Prayer

Since the beginning of humanity, people have questioned the true power of the gods and sometimes even the gods themselves. But there is no better refutation of this doubt than the power of Prayer, one of the Mangagn or "Magics." Prayer is technically the power that is channeled via a person's faith though for many years it was misunderstood as a kind of power "lent" by the gods. And though prayer to a god is a special bond capable of great power, it is the act of praying itself is the mechanism by which the power may be drawn upon.   Always a Pair Prayer, like Binding, is built off of connections between individuals. There are two aspects of Prayer magic: the strength of conviction or faith and the entity prayed to. Or, in the terminology used by [??], the Supplicant and the Recipiant.   Conviction is tied to the Supplicant's wholehearted belief, regardless of truth or rationale. Even the dead gods provide great strength to their devoted followers for the strength of their belief. This is much to the ire of "proper" sorcerers who work in Binding and Pattern magics and who cannot make the intuitive leap to pure faith. Indeed, Prayer magic is surprisingly potent among certain historical figures including the madwoman Grindaline who worshipped Quianna and the cripple Pappur Saxon.   The Recipient of prayer can be any thing though living things, and intelligent creatures moreover, are generally more receptive of prayer and can be "swayed" by its power. For example, a Supplicant requires far more Conviction to pray for a stone to move on its own than to pray that a person may have the strength to move it. And this again ties into the concept of Conviction: the plausibility of a prayer is important to its effectiveness. The image on the right shows how, by altering the Recipient, the power of prayer can be vastly increased.  

Prayer to the Gods

The gods play an interesting role as mediators of prayer. Gods are among the few who have the ability to perceive and manipulate the energy prayer creates. Prayer to gods is especially effective even from a Supplicant of little faith because gods can "amplify" the power if they so choose. It is as if you were trying to cut down a tree: your hand does the work, but the tool is everything. The gods are like axes that can be wielded by clerics and paladins. But the caveat is that a god will never lend their power to a Supplicant if it goes against their wishes or their nature. And some gods are selfish. The hundreds of prayers to Lour for the saving of the cleric Muhan's life went strangely unanswered. And When the warrior Unpal Tithsang prayed to his goddess for safety in battle and was instead shot with forty-nine arrows, it was clear that Mensonodia, who despises war, had an ill opinion of him. Other beings can detect and manipulate prayer in a similar fashion to the gods, the earthenborn and a few other Hekkauthra being the primary examples.   In addition to sensing and manipulating the magic itself, both the gods and the earthenborn draw power from prayer to an extent. The mechanism for this is unclear though the tree-cutting analogy holds. The tool is the mechanism to bring down the tree but energy must first be provided by the one who wields it. And the tool grows warm with use, drawing a little from the heated effort of the wielder. There are countless examples throughout history of forgotten gods and creatures who have become frail shells of their former selves because their followers have faltered. Most famous is Anaphrene, Helenaphe's daughter, who quickly lost most of her power when her followers discerned her to be a hateful goddess and a tyrant.   Prayer and Binding EASY. Prayer inherently binds things together as it is a form of communication/interaction.