The life-form within the magic

The power of the mind united with the capacity of the body. The unification of energy and force, projecting the two as one. The ability to manipulate, create and even destroy, using not the physical strength, but the power of the mind. 

This is the arcane, the very foundation of magic itself.

 

Magic itself cannot be fully understood by man. Historians and philosophers view the arcane as the power of the gods, handled by man. Religious factions view it as the devil's art, manipulating what is unnatural and distorting reality. Warriors and barbarians, who lack formal education, see it as a trick rather an art, they assume magi and wizards alike are weak and depend on their magic; they see wizards as physically incapable, not able to even swing an axe or a sword or properly carry a shield. But after a duel, the one that walks away is the wizard. Only a fool would ever challenge a full-pledge wizard to a duel.

 

The ability to create illusions to scare, distract and discourage the foe; the ability to inflict serious damage from a tactical position; to conjure fearsome allies and weapons far more effective than the ones made by the best blacksmiths; to cast complex incantations in a split-second, decimating each and every foe - this was the best asset of the wizard. This is the power of the arcane.

 

For centuries, mortals studied magic for knowledge, profit or for fame and glory. But one can never understood the real concepts of the arcane until one merges with it. Mastering the arcane arts takes a lifetime, but putting it to action takes mere seconds. For generations, magic planted itself in the roots of the universe, producing leaves and branches, creating devastating lightning bolts, and in its most exotic cases, bring the dead back to life. Though the arcane is capable of doing what seems to be impossible, it all comes down to a singular concept - it is everything in the universe. A mage may not agree with a shaman, the former uses magic in concentrated and theorized applications while the latter uses magic as a cultural phenomena, a remedy for the illness of the feeble body. But the two branches share a same root, the use of the stream of the arcane, known as the mana, in other planes it is called as chakra, chi, or ki.

 

The body possesses a core of magic, alchemists say it is from the different components of the body, producing and releasing energy. Priests say it is one's faith to his creator, enabling him to use the core of magic to defeat and purge evil. Sages, or master wizards, theorize the core as the source of the mana inside the body, and they say it is the human soul that provides the required energy and force for any given spell. Uniting all the universal ideas of the core, it could be stated that every human being, regardless of age, profession and belief could produce a force in his own will, but will have to exert enough energy for it to have any effect at all.

 

Mana, the flowing river of the arcane, surges through one's stream. Mana exists in one's thoughts and ideas, in his physical capacity and in his ability to concentrate. Mana is not a material quantity. Rather, mana is the united force assimilated from one's abilities. Thus, wizards train themselves to concentrate, to endure, and to maximize their over-all capacity to project mana in the form of spells, which are the result of condensed and processed mana, flowing out from the core to the projected object. Magical amplifiers, such as wands, rods and staff, are used to further concentrate the flowing energy from the core, and to further rectify the trajectory of a spell. These amplifiers might be also imbued with certain attributes that could manipulate mana in various ways, such as splitting or splicing a spell and projecting it as one, or multiplying a single spell into two, three, or even a hundred, depending on the caster's output mana and the material used to achieve such an effect.

 

The study of magic starts with embracing it and ends with failing to comprehend its unlimited uses. Mana, the source of all magic in all beings, and the foundation of all spells, is in everyone, though many disregard the potential of the mana inside them. A youngster, with enough concentration and exertion, could produce magic equal to that of full-fledge wizards. Although, a trained wizard can exert the proper control over his spell, preventing him from causing more damage to himself than to his enemy.  Thus, one could either embrace the arcane or one could neglect it. 

One must find the arcane stored within him if he wishes to be one with it, for it will never show itself unless seeked for.

 

. . . . . .

 

A journey, I must forever take, to understand and feed my passion for magic. And it only starts where I set my mind on. I have seen and studied complex theories, performed exhausting spells and endured the strict discipline of the arcane. Friends have died in front of me, even just in training. The high magi paid no attention to failing and talentless students of the arcane and see those deaths as a result of their arrogance in assuming they can easily master the arcane. I see them drop one by one like flies and it will forever haunt me. 

As I walk this path towards the arcane, the ghosts of my fallen comrades, both in training and within enemy lines, exist to haunt me.

 

This is my journey as a wizard.

 

-Raihan-

Author's Note

Note: This is an original piece. This story is highly fictional. It is not intented for accurate descriptions found in the article. This story serves as a background story for a book in progress. I hope readers would enjoy what I made for them.

Reviews

[sutoraika]

It's so much fun to read the works of a collaborative writer. These first-person POVs of our characters would help us understand them more and improve our writing on Lesallia. Really great, man! Oh, Assassin's Notes is up.