Dunamancy

Dunamancy is the school of magic concerned with potential, gravity, and the unseen fabric that binds all things together. It studies the balance between motion and stillness, the pressure between what exists and what might exist. Where evocation shapes raw energy and transmutation alters matter, dunamancy reaches deeper, touching the primal forces that determine how the world behaves before the first spark of power is even cast. It is magic built on possibility.   Practitioners of dunamancy, called dunamancers, work with a principle known as dunamis. It is not light or heat or spirit, but the pure potential that underlies every event. Through precise control of this force, they influence weight, distance, time, and probability. The most basic uses of the art shift the pull of gravity, letting the caster raise stones, suspend arrows in midair, or crush an opponent with invisible pressure. More advanced workings alter the odds of an outcome, tilting chance itself until the improbable becomes certain. The highest expressions of dunamancy bend the border between realities, creating localized pockets of stretched or compressed existence.   This magic requires more than study. A dunamancer must develop an instinct for equilibrium. Every manipulation of dunamis demands that something be taken or released, for the universe always seeks balance. To lighten an object is to increase its pull elsewhere. To slow a fall is to borrow momentum that must later be repaid. Those who ignore this law invite collapse, not only of their spell but of the surrounding space that holds it. Experienced dunamancers describe their work as a conversation with the world, a series of careful requests rather than demands.   Dunamancy branches into three related practices. Graviturgy governs weight and force, shaping the movement of objects and creatures. Chronurgy influences the tempo of time without fully breaking it, granting glimpses of future events or delaying motion for a heartbeat. Possibility weaving focuses on fate and chance, shifting the alignment of choices toward one outcome or another. Together, these practices form a discipline that touches nearly every aspect of the natural order, yet remains grounded in restraint.   Because of its complexity, dunamancy is rarely taught outside small circles of scholars and mystics. Many fear its use, claiming it reaches too near the powers that hold the planes together. Others see it as a key to understanding creation itself. Both views hold truth. To practice dunamancy is to stand at the intersection of what is and what could be, drawing strength from the tension between them.   At its core, the philosophy of dunamancy teaches patience and awareness. It reminds the mage that every choice carries weight, every action shifts the balance of what follows. Dunamancers who lose sight of this truth often find themselves consumed by their own ambition, while those who honor it become architects of harmony. The art is neither benevolent nor destructive. It is potential given shape, the quiet acknowledgment that reality is not fixed but waiting to be guided by the will of those who truly understand it.