Information about Magic

[Kelthak]

First off, if you are using psionics, congratulations, you already know how to do basic magic, as well as use a single subset of it.

For those of you who focus on psionics, you do quite a bit of general magic.

Magic In General

In general, magic would be the manipulation of events through non-scientifically accepted means, typically related to manipulation of energy surrounding the event. It does not matter if this is done through ceremony, divine intervention (a quite reasonable form of magic actually), spontaneous manipulation, calling upon entities, or any other large number of things.


Various Subsets of Magic

There are literally countless methods of using magic, so I will not attempt to describe all of them. Instead, only the most common ones will be discussed here.

General Magic - the skills that almost all forms of magic require: Sensing, Energy Manipulation, Programming or Structuring of energy, Astral Projection.

• Sensing is required for validation of what you are doing, though not used in all forms of magic working from what I have seen. It tends to have the most use in spontaneous working, and when interacting with others who practice magic.
  
• Energy Manipulation and Programming/Structuring are used by almost all forms of magic that I have seen thusfar. These are typically what direct your intent and go about altering the path reality takes to make it favor what you attempt to make happen.
  
• Astral Projection is used in nearly all forms of magic as well, as the astral planes are where most people beginning with magic do their workings at. The lower astral planes are the most common place to locate someone who is preforming basic forms of magic with little knowledge of what they are doing.
  

Black Magic

Black Magic tends to work much like any other form of magic besides how it is focused. It could be considered a method of using other forms of magic, but I feel it deserves mention here, as most people have the wrong idea of it.

Black Magic is not "Evil" in and of itself. It is simply the focus on destruction as the main method of doing things. You destroy an obstacle, break down a barrier, crush an enemy, or destroy anything that harms you.

Ceremonial Magic

I lack knowledge of Ceremonial Magic, so if anyone has good information about it, please let me know so that I can add it in for others to view.

Chaos Magic
"There is Chaos in the hearts of little children. As the machine grows, the Chaos dies."

Chaos Magic is a rather entertaining form of magic based on using anything that works to reach your goal. Where else can you call upon the power of your left sock to get a real result on something?

Chaos Magic is quite difficult for me to explain, so I would suggest looking at Chaos Matrix for information, as quite a bit of it is useful in finding what works for you.

Elemental Magic

I lack knowledge of Elemental Magic other than the absolute basics. If you have knowledge you would like added here, please let me know so this can be more complete.

Elemental Magic is based around differing properties between different elements, and making use of them, as well as working with various elemental entities.

MappaM made a great post about Elemental Magic that may be useful.
View MappaM's post here.

Healing

Healing is, rather obviously, the usage of magic to heal. Since you have many bodies, and they are all connected together, you often have to heal the same thing many times. However, any time you heal something in one body, it also helps the other bodies attached the closest to it.

Psionics

Psionics is based on mental interactions, such as telepathy (mind to mind communication), psychokinesis (mind manipulating matter), and other such skills.

Telepathy is also quite useful in many other areas, but fits more with psionics than any other area.

Summoning

Summoning is a form of magic that can either be heavily effected by astral politics, if you are trying to form alliances with entities, or met with extreme hostility from many species if you are trying to control what you summon.

Used properly, summoning can be incredibly powerful, as you can often work with entities who surpass your own skill by a massive amount. However, used poorly, summoning can screw up the practitioner by a very large degree.

I would have to warn against summoning until after you have a good idea of what you are doing, and to be sure not to summon anything stronger than yourself until after you becoming experienced with summoning.

White Magic

White magic is similar to black magic in that is it more a method of doing things than its own form of magic. It tends to focus more on purification, improvement, and cleansing rather than destruction like black magic.


Using Magic

Not quite thinking straight, so going to leave this until I am making more sense. Will be edited in later.



[Edited to add in a link to MappaM's post]

[MappaM]

Good, understandable and straight forward. Thanks

Brightest Blessings
~MappaM~

[MappaM]

Just to add to the information concerning elemental magic.....

Powers of the Elements and Those that use them.

As long as magic itself, one of the most fundamental abilities of a magician has been to attempt to control the four raw powers of the elemental system. The four refer to Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. The ability to feel these energies, understand them, and to move them is the study of the Elemental Mage. Throughout their practice different casters will experience different degrees of success no matter which art is practiced, but Elemental magic is often considered one of the most difficult arts to progress in and thus there are few practitioners. It is also difficult because of the nature of the magic itself: it deals purely with the real and tangible facets of the four elemental powers, not with the ethereal correspondences of the elements as an Enchanter would. As such, it tends to be seen as an "all or nothing" art where you clearly succeed or fail every time. Also, as a matter of practicality, few have a real need for this kind of power anymore (due to many of the necessities being provided for by technology) and thus the caste tends to be left behind, to a certain extent. Regardless of this fact, however, many have felt the call to gird themselves with elemental knowledge and harness the natural powers around them.

Focussing only on the physical manifestations of the four elements, each has unique uses and capabilities when properly applied. "Heat" energy, as we know it, is not perfectly synonymous with Fire magic. Though to an Elemental Mage the two are very similar, there is a missing aspect in the concept of heat which restricts it to this level. For the Elemental Mage, all things which produce heat are also giving off the mystical equivalent of heat energy. In this way, Fire energy can also be used to metaphysically detect things which produce heat, and even, in extreme circumstances, to focus the ethereal form of heat into a physical manifestation of flame itself, thus creating pure flame from seemingly nothing. Keeping in mind the physical principles governing combustion it becomes readily apparent why feats of this nature are rare, at best. Through enough practice and concentration, however, the Elemental mage learns how to absorb heat energy from all things around them, as a unified action, and bring it to bear against a target. This can be to warm the caster, to warm an inanimate target, or a friend. It can be used to find things generating heat, and to control preexisting sources of heat such as flame and mirage.

Air is another of the elemental manifestations, and is usually the first element an Elemental Mage finds control of. Due to its already volatile nature and tendency to change the Elemental Mage can find their first successes, usually, in attempts to change wind direction. Breezes can carry smell, keep away noxious fumes, cool the caster or something targeted by the caster, and may be the edge required to start a fire that just will not light. There are far too many uses of wind and air to be listed here; truly, we see the effects of wind every day, as even now we breathe the air and can describe what the wind conditions in our area are like. It can be used to regulate heat, it can affect our senses in various ways, and is an overall good place to start. Wind constantly moves, constantly changes, and in that spirit we may influence them without much resistance.

Earth, however, is the difficult counterbalance to Air. It is firm and resists all kinds of change, hence the Elemental Mage must exert themselves to a rare degree to find anything more than a nominal skill with this element. Earth is the foundation of most life, and by this merit it can be used to lend aid to dying plant life, choke out undesired plant life, sense creatures within the caster's spell range, and to basically know that which the earth would be able to relate (not as an intelligent entity, but as an extension of one's own senses, such as feeling the tremors of other animals, feeling the stability of a certain area to step on, etc.) Some Elemental Mages claim the ability to predict and cause certain events such as earthquake, famine, drought, siroccos, frost, snow, hail, sleet, fog, and other types of natural manifestation by making full use the Earth element to gain knowledge and control of the environment.

Lastly, there is the practice of controlling the water. Water can be used in much the same way as Earth in that the tremors it carries can be interpreted by the Elemental Mage to extend their range of sensation and know things they would normally be oblivious to. Water abides in many of the things that we see daily. The air contains some, the ground contains some, and various materials or substances (including human flesh) have quantities in them. Elemental Magic concerning water can be seen in a great deal of cultures which still rely heavily on agriculture, and in the history of cultures which did. The "Rain Dance" is a prime example of water elemental magic at work. To cause rain to fall at will, or conversely, as the Biblical characters of Moses, Elijah, and the Two Prophets of Revelation 11, to cause it to stop is the bailiwick of the elemental magician.

The abilities of the Elemental mage varies greatly, and intimate knowledge of the elements gives intimate knowledge of the physical world around and its innermost mechanics. To truly understand the world around an Elemental mage is only a matter of learning and harnessing the ways of nature.

Keep in mind always that everything physical is made of the Elements and thus holds the power of that element. It is in the knowing of that element within the physical object that we are able to manipulate and direct it's energy. The mage will also conduct his workings on specific days and hours of the day depending on the element that is being used. All is taken into consideration for workings by the Elemental Mage and those who practice it's magic.

Brightest Blessings
~MappaM~

[stolide]

Thanks!

Both of you did a great job writing those.