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The Divine Arts ---- The Concrete-ish Summary

DassaultMirage

Minstrel
There was Ein Sof, the badass god-figure that no one understood, but he was just the most powerful, the most mysterious, the most distant.

Ranked below Ein Sof were the Erelims and the Fallens. The Erelims were the good. The Fallens were the bad. Bla bla bla spiritual bacon, Erelims and Fallens found themselves continuing their war in the human world. In the end, since Ein Sof someone holds a weak spot for us cutesy humans, he forced the Erelims and Fallens to a truce that forbid them to continue their war on our world. That no Erelim and Fallen would ever set foot with intent of malice against each other ever again in the world of humans <---- Ein Sof's exact decree, at least as some clerics in my story somehow decoded it to be.

Now, sensing a coming banishment, the Fallens mated with some humans, producing a new race of humanoids called Nephilims. Nephilims have parts of the dark powers that their Fallens parent have, but in a mortal body akin to their human parent, thus, for reasons known only to Ein Sof, the Nephilims were free to exist in our world.

The Erelims for their part, foresaw that the Nephilims would exercise some form of treachery that would oppress humans. They also saw the nature of 'banishment' and how they would be really forever be prevented from physically setting foot in our world again. Thus, they taught the humans the Erelim Arts. These Erelim Arts started off as four disciplines of elemental magic that just branched about as time went on. The Erelim Arts took advantage of the very nature of banishment that Ein Sof bestowed.



Human World
---------^------^------------^------
Rift
---v--v--^---v--^----v----v--^------
Erelims and Fallens

The Erelims and Fallens were separated from the human world by a buffer plane of existence with nothing but unstable, raw power. The Rift, as it was called, as you may see in the rudimentary diagram, was made to repel the Erelims and the Fallens.

Now, here's another crude diagram.

Final form of the spell, from as simple as a fireball to as complex as a tornado

^
^
^
Spell circles

^
^
^
Raw power from The Rift


The Erelims taught the humans to mold their "life force (chakra, qi, mana my story spans a lot of nations that used different terms for it but with the same meaning)" into spell circles and then into molds that would shape the raw powers that seeped out of The Rift. Now now, humans cast spell circles using their life force, raw power from the rift homes in on it, raw power comes out molded by whatever the caster of the spell circle willed it to be. The life force of humans were not enough to do feats that the raw power from The Rift could, however, the life force could somehow shape that raw power. A good example would be the people of Firebrand. Their volcano-centric culture and kingdom have them spiritually attached to their erelim deity, Corona, and thus, subconsciously attached to the element of fire. Thus, a Firebrander would most likely will his spell circle to mold the rift into fire-based attacks or defense.

Enter then the Order of Damocles.

The Nephilims were pushed to extinction by the newfound powers of the humans, thus, their Fallen parents must do something about it because after all, even demons love their babies. But not really. The Fallens were not ensuring the Nephilims' survival out of love. Their evil. They don't do love, but they wanted the Nephilims to win the power struggle only to make the humans suffer. Cut to the chase, those protrusions from the Rift to our world were the Fallens' raw power seeping into The Rift and into our world in an intense desire to reconnect with their babies. Thus, as with raw power from the Rift homing in on a spell circle cast by humans, the raw power of the Fallens homes in on their offsprings. It was a short-lived victory though, for the Erelims acted quick resulting into the Nephilims being closer than ever to the brink of extinction. The Erelims' strong desire to ensure human survival created protrusions of their own, but instead of the Erelims' raw power homing in on every spell circle, it homes in on spell circles cast by The Order of Damocles, individuals who have found favor in the eyes of the Erelims.

With the eventual weakening of the Nephilims, The Order of Damocles became a secret human order of no more than 100 members at any given time. They added a new function: checking the power of kings and queens. I don't mean they police over the world, but rather work in covert operations made sure that no one human being hoards enough power to rule and oppress the world. The Order of Damocles were making sure that the progress of humans as a race went on, however, as with the constant theme in my story which is corruption, many Damocles gave in to the powerlust and returned to their respective nations and used their direct-from-erelims spells to help their nations wage war. A series of defections shattered the Order of Damocles, and the remaining dozen were scattered but would unite to stop what could facilitate the return of a Fallen. MY MC was a Damocles, but a noob one.

How do all these sound like? I would really love you guys if you respond about wucha think and what needs improvement and all that. Sorry for the lame grammar or if there're some spelling mistakes here. I have had half a bottle of hard vodka with a lot of strawberries and I ain't in complete sanity, but then again, aren't you all?
 

Svrtnsse

Staff
Article Team
I think it sounds like a good foundation for a magic system. To sum things up from the standpoint of an uninitiated human observer:

Humans can do magic with circles.
Nephilim are mean bastards with powerful magic.
The Damocles are a small group of humans with power equal to the Nephilim.
The Damocles fell to temptation and corruption and only a few good guys are holding it together still.

Plenty of room for conflict there. :)
 
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