(This is based on a Patreon Exclusive Content that has been summarized.)
The Beginning of Magic[]
The origin of magic traces back to the very beginning of humanity. Many signs reveal that humans used magic back in the stone age, but it’s also assumed that there were even fewer magi back then there are now.
Old paintings and carvings also depict magi being killed, It is suspected that magic was considered a weird disease at that point in time. It was considered something strange and scary that had to be terminated for everyone’s safety.
However, during the ages it appears that magi became more accepted in society, and in the iron and bronze ages, you can find texts and drawings showing how magi used their skills to aid their towns and the people in it. Still, there was little knowledge about magic itself, and there were little to no magic education to speak of. All magi were basically self taught, or if they were lucky, they could find someone in their town who could teach them the basics. The most common magic was element magic, which is the easiest to learn.
Magi Rights and Proper Education[]
Because humans are humans, magi ended up using their powers in battle. If you had a magi in your army you were considered fortunate. Magi were hard to get a hold of at the time, and especially since many of them got recruited into armies, they chose to keep their powers hidden.
Unlike today, magi didn’t really have much of a choice what they wanted to do with their powers. They were almost seen as tools that should be used for the good of society. It was a sacrifice they were born into
Today, magi has the same kind of rights as non-magi. They can chose themselves if and how they want to use their powers, as long as it doesn’t hurt people.
It is however obligatory to get educated in magic. History has shown that terrible things can happen when people don’t understand how to use their powers.
People losing control of their powers has been a problem for as long as there has been magic in this world. But it was the Iris Massacre that eventually lead Yazmin Zoric, Lucas Sonnen and Edrea Stern to create the Victubia Magi Academy.
Different Types of Magic[]
The definition of magic as of today, is the ‘manipulation of all that is inside and outside’. Might sound like a very abstract definition, but goes well with the cornerstones of magic powers. The three cornerstones of magic are element, soul and spirit.
The elements of nature are outside of the human body, while inside we have the human soul, and binding it all together we have the spirits. A magi can manipulate all three of these things.
Obviously, no magi can use it all. All of them can use one element, and some kind of spirit, but besides that everyone has different strengths and weaknesses. Even the sages who specialize in one spirit magic, are usually below average dealing with the other spirits. It’s always a balancing act.
The kind of spirit magic that we know today is the purest form of spirit magic. It has evolved through the years and become the most natural and powerful way to use spirits. But before spirit magic was a thing, we used spirits a bit differently.
Traditional Spells[]
Back in the old days, spirit magic was a big mystery. It was also not divided into colours, as it is today. However, people could combine spirits to create small spells, using words and symbols. This is what we today call “traditional spells”. Traditional spells were however far from as powerful as regular spirit magic.
When combining small amounts of spirits, they can create very simple magic effects like very basic healing magic, temporarily paralysis on other people and causing others to lose their senses, such as their voice or hearing for a short while, among other things.
Discovering what words and symbols trigger spirits has been a learning process, and there’s a lot of different stories about this. Some people claim that spells came to them in their dreams, but there’s really no way of proving this.
Traditional spells also proved to be very efficient for dealing with ghosts, and have been a common method for people working with the paranormal. It is believed that traditional spells had a lot of different purposes back in the day, but when people discovered the spirit magic we know today, the use of traditional spells died out.
It’s not a very common magic today, and a lot of the old spells have long been forgotten.
Discovery of Spirits Magic[]
Lady Cardea Hayes The author of "The Cardea Journals" lived during the early 1400’s and she is known for being the first person to make a proper documentation of magic.
As a skilled dual magi of earth and wood, she traveled Europe and Asia to gather information and stories about magic and how people used it. During her travels she noticed that people used different languages and even symbols for traditional spells
She suspected what we magic historians know today, that spirits are universal and responds to all languages, because they are a part of our world and have been since the beginning of time. Our history is their history. Spirits are not creatures, but they are in a way 'alive'. Many believe the spirits are the source of all life, and that they are the building blocks for all things in this world. A mysterious power we are allowed to borrow temporarily. Historians believe that the Spirits appear to have a will of their own, in a sense.
Lady Cardea was also the first to discover the nature of spirits and how they seemed to be separated into different colours with different effects. She was the person who sparked the evolution of the spirit magic we know of today.
Her collected works were printed in three books which together were called "The Cardea Journals". Only a few copies of the collected works exist today. The Cardea Journals were in no way flawless. However, they sparked many discussions and theories, while opening the eyes of many people, especially magi, who often had ended up feeling alone and isolated at that point in time.
Magic became a hot topic for a lot of different reasons. Where did their powers come from? Why did some people have this power? And what was the purpose of it all?
And it was around that time when magic got the wrong kind of attention.
To be continued