Magic

Thyslann is filled with magic. It echoes through the sky, and falls to the ground in rain. It infuses the earth, and the stuff on which all souls sustain themselves. All sapient peoples of Thyslann are born with some innate capacity for magic, though it is quite clear to any observer that some are born with far more than others.

Through this innate magical capacity, people have the power to create and enhance things in their surroundings. The casting process for magic is always the same: a person projects their focus to a point where the effect is conjured. If they want to summon an object in motion, they must mirror that motion with their hands or body. Conjuring an effect further away or through barriers requires more effort and competency, but magical foci can be used to alleviate this issue. Branches of study known as 'Paths' categorise the ways that magic is performed, and represent the ways in which someone might be taught. These paths enable a wide range of uses: from summoning raw energy, to creating powerful instruments, to enhancing someone's body far beyond its natural limits.

Despite this utility, innate magic has its limitations. Things created by magic are unstable. Unless a mage actively focuses on something that they conjured, it will gradually decay and break down. Conjured metals will tarnish and fracture, conjured fluids will disperse and evaporate. Magical constructs are powerful but ephemeral, and while they can be partially stabilised (often by processing or mixing with non-magical components), they cannot fully supplant their non-magical counterparts if long-term use is required. In addition to this, innate magic does not directly allow for the transformation or manipulation of objects, just their creation and enhancement. Once a mound of earth is created by magic, it cannot be shifted or destroyed by magic. A dense pocket of conjured air might be able to blow it away, or a magically-enhanced hammer knock it aside, but it cannot be unsummoned or moved through magical focus alone.

A person's magical potential is determined at birth, and seems to show little correlation to any other characteristic – neither bloodline, species, nor health. Magical potential is readily measured through a test in which a pinprick of blood is burned with a dedicated tool, with the brightness of the resulting flame showing the magical potential.

Different cultures use this test differently. In the Ezu Plateau, people from the lower castes identified as having high potential are often drafted into the warrior caste. Aristocrats in the Northern Empire and Southern Empire sometimes test their children, bringing those with higher potential to the fore of house politics while side-lining heirs with lower potential.

Regardless of potential, training is required to reach mastery. High status individuals may have had a formal education, whereas people of low status may have learned through trial and error or a street mentor.

Different materials are known to affect magic differently. Metals, in particular copper and gold, are highly conductive to magical energies, allowing magic to be focused through them with ease. Leather and fabrics are generally stronger as insulators of magical energy. Soldiers expecting to fight mages will armour themselves in layers of cloth and hardened leather, but chain and armoured plating remains the norm for most soldiers, who are more likely to succumb to a sword's strike than they are to have a sword conjured through their armour.

Likewise, effective magical foci are constructed to serve as an extension of the user. A wand or a staff might be constructed from a copper core with a wooden sheath, while more bespoke magical foci can be constructed to fit different use cases: a needle-tip might be used to focus magic down, while a specially-engineered crossbow might enable casting over increased distances.

While most magic is a capacity innate to the people of Thyslann, there is another source of magic: relics. These are items, imbued with the capacity to perform specific magical effects, unique to that relic. Notably, relics can perform effects that innate magic cannot replicate. Relics are found, not made, scattered in various relic sites across the world. Relics are not common; an influential noble family might only have one relic in their posession, and ordinary people are unlikely to have ever seen one. While historical records are vague, there are rumours of a great many relics, buried away in the lower levels of the Labyrinth.

The Eight Paths are the cultural traditions of scholarship and practice which broadly define how magic is used by the people of Thyslann. While all Paths are more or less known globally, each is more closely associated with, and historically studied by, some regions over others. The eight Paths are traditionally divided into four pairs: Sun and Moon, collectively called 'nature magic', Earth and Heavens, collectively called 'elementalism', Mountain and River, collectively called 'augmentation', and Hammer and Crucible, collectively called 'artifice'.

The Paths enable the practitioner to do the following:

• Path of the Sun: Create direct bursts of energy
• Path of the Moon: Grow plants and control the weather
• Path of the Earth: Create bulk solids
• Path of the Heavens: Create bulk fluids
• Path of the Mountain: Enhance strength and toughness
• Path of the River: Enhance agility and speed
• Path of the Hammer: Create and enhance complex objects
• Path of the Crucible: Create and enhance complex substances

Listed below are descriptions of the Paths in more detail, along with example effects that a magically-skilled character might be able to produce. Ranks are listed, which correspond to levels chosen at character creation. These ranks are OC categorisations. IC, magical ability is viewed on a sliding scale between inexperience and mastery rather than discrete levels. For more information on choosing magic when creating a character, see here.

The Paths of the Sun and Moon are the Paths of the primordial energies of nature: the light of the sun, the breath of the storm, and the growth of all the plants that live below. While the Path of Sun is more direct and immediate, focusing on flashes of light and fire, the Path of the Moon ordinarily moves more slowly, changing the weather and accelerating the growth of plant-life.

The Path of the Sun enables the fast control of nature: bursts of raw light, heat, and lightning.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can conjure small, instantaneous bursts of energy: a mote of flame, a blinding flash of light, a stunning bolt of electricity, a small display of flashing colours.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can create large, more persistent effects: hurling balls of flame or of lightning, sustaining light to fill a room.
• Rank 3: Practitioners can conjure walls of flame, focal explosions, or bolts of lightning lethal to armoured targets. They can conjure enough light to illuminate an area at night as if it were day, or set off fireworks displays into the sky for all to see.

The Path of the Moon enables the slow control of nature: growing plant life and controlling weather systems.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can weave the course of nature in minor ways: giving life to plants destined for death, or causing flowers to spring forth from seeds. With focus and time, a light drizzle or mist might be evoked.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can shape nature more substantially: vines might be caused to grow rapidly from the land, or a tree grow from a seed in a matter of minutes. A heavy rain might be evoked, as might a heat haze or a dense snow cloud.
• Rank 3: Practitioners are as one with the course of nature. A withered grove might fruit in minutes, and thickets of thorny bushes might rapidly encircle a field. Storms or blizzards might be conjured that cover entire fields.

The Paths of Earth and Heavens wield the power to create in perhaps its most literal sense, conjuring simple but vast quantities of matter into existence. Crude but efficient, these Paths are brimming with both general utility and combat applications. Along with the Paths of the Sun and Moon, the Paths of the Earth and Heavens are particularly ancient, with their origin being lost to unrecorded history.

The Path of Earth enables large-scale creation of basic solid matter: typically stone and metal.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can conjure small amounts of simple solid matter: a small dust cloud to obscure a person, a hefty lump of pure metal, a glass lens for focusing light.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can conjure larger quantities of solid matter, generally weighing no more than a tonne. Substantial balls of rock or metal might be used to power a siege, or to bridge a short chasm. Holes in the hulls of boats can be readily patched, and a volley of bullets might be thrown through the air in a fight.
• Rank 3: Practitioners can create vast quantities of solids, dividing and controlling their surroundings with ease. Rudimentary walls of stone can be formed, wide rivers can be bridged, and steel cages can trap multiple opponents.

The Path of Heavens enables large-scale creation of basic fluid matter: typically air and water.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can conjure small amounts of simple fluid matter: water to fill a canteen, a gust strong enough to blow someone over, or enough air to take a breath and avoid drowning.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can conjure larger quantities of fluid matter: a geyser to erupt under someone's feet, drinking water to supply a travelling group, and wind to blow out, or intensify, a raging fire.
• Rank 3: Practitioners can conjure great amounts of fluid matter. A small wave might crash down on a group of combatants, a group of people might be levitated, an area of grassland might be temporarily flooded.

The primary focus of the paths of Mountain & River is the practitioner themselves, and on the physical forces they generate. Channelling magical energy to enhance their physical capacity far beyond normal limits, a practitioner of these Paths may not even consider what they're doing to be magic, and especially at Rank 1, it may not be obvious to others that the practitioner is anything other than unusually skilled.

The Path of the Mountain enables augmentation of one's physical strength and endurance, and an increase to the force and momentum of their blows.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can achieve feats of strength and endurance which may seem incredible, but possible. One could lift twice their bodyweight, throw a shotput 60ft, or wield a greatsword one handed. Their Punches can crack wood or dent armour. They could survive potentially fatal wounds, or become resistant to pain. At this level, practitioners can only affect themselves.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can achieve supernatural feats of strength and endurance. They might lift something 5 times their bodyweight, punch through a brick wall, or toss a heavy boulder. They could block sword blows with their bare hands, keep fighting after multiple mortal wounds or entirely ignore pain (for a time). At this level, a practitioner can also grant a Rank 1 power to an ally.
• Rank 3: Practitioners can achieve terrifying feats of strength and endurance. Their punches easily penetrate a foot of stone or 6 inches of solid steel. Swords might shatter against their skin, and they might be able to escape after being buried by an avalanche. Almost no amount of injury will stop them from fighting. At this level, a practitioner can also grant a Rank 2 power to an ally, or a Rank 1 power to multiple allies.

The Path of the River enables augmentation of one's speed, reflexes, and agility, as well as the precision of their movements.

• Rank 1: Practitioners are capable of speed and accuracy beyond what any normal person could hope to accomplish. They have heightened reflexes, evading blows or noticing something hidden in their surroundings. They could strike fast and sprint at almost 20 mph (over short distances).
• Rank 2: Practitioners are capable of moving so fast their enemies seem to move in slow motion, even able to evade some projectiles. They can slice through some armour with a sword stroke, or inflict potentially fatal strikes with a single finger. They can sprint at around 100 mph and run along a wall with no gear. They might pick up on body language changes others couldn't hope to notice. At this level, a practitioner can also grant a Rank 1 power to an ally.
• Rank 3: Practitioners are masters of speed, capable of moving so fast that their fists become a blur. They could catch arrows out of the air, and enemies find striking them all but impossible. They could decapitate an opponent with a swipe of their fingernails, or slice through a stone pillar with a sword stroke. They can leap dozens of feet straight up from a standing start, or run up a wall. At this level, a practitioner can also grant a Rank 2 power to an ally, or a Rank 1 power to multiple allies.

The Paths of the Hammer and Crucible focus on quality over quantity, allowing the creation and enhancement of components far more detailed or complex than other Paths can produce, if at smaller scales. While they still predate the sinking of the Labyrinth, these are the newest Paths to be developed, emerging as crafts to enhance the work of artificers and alchemists.

The Path of the Hammer enables creation and enhancement of detailed tools, mechanisms, and structures.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can create tools and small, simple objects. A warrior might create a spear, a thief might create a lockpick, a guard might create a pair of handcuffs.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can create larger systems with moving parts or greater numbers of smaller objects: small siege weapons, a volley of arrows or daggers, a keg of caltrops, etc. They can also enhance their tools slightly beyond their normal function. A sword doesn't dull or shatter as readily, a spyglass magnifies objects miles away, a bow draws back easier, but with more force.
• Rank 3: Practitioners can enhance the objects and tools they create far beyond their normal function. An axe grows in length and slices clean through steel, yet handles just as easily. A set of horseshoes accelerates forwards a horse, such that it can travel across country in days or hours. A hammer strikes with the force to crumble walls.

The Path of the Crucible enables creation and enhancement of alchemical components, unusual compounds, and strange mixtures.

• Rank 1: Practitioners can create simple mixtures of alchemical compounds, or those utilising alchemical processes. A smoke bomb, a heat lamp, a glow stick, a flash explosion, caustic substances, poisons, paint pigments, etc.
• Rank 2: Practitioners can create larger quantities of known mixtures as well as compounds that mundane alchemy (at this point in history) is unable to replicate. Elixirs that can boost recovery from sickness or prevent infection. Ethers that, when inhaled, render a person unconscious. Acids reactive enough to eat through glass.
• Rank 3: Practitioners can enhance the substances they work with to have properties far beyond normal. A wooden door may be sealed shut or even dent the ground under increased weight. Hardened steel may be stretched like dough. Water may be made to ignite explosively on contact with air. Smoke becomes thickened such that it is impossible even to move through.