《Foundations of Magic》


 Part 1: Energy, Systems, and Containment.

    In my travel through many hundreds of worlds, I came across an Ancient Necromancer who was willing to have a chat and share not only in knowledge, but fix my understanding of Magic.


    These are a transcription of those lessons:


    The first lesson any student of the art is ever taught or discovers is that they possess an energy that others do not. This energy, mana or magical power as you might understand it, is required of everything to remain in existence. Everything that exists is made of this energy, but it is in constant use to maintain that existence on the physical plane of space. How then is it possible to have ¡°extra¡± or ¡°more¡± than the minimum necessary to hold on to your existence?


    I suppose it can be from excess being trapped, back ground radiation, or consumption.


    In some cases it is due to the world they live on having an excess of very basic elements. A more detailed proposition is that the basic elements that makes up the structure of physical reality is more concentrated but not compounded on that world allowing the first steps to creating what becomes the fuel for greater structures. Like having more water than blood in the veins so to speak. In most cases, it has been discovered that the individual has a supplementary organ that is inherited from these earlier conditions that eases this collection and retention of these base elements.


    How are these greater structures involved? What structure or system of magic is most superior?


    In the Qi philosophy concerning this phenomenon they refer to this as a Dantian, and the meridians like a vascular structure. The Magus or Wizardry structures usually assume a more cross utilization of the different organs; brains, hearts, or more whole body containment. These two philosophies are both correct and incorrect. These structures are just the areas that over hundreds, thousands, millions, and billions of years in some cases that are created by an initial master to student process. Imagine a primal energy holder, no structure or training, manipulating something inside. Then eventually finds a way to operate it outside by moving it certain ways. You then have a Primal Magician of the Art.


    I don¡¯t quite understand, how can these Primal Magicians as you call them function without these foundations?


    On many primal or primitive worlds, this energy is typically used first not in Magic as far as the true art is concerned. They first instead use it for internal changes to give them an extra edge over others that compete with them to survive. As the races that acquire thisenergy advance, so too does their ability to capably use this energy outside of internal structures. It takes even longer to develop the closest thing to the art, where the weights and measure of the energy come into play.


    So they use brute force applications of power to operate before they can even start using a structure, like a claw or a tooth nothing more. Then they make it into something more?


    Exactly, where the art is concerned, energy is energy. Call it whatever you please but that doesn¡¯t change what it fundamentally is in practice. Whether it is cultivated or consumed from the outside, everything runs on energy at the base level.


    So the best system is whichever holds or generates the most energy?


    It does not particularly matter one way or another which system is used. All the structures use the same basic components of energy, no matter how much the partisans like to argue about it.


    So how do these systems come into existence then?


    Back to our primal magician for the moment; they can hold and move this energy around but how do they regain it after spending it? In some cases there is an external abundance of the energy available to them. In most however, it takes some energy to make more energy. There is energy in every particle of matter, we break these things down to get energy. This is true in both systems, whether it be breakthroughs of cultivations or levels of mana capacity. Eventually this leads to a crossroads in development; some will continue this legacy of internal-to-external magic and others develop purely external systems that you might know better as Alchemy.


    Then you could break down any source of physical matter to gain energy?


    Generating raw energy is difficult. You are breaking down structures of existence down into the most basic parts, which if you have ever manually isolated a single particle of water, broken it down into its constituent particles, then tried to break those particles down another two layers you can understand the difficulty of that generation.


    The easiest way to break them down is start with those pure particles from the first breakdown. Taking the smallest two particles and sublimating them together slowly under pressure of mana you already have to break them. This structure lets you generate mana indefinitely provided you maintain a minimum threshold. This method can be used on more complex substances but takes considerably longer the bigger and more complex the source and requires a bigger pool to draw from.


    Sounds kind of like the forces of chaos rending the world asunder to gain power rather than Mana regen.


    Speaking of the partisan crowd of systems, the measure of energy is also so vastly different between every structure I¡¯ve encountered. The mess it makes in cross comparison of raw power becomes almost impossible. Of course this is due to the trappings of the earliest magicians. The measure is usually very crude, making a flame, light, or some other minor manifestation either directly or through an apparatus of some kind. This is made doubly worse when applied to the calculation of energy required for a manifestation or spell.


    So kind of hard to really say who even is stronger between a cultivator and a wizard?


    The only hard solution to this problem requires a very advanced internal analysis system or the most primitive means for absolute accuracy. Judge a magic system not on its effects, spells, or performance; but on its measurements. Like drawing a line with a ruler compared to a systematic layering of graphite with a controlled algorithm; when the scope of the system increases so does its efficiency. As magic advances on most worlds, the base amount of primal energy decreases steadily overtime. This forces the adaptation towards systems that generate it.


    So as more mages come along using the easy mana, how do you even measure the pool of mana someone has then?The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Speaking of pools, the most accurate system for rudimentary power measurement requires three things; a complete drain of energy, consistent external holding vessels, and a regeneration blockage. You start the process by temporarily blocking the recovery system for mana, then drain the tester¡¯s mana completely into a fixed vessel. The energy dissipates or, if your container is good enough, condenses to a more stable form at a consistent rate that is measurable. The less base energy you have, the faster the mana condenses completely. Larger amounts of mana can condense quickly, but not all of it.


    I can barely make sense of that.


    Like freezing water, you might have a layer of ice, but the lake isn¡¯t frozen all the way through that fast compared to a puddle in the road.


    One also is a lot easier to step on and break.


    This is why growing your structures to hold energy are vital to growth as a practitioner of the art. Efficient spells and minimalism can only go so far, you¡¯re not going to boil water with less than 373.15 base units of energy. Yes I am aware about the air pressure and removing air pressure requires even more energy than that so don¡¯t waste the effort arguing it. As a rule it costs more to remove something by force than it does to encourage it on its own.


    Path of least resistance, got it. So how do you go from kiddie pool to a small lake?


    There are two main practices for increasing the energy resources you have as a practitioner, increased size or number of containers. In the beginning, increasing size is easier than building more containers. As you start needing more and more volume, more containers beats out larger ones just from pure stability concerns. The best structure I¡¯ve seen for energy containment is a sphere, most elementary practitioners start with a cube or triangle formation with most masters of the art being twenty or more sided figures.


    What exactly is your internal container for energy?


    As I¡¯ve said base mana, is tiny, we move and store it not too differently than our fingers holding water. Using larger structures to influence smaller ones, which then in turn influence tiny ones. It starts with using a lot of the base elements and forcing them into a particular shape and making it stay that way. This is why the novice typically has a master guide their initial containers formation and learns the solidifying process.


    So you get to cheat basically if your teacher makes the bucket for mana instead of you?


    It takes ten thousand units to hold a million units of useable mana, but this efficiency goes down significantly as the structure grows larger. This is even more important when the formation structure isn¡¯t efficient like a sphere.


    So to solidify our hold on mana, we need to have the ability to manipulate at a minimum 5 units of mana. This is just to be able to form a pyramid out of 4 to hold 1 unit. To build more containers we need more on the order of 12 to create a networked hive that we might see in fungus that aggregately collects mana such as the crystals made in caves or pocket dimensions for mana refineries. To actually use external magic, we need trillions of base units to do anything more than a static shock level of external influence with mana.


    I think I¡¯m getting lost again, you¡¯re talking about very small numbers and fucking huge ones at the same time?


    That is of course, talking about base units. When we condense mana into compound structures it makes it much easier to manipulate. It becomes easier still when we utilize external structures holding these base units reducing drastically the amount of our own energy needed to perform a task.


    So when you ¡°use¡± magic we¡¯re building these compounds and manipulating them?


    These compounds are the basis for manipulating the mana, package them correctly and it does something when you string them together for release.


    So this packaging determines the type of magic, like fire spells or whatever?


    That leads us to the unfortunate misconception about there being different ¡°types¡± of mana or ¡°affinities¡± which is such a poorly understood phenomenon that it warrants correction. Going back to our primal magicians, they started with primitive structures, the smallest structure that can hold a single unit of mana requires 4 units just to hold it. As you start learning to manipulate it more, wedging it between larger natural structures of the body you can start creating a repository and grow a structure of mana further with ease.


    So plugging the gaps of the bricks to keep the cold out so to speak? You¡¯re saying there are a lot of different structures though, what¡¯s the difference?


    These most basic of structures lend themselves towards certain larger structures. The simplest of which, requires strands that can trap and filter the creation of more base components that won¡¯t collapse or break. Triangular and prismatic are stable and easy to grow on structures. Mana is like string, some string favors tight knots, but big enough strings become ropes that are not as flexible in how you tie them.


    So what¡¯s the deal with magic schools or specializations?


    As time goes on, some enterprising mages figured out they could skip the bases and form the entire base structures themselves. Leading to what most refer to as schools or types of mana today. This builds whole structures of base compounds together, as well as change the speed and efficiency of spells. A prime example of this is the ritual of ¡°magic words¡± and movements, these behaviors were designed to change the refined mana¡¯s orientation and positions internally making it easier to execute more naturally.


    So how does that explain specializations?


    Just like with the rituals getting easier as the structures developed to make them in the first place, this leads to entire structure types being more common in particular individuals over others. When all your ancestors practice nothing but squares it¡¯s pretty likely you¡¯re going to be working towards cubes as you advance in the art. What that does not mean, is that you are locked in to only making squares. Like an old broken house, you just need to tear down those inherited structures and build from an external process long enough to put a new system in place.


    So why bother changing the structure? Wouldn¡¯t you have to start all over again to do that?


    As you start reaching different thresholds of capacity this becomes easier. When you need to make a second container as an example. It is fairly trivial to add a facing taking a cube or pyramid into a diamond¡¯s shape, then a diamond into something even more until you reach a sphere.


    So Sir Mix-a-lot was right, big and round is best?


    While I would not suggest or impose upon anyone the requirement that their structure be a sphere to be considered at the pinnacle of the art; not having reached the sphere structure in a container is a fairly solid indicator that they have not truly mastered the art.


    That sounds fairly non-commital.


    When you¡¯re a necromancer it pays to stay out of politics and their reaches.


    So let me be sure I got this:


    Energy is Mana, and all mater built off of said energy. Doesn¡¯t matter the flavor since it¡¯s all the same pool more or less?


    Correct, though I would caution mixing the compounds directly, they can sometimes react poorly.


    Fair enough, the different magic systems are just how the energy is stored and unpackaged?


    The biggest fundamental difference is the packaging and where it gets unpackaged, subtle but critically important for successful execution.


    Then it¡¯s just a matter of wrapping paper and round vs rectangles for the box of mana?


    If you can figure out how to perfectly wrap paper over a sphere without excess sticking out it shouldn¡¯t be too difficult to form a master vessel of mana.


    So then how do I package it and make it go boom?


    Well it starts first with where you want it to go boom.


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    So that covers the basic synopsis on Mana and Energy systems and how they functionally work, Next chapter is going to be focused around spells, formations, and the use of magic in the general sense.


    Do let me know in the comments if this doesn''t make sense or if you need to scree about the content and if you have your own correction of the Necromancer''s understanding of magic.

 Part 2: Spells, Ritualization, and Practicing Magic

    So then how do I work the magic then so to speak? I would like to make something explode at least once with magic.


    You technically already can, with an external fuel source and a static shock you could make the right pre-existing compound combust.


    That isn¡¯t really ¡°Magic¡± though, not exactly the snap your fingers and boom blow up whatever you want.


    Snapping your fingers to set off an explosion seems a rather inefficient means to release enough energy to start a reaction. It¡¯s far better to build your explosion to go off the moment you start building the energy structure at your target.


    See that¡¯s what I¡¯m talking about, so how do you do it?


    Let¡¯s not get ahead of ourselves here, let¡¯s start from the beginning. As I explained before, you first start with the same process and building your energy container. From that container you structure some energy around a form that is slightly large, the condensed energy if structured correctly can influence the physical particles around it much easier. This is the basic foundation for spells, form is function, some structures will react to one form but not another.


    So it¡¯s a free form puzzle to cause any particular reaction?


    To initiate the foundations of primal magic at least. As the foundation you have for building spells advances, complexity increases, and less restrictions on what you can do with the raw amount of power at your disposal. When the structure of your spells reaches an advanced stage where you can by will alone alter reality you achieve the pinnacle of magic in the mortal capacity.


    That¡¯s it? Just think it and it happens is as far as magic can go?


    Oh no, Magic can go infinitely, but a mortal practitioner cannot advance beyond the threshold of their own mind. To expand from that coil, you must change yourself, and that means you walk the path of Divine level casting; that is for a much later discussion however.


    So you¡¯re telling me once you stop needing to even use your own will to use magic, its godhood?


    Like I said, later. Back to Spells, so far as I¡¯ve mentioned you manipulate your mana into structures that can affect other things yes?


    Yes, and how you build them affects the interaction.


    Good you understand. Let¡¯s start with the simple structures, like with mana containers, the structure changes how it interacts with things. While you know that spheres are the most efficient storage of mana as a vessel; what shape do you think is best form for forcing basic elements of mana together?


    Make two bricks and smash them together?


    Crude, functional, but not the best. Pyramids, of the three sided variety, give you the strongest impact when pressing base matter together. At the tip of each you place an extension strand of energy and force them to collide. You can have as few as 4 of these for your compression structure to a bit over a few hundred and still work efficiently. After exceeding 150 base units in compression it is highly unstable and tends to deteriorate quickly.


    So how do you get that to hold together in the first place?


    Like the mana vessel, you create it manually with much larger, and less precise particles. The primal magicians would have to manually create every part of a spell from scratch, each piece of energy molded by direct interference. Imagine trying to build a sand castle one grain at a time, using chopsticks while wearing oven mitts; and the sand is dry sand. After this discussion I¡¯ll let you try it on your own directly. Once you have a few of these compressed structures, it¡¯s time to build something out of it.


    Who would even try that? You would have to have an insane amount of time and mana to eventually complete a single spell.


    One advantage these primal magicians had was so much raw energy they could physically touch it, piles and clouds of the stuff everywhere in existence. Some also had access to already compressed materials, not quite matter, but also not so volatile to destroy everything it touches. I was lucky in that regard, my origin world had pools of composite matter and an abundance of raw energy.


    So if your world doesn¡¯t have this stuff can you even become a magician? Then how can I use it?


    I never said that, anyone can become a magician; if they have the right resources. You will find that mages all eventually travel, if not to tour all existence, then to find easier access to resources. I am here now specifically to gather the information of all your history and a few of the denser parts of your star before I leave.


    Wait what?


    We¡¯ve gotten very off track, back to spells. So when you have the base compounds, you use them to influence the big particles of matter. You can break them down into more base matter, change them into different ones, or simply change how they move. Do any of those three things and that is functionally a spell.


    Hold on, you plan on taking out parts of a STAR?


    Stars hold the largest collection of raw materials, the denser that material the easier it is to break it down into whatever you want. If stars don¡¯t get harvested and replenished with less dense material periodically they explode. Now can we talk about spells or are you more interested in the universe¡¯s equivalent of a berry bush in the woods.


    Spells please, I don¡¯t think I can contemplate the gravity of what you just said at the moment.


    To continue then, all spells have this as a basis, though you are more interested in how to scale this process up a bit. Let¡¯s take a simple example, say I want to make a rudimentary explosion to use your predilection. What is the easiest way that I said earlier to make an explosion?


    Use something that already is explosive?


    Quite right, so we move some particles together and using our energy compound as a vessel to keep it together long enough to have another compound either compress or combine the particles. Once we reach a certain density or combine the particles into a new compound, we can detonate it. Agitate them with enough energy so that when we release the pressure, the particles scatter violently.Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    That seems more like an air blast than an explosion to me.


    Taking it a step further, what if the particles start combining with the particles we didn¡¯t influence directly, and a purely chemical reaction occurs? Like all the nitrogen in your atmosphere is perfect, compound it correctly and it will naturally ignite. If you really wanted, you could have your compounds combine after releasing the nitrogen into actual matter and accelerate and increase your effective power at the cost of the base material you used.


    Now that sounds like the kind of power I¡¯d expect from a fireball!


    It¡¯s crude but simple enough for a non-magic user, even a decent alchemist could accomplish the same thing. The real art in my use of magic is much more powerful. Why use an explosion when I can unmake whatever I want and harvest its entire raw energy or material for my own needs? I have yet to meet a single evocation specialist who can argue that point without trying to make me explode.


    I think you lack the perspective of enjoying simpler pleasures, like fireworks.


    I don¡¯t argue the entertainment value of the different ways to use the art, but their effectiveness for a task. Now how do you suppose you make sure the explosion happens where you want rather than blow yourself up?


    Move your little compounds with a really long stick of a different compound?


    For some crude early magic, yes, that¡¯s basically how it was done. Then someone figured out if you made a shell of mana around your spell you could just throw it more or less where ever you wanted. Projectile casting is old, but still used in some cases but far more advanced from the old days of triggering a spell and throwing at something hoping it works.


    So what is the most advanced method of spell delivery available?


    For mortal level spell casting? Self-Directed space tunneling completion. You create a spell that tears space towards a non-physical location, then back into the physical location of your target location as the spell activates. Makes your energy unstoppable and undetectable as to its origin.


    You make it sound easier than it probably is.


    It¡¯s only difficult when you don¡¯t understand how it functions, that should give you a basic understanding of spell creation and delivery. Now let¡¯s talk about making it a bit more complex and efficient. Using that explosion spell, what if we could use the same compounds for that spell over and over again? Even better, linked them together to speed up the completion process and gave them a means to reach the target more consistently? Doing all this while not having to manually rebuild the structures over and over again.


    Spells to make a spell?


    Correct, this is what rituals do for casting a spell. Worlds that have gods or governing forces strong enough will shove these rituals into people they are cultivating to harvest energy from, or if they are bored and want to watch mortals play with the fire stolen from heaven kind of deal. Magic structures for the creation of even stronger magic is ritualization of magic. From these structures, the specializations of magic were created.


    So potentially, you could create a structure to cast a particular spell, and anyone could use that structure? Isn¡¯t that really dangerous giving someone power to blow shit up basically at will?


    Yes, giving someone the gift of power that magic represents is extremely dangerous. I¡¯ve watched empires grow and die because of it. Power corrupts and no empire lasts forever if new growth isn¡¯t maintained. As an example early ritual structures might not work on a given world anymore if they are not adjusted after time goes on; either from lower aggregate amounts of base energy like we talked about before, worlds can dry up those base resources very quickly.


    Magicians who learn to transplant these systems rarely last long enough to extend their lifetime to the point that they can stick around to solve these problems. Most are killed for their knowledge, usurpers come to try and coerce this power, or they die in service to the powers that be. Your value as an individual changes very rapidly when you can destroy a city or a person just by deciding you want them dead. This is what has led to ¡°witch hunts¡± as you know them, across an untold number of worlds.


    So it¡¯s not all power and glory when you become a magician then I¡¯d imagine?


    Oh it is very much so power, but your measure of power is limited by your energy and creativity in using it. You don¡¯t need to destroy for power either, creation is much more practical of a commodity for most magicians. It¡¯s why alchemy is your world¡¯s foremost form of progress.


    So I¡¯ve taught you the basis for energy to use magic and how to put it together, but not all of what you should not do.


    Is there some kind of rule or big bad that eats wizards who don¡¯t follow the rules or something?


    No, but attracting undue attention and flaunting those stronger than you isn¡¯t a good idea. Like if you travel to a world with the structures of a god scattered everywhere looking for things that don¡¯t belong there you may quickly find yourself in trouble for trespassing. So having some relatively standard practices in place is important for surviving encounters with other powers.


    So what are these practices?


    The first thing to know is how to know if there is energy compounds around. The first way to tell is if there is little to no basic energy in the environment, gods and the powers that act like them have usually picked clean worlds they control of this so new primal mages don¡¯t enter their world. In place of it they have compound structures that mimic it and detect non-standardized mana.


    So how can I hide from a world covered in detection devices?


    The first step is making sure none of the detection devices can get inside you. To do that, you need to form a layer around every part of you so the compounds can¡¯t collide or detect anything non-standard. This gives you some time to trap some of the native compound structures where they can¡¯t signal an alarm or destroy you. Once you have identified the base compound they supply to the locals if any, you can mimic it to avoid detection, adjusting your spells to convert it as you do your own casting.


    So there¡¯s no easy way for them to really know I¡¯m there or have been on any given world?


    This is first line of defense levels of going to a new place as a foreign magician. You also need to know how to enter and exit them safely, how to identify at a reasonable distance safe and hostile places. The safest way to enter a foreign world is with regular traffic, with as little disturbance as possible. Worlds without regular inter-world traffic need to be scrutinized very carefully for the local conditions, preferably within range for your fastest emergency exit spell.


    This is all very useful but how does this affect the actual practicing of magic?


    I¡¯m getting off topic again, the reason you form that barrier in the first place isn¡¯t only so you can go undetected, but so that if you fuck something up it is less likely to kill you in the process; or kill others if you make something self-replicating that eats you alive from the inside out. This is why magic can be so dangerous, entire worlds have been subsumed by negligence.


    So the second important practice is when building a new ritual or spell is to contain what and where it can effect things. You should know from your own science education standards that testing requires controlled conditions. So you don¡¯t burn your planet¡¯s atmosphere to nothing when experimenting with nitrogen affecting spell compounds as a mild example.


    Additionally maintain a record of what you have done, so that if anything happens someone has a chance of fixing it and your progress isn¡¯t for nothing should you decide to die.


    I understand magic is powerful but choosing when I die?


    I can assure you as a necromancer, everyone chooses their death or struggles in vain to prevent it. This is doubly so when you have the power available to really act on it. I¡¯m not here to debate the philosophy behind it but that¡¯s an observation I¡¯ve found after more time in existence than some stars.


    Let¡¯s recap to make sure I¡¯m not missing anything about spells or how they work.


    -We build structures that affect the world around us with mana, that¡¯s the function of a spell.


    -Building a structure that creates a structure is the ritualization of a spell.


    -Don¡¯t experiment with magic in a way that could kill you and be sure to record what you experiment on so it can be fixed if it kills you


    -Don¡¯t travel to other worlds without some safety precautions in place


    That everything?


    Well it¡¯s not everything but enough to satisfy enough curiosity and warn the foolish hopefully. So now that you understand how magic is performed, it¡¯s time to have you experiment. Afterward we will talk more about the theory and schools associated with magic that I am familiar with, and the role prefabricated systems play in the practice of magic.


    Sounds fun, let¡¯s get started.

 Part 3: Fabricated Systems, Schools of Magic, and Magic Community

    Before we continue your education of magic let¡¯s define what this process of teaching you magic is about.


    I¡¯m listening.


    As you know I am a Necromancer, but what does that term mean?


    You use death oriented magic? Raise the undead and control the power of life and death?


    The first part yes, the rest not especially. Having to explain this to you in your own language is difficult enough as it is, but it might help if you understand what the Mancer of Necromancer actually means.


    I¡¯ve never really thought about that before, what is it?


    Mancer or Manteia means ¡°To divine by¡± a particular methodology. I study and refine the knowledge of magic through the concept of death. You learned earlier that the structures we build are made of mana, fueled and composed of base energy compounded into a form with a purpose. What happens to those structures when the base energy is then used but the form of the physical components remains?


    It stops working, no power, no spell right?


    Yes, but what about the vessel? The form of it still remains just without power. If left alone what do you think happens?


    I don¡¯t know, breaks apart, returns to the void as base energy?


    It does not decay, it stays there, possibly forever if the structure is stable enough. My particular subject of focus is the breaking down of substances to their raw energy. Can I resurrect the corpses of the fallen into stronger creatures than the host? Certainly I can, but why do so? Unless you can get the electrical pattern of their minds fast enough before they decompose so badly that it can¡¯t be restored. I can understand the psychological impact of using the dead and the complex structures just looking for a control mechanism readily available. That is only really useful for individuals with less power and limited resources available.


    So there isn¡¯t really a purity test for what the term Necromancer entails?


    This has to do more with the magic using community, but there is one major qualification for calling someone a necromancer; their research of magic comes from death. In one sense we are the historians of magic more than any other. All the magic systems, schools of thought or practice, and ways of understanding how magic works that are studied fall to necromancers to classify and restore.


    In another sense we research how death affects magic and vice versa. Most healing spells came from the different disciplines of necromancy, with some alchemists and experimenters doing the rest. At the same time necromancy has created the most destructive and terrifying spells known. I could detail countless details of the achievements of others, but that doesn¡¯t help you understand why it is so important.


    No, it doesn¡¯t and sounds more like a sales pitch for necromancy.


    Proximity is its own influence, you are being taught by a necromancer, and how you learn about magic affects a lot of your initial path of advancement in magic. Your personal character and personality also shape what you will eventually focus on for study. Your interest in explosions would suggest evocation, but your pattern in this discussion thus far suggests you would not be suited to the purely experimental and less assured manner of study that an evocationist must pursue.


    Fair enough, especially the amount of structure and control it requires to not blow yourself up.


    Be glad I formed the barrier before you cast the spell, though it did detonate rather nicely in the end.


    So you¡¯ve had your pitch for Necromancy, what about the others?


    Evocation is principally the study of how particles interact with each other; usually violently. Illusionists mostly deal with psychology and how to alter perceptions; do not scorn an illusionist you will regret it. Diviners study how energy works beyond the physical existence, they also study patterns and mechanics.  Abjuration is a relatively new field studying magical defense and magical combat systems mostly, they typically see themselves as law and order for magicians. Enchanter¡¯s build systems from actual material that reinforces the mana structure they place into things, be it objects or people in some cases. Conjurors and Creationists build and change things out of raw energy, making their will literally manifest in reality. There are plenty of others, the rest are either not important or noteworthy enough to be their own discipline being relegated to the term Experimenters.


    A lot of this varies between the different cabals of magicians you can find here and other parts of existence. Very politically contentious in most cases as well.


    So there are institutions of magic out there in the universe?


    Yes, but most of them are the result of Fabricated magic systems, more military academy than centers of knowledge.


    What is so bad about these fabricated systems? I¡¯d imagine it makes life easier for people in general.


    In some cases, where the populace is all capable of performing it can. Out of a few billion worlds I¡¯ve seen maybe a handful of them that unify under their magic so peacefully. Fabricated systems just increase the overall body count or force a suppression of those who can¡¯t defeat a magician. It gives power to people who usually don¡¯t earn it.  Though it¡¯s only really something you find on a god¡¯s garden world, everything on it is a source of power and livestock to fuel their needs.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Fuel? Why would they need that?


    I¡¯ll explain it more fully when I explain the divinities and outer planes of reality later. Remember, energy stays constant across all realities, when you build structures that react to your manipulation you retain that control when it crosses the boundary as well. You can see how they can pull the resources from one plane to another with this concept?


    So they give you cool shit for the ability to bring it to the other side so to speak?


    More, they have it embed itself into your entire energy structure, so when you decay all of that energy is released. Some are kinder and gentler about it, but most rip everything out, rendering you a resource engine in the existence they occupy. This is why fabricated systems are dangerous, they sap the motive to learning the true art of magic. Some prevent you from ever doing so without outside help.


    Makes the politics of magic a bit more strained with gods and mortal magic doesn¡¯t it.


    To put it lightly, yes.  It also plays a big factor in the schools of thought concerning magic. Most gods ascended to another plane before really taking enough time to develop strong mortal magic or were too focused on one particular kind over another. This means acquiring magic rituals they can copy is extremely valuable, imagine trading a god a spell ritual, or a packaged set of rituals to use for their fabrication system. This is what many organizations of magicians have done, and extracting the kind of favors and rewards for doing so from a divine level power is very lucrative.


    Magic arms dealers to low level gods? What exactly could they even give you for that?


    Remember how most worlds don¡¯t have a lot of base energy or raw particles for easy use? God¡¯s are operating in other planes where there is plenty of those raw particles, not limited by space or time, and not subject to the rules of physical existence. They can build pockets of new physical realities. Jam them full of energy and non-physical resources and trade the access to them for services. The constraints of the physical can¡¯t be crossed without significant expenditures of energy, and getting back to the physical is even worse which; which has caused some accidental ascensions.


    So it creates a mutual benefit, trading guns for ammunition.


    High level magical trade is part of how worlds get consumed, fought over, and destroyed. From competing gods to magical syndicates of research and development, it¡¯s very similar to just about any other kind of conflict. Outside of a purely social group magician¡¯s trade in resources, power, information, or services just like everything else in the physical realms. This is of course talking about magicians who can travel between worlds. World bound magicians are typically left alone or bartered with for information rather than materials.


    I can imagine some trying to abuse their lack of power or insights to a much larger community being more common.


    A world bound magician is not to be underestimated, just because they have not traveled or made themselves part of the greater universe does not mean they can¡¯t defend their worlds. They have a vast home field advantage and typically carry an attitude of superiority since they live for very long periods of time if they are good at using magic.


    Not to mention the fact they could be prepping the world for their ascension to godhood and spreading around those defensive structures everywhere.


    Now you understand the kind of power a mage with a full world¡¯s worth of power all on their own. It is very easy to destroy another mage caught unprepared or careless enough to ignore the danger. World bound magicians also have disadvantages, mostly in the level of knowledge they possess, most will typically be receptive of outsider mages if they think you can teach something.


    Hence the trading for knowledge, what about the traveling mages? How do they live and interact with each other?


    Travelers like myself are usually all out collecting something, be it material or knowledge. Knowledge has value if you monopolize it, but it doesn¡¯t get you a planet¡¯s worth of material if you don¡¯t share some of it. Also just the freedom to rest peacefully on a planet for the cost of some information isn¡¯t a high price. Everything I¡¯ve taught you is more or less common at a traveler¡¯s level of information, barring some of the tricks and specific spell constructions.


    Is it common for travelers to stay in one place as long as you have here?


    I¡¯ve lingered here only long enough to teach you and pick up all the information your people give freely. I also traded for some that was not, time is even more valuable to some immortals like myself. Every second as precious as the last, we can still die if we do not maintain ourselves and let negligence destroy us otherwise.


    So everything comes down to self-preservation in your condition? No greater collective you ultimately belong to or hold important?


    Every magician walks a lonesome path, if you let your skills become power, it corrupts everyone else around you in an attempt to take your place in the divide of power. No group of magicians has lasted long enough past a certain size largely due to this innate power hierarchy. The best magician isn¡¯t always the best leader, nor would a normally good leader want the trouble of followers that can erase their existence without resistance. We typically come together for tasks or interests only and with a heathy dose of mutual respect since we can all kill each other with equal chances of dying in the process.


    So are there no large collectives of magicians anywhere?


    How large is large?


    A city? A town¡¯s worth?


    The difficulties of having a large concentration of magicians anywhere is the danger of that much energy all in one place attracting the attention of things in the non-physical. There are cults and the like who do this intentionally, but it¡¯s like a beacon. If you have too much raw base energy in one place it can cause trouble. This is why pre-fabricated systems are so important for large scale magical combat.


    So learning through a prefabricated system is safer but limited by the system, unlike magicians who construct everything from scratch. How do travelers keep in touch remotely then?


    There are many fabricated networks of communication available, even your telephone and internet systems are not hard or the first such systems to exist. Just because magicians don¡¯t base their magic in fabricated systems doesn¡¯t mean we can¡¯t use them to our advantage. There are far stronger methods of communication available but sometimes simplicity serves better.


    So there¡¯s a lot of ways to talk but you still have collapsing power structures?


    The natural mental state of people inclined towards magic is much more likely to be isolated and mentally focused on task rather than social or in some cases biological priorities. It is also very difficult to get any kind of psychometric data on a population as spread and reclusive as magicians.


    Makes sense, so when are we planning on leaving?


    I plan on leaving once you are trained enough to handle traveling, and send you through your first tear into a new place. Its far better you learn on your own at this point as it is, but your navigation skills are naturally pretty good as you are. You don¡¯t get lost, and can imagine space conceptually very well, making you a natural talent for traveling to different places.


    Wait your planning to send me to a random world somewhere alone and just let me go?


    Every student has to learn to be independent, I just kick start it a bit earlier than most. Speaking of which, let us see how well you¡¯ve practiced your emergency survival ritual.


    Oh SHIT!

 The Necromancers musings and history.

    Since the mortal is taking his sweet time returning, I must take it upon myself to further his recording of my history and the knowledge I intend to impart before leaving your world. To address some questions and take care of a general misunderstanding about spells and rituals. You have to remember the more general a task you have to complete, the more ways you have to solve it. Like putting out a fire, or throwing a rock, some ways are easier than others or require special circumstances. Like a Grease fire or needing the rock to go a particular distance or speed. Defining the parameters is key in a spell, Rituals are more variable.


    Ritualization is like a mold, spells are clay, you can shape a spell any way you want to, and molds are pretty cut and dry once formed. Some molds are still flexible, letting them be altered to some degree but you can¡¯t change too much without needing to completely recreate it. You can put different qualities into a ritual that a spell would have to be remade completely to do. It is a crutch until you are skilled enough to make spells on the fly fast enough and powerful enough to do the same as a ritual or far exceed it.


    Related to that, I¡¯d like to take a moment to dispel any great lingering questions about other planes and divinity. The other planes do not operate on our rules of reality, time does not exist naturally in some of them, and they are outside the scope of it, to leave or return to and from some of them requires very strong time and space manipulation. So strong in fact you nearly have to build a demi-plane of space time around yourself just to be there in the first place. Other planes are not material in any sense of the word. There is only energy and structures of particular kinds.


    There is however a very real heaven and hell in a cascading band of ranges, it¡¯s about structures of the soul and the way you have built your own mind. Your end destination is very much so your own making and that should scare you far more than you can initially imagine. If anything, avoid death as much as possible, it¡¯s both boring and in most cases worse than you might hope.


    Hopefully that will generate more questions to answer, but since you seem so enamored with the author and myself I intend to give you plenty to think about. I have existed longer than your star has burned. I¡¯ve watched your world in my idle collection of the resources I harvest from it every few thousand years. I know your entire history beyond the first scattered prisoners abandoned to this undeveloped and barren prison you call your home.


    Make no error here, you are the descendants of the native primal creatures of this world and the castaways, exiled, and prisoners of worlds far beyond your reach. Which says more of your reach and less on why you have developed so slowly. It is deliberate and purposeful that it has taken you a few thousand generations to reach where you are; you are not alone and you are being watched albeit passive and lazily.


    I suspect you will be reset again if you get too ambitious in your hunger, zealous in your wrath, and spiteful of your neighboring stars. Worst case, you become another Mars.


    As for my history, my origins are from a fair sized world, the primal mages had a systemic cult of ritual slave mages. The practice was, that ritual mages were owned by a respective master primal or true magician. My master was a necromancer with a specialization in healing. My first task was to perform three rituals; restraint, stabilization, and analysis. I worked in the hall we were kept in for some rough equivalent of 90 in your years. I was then responsible for treatment, supervising training other acolytes that came after me for longer than you can readily conceive of. Finally I was then taken by our master and trained as an adept, on the pretense I was being executed for incompetence I was killed then resurrected to be taught how to kill others. Then how to resurrect more in a pyramid scheme of assasins.


    Every necromancer must experience death in order to really use their power to the fullest. You do not understand how dying affects things until you have died. You start getting very creative when you are motivated by vengeance on your own master. The system is designed such that you are given a false master made of failed ascendants, if you fail to kill the false master, you become one, no more than a puppet in the game of breeding far greater powers. Once you kill a false master, you revive him to train other potentials and are given the right to create your own hall. This was how it was done for necromancers on my world, but the principle remained the same for other disciplines. It was about overcoming a master¡¯s creation with your own. Then it becomes about how many masters you have developed and their quality of skill.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    Around the time I created my own hall, we had started to finally have an awareness of powers not far from our space, and big enough in size to be a threat. Something I learned from this time period is that you have nothing to really fear from things more than twice your size, you are beneath their notice if you do nothing to attract their attention. It is the smaller more volatile things you have to be careful of when dealing with outsiders.


    First it was trade and diplomacy learning of the empire on our doorstep. Then it was some hunting and skirmishing testing their mettle while siphoning resources from the deep well of power they had from harnessing stars.


    By the time the civilization started collapsing under its own weight the first time, or in some of our historical records the third time. I had trained five true masters with their own halls, ten more ascendants holding their own mastery in my halls, and a good thirty or so initiates that oversaw one hundred fresh acolytes to the path. I was only about six hundred at the time and things were going well for most of us.


    I decided to hand over my halls to my trained masters and left my home to explore the larger neighboring empire that had a bit under a hundred stars in their control at the time. I worked mainly as an assassin with a front as a student of healing at the great library of the capital star system. Over time I began to see more work as an assassin than my front as a student would allow, forcing me to learn a lot about planetary security and defensive systems. I eventually had enough power and favors to develop a new training hall on a small asteroid off one of the prime world¡¯s moons.


    I was researching methods to kill my targets with things around them at the time, and had acquired an acolyte who formerly studied illusion magic. He posited a solution, if you kill someone with a knife, people look for who held it not the knife itself. So I started experimenting with using servants and people close to the target to kill them. It took a few tries to make it work, then I ran into the problem your police forces figured out in only a few generations is that people can be coerced or forced to kill others. Your history of poisoning each other alone is worth study in detail on this subject.


    After a few hundred more years we had developed a pretty sustained system in the empire. Since we had basically learned more or less how to resurrect people at this point, we¡¯d kill someone, charge their family or estate to resurrect them, and if they couldn¡¯t pay they were rebuilt, enslaved, and sold off for public labor pool projects. Then after a few thousand years of this scam, we started seeing assassination requests for a death without the possibility of resurrection. This is where I had to really start looking at the divine and messing with targets soul and mind. It is also ultimately what lead to the cascade failure of all the surrounding worlds.


    There is a special feeling in fully killing someone who is supposed to be immortal and the fear of mortality causes people to make some very rash decisions. The empire started collapsing because of it, with the lack of anything to keep things together rather than stick around for the creation of a new civilization and the stamping out of my hall of assassins, I left.


    Ever since I have started wandering, a black star and omen of the times in the wake of my passing to some, a sign of prosperity and bright futures for others. There is no true place of rest in the universe, you can only sustain a perfect place in stagnation, to retain immortality you must never stop your growth or cause it to be maligned. The disease you know as cancer is in most cases a skewed growth, a negative mutation and relic of genetics. It won¡¯t be long until you find that it can be screened out almost completely genetically. The first artificially enhanced genetics are already being tested, it may take a good 40 years for you to realize it in these genetic experiments but afterwards there likely won¡¯t be many naturally born humans left on your world. These small bits of wisdom and prediction are some of the great hope and calamity I bring. Which leads me to why I am here.


    The unfortunate author caught my attention by showing rudimentary signs of being an inheritor of my first school, most likely one of my first students was caught and broken, then cast away to your world to live a short and bitter end. He is suited to Necromancy in its purist form, and I am not one to discourage growth of a kindred magician that I taught generations ago.


    So tell me, Reader, is your curiosity and interest high enough to speak with me before we watch the struggles of the author and the place he has been cast out to?

 The Harvest of a Star; Cast into Darkness: The End of the Beginning

    As we come on two years dear reader, the harvesting of the fused elements buried within your star are almost complete. My apprentice is not dead but still no closer to returning than when he started on his forced little venture into the unknown. As my time here comes to a close I suppose giving you a bit of context on why I harvest stars will keep you occupied. I can functionally do the same process to create the elements in a more direct fashion given my clear power to reconstruct matter on a quantum level beyond your scope of imagining; so why harvest stars?


    The first reason is like every mass produced item your world holds it comes down to scale. Sure I could probably replicate the process and do so faster than your star is capable of in producing the elements I require. Why would I do so when I can spend less effort harvesting hundreds of stars with the same level of effort and also accomplish new and interesting discoveries like my newest apprentice at the same time?


    Something your literature on the subject of the mindset of immortals that is lacking grossly is the fact you do not spend the effort required to become immortal because you are lazy or just want to live forever. Anyone in pursuit of immortality purely for the fear of death or other nonsense is vastly underestimating the drive and ambition required to survive the tedium of existing past even a few thousand years.


    Something a few of your more understanding pieces of literature point out is the taxing nature of seeing things you knew and loved die only to slowly accumulate more transitory connections to people, places, or things. The real mistakes come when you try and give them that same level of permanence. You¡¯re not destined to remain connected to many things that long in a positive way. Your enemies last longer but they usually can only carry enmity for so long as well.


    Any conflict or connection that makes it past even a few millennia is rare; often switching between peace and hostility only if in close proximity. This is also why I am regularly on the move, as it allows no major conflicts or attachments to burden my progress forward. Having shed the frailties of the mortal coil also reduces the issues most of you would have living even a few hundred years.


    Back to the harvesting of your star. As some of your science professionals can attest, the more dense the atomic structure the less stable it becomes and thus easier to pick apart. You know this as fissionable materials, uranium, thorium, plutonium and the like. I am removing much more dense and unstable materials as well as some of the more valuable and easier to break compounds naturally produced in your star. The process I have in place stores them outside the fusion chain of your star which has in a sense protected you from the dangers of solar collapse and allowing your star to expand, artificially stabilizing the process from having ended your system long ago.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    I stop by to empty the thing every few thousand years and see how your planet has been doing. You¡¯ve had a lot of political and other prisoners dumped on your rock since my last visit; and they seem to have faced the fate of many who do not understand the inherent need for secrecy in aspiring on to the path of magic. You cannot be caught if you hope to gain more power than the local dominant force. Secrecy is more important than speed if your local controlling factors that would deny your aspiration to power. This ultimate problem is why so many fall for the trap of seeking immortality to give them the time for that secrecy. What you really need first is escaping the reach of the eyes of your enemy. Get off world as fast as you can and into the void, where you are not going to be so easily stopped or noticed.


    Solving that problem leads you far closer to your immortal goals than pure power ever will unless your local overlords are truly incompetent or absent. Even if you rival your local power structure as you ascend it still benefits you to leave for better horizons. Freedom from conflict allows you to control the terms of your engagement in honing conflict skills. Defending is much harder than being a free and opportunistic attacker.


    Hopefully my apprentice figures this out before he is caught by anyone passing by where I sent him. While he can likely take down most usual dangers at his skill level his resources are still limited until he grows in power more fully.


    Anyway I leave you now and with any luck my apprentice might return and benefit your glorified prison colony of a world with some freedom someday if he survives. Given my harvesting schedule of your world it is unlikely you will ever interact with me again, so best of luck prisoners of this world and good bye.


    These are the last words I received from the Necromancer. Delivered as I am leaving this planet quickly as the ultimatum from the overseeing political entities who guard our prison are not to be trifled with at my level of power. I now must wander alone leaving my world behind sent through a tear in space to this almost barren world far from home.


    As I fall into the darkness from the void towards the ground of this new world I ensure my survival ritual spell is intact, quickly adapting myself to this new world I am thrust upon quickly. Checking for alarms and hazards finding I am on a relatively small island of some form in an ocean if the smell of salt on the air is any indicator.


    Determining I am functionally alone with the sparse plant life and open ocean I first scour the island for resourced to break down into more energy capacity. Finding little but far more than at home confirms I am on a still relatively fresh primal planet. The light of this star is a rather ominous apocalyptical orange enough to drown the usual blue sky in its color leaving a purple tinge on the horizon as the sky glows orange from what I can only determine as noon day sun.


    I am a stranger in a very strange land with no idea of what to do beyond growing in power.

 Island King of Paradise

    My first action in my sudden arrival after searching for telltale signs of monitoring spell clusters and other detection in my immediate vicinity is searching for resources. No fancy or complex spell work is needed for this initially as I simply walk around the small upshot of land with a stone up thrust of its likely long dead volcanic origins. The light and contents of the ocean making the water a rather neon purple in color darkening significantly from the black sand of the beach and ocean floor.


    My limited energy pool and basic senses confirming the salt deposits and a surprising note of iodine in the water of this alien ocean. Giving some hope of a more efficient breakdown of the trace elements in the water into energy for fueling some ritual spells for producing more raw power at my disposal. While not defenseless and not sign of foreign spell structures on this world I need to establish more strength while I am relatively benign and unnoticed by anyone who could in fact threaten my growth.


    I had a suspicion I would not be able to stay with the Necromancer very long given his dislike of confrontation and the ultimate demonstration of my basic stage of adequacy in developing and producing all I would need to grow on my own. The very air of this world would likely kill me if not for the processes build into the very lining of my lungs as part of the system of spells used to keep me alive. Eventually to be replaced completely as I learn to convert my body into a construct of my own image of perfection. Far ahead in my capacity but a target to achieve in the end.


    I begin making long filtering channels in the sand leading from the ocean, using very small amounts of my energy to melt the sand partially into more stable and lasting routes to refine out the salts and impurities in the water, using some of the residual quartz washed up from the ocean floor to purify larger quantities of the water into something more easily refined further by my internal protections than drinking the water straight, even if I think my protections could handle it, dealing with the impurities internally is not pleasant after learning that if I tried to rely on my internal processes alone would lead to kidney stones at least and outright poisoning at worst I play it safe. Having exhausted the small amount of particle energy in my reserves in the development of these external capture mechanisms in the hopes to rapidly increase my energy gains and fuel the further increases to my energy capacity itself through the ritual spell the necromancer guided me to develop.


    I feel the eastern fictions do not adequately describe the sheer toil that is self-cultivation. The internal mechanism mortals have for even gathering energy is so small to get even the same energy expenditure as a fart would take you a year on anything but the most saturated worlds. The process of building arrays of spellwork and ritual engines to refine much more efficiently and spanning much larger areas still takes days compared to the years of running on purely internal structures.


    This is further compounded when you can build rituals to self-replicate and feed their gained energy back into producing more gathering and production before collapsing and recycling those structures after depleting the easy to gather particles in close proximity. I do not have the resources or time to wait for more far reaching and autonomous resource gathering as I plan to strip this world of all I can quickly while preparing to fuel my escape plans. I want clear exit capacity before I go doing anything to risk my presence on this world. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    After a few hours of allowing my energy reserves and capacity to grow a bit farther than empty, I quickly form the first true bit of necromancy I was taught as a means to feed on environmentally hostile worlds. All the plant life and likely animals of this world are pure poison based on the atmospheric presence and other evident factors. There is some universal compounds commonly found in almost all living entities. One specifically in the energy transfer process being ATP. Fueling my little ritual with once more most of my energy shows a slow decay of my targeted faux-palm tree other harvesting replicator spells flood out steadily turning all the life on this little rock in the ocean; consuming the little packets of energy restoring and bolstering my reserves as I use the broken down compounds to feed more directly than what my body would be capable of doing.


    It¡¯s not a steak but it keeps me alive. With the basic functions started in the ¡®Stay alive don¡¯t die¡¯ portion of being on an unknown world, it¡¯s time to consider more practical objectives. I am functionally in for a very long wait time here with the slow accumulation of power kick started. My basic survival is stabilized and I am in for the most part a secure position in the middle of nowhere.


    My first new spell development isn¡¯t going to be for self-defense at this point, there isn¡¯t really a dire need on an abandoned island that I can walk the edges of in under an hour. So chaining reconnaissance and power acceleration is now my priority. I can¡¯t know for sure that this world isn¡¯t being monitored for outsiders or at least for actual magic use based on just this island. Stealth and spying are going to be tools for my growth for a very long time until running away is added to that subset of skills for survival.


    So I bury myself a good four feet into the volcanic sand and settle in for the long wait. I¡¯m filtering everything I need to survive anyway so I may as well not make it easy for someone to find me. As I slowly shut down into a more preserving state, I start building my own sensory constructs and let them bleed out into the sand and ocean. While slowly constructing a energy refining process into the bedrock of the island.


    The sensors are fairly simple, they operate almost in a Nano machine capacity looking for complex energy structures like itself and breaking them down after communicating back to a process that records and learns about the structure while providing me a chance to review the data for patterns. The Lich explaining how to use photon pairing to integrate parts is wonderful since anyone who can track me back with this method is unlikely to notice or I would have been found already just from the method of my arrival.


    The Methodological arms race is tricky when you are low in power but high in knowledge. So rudimentary and simplistic countermeasures are how I need to start and save my power for growth and development. To this end my best defenses for the moment are natural ones, hide in the dirt and don¡¯t attract attention. Listen and watch for danger. Have enough firepower stored to close any wandering eyes on my activities.


    After some days of consideration and analysis of the structure of the things I am building, their features really start to make me kick myself. The lich is messing with me even when woefully out of reach. His idea of fun is to fundamentally make myself look like a core dungeon?