Magic
From Genco
Matter is comprised of magical units:
- Miasma - Dormant - Not in motion. Tends to stay immobile.
- Materia - Active - In motion, pulled or repulsed by something. Visible.
- Magus - Excited - Somehow fueled from within, receives more energy than it can contain.
- Magic - Restrained - The steady force that binds materia to itself to create physical form.
Some magical units, or materia, are free, and can be individually manipulated. Other materia has been fused, retaining the same magical properties but cannot be manipulated without careful consideration of the materia it is bound to.
All materia is derived from the same magical source. Materia elements behave similarly. The element are categorized by their differing behaviors and the commonality of their interactions.
Magical elements are distinguished by their state of energetic excitement.
The earth is bombarded with heat from the sun (life) and warmed from within by it's molten core, keeping the cold (death) at bay, saving life on the surface from death from space.
Every magical element has another element to which it is attracted. It is also repulsed by at least one other element. Magical element usually come in groups of three, and all keep each other repulsed and attracted.
The earth is fundamentally a creation of life (heat), left to die. Beneath the surface it is dead, while on the surface the sun feeds life to survive on a world that without heat (life) would recede back into a state of necropsy (death, cold).
Fire is the presence of more heat than the materia involved can absorb and use. Without fuel, the burst of flame is but momentary , but if sustained, will remain aflame until the fuel is completely consumed. Miasma can be materialized and used to fuel a flame source.
Order may be defined as the fusing of complex structures of materia and the physical form it is bound to, so that they become a "thing" and are then classified as a new "super-subgroup" of form with it's own name and derivations. Chaos is the process and effect of breaking down and siassembling of materia structures into their more basic, fundamental constituents. @(Known as Alchemy)
Materia is magic that has been bound in exclusive clusters, tightly compacted bundles of specific elements. These are the building blocks of all structures in the physical world. @(are these clusters man made? are they a natural phenomenon?)
Gaia is the "life" magic, the force which creates change and adaptation and genetic advancement. Highly complex genetic beings have high concentrations of Gaia. Free magic is not bound to the physical world and floats about as tiny particles, attracted to areas in the world with high activity of that element. Regions rife with life are on fi-ah with Gaia, so free gaia tends to "collect" around these areas. Planets comprised of a single element will collect massive amounts of free magic.
Order sometimes requires chaos to undo its mistakes. It requires control to invoke a chaotic action, and control to keep it from gaining momentum and destroying more. Chaos is not an element or a force of it own. It is a composite of magical processes that breaks the bonds created through the processes of binding elements to order.
Once a bond is broken, the elemnts within are released into the surround environment usually to be caught up in the bind of the larger body to which it belonged. The magical bond around pure elements is very strong, amplified by its total mass, and when broken releases massive amounts of newly unbound materia which creates rifts in the free magic interchange and can cause physical effects in the world. Only the strongests of mages can support the control of large particles of free magic.
A mage can pull free magic from the miasma, giving it physical form. This allows him to seemingly create matter from nothing. Eventually he may conjure complex items and magic. All forms of being are the basic elements, enveloped by "magic" and combined to form matter.
To make a small condensed ball of a certain pure element, an attractant can be introduced while a bond is slowly formed around it. Once contained, the ball will inevitably have random elements captured in the condensation process and must be remove, if purity is required. The mage can then concentrate and create an interface where he can manipulate the indiviual materia inside.
These orbs contain hundreds of thousands of magic particles always in motion within their constraints. The mage may use his mind, with the knowledge required to successfully manipulate magic, to add or remove elements. This can be done by isolating a selected group of magic, covering it with a protective shell, then forcing it past the barrier of the other. Then remove the first's covering once inside. This can be reversed by the converse process of isolating unwanted elements and removing them from a selected orb.
Materia is generally distinguished by its characteristic ability to reflect light. It is the magical bind that makes it visible to creatures that perceive light. Free magic, or Miasma cannot be seen.
Flame can be extinguished in various ways. Encapsulating an open flame will deprive it of oxygen and will succumb. Water can be used to create the same effect. Other elements and cules can be dumped on it to put it out. Fire is what heat does in open air.
Being able to expertly manipulate both fire and water is a powerful combination and can be used to direct the path of hot open flames by creating barriers with water elements in the air. Studying both arts is an effective way of avoiding burns during study.
Heat is not miasmic, forcing certain materia to interact can create enough heat to produce a flame which can be applied to a fuel source, such as wood in a campfire.
The interface used to create sparks begins with creating a magical containment shell to work within. Mineral or material elements can be pulled from the environment, or from an item in the mage's inventory, and placed within the shell. These elements, when accelerated or forced to interact, create heat which is captured by the magical shell. When enough heat is generated the shells can be released, the heat expanding into flame upon contact with the air, long enough to start a fire or damage an enemy. This is a basic skill and is learned quickly. At first, you must manually create the heat within the shell before letting it explode. AS your skill progresses, creating a spark or flame may be done with a single button click, followed by the desired coordinates.
Magical machines can be constructed purely from materia. Complex grids are formed and energy or magus can be channeled through basic logic gates to determine the flow of the materia being used.
Because materia is still very manipulable even in its smallest form, the space required to store a vastly complex machine is still very small. Most times, these gadgets are too small to be seen by the eye, yet can be sensed and "seen" by others of a magical inclination.
Lightning could be developed into an attack by pulling metallic or mineral magus to create a jolt of static electricity charge. Actual lightning can be channeled, but not created by magical means.
Heat particles penetrate surfaces though holes, gaps, and tunnels in the materia.
