Magic

''Thomasson fixes you with a steady, silver-eyed stare, slowly sipping away at his bottle of beer, "So, you want to learn about Magic. Why should I reveal the long kept mysteries of an unproven trollop? Fine, if only to remove a fragment of the world's ignorance. Let's make this brief...or as brief as I can." He scratches at his antler, as he grunts and gives a long sigh.''

The Origins of Magic

First and most common misconception of Magic is it's origins. It is important to understand what caused it in the first place. Magic was born directly in response to the Virus. And in reality, it is not the mythical or fairy-tale power that people read about in Pre-Virus story books. But mages are a reclusive sort, necessity requires us to be, so we allow a great number of superstitions to spread as a curtain of protection for ourselves. But more on that later.

Magic is entirely caused on a reaction between the Virus and unusual brain chemistry. What caused this unique brain chemistry is unknown, but pre-virus medical studies of early 'magical' anamoly hint that it might be caused by an undiscovered genetic phenotype among Animan. Whatever the cause of the abnormalities, it hardly matters now. When the virus infected the early "proto-mages" or those with the latent abnormal brain chemistry, it caused a rapid and serial mutation to take place.

In the early Proto-mages, as with Mages today, developed a highly dense, yet redundant, pattern of nerve custers and channels that spread throughout their muscle structure and over the brain. This is what allows Magic to be possible. It is in these channels of nerve tissue that flow the power that allows everyday Animan to produce seemingly Magical effects by focusing their willpower or emotional state. But the problem was that these early users of Magic where pretty uncontrolled, without time to learn now to dampen certain thoughts or urges. Pre-virus, we had all sorts of names for these effects...Psionics, Telepathy, Extra-Sensory Perception, Miracles, Acts of God, and alot of other stupid terms. But now, we just call it Magic, and that's a pretty good description.

Then it was discovered, in the first generation after the virus, that Mages could pass on these traits to their offspring. There is enough of the virus dormant in the environment to trigger the mutation, and these children became the first mages. They had time to learn control from a young age.

There is a mystery as to where this channeled power comes from. Some argue that it's purely biological and from the metabolic processes of the body, while some counter-argue that it must come from somewhere deeper, like the 'soul' if you will. Regardless, all Mages agree that all they feel either a hot or cold ball at the center of this guts. Common Mage terminology calls this place "The Core" and it's what most Mages focus there minds upon to summon up their powers. But cut open a Mage's guts, and you will never find this ball of power. Apparently, it's either a placebo, or something very metaphysical. No one really knows.

And that's it, that's the origins of Magic.

Common Superstitions and Misinformation

Now, there are a number of misconceptions about Magic in this world. This is just because most of the information about Mages is taught solely to other mages, and spread word of mouth only. People see us do things and they exaggerate their first hand accounts. But let's touch upon some of the most common of them.

1- Mages are all black cabal sorcerers, fixated on summoning demons from the underworld to grant themselves powers.

In this, I really don't understand people. We're living in a world with Night Terrors and mutated feral beasts that want to hunt you as much as you hunt them, and yet they dream up horned soul-suckers that dwell in some mythical underworld to torment themselves further. So let me lay this flat out, there are NO DEMONS. Mages cannot summon them because they don't exist. Trust us, we've explored this avenue a long time ago. There's no such thing. Worry about more tangible things that can eat your face, okay? Now, the reason for this myth is simply that some people can impose their willpower on objects or constructs to animate them, and I can see how someone not in the know could see this as a "Demon". But it's really not, it's just a fancy way to puppeteer something.

2- Mages are all powerful beings with no weakness and give nothing up for having their powers.

This is something we let simpletons believe. It's helpful as an intimidation tool. But it couldn't be further from the truth. We are actually, due to the toll magic takes on us, weaker than most people and much easier to kill. I will discuss the exact nature of the price we pay for power in a later section. Also our powers tend to be...fragile and extremely draining. There is only so much of them a person can use without risking themselves physically or mentally.

3- Mages can cast a huge selection of spells and abilities they can use to dominate every situation.

Again, this is a misdirection for our protection. Truth is, most Mages have a single "theme" to their magic, normally a single element of nature, and their use of it is completely dominated by this theme. Sure, normally this focus can be powerful in certain situations and applied in creative ways by a smart mage. (because there's dumb mages too, make no doubt) But that is not having a list of spells for every occasion. We're not gods, nor is this a video game.

4- Anyone can learn magic, it's just that the Mages are withholding the secrets from us.

Again, not true. If you're not born with the right genetic code, then magic will never appear in you. I explained that up under the Origins of Magic. Now, this rumor comes from the fact that some gain the powers later in life, closer to their teenage years. But that's the only known example of "late-blooming" mage.

5- Mages are all working in concert to kill off the non-magical population.

I...I honestly have no idea how this one came about. Mages are not of similar enough mind to ever work as a world-wide collective. I have rarely ever seen a group of Mages in excess of eight people ever form a functioning gang, let alone something akin to an army. The fact is that we just don't get along in close contact, everyone has different philosophies and methods what and how Magic should be used and applied to. So...yeah, no idea how anyone would figure we're a global hivemind.

6- Mages are a source of all sorts of enchanted magical artefacts of great power.

Again, this is a misconception caused by cavaraneers just talking too much. See, magic is from a biological source, and that cannot be passed to non-biological objects indefinately. Yes, a Mage can "empower" an object with magic temporarily, if they have the right sort of magic. But it requires them to maintain close proximity to the item or items they are empowering. They cannot just zap something with magic, and have it forever shoot fireballs.

The Weaknesses of Mages

Now it gets interesting, I mentioned it earlier. Let's get to the things that can kill a mage. First off, we are mortal, with mortal frailities. We bleed, we get tired, we have to eat, we need water, and we have to sleep. But there's more that, weaknesses that come with our powers. So let's get to the meat of it, shall we?

First off, using your powers as a mage is damaging to your body. Every mage has a soft-limit to how much they can use before they begin to over-extend themselves and deal damage to their physical form. And it's insidious, because it's incredibly easy to over-extend unless you know how your body reacts to it, because we as Mages have no hard stopping point to how much power you can summon forth. Depending on the sort of magic you wield and how much you over-extend yourself, this could be anything from a heavy fatigue to muscular atrophy to physical wounds or death.

But there is also the mental effect of over-extending, namely that over using your powers passed your limits can cause drowsiness, listlessness, fatigue, migraines, unconsciousness, and the all most feared status of mental destruction from over-use of magic: The process of Burning out, or also known as "Going Wizz". We call it that because of what we call burned out Mages...We refer to them as "Wiztards". Going Wizz is a terrible way to go out, as your mind literally fries its own synapses, leaving your mentally facilities barely above vegetable status.