Random notes about "magic"

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by DanadrielsLair

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this is a quick summary of how the soft magic system work on my story, I may add more content here in the future

Magic is the colloquial term used by many cultures through history to describe the manipulation and manifestation of the Primal Flux, the primordial energy used in the very creation of the universe by the being known as the First Conscience, primal flux is a invisible yet ever present energy all over the universe, it exists in a permanent state of movement maintaing and sometimes altering certain aspects of reality itself.Very little is known about the nature of primal flux, even the most advanced civilizations that ever existed barely started unraveling the mysteries of the flux before meeting their end, what is known for a fact is that flux is a maleable energy,when manipulated by a powerful mind it can be turned in to any material, substance or form of energy that ever existed or will exist, in theory anything imaginable can be done by manipulating flux, but the more complex or big the manipulation is, bigger is the toll on the mind and body that execute it since the conversion is not perfect, during its manipulation flux leaves entropic heat behind, wich will damage the body and mind of the manipulator, so even the flux having in theory endless uses and possibilities it will always be severely limited by the body of the manipulator.

The ability to manipulate the flux is not bestown to every sapient being, some especies were created with the natural ability to dominate it, while others only have special individuals among them able to do so, trough the many eras of this world there was developed artificial ways to bestow the gift of flux manipulation artificialy upon someone,with their varied levels of sucess and mixed consequences, the selectiviness of who can and who can not manipulate the flux is one of the very misteries of this primal energy, the gift is known to pass from generation trough generation yet its not always the case, and a once magical family can have only non magical descendents after certain point with no aparent reason, while random children can born with the gift even being fruit of non magical parents, and this can be applied to entire societyes, sometimes 1 in 10 children born with the gift and in other eras 1 in 1 million, many atribute this phenomena to the very will of the flux.

Although it may vary from species trough species, usually in humans and feraloids the gift of flux manipulation is revealed around puberty with some late bloomers only discovering their powers much later and some prodigy kids discovering it much earlier. The perception of flux manipulators change over time and in diferent societies and eras, sometimes they are seem as gods and sometimes they are hunted as aberrations, their denomination also varies alot, sometimes they are refered as witches, mages, wizards, warlocks, psykers, mentalists, thaumaturges, shamans and so on, each name with their conotations and meaning varying from era to era but always refering to the exact same thing in the end.

Contrary to popular belief, flux manipulators don't store any energy on their bodies, they only let it flow trough their being and shape it, in a simplistic way manipulators can be seem like a hose shaping and conducing water from one place to another, not all manipulators have the same level of power, while some can only create small sparks with their powers, other can level entire mountains with the snap of a finger, several atempts were made to measure precisely the power level of flux manipulator through the ages, usualy it ends with a scale going from 0 to 10, each level geting exponentially more powerful than the previous, most manipulators find themselves around level 1 to 5, while more powerful individuals are tremendously rare to find.

Although just manifesting spells through sheer will power is possible, there are paths of less resistance when dealing with the manipulation of flux, for some unknown reason certain languages, words, symbols and gestures please the flux making the manipulation easier, for this reason many "pre-made" spells and rituals end up being passed from generation to generation, while others get little modifications here and there from user to user.

"Can you transform someone in to "X" with magic?": yes.... kinda, but the more severe is the transformation more entropic heat it will cause, also its very unlikely the body of the victim will survive the rapid transformation, you will most likely end with a dead ball of mangled flesh.

"if everything is possible through flux, what prevents them from spawning everything they need?": converting flux in to physical matter is a very taxing on the body, raw materials are already challenging requiring special equipment and proper rituals, complex objects are almost impossible,by example if you try to create a car with magic you will die before even creating the license plate,also they require you to have a deep understanding of the thing you are trying to create, if you don't know how a clock works you can't make a clock

"what happens when a magic user gets too much entropic heat?" they burn from the inside out, sometimes exploding into flames, it's quite horrible.

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