Post by Gaea on Feb 13, 2016 17:27:55 GMT -8
Magic is divided into three primary spheres, often known as the Great Spheres - Anima, Nature, and Primordial. Each is comprised of 3 primary elements, which are purchased separately.
All magic types can be combined with each other from chargen, and you can bullshit most types of magic with some effort. Volcano/magma style stuff can probably be BS'd with Earth and Fire magic (though without good Magic Power, you won't be able to come anywhere near real magma temperatures); if you wanted to do a combat style revolving around prismatic magic - floating prisms that refract heat and light to launch laser beams - you'd probably want to combine Earth and Fire or Light, or possibly all three. Twilight magic is perfectly doable quite simply by combining Aether and Nether magic.
Can be mixed with weapon types and other skills to BS other stuff as well. Fire element magic + Summoning to explain fire elemental summons, or if you just want to fluff your fire lasers as coming from a couple floating heads a la Gaster Blasters, you'd want a bit of Summoning, Fire or Light magic, and pump your own Magic Power stats. As always, the idea is more to make room for creativity than curtail it, but try to make reasonable assessments and realize that just having Fire magic doesn't mean your character is necessarily going to be able to do everything that anyone else with fire magic can - it's best to define a style for yourself.
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Anima Magic
Natural magic revolving around the three simplest and most malleable elements: Fire, Wind, and Thunder. Simple to grasp the basics, but incredibly versatile and possessed of immense destructive power as a result of the natural instability of its component elements; all tend towards entropy quickly if not controlled. As variable as it is versatile; Fire magic may be comprised of flaming lances conjured from nothingness, huge gouts of flame, simple fireballs that detonate into horrific conflagrations, while Wind magic ranges from invisible blades of cutting pressure to cyclones that uproot and hurl foes about, and of course many varieties of flight magic rely heavily on Wind, though by tiself Wind magic offers no more than assisted mobility and gliding. Thunder is as naturally destructive as fire, ranging from pulsating rays and beams of pure destructive power to jagged bolts of golden light that come crashing down on foes from above or thundrous domes of energy that strike constantly at anything within. A popular magic among novices and masters alike; noncombat uses generally revolve around powering other creations, magical reactors and the like, but it is most commonly seen as a primarily/entirely offensive form of magic.
Nature Magic
In equal parts similar and contrary to Anima, Nature magic revolves around the 'heavy' natural elements that comprise Elibe: Earth, Water, and Flora. Far more difficult to manipulate en masse than the energies of Anima, but far more sturdy in turn, this complex magic is more commonly used for construction and fortification, but there's certainly something to be said for being able to launch boulders at people you dislike. In combat, Nature magic tends to be much less instantaneous than Anima, but inexorable and difficult to deflect, raising great walls of earth or launching clods of earth and stone at foes, washing away foes in a tidal wave of water or creating frozen javelins to impale foes with or turning the ground into a wintry hellscape of razor-sharp spikes; Floral magic, despite its relatively harmless name, covers massive growths of wood and trees as much as it can be used to make flowers bloom, and often practitioners combine offense and defense into a single shifting action as winding tree trunks and branches bat away incoming attacks while grasping out at their foes.
Nature magic is unique among the three great spheres in that it is difficult to create its components from raw magic - it is more focused on manipulating and replicating existing matter than simply mucking about with new energies. This does come with a mix of strengths and weaknesses; a hydromancer will certainly perform less spectacularly in a desert than near the ocean, but a hippiemancer in a forest has an enormous advantage over most opponents, capable of bringing the forest to life around their foes and crushing them within its embrace.
Primordial Magic
Aether, Nether, and Arcane magics comprise this esoteric branch of magic. Bound together more conceptually as fundamental magics of reality than by the elemental binds of the other spheres, each magic here is wildly, fundamentally different - Nether magic draws power from the darkness of the Nether itself to manifest grasping shadows, tendrils of hatred and shadow, and even weakening bonds between worlds enough to allow vast quantities of raw Nether to spill over into our world to harry and crush foes. Meanwhile, Aether magic in turn mixes the light of the Aether and human emotion to create its dizzying display of light, ranging from devastating ion blasts from the skies to swarms of homing rays of light or massive lances formed of crystallized magic to pierce foes. Arcane magic is the study of magic in its purest, rawest form, tainted by neither element nor aspect, raw destructive force unbound from all but the mage's will - and often barely even that. While its sheer intensity allows it to exert physical force and even form, its extreme volatility trumps even that of Anima magic, and it quickly returns to formlessness.
All magic types can be combined with each other from chargen, and you can bullshit most types of magic with some effort. Volcano/magma style stuff can probably be BS'd with Earth and Fire magic (though without good Magic Power, you won't be able to come anywhere near real magma temperatures); if you wanted to do a combat style revolving around prismatic magic - floating prisms that refract heat and light to launch laser beams - you'd probably want to combine Earth and Fire or Light, or possibly all three. Twilight magic is perfectly doable quite simply by combining Aether and Nether magic.
Can be mixed with weapon types and other skills to BS other stuff as well. Fire element magic + Summoning to explain fire elemental summons, or if you just want to fluff your fire lasers as coming from a couple floating heads a la Gaster Blasters, you'd want a bit of Summoning, Fire or Light magic, and pump your own Magic Power stats. As always, the idea is more to make room for creativity than curtail it, but try to make reasonable assessments and realize that just having Fire magic doesn't mean your character is necessarily going to be able to do everything that anyone else with fire magic can - it's best to define a style for yourself.
--------
Anima Magic
Natural magic revolving around the three simplest and most malleable elements: Fire, Wind, and Thunder. Simple to grasp the basics, but incredibly versatile and possessed of immense destructive power as a result of the natural instability of its component elements; all tend towards entropy quickly if not controlled. As variable as it is versatile; Fire magic may be comprised of flaming lances conjured from nothingness, huge gouts of flame, simple fireballs that detonate into horrific conflagrations, while Wind magic ranges from invisible blades of cutting pressure to cyclones that uproot and hurl foes about, and of course many varieties of flight magic rely heavily on Wind, though by tiself Wind magic offers no more than assisted mobility and gliding. Thunder is as naturally destructive as fire, ranging from pulsating rays and beams of pure destructive power to jagged bolts of golden light that come crashing down on foes from above or thundrous domes of energy that strike constantly at anything within. A popular magic among novices and masters alike; noncombat uses generally revolve around powering other creations, magical reactors and the like, but it is most commonly seen as a primarily/entirely offensive form of magic.
Nature Magic
In equal parts similar and contrary to Anima, Nature magic revolves around the 'heavy' natural elements that comprise Elibe: Earth, Water, and Flora. Far more difficult to manipulate en masse than the energies of Anima, but far more sturdy in turn, this complex magic is more commonly used for construction and fortification, but there's certainly something to be said for being able to launch boulders at people you dislike. In combat, Nature magic tends to be much less instantaneous than Anima, but inexorable and difficult to deflect, raising great walls of earth or launching clods of earth and stone at foes, washing away foes in a tidal wave of water or creating frozen javelins to impale foes with or turning the ground into a wintry hellscape of razor-sharp spikes; Floral magic, despite its relatively harmless name, covers massive growths of wood and trees as much as it can be used to make flowers bloom, and often practitioners combine offense and defense into a single shifting action as winding tree trunks and branches bat away incoming attacks while grasping out at their foes.
Nature magic is unique among the three great spheres in that it is difficult to create its components from raw magic - it is more focused on manipulating and replicating existing matter than simply mucking about with new energies. This does come with a mix of strengths and weaknesses; a hydromancer will certainly perform less spectacularly in a desert than near the ocean, but a hippiemancer in a forest has an enormous advantage over most opponents, capable of bringing the forest to life around their foes and crushing them within its embrace.
Primordial Magic
Aether, Nether, and Arcane magics comprise this esoteric branch of magic. Bound together more conceptually as fundamental magics of reality than by the elemental binds of the other spheres, each magic here is wildly, fundamentally different - Nether magic draws power from the darkness of the Nether itself to manifest grasping shadows, tendrils of hatred and shadow, and even weakening bonds between worlds enough to allow vast quantities of raw Nether to spill over into our world to harry and crush foes. Meanwhile, Aether magic in turn mixes the light of the Aether and human emotion to create its dizzying display of light, ranging from devastating ion blasts from the skies to swarms of homing rays of light or massive lances formed of crystallized magic to pierce foes. Arcane magic is the study of magic in its purest, rawest form, tainted by neither element nor aspect, raw destructive force unbound from all but the mage's will - and often barely even that. While its sheer intensity allows it to exert physical force and even form, its extreme volatility trumps even that of Anima magic, and it quickly returns to formlessness.
