Original Adult Novels of Magic

How Magic Works

Basic Magical Ability is Action Based

With the use of wands, Sorcerers can perform actions with their natural abilities as long as they have clear intent. They don’t have to learn incantations. It is a matter of will. Any related word will focus the intent. “Come” to bring an object. “Blast” to blast an object and so forth.

Limits of Life-Taking Magic

Actually taking a life with pure magic is very difficult to perform however, because the soul is strongly attached to the body. Blasting a person might hurt or incapacitate them, but not kill them completely, which is why sorcerers carry weapons to finish the job.

Killing is usually accomplished by casting an action that when carried out, causes death by some physical means such as blasting someone over a cliff, or into something hard with a lot of power, or making something heavy fall on them. Or sending a sword flying at them point first. There usually has to be some outside physical assistance in order to actually kill someone.

One of the first objects newly inducted sorcerers learn to create are stones or boulders. Big stones. These are dropped on clerics. Every little bit helps.

Creating Objects and Living Creatures

Sorcerers cannot just create things out of thin air. They have extensive knowledge of exactly how a thing is put together. If they want to create an object, then they must study it, and understand the mechanics behind the object . . . the materials, the structure and more. Because of this, Sorcerers study quite a bit of mundane subjects.

For example, if a sorcerer wanted to create a chair, he would have to have knowledge of carpentry, woodworking and whatever other skills are necessary. In other words a sorcerer would have to have the knowledge how to create that object by hand before he can create it by magic. This goes for every inanimate object.

Even something as simple as a bowl has to be understood. How the materials are collected from the earth, processed, how the bowl is molded, dried, coated and fired.

Sometimes sorcerers will work together to create an object when each has knowledge that the other does not. For example, a sorcerer who knows how an engine is put together and the physics of how it works can create one, while another sorcerer who understand body design and framework can design the body of a vehicle.

Some marvelous objects that don’t exist in the real world can be created in the magical one this way, and it will work in the mundane world because the principles of the physics behind it are sound. Unfortunately, they don't last forever and have limits.

Creating Living Creatures

All created living creatures are temporary, but the same creature can be created more than once. There are limitations as to how many can be created at once time which is explained by the immutable "Rule of Seven."

Again, extensive study is required to create any living being. For example, if a sorcerer wanted to create a dragon in real space, he would have to know all about dragon biology, skeletal structure, circulatory system, digestive system, respiratory system, how the flame is generated, and more. He would have to have studied dragons extensively to create one from scratch.

The same with temporary humans, or golems. An extensive understanding of the physiology of how the human body is put together and works is important.

However, once basic knowledge of biological creation is embedded in his mind, a sorcerer can alter the design and create creatures that never existed in the world but still function, no matter how outlandish they are in appearance.

Time Frame of Creation

Creation initially takes practice, patience and time. The first time an object is actually created, it can take days, weeks or even months to fully manifest. It will appear as an insubstantial translucent representation of the object or creature and slowly solidify. Finklenook has a number of “Creation rooms” in the lower levels where undergrads and staff create objects and store them until they are fully formed.

Creation of an object or creature becomes faster over time with practice and after a while a sorcerer will be able to form it instantly as well as set its duration of existance.

This is quite helpful against the clerics, especially when a creature is created with an intense hatred of them. Usually the sorcerers make the creatures respond to chanted prayers since all clerics use them.

But clerics have prayers that can impede magical creation and individuals who specialize in just doing that during battles. They are protected by other clerics.

The Rule of Seven

Sorcerers cannot create more than seven of any one object or creature at a time. Nor can a created object exist more than seven days.

Sorcerers are not gods after all.

It’s believed the Rule of Seven exists because seven is the representative number of completion, the world itself being created in seven days.

Sorcerers use the human body as an identifiable example of perfect completion and the living embodiment of the Rule of Seven. The perfect human body contains seven organs, seven glands, seven spiritual centers, seven orifices and the head is one seventh the length of the body.

Proof enough.

Getting Around the Creation Problem: Thievery

Sorcerers can get around the problem of creating objects if they steal them from someplace else. But they have to have been where the object is and placed their magical signature on it, which will fade after time. A simple “Come” spell will transport it. This only works for inanimate objects. Living things cannot be stolen.

Stealing requires practice and is just as illegal in the magical world as in the mundane one. In the beginning only very small objects can be stolen, but as the sorcerer becomes more adept at it, he can take larger and larger objects.

If a sorcerer that is weak in creation magic can conjure extremely large objects from apparent thin air, one can trust he is a thief of great magnitude. The main things stolen are money and food.

Things that Cannot Be Created

Money and Food. Money cannot be created because even though the methods of printing and smelting it are known, there is no physical value attached to it to make it negotiable. So while a sorcerer can physically create coins or bills, they will not stay corporeal for more than seven seconds. It normally takes longer than that to complete any transaction.

There are exceptions such as flashing money in a briefcase to someone and shutting it quickly. But those are rare occasions since very nasty results can follow.

Food contains nutrients that sustain the physical needs of the body. These nutrients cannot be magically reproduced since they are essentially a life force. All created objects are temporary, so when magical food is eaten it is in effect destroyed and is of no benefit to the body.

False Creations: Illusions

Any sorcerer can create the illusion of anything based on face value. But it is not substantial and can not do damage. Without study or knowledge of how it is put together the creation is a ghost image. It can seem solid but cannot interact with the world at all.

Illusions are often used in battle along with true creations. Clerics cannot initially tell what is real and what is illusion until they attack it with prayers or come in contact with it.