Datalog #6

What is magick? This strange phenomenon comes in many different types and variants, but one thing remains for certain: it is the force that binds together all living things, and control over it allows one control over reality itself. But how does it work? The fundamentals of magick are manipulating ether, the spiritual energy that exists in and around all living things, formed as a filter to partially block out the Curse of S.K.I.N., a malevolent spiritual force that inspires people to do evil. This energy field is invisible to the naked eye, but can be tapped into and manipulated by various means. Manipulating ether can cause such effects as creating elemental phenomena, healing others, placing or breaking curses, or altering physical matter on any scale.

There are 4 unique ways to access this ether, each having a specific type of use. These are called Magick Types, and each one is usually associated with the same type of spells. First is anima magick, which is mainly based around elemental-based spells usually meant for combat. The way it accesses the ether flow is through intense concentration and willpower as well as using special incantations to bend the ether to your will. This art requires years of practice, and while some people are naturally better at it than others, anyone can learn it if given enough practice.

Then there is light magick, which is mainly focused on healing and restorative magick along with utility spells and holy-based elemental attacks. Its way of accessing the ether flow is via faith. Faith in a deity, faith in others, or even faith in yourself, all of these work to trigger light magick usage. The stronger your faith, the stronger the spell. Next is elder magick, which is widely seen by society as taboo. It was the original form of magick used by the ancient civilizations before the rise of Arcadia, and mainly accesses the ether flow via emotion, both good and bad. However, if one lets negative emotion take control too often while using elder magick, one can become consumed in darkness and lose their sanity and humanity. It is a very risky form of spell casting, so it is not very well liked by general society.

Finally, there is chaos magick, the most strange and diverse form of magick. This form of magick is extremely mysterious, seemingly spawning randomly within random people at random times in random worlds. This type of magick is mainly based in physical transformation, but can also be used for brainwashing, time travel, reality shifting, dimensional travel, space bending, petrification, and more. Some users of chaos magick can even grant wishes, though unless the wish is worded extremely specifically it will almost always backfire. This type of magick is extremely mysterious due to its random nature, and uses of this insanely powerful and unpredictable type of magick are often some of the strongest beings in the multiverse.

Magick has "disappeared" twice in Zutara's history, once from 4800 AF to 5820 AF in the true history timeline and again from 7013 AC to 8035 AC in the altered history timeline. The first time was due to the "War of the Sages”, a war between Spell casters that started when mages discovered that by tapping into the power of the Primordial Titans, ancient demonic beings equal in power to the dark god, they could multiply the power of their magick hundredfold. Chaos quickly broke out across the Starsphere, and the only way to stop it was to destroy the source of magick entirely. This caused the world to enter a prolonged period of darkness, but upon the discovery of first oil and coal and then nuclear to electrical power humanity was able to recover even without access to magick, the force that powered all their old technology from before the war. Around 1000 years after the War of the Sages, magick began to re-emerge but in a new form: Theron, a strange energy that could grant people random supernatural abilities. Eventually this entire timeline was erased from existence after Titanium Woman used a Wish Theron ability to erase the titans from existence who threatened to destroy the entire universe after being released by the warlord Drakos destroying the city of Gate and the abyss beneath, Gundigap, where the primordial titans were sealed away.

The second time Magick became inaccessible was during the Grail War of 1013, a war lost to history that involved the Knights of Camelot led by the legendary King Arthur Fighting against his wicked son Mordred and the scheming alfar Morgan Le'Fey who planned to uncover the Holy Grail, a cup that can grant the wishes of whoever drinks from it. To stop Morgan's plans for good, with the help of the sorceress Merlin Arthur successfully was able to use the mythical blade Excalibur to cleave reality in twain. On one side was the magick-less mundane side of humans, the human world, and on the other side was the magickal world of fairies and monsters, Lacrosia. Eventually the worlds would become one once again in 2035 CE (8035 AC) due to the events of the incursion, but that is a story for another day.

There are two ways to cast magick, traditional and modern. Traditional magick requires the muttering of some sort of incantation along with specific hand moves, crafting and then releasing a special glyph created from manipulated ether. The phrase always starts with “the mind is calm and serene!” Then the spell type is uttered, which include Abjuration, (protective spells) Transmutation, (altering of physical matter) Conjuration, (summoning beings or objects or instant transportation) Divination, (revealing previously unknown information) Enchanting, (manipulating the minds of others or making objects have special effects) Evocation, (casting elemental attacks) Illusion, (creating illusions) and Necromancy. (manipulating life and death) Then a level is spoken, ranging from 3 to 993. However, only numbers involving 3, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19 are used for spell levels. So it goes from 3>13>14>15>16>17>18>19>23>33>43>53>63>73>83>93>113, etc. The higher the level, the longer the spells takes to cast and the more ether is used. Spells higher than Lv93 also require certain rituals to be performed and sacrifices to be made due to their incredibly high power. So the total phrase would be “The mind is calm and serene! (type), level (level)!”

However, traditional magick used by the ancient civilizations is now rendered null and void due to the invention of new magick, a type of magick to imbues specific spells into enchanted objects that allow infinite use of that spell by anyone without the previous requirements of chanting, training, and ritual. Certain stones called arcana are imbued with a specific spell to allow neigh-infinite casting of that spell as long as the spell caster has enough energy within themselves. Asterisks can also imbue anyone with spell casting ability, instantly making anyone proficient in multiple weapon types and spells without prior training. Due to this, traditional magick has been largely abandoned by all but the beastkin, who still practice the ancient art to this day, at least until magick faded from the world in both 4800 AF (True History) and 7013 AC. (Altered History)