Notes from the Headmaster's Desk 2

30 September 2014

There's about 12 days left until the end of this exam!
_{that also means 12 days left for me to wrap up my work on the s5 epilogue comic !!!!!}

Remember how in the previous letter I wrote about how we were making changes to better structure our magic system?

We've got a working prototype going, actually. And we'd like to share a core section of it with you, a sneak peek, in a sense...

...please share your thoughts on it with us!

***


Introducing:


Six established Tiers of Magic Complexity
in order of increasing complexity:

i. natural
Eden phenomenon occurring in nature without influence from any sentient being. The concept of “elements” begins here.
_{examples: gravity. thunderstorms and blizzards and wildfires. naturally forming crystals. that one pond that never get warm no matter how hot it is during the summer.}

ii. refined
Eden phenomenon occurring through manipulating/mimicking the natural eden flows of the world.
_{examples: creating fire/ice/lightning. manipulating weight. making a plant grow flowers. natural healing (just easing the natural healing process so that it happens much faster than it would otherwise). creating a breeze or making crystals of your own. making that pond warm with your own magic cause screw all the fish in there.}

iii. synthetic
The beginning of true magic. Eden flows are consciously woven into organized structure by the user (channeling/casting spells), and therefore more precise and intentional effects can be achieved.
_{examples: magic shields and wards. magic munitions (bolts, arrows, missiles, etc). elemental/magical enhancements on physical objects (enchanted blades, fortified armor, hardened cloth/skin, elemental runes and sigils). glamours (visual illusions created with magicked light). curses and cures and dispels (artificially manipulating malignant magic injuries). telekinesis.}

iv. magistral
Much like synthetic magic, but delves into true mastery of the magic mechanisms. eden flow systems are considered units of themselves for building even greater spells and the users will often incorporate systems outside their own body into their spell: Magistral magic users also often weave several layers of magic to create their own unique, personal, and signature spells.
_{general examples: teleportation. hypnosis/grand illusory magic (also affecting senses beyond just sight). summoning magic (familiar summons). fabrication magic (“summoning” a sword). interference/silencing/sealing magic. life-flow magic (artificially healing/repairing the body using eden, or…). Magic involving the mind, soul, spirit generally falls in the magistral tier. Transformation magic. Area-of-effect magic also tends to be magistral tier spell-casting.
Addendum: any magic that simulates a form of artificial intelligence (a self-operating puppet) borders on magistral to architectural magic.}

v. architectural
True to its name, magic within this tier are towering machines of eden systems often involving powers that tamper with the foundations of reality and with the intent to alter fate itself. The magics within this tier are extremely difficult and very rarely used.
_{examples: manipulating the boundaries of space and altering the currents of time. reducing physical matter into their pure eden components, or vice versa. disrupting the cycle of life and death. The creation of homunculus entities would actually be considered architectural.}

vi. divine
THIS REFERS TO MAGIC BEYOND COMPREHENSION like what the heck created this world in the first place? and you might not believe in gods (in fact what even IS a god) but the evidence is there that beings and entities which exist in a state higher than Edenia have the ability to seemingly interfere with our world without any known limits and thank god it doesn't happen too often cause holy crap the things we've seen.

***

There is definitely still some fine-tuning to be done, some work to tie this system seamlessly into the lore and make it accessible!
Not to mention that there are still changes to be defined for the Elements system, as well as defining a new field: Artificial Magic Crafting. Please look forward to those improvements as well! We are working to have a compiled document freely accessible to the group as an end product.

In the meantime,