Magic (Chosen)

The term magic (Imperial zerethem), when used in the context of Avishraa, has a more restricted meaning than might be prevalent in other settings.

There are available to the inhabitants of Avishraa a number of methods of interacting with their world which, in ours, would be considered supernatural. Most of them, however, are not considered magic per se, either because - as with the empathic faculty - it is ubiquitous enough to be part of daily life, or - as with enchanting - it is a skill than can, in theory, be learned and used by anyone, despite its marvelous capabilities.

Magic, by contrast, refers entirely to those powers wielded by the Chosen, those born to magic. Being difficult to explain, with few underlying principles recognizable to the layman, and apparently completely unavailable to anyone not Chosen, magic is far more mysterious, far more feared, and far less trusted.

The ability to perform magic is a trait unique to, and characteristic of, the Chosen; the trait does not appear in anyone else, and no Chosen is without the inborn capacity for magic.

Magic comes in different types, of which there are held to be eight; in approximate order of rarity, these are

• Element: those with mana residing in the bones and marrow of the skeleton. Elementalists, as one might suspect from their appellation, deal with substances - usually one, or occasionally several (often related), particular substances. Their magic affects only their subject substance within a particular definition, that and no other form of it - a purely water elementalist, for example, cannot affect ice, nor can a rock elementalist affect sand, even of the same chemical composition - but over that substance, they can generally move, shape and control it to their whim, to the extent of doing so in defiance of gravity and many other limitations.
• Substance: those with mana residing in the muscles, and are often referred to as alchemists, though they share this name with the practitioners of rudimentary proto-chemistry among the Unchosen population. Where elementalists deal with single substances, alchemists can assemble multiple substances together and transform one substance into another. They cannot move and shape what they make, just as the elementalists cannot make what they control; but alchemists are in many ways more flexible in what they can work with. They're the ones to call upon if one needs a substance that is not immediately at hand, because they can probably create it for you.
• Semblance: those with mana residing in their epidermis and scales. Illusionists specialize in the manipulation of light into images, from the simple to the complex. Although their illusions are not solid, and can therefore be distinguished by the way they interact with real objects, a skilled and imaginative illusionist can nonetheless produce a three-dimensional image that is visually indistinguishable from reality, though considerably more concentration is needed for a moving image than a static one.
• Spark: those with mana residing in their blood and circulatory system. Energists are manipulators of energy - usually thermal or electrical, which are easiest, but potentially of many other kinds as well. An energist could pull thermal energy from his or her surroundings (decreasing the ambient temperature in the process), store it within themselves, and then release it again… as flame, or lightning, or by imparting kinetic energy to an object. Some forms of energy, like fire, are susceptible to being shaped in the same manner that elementalists shape matter. However, they are unable to shape light in the same fashion that illusionists can, being able only to achieve simple forms.
• Shift: those with mana residing in the internal organs. Shifters are, indeed, shapeshifters, able to turn themselves - and, sometimes, other living things - into forms other than their natural one. How far one can deviate from one's natural form is a function of both natural power and training; almost all of them can turn into another takma of the same gender, but fewer can turn into one of the other gender, or into some exotic form of takma, or rarer still into some other type of being entirely. The transformation requires a certain amount of willpower to maintain and a shifter will revert to their natural form when that will is relaxed, when sleeping, or when unconscious; if they have transformed someone else, that transformation is also subject to the same limits of the caster, with the added complication that the caster must generally remain within a short distance.
• Mind: those with mana residing in their brain and nervous system. Although nearly all takmar have some measure of passive psionic power, mentalists have far more active abilities; they are able to psionically shield themselves, or probe the thoughts and memories of others, or detect minds at longer ranges. They also frequently have telekinetic powers of varying strength and precision. Although these are more subject to physical law than the ability of an elementalist to move their specialty substance - telekinetic grip must contend more fully with the force of gravity and is unable to pass through solid matter except through cracks - it is far more generally applicable.
• Life: those with mana residing in their reproductive organs. Lifegivers have enormous power over living things, with the most common and valued use of their talents being healing; a skilled lifegiver can reduce pain, heal injuries beyond the reach of medicine, or purge the body of infection or disease, and also have a reputation for increasing fertility. Lifegivers not skilled enough to qualify as healers often have strong ties to gardening and agriculture, and are able to increase the prosperity of plants and animals.
• Span: these differ considerably from other magic types, in that their mana appears to be diffuse throughout the body and only weakly associated with any of it; some theorize that their mana resides in their soul. These individuals, known as oracles, have power over space and time. They are able to see into the past and the future, and across long distances, and the most powerful are said to be able to form holes and discontinuities in space itself, allowing them to teleport between places - among more exotic uses.

Only the last two are greatly rarer than the others. Most Chosen have the capability to use only one magic type, though approximately a fifth of them are able to use two (there have never been any documented cases in which anyone has had three or more).

It has never been clear why a Chosen might have one magic type and not another; it has long been known that, while being Chosen at all is a heritable condition, the magic type one has is not. Over the last two generations, however, the savants of the Citadel have made a certain amount of progress in understanding the nature of the magical gift and how it is determined. It has been found that although there is no physical organ or bodily system possessed by Chosen that their unmagical counterparts lack, there is a form of mystical field or resonance, called mana, within their tissues, and that the particular tissues this mana most strongly resides in in an individual is what predisposes them to a certain type of magic. Mana departs the body at death as the tissues of the body die, but likewise lives as the tissue lives, and tissues transplanted from one takma into another transfer some measure of their associated mana. Because medical science among the takmar in general is not advanced, this rarely has a chance to be practiced; the main exception is blood transfusion, and it is well known by healers of the Citadel that a takma receiving a transfusion of blood from a Spark-attuned Chosen will temporarily manifest Spark powers themselves.

It is unknown whether one's magic type is present from birth or is determined at the time of manifestation, since the latter occurs around one turn of age and a child is not able to perform magic before then; nonetheless, once the magic type has been established, it does not change thereafter. That said, most magic types involve a range of powers in which an individual may have varying aptitudes, or one power which might be able to affect various subjects to different degrees. Individuals may develop some powers of their type and not others, or be able to affect different subjects and not others, or may unlock a narrower or wider spectrum and development of each, and the reasons why are still a subject of study. It is thought that the process may be linked in varying proportions to the individual's personality, upbringing, and training.

Magic is not exercised through words or gestures, but through the action of the brain and nervous system. It is not even entirely a matter of willpower, as spontaneous magic use may be a simple reaction to stimuli or desires - there are situations where a Chosen will use their magic without meaning to, no more than one has to decide to laugh at a joke or cry out in pain. There have even been cases where magical effects have been generated during sleep. The ability to avoid accidental magic use is, like the ability to empathically shield oneself, strongly correlated with emotional stability and self-control. A Chosen who is excited or in distress may experience a temporary loss of magical control; one with a chronic personality or emotional disorder may accidentally use magic all the time.

It is thought that this has been a major and self-reinforcing factor in the poor relations between most takma cultures and the Chosen. Accidental magic use is often highly dangerous to those not equipped to protect themselves against it, leading to resentment and persecution against the user; resentment and persecution greatly affect the emotional instability of the user, leading to more accidental magic use.