Post by Soprano on Aug 27, 2010 12:58:18 GMT -6
How Magic Works and a Little History
Magic is a mysterious thing that many people have tried to study over the years. During times like the Salem Witch trials, certain people decided to keep quiet about strange powers they had. Often, they would find after a burst of extreme emotion, they seemed to have broken a seal on their minds. Occasionally, they would fear possession and turn themselves in as possessed individuals. Others, thrilled with newfound power, would experiment and stretch the boundaries.
Magic is born out of a strong emotion. Whether it is faith or rage or jealousy, a person needs to break the seal that is placed in the minds of men with a strong burst of feeling. Once they manage to do that, they often don’t need to feel that same surge of emotion to conjure up the power, though it might strengthen it. All three disciplines of magic are very different, though, all following a different set of morals and rules.
It is very common that a religous figure would discover he had this kind of power. They said he had the ‘light of God’ and that he was gifted with the Spirit. The Church of Sacred Light quickly took these men under their wings. The Church has magic that is more based on Faith than anything else, unlike other disciplines of magic. They need to have a strong belief that something or someone will protect them and it will be so. That saying, it could be argued that a follower of the Church really has not magic, but acts as a beacon of power that already lies dormant in certain religious objects. Demons feed off negative feelings and apathy, so this is naturally poisonous to them.
The Order of Eradictus Pravus were the first to discover there was magic different from religious kind. Many of their Order were the ones being burned at Salem. It took a long time for the Order to perfect their version of magic, because it really only worked on possessed humans and demons themselves. Magic of the Order is really fueled by strong ambition and will. Ambition is basically what drives the Order, so many of their mages are full of ambition in the first place. It takes a more traumatic emotion to break a mage of the Order’s magic seal, but ambition is what drives them afterward. Basically, a mage will project and impose his or her will over a demon, if the will of the mage is greater than that of the demon, her or her magic will succeed. A demon can invoke a strong feeling as well, to try to fight it, but depending on the mage, it may not work at all.
The Chao Xi are unique in the fact that they rely on all types of emotions rather than a specific ones like ambition and faith. Specifically the Ni Huo rely on a range of emotions to protect and attack, which is why it is encouraged to be fiery and passionate. The Long Shui, however, rely on a strong sense of duty and a will to protect their Ni Huo to fuel their magic. Although Chao Xi elders write the appropriate sutras onto the spell tag papers, the Long Shui are the ones who press the right emotion to make it effective. They channel the feeling of wanting to protect the Ni Huo and that feeling, along with the spell cards will either subdue or banish a demon.
Magic is a mysterious thing that many people have tried to study over the years. During times like the Salem Witch trials, certain people decided to keep quiet about strange powers they had. Often, they would find after a burst of extreme emotion, they seemed to have broken a seal on their minds. Occasionally, they would fear possession and turn themselves in as possessed individuals. Others, thrilled with newfound power, would experiment and stretch the boundaries.
Magic is born out of a strong emotion. Whether it is faith or rage or jealousy, a person needs to break the seal that is placed in the minds of men with a strong burst of feeling. Once they manage to do that, they often don’t need to feel that same surge of emotion to conjure up the power, though it might strengthen it. All three disciplines of magic are very different, though, all following a different set of morals and rules.
It is very common that a religous figure would discover he had this kind of power. They said he had the ‘light of God’ and that he was gifted with the Spirit. The Church of Sacred Light quickly took these men under their wings. The Church has magic that is more based on Faith than anything else, unlike other disciplines of magic. They need to have a strong belief that something or someone will protect them and it will be so. That saying, it could be argued that a follower of the Church really has not magic, but acts as a beacon of power that already lies dormant in certain religious objects. Demons feed off negative feelings and apathy, so this is naturally poisonous to them.
The Order of Eradictus Pravus were the first to discover there was magic different from religious kind. Many of their Order were the ones being burned at Salem. It took a long time for the Order to perfect their version of magic, because it really only worked on possessed humans and demons themselves. Magic of the Order is really fueled by strong ambition and will. Ambition is basically what drives the Order, so many of their mages are full of ambition in the first place. It takes a more traumatic emotion to break a mage of the Order’s magic seal, but ambition is what drives them afterward. Basically, a mage will project and impose his or her will over a demon, if the will of the mage is greater than that of the demon, her or her magic will succeed. A demon can invoke a strong feeling as well, to try to fight it, but depending on the mage, it may not work at all.
The Chao Xi are unique in the fact that they rely on all types of emotions rather than a specific ones like ambition and faith. Specifically the Ni Huo rely on a range of emotions to protect and attack, which is why it is encouraged to be fiery and passionate. The Long Shui, however, rely on a strong sense of duty and a will to protect their Ni Huo to fuel their magic. Although Chao Xi elders write the appropriate sutras onto the spell tag papers, the Long Shui are the ones who press the right emotion to make it effective. They channel the feeling of wanting to protect the Ni Huo and that feeling, along with the spell cards will either subdue or banish a demon.