Magic

From Sedes Draconis

Magic

Magic functions through the manipulation by concious minds of the energies which exist around the Sedes. Though the number of possible effects are theoretically infinite, the difficulty of learning the thought patterns that create a specific effect creates a limiting factor. Most individuals never learn to perform any magic. Those that do usually learn to be produce just one effect, or set of related effects, called a tradition.

Since magic is a function of concious thought, magic cannot be imparted to an object. Nor can it continue past its users concentration, though any consequences are lasting. That is, an elven life-shaper can change the shape of a piece of wood and it will retain that shape until some other force, magical or otherwise, acts on it just as any other piece of wood; but the life-shaper could never cause the wood to continue magically changing it's shape after the shaper has stopped concentrating on it (though a clever and skilled life-shaper could, by changing the shape of a living plant now, direct its future growth).

Traditions are founded largely by accident, when an untrained individual manages to create a magical effect. From that beginning the founder may hone and develop that effect, and possibly teach others to re-create the mindset that allows that set of effects.

Most traditions can create only a single effect, maybe with a few minor variations. Among some traditions, usually among the relatively old and/or widely used traditions, initiates of the tradition have explored the mindset and learn to produce new effects within that mindset. These new effects can then be added to the tradition repetoire.

Joining a magical tradition involves learning a certain mindset. This is a very nebulous and poorly understood process, and whatever differences exist between the thought patterns of the teacher and the student hinder this process.

It is rare for a magic-user to succesfully teaching a tradition across a cultural or native language barrier. Due to the differences in brain structure and thought pattern in different species, teaching a tradition to an individual of a different species is a practical impossibility.

Learining one tradition usuaully pre-empts the ability to learn another, and indiduals who manage to learn to use multiple traditions are vanishingly rare, even when social factors might otherwise allow acces to multiple traditions. In these extremely rare cases, it is possible, though not certain, that the magic-user may be able integrate the two traditions and therefore to teach both sets of effects as a single tradition to students.