Magic and Powers

World of Edar - Magic and Powers
To some, this may seem sacriligious. To those people, I apologize. I am trying to reconcile my love to create, my love of the creator, and the desire of playing a good game.
More on this, read my confession here

Supernatural in Edar

Supernatural in Edar
To start off, one question must be asked in the world of Edar - where does all this supernatural phenomenon come from?
The answer of course is Vethibensvelk Urathear or Vu for short, the creator, the changer, the one who was and is, or to put it into non-fantasy terms, God.
Now this is where we will begin to deviate from reality into fantasy. The giving of this power in supernatural ways to the inhabitents of this world, Edar.
More on this can be found on this thread concerning the creation Myth here.

Now Vu established the Planes of Existance, reality, and how it all works. But in this establishment, he also gave free will. As part of that, to some he granted the ability to tap into the sources of power. Vu set aside some of his power in this world in the inner planes. (for more information about planes, see the D&D Manaul of the Planes Book) These planes consisted of primal energy such as Fire, Water, Air, Earth, and Life. Due to the rebellion of one of his servants, a sixth force of energy was added and that is death. Now the Life and Death energies are normally defined as positive and negative energy, neither containing the essence of good or evil, but rather the power to create life and the power to end it. It is by tapping into these planes that the very basic building blocks of the world are established.

Ok, put on your scientific hat and look at this now from a scholarly point of view or technical point of view. When a child is concieved and born, what makes this possible in Edar is the inner plane of positive energy. This provides the spark for the creature to be alive. However, eventually, the forces of the negative plane wear down on the creature, causing it to eventually die.

Now we get into Magic.

Now we get into Magic.
What is Magic in Edar? Magic is the ability to see these forces, the powers, building blocks of the inner planes and use them to manipulate reality. You need to start a fire, so you rub two sticks together to get the fire going. What happens is that you are tapping into the force of the plane of fire. Taking this further, a creature is gifted in sensing where the fire comes from and is able to access it to set fire to the sticks without rubbing them together.

Now the forces of Magic themselves are neither good or evil, but power. They can be used for good or evil, that is up to those that are sensative to the energies.

This means that there are basically two types of creatures in Edar. Those that have this Magic gift and those that do not. To further complicate matters, those that have the magic gift cannot get rid of it and if they do not learn how to use it properly, they can cause harm to themselves and others.

Ok, we now need to define spells.
Spells in Edar and in D&D for that matter, are cause and effect. When a certian thing is done, you get an effect. Example - setting the sticks on fire.

Lets now go farther into defining it to the classes of D&D and how they access the inner planes to work these supernatural things.


Arcane Magic Classes

Arcane Magic Classes

Wizards - Wizards are the scientists. They know that these planes exist and quantify how to accomplish their spells. The make a study of how these energies interact with each other and write them down into books to study. The have the intellectual side of things.

Sorcerers - Sorcerers according to D&D use the force of their personality to tap into the powers of the planes. To simplify, lets say they are the artists. They paint with the energies, they see their work as an art form.

Bard - Bards are even more dedicated to art than the sorcerer. Because of this, they must actually use music to accomplish what they are trying to do.

Now we will begin looking at divine magic.

Now we will begin looking at divine magic.
What makes divine magic is that those with the Magic gift turn to a divine source to help them with it.
Ok, we now need to define what makes some divine.

In the world of Edar, the divine is spiritual aspect. Not sciences, not art or feelings, but the forces of good, evil, choas, and law tapping into these planes. This is where we must have caution. More on this will be on my Religions of Edar thread here.

Now lets looks at the character classes -
Cleric - The cleric is the priest. They have the gift of healing, spiritual guidance, etc. They use the forces of good or evil, law or choas to make these things happen. They have direct guidance from someone that is stronger in the ways of divine, whether that be Vu himself or some lesser being that Vu has established to help them. Or in the case of evil, they are servants of the ones that rebelled against Vu.

Druids - Druids use divine magic in the realm of nature and the creation. Their purpose to maintain the balance of the creation and perserve it. They know how to use the forces of nature to access the inner planes of energy. The original Druids of course were servants of Vu, that he established with special insight on how to perserve his creation. Oh course, some of them went with the rebellion and became evil, but still seeing the need to perserve nature, but also to corrupt it to their now fallen nature. Others, though not turning to evil, did themselves began to worship the creation they were entrusted to protect. They serve neither the forces of good or evil, but in the end they must choose which side they will be on.

Rangers - Rangers have their history as an offshoot of the Druids. They are trained woodsman, huntsman, etc that began to have the same insights that the Druids had.

Paladins - Paladins use the forces of Law and Good to access the power. They are so engrained into the very being that the accomplish these task at first without the guidance of another (unlike the clerics), however, the Paladin eventually will realize their need for guidance and seek it out. Sometimes, the reverse is true and Vu selects a special few to be his vessals of Law and Good. Other of his stronger servants may do this as well.

Blackgaurds - Anti-Paladins - the relish evil and all things evil. They are some of the darkest servants of evil. They drown kittens.

Psionics / Mind Magic

Psionics / Mind Magic
OK, we get now to the last type.
It is said that the human uses only 10% of his brain capicity. What if he could use more? Then truly amazing things could be accomplished, by just thinking about them. This is what separates Psionics from the other Magic Systems. They can see the inner planes and access the powers directly with a thought. They can speak mind to mind with others that have their mind open and the more powerful ones can speak mind to mind with anyone.

Vu originally created everyone with these capibilities, but due to the rebellion of the enemy, much of this ability was lost.


In Conclusion, I think this provides a good framework and balance to it all.

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