Also known as Magiq
Magic, also sometimes spelled “Magiq”, is a collective term for all sorts of powers and energy. Magic is both a mysterious energy and the conversion of that energy into charms and spells. Magic is a skill that’s been hidden from the world for unknown reasons.
Description
Some people are aware that the world has been altered, sensing the fundamental “wrongness” of a world without magiq. These individuals are known as “sensitive.” A handful of people are born with inherent magical skills, and those people are known as adepts. Examples of adept individuals include Brandon Lachmann, Aether, and Portencia.
Types of Magiq
It’s believed that there are three schools or “manners” of magiq, though we’ve only just begun to learn about how magic works and where it comes from.
Mundane Magiq
The first is mundane or “Material Magiq”, which is the simplest form of magic used in the mundane world and the “time before.” It consists mostly of charms and rituals that affect the world in small, temporary ways, such as finding lost objects, remembering forgotten things, and subtle changes in the weather. It borrows power from the surrounding world and then gives it back when the charm or ritual is finished.
Wrought Magiq
The second type is primal or “Wrought Magiq.” Magiq that draws energy from other things and places, nature, magical objects, people, and then repurposes it. By doing so, it also destroys that energy. It’s dangerous, unpredictable, and powerful, but not necessarily “bad,” though it’s often used by those who don’t care about the destruction of magimystical energy. It’s been theorized that Wrought Magic is what powers adepts, people born with a specific, innate power. Without realizing, they instinctively draw from the world around them to perform their magiq.
Figuration
The third manner of magiq is sometimes known as “Figuration.” and is believed to be the only way to create new magimystic energy. It can be taught, but is most powerful in those with the innate gift of creativity; it is essentially storyteller magic.
It’s thought that there is power when new things, new worlds are “thoroughly thought up,” when rich stories are told. And the characters, the settings, the themes, and meanings can all be creatively repurposed to perform magiq.
But “storytelling magic” can be used in all sorts of creativity, not just writing. Anything that joins disparate elements into a new creation (which includes crafting of many kinds) can be used to create minor magiq. But stories are the focus of figuration. It is the rarest magiq in our world and near impossible to perform in the modern mundane world.
Examples of Magic
- Over the course of the events detailed in The Monarch Papers, the Mountaineers encountered many different types of magic.
- Travel Magic:
The first major act of magiq that the Mountaineers witnessed was performed by Brandon, a young adept from New York City who felt the world was “wrong” and wanted to find a way out of it. By honing his latent powers, Brandon was able to create a door with storytelling magic, which allowed him to escape our altered history. This led to his nickname, The Traveler. - Bending Blood:
After Lauren Ellsworth’s magiqal potential was unlocked by her powerful mentor, The Cagliostro, she performed many acts of magic, culminating in her bending her own blood to conjure black dragon’s wings, which she used to fly across the city. The Cagliostro later scolded her for this, stating that “bending blood is not for the inexperienced” and that she could have died if it had been performed incorrectly. -
Calling The Corners:
The Mountaineers performed the Calling the Corners spell to free Deirdre Green from the magical shield placed on her by her father. The spell was performed by six recruits who used mementos related to the six magical elements to ground Deirdre, who then created her own poem to release herself. -
Joradian Safeguard Spell:
Recruits performed the Joradian Non-Material Safeguard in order to protect the Basecamp 33 Forum from all malicious intent. The spell required a glyph to be posted near the Basecamp’s homepage, the creation of six boxes filled with the different elements, and six pledges spoken over the elements. -
Consolatory Teatime for Misplaced Memory:
In Fragment Eleven, the Consolatory Teatime for Misplaced Memory spell was performed to retrieve missing memories from Augernon, a former mountaineer whose memories had been erased.
The Roads of Wool and Silver
In The Monarch Papers, Volume One, Sullivan Green discusses the way in which individuals have gained magical awareness over the centuries, despite the information being hidden from the general public. At one point in time, there were two groups of people who knew what happened to the world, in some capacity: The Artisans and the Crafters. Centuries ago, they set two trails of clues, designed to be found by anybody with a strong enough desire to find them. These two paths were the roads of silver and the roads of wool.
Sullivan Green followed both the roads to their ends and found nothing but ruin. The people who originally created them had been gone for many years, leaving only silence in their wake. To find the truth, Sullivan created his own path to the truth, which he bequeathed to his daughter Deirdre after she learned the truth of magiq at the end of Fragment Eight.
Full List of Magic
- Weathermancy
- Uproot
- Faulton Fray’s Decay
- Charm and Deception
- Mend
- Bestiary Arts
- Grim’s Convergance
- Makepeace
- Truth and Calling
- Combat Magic
- Sand and Stone Scrying
- Evolutionary Magimystics
- Artificer’s Whim
- Alchemical Tranfigurations
- Undo, Multimystics
- Assembling Runes
- Many Hands
- Breath of Creation
- Communion Magics
- Shapeshifting Arts
- Therapeutics
- Trusted Confidant
- Call To Hearth
- Choreomancy
- Time Shifting
- Philosomancy
- Second Mind
- Astral Thinking
- Tome Kindling
- Peering Arts
- Navimancy
- The Swift Tongues of Kalivar
- Unanchored
- Fall Watch
- Languidimensional Touch
- Torchminder
Other known varieties of Magic
- Telemancy
- Bending Blood
- Inkhemist
- Illiomancy
Trivia
The ‘magiq’ spelling of magic is actually an acronym for “Magimystical Assessment & Guild Identity Quantification,” originating in Ackerly Green’s Guide to MAGIQ. However, this spelling later came to be used by many Mountaineers as a name for magic in general.