Navatr Magic System - Nier Tsong
SOUL / DRIVE
The ability to achieve sorcery is reliant upon a balance of the two humors that account for the making of the soul. Keeping the humors from overlapping and overpowering each other is ideal, even before learning how to wield mana. Black plasma is tied to the blood and bone, whilst white plasma is of the mind and nerve. Too much of the former will hinder the mind and spur disease. Too much of the latter, likewise, weakens bodily constitution and saps away sanity.
Often considered the determiner of threshold is the size of the soul’s core. When the humors are kept in balance, the core can be trained to grow in its ability to harness mana. A greater threshold signifies greater mana output, as well as greater defense against corruption. Corruption classifies itself as any third party force--either from other sorcerers, or from the surrounding environment--that causes a humor imbalance.
Cultivation is the art of building core threshold through years, sometimes even decades of rigorous training. While it is more a common practice by those who are not born with the sorcerer gene, sorcerers can still benefit from cultivating, even if they are naturally born with a higher threshold than their peers. Power-scaling is determined through a series of stages by which to rank magic users.
1. Mastery of the soul.
2. Mastery of the self.
3. Mastery of the material world.
The mastery of the soul is attributed to not only control of the humors, but a total understanding of mana. A mastery of the self incorporates subjects pertaining to bodily modification--to a degree where losing a limb will be of no consequence--if the user can regrow it in an instant. A mastery of material is the application of skills involving the manipulation, conjuration, and transmutation of the elements.
Such methods of ranking, though, are thought to be arbitrary, as perceptions of the arcane and its relation to humanity tends to differ. There is no one way to arrange said stages, as different schools of magic have developed different methods of approach, particularly when it comes to the dispute between the self and the outside world.
Having a drive--an emotional incentive--is a key player in determining a mage’s performance. Acts of sorcery are a reflection of the wielder’s emotional state. Inevitably, different schools demand different drives. As such, most arcane users will find it ideal to spend a lifetime studying a single form of magic. Emotions are essential to not just sorcery, but to the health of the soul. The resentment of a soul can hinder its cultivation. Resentment energy can manifest even after death as a result of unhealed grievances beared by the person in life. It has the potential to attract demons--hollow beings with no cores of their own--who are more likely to gravitate towards individuals who have a tainted psyche.
Whether or not a soul will be able to manifest itself after death is determined by it’s cultivation level. Those who do not cultivate, or aren’t born with the sorcerer gene will undergo two deaths. The death of a body is caused by the breaking of ties between the soul and it’s vessel. The soul can no longer control the vessel after this occurrence. The death of the soul is the complete dissolution of the core. After it’s collapse, the residual mana gets reabsorbed into the atmosphere. Cultivated souls will be able to manifest a presence after death, but will no longer be able to wield mana. For wielding mana in this state would cause them to collapse. In this way, demons and cultivated souls are the exact same. Both lack solid cores.
A “core-less” being is one in which the humors and their mana comprise the entire body. They have the ability to shift between whatever form they wish. Spirits can remain indefinitely, should they restrain their sorcery. Demons, however, need constant sustenance. Most feed off of mana from the atmosphere, but some seek living souls as an alternative.
Demonic beings of exceptional power--who have lived a long time--are able to compress their mana into cores of their own, walking the earth with a vessel. Where they excel at, unlike humans, is the lack of consequence for losing said vessel. Being both made of magic and accustomed to it since birth, ancient demons can reform in an instant. But by now having cores, that gives them a tangible weakness. There is no rhyme or reason to a demon’s actions, even those that try to mimic humans come off only as distorted, uncanny imitations.
Devils, unlike demons, possess a greater level of sentience. Whereas both may fight to defend their own existence, devils may also do so out of anger, jealousy, or even fear. Their emotional intelligence allows them to blend more easily into human society, as most could take on human qualities and forms without much effort at all. While not inherently evil, many of them have left a mark on the world through acts of extreme cruelty.
THE ARCANE ARTS
For most of humanity’s infancy, the arcane’s presence was so commonplace that people dared not question it. Only in the second millennium--when paths taken by demons were retraced back to their source--had the existence of mana wells been realized. The first cultivators, in turn, are known to have perfected their craft by imitating devilish techniques.
Magic schools were first conceived in the eastern Thajes as a way to prescript the art of cultivation as a medicinal practice. They were built close to or directly above mana wells in order to not only safeguard it from intruders, but to quicken the cultivation process. Proximity to outpours of energy such as this are ideal for non-sorcerers to awaken their cores, provoking them into a state of hyper-awareness called the sixth sense.
The sixth sense allows users to perceive the auras--the energy signatures--of their peers. An aura is an involuntary projection of a person’s psyche. If an opponent’s aura is properly decoded, it may be used against them. Schools that prioritize soul magic are unsatisfied with mortality, driven voraciously by a will to live beyond the confines of flesh and bone.
The aura is projected through a series of meridians across the body. From the chest and head, to the palms and fingertips--the humors absorb and project mana. Like how the aura allows material manipulation, so too can it enable these same processes within the body itself.
The mastery of “self” encompasses abilities including but not limited to; rapid healing, immunity to disease, immunity to poisons, and projectile resistance. It also includes bodily transformations--either to graft bestial parts--or to modify pre-existing limbs. However, grafting parts from foreign bodies will put the user at a grave risk of corruption.
When cultivation spread into the west, teachings of bodily alteration took root in the Mevraic subcontinent. With a land famously scarce in iron and copper, yet also absurdly abundant with precious metals--evasive hit-and-run maneuvers were always the gold standard for Terzaean fighters. Now, they use their own bodies as weapons. Schools of the self preach versatility, and praise unflinching bravery--as practitioners of this art must be willing to accept that the consequences of even one mishap could cost them their lives.
Control over the material has been incentivized as a must, since it’s conception. Evidence of this art can be traced back to protohistory, when the Tenyün people erected an urban perimeter of larger-than-life walls around three meters thick. Once the precision-cut blocks of stone were put in place, sorcerers merged the gaps between them as one, forming a uniform surface of solid earth across all its four corners.
Classifications of the elements across time and place can be boiled down to two broad groupings; simple and composite. Fire, wind, earth, and water are all thought to be simple, because they are capable of acting on their own. But composites, such as spells to conjure storms or to spur the growth of flora require reactions between two or more simple elements. Because the performance of material magic users relies the most on practical theory, schools based around it tend to value those with an eye for detail and a sharp wit.
The arts will inevitably bleed into each other. This is especially true for schools teaching soul magic, who tend to pair it with bodily alteration for the best results. As far back as the Suōn dynasty, the Jogaiktsan--a Yomonese cultivator sect--are better known as the “shield-hands,” for how they deflect blades and arrows with open palms. Likewise, they’re known to use corrupting magic to break their opponents from the inside. Schools that specialize in one art will occasionally dapple in the other if they feel it’s necessary. Others will cater to all three, while throwing in the sciences learned and used by the rest of civilization.
RUNECRAFT
Runecraft is the transliteration of magic. It is spellcasting in written form. Since runes are able to store large amounts of mana, they are considered invaluable to the creation of runestones; portable, flat objects made with the intent of mimicking certain spells. Spell-storing items may be instantaneous, requiring minimal input for activation, but they are also single-use.
Runes are considered to be the catalyst for the invention of magitech . . . machinery powered by the arcane rather than earthly elements. In such contraptions, runes recreate the fruits of sorcery in a manufactured form. Naturally, magitech was a means to an end, turning these exploits into an commodity for the non-gifted.
Runes are differentiated by their functions:
1. Input runes.
2. Amplifying runes.
3. Nullifying runes.
4. Binding runes.
5. Output runes.
Input runes absorb mana from resources fed to them. If there’s enough mana to supply the act, the spell can be amplified or nullified to a desired degree. The binding runes ensure that the sequence remains in working order, connecting all the nodes to the output. Once triggered by a third party, the spell will be put into effect. Visually, a sequence might be a series of runes carved into physical instruments, such as rods and orbs. Free-standing sequences take on the form of polygrams. The latter is most popular as an addition to conventional spellcasting, while the former is preferred for industrial application.
The earliest runic devices were used to measure the level of mana in fixed areas. The first usage of runes on the human body is accredited to Golian surgeon Qorama Vadesh, who--with an almost microscopic blade--carved a sequence into one of his arteries to force a more robust bloodflow. The fuel feeding said sequence came from his own soul. His research was expanded upon by his contemporaries, who found a way to enhance mana absorption by carving sequences into the spine and sternum.
The lucrative business behind spellbooks had it’s origins in the Hekewa continent’s northern steppes, where mana wells remained far and few. Flat sheets of parchment with complex sequences inscribed into their surface and distributed evolved into spell tomes, which could hold a whole magic school curriculum’s worth of spellcasting within it’s weight. “Single-use” spell storers were called such because they came pre-loaded with mana of their own, and were designed to break the sequence after the spell was cast, either by dissolving the runes themselves or shattering the physical object that held them.
Spelltomes are reliant on the owner’s threshold, and their sequences have built-in safeguards to prevent low level cultivators from attempting to trigger spells that are beyond reach. Off-brand spell scrolls are easily identified by the fact that they’re always sold in a rolled up form. Since sequences must to be kept in pristine condition, it is a well-known fact that even a single tear, bend, or crease would compromise it’s integrity. Magic schools soon evolved to catch onto more subtle forms of contraband, a legal battle that still persists.
Although enchantment preceded runecraft, the process now goes so hand in hand with it that the art more or less falls under the same umbrella. In protohistoric times, glyphs were applied for protection. The act of enchanting an object or weapon was achieved by siphoning soul essence directly into the material itself. Now, runic sequences carry out the same function, expanding the horizons far beyond a simple prayer and warding.
Objects imbued with magic that have lasted beyond a century have a chance of developing a conscience either independent of, or from traces of it’s owner’s. Such objects are promptly referred to as relics. Some relics have been known fully absorb the souls of it’s wielder(s), granting them a second life. As long as the relic itself remains intact, so too do the souls they carry. Some relics were even created for that very purpose. Commissioned by the Navapradya Empire’s third ruler, Prakna Thara, was a device containing an “afterlife” for him and his descendants to inhabit posthumously. The relic is still kept intact, regarded as a national treasure by every state that followed.
Nier Tsong is a junior year student with a double-major in Urban Planning and Geography. They embrace art and worldbuilding as a hobby, and occasionally dabble in story-writing. This is their first time submitting a piece for ARCH Magazine.