The Laws of Magic, Part 2

In this article, the mechanisms and intricacies of casting magic in the world of Az, as well as the various ways different cultures and civilizations have constructed disciplines related to magic will be explored. Additionally, a more in depth look into the relevance of the residual Arcane Current in the world of Az.   Side-note: If you have stumbled upon this article by chance and this is your first time interacting with the world of Az, it is recommended that you learn more about the basics of magic first by reading the first Laws of Magic article, which will be linked below this article.   The most fundamental understanding of casting magic can be boiled down to the caster using their stock of soul-force to persuade the world around them to accommodate their will. So in this sense, any person with the imagination can effectively create or do anything they desire, be it constructing a building, mastering the elements or even conceiving another living being through sheer willpower.  

Limitations of Casting Magic

  This comes to the first major issue confronting mages when it comes to working change in their surroundings, namely the limits and pitfalls of imagination. Suppose you were to imagine an object before creating it, would you be creating the object in its entirety or just the superficial image in your mind? This is the principal that limits the effectiveness of creation magic, as few beings have the capacity to imagine every constituent part of an object down to the atomic level, let alone the basic surface details, leading to materialized objects usually having a compromised structure of some form, be it a warped shape or lacking any internal material in the case of solid objects.   However this is related to the second barrier to creating something from one's soul-force, being that the conversion of this energy into matter is enormously inefficient. Something as simple as making a drop of water would require most of a Dreg's soul-force, so it is easy to see why higher tiered mages do not bother with such expensive techniques, opting for the more efficient method of converting soul-force into energy, manipulating matter already present in the world.   However, beyond even these there are further limits to casting magic, as the individual's soul-force is linked to their mind, leading to a phenomenon termed atunement by educated casters, where the experiences and preferences of the mage influence the way in which they interact with their surroundings. The easiest example of this would be two specialized categories of mages, hydromancers and pyromancers, where the different personalities of the individuals result in one having an innate understanding or atunement towards manipulating water, while the other shows greater proficiency in controlling heat. Such atunement most likely is a constant process, starting from early childhood when more prevalent stimuli lead to the individual acquiring a stronger atunement to said stimuli.  

Unfeasible Uses of Magic

  With all these limitations in mind, there are several specific operations of using magic that are considered largely impossible for the sapient species of Az to access. The primary example is the creation, manipulation or interaction with concepts that are fundamentally outside of mortal comprehension. This principal implies that notions such as true time-travel (or any faster-than-light travel), perceiving higher dimensional planes and rewriting basic physical laws are all off-limits to mages, after all, how can one envision a truly alien reality if their own existence has been wholly contained within this one?   These ideas bleed into a sub-set of unfeasible uses of magic, being a category where such applications are technically possible, but are so complex that they have only been performed in exceedingly rare circumstances. The most notable examples of such techniques are the likes of teleportation, creating and sustaining pocket dimensions within a space and the fusing of soul-forces together. True shapeshifting, where a mage takes on the perfect form of another organism, is also largely not possible, since manipulating the brain and nervous system in any way can have permanent and catastrophic effects on the mage attempting such a feat.  

Disciplines Vs Isolate Magic

  Due to all of these intricacies regarding magic, it is no surprise that most advanced civilizations resort to incorporating special casting systems, known as Disciplines by the order of the Scion-students. Such Disciplines use previously constructed spells and incantations in place of "Isolate magic", a method of casting where a mage simply forces change to occur through their own will. Such premeditated spells are used to make channeling one's soul-force easier and less risky for the mages of a society.   Most commonly, Disciplines arise from an organized religion or cult, using the belief in divine entities to direct their soul-force, believing their magic to come from such entities. The effect this has the caster's soul-force is interesting, for the Arcane Current that arises from such belief will respond to incantations of the mage, combining with their inherent soul-force used, in order to empower and focus the effect of the spell. The potency of such an effect varies, often with both location and the faith the caster has in the incantation's power.   As a result of this, average mages who follow a major religion may in a sense command a greater stock of soul-force than they actually have, capable of larger feats of magic akin to an exemplar in some cases. Of course there are as with anything related to magic, some drawbacks to this method of casting. The primary issue is often the need to recite a list of phrases, perform a specific gesture or some other form of ritual in order to invoke the spell's effect, something that during the heat of battle can prove to cost a lethal amount of time. Additionally, the fact that a fair portion of a spell's power is derived from residual soul-force from the Arcane Current means that any magician can easily interrupt a spell if they are aware of this Current and how to manipulate it.   This displays the dichotomy between magic Disciplines and casting magic directly through an individual's willpower, with disciplinary exhibiting greater stability, reliability and in many cases power, in exchange for less versatility, speed and a weakness to being interrupted. The inverse is true for Isolate magic, being that it can instantly provide an intended effect, can quickly change to suit the caster's intentions and is extremely difficult to be interrupted by other mages, with its limitations being the inherent danger and instability as discussed earlier in this article.