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Element quincunx

The symbols of the magical elements arranged into a quincunx.

Fire wants to burn, water wants to flow, air wants to rise, earth wants to bind, chaos wants to devour.

–a Cinquain, the second Principle of Magic

Magic is a supernatural force that influences events or produces a desired effect through incantations or other techniques that assure control of the forces of nature. Magic can be drawn from the elements: earth, air, water, fire, and the void (chaos). Mages and Masters (of the elements) are still constantly performing research and experiments to learn more about and further understand magic.

Utilization[]

Magic may first manifest in humans at around twelve years of age. Some may first experience or use magic first-hand when put in situations of high stress and fear, and others may simply feel it in the small, simple ways and subconscious, innocent acts of magic. Raw power among newly woken mages is very intense, thus requiring them to study to magic to learn control, which they have little of in the beginning. Balance tempers control over magic, and thus ones' ability to use it.

Most mages can access the four elements, drawing on them to perform magic. They can manipulate and handle it and other forms of the elements, such as the wind and ice. With the elements, they can forge metal with earth, shape air into illusions, fire into prophecies, earth into bindings, and water into healing.

Some mages can also access the void. This is rare, however, and considered very dangerous and terrible, because it is perceived as creating, or bringing, something, which they consider chaos, from the nothingness of the void, hence their titles as "makers", or Makaris.

Limitation[]

There are many dangers to drawing from the elements, not just from the void. History has revealed that all mages, regardless of their level of ability, have limits; thus, the use of magic must come with training—for balance and control—and consideration of certain rules.

One may get more power fast by opening oneself and coming closer to an element, such as eating rocks or sand for earth magic, matches for fire magic, and blood for its oxygen for air magic. Its danger, however, lies in the lack of the mage's control over the overwhelming power he/she would receive and may possibly lead to the mage being drawn into an element, burning away the soul and replacing it with fire, air, water, earth, or chaos. The mage may then become an elemental, or Devoured.

To help with this, when they feel themselves overextending and being drawn into, or consumed by, an element, the mages can reach for its opposite, called the counterweight. The same can be applied for when fighting an elemental that can absorb them—the mage can use the opposing element to gain an advantage.

In the case of chaos, the counterweight is in the form of another person, meant to bring the Makar back down or regain control during the surge of power, during which an inexperienced Makar may not want to or be able to stop.

Five Principles[]

Through the years, the mages have developed the Five Principles of Magic:

  1. Power comes from imbalance; control comes from balance.
  2. All elements act according to their nature: Fire wants to burn, water wants to flow, air wants to rise, earth wants to bind, chaos wants to devour. (And Call wants to live).
  3. In all magic, there is an exchange of power.
  4. You can change a thing’s shape, but not its essential nature.
  5. All elements have a counterweight. Fire is the counterweight of water. Air is the counterweight of earth. The counterweight of chaos is the soul.

References[]

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