Magic/Magick Magic, sometimes spelled magick, is the application of rituals or actions employed with the intent to manipulate natural or supernatural beings and forces. The origins of Magic comes from the Elves, specifically the form of magic which communes with the divine according to higher principles (Theurgy) and magic being practiced among Man and other races are unknown, but some attribute it to several figures like the Mannish mage, Zardosht. Or an event like Dark Elves or Demons teaching it to Man and the younger races from malefic purposes. Magic is orthopraxy over orthodoxy; belief matters less than execution. A Kemite mystic who knows the correct binding words and uses iron and salt to bind a lesser fae creature, is better than a Halfling who feels connected to the bog. Another thing about magic, it is seen as mundane. The average person can simply learn magic from their grandma. It's broadly known as folk magic, but higher forms of magic do exist, especially more stranger, esoteric forms which is magic originally taught by Dark Elves or Demons. The higher forms receive a lot more restriction and condemnation. Especially Goetia and Necromancy among the various nations of Dwarves and Men. To build how mundane magic is in the setting is that a “magician” is basically just a weird hobby that ritualists occultists do. And technically anybody can be a magic user. As, for example, a midwife may inscribe a magical formula invoking a goddess to protect a child during childbirth. A priest might write a sacred name of a particular god on a special amulet. A stonemason might inscribe the sacred name of a god and write down special formulae onto the foundation stone to protect the city, and so on. Magic is not the domain of a specific profession, but an overlapping field of rituals, practices, and occultic, esoteric beliefs that overlap a lot of professions. A king and a philosopher can be both magicians. The laws of correspondence As the old saying goes, “As Above, So Below”. The earthly hierarchy mirrors the spiritual supernatural hierarchy. Planets, herbs, plants, and other such things correspond to that. One must align themselves and mirror the hierarchy according to higher or lower principles. There are things tied to specific supernatural intelligences, such as Angels, Demons, and Pagan gods and that corresponds to the spiritual hierarchy which God made. As magic is, “As Above so Blow”, the principle literally means same patterns of laws exist at every single level of reality in-universe. The whole entire world is connected. The Heaven reflect the Earth. The Spiritual Realm reflects the material. The mortal being reflects the cosmos. There is no “mana”, there's no parallel physics, there's no “the Weave” or “essence”. Or its a neutral tool or a skill tree like in learning stuff from a video game. It is not. Magic is fundamentally supernatural. A unique case Theurgy is the only form of magic that requires laws of correspondence and sincere orthodoxy. To practice this form of magic, one must align themselves with higher divine principles, not lower ones, and must have sincere faith and orthodoxy towards God and His Angels. How is magic viewed? ⁃ Fun Tricks ⁃ Unholy abomination that never meant for Man ⁃ A way to petition spirits to make your rival neighbor go bald. Types of magic: Goetic (Black) Magic: Goetic magic, also known as Goetia or Black magic, is a forbidden art of enacting into pacts and dealings with demons through secret rites, invocations, sacrifice, and occult grimoires. Goetic magicians seek knowledge, power, wealth, influence, or supernatural aid from the dark forces. Demons may grant extraordinary abilities, reveal secrets, perform supernatural feats, or send lesser Demons as familiars and servants. However, such “gifts” can cause a cost, the cost of one's own soul. Banned everywhere, even among the Pagans. Necromancy: Necromancy is a practice of magic involving communication with the dead by summoning their spirits as apparitions or visions for the purpose of divination, imparting means to foretell future events and discover hidden knowledge, sometimes called death magic. So often, the so-called “spirit” of the dead in which the magician or sorcerer summons is actually a Demon. Banned everywhere, even among the Pagans. Shamanism: A spiritual practice in which a shaman enters ecstatic or altered states of consciousness to commune with spirits, ancestors, gods, or other supernatural beings, journeying between the mortal and spirit worlds to gain knowledge, perform divination, heal the sick, guide souls, or secure blessings and protection for their people. Theurgy: Magic through the seeking of union and cooperation with God through prayer ritual, purity, and sacred rites, contemplation, invocations. Unlike Goetia, which relies upon dealings with Demons, Theurgy seeks assistance with Him. Theurgy describes the ritual practices associated with the invocation or invocation of the presence of God. especially with the goal of achieving henosis (uniting with the divine) and perfecting oneself. Alchemy: Alchemy is a disciplined magic through the purification, separation, and the recombination of substances, accordance to hidden structure of creation, unlike Goetia, which bargains with Demonic intelligences. Alchemy operates by working directly with the lawful order of the material world, which mirrors the spiritual hierarchy. It is founded under the principle that all matter descends from a unified First Substance. Through precise ritual operations, material ingredients, symbols, and spoken formulae, the alchemist seeks to break down the corrupted forms into essential components to purify them into discordant influences and recombine them into higher states according to higher principle. Folk magic: Folk Magic is a broad and informal term practiced by common people, consisting of simple rites, charms, herbal workings, spoken blessings, household rituals passed down through families and local customs. Typically pragmatic rather than devotional, focus on immediate concerns such as healing, protection, luck, fertility, averting misfortune, or cursing your neighbor. This form of magic doesn't work most of the time. Mages/Wizards/Magicians Zardosht Spitamid - One of the greatest and the inventor of magic according to mankind, he is a desert mountain mystic who discovered hidden sympathies between plants, metals, stones, and planets, and also spirits. He wrote vast magical books containing spells, astrological doctrines, and methods of communicating with supernatural spirits. But, some, like the Men of Eranistan, regard him as the holy prophet, who discovered a great and mighty being who is the creator of all things, and is against an equally powerful being of evil and the founder of their religion. King Shalomit Ben Yadid Ben Ishay Mishbet Yehudah - Despite also being known for his wisdom and also being the king of the Yisraelites, he was also a practitioner of magic, particularly Theurgy and he had a magical ring which had the inscription of the true name of God Himself, which he used to bound Demons and compelled them to build the holy temple. Iamblikhos of Chalkis - He is one of the most important Mannish mages of Theurgy, he thought that ritual operations could unite the soul with divine powers and must accord oneself to higher divine principles. Though he was a pagan and did not really know God, but he just managed to reason himself into believing that there was a higher spiritual power other than his own gods. Magic items Talisman papers: Items commonly made in the Far East, used by practitioners to bring good luck, ward away spirits, or exorcism, or even just bind lesser-tier Demons. Magic Wands: The oldest ritual instruments used by magic users. They are not tools for shooting light or bolts of energy, but ceremonial rods to be used to command, invoke, bless, curse, or establish authority over spiritual beings. Incantation Bowls: Incantation bowls are common throughout the lands of Yisrael and its neighbors and other nearby regions, The text is written in a spiral from the rim towards the center, What is written in the center is legal or formerly directed against demons, curses against hostile spirits, prayers, exorcisms, Angelic names, or the name of God Himself. The bowls are buried upside down beneath homes, courtyards, thresholds, or foundations. The texts seek protection from demons, especially Liliths (Demonic Owls). Magic rings: Rings usually engraved with divine names, angelic names, planetary seals, secret symbols, or secret characters. Such rings are often consecrated through prayer, fumigation, fasting, or astrological timing. Evil Eyes are protective charms designated to avert malefic, malign influences known as the evil eye, a supernatural infliction caused by envy or malice or deliberate sorcery may bring sickness, infertility, misfortune, and even death. Such amulets are commonly bared protective symbols, sacred inscriptions, and the divine Name of God. Curse Tablets: Also known as binding tablets, are thin sheets of clay or stone inscribed with the name of a victim alongside curses, binding formulae, and invocations dedicated towards Demons or other Malefic entities, usually folded, pierced, or deposited in graves, ruins, wells, or other liminal spaces. They are employed by many people to bring misfortune, sickness, legal defeat, infertility, madness, or other inflictions upon their enemies. Infamous Magic spells Æcerbot: A very powerful magical spell used to restore fertility in exhausted land, and it is exclusively used by the Deutschlander tribes, specifically Sahsōz & Angilōz. Ephesia Grammata: A collection of sacred words associated with the Hellenes. The words are often written upon amulets or spoken as protective formula. They are especially associated with warding off evil, protecting travelers, or resisting supernatural attacks from malevolent spirits. Abracadabra: Magical formula commonly written repeatedly in divination lines until only a single letter remains. It is used against fever, disease curses, and protection against hostile malefic spirits. In fact, it's so well known that even those who have barely have any exposure to magic know what it is. — Other notes One cannot outwit a Demon, that's impossible. Demons are pure supernatural intelligences for they are Fallen Angels. Far smarter than any other being. Nobody actually truly knows if the entities that they're communicating are benevolent or malevolent or not. With the exception of the practice of Theurgy, Angels are fundamentally good. If somebody messes up the words during a ritual or does it slightly wrong, the ritual just doesn't work and the person just wasted their time. No explosions, nothing. Goetic and Necromantic magic is banned among all cultures, even the Pagans, with the exception of Dark Elves and secret cults in which they practice it. The reason why pagans banned it is because, despite the majority of the world believing in false gods, they still have some concept of malevolent spirits. Familiars can betray their masters. Alchemy is the closest thing that magic will ever have as a system in-universe. All magic, except Theurgy & Alchemy (Also, Dwarf and Yisraelite folk magic too) is by under the laws of God is condemned, for it brings covenant with Demons and other such beings, and such practices will, under High Elvish, Dwarvidic and also Yisraelite law, is execution. Grimoires list the names of Demons, how to summon them, and their specific seals, and those seals are basically like their signature. Yisraelites and Dwarves despite having laws condemning most forms of magic, they do have their own magic traditions, but it is mostly just folk magic invoking God and His Angels, and Theurgy. The powers of the highest forms of Magic can grant the wielder extraordinary power, such as turning staffs into snakes, turning people into literal brimstone or salt, casting down fire and brimstone, darkness, bringing disease upon other people. And this power is only granted in the forms of Goetia (These are imitations of what God grants to prophets) Alchemy also has three principles. Mercury, representing the spirit, fluidity, intellect, and transformation; Sulfur, representing the soul, the passions, the will, and individuality; and Salt, representing the body, stability, manifestation, and material existence. Spiritual perfection requires these three principles to be purified into harmony. The first path to Alchemy's spiritual aspects is Blackening (Nigredo), this symbolizes the darkness and humility, suffering and humility, and the confrontation of one's own sinful desires it prepares the way of Whitening (Albedo), the stage of spiritual purification, inner clarity, and greater receptivity to divine light. The next stage is Yellowing (Citrinitas), which is awakening of wisdom and illumination. The stage the alchemist begins to receive the higher divine orders, gaining more clarity, detachment, spiritual insight, and understanding the hidden correspondence of creation. And finally, the fourth and final stage, Redness (Rubedo), the communication of the alchemical path. It signifies the purification of the soul. Also, the stages listed above can also be used to make the Philosopher's Stone if applied physically instead of spiritually. Alchemy recognizes the four elements, earth, fire, water, and the air. These are viewed as less as physical substances and more as qualities or principles of existence. Very high tier ritual magic like Goetia and Alchemy, and also Necromancy and Theurgy is Expensive, as in, one must buy really expensive equipment, and also special herbs, spices, and also learn some basic correspondence, as above so below, just to do said magic. And also, “As Above So Below” means that when somebody wants to do Magic, as mentioned in the notes, is that they have to align themselves with the spiritual invisible hierarchy. The top must mirror the bottom and vice versa. Common aims of the Alchemist were chrysopoeia, the transmutation of "base metals" (e.g., lead) into "noble metals" (particularly gold); the creation of an elixir of immortality; and the creation of panaceas able to cure any disease. The spiritual aspects of Alchemy is the perfection of the body, the soul, was thought to result from the greatest of Alchemical works, the Magnum Opus. The magician, when practicing magic, is a microcosm, a literal little universe. His spirit, his mind, his body is a little universe while the macrocosm the larger universe as a whole, and he can either align himself with higher principles, God and His Angels, and His rightful order, or align with himself with lower forces, Chthonic & Infernal forces. Theurgy is "a power higher than all Human wisdom embracing the blessings of divination, the purifying powers of initiation and in a word all the operations of divine possession. The fate of magicians who disobey the laws of God in this setting is that when they die, they go to Hell, and get their heads twisted at their back, arms ripped off, and tongues poured with lava by Demons. Familiars are Demonic entities, practitioners who want a familiar, essentially they make a deal. The Demon will serve the magician for as long as he lives, And also give the Demon gives the magician cool powers, but when the magicians dies, he has to go to Hell to be tormented for breaking laws of God and being in covenant with Demons. And some magicians do pursue immortality, but in reality, it's just a lie invented by their familiars as a way to kill them faster. Basically, it's like, “Trust me, bro, that obviously poisonous fruit is going to give you magical powers and immortality. Trust me.” A person can, as mentioned, learn magic from their grandma, from accumulated folk knowledge, but actual high ritual magic requires really expensive teachers and also getting your hands on copies of grimoires, and since books haven't been invented yet in-universe, they have to get them from papyrus scrolls, which are fragile. And sometimes, some teachers will refuse to accept students until a certain age because they will say that some ritual knowledge before, like, say, the age of 40, will cause a person to go insane, which does literally happen. If a person tries to understand certain magical rituals before the age of 40, they would just not understand it at all and might misunderstand or just go insane. The Yisraelites, a nation of Men, have a very strange relationship with the practice of magic. Their law explicitly forbids divination and other forms of soothsaying. But they have their own forms of folk magic, such as various magical formulas written in various media such as papyrus, paper, metal sheets, ceramic, pots, stones, and clay bowls. And the text is often dealing with protection of demons, healing from sickness, warding of bad omens, and often invoking the name of God.