Tales of magic: grimoire of transmogrification

  Interlude

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  Arc 2 - "The hunter and the beast"

  Chapter 15?- "Magic theory I"

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  The Knowledge consists of three parts:

  The mind, memories and the madness.

  With the mind, it could think freely in the present and utilize it's limited resources in contemplating the shadows. The things it did not know.

  With the memory, it stored information it had been fed. The memory is infact the 'Book' layer of the Book of Magic.

  And the 'madness' had it's own use. It stood as a reminder that all rules were speculation. 'The world had always been mad' said the Philospher. The Knowledge believed him. The world never ceases to contradict itself. It is chaos. The main reason why chaos holds so much power is that chaos permeates the universe. Chance and luck are instruments of chaos. The magical world of spirits, as well as the countless realms can only be understood as the creations of chaos. The madness is an extension of chaos existing in the Book of Magic, damaging all the Laws stipulated within. As the Laws all have an exception. But chaos could also be classified as a Law, couldn't it? The Book of magic perused over it's contents and did not understand anything.

  It concluded that, infact, magic cannot be given hard definite rules. After all, without reason, those rules could be broken. The reason remains unidentified and unidentifiable.

  All rules and Laws fail except for one. The rule stands: That thing mortals call 'Magic' is chaos and any attempt to understand it is an exercise in futility.

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  Yet, I will understand magic...

  And then, I will win.

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  Journal entry

  Date: 1st April, 1886.

  Time of entry: 3:02

  Location: Screaming woods.

  Dear Journal, I've decided to name this entry something special. I've Inscribed it below. Hope you love it.

  Title: Magic theory

  Preface: Yes. That's what it is. A theory of magic. My theory of magic. Journal, you're going to be the lucky book that has the knowledge so important that the whole world would one day want to know what's on your pages...Yeah, I went crazy again there. I'm just blowing off steam after the crazy study session I had just now. I crammed as much as I could into my brain, and directly wrote down a good( but rough) description of all of the spells in my Knowledge in one of your other pages. Two sleepless nights if you added this one, just to get this far. Damn that stupid demon. Anyways, the spells would be properly ordered soon. Firstly, I want to jot down everything I've learnt about how magic works and pretty much everything I know that isn't in the Spellbook section. Oh and note to self: I'll reference some terms with tags e.g [1] or [3].Also, I'll write[?] for things I'm not sure about~ things that are pretty much just guess work. Now that's out of the way, let's get started!

  The realms.

  According to my Knowledge, there are infinite realms. Realms meing dimensions. Self-contained worlds that (usually) never interact with other worlds. So the universe is made out of countless worlds which are all different iterations of the same Realm. Yep. They're all copies of the 'origin realm'. Or at least that's what the Mages of old( founders of the ancient texts of magic[1]) know. The knowledge says that it might not be true or up-to-date. But it's what I've got.

  No knowledge on the origin realm. Anyways, there are countless instances of the Material Realm, and one where I happen to reside in. The Material realm just so happens to be... pretty much what I know it as. My knowledge didn't give me anything else. But the spirit realm on the other hand is properly sketched out.

  Planes of existence theory.

  The spirit realm and Material realm overlap so they're usually called 'planes' of existence, with one being on top of the other. That'd be the spirit world. Beings and Phenomena on the top plane can easily interact with both planes while beings and phenomena at the bottom...are limited only to their plane. That's why spirits can do what they want in the material realm. But there's more. There is a limit to how much spirits can interact with the lower realm. That's the Wall.(I named it). It's a gap or Rule[2] between the two worlds that kind of requires a certain measure of [?] Power to break. And even when broken, it still restricts the soul. In the spirit realm, every movement costs Power (didn't need the Knowledge here), and the spirits need some measure of Power to exist. So they cluster around Sanctuary's, hoping to form deals with Mages so they get Power for using their abilities to affect the material realm.

  Now this is the abridged version of the First Rule of Magic:(Alternate Realm divergence law)The lower realm/plane shall create an instance of itself for each major change caused by the influence of the upper realm. The original version and the beings within it would continue to exist alongside the new changed instance.

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  How does this tie into anything? Well, the soul travelling between planes counts as a major change and it's restricted because of that. Or rather, it would happen, but in a different version of our material plane. Hence the spirits whose souls travelled through the Wall seem to vanish from the stand-point of us in this dimension. It's safe to say that they cease to exist.

  Now, we all know they don't. But this means that the spirit world is constantly losing spirits that gain a certain level of Power. But they're also those spirits whose desires differ from leaving the spirit realm. They stay and rally spirits under them. They're the spirit kings or the Higher spirits. Not to be confused with the Greater spirits or spirit gods who probably exist to govern and regulate the higher plane.

  Yes, Journal it seems like I'm just aimlessly rambling. But I'm really writing down all I know about planes of existence.

  On Mages and Magic.

  What about the Mages?

  There are two links between the spirit and material realm: Mages and portals(breaks in the wall from other dimensions. Doesn't happen often- for some reason.).

  Mages are beings that stand on both planes. Humans that have become part -spirit entity and have a solid anchor to the spirit realm. So spirits could bypass the Wall entirely and go through the stretch of emptiness- long route passing through the Abyss- with a Mages' help and find themselves in the material realm. Once there, they take up a form.

  Second Rule of Magic( Familiar Form Law) states that the transmigrated spirits would transform into a material form most closely related to their Name/ Title. This is because the different realm imposes the Law of nature and rationalization, and all phenomenon must conform to it. In doing so, spirits lose a portion of their prior identity or soul and become a bit less spirit and a bit more material. With some remnant of their soul, they are allowed a certain amount of time in the material realm, before nature realises that they do not make sense, and sends them back to where they came from.

  So If I summon a fireball, I'm calling the fire spirits across the realm and letting their Forms change to fire(closest to their name) and then commanding said fire because they still retain a diminished form of their soul. Yep. This information is probably completely useless though.

  But when the fireball spell ends, what happens to the spirits? They disappear because they don't belong in this realm. They are shunted back to the spirit realm where they belong.

  Exceptions to the rule: they continue to be fed a degree of Power that allows them to evade the watchful eye of Order. Suspended spell animation. Fireball remains there for as long as I want as long as I keep the magic flowing.

  Speaking of: What is Power?

  I don't know. My knowledge doesn't know. Lancaster might know more, but he's not going to tell me. Speaking of which, the fool's been snoring all night. It's seriously annoying.

  [?]Speculation here: Power is a form of magical energy? An energy that sustains the spirit in the spirit realm, not required by beings in the material realm. I really wonder how the jerk was capable of making an enchantment to measure it.

  Abilities.

  All spirits have Abilities. These Abilities are just things they can do by virtue of their Home. Yep, spirits have an equivalent for sanctuary. It's their Home for singular spirits or Territory for multiple spirits under a leader(king or god). Mages are technically spirits too, so we also have Abilities.

  Spells, Enchantments and the like.

  Communication with spirits made easy. Symbols and words that can be spoken to get their attention ( summon, invocate, etc) and commands to control them with promises, or gifts of Power to make them do as you say. The best method, still, is binding. Binding a spirit in a material object makes such an object an Enchantment (chants were used a lot in it's creation.). The laws behind this is creating a separate space in one's Sanctuary that now belongs to said object. Hence the object becomes a Mage(wtf??) and one that could continually cast the exact same spell over and over again as far as the spirit is bound in the same spot in the Sanctuary. This non-official Mage is able to receive a certain level of Power, and instantly utilizes that power on the spell, unless a diagram says otherwise. Oh, food for thought; enchanted items don't have Abilities for some reason.

  Living things could be enchanted as well. They don't get Abilities either. They become 'Lesser Mages' whose spirit form and sanctuary are tied to their master. A mage could also enchant himself, but that works a bit differently from spirit possession or Blightedness. More notes on [3].

  Diagrams when not used for communication, act as pathways for spirits to flow through. To guide them.

  In fact, these diagrams serve to complicate spells even more. Formations are one of these complications. Spells that cast spells. Some do so perpetually. Scary.... Rituals are also kind of like formations but just not as autonomous. Repeated actions must be done in the exact same manner to keep the spell going. Makes you wonder why the War of the Mages was called a ritual by Demon..

  What more is there?

  [1]~ The Ancient texts of magic are records of the best practical magic experiments conducted by the greatest Mages of the old days and their resulting findings. These 'Ancient' texts were periodically updated by modern mages. Generally, it was the accumulation of the magic research of the world, for centuries, passed down from generation to generation. Every up and coming Mage had a copy back then. But these grimoires didn't have secret magic(known otherwise as Arcane magic) which Mages kept to themselves and their families for power and status.

  Oh and, unrelated: there was a massacre. All those Old mages were killed. But the knowledge doesn't tell me how, or by who. I'm guessing it's some kind of organisation, because a single person couldn't possibly have done that. I'll have to prepare countermeasures for them, if they still exist.

  [2]~ A Rule or Law of magic is a phenomenon unanimously agreed as true by the Mage Council(they're dead). But in the particular context, A rule is a universal law agreed upon by the god of Order. The rules governing the realms are usually referred to as Laws. But it's the exact same word for the Mages' approved theory of magic. Funny, right?

  [3]~ It's done in two ways: firstly, by linking the entire Mage to the spirit, making it a 'slave familiar' secondly, by linking only a body part to a spirit. Making it a possessed part. Both are dangerous for different reasons. The slave familiar would try to possess you when it gains enough Power to do so. Measures could be taken to prevent that, but some spirits could screw you over with abilities that you don't understand and then possess you when you least expect it. Better to sign a contract with a spirit and make it a familiar the right way. The possesed part's danger....is self-explanatory. I mean if your arm is possessed you can't use it yourself, right? A good relationship with the spirit in question is a good fix to both of these problems. If that doesn't work, you could just bind them in a way that restricts them from trying to fight back. Like a bully.

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  Epilogue.

  In retrospect, even though I wanted to cram everything in, there's still so much I left out. Reason: I really don't think I can properly give good explanations for them. I mean, I'll investigate and find out for sure, before trying to put it down here. Why did I right this: future self should always update this thing, it's my greatest weapon. But I guess other Mages must've already formed their spellbooks too. But I plan on making this even better by incorporating the Spellbooks of Mages I defeat. Gives me an edge. Also, I always wanted to write a textbook.

  Peace and love,

  Jordan Elyas Middlesworth.