The Great Tree: Arcane Study III

Student Life

Beginning students of esoteric magic live in accommodations within the large campuses of the arcane colleges. The Points of Light academy in Oomash, for example, is a repurposed fortress quite prominently visible from most another in the city, as this massive fortification on the northern end of the city is part of the complex that once surrounded the entirety of Oomash. Though the connecting walls and towers on the eastern and western sides of the city have been reclaimed by the icy mountain niche within which Oomash lies, the northern fortress remains, overlooking the vast new city.

Because it has so few students for so large a space, each student has a room shared with a roommate. Though each student could have a personal room, the layout is meant to force social interaction so students do not grow hermetic and antisocial, in an attempt to boot the typical wizard stereotypes. Students are encouraged to help each other out and there’s not much of a grading system – you either know things or you need to practice more. Beyond the basics, a student is allowed to pursue his or her own interests.

Once the student has demonstrated a working basic knowledge of most magic disciplines, he or she is allowed to do practical study. This means that the student can come and go from the academy as he or she pleases doing work for the administration and from other patrons. The academy will have an office where such work can be arranged, usually including a large notice board with quick requests the student can fulfill. The student’s room in the Academy remains his or her home during this period – a place to go sleep if the student wants, a place to have mail sent to.

Most of a student’s life will be practical study, solving problems through creative application of magic for the betterment of society – or at least, the people paying to have the problem solved. A student can at any time leave the academy and set out on his or her own, to create a business, join a different group without being attached to the academy at the same time (such as an archeological expedition), or to settle down. A student that perseveres through a decade or three can become a research assistant and eventually a professor and research scholar in his or her own right.

Hybrid Magic

The great tree lists the major types of magic, but it is not only possible, but rather common, for students to learn multiple types of magic and combine them. Products of an arcanist’s creativity, hybrid spells are very useful, but typically take more out of the caster than a normal spell would. A young student first learning an arcane language is quite likely to begin experimenting with different strings of esoteric sentences that, combined with components and a modest expenditure of the caster’s essence, can produce varied results. Such experiments tend to stick with students for a long time, as they perfect these spells to suit their personal styles. While the spell a student comes up with is likely to exist in refined form in a tome somewhere, and is usually weaker than what a master of one of the combined schools could do without combination, they are nonetheless exciting for students to perform and perfect, and teach them valuable things about magic as a whole.

Conjuration + Kinesis = Evocation: This is a rather classic combination that allows the caster to attack without having an element handy to manipulate. Casters with a particular affinity for one element would do well to learn this ability – a water-focused mage out in the desert would be greatly weakened without it. It can also allow a caster to conjure objects outside of his or her sphere of influence. So for example, the caster could summon a rope attached to a high rock, which would then fall down and allow the caster to climb. Conjuration on its own would be limited to a range near the caster.

Divination + Illusion = Broadcast: A diviner that combines with illusion magic can share his or her visions with others. Diviners using remote viewing to scry on areas from afar can utilize illusion in combination to project an image of what they see. While the picture quality leaves much to be desired, the fact that a caster could be used to survey an area from afar and depict the scene to others is a boon useful in many situations. Mages used this way wear robes which have a network of steel ribs which can be forced rigid, keeping the caster’s limbs and body straight as he or she enters the scrying trance. The caster’s arms are locked forward so the illusion magic can be projected outward, unto a wall or other clear, flat surface where the image can be viewed. This is very uncomfortable, and such casters often suffer from muscle pains and weakness, and are reluctant to perform their services for extended periods of time. The caster also risks losing control of his or her body during the broadcast and harming others, so the robe is enchanted to seize the caster in bondage should he or she go insane, twisting the arms behind the caster’s back and otherwise hampering magic use. This magic is risky, but potent.

Divination + Empathy = Telepathy: This kind of magic allows an Empathetic caster to read other’s thoughts. The mind is not an open book – the caster will receive a stream of information representing each layer of the person’s thoughts from the surface to the subconscious. In true diviner fashion, he or she must then make sense of it.

Kinesis + Empathy = Bond: A rather sinister little bit of magic involves using Kinesis to project your feelings into another person. This can be considered a type of domination effect, except that the person isn’t entirely under your control – he or she is not rendered a puppet, but rather is connected to your emotion. While slow, and while it does have benign uses, it is insidious for the way it can artificially produce and accelerate what would normally be a natural growth of emotions between two people, positive OR negative. It is difficult to detect unless the detector is knowledgeable of the victim’s behavior and has been around to see any relatively quick changes.

Transformation + Kinesis = Baleful Polymorph: Using Kinesis to launch your Transformation spells outward, you can transform others without having to touch them. While it has beneficial uses, it is mostly used to transform enemies into harmless creatures so you can more easily dispose of them or run away. While not lethal by itself, the fact that it renders someone helpless means it is punishable if done in an academy as a prank.

Divination + Kinesis = Dream: A Diviner can share his or her visions directly into the mind of another. Because the transfer will render most of the information near indecipherable, and because the victim is unlikely to be as trained in symbolism as the diviner, this type of magic produces something like a dream. Truly expert diviners can rearrange the symbolism of their own vision to give a unique meaning in the mind of the victim, so the victim has a message that, when deciphered, will be different than the original vision that the diviner had. This magic has very little practical use.

Transformation + Empathy = Golem Animating: A Golem is a semi-sentient object, usually given a useful and stable shape depending on its purpose. The most common golems are legless bodies with large stone arms that can pick up objects. Golem bodies are carved by hand and then imparted with kinesis magic before being animated. As long as the Golem’s animator has some essence left, the Golem can perform tasks it is asked to do. Golems have limited intellect – using Empathy and Transformation, an imprint of some of the caster’s mental function can be placed into an object. This is enough to give the golem the ability to take commands and understand how to utilize its unorthodox body as best as it possibly can. Attempts to create organic life in this way are considered Necromancy and punished severely (often with torture and death) – the resulting creature will quite likely be insane and lead a barbarous existence, even if it has a complete brain to house a mind. The process just isn’t safe enough to produce sane, stable complete minds. It is completely impossible to make a golem which has a full mind and personality – it has no biological organ in which it can house true intellect. To make something that does, essentially some kind of half-golem or living construct, is Necromancy and illegal.

The Forbidden Art

Considered the decayed lowest branch of the tree, Necromancy is a school of magic outlawed nearly everywhere. It is only legal to practice in Vedaria, and the government practically has assassins overseeing every legal necromancer. Should anything get out of hand, state-sanctioned murder would quickly follow. Necromancy is a very simple theory with many warped processes. When a creature is alive it has an aura of essence that it attracts from the environment. When a creature dies, it becomes an object. A rock has no essence, and a corpse does not either. However, a Necromancer spreads his or her essence into a corpse and binds it there without any life to interact with it.

Normally, such as with Kinesis, essence remains around an inert object only as long as the caster exerts will over it (however little). Essence is very free-flowing and without willpower to keep it steadily around a desired space, it will flow away. It can only form an aura around a living thing. With necromancy, essence is forced around an inert object to give it a semblance of life. This essence requires no manipulation – it is effectively forced forever around the corpse until the corpse is destroyed and the essence scattered.

This causes a number of horrific side-effects, which is why there are many different kinds of undead. Not only does the state of the corpse produce different undead, but the way the magic is performed and other materials used can alter corpse, making the difference between a zombie, and a zombie that pukes acid. Undead can have various other effects not only on themselves but their environment. Some undead are such debased creatures that the environment slowly withers around them as they walk. Others can steal the very soul and essence from a person, or attack their minds and sanity.

Particularly advanced Necromancy can create artificial life, like the Inaw – undead with intelligence and individuality. This is seen as an abomination, a crime performed against the creature. While intelligent undead are allowed a chance at life, the Necromancer never is. The sentence for a necromancer is to be tortured to death. Students who perform necromancy are tortured to submission, but allowed to live – a mercy they will never have again should they continue down the path of the dead. Even Andaliel, a nation that considers itself a bastion of rational morality above all others, punishes necromancy the same way. It is a crime that cannot be permitted and is violently discouraged.