Ars Vestigieae

"Everyone says that you were never meant to wield this power, mother. Now I know why. Because with it, I think I can change the world. Something you never had the stomach to do."

— Tauri Watickayaku, wielder of the Mortal Shard of Worlds, The Helm.

What mystery is it by which the dead are brought back to life? What mystic craft is employed to eavesdrop on the secret conversations between the sycamores? What latent power lies dormant in the pathways of our forgotten memories?
Magic is the explanation and answer to the supernatural, fantastical phenomena pervading the universe. It is both a cause, and an effect; a flux between energy and force. Just as mortals seek to understand magic as a natural law, it resists being understood. It intersects the spheres of religion, science, culture, biology, and politics. It is, at once, both ubiquitous, and entirely mysterious.

Overview

The Macrocosm is a universe overflowing with the fantastical. Dragons rule entire kingdoms, knights duel against red devils, and people can really be brought back from the dead. But despite its seeming ubiquity, no one can decide what "magic" actually is. It is the scholarly opinion that the word "magic" is often grossly misused, and incorrectly applied to a wide variety of essentially natural phenomena or cultural rituals. The scholarly community ties itself in knots trying to define what is and isn't magic.

To further complicate it's study, the practice of real magic has varied wildly throughout history, and varies wildly still today depending on who is practicing it. Today, magic is best understood as the power of creation, manipulation, or destruction over the trace element called Vestige.

The Everyday Magic

While sages have their symposiums on magical theories, the regular person need not know a thing about magic to reap the benefits from the magical community. In fact, the overwhelming majority of people are completely mundane, even people of fantastical ancestry like the Dragonborn or the Tiefling. In the average county or similarly small, local area, you could expect maybe three to five people per thousand (or about one or two per small village) to have any magical talent at all. In urban cities, the magical community tends to be a bit larger, but magic-users find themselves ostracized from well-to-do society. Trends vary by region: in the magical colleges of Shaijaqim magical students swarm throughout the university districts, whereas in remote Midani, witches and wizards are hunted by superstitious, paranoid nomads who fear their talents. As a general rule, any magic beyond third-level is practiced only by a few magical elites - hermits, witches, or cloistered academics - and is all but inaccessible to the public. Even though these powerful magic users are incredibly valuable resources, they are also potentially dangerous threats. They stand outside of conventional social and political ladders, regarded at once with respect, awe, and fear.

But even still, everyday sorts of magic can be found in settlements large and small. It is important to distinguish between the fantastical and the magical. Whereas half-giant gatekeepers or griffon-riding couriers may seem fantastical, they may not practice magic. Most of the true, common magic one might encounter is performed through a scroll or elixir bought from a local practitioner at a high-class bookstore or exclusive curiosity shop. Such magic typically includes cantrips or minor spells that bring convenience to the upper class - Mending, Detect Magic, or Tenser's Floating Disk. Sold at a hefty price, they are bought only when absolutely needed unless the buyer is particularly wealthy. More egalitarian access to magic for the poor typically comes from the local church's repository of miraculous spell scrolls and healing potions, but only during emergencies. In summary, though the fantastical is found everywhere, magic often comes in the form of an item or object, rather than widespread spellcasting. Accessing magic directly is challenging and often expensive. The more powerful the magic, the exponentially harder it is to find and use.

And occasionally, though such events are scarce, a community is visited by a powerful magician, and they become legendary. Tales are told for generations of travelling druids saving an entire year's harvest during a drought. A sorcerous sailor uses her magic to Control Winds, saving her crew and marooning her pursuers. Mythical sages do battle against interloping fiends, saving entire kingdoms from ruination. Even local fetchers can contribute their expertise towards magical goals. In fact, in the current Age of Adventure fetchers are paid high commissions to protect their communities from fantastical threats like dragons, mind-flayers, or even other magic-users. The world relies on fetchers to hunt down old magical artifacts, and stop villains from using them.

The History of Magic

Over the eras, magic has changed increased in rarity, while decreasing in potency and ease of use. Though observing these trends is difficult, longer-lived ancestries or monsters have both written and oral records detailing historical events and people that prove invaluable resources. Rare consultations with devils, demons, or celestials can provide direct accounts of certain magical events, though these dialogues are often performed under the coercion of planar bindings and summoning that deteriorate the academic relationship with the creature. Scholars generally divide the history of magical practice into three or four periods depending on their philosophy on creation or the Shattering.

The Age of Creation

The Age of Creation is understood as the period of time in which the world, its fundamental elements, its inhabitants, the heavens, and the hells were formed or created. Scholars, and particularly wizards, disagree on the substantive details of this time period, though that hasn't stopped some dogged individuals to dedicating their lives to Cosmogeny.In fact, many argue that any supposed Age of Creation is a matter better left to religion, refusing to recognize its legitimacy in the arena of history. Despite this, even the most ardent dissenter would have to reluctantly agree that no other age can explain the source of vestige. Many have lost their minds to madness attempting to divine these secrets of the universe.

The Age of Chaos

Similarly to the Age of Creation, much of this period is prehistorical, lost to the shifting sands of time. However, scholars have gathered enough evidence to infer the existence of an age of magic pre-dating the Mortal Shard, dubbed the Age of Chaos. Magical practice during this time was raw and highly unstable. It is theorized that mortals were capable of manipulating vestige directly without any external medium by emulating or harnessing whatever divine craft was used to create the universe. Practitioners would have been called many things during these times, but in the common tongue they may have been referred to as Demiurges. The Demiurges were able to create Great Works during their time, and wielded power that dwarfs even the wisest wizards of the modern age. Many religions are, blasphemously, believed to have originated not in the worship of a true God or the Angels, but with worship in a Demiurge. Entire species are believed to have originated during this time period including the Yuan-Ti or the Owlbear. The best references come from the ongoing translation efforts in reading the Ordning Stone. Eventually, in keeping with Tauri's Theory of Syntropy, the divine power of the Demiurges began fading from the surface of the Mortal Sphere. Demiurges and Chaos magic as a whole began to disappear.

The Age of High Shard Magic

Also called the Age of the Shard. The Age of High Magic began in the Kingdom of Ostoria and the inheritance of the Mortal Shard, a period of time well-documented in the history of the Giants. Whosoever wielded the Mortal Shard was capable of emulating a Demiurge and all of their terrible powers including control over the weather and the elements, creatures and biology, laws of physics and time, and more. The Age of High Shard Magic lasted through the Fall of Ostoria and throughout the entirety of the Ancient Elven Empire, and ended with the Shattering during the rise of the Dwarvish empire of Az-Mundu. The age is defined by the use of the full Mortal Shard prior to its shattering for civilization building, and particularly by the ascendancy of the High Elves. The age was dominated by totalitarian regimes in control of the Mortal Shard. These ruling parties exercised near-complete control over vast swaths of the world population with little resistance.

The Age of Low Shard Magic

The Age of Low Shard Magic is the current, modern age of magical history, and includes all of history post-Shattering. When the Mortal Shard was broken, it separated into many pieces, called Mortal Shards. The shards spread throughout the Mortal Sphere and across the Macrocosm. Even still today, the shards contain fractional remnants of their original power. Some of the shards are highly unstable, capable of exhibiting reality-warping affects on their surroundings and the world. Over time, a culture of magic was built up across The Mortal Sphere, whereby mortals developed methods of accessing the diminished powers of these shards at the cost of incurring Clash. The Age of Low Shard Magic contains countless different, discrete schools and theories of magic. The preeminent magical scholars all study at the one of the Colleges of Magic. The practice of magic varies, just as an artist has their signature style. Though commonalities between practices may seem slim on the surface, but each and every magical culture can trace its lineage to one of the Mortal Shards, or a wielder thereof. Indeed, even in the current age, the weakest age of magic in history, if one lays claim to one of the Mortal Shards, they can become mightier than any other. If only the shards could be found.

Modern Magical Theory

Magic, as it is best understood, is the creation, manipulation, or destruction of the trace element called Vestige. In the current age, normal people cannot manipulate vestige by themselves. All magic requires a connection to a magical medium, one of the Mortal Shards. These connections are called the Viarchs by the Elves, or Holloways by the older Giants. To understand magic is to understand these three fundamental principles: Vestige, Viarchs, and the Mortal Shards. Putting all of these elements together creates the unit in which magic is measured: the spell.
The basic flow of magic is simple: when someone casts a spell, vestige throughout the Macrocosm is called by one of the Mortal Shards to channel through the Viarchs, becoming pieced together to become a spell. But try and get two magicians from different backgrounds to agree on "how magic works", and you will soon have a fight on your hands. The reality is that practicing magic is a lot more like a messy, cultural, art than an exact science (despite the assertions of the academics). There are hundreds, if not thousands of unique ways to practice magic. They can differ by the source of the vestige, which Mortal Shard serves as the medium, and which Viarchs the spells travel along. Scholars also occasionally differentiate magic by the cultural background or rituals that compose its casting traditions.
But despite all of this messiness, mortals seek to organize and understand the unlimited potential power of magic. Most of these efforts take place in the Colleges of Magic, but shrewd scholars do not discount the contributions of hermits across the Mortal Sphere. This combined, collective wisdom has brought about the Modern Magical Theory, a loose collection of rules, traditions, opinions, and theories that tries to explain, in its three fundamental principles, the practice of magic.

The Sources of Vestige

The magic begins within the sources of Vestige. By its very nature, more vestige is found in areas where death has lingered. Typically, the older the vestige is, the better. The bonds that tie vestige together are made weaker the longer it rests undisturbed, making it easier to break apart, and reform as a spell. The specific origin of the vestige used for spellcasting defines the magic's "Source". Most magic today traces its Source to the Elder Dead Worlds. This vestige is incredibly potent, having laid untouched for eons, and its source is called "Arcane". The other most common form of magic traces its Source to the Angels (or at times, the Devils). Though they are loathe to confide in the particulars, the powers they grant their Saints are self-evident proof that both Angels and Devils maintain vast stores of Vestige. The magic that comes from Heaven has a "Miraculous" Source, while magic from the Hells has a "Diabolic" Source, though both fall under the more general umbrella of "Divine" Source. Druids are notable for sourcing their vestige directly from what remains on the Mortal Sphere, being "Taean" in Source. A spell's Source can tinge the magic with its distinct flavor. For example, Arcane source magic appears cold and astral, whereas Diabolic source magic burns hot with the brimstone flames of hell. Using the elementary spell "Magic Missile"; an Arcane Magic Missile may appear as scouring stars with comet trails, while a Diabolic Magic Missile may appear as flaming canine heads that relentlessly hound their quarry.
Though the Sources of Vestige might seem distant and infinite in reserve, the scholarly community has noted that as history progresses, complex spellcasting takes longer, a phenomenon called the Increasing Component Trend. Though there are competing theories as to its cause, many sages familiar with the Sources of Vestige suggest that vestige, across all sources, is slowly running out per Tauri's Theory of Syntropy. The consequences of a widespread shortage in vestige are unknown at this time, but the current trend suggests that at minimum, spellcasting could continue growing in complexity and casting-time, becoming unwieldly and impractical. The gradual decline in accessibility and convenience has had wide-reaching ripple effects over time. Worst-case scenarios go even further, suggesting that in time, all magic will become completely inaccessible, leaving the world in total mundanity.
For more examples of vestige sources, see the Sources of Vestige Table.

The Mediums of Magic

Normal, everyday people cannot manipulate or command vestige by themselves. All magic is controlled through sending instructions, prayers, or commands to one of the magical mediums, the Mortal Shards. Now, most spellcasters are not fundamentally aware of the existence of these mediums, nor the functions they serve. A ranger, for example, may truly believe that their intrinsic connection with and respect for the earth and its spirits allows them to harness magic. And in part, they are correct! The Foundational Theory of Components claims that the magical mediums are commanded by a "Language of Power" composed not of words or letters, but of an esoteric collection of material, verbal, and somatic "components". Certain rituals invoking the Language of Power have been found incorporated into cultural traditions and practices, which has resulted in producing magical practitioners who are fully capable of casting spells without knowing the exact mechanics of what happens when they cast them.
The physical or cosmic locations of the magical mediums are largely unknown, and indeed irrelevant to most magical practice. Even from infinitely great distance, the mediums are capable of "listening" for when a spell is cast in the Language of Power. When the correct components are received and accepted by one of the magical mediums in this Language of Power, the medium performs the necessary location, extraction, and modification of vestige, transforming it into a spell to be delivered through a Viarch. A Typology of Sorcery is one of the first attempts to sort and identify these mediums, classifying them into the Eight Magical Schools. It was believed then that eight mediums existed, and each medium controlled one of eight "schools" of magic, such as Necromancy or Enchantment for example. Modern scholars have added to and modified the designation of spells and schools over time, but more research is required to prove the existence of more than eight "listening" mediums. Some scholars warn that, if one of the mediums is located and subsequently claimed or broken, the laws of magic could change in an instant. Only two of the eight "listening" mediums have been known to be wielded in history, The Mortal Shard of Death, by Vecna, and the Mortal Shard of Worlds, by Tauri Watickayaku.

The Pathways of Power

Viarchs are the channels through which magic flows, also called pathways of power. They are the final, critical, puzzle piece needed to assemble a spell. Magical historians assert that Viarchs existed long before any recorded spellcasting. They believe they were used for transportation across the Macrocosm. The largest Viarch is the River Myr, also known as Muriennemyr, which carries the souls of the dead from Taea to the afterlife. Viarchs exist all throughout the Macrocosm, connecting places together. For example, the Viarchs that connect the realms of the Feywild and Shadowfell to Taea are called the Veils. Meditations on the River, a seminal text in magic written by Tauri Watickayaku, provides several insights to the nature of Viarchs and how to use them for transferring magic and delivering a spell to the caster.
The strength of a given magic user is measured by the number and degree of Viarchs they command. Commanding a Viarch is no small feat, and typically involves intensive study or dedication to the craft of magic. Tauri classifies many types of magic-users based on how they command their Viarchs. For example, she identifies a class of magic-users who each derive their practice from a theory of Viarch command originating with the High Elves of Selendir. These magic-users, who Tauri called the "Wizards", engage in intensive study and discipline to learn the Wizardings, granting the caster command over a certain degree of Viarchs. You may be familiar with other classes of magic-users that Tauri identifies, including Sorcerers, Warlocks, Druids, Clerics, and more! Each class harnesses the command of Viarchs differently.
Once controlled, a Viarch can be used for casting spells. Spells vary in complexity and effect and can be sorted into different degrees based on these elements. Viarchs are thereby categorized likewise; based on what degree of spell they are capable of transporting. A second degree Viarch can support up to a second degree spell. Whereas Tauri considered that there may be more than fifteen different degrees of spell, the Magical Colleges of the current era have largely diverged from older texts such as Meditations on the River, settling between eight to nine. Simple, low degree spells can be channeled through low degree Viarchs, whereas the most powerful spells require the most powerful Viarchs.
Each Viarch commanded by a magic-user can be used for a single spell of its degree or lower. After a single casting, most Viarchs become unstable or damaged by the transfer of magic. Once again, magical historians have well-documented evidence that Viarch stability was once much more reliable, though it has been trending steadily downward over time. In the current era, intensive effort must be undergone to re-establish Viarch command, usually as a morning series of rituals or preparations.

Clash

One of the fundamental realities of wielding magic is that it is wholly incompatible with mortal bodies. Maintaining Viarchs is particularly taxing on the mind and body, as maintaining open connections throughout the Macrocosm exposes their wielder to constant unhealthy radiation and energy. At times, creatures have been known to lurk within Viarchs to ambush magical practitioners, the Phase Spider being a notable predator. Invoking the Language of Power can occasionally invite similar harm to the caster as well. This incompatibility causes both acute and chronic symptoms called Clash. Clash is caused by the innate discordance between a mortal body and the divine power it attempts to wield, named as such by the Knight Termina, of the Order of Eight. Even simple spells can cause adverse side effects such as nausea, headaches, and dizziness. More powerful practitioners, who maintain several high degree Viarchs, are afflicted with more intensive conditions: sudden hair loss, hallucinations, memory loss, aphasia, or worse. Clash symptoms are unique, emerging differently in each user.
Practitioners undergo extensive training to make their bodies more harmonious with magic, learning how to manage or endure the worst of their Clash symptoms. Even still, minor side effects known as Clash Signs betray the effort and control a spellcaster must exert in order to cast their magic.