Introduction to magic

The planet Nephele has climate, wildlife, and days and seasons in a manner exactly like Earth. There are no magical or alien animals or plants. There are self-aware species other than humans - the classic fantasy big four of Dwarf, Elf, and Orc, plus some smaller populations. None of them have inherent magic. No one develops magic by accident, and it cannot be carried by bloodline. All magic must be sought out or earned.

Effort Magic
''"There once was a man named John Henry, who could drive steel so strongly he was faster than a steam powered machine..." ''

''"After seven years of training in the sword and meditation on the nature of their secret techniques, the master of the school of the Tiger's Gaze can strike an opponent ten thousand times in a single second, so that no part of them remains un-cut..." ''

With sufficient effort, and passion, magic is developed at the upper ends of extraordinary talent. Once expertise had been reached, a truly motivated individual can begin to develop abilities that are supernatural. These abilities will match and enhance the effort that was extended, manifesting as a talent in a person's chosen field that makes their accomplishment and achievement in that field more extraordinary.

For instance: a devoted master violinist may be able to train themselves to play songs so beautifully that they can evoke any emotion they choose in listeners. Or, they may be able to play for days on end and never miss a single note or break a single bow thread, never tire or falter. Or, perhaps the sound of their single instrument sounds like an entire orchestra of strings, a room rich and full of music played with ghostly hands. It depends largely on what they were good at to begin with and the thing they wish they could accomplish, as well as the qualities they admire in others and consciously try to emulate. If you're building a character in this setting, this magic is extremely flexible as to what it is they'll gain as their magic, but the limits set on how and when they gain it are going to be very specific.

Magic will never be easy or effortless to gain. It will never result in power you didn't intend, or want, because it's so difficult to gain the mundane mastery that it requires that a genuinely unmotivated person just won't ever get good enough. They have to want to go far beyond what is adequate or normal, to reach the height of what they can achieve and still be unsatisfied and push on. It corresponds to time and work, not natural talent, though, as with anything, having a talent certainly makes the process easier to begin. It is extremely rare to earn effort magic before middle age, and some people will never get it at all - if an individual doesn't think it's worth it, for example, or if they don't have anything they want to dedicate their life towards. A person who does earn magic this way will only ever have one effort gift.

In the event that, say, our master violinist from the above example has a secondary passion in an unrelated field (let's say: sailing) and somehow manages to gain complete mastery in both, they will not develop a second gift. Instead, their gift will change to reflect both sides of their passion. Perhaps their playing is so beautiful it can persuade the wind to change, for smooth sailing. Perhaps they can bow or pluck over rigging ropes and knots will tie or untie themselves as they hum and sing.

Because magic only comes through practice of a non-magical skill, there is currently no way through effort to learn magic that cannot in any way be practiced or honed through mundane means. Your classic "teleport" spell won't emerge as an effort-talent, because disappearing completely into thin air and reappearing somewhere else isn't really related to something you can practice in a mundane fashion.

Prince and Court magic
"With us behind her, our commander can't fail!"

"I would do anything to protect those who have put their trust in me - and I will."

In some systems, gods must be prayed to in order to gain and maintain their divine power. In return, they grant boons to those who worship them. There are no gods like this on Nephele - gods have no more or less positive proof of their existence there than they do here on Earth - but devotion to a mortal leader can perform a similar function.

Political, religious, professional, or otherwise - any person who gains a certain large amount of followers who consider them 'our leader,' the primary person that each looks up to and will listen to or admire above any other figure, will become a Prince. "Prince" can be considered to be a loose translation of the real word; for the purposes of this magic, it does not imply maleness, youth, or blood inheritance. A Prince, upon elevation to the needed threshold of loyal followers, will apotheose and manifest a title and a power. Those physically present will witness this and intuitively understand the concept conveyed by the title in the moment that it was granted, and then usually be tasked with trying to express what they saw in a single word. This word is how the Prince will be known in history books and to their allies and enemies.

For the purposes of record keeping, no two Princes should ever have the same title. If you'd like to make up a Prince in this setting, check to see if someone else is already using the word you wanted. There will only ever be one of each. Their title is directly linked to their power, and a Prince's power and title together is called their "signifier." As in effort magic, the signifier a Prince gains will never be useless or inappropriate, although it may take time to understand fully why it was granted. It will always be a tool that will reflect the future Prince's intent and goals. Whatever they were probably going to do already, the signifier will add magic to make it easier or more impressive. The resonance with the Prince's themes may be either literal or abstract.

The followers of a person who has found themselves elevated to Princehood or a follower who joins an existing Prince will gain a magical gift through their devotion and association. Sometimes this will be a less-powerful, more temporary, or shorter-ranged version of what the Prince themselves gained as their signifier's magic, but sometimes it will be something different that simply compliments the Prince's gift. A Prince's followers that are gaining magic from the Prince and think of the Prince, on an individual basis, as their most important leader, are referred to as their Court. It is possible to be in a Court of a Prince you have never met, or that has never met you, provided you think of them as your leader. It is possible to gain magic from being in the Court of a Prince without actually providing them with any tangible service besides your devotion. Joining a Court is usually done purposefully, but requires no particular effort besides who you, as a person, decide is important.

Here are some example Princes,  to get an idea of potential signifiers and Court gifts.

- Caléxandra of House Avenant: the Prince of Locusts. Calyxandra was infamous in her aggression in expanding her empire for her tactics of total war: she would burn crops, pull up railroad tracks, salt fields, and poison water supplies. Upon her ascension, she and members of her court gained the ability to rot organic matter at a touch and lay earth permanently fallow where they rode or walked. The maximum depth and range of the destruction the Prince herself could wreak using this power was far greater than the use of it by a member of the Court.

- Arsène "Harry" Cotard: The Prince of Legends. A media titan, Cotard's core reputation for extremely high-quality productions with broad appeal was derived from his signature technique of adapting existing folklore, fairy tales, and world mythology into palatable and consumer-friendly animated spectacles. A beloved cultural father-figure, upon his ascension, he gained the ability to create constructs out of animals, plants, or people that had been depicted in art or myth, bringing the story or image to "life." Members of his Court were able to do the same on a temporary basis, generally dissolving once the caster's concentration was disrupted.

- N. Sinfonia (Born Nash Ithridatus): The Prince of Thundering. The global cultural split between homeland and colony-born Orcish citizens was brought to the forefront by a young revolutionary who self-educated himself from a humble background. He became an icon and firebrand for total reform and renunciation of Orcish supremacy. The timing and building tension in the diaspora, as well as his natural charisma, made his words seem as if they were heard for miles around, an omen from the heavens of coming chaos and change. His ascension allowed him to speak storms into being, bringing both cleansing rain and devastating lightning in his wake, while his Court could achieve smaller-scale strikes and booms at ground level.

Not everyone on the planet belongs to a Court. The exceptions are generally in two categories. First, a person who holds in their most important devotion a leader who does not have the number of followers needed to become a full Prince. In general terms, a Court must reach the size of a small city to apotheose its Prince. As well as initially gaining this number of members, a Court must maintain that number, or grow it, to keep their Prince as a Prince. A Prince who has been previously empowered but now finds themself losing too many followers will also lose their power and title upon dropping below the required threshold. It's a soft number, not a hard one, so there shouldn't be much ping-ponging in and out of Princehood unless something really weird is happening. Have people, have power. Not enough people, no power. A beloved older sibling, or a local mayor, while you may be able to devote to them, will not gain Princehood and therefore cannot empower you as part of their Court.

The second large group of people who do not belong to any Court, intentionally or otherwise, are people who devote themselves to a mortal who is dead or doesn't really exist. Elvis can be your most important idol. Your deceased ancestor who founded your family line can be your model for how you live your life. Hatsune Miku can be your number one princess. Unless they are alive at the same time as you, they cannot be your Prince. Only living mortals count, for the purposes of who you find yourself empowering towards Princehood. This also means that the Prince mechanic does not confirm or deny the existence of gods or spirits. In the case that you are devout and religious and your devotion is primarily to an intangible being that would not be considered a living mortal, your devotion is likely to be empowering your mortal religious leader. The Pope and the Dalai Lama would be two of Earth's most powerful Princes, and good for them.

Throne Magic
The Throne above Thrones is the umbilical cord of Nephele, an impossible infinite pillar that is neither real nor unreal. It is said that its first user created the world. It is said that its last user will be the last living thing in the universe, and it will be their responsibility to begin it anew. It is said that this has already happened. Every Prince is a candidate chosen by their followers and crowned by the physical laws of the Throne as the next potential one to ascend and sit upon it.

It's not really sitting, as you can imagine. Taking possession of the Throne obliterates the Prince's physical form immediately, expands their mind past their former personality soon afterwards, and diffuses all remnants of what made them recognizable as a mortal being within a few decades. In order to take control of the Throne, you must destroy the previous holder. Successful attempts always involve waiting until they have become too vast and alien to care any more about being defeated. They will not die, of course - life and death will be meaningless to them, then, as well, as meaningless as they are to gravity, or to mathematics, or to the fixed speed of light.

The person who takes the Throne is no longer a Prince - they are referred to, depending on gender, as a King, Queen, or Monarch. Early in their term, a Monarch may recognize their friends and retain their mortal priorities, but the Throne's work is both its punishment and its reward, and this may not last as they become more distant and godlike. Taking the Throne is irreversible, but it is not permanent - it takes an average of twenty five to thirty years for a single Monarch to dissolve outwards and fully ascend to be interwoven with the fabric of the universe. This is how long a "reign" will last. They will then usually be unseated and the cycle will begin again. For the entire duration of a Monarch's "reign," in addition to still granting their own Court their Prince-gift, a Monarch will grant a Throne-gift, something that applies to the entire globe regardless of whether they are the Monarch's friends, enemies, or otherwise. If a Monarch of any kind is on the throne, every living person can use that Monarch's Throne-gift. This gift will not be a flashy, active, castable spell, but something broad, subtle, and passive. It will serve to make the world more in line with the way the mortal Prince wished it would be.

Here are some example Monarchs,  to get an idea of how Throne-gifts can transition and change the landscape of the globe.

- The Monarch of Unity: As a Prince, the Prince of Unity accrued a large base of power using their Court-gift that allowed all of their followers to blur together their emotions and efforts over long distances, and allowing every follower to cast each other's effort-magics. Upon taking the Throne, their Throne-gift granted a similar ability to everyone in the world. For the full 27-year reign of the King of Unity, all living people on Nephele regardless of their Court could borrow, by touch, the magic of another consenting person and cast it instead of the person it belonged to.

- The Queen of Steel: A Prince that rose through her ability to work with her enemies and even turn them to her side, The Prince of Steel's court gift was suited to a political environment rife with assassinations, as she worked to overthrow a corrupt but powerful government. She could control the metal in any weapon used against her or her people, and prevent it from doing any of them any harm. As Queen, during the 22 year reign of the Queen of Steel, no knife, gun, or other metal weapon intended to cause harm would have any effect on its target if harming that target would be a betrayal.

- The Queen of Souls: The Prince of Souls rose to prominence as a humanitarian and medical worker who contributed vastly to Nephele's understanding of medicine and healing. As she gained followers, she and her Court both became uncanny in their ability to bring the injured and disease-ridden back from the brink of death, by catching a departing soul and gently tethering it back into its mortal coil. As Queen of Souls, a new avenue of magical sight allowed medical science to discover the physical seat of the soul inside of the body, and for any mundane surgeon to be able to operate on it.

Most, if not all military conflicts on Nephele are fought by Princes directly or indirectly competing for the Throne. Taking it means needing everything that powerful people have always wanted: money, resources, land, loyalty, weapons. The Throne is the ultimate King-of-the-Hill trophy, and the cycle of bloodshed for it is perpetual. In many ways, taking the Throne is an ultimate sacrifice. It is the surrender of a person's physical body in order to buy the power to shape the face of the world for a time. In many other ways, it is the ultimate act of narcissism; a person has to believe that the entire world would be better if they were able to dictate exactly how it should be different.

Ninety nine percent of magic on Nephele is covered by the above categories, but there are paths to more power that are rare and dangerous outliers to what most people consider relevant or reasonable.

Warlocking
A Monarch on the Throne, although completely disembodied and difficult to understand or be understood by, is not, outside of their Throne-gift, helpless to interact with the world. Monarchs naturally an intuitively are able to create artificial minions in the physical world that act as the Monarch's limbs, hands, and eyes. These beings are called Angels, and are themed around the Monarch's domain and signifier. The Prince of Souls would create Angels of Souls. Angels can look vastly different depending on the nature of the Monarch, the nature of their signifier, and how early or late it is in the Monarch's reign, but Angels are essentially artificial, without even animal-levels of self-awareness or intelligence, and exist only to serve with perfect, mindless neutrality the will of their Monarch and their Monarch's signifier. They have reason, but no volition. Angels are fragile, and not created lightly. They are not intended to made into troops or armies, only as messengers, scouts, or pairs of hands in the rare occasion when a Monarch has the presence of mind and is able to muster the focus to interfere directly in a physical affair.

Upon the death of a Monarch, their gift vanishes from the world and their mind, usually by now as vast as a cosmic object, untethers entirely from physical affairs and ascends to an unknown plane. Their Prince and Throne gifts vanish and their Angels become intangible but do not completely disappear.

A person wishing to use the Prince gift of a dead monarch can summon onto the physical plane an Angel of that corresponding Monarch and form a contract with it. To borrow the power of a dead god is a risky thing, and an Angel will ask in return for its services (access to its Monarch's spells) a task related to forwarding its Monarch's domain. The risk is that an Angel is not a person, and does not know what demands are reasonable, possible, or safe. An Angel of Apples may demand one million apple trees be planted by year's end, or the summoner will die. An Angel of Winds may demand that the summoner give up their career and live at the top of a tower, each day meditating on nothing but the air. Angels cannot be reasoned with; they have no reason to appeal to. Many summoners do not find such contracts worth their time, but some of the truly unscrupulous or desperate have found uses for them. In particular, binding an Angel into an object or location rather than a person will allow a summoner or a group thereof to only pay their price once, and be able to easily continue using the Angel's services once it has been paid off. This, however, comes with its own risks.

The death of a Monarch also creates Demons - the last remnants of mortal ambition and desire to obtain power that the mind that was once a mortal Prince forcibly shed in order to reach the next plane. Demons are beings themed around a Monarch's domain that have incredibly strong volition but no reason of their own, as a counterpart to Angels. They are drawn to anyone attempting to use or summon their corresponding domain's Angels, regardless of the nature of an Angel's binding. A person caught by Demon will be permanently altered, and their will and ambition will be replaced with the Demon's own. For the rest of their life, they will be able to cast the Prince-gift of the Monarch whose Demon has taken them over, but they will also overwhelmingly desire to take the Throne for their own. Having had their own ambition destroyed when the Demon supplanted them, they will never be able to become a Prince. If they previously were one, they lose their power immediately.

Trying to take the Throne when you aren't a Prince will kill you.

Angels and Demons are not things that most ordinary people interact with on Nephele. It is most common for the average person to primarily use their Court gift, and perhaps the current Throne-gift, and slightly less common for someone to use those and whatever effort magic they may have earned. Warlocking, (the act of gaining magic through summoning Angels or Demons) is specifically illegal in many countries and usually leads to much more harm than good.

Bardic Magic
Reality is alive. The universe is not a person, not a being with perspectives and desires that mortal creatures can truly understand, but it is alive. It is aware.

And it is listening.

Normally, mortal beings and the universe find each other mutually incomprehensible, but there is one very notable exception. The Sea People, the fathomlessly ancient first civilization to arise on Nephele, managed by great effort to decipher the language of creation itself- a way of speaking to reality in a way that it would actually comprehend. Learning to successfully speak the language of reality is an extremely demanding discipline, as much as any form of effort magic. It takes many years of skilled study and intense work. Also, if you fuck it up, it will kill you.

But if you succeed, then you are a bard of the oldest kind, the last of the deep magic. You can talk to the universe and ask it to intercede on your behalf. And if you are very persuasive and very, very lucky, it may agree to do so. In theory, a bard can accomplish anything if they can talk reality into going along with it. In practice, the word "if" is key there. The universe does not have your viewpoint, let alone your priorities, and is indeed a deeply alien existence compared to any mortal being. Needless to say, persuading something you don't truly understand that also doesn't understand you to act on your behalf can be... difficult.

Generally, bardic magic is easiest when your argument fits into the natural shape of the universe- persuading dry, flammable materials to burn, or plants to grow. The more of a departure from the standard laws of physics, the less likely the universe is to listen to you. It may also hear your argument and be persuaded to take action in a completely different manner from the suggestion you were making. This new course of action may involve your head exploding.

Life is like that sometimes.

Still, a fully-trained and well-spoken bard is among the most versatile of magic users known to Nephele. Or, at least, they were. The knowledge of creation's language was lost with the extinction of the Sea People, and has not been successfully rediscovered by any modern species. Though necromancy has raised a bard of the primordial sea into undeath, Admiral Lankhet's attempts to teach others the magic of her people have been almost universally unsuccessful. For unknown reasons, a discipline that was extremely difficult to learn in the time of the Sea People has become virtually impossible to learn in the modern day, even when directly instructed by a full-fledged bard.

Pillar Magic
lark help me