Mindfire
Istar
First a brief explanation. In my world there are three basic categories of magic:
My question actually relates to the first two categories. Good magic was given to humanity by the creator. The cosmological origins of evil magic are irrelevant to this thread. Suffice it to say that it manifests as a corruption or counterfeit version of the magical disciplines that fall into the first category.
There are three separate disciplines or schools of Original magic: Soulfire, Shadowhand(or Silvanhand, I'm still deciding), and Runespark. Detailed explanations of these are below in spoiler tags. Each of these three has an evil counterpart whose description I have also included in the spoiler tags below. For example, the evil counterpart of soulfire is called dragonfire.
Now that I've gotten the exposition out of the way:
The latter two questions are those that chiefly stump me at present. Thanks!
*Non-magic is termed so because it has the appearance of magic, but is actually natural rather than supernatural in origin. The only art so far that falls into this category is gravencraft, which utilizes trained and bound elementals to do the will of the user. But since, in the context of this world, elementals are merely animals (but a different kind of animal from the ordinary sort), the feats which gravencraft accomplishes can be likened to the way we might train dogs or ferrets to do tricks in our world, so they aren't really magical.
- Good
- Evil
- Non-magic*
My question actually relates to the first two categories. Good magic was given to humanity by the creator. The cosmological origins of evil magic are irrelevant to this thread. Suffice it to say that it manifests as a corruption or counterfeit version of the magical disciplines that fall into the first category.
There are three separate disciplines or schools of Original magic: Soulfire, Shadowhand
Now that I've gotten the exposition out of the way:
- What would be a suitable name for the body of evil magic as a whole?
Between "shadowhand" and "silvanhand", which is better?EDIT: This question has been solved. Thanks!What would be a good name for shadowhand/silvanhand's evil counterpart?EDIT: This question has been solved. Thanks!- What would be a good name for runespark's evil counterpart?
The latter two questions are those that chiefly stump me at present. Thanks!
Soulfire
Generation and manipulation of a special kind of "living" fire that has properties differing from normal fire and almost has a mind of its own. Its users apply their imagination and creativity to achieve varied, unique, and sometimes staggering feats through its use. Soulfire is also unique in that it is the only magical discipline that allows the user to create (fire) elementals.
Shadowhand/Silvanhand
This talent manifests as a limited ability to manipulate the natural world and also grants exceptional reflexes and agility, the ability to camouflage by changing one's skin, and the power to transform weapons and into things of light or shadow. Its users, a tribe of forest-dwelling hunter/gatherers chiefly use the last power in conjunction with arrows. Light arrows can deal powerful damage, and shadow arrows are invisible unless you stare directly at them, although they can still be "sensed" by those blessed with this power. Seers, who are very powerful in the art, can even walk on water.
Runespark
Those blessed with this talent have an inborn quality that reacts with a special substance called "thunderstone" that occasionally falls from the sky. This interaction enables them to use that substance to generate massive amounts of energy that can manifest as powerful arcs of lightning. The skill is not only useful for combat, as advanced masters can use this power to simulate a kind of teleportation. The users of this gift most often smelt thunderstone into a grey-black metal called "thundersteel". The purified metal has less raw power but is lighter and easier to make use of and is typically forged into swords and armor. These weapons are then marked with runes to bind them to an individual user.
Dragonfire
Dragonfire manifests as a magical flame of eerie green or sickly yellow-green color. Whereas soulfire encourages creativity, imagination, and strategic thinking, dragonfire is mainly used to overwhelm an opponent with sheer, brute force. Extremely powerful practitioners can create the eponymous dragons, which are, in this universe, not true animals or sentient creatures, but rather a corrupt kind of elemental.
Counterpart of Shadowhand/Silvanhand Bloodcraft
The philosophy behind Shadowhand/Silvanhand encourages adaptability and harmony with the natural world, since its users are forest-dwellers. On the contrary, its evil counterpart bloodcraft encourages the twisting, perversion, and manipulation of nature for one's own gain. The Wendigo, a race of amazon-witches, used it to fuse woman and beast in such a way as to produce lycanthropy, so that their greatest warriors could change at will into cat-woman creatures. One of my prominent antagonists uses this power to create chimeras, which he plans to use as biological weapons.
Counterpart of Runespark Hexas?
Runespark, as an art, encourages precision and clarity in action and thought. Its main tactics are stealth and surprise, and its creed is embodied by the lightning bolt: strike hard, strike fast, strike true, and then vanish. On the contrary, its evil counterpart encourages pride, ostentation, catharsis, and sadism, and is generally used as a method of torture or to inflict a slow, lingering death on the practitioner's enemy. It can also be used to project illusions into the minds of others, and to view remote locations through enchanted objects, such as mirrors.
Generation and manipulation of a special kind of "living" fire that has properties differing from normal fire and almost has a mind of its own. Its users apply their imagination and creativity to achieve varied, unique, and sometimes staggering feats through its use. Soulfire is also unique in that it is the only magical discipline that allows the user to create (fire) elementals.
Shadowhand
This talent manifests as a limited ability to manipulate the natural world and also grants exceptional reflexes and agility, the ability to camouflage by changing one's skin, and the power to transform weapons and into things of light or shadow. Its users, a tribe of forest-dwelling hunter/gatherers chiefly use the last power in conjunction with arrows. Light arrows can deal powerful damage, and shadow arrows are invisible unless you stare directly at them, although they can still be "sensed" by those blessed with this power. Seers, who are very powerful in the art, can even walk on water.
Runespark
Those blessed with this talent have an inborn quality that reacts with a special substance called "thunderstone" that occasionally falls from the sky. This interaction enables them to use that substance to generate massive amounts of energy that can manifest as powerful arcs of lightning. The skill is not only useful for combat, as advanced masters can use this power to simulate a kind of teleportation. The users of this gift most often smelt thunderstone into a grey-black metal called "thundersteel". The purified metal has less raw power but is lighter and easier to make use of and is typically forged into swords and armor. These weapons are then marked with runes to bind them to an individual user.
Dragonfire
Dragonfire manifests as a magical flame of eerie green or sickly yellow-green color. Whereas soulfire encourages creativity, imagination, and strategic thinking, dragonfire is mainly used to overwhelm an opponent with sheer, brute force. Extremely powerful practitioners can create the eponymous dragons, which are, in this universe, not true animals or sentient creatures, but rather a corrupt kind of elemental.
The philosophy behind Shadowhand
Runespark, as an art, encourages precision and clarity in action and thought. Its main tactics are stealth and surprise, and its creed is embodied by the lightning bolt: strike hard, strike fast, strike true, and then vanish. On the contrary, its evil counterpart encourages pride, ostentation, catharsis, and sadism, and is generally used as a method of torture or to inflict a slow, lingering death on the practitioner's enemy. It can also be used to project illusions into the minds of others, and to view remote locations through enchanted objects, such as mirrors.
*Non-magic is termed so because it has the appearance of magic, but is actually natural rather than supernatural in origin. The only art so far that falls into this category is gravencraft, which utilizes trained and bound elementals to do the will of the user. But since, in the context of this world, elementals are merely animals (but a different kind of animal from the ordinary sort), the feats which gravencraft accomplishes can be likened to the way we might train dogs or ferrets to do tricks in our world, so they aren't really magical.
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