Revised Magick Lore (Proposal given tutt and Piexies bblessing)

I'll start by saying that this is simply a revision that Tutt and Pixie had asked me to make, it covers the disadvantages of magick a bit more and removes the intense demonic involvement and brings it more to a realistic, pagan standing. Demons and Angels will in fact have their own custom lore and be closely related to magick users in general, however magick users do not need to rely on demons as heavily as demons rely on magick users in order to enter our plane of existance.





Since the beggining of time humanity has done its best to understand the world around them through the five senses natrually given to them. However, just because you can't sense something through these senses doesn't exactly mean other planes of reality exsist. These super natrual senses and abilities humanity has for the longest time referred to as Magick, there are essentially two diffrent kinds of magick. One can be learned while the other can only be obtained if you were born with the gift or given it by another with the gift, which kills the one who gives said gift so this form of obtaining magick is very rare.

Brief Backstory:
Since the early days of man the spirit world has leaked into the human world. the strongest connection days being on the winter and summer solstice, and the strongest connection being on October 31st, also known as Samhain. The ancient civilizations owe their amazing acheivements to interaction with this world. Even older societies known as 'pagan societies' have utilized this connection through their everyday culture.  Due to the sheer power these individuals had the potential to wield, humans began to view magick as something more demonic and evil, mainly due to a lack of understanding of it. Antimagic organizations, such as the Spanish Inquisition and other, more secretive ones  have largely eradicated magical knowledge. After the Enlightenment, the two connection between the worlds with one another became much weaker. During these times much of the knowledge of the other world and magick in general was lost. Anything beyond what exsists on pagan culture and witchcraft is largely lost. This means that gifted users who have a natrual connection to the other world have very little information to go off of, and the stuff they do have acsess to, most can learn with time and practice to a weaker extent than those gifted, and often these individuals will never obtain something substantial in terms of magickal power.

Note: Ability in either form of magick is one that must be authorized or applied for on the forums.

Inate Ability Magick:
It is not inherited through family. It is done by a complicated ritual of very experienced and knowledgable witches. It is said that in order to be born with the gift you must be born on one of the pagan holidays, or on the winter or summer solstace. After that, finding out you have the gift is also difficult. Usually during times of high stress a magic user might accidentally use their magical abilities, usually in the form of something subtle but useful. Another way to find out you’re a user is through another user, a fable, or a truely skilled pagan. All three have a sense of those gifted in magick. 

Obtained Ability of Magick:

This is typical witchcraft obtained through the pagan religion, much like those born with the inate gift of magick, these individuals must have been religiously involved in witchcraft for a considerably portion of their life, they're VERY spiritual people and have a deep connection to nature, The God, and The Goddess.

The usage of magic
Inate Users: These individuals are gifted in using magick and learn quickly by those who have the knowledge to teach. Utilizing magick in this sense is exhausting, and requires constant training and practice to use effectively in a practical sense. The advantage that inate users have over witchcraft users is that inate users are generally faster and stronger when it comes to casting spells, most able to perform it through parts of the body or through sheer concentration, and in fact don't require a conduit to perform through. Should an inate magick user utilize a conduit to perform, it increases the magicks potency and strength well beyond what a witchcraft user is capable of.

Witchcraft Users: These individuals are able to utilize a wider variety of magick simply because their whole life has been spent learning it, these individuals are typically slower, as they require a conduit to perform their magick from, and require words or chanting, sometimes even rituals for the more powerful forms of magick. While witchcraft users are able to utilize elemental magick on the same level as an inate user, they still require their conduit to perform in any capacity, and performing is equally exhausting as someone born with the natrual ability. 

Magickal Conduit: A Magickal Conduit can be any item that has been charged from the energy of the universe, a demon, or an inate magick user, this typically is represented in a charm, necklace, sometimes tattoo's, but always requires the witch utilizing the conduit to perform the proper charging rituals on the full and new moons, these conduits do lose their charge especially through excessive use, and unless in the hand of an inate magick user, requires time and chanting to perform through.


Various forms of Magick:

The best way to learn magic to have another teach you, some are able to bargain with summoned demons to gain power, but it comes at a great price that is represented through a demons contract (More on demons in the demon lore)

Magic takes a lot of practice to do anything useful with and is physically and mentally demanding. Tapping into the spirit world is not easy, especially when that world is completely incomprehensible to an inexperienced mage. An inate user has to go through the annoyance of training and learning from either an experienced witch or inate user, either that or bargaining with a demon which can prove much more dangerous and fatal than the safer alternative.

Basic ability (What most can start with): Magick users, starting out, can often perform basic forms of elemental magick. The four elements are actually very important to both forms of magick users, often an individuals elemental affiliation will be based on his birthday, and reflects his horoscopes element, this is always the element that is easiest to perform for the witch or gifted user.

Fables and Magic:

Vampires aren't known to user magick typically, and if they were it'd cut off their ability to grow as a vampire, their useage of magick would double their need for blood, and they would require a conduit to perform through, essentially, unless a vampire has spent their whole life as a pagan, they wouldn't be able to perform, and those few that could perform can only do so after much sacrifice.

Lycans on the otherhand, are able to perform magick either through witchcraft or being born, they had never technically died, and their lifeforce remains strong enough and more nature oriented to where they'd be able to perform more magick without wearing themselves out as quickly, however to measure the diffrence between a Lycan or Human Magick user would be pointless until you get to the more experienced Lycans, who could perhaps only perform two or three times more spells as someone expereinced in Magick and its negative effects to the body


Potential Magick Risks: 

Inate users: Inate magick users are actually more skilled in preventing rebounding, an event that happens in which a user overextends their ability in the craft and the spell returns to negetivly impact the user. Inate Users typically don't need to worry about this unless they over-extend their abilities to the point where they exhaust themselves, attempting to perform while already capped out could put an inate magick user into a coma or worse, death.

Witchcraft Users: Witchcraft users, as opposed to inate users, run the risk of their spells rebounding much more, unless experienced and wary of the spiritual rule of three, they can easily hurt themselves or others without intention. The rule of three goes as this, and every pagan follows it: Whatever you send out into the world, including UNWARRENTED VIOLENCE will return to you by three.







Demonic and Angelic Magick:

Demons and Angels are able to use their respective magicks, which generally conincide with their faith, angels belive their magick to be 'pure' and 'holy' when in reality it is simply the way they use the magick. All magick isn't good or evil, it's based on what the user does with it.


Angels have a large distaste for witchcraft users and inate users, as they believe that their magick is the only true form and any others are perverted, evil, and must be purged from this world.

Demons utilize black magick on a much more intricate level than most humans or other fables can, considering their souls are already 'condemned' they can ignore the rule of three, which opens up a torrent of deadly black and blood magick that can only be countered by sealing or warding magick, which is the easiest form of magick for any user to obtain, considering its defensive and not offensive, it doesn't transgress the rule of three because it's keeping slef preservation in mind.

What is the "rule of three" that is mentioned in the demon section?

Well shit, coulda sworn I included that in, basically, more so for a witchcraft user because its faith based, everything a witch sends out comes back to them by three sooner or later, inexperienced mages experience this in the form of a spell rebound, while the more experienced ones that practice black magick open themselves up to demonic influence and general bad luck, think of it as karma, but related to magick.

What do you mean "comes back to them by three"
Three pm?
I don't understand your wording.

ZombieMesh wrote:What do you mean "comes back to them by three"
Three pm?
I don't understand your wording.

It's a concept that mostly only applies to Wiccans, in that they believe whatever you do returns to you multiplied times three. So if you do something negative, you get that negativity*3 and if you do something positive you get the positivity*3. It is designed essentially as an internal check-and-balance in Wicca to try and dissuade people from doing bad things. Think of it kind of like karma, if you send out bad karma you get bad karma back. Wicca just takes that and multiplies it by the three, but there are even sects of Wiccans who not believe the three-fold rule exists at all and think it is just a guideline intended to keep people from causing problems.

Personally, I think making all Magic based upon Wicca to be an inherently bad idea simply because there are plenty of eclectic and pagan belief systems that have incorporated magic over the vast course of human history, but do not incorporate the practices and beliefs that Wicca does. For instance, there is also Jewish mysticism with the Kabbalah and Norse Heathenism, and by essentially grounding all of the magical lore in Wiccan practices you're pigeonholing people into a Wiccan mold of what magic is. Infact, the entire write up is essentially Magic as prescribed by Wicca just replacing the word "Wiccan" with "Pagan" and calling it a day except for a small blurb at the end about Demon's and Angels.

This write-up also misuses the word Pagan. Pagan is a grouping of religions, it isn't a single religion. You list specific holidays but Samhain is not celebrated by every Pagan sect. For instance, there is Norse Paganism (Heathenry), Roman Paganism (Sol Invictus, Cult of Jupiter, Mars, etc), Greek Paganism, Germanic Paganism, Arabic Paganism, etc, etc, so on and so forth. I understand the need for a uniform system on how to handle magic, but you've less created a lore guide for Magic and more created a lore guide on how to be a Wiccan. It just seems silly to constrict all magic users to a Wiccan mold when there are other avenues with their own quirks and unique practices -- it just stifles creativity when the entirety of the lore regarding Magic use is basically "You have to be a wiccan".

The Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, for instance, is one of the most infamous texts on Magic and demonology but it contains exactly 0 elements of Wicca. If we are operating on the premise that Magic has always existed in the world as well as Demons it makes no sense to rule out things like the Lemegeton Clavicula Salomonis, which is what having a lore that is entirely Wicca-centric kinda of does. Likewise, the Calendarium Naturale Magicum Perpetuum is another historically significant grimoire which influenced esoteric sects across Europe that contains no aspect of Wiccan Paganism and instead derives all of its systems from Judeo-Christian beliefs and Jewish Mysticism. 


And most of what the world knows of the Occult is inspired by the works of Heinrich Corenlius Agrippa, who wrote the De occulta philosophia libri tres which combines the natural world with the celestial and the divine via Neoplatonic participation, which basically laid out that ordinary licit natural magic was validated by Demonic Magic which was actually sourced from God, and that Magic would ultimately absolve all skepticism in the Christian faith. The De occulta philosophia libri tres is famously connected to the notion that the Knights Templar were condemned for Magic Use, not idolatry. 


There is a plethora of magic and occult stuff in the world that the propose lore is woefully inadequate at explaining or handling. What if someone wants to be a Christian magic user? Jewish Mystic? Arab Pagan? These are all areas which engaged in occult or magical practices at some point in history, and the lore proposes that Magic has always existed and has been persecuted by events such as the Spanish Inquisition which simultaneously would lead credence that these other forms of Magic exist, but the way Magic works in this lore it sounds like you have to be more Wicca-leaning Pagan to even remotely possess Magic, which more or less serves to invalidate the possibility of Jewish Mysticism.


It is my most humble opinion that if you want to create a good, solid Magical lore that it needs to be secular. Wicca does not hold a monopoly on the usage of Magic through history, and it would be impossible to create a lore that specifically elevates one sect without completely destroying and shutting off the possibility of others. That is why I think it should be secular. Magical lore should focus on the specific technical aspects, limitations, the faults and the benefits, and then leave the fluff on how they channel the Magic up to the individual...That solves the problem of making sure Magic is properly represented without completely trampling peoples ability to be creative about their character.


If the Magical Lore simply focused on the technical abilities and limitations of a Natural Magical force present in the world that some people are naturally inclined to tap into, or are capable of training to tap into it, without any thematic or dogmatic attachments linking it to one specific religion it would just be better overall. Hell, there are people out there which hold no real one religion in significance but practice the occult. Aleister Crowley, for instance, up and created his own religion.


Sorry if this seems a bit ranty or attacking you, that isn't my intention -- I just honestly believe that any sort of Magical lore implemented on the server would be better off as being secular while allowing people to add their own religious fluff as they choose on how to channel or practice their craft. If you choose one set of beliefs, you're boxing out the possibility of creativity and interesting characters. There is just too many systems of magic and too many belief systems that have existed throughout history which incorporate Magic to say "This one was right", because if Magic always existed and those people were actually performing magic, you're invalidating thousands of years of History, alot of which predates Wiccan Paganism such as Early African Tribal Belief Systems that believed in Magic by essentially trying to establish that all Magic ever is derived from Wiccan-centric pagan traditions. 

The rule of three doesn't exsist in just Wicca but pagan religions in general, it was believed that witchcraft was the cause of demons, vampires, lycans, and the like being brought into the world and so I decided to expound on that.


If we have a world where vampires and lycans exist then we should also have a world where pagan (Not just wiccan) witchcraft exists considering it'd be people pointing the fingers at people who practice magic for the cause of fables in the first place, history has shown that's where people tend to look and blame when it comes to supernatural occurrences so it'd make since that the spiritual following of witchcraft in general would have a presence on the server.


Also we're referring to only one kind of magick, when there are actually two routes someone applying more magick can go for, someone born with the gift to perform magick without the spirituality of it, and the other which more follows the faith involved in magick as it's known throughout history.


religious magic doesn't take even a majority of the magick lore, and in fact innate users don't require any faith in the religious aspect of magick to use that, I wanted there to be two routes for people to choose from, where they can choose to make magic a more faith based thing or they can just pew pew fireballs, which this lore ALSO allows.



Also regarding demons and angels, they are getting their own separate guide and topic to cover them much more effectively than I could in this topic, and considering there is a general misuse of the world pagan in today's world anyway and it's a modern vampire roleplay that's why I decided to make the guide in this way, it doesn't have to follow everything exactly my only aim for this guide was to make a reference for those wanting to have these kind of characters, it doesn't have to follow real life to T because then there isn't much room creative freedom if I had done it that way.



Don't think of this guide as something that can be referenced outside of the server, this is basically something that is only refrencable to this server. Think of it as an original piece that's loosely based off of the history of magic in real life.

Shanaro wrote:The rule of three doesn't exsist in just Wicca but pagan religions in general, it was believed that witchcraft was the cause of demons, vampires, lycans, and the like being brought into the world and so I decided to expound on that.


If we have a world where vampires and lycans exist then we should also have a world where pagan (Not just wiccan) witchcraft exists considering it'd be people pointing the fingers at people who practice magic for the cause of fables in the first place, history has shown that's where people tend to look and blame when it comes to supernatural occurrences so it'd make since that the spiritual following of witchcraft in general would have a presence on the server.


Also we're referring to only one kind of magick, when there are actually two routes someone applying more magick can go for, someone born with the gift to perform magick without the spirituality of it, and the other which more follows the faith involved in magick as it's known throughout history.


religious magic doesn't take even a majority of the magick lore, and in fact innate users don't require any faith in the religious aspect of magick to use that, I wanted there to be two routes for people to choose from, where they can choose to make magic a more faith based thing or they can just pew pew fireballs, which this lore ALSO allows.



Also regarding demons and angels, they are getting their own separate guide and topic to cover them much more effectively than I could in this topic, and considering there is a general misuse of the world pagan in today's world anyway and it's a modern vampire roleplay that's why I decided to make the guide in this way, it doesn't have to follow everything exactly my only aim for this guide was to make a reference for those wanting to have these kind of characters, it doesn't have to follow real life to T because then there isn't much room creative freedom if I had done it that way.



Don't think of this guide as something that can be referenced outside of the server, this is basically something that is only refrencable to this server. Think of it as an original piece that's loosely based off of the history of magic in real life.

The only problem with choosing the method of ignoring history is how much history do you ignore? It was my understanding that this game was rooted in reality, albeit a reality where the supernatural does exist and to that extent I assumed that history was still applicable. When you add Magic to the game and reference to historical events involving Magic, it also lead me to believe that other historical practitioners of Magic were likely just as viable, though the lore didn't seem to leave much for them.

Your description of innate magical users also specified that they had to be born on a Pagan Holiday or on the Winter or Summer solstice, which basically hems it in to the pagan religion you're describing. Oh well! Should be interesting none the less to see how it ultimately plays out.

I said it was completely random, however chances are increased when someone is born on one of these days, not because it's a pagan holiday but because of the astrological events that happen during these days, there's a reason why places like Stonehenge and the like have the sun line up perfectly with it during the winter and summer solstice.



I mean we definitely aren't going by the historical accuracy of lycans and vampires in terms of historical mythology, so I move back to my original point that this lore is loosely based off of historical witchcraft however it stands independent of itself and couldn't really be used as an accurate reference if someone was researching magick irl.



My aim was to create advantages and disadvantages for both paths to take, inate users being gifted with it and not having to use a conduit to perform with, while witchcraft users tend to be more knowledgeable in magick in general simply because they've been raised most of their life and immersed in it.

Sorry for the double post, but I noticed this quote:


"I just honestly believe that any sort of Magical lore implemented on the server would be better off as being secular while allowing people to add their own religious fluff as they choose on how to channel or practice their craft. If you choose one set of beliefs, you're boxing out the possibility of creativity and interesting characters."




This is why I created innate users, people who are born with it regardless of their faith, meaning that these individuals can add their own religious fluff, however I didn't want to discount historical influence that witchcraft had when it came to this kind of stuff, considering many used to blame the creation of these creatures on witchcraft, not Christianity or any other religion but those that utilized the craft.

Shanaro wrote:Sorry for the double post, but I noticed this quote:


"I just honestly believe that any sort of Magical lore implemented on the server would be better off as being secular while allowing people to add their own religious fluff as they choose on how to channel or practice their craft. If you choose one set of beliefs, you're boxing out the possibility of creativity and interesting characters."




This is why I created innate users, people who are born with it regardless of their faith, meaning that these individuals can add their own religious fluff, however I didn't want to discount historical influence that witchcraft had when it came to this kind of stuff, considering many used to blame the creation of these creatures on witchcraft, not Christianity or any other religion but those that utilized the craft.

Okie dokie. I guess I just misunderstood the innate user bit with the pagan holiday aspect.

Yea, it's usually by chance but someone born on one of those days does have a higher chance of receiving the gift, but it's not faith oriented at all for the innate user. Unless they want it to be, and all magic is really the same magic, its the user who decides to link it to a faith or not really.