the alteration. This is where the relationship between magic and reality is defined.

The Inuric language somehow creates a temporary connection between the Void and the caster. Normally, things brought into existence using magic cannot endure long away from the Void; depending on the words used, the effect will generally last a mere eyeblink, a few seconds, minutes or even hours. Some spells actually use the energy of the Void to tap into other planes and bring forth objects or beings which are more persistent, some even permanent. The infinite potential of the Void can be used to alter perceptions, or even place mystical compulsions upon others. It can be used to break down existing spells or even, using a complex Inuric phrase, prohibit energy from the Void from forming in an area. One phrase forms a tiny, permanent connection, allowing the energy of the Void to form a continuous loop, sustaining itself indefinitely. The experienced the caster, the more and more precise their language becomes, and the stronger (and often more enduring) the spells become. In effect, a magic-user taps into Inur's own powers of creation to temporarily alter reality.

A very different, but no less exacting, process is used when creating a magic device.

The Art of Naming
The crafting of various magic items requires a careful study of Inuric, both its language and its Laws, and then finding ways to replicate them. A precise study of the object to be named, the spells involved, and the necessary descriptive terms is the first step. Using rare materials and special sigils, the crafter draws power from the Void, and then fundamentally alters the Laws governing what the object would normally do. Even this would be only temporary and would eventually fade away.

However, this fading is prevented by an Anchor Name, an Inuric phrase which describes the object and connects it to the materials it is constructed of. The reason such rare materials are used in the making of a ring which allows the wearer to breathe water, or a sword that sheds searing flames, is because such materials can be very precisely rendered in Inuric and allow the change in the Laws which give the magic item its powers. Some items serve as a sort of battery, featuring inscribed Inuric runes which recreate a spell-phrase – such items are wands and staves. They provide a stored energy-source to power these phrases without connecting to the Void. The more complex the effect, the more rare and costly the materials and the more complex the descriptive phrases become, and the more intricate the Anchor Name must be. An ancient magical sword may be known as "Ice Fang," but its Anchor Name might be a short poem including several successive Anchor Names used over time as the weapon's power is improved. Because of the importance of the Anchor Name and a precise description woven into the material, all magic items of any real worth have names, and few exactly resemble any other item.

Over time, those skilled in the crafting of magic items can carefully alter the descriptive phrases, strengthening and adding to them, changing the Anchor Name subtly and improving the power bound to the object. This succession of names can be seen woven tightly through the item, and a scholar skilled in Spellcraft can effectively read the description, learning what the object does and what it is named.

There are tales of a rare few masters of various crafts who, without any training in the magic arts, can learn to create enchanted items. They are very rare, but their work is always of sublime quality. It is believed by some that gods assist these workers, or that it is the result of a very rare gift, a sort of dormant sorcery. Some secretive and exclusive schools of crafting actually train such makers, schooling them in Inuric and Anchor Names, material-selection and other important details of their craft.

It has been suggested by some scholars that everything possesses an Anchor Name, and that they can be altered as well. This is possible, and may explain the effects of permanent enhancement spells or even mystic transformations.