Sorcery

See Category:Sorcery Spells for a list of Sorcery spells.'

Sorcery is the most infamous discipline studied by students of the Arcane. It is the use of spell patterns that rely on the laws and properties of two (or more) frequencies of mana at once. In contrast to the logical and methodical nature of conventional magic, sorcery relies on intuition and emotion. The act of casting a sorcerous matrix drags the caster beyond what is rational and logical into a dark world of emotion and fantasy. Do so is a distinctly painful experience. Compared to conventional magic, all sorcery has three universal characteristics:

1) Sorcery is violent. It may be darkly pervasive, metaphysically violent, or even literally violent, but at some level it will be breaking something. This is an infuriating but nonetheless immutable element of sorcery spellbooks: it's never "nice.
2) Sorcery is unstable. Even the best sorcerer is groping for at least half his mana blind, deaf and dumb. Even the most erudite sorcerer cannot hope to encompass the exponential growth in laws and mechanics that comes from interfacing mana frequencies that were never meant to work together. Even the luckiest sorcerer cannot escape that sometimes two streams cross and that's the end of that. Sorcery has an inherent tendency toward creating an unpleasant explosion of curses and half-formed spell effects.
3) Sorcery is greedy. Sorcery exists to create in the world that which does not and cannot exist, because the magician arrogantly says it should or attempts to do alone with sorcery what could be done with outside help or with an intentional mien of misanthropy.

Sorcerous Theory

Conventional Mana Theory

Conventional magic theorists claim that Sorcery is the act of combining two (or more) of the four known realms of magic (Elemental, Holy, Life and Lunar) into a single matrix. Casting such spells, consequently, involves the manipulation of mana that exists outside the magician's attuned realm. Magic users are limited to the ability to perceive a single realm of magic and therefore Sorcery is also the act of manipulating at least a portion of a spell matrix blindly. This, combined with the fact that each of the realms has unique laws and metaphysical properties, causes such spell matrixes to be inherently unstable and dangerous. As a result, the use of a Sorcerous matrix always carries the risk of a Sorcerous Backlash that can have results ranging from inconvenient but invisible effects to spectacularly violent deaths.

The Mana Field Hypothesis

Sorcerous magic theorists champion an The Mana Field Hypothesis, which states that the four known realms of mana are not distinct fields but are instead parts of a greater ubiquitous whole. The fact that the individual realms appear to exist is the result of a weakness of the mortal mind; if one could see mana in its' entirety one would see that the end of one realm of magic only marks the border to another realm. Sorcerers further argue attunement naturally grants all magic users the ability to manipulate portions of the mana field that are beyond their natural perception. Sorcerous backlashes are, therefore, not the result of blending incompatible realms of mana but rather are caused by the Sorceror's inability to perceive the mana field in it's entirety.

Much to the frustration of sorcerous researchers, current observations cannot support the Mana Field Hypothesis as the four realms to not fit neatly together into a unified whole. Numerous modifications to the hypothesis ranging from the existence of invisible mana bridging to gap between the realms, field-warping forces interfering with mana perception or undiscovered realms of mana abound. The fact that Sorcery is possible provides encouragement to Sorcerous Theorists, who are quick to point out that they are able to do what Conventional Mana Theorists say is impossible.

Types of Sorcery

While the definition or Sorcery is fairly black and white, you are either manipulating more than one type of mana or you are not, in practice sorcery can be divided broadly into several categories. The first involves casting a matrix designed for a single mana type with another type of mana. This is called "sorcerous casting."

The second involves a matrix which is designed inherently to use more than one type of mana. True sorcery can be further divided into "high sorcery" and "low sorcery" with the former involving factors more complex than simply blending different types of mana. Finally a True Sorcery spell that includes life mana in it's matrix is also technically a Necromancy spell.

Traditionally, players have referred to sorcerous casting as "sorcery" with a lower-case s and to true sorcery as "Sorcery" with an upper-case S. However:

<block>We're pretty much destroying the "little s" "big S" dichotomy with this change. Society doesn't care until society notices and then society cares. --GM Armifer</block>

Sorcerous Casting

Sorcerous casting is the act of a magic user attempting to cast a spell designed to use another type of mana. This may be as simple as a Cleric trying casting Clear Vision, but it comes with the danger of sorcerous backlash. The danger of this is that even when not attempting to do so, any attempt by a magic user to manipulate mana will either wholly or partially include their native mana as an unavoidable reflexive action. Without even intending to, the Cleric would end up funneling at least a small amount of holy mana into the Clear Vision spell, which it is not designed to handle, and occasionally result in catastrophic results.

While sorcerous casting is not in and of itself illegal in most locales due to the general inability to separate it from normal spell casting, the body-destroying backlashes have caught the attention of provincial authorities and now come with legal troubles.

True Sorcery

High Sorcery

High Sorcery is a type of refined magic that combines three types of mana into a single matrix. High Sorcery spell books are deeply rooted in a philosophy supported by either a confound or special background knowledge. There are currently four known High Sorcery spell book, each of which is a corruption of one of the four realms of magic.

• Antinomic Sorcery is the corruption of cosmologic law and deals with esoteric grey areas of religion. This book is based on Holy Mana but contains Elemental and/or Lunar Mana in it's matrixes. Such spells will likely require knowledge of the Theurgy skill and be limited to the Cleric Guild.
• Hylomorphic Sorcery is the corruption of cosmologic form and contains, among other things, the legendary Blackfire Spellbook. This book requires knowledge unique to the Warrior Mage guild and it's matrixes blend Elemental Mana with Holy and/or Lunar Mana.
• Teleologic Sorcery is the corruption of fate, luck and probability. It is a mixture of Lunar Mana with Elemental and/or Holy mana and requires a link to the plane of probability and knowledge of Astrology. As a result this book is only usable by Moon Mages.
• Necromancy is also known as "High Necromancy" or, by some scholars as "Ontologic Sorcery", is the corruption of life, often involving the creation of false life or pervasion of living things into unnatural forms. It is based on the mixture of Life Mana with either Elemenal or Lunar mana. This sorcery requires knowledge of the blasphemy known as Thanatology and is not a single spell book but instead contains the entire spectrum of spells used by the Necromancer guild. Unlike all other types of Sorcery, this magic does not contest the Sorcery Skill as long as it is used by a necromancer.

Low Sorcery

Low Sorcery lacks the philosophical and theoretical complexity of the High Sorceries. The concept that unified the spells within a Low Sorcery spell book is the fact that that all attempt to do what is impossible with a single realm of magic. Such magic is usually violent, unstable and dangerous. There are currently three types of low sorcery:

• Low Sorcery is a combination of two of Elemental, Holy and Lunar magic.
• Lay Necromancy is the combination of Life magic with Lunar or Elemental Magic.
• Feral Magic is a combination of all four realms of magic and is exceptionally violent and unstable, even by sorcerous standards.

Sorcerous Backlash

Casting spells in a sorcerous manner can case very bad things to happen to the user. Some examples are:

• Unconsciousness caused by internal head wounds.
• Temporary loss of attunement, partial or total.
• Temporary inability to cast spells, with the loss of memorized scrolls.
• Temporary inability to sense mana.
• External wounds, ranging in severity from minor to fatal.
• Internal wounds, ranging in severity.
• Stun without wounds.
• Total sorcerous incineration.

How Sorcery is Viewed Within the Elanthia

As GM Armifer put it, "Society doesn't care until society notices and then society cares." The average person in Elanthia either doesn't understand the nuances of magic or doesn't care about them.

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