Magic is a new power that came into the world a half-century ago. It is poorly understood and hard to control. Because of this, citizens of Salvation City mistrust magic users and ostracize them from society due to their unpredictability.
Magic Classes[]
In season 2 of Neon Divide RP (formerly Callous Row), several classes have been given to the magically inclined characters of the Row and the Undercity to explain to them the current knowledge about their powers. These classes were presented by Ciara Ní Éabha and Kythus Tolem at the Magic Sanctum.
Class 1[]
Head Presenter: Ciara
The content of the classes
"I’d like to welcome all of you to this first official lesson here at the Magic Sanctum. These lessons, that will be proceeding over the next couple of weeks, will deal with the fundamental nature of magic, [...] the laws that we have learned and have come to understand, applications of those, and the difference between light and shadow. I’ll give you breaks between each of these lessons so you have time to study, and, yes, there will be homework after each of these. So with no further ado, by the blessing of Kythus, leader of the Coven of Undercity, within this Magic Sanctum I’d like to begin magic lessons on the fundamental nature of magic."
The fundamental forces of nature
"With that said, physics time! You had thought you could get away from a physics teacher and not have to learn about physics? Oh no. I’ll list [...] the [four] fundamental forces in order of power. The strong force, the force that makes stars shine, the force of fusion, for it provides us with [the] energy that allowed us to reach the stars. The second force is the weak force. This is one probably most of you are not familiar with. This is the force that holds atoms together, it is what makes fission, it makes nuclei split apart. It was what powered us and left [us] the wastelands, for fission leads to radioactivity, and radioactivity is poison. The third fundamental force is electromagnetism. Light, magnetism, beauty, everything you see is electromagnetism. It is one of the weaker forces. And weakest of all by a significant amount is the force of gravity."
The history of magic
"Now, with that said, [this is] what we have discovered thanks to the necromancer who was here a year ago, some of you actually faced them, by learning the knowledge they have left to us. [It happened] a half-century ago within this universe. Brought perhaps by the interaction of another universe, breaking through the brands between the multiverses and contacting ours, or perhaps [by] a naked white hole coming into existence spontaneously in our universe. None of us knows. This is our best theory about what happened though. A fifth fundamental force was introduced to the universe. That fundamental force, most powerful of all, which interacts with all, is the force of magic."
The difference of magic to the other forces
"Now I want to make one thing very clear before we proceed any further and talk about magic. No matter how hard you wish, no matter how hard you think, or pray, or hope, the four fundamental forces that existed in all our time before do not acknowledge you. They do not see you, they do not care about living creatures or dead, they will treat a rock exactly the same as they will treat you or a dead person. There’s only one force, a force that recognizes your existence. It recognizes the difference between life and death. It recognizes will and response to it. If there’s one lesson I want you take away from here, it is that magic recognizes you. It recognizes all of you, and with the proper training, proper skill, proper work, you can learn to influence it, to control it, and thus change the world around you."
Lies for brevity's sake
"Now, as we begin this lesson on the fundamental nature of magic, I will have to tell you a lie or two for brevity’s sake. I will let you know ahead of time when I’m going to do that. So don’t be surprised if you hear me telling you I’m lying to you. It’s just to make things easier."
Explanation of mana and its flavours
"So, how many of you know about quantum chromodynamics? Show of hands? Okay, that was a joke. Mana is a force of energy. It is powerful. When it enters our universe, it enters in its pure form, but because of how heavy it is, like some of the quarks that exist in this universe, for those of you who know, the top quark and the bottom quark for example, it is too heavy to exist, it cannot maintain its form, it is not stable. When it enters this universe, it degenerates, it is unstable. Now, it will pick a flavor of mana. We have identified them as body, things that affect the physical realm, [as] mind, things that affect the mind and perception, [as] soul, the very nature of life, and [as] shadow, the nature of spirit and death. Much like the top and bottom quarks, soul and shadow are also too heavy to stay stable on their own. They will degrade. What I have just told you is my first lie, that is not quite true. There is something that they will stay stable with. Our fourth lesson, just to encourage you to come back to classes, our fourth lesson will go into the nature of light and shadow, we will go in much detail over that."
Explanation of crystals
"But for now this is why you do not see light crystals that often, especially large ones. They’re unstable and pick an element. Same with shadow. We have found small crystals, but you never see large ones. They are unstable fundamentally, just like the top and bottom quark. As to why that is, that is a mystery, one we do not know the answer to."
The known magical affinities within the Callous Row universe
Magical affinities and emitions
"When they degrade, they, much like quarks do, will emit another type of mana. Each of them is an elemental mana, we call them elemental affinities. It’s just another type of mana that’s lighter. Fire, earth, water, and air, each of them will be picked 25% [of the time], there is no difference between them. In fact, to the best of our knowledge, much as we have discovered with quarks, with electrons, with protons and neutrons, you cannot exactly predict which one it will be. It acts as all four simultaneously. This is where you as mages come in, because unlike any other fundamental force this one will listen to you. It will listen to your intentions, and, with the right affinity and the right practice, you can influence what is emitted. You can take soul, and you can choose which elemental affinity will be emitted."
Chirality
"One interesting question some of you might be asking is: 'If soul and shadow, much like the rest of the universe and the rest of the fundamental forces, enter our universe and are equally chosen, why is it that we are living and not dead? Why is it [that] the universe is filled with matter and not antimatter?' Actually, by the look on your faces I don’t think any of you were asking that question, but [you] should have been. The fact is... The fact is we do not know. Have any of you heard of this term before, symmetry breaking or chirality? Chirality is a difference, a preference that exists in the universe but should not. In the universe the reason why matter exists more than antimatter is because there is a parity violation in the weak force. There is a very slight difference in which particular interactions happen with the weak force which results in more matter in this universe than antimatter. The same is true for life versus death. Something in this universe breaks parity, violates it. There is a chirality, a preference for life."
Casting of magic
"As mages, when you are emitting magic, you are choosing to use soul and shadow, and you are changing its form. You are lowering its energy, its entropy, by giving up your own power. You are emitting an elemental magic of one of these types, but by using your mind you can influence what it is. So, Mister Kythus here will be taking soul the energy of life. He will be releasing it, telling it to change its form. He'll be telling it to change into body, the mana of influence, and he'll be choosing a particular element for it, one he has a natural affinity for, he'll be choosing fire. Those of you who are mages who have the potential, [...] once you know your affinity, you will know which of these elements you will be more likely to influence. You will know which of these you can power and through skill you can choose if it will be body or mind. Some of you will have a preference for one. Kythus here for example is a very capable body mage. He’s very familiar with it, and because of that he’s immensely powerful as a mage. His elemental affinity is fire. When he releases, when he influences his soul mana, he choose the element of fire, that elemental affinity happens as soul degenerates into body. It combines together and releases fire, elemental [fire]. He heats up the air around him and you see fire emitted from him."
The areas of the Undercity
"Now, one last thing about the fundamentals of magic. You may notice as you travel about here that each of our districts has a particular… you could call it a theme, a particular affinity. What we have discovered is that the affinities tend to gather together, and where they do mana will settle and pick up. [In the Fire District for exmample,] you will discover fire elementals more likely, [or] fire crystals, pure crystals of fire elemental mana, will show up. Same for water, same for earth, same for air. That applies to the rest of them as well by the way."
Classification and coexisting of magic
"One thing I would like to make you very clear about here: none of these are opposites (in reference to the chart showing all (known) elemental affinities). We arrange them in this form so that they are easier to understand. There will be certain congruencies, certain affinities that will be naturally inclined toward each other, but there are no opposites in magic. There is no antimagic that we’re aware of now. At least, aware of yet. In fact, as far as I’m aware, the only opposites are soul and shadow, which do not seem to like to coexist together. Although I say that, and each of us is filled with a little bit of soul and a little bit of shadow. I wonder what that means about us, about the nature of magic, and what it is out there that is listening to us, that is responding when we call to it, when we influence the universe around us."
Runes
"Your homework for tonight [is that] I want you to memorize the four runes of the fundamental flavors of magic: body, mind, soul, and shadow. Now this is not to make you more powerful, none of you are gonna become rune smiths if you’re not, but it is so you’ll be able to recognize them, see the sigils if you find them. And keep that in mind as you begin your training, because you will be influencing the mana. It will determine what you are particularly stronger using."
Next class
"Our next lesson will be on the elemental affinities of magic. We will expand out the rest of it and talk about air, earth, fire, water, and the combinations therein. With that said, my name is Ciara Ní Éabha, it has been my pleasure to teach you the fundamentals of magic."