The History and Theory of Magic



Energy has always been a part of living beings, yet conjuring it into something different requires a substantial amount of skill. The use of magic usually comes from considerable concentration and incantations, sometimes also involving specific devices to lead or control the flow of energy. Magic can be roughly divided into 4 types: Transportation magic is used primarily for teleportation and transportation. It is very effective at allowing easy and quick movement across huge distances with portals. It's hard to use this kind of magic with any degree of speed, making it ill-suited for combat in general. Transformation magic enables the change of various properties of living beings, achieved through the alteration of their DNA. This kind of magic is both the primary and most commonly used type in the present day. Needless to say, it took ages for humans to hone their skills enough to be able to use this kind of magic without posing a great danger to others; but the results were outstanding. With enough knowledge and equipment you can even produce completely new, superior species or improve abilities of existing ones to an unnatural level. Transformation, however, takes a considerable amount of time to prepare. It also requires specialized equipment and skilled practitioners, making it accessible at a professional level only to a select few individuals. Influential magic is the simplest form of magic, being that it does not involve any significant changes to the real world, instead only affecting the mind of a target. Because of this, it's usually easy to learn and cast on the go without a huge risk. Effects vary from inducing emotions, making a victim fall unconscious, to complete mind control (the latter being much more difficult, naturally). For a skilled mage it's not hard to protect oneself from this sort of magic either, but in a general sense it's forbidden to publicly use it against anyone but your slaves. Destruction magic is mostly absent from current magical practice. Due to the nature of magical energy (that it is fueled by living beings) destruction magic was extremely dangerous, as one professionally conjured spell could potentially grow indefinitely as long as it was draining life and energy from its target. Moreover, due to its potency, destruction magic used to cause major pollution and the tainting of an area, inducing all manner of transmutations and alterations to bystanders. Adepts of destruction magic, elves and drows, lost all potential to ever use it again after their defeat in The Old War. The Old war At the beginning of time, the elves were the only race present. They managed to build a strong society and had access to powerful magic, making them the most dominant species in the land. Class inequality played a large role in their society, as the strongest and most noble were the dominant class. Eventually, elven researchers made a breakthrough with transformation magic and thus it was decided to utilize said magic to produce a new caste of menial workers with even fewer rights as a means to lift social tension from the lower castes. In the process, Humans were developed. Humans looked crude compared to the elves and they were denied any potential in destructive magic, making them unable to muster any significant resistance to their rulers. They lived shorter lives but had a higher birth rate to compensate. At first, the elves’ treatment of humanity wasn't terrible, but with successive generations humans became increasingly aware of their inferior position. After a considerable amount of time passed, it became obvious that the size of humanity was getting out of hand and the elven nobility needed a solution to the overpopulation. The execution of newborn humans was proposed and implemented in many regions, but a few regions actually let certain troublesome human communities leave and settle on their own. As time passed, humanity grew tired of their mistreatment and, after a series of gruesome events, rebelled against their masters. This led to The Old War. Old communities of human escapees did not have a good relationship with the elven kingdom, so they were quick to provide support to the rioters and rebels.However, it soon became apparent that the elves would not treat any humans with respect, and they began to mercilessly eliminate the human opposition. This led to many deaths and to human refugees leaving elven regions for good. The Elves reacted with punitive force, but they weren't completely effective, as old communities developed ways to fight back against enemy casters. For many centuries afterwards, there was an ongoing conflict between humans and elves. There wasn't much that humans could do against destruction magic, as one caster could easily wipe out an entire squad, so many dirty tactics were used. Ambushes, traps and sudden raids became the main tools that humanity used to fight back against their superior foe, but it wasn't anywhere near enough for a successful counterattack, hence there was no end to the war in sight. During this time, humanity formed The Mage Order as the primary organization to lead the counterattack against the elves. Individuals, who devoted their lives to the research and development of all available forms of magic, became the most valuable members of society as their discoveries provided a significant edge that humans lacked on their own. Physical enhancements played a great role in confrontations, as capable individuals were generally more potent than assembled armies. The Mage Order also took every chance they could to study the after effects of the elves’ destruction magic. As the war continued, magical taint spread across the land, giving birth to many twisted creatures and mutants. Some of those creatures gave The Order the idea to produce animal hybrids. Thankfully, by that time humans had mastered transmutation magic to a great enough extent that they were able to conduct many experiments in that direction. The most successful of these resulted in the beastkin races. Cat hybrids had outstanding reaction times and grace while wolf mutations provided increased strength, a keen sense of smell, and great co-ordination in packs. There was no prejudice on humanity’s side towards their newfound allies, as any amount of help mattered in war. Beastkins eventually made their own communities, although they still kept close ties to their ancestors. Although, human hybrids weren't the only thing developed by the Order. Orcs were an unfortunate result of experimentation on elves in an attempt to allow humans to use destruction magic and bring them closer to the elves. However, the excessive energy of the experiments went awry and resulted in immense physical growth and skin pigment mutation as the Order had failed to hone human genes to support the alien function, and equally failed to reverse the unintended mutations. On the other side, Elven magicians working on transmutations managed to produce better soldiers from common elves - drow. They possessed an increased affinity to magic and had some physical improvements, making them more fit for combat. However, the extreme magical influence lead them to mutate with a dark, tainted skin. The Old War finally ended a few centuries ago with humanity winning against all odds. Although many elves were killed during the final sieges of their cities, they weren't completely eradicated. Instead The Mages’ Order, lead by some inner directions, modified every surviving elf to remove their ability to ever use destructive magic again, and prevented the ability from being passed onto future generations. In this way, the destruction once caused by the elves and their magic, witnessed by generations throughout the War, would not repeat itself. After the war, the elves were mostly divided between those who returned to their forests holding a minor grudge against humans but not being able to oppose them anymore, and those who were assimilated into human society. By law, the Order did not tolerate racial discrimination of any kind, even towards elves, as a way to foster cooperation with manmade races. After that, led by the Order, many settlements were set up among the lands, eventually giving birth to somewhat distant beastkin and orcish nations. The Order also discouraged remembrance of The Old War as a great tragedy of the past, and after a few generations, the commoners had completely forgotten about that bloody history.