Vale of Wizards Magic System
A General Overview of System PhilosophyThere are three important parts to this magic system: Dreams, Essences and Qualities Each of the three types of magic is based on in of these concepts, although the concepts of Essences and Qualities are closely related. The Dragons created the world and now lie sleeping within it. Although the Dragons are asleep, they still interact with the world. Their sleeping minds perceive the whole of the world and what happens in it. The shared Dream of the sleeping Dragons is influenced by everything which happens in the world and in turn the thoughts of the Dragons can have profound effects on the material world. The whole of reality is held within the minds of the dragons. Within the minds of the Dragons also exists distilled representations of everything in the world. Each is the Essence of a 'perfect' thing, either material or a concept. The Dragons are themselves represented in their own thoughts by their Avatars, who form the principle deities of the world. They are the Essences of the Dragons. They are very powerful and it is possible to draw power from them and from other strong Essences. Priests channel power from an Essence by meditating on the nature of the Essence of their religion and by behaving in ways which make their own essence more like that of their deity. This allows them to channel power from the Essence they follow. Concious creatures do not have an Essence in the minds of the Dragons. This is because the minds of all concious creatures are part of the Dream, although very few are aware of it. Those who are aware can manipulate the Dream around them in order to affect the minds and perceptions of others. They can also send their minds out through the Dream to perceive creatures and events far away, or even in a different time. They are known as Dream-Weavers. The only other things which do not possess Essences are the direct creations and powerful servants of the Black Dragon and also the unnatural creations of Wizards, which do not have a natural Essence. Because these things did not come from the mind of the Dragons, they are difficult for Dream-Weavers and Priests to affect. The material world however is not made of pure Essences. The 'mixture' of varying amounts of Essences found in material objects is are descibed by alchemists as their 'Qualities'. By mixing and manipulating Qualities, alchemists can perform magic, although it is difficult and dangerous. The world was created when the original five Dragons spoke their True Names into the Void. Names have a great deal of power, because they can describe Qualities amd therefore take on that Quality themselves. All sentient creatures, some animals and special inanimate objects also have a unique Quality, embodied in their True Name. The words of all languages are capable of holding Quality. However, the more ancient and precise the language, the more quality the words will hold. The language in widest use for magic is the magic tongue of the Dwarfs, used excusively by magicans. The strongest magical language is that of Dragons. Therefore, there are three kind of magic-users:
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