A wizard is either a ๐๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ [Lightshifter], a ๐๐ฒ๐ซ๐๐ฆ [Transcender], or a ๐๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐๐ฏ [Worldbender]. This spectral division of magical potential builds on the fact that a wizard of one spectrum cannot realise the magic naturally possessed by wizards from the other two specta.
Each of the three spectra is further divided into dispositions. In general, every wizard has a core disposition, which is the type of magic that comes most naturally to him. While a wizard’s greatest potential lies in his core disposition, his abilities often branch out into neighbouring dispositions within his spectrum.
Yves, for example, is a Lightshifter. His core disposition is glass magic, but he also has great potential as an illusionist and possesses some light magic abilities.
The scope of energies perceived through second sight differs with every spectrum and disposition.
All wizards draw Adhar, raw and free world energy, from the Alladharian Dimension. The ability to absorb stray energy is not what renders you a wizard; several races can tap into Adhar. What sets wizards apart is their capacity to transform and realise this energy across dimensions. Depending on their spectrum and disposition, wizards may realise their craft in the Alladharian or the Marterial dimension. This ability to transgress dimensions defines the true essence of wizardry โ This is Magic.
TRIVIA
ADHAR AND ROTHAR
All wizards draw Adhar, raw and free world energy, from the Alladharian Dimension. Rather than consuming physical sustenance, they commonly direct harnessed Adhar to sustain their body. Otherwise, Adhar is used to realise magic.
A wizard's body can harbour only a limited amount of energy; a capacity defined by birth and expanded with age and through training.
Internalised Adhar, which becomes the wizard's own energy, is called Rothar. It is anchored in the Alladharian Dimension.
FAMILIARS
"After encountering several witchโs familiars, Midnight believed that from a wizard, you receive foresight, strategy and even magic, but with a witch, you become more of a beast."ย ย [B1.C13]
As of now, Yves stated that witches obtain, bind and command their familiars through rites and spells, while wizards are chosen by their familiars. According to ancient wizarding lore, every wizard is granted a familiar at birth. If a wizard is born, a familiar will seek out the newborn shortly after. Most make their way into the babyโs room undetected, others, more politely, appear in front of the parentsโ house, patiently waiting at the door to be introduced to the child. It is, in some way, comforting to know that even if a wizard child is born in the most desolate place, even if his mother does not live to hold him but leaves the earth as he enters it, he will be sought out, protected and cared for by his familiar.
The familiar is considered a reflection of the wizard's innermost being and a guide through his journey for power and purpose. Their first encounter marks the forging of a profound bond whispered to endure a lifetime โ a pact not of servitude, but of shared destiny.
LANGUAGES
Wizards use various languages for their spells and literature, amongst them Byrmir, the most arcane language of higher wizardry.
MATERIAL AND IMMATERIAL MAGIC
A wizard can consciously take in Adhar, raw energy, and use it to realise the abilities predestined by his spectrum and disposition. These abilities, the diverse strains of magic, manifest in varying degrees of matter and energy. Worldbender elementers, for instance, wield control over the tangible elements of water, fire and air, which are in essence purely physical. Lighthifter illusionists, in accordance with their disposition and skill, can materialise illusions spanning from the entirely physical to the solely visual.
Meanwhile, light fragments have no matter. They bear the purest of world energies, which is why they allow unimpeded passage. While both lifeless and living entities cannot not touch them, Lightshifter light wizards have the unique potential to manipulate these fragments, a magic devoid of any physical substance:
Light magic, along with any seals rooted in the purest of energies, exclusively influences the Alladharian Dimension, leaving the Material Dimension untouched. When Yves compresses and directs light fragments into an attack, they remain in the Alladharian Dimension. Although a phantom presence, such as a visible light beam, may traverse the Material Dimension, the true target of a light magic attack is an enemy's Rothar.
Shards embody an extraordinary versatility, possessing a rare duality that allows them to influence both dimensions simultaneously and in varying degrees.
SECOND SIGHT
A wizard's second sight reveals world energies anchored in the Alladharian dimension. Amongst them are Adhar, the Rothar of others, and light fragments.ย
While all wizards possess the same level of first sight, second sight varies from wizard to wizard. Depending on a wizard's spectrum and dispositions, his ability to see the energies that exist in the Alladharian dimension varies. The nature, scope and clarity of how these energies are perceived also differ immensely between individual wizards.
Through second sight, a wizard's perception of space and the ability to adjust for depth, detail, and distance are far more advanced than what his first sight offers.
The perception of energies is a sensory experience of its own. In the same way that sound or smell cannot be painted on paper, energies cannot be conveyed to the material dimension.
SPECTRA โ A CIRCULAR CONTINUUM
It is worth noting that the spectra of magical dispositions form a circular continuum.
Shapeshifters, defined as creators within the Worldbender spectrum, border on the abilities of Lightshifter illusionists. On the perceptive end of lightshifting then lie seers, their abilities sharing similarities with the Transcender perceiver. Concluding the circle, Transcender world reading borders with Worldbender shifting. The elemental dominion of Worldbender shifters imparts a fraction of the profound understanding of matter and reality possessed by Transcender world readers.
SHARED ABILITIES
PULSES
All wizards may learn to expand their Rothar beyond the boundaries of their physical bodies. They may push it to such an extent that it disrupts the energy intake and flow of others. At its most powerful, it can disrupt magic, though it comes at a great cost of Rothar.
Others, such as witches and familiars, may also learn to realise pulses.
LIGHTSHIFTER MAGIC
Lightshifters can both be creators and perceivers. Regardless of their core disposition, wizards of the ๐๐ฆ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ฏ spectrum are almost always able to harness the condensed power of light.
A Lightshifter's Second Sight
A wizardโs second sight is paramount for all forms of lightshifting magic.
Mind you, not all Lightshifters have the innate disposition for all lightshifter magic. Even if they do, they generally possess strong potential for one particular disposition, with varying potential for all other abilities on the Lightshifter spectrum. It is rare to find a wizard with two equally potent core dispositions. You generally have one core and then lesser or no potential for the other abilities on your spectrum. With that, it is absolutely acceptable for a master light wizard to lack seer abilities, or for a glass wizard to conjure advanced visual illusions without the ability to materialise them.
Yet, despite their predispositions for specific magical domains, every Lightshifter can see light fragments. This ability comprises the essence of their spectrum. Worldbenders cannot see light fragments, while some Transcenders can.
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Illusions
Illusionists may create audible, visual, sensual and physical illusions.
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All illusions are temporary. They only last as long as the wizard actively sustaines them with his own energy.ย
Regardless of their training, not all illusionists are disposed to creating physical illusions such as Yves. A Lightshifter wizard might dedicate two centuries to becoming an unparalleled master of visual illusions, but if his inherent disposition does not lean towards it, he will never be able to materialise his creations physically, unlike Yves, who had been capable of such feats since he was thirteen years old.
"There were illusionists who prided themselves on creating the most remarkable males and females, especially ker and tairan. They competed, performed, and, if you would like to believe the more controversial rumours, entertained."ย [B1.C11]
Glass Magic
Glass wizards create shards of various sizes and formations.
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When mastered, glass magic is versatile and highly effective in battle, whether for long-distance or close combat, targeting a single adversary or a large group. Atop that, shard constructions are equally potent for defence, serving as formidable shields.
Proficient wizards can create anything from microscopic needles to entire shelters from shards, adjusting their forms immediately if the need arises.
Shards embody an extraordinary versatility, possessing a rare duality that allows them to influence the Material and the Alladharian Dimension simultaneously and in varying degrees; depending on the distribution of energy.
Light Magic
Light wizards can see and impact light directly when using their second sight.
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Regardless of their core disposition, wizards from the Lightshifter spectrum are generally able to perceive light fragments and see light in the dark. Those with a strong affinity for light magic can harness the raw potential of compressed energy that light offers:
Light fragments have no matter. They bear the purest of world energies, which is why they allow unimpeded passage. While both lifeless and living entities cannot not touch them, Lightshifter light wizards have the unique potential to manipulate these fragments, a magic devoid of any physical substance.
Light magic, along with any seals rooted in the purest of energies, exclusively influences the Alladharian Dimension, leaving the Material Dimension untouched. When Yves compresses and directs light fragments into an attack, they remain in the Alladharian Dimension. Although a phantom presence, such as a visible light beam, may traverse the Material Dimension, the true target of a light magic attack is an enemy's Rothar.
Light is the essence of destructive magic. Infusing shards with light fragments may produce powerful explosions.
Only a few gifted Lightshifters acquire the ability to evoke the void with dark light.
Seer Abilities
Seers excel in perceiving various magical energies.
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As the story progresses, information on these abilities will be added.
TRANSCENDER MAGIC
Transcendersย are the only wizards who can shift their consciousness. Their ability to perceive and understand the world and all that lies beyond the imminent present far surpasses the sensory perceptions or second sight of other wizards.
Perceiver Abilities
Transcender perceivers have the innate ability to recognise energies and spirits with all of their senses.
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As the story progresses, information on these abilities will be added.
Soul Reading
Soul readers excel at distinguishing the energies within other wizards or creatures, making them adept judges of character and curse-spotters.
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As the story progresses, information on these abilities will be added.
Spirit Reading
Spirit readers are especially attuned to non-physical existences, delving into the realms beyond the corporeal.
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For a master illusionist, crafting an illusion capable of deceiving a spirit-reader posed one of the most demanding challenges. Even after over a decade of training, Yves' creations were still easily exposed by the average nose-picking spirit-reader novice. It really put a perspective on your craft, if you thought about it. Yves generally tried not to think about it.
World Reading
World readers are concerned with the connection between dimensions.
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As the story progresses, information on these abilities will be added.
Time Reading
Time readers delve into temporal planes.
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As the story progresses, information on these abilities will be added.
Wandering
In addition to their general array of stronger or lesser abilities, all transcenders have the potential to become wanderers. Wanderers possess the potential to expand and split their consciousness to the extent of entering the minds and influencing the actions of other beings from within. Conscious wanderers can, simultaneously, maintain wakefulness in their own body while doing so, whereas unconscious wanderers cannot.
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As the story progresses, information on these abilities will be added.
Oracles
๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฐ [Oracles] captureย predestined futures. They are the conveyors of fate and prophecies. The more they excel in all disciplines of their spectrum, the more detailed their insight and the more accurate their interpretation. A Transcender proficient in soul-reading, spirit-reading, world-reading, and time-reading has the potential to become a ๐๐ฏ๐ฒ๐ข ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข [True Oracle] โ a wizard who does not only predict but foretells the future.
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During a consultation with an ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข such as Faroah, seeking guidance generally is a solitary affair; no familiar may participate, and no other wizard may serve as an intermediary or translator.
An audience with an ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข has a peculiar effect on those seeking revelation. You would enter a sanctified space designated for his divinations, whether it be a temple, chamber, or tent. There, you would present your request and await his response. However, upon exiting the consecrated confines of this audience, a strange sensation would settle upon your mind โ suddenly, the specifics of the encounter would slip away. You would be absolutely certain that you sought an audience, but find yourself with no recollection of the actual exchange that had transpired between you and the ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข. Departing, you would carry with you either an unconscious insight โ a strong compulsion to do something or go somewhere specific โ or a haunting awareness of having grasped nothing at all.
This phenomenon is not a scam, nor is it a manipulation of memory. Rather, the effect stems from the nature of ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข prophecies themselves. ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข prophecies are set in motion the very moment they are spoken. The act of foretelling simultaneously shapes the nature of the prediction and thus the future itself. As a witness to the prophecy, your presence becomes woven into the fabric of its unfolding. You as the seeker and observer play a role in what is spoken by the ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข. Your reactions and interpretations have an impact on the trajectory of events, influencing the course of the future in subtle yet profound ways. Because of that, a prophecy โ regardless of the content โ always also changes the recipientโs personal future. Such is the depth of this phenomenon that it defies the comprehension and alters the existence of the average wizard. The experience is so profound that you can neither grasp, nor mentally process it. While experienced Transcenders may consciously remember fragments of an ๐๐ฏ๐๐ ๐ฉ๐ข โs prophecy, the common Lightshifter or Worldbender may only hope to be subconsciously influenced his actions for the better.
This rather enigmatic explanation is likely all you will ever get as a non-Transcender.
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In [B1.C12], Faroah noted about his craft:
"It mattered little whether people understood him or not, for the world always listened. And, in his experience, the world was kind enough to work out a way to translate and pass on the message, be it through elaborate signs of fate, through subtle tricks of the light, or in more modest terms, such as a chance encounter with a passage in a random book.
Prophecies were not bound to a specific place, nor were they confined by time. You would be surprised how often Faroah prophesised something that had already happened. These kind of prophecies were just as important as those that concerned the future, because how else would the world know that these things had been meant to happen?"
Faroah also describes the era-phenomenon: "As a world-reader and time-reader, he ever again encountered transparent periods of rigidly distributed fate, fortunes, and futures, followed by a surge of uncertainties that offered him close to no insight."ย ย [B1.C12]
WORLDBENDER MAGIC
The ๐๐ข๐ช๐ญ๐๐ฏ spectrum is that of Worldbenders, encompassing those who, from the shifting to the infusing to the creating end of their spectrum, could impact their surroundings, manipulate other beings’ physical forms, and transform their own bodies. In other words, they are elementers, healers, and transformers.
In contrast to Lightshifters, who generally harbour one core disposition and additional, less prominent dispositions for the various abilities amidst their spectrum, Worldbenders are known to develop only one of their spectrumโs three dispositions. Within this disposition, they show varying potential. In the same manner that not all illusionists can create physical matter, a Worldbender elementerโs disposition, for example, determines whether he can control fire, air or water.
Element Magic
Elementers influence the physical world that lies outside of their own existence. They may control fire, water and air.
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Gestures of summoning, as demonstrated by Imbiad in [B1.C17], help Worldbender elementers to realise their influence on elemental matter.
Healing
Healers are Worldbender infusers that can shift their own energies to the physical bodies of others. They infuse the bodies of other beings with their own magical energy, using it to direct and speed up their patientsโ recovery.
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The disposition for healing stands as one of the rarest magical abilities, second only to achieving the credibility of a Transcenderย Oracle. Healers are, in the terms of sprectra, Worldbenders whose disposition lies right between that of a Worldbender shifter and creator.
Worldbenders are disposed to shaping the physical world. Like elementers, healers thereby breach the confines of their own being. Yet, while elementers are confined to the manipulation of fire, water and air, healers exert their influence over the bodies of living beings. This ability is reminiscent of the transformative powers wielded by shapeshifters, who altered their own forms.
While adjacent dispositions often share characteristics, healing goes beyond mere manipulation, delving into the ethereal realms of Transcender reading and wandering abilities. This connection is unique, as it bridges dispositions that do not touch. The art of healing demands that a wizard possess the perceptual acuity to discern the intricacies of a patient's body. This encompasses not only physical injuries but also damages to the Rothar. Depending on the healer's inherent potential, such perception delves into facets of soul and spirit reading โ dispositions that, within the circular continuum, do not border on one another.
Some scholars go as far as to attribute wandering abilities to healers. They argue that the breadth of control required to infuse and direct a healer's energy into a body suffering from complex, life-threatening conditions mirrors the transfer of consciousness inherent in wandering. Individual healers have demonstrated such nuanced and all-encompassing control over a patientโs body that their craft can hardly be distinguished from wandering.
Consider the infusion of a healer's energy as a conduit for directing and accelerating a patientโs recovery. Healers do not control bones or muscles like elementers control fire or air. They do not work with the material, but make the material work. Their craft lies in orchestrating the bodyโs inherent restorative processes. For that, they channel their own energy into their patient to activate, guide, and expedite his bodyโs natural healing mechanisms.
"Essentially, you are a puppeteer for your patient's body. You put everything into place by deftly manoeuvring his physiological strings. Your patientโs body mends the broken bone. You help him to do so in days, not months."ย [B1.C9]
Shapeshifting
Worldbender transformers, also called shapeshifters, can permanently alter their physical form.
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A Worldbenderโs disposition limits his potential for shapeshifting. Some transformers can never deviate far from their core humanoid form. Others have the capability to alter their physical form to the point where they can freely expand their own physical limitations through most elusive alterations into vastly different creatures. A fully disposed transformer has the potential to turn into individuals from other races, beasts of all sizes, and even take on the appearance of non-living things.
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"But what is INSIDE? It is one thing to shift your wizard appearance; to give yourself different proportions or facial features. It is another thing to change yourself to a race that looks quite similar to wizards, such as tairan. It is a completely different thing to shift into a beast. Think about it. What happens to everything inside your body? And what happens to everything that makes you a wizard?"ย ย [B1.C11]
Transformations entail danger. A messed up transformation may mean death.
"But with shapeshifting, the origin of control lay inside the creation. A shapeshifter uses his magic on himself. Once the transformation into another living being complete, the body is his new physical form. But if he messes up when shifting, he dies. Yvesโ illusions could appear stunningly beautiful from the outside and still look like shit from inside, but if a transformerโs body becomes un-liveable while he shapeshifts, there are no second chances. They just die. It happens. Yves had personally seen it happen at Emery Thurm."ย ย [B1.C11]
"There are Worldbender transformers who consciously decide to live as beasts for a prolonged time, often taking the shape of their familiar. There are also those who feel a strong pull to try shifting into their familiar at least once, even when they are far from prepared, and then never make it back. Sometimes, you see them roam the Veridian Expanse in pairs. His Worldbender commilita had been warned about this sensation. It can become an irrepressible compulsion, especially for those who had bonded with a strong-willed familiar โ you should never forget that a familiar is not the same as a beast, and that their bond entails a shared path, not one that is determined by the wizard alone."ย ย [B1.C11]
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However skilled and versatile, Worldbender transformers cannot detach parts of themselves that then functioned autonomously. They maintain their consciousness in one singular physical form.