The Wold itself is compromised of vast potential energy and the Forces that shape it. Nature. The Elements. The Spirit of Life. The Infernal Ones. The Will of the Awakened.
It is the last one that concerns the Mages of the lands. The Will. The Awakened.
Amongst both mortal and immortal kind there lies a mind. And that find can comprehend and shape all manner of things. Song, strategy, the cast-off branches of a limb, or the stone beneath our feet. From berries, we can produce juices, wines, dyes, and many other creations. It is the ability to change the properties of one thing into another that makes the act of improvisation a template for mages everywhere.
The Three Realms of Magick
I propose that the powers of the mage, harnessed by their will, and shaped by their imaginations come from three distinct realms: the Personal one, the Universal world, and the many facets of the Planes.
The body holds the power of existence, the spirit of life, and the mind itself. It is this Personal realm that may be used to perform magick in the natural sense. Our beings contain elements of water, earth, and fire, they contain the spark of life, and the memories and emotions of our true selves. Learning to harness these gifts through the application of magical understanding or intuitive action is a sign of one’s awakening.
The world around us, full of external forces is the Universal realm. The flicker of flame in a campfire or a torch, the rush of water in a stream, the wind across the grasslands, the roar of a beast, or the flight of a bird. This we can observe, but also a mage can harness these gifts through the application of magical understanding or intuitive action as a sign of one’s awakening.
The last realm is more difficult to describe but is alive in our nightmares and dreams. For it is unconsciously that we all touch the font of power that lies outside our senses, the Planes of the Outer Wold. Many have described the Wold as a large tree floating in a vast cosmos, or a Blue Sea of endless potential. I believe that it is this sea of power that fuels the great engine of the Universe, and in turn, the world we know. But within this sea lie other places, other constructs. These are the Planes beyond us. The Outer Wold. A mage can harness gifts from these places and beings through the application of magical understanding or intuitive action as a sign of one’s awakening.
The Techniques of Magick
The Shar Order has identified specific techniques that can be trained and used to access magical power. These are creation, control, destruction, perception, and transformation. It is this that all apprentices are attempting to master with their instincts, minds, will, and skills of magick. It is through these five lenses that the power of the three realms can be wielded.
The great debates exist about how these forces are categorized. And whether are finite system of forms exists to be combined with the above techniques. But the Order, be it arcanists or wizards, druids or witches, all agree that the methods that are most rote and reliable are called: spells. They are consistent, duplicatable, and formulaic, passed down from master to apprentice, covenant to covenant in libraries of books and scrolls.
The greater the spell the more likely that a ritual may be built from it. A ritual is the inclusion of other people, beings, or devices in the execution of a spell. It takes time and is known to be both tedious and difficult. Some spells are simply too powerful to be cast singularly, and so rituals are a method to share the process in a better manner.
(the sigil of Perekoss)