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Necromancy is one of the Triadic Arts that cover the elements of life: body, mind, and spirit. After the Schism, the loss of cerebremancers caused many to begin thinking of necromancy as the opposite of theramancy rather than one of three parts that make up a whole. Necromancy was long associated with death, and the name stuck, but it is truly the magic of the spirit. After the body’s physical death, the reincarnation cycle of spirits traversing Endscape to rejoin the Initiator means that necromancy is the only multiplanar magic. A trained necromancer can determine if someone is near death, who the person was in previous lives, and even commune with spirits in Endscape before they are reincarnated. Some believe necromancers can communicate with the Initiator, though necromancers deny this.

Necromancers are greatly respected both for their closeness to the Initiator and for the comfort they provide to those who have lost loved ones. In the rotes when the insensati burned magi, the necromancers survived mostly unscathed: it is considered an insult to the Initiator to kill a necromancer. With their knowledge of impending death, it was common in the rotes when the skies danced for soldiers to seek out a necromancer before battle and ask if the coming conflict would be their last, but these magi are often reticent to reveal what they know for fear the knowledge will change the outcome. Necromancers believe that everyone must die at their correct, appointed time.

For almost three thousand gyres, necromancers have been a rare sight. It is unknown precisely how many there are, but some say as few as twenty. Necromancers believe there is a finite number of spirits able to wield this specific type of magical energy, so each generation has the same number of necromancers as spirits reincarnate. Their numbers dwindled from hundreds to the current, tiny number after an event known as the Bleed. Something caused thousands of spirits to return from Endscape without merging with the Initiator. They began to rip the spirits from living beings and send them screaming into Endscape before the appropriate time. The necromancers of that era came together and contained the angry spirits to a single region, but it caused the death of most of the participants. They have never reincarnated. The trapped spirits continue to linger on the stark, stone plateau to this rote. The Great Lantern Tower at Ameklin Pass guides the living through what has become known as the Wailing Sea. The tortured spirits cannot stand the light of the tower, and living beings illuminated by it can travel safely.

The most common specialties within necromancy are presented here. Bridgers facilitate contact between the living and the dead, serving both grieving families and restless spirits. Releasers are magi who guide spirits through the crossing into Endscape at their properly appointed  time, but legends claim unraveled releasers turn their powers on the living and release their spirits into Endscape early. Soulwrights focus on the health and integrity of living spirits still housed in their bodies. They are the necromancy equivalent to theramancy’s healers, though their precise purpose and function is poorly understood by most magi. The vigilists began as a watchful group devoted to observing what Endscape chose to reveal of itself. Over time the role expanded into active mapping, experimentation, and attempts to better understand the nature of Endscape. Other necromancers have grave concerns about this drift.

Theramancy is the magic of life. Some might say it is the ability to use magic on living creatures, as opposed to creative magic, especially that wielded by reconfigurationists, which is magic used to change inanimate objects. There is some crossover. Reconfiguration magic can transform lumber, or even downed trees, into wooden tools or furniture even though the wood is a dead tree. Theramancers can also work with dead plants and creatures. However, the longer it has been dead the more it pulls into the realm of reconfiguration magic and away from theramancy. One common use of theramancy on formerly living matter is the cleansing of food. A skilled theramancer can make spoiled meat fresh again.

Theramancy is most commonly used for healing and curing, but it has many other applications. A theramancer can make a person stronger, or transform into a different kind of creature, or cause plants to bloom, or make a recently broken limb from a tree sprout new leaves as if still alive. In urban centers with a large magus population, cosmetic theramancy can be bought that will cause hair to grow in beats, or change the color of one’s eyes, or permanently alter one’s height up or down by a few inches.

Healer’s sickness is a common repercussion for those who use theramancy. It is usually short-lived, a few measures of symptoms similar to an extreme flu or food poisoning, but its aftereffects could last most of a rotation. Theraddiction is a common repercussion for recipients of too much theramancy. Theraddicts need theramancy and can feel symptoms akin to starvation or dehydration when they do not get it frequently enough. Extreme theraddiction can lead to grim consequences such as trying to get injured so as to receive more healing magic.

To the bold goes the theramancy. This common expression refers to taking the offensive to win a fight even though it means you are likely to get injured and need healing magic. It is a good reminder that theramancers have long been associated with battlefields. Some remain on the fringes to tend to injuries, but others participate more directly by enhancing soldiers or unleashing modified beasts.

The most common specialties within theramancy are presented here. Healers are the magi most associated with theramancy and specialize in its most basic form: healing. Automorphs are magi who specialize in transforming themselves into different kinds of creatures, real or imagined. The feared allamorphs specialize in transforming others, often into innocuous creatures that can then be easily ignored such as rats, toads, or squirrels. Enhancers specialize in increasing physical characteristics to make their targets faster, stronger, smarter, or just prettier in the case of cosmetic theramancy. Phytomancers specialize in using their magic on plants instead of animals, and are responsible for many magical plants, and the steppefire. One unofficial specialty is known as harmers. These theramancers have learned to reverse the healing effects of their magic and can make injuries appear, cause heart attacks, or even force the body’s internal mechanisms to turn on each other. Many nations have tried to ban this type of theramancy, but in practice it can be very difficult to detect and therefore prove.

Of all the types of magi, theramancers have long been the most accepted. Few communities turn away someone who can mend broken bones and cure illnesses with a wave of a hand.

The Order of the Just, and its adjudicators, aided in interpreting laws in remote regions of many nations. As impartial and autonomous arbiters, they could be trusted when even government authorities could not. Adjudicators often served as lawmen, in addition to judges, and many were skilled warriors. They operated on the outskirts, with the permission of various governments, to allow a nation to expand without putting its own government agents in harm’s way.

The Order of the Just started as a reaction to the influence of magi over the laws of many nations. The order argued that as a tiny, privileged group the magi could not understand the everyday needs of common people. The order gained popularity by standing up for the poor and disadvantaged, and in its earliest rotations might have had truly altruistic goals. As generations passed, the power and wealth of the Order of the Just grew, and any original philanthropic mission fell away. The order attempted to overthrow several governments where magi held too much influence – in the opinion of the order. Nations with a toppled government would need new rulers, and the Order of the Just had every intention of being the replacement government whenever possible.

An ill-fated plan to attempt to supplant the Empire’s Magistratum was discovered long before it could be carried out, but by then the Order of the Just was already unpopular with the ruling body of Empire for interfering in a myriad of minor ways with the imperial government. The Order of the Just was expelled from Empire. After its banishment from Empire, the order gained a new mission: to bring about the destruction of the Magistratum in any way possible.

The Order of the Just remained free to aid in interpreting and enforcing laws in other nations, and the adjudicators used this opening to proselytize against Empire. People in the large cities often saw the adjudicators as dangerous and obsessed, but rural communities or towns on the edge of the wilds found the adjudicators friendly and useful in legal matters or interpersonal disputes.

The symbol of the Order of the Just was a tome with long, satin bookmarks demarcating several important pages. The depiction is sometimes called the Tome of Laws, and is supposed to be a book written by one or more of the nine Creators with a perfect list of laws for governing. In times of war, adjudicators would ride under a flag with the symbol to bring ceasefire negotiations to the other side. Despite the order being known for their conflict with the Magistratum, many adjudicators were honorable agents of law.

The Order of the Wise, whose members were known less formally as slayers, famously claimed their founder to be the bodyguard of a magus many hundreds of gyres ago. This bodyguard was unable to prevent his charge from being killed by an unraveled magus, but refusing to accept this failure in his duty, the bodyguard hunted down and slayed the other magus, though this act was not without its cost. The bodyguard subsequently died from injuries received during the battle.

Following the example of this original warrior, soldiers across the orbs devoted themselves to training in combat techniques that would help a mundane combatant defeat a magical enemy should they ever need to kill a rogue magus. Gyres later, during a session of the Magistratum where official sanctioning of the fledgling order had been requested within the Empire, representatives of the order made rational arguments for the need to have soldiers who could assist in finding and defeating unraveled or otherwise rogue magi.

The debates that followed were fierce, for a body of magi were being asked to legitimize a group of soldiers who wanted to hunt and kill magi. One of the more esteemed members of the Magistratum at that time remarked that he was amazed at the wisdom in the arguments presented by the order’s representatives. A common expression in the Empire of that era was: “any words can appear wise posthumously.” The expression poked at the common occurrence of someone’s opinions being more highly regarded after death. This expression was subverted in the debates of the Magistratum when another one of the political magi of the era remarked, “I imagine that almost all of the members of this new order will seem very wise in a few gyres.”

Of course, that sarcastic comment was intended to express the belief that the order would not survive long because all of its members would be killed trying to fight insane magi. Instead, it led to the unnamed order adopting the name the Order of the Wise in a kind of willful obliviousness to the intent of the comment. The Magistratum eventually agreed to allow the new order to operate inside Empire, and the slayers did not all die out as once predicted. In the modern era, the Empire maintained a large force of slayers, provided them with extensive training and powerful defenses against magic, and used them against rogue magi and other threats. The Order of the Wise was active in many other nations as well, but the perception of them as an arm of enforcement for Empire colored perceptions of slayers for many.

The Order of the Wise required its recruits to do hundreds of bars of combat training before earning the monicker of slayer and a medallion emblazoned with a dagger across the palm of an open hand. Most of these amulets were thaumines that could protect the bearer from the energies of one or two combat workings, but they were slow to recharge. There was a lot of mistrust between magi and slayers. Despite the founder of the Order having started as a bodyguard to a magus, slayers of later generations were all too aware that any magi could unravel and become a threat. Magi reciprocated the animosity with the belief that any slayer could turn violent at any time, and were simply another variety of prejudice against magi.

A creature that gains sustenance from magical energies is a thamavore. Those of a linguistically stubborn bent argue that the word technically refers to a creature whose primary subsistence is these energies, but such sticklers lost that debate many gyres ago. While a carnivore is a creature that primarily eats meat, a thaumavore is a creature capable of ingesting magical energies. This trait is rare enough that there is no label for a creature that eats a mix of magic and other sources of nutrients such as vegetables or meats. The thaumavore label indicates an ability to consume magic, but does not imply the creature is incapable of eating in more typical fashions.

There are two main fields of thought as to the emergence of thaumavores. One group of scholars argue that such creatures are a natural occurrence that developed in the earliest era as an evolutionary response to abundant sources of magical energy. The other common opinion is that thaumavores are an artificial creation of magi, akin to a living thaumine, and therefore are a more recent occurrence. This side bases their opinions on thaumines that absorb magic to power their wondrous abilities. They are, in essence, inanimate thaumavores and an obvious steppingstone to animal thaumavores. Despite these two opinions having little-to-no overlap, the debate continues. It is problematic to prove the origins of thaumavores, as such creatures consume magic that targets them, making them especially difficult to locate with sensitivity.

A major question that arises in the study of thaumavores is: What do they do with the energy they consume? Scholars have discovered numerous answers that are grouped into two broad categories: sustenance thaumavores and empowered thaumavores.

The sustenance thaumavores require magical energies to survive. This is generally due to physical characteristics that cannot be supported by more common nutritional methods. For example, lindorms grow to such massive size that an adult lindorm would need to consume several tons of meat each rote for its basic energy needs. This is why lindorms are only found near the sites of magical apexes.

The other category, empowered thaumavores, use the energies to power fantastical abilities. Empowered thaumavores typically have other means of taking in nutrition, most commonly being carnivores or omnivores in addition to the thaumavore aspect, but this is not technically a requirement of the categorization. The woolly lion is an excellent example of an empowered thaumavore. The more energy they take in the stronger the creature becomes. A magus who foolishly targets a woolly lion with a working may find the creature’s strength enhanced to the point that it can bite through metal armor and leap dozens of feet.

Most thaumavores are animals, but it is possible for thaumines to have thaumavore characteristics in that they absorb magical energy to power their functions. Some incredibly complex workings are also said to be thaumavorous in that they consume energy from other workings. It should be noted that some plants are thaumavores. This is not unlike the method that plants use to get sustenance from the Eyes through chlorophyll. Rare, thaumavore plants have a similar gel-like internal substance that scholars call thaumaphyll. Its deep purple color gives the needles of thaumavore plants their distinctive violet shade. Many unwary magi have found themselves bereft of their abilities after straying too close to a field of thaumavore thistles.

Many insen confuse implements with thaumines, but they are quite distinct. Thaumines are imbued with energy and instructions by magi while implements occur naturally. The four types of primary implements have been used by magi for thousands of gyres despite the fact that the reason they work continues to elude scholars. As with all such mysteries, there are many theories, but most doubt that even the mysterians know the truth.

The four types of primary implements are:

• Wand. A length of material usually between 4 and 18 inches. Wood is the most common substance for wands, but anything that will retain a largely straight shape will work. A wand aids the magus in targeting workings. Nearly every apprentice uses a wand for the first gyre or two, until the master has been reasonably assured that no magic will go astray.
• Staff. A long material at least 3 feet tall. Wood is again the most common substance for a staff, and the only real distinguishing characteristic between a wand and a staff is the length/height. Both need to have a diameter that fits easily in one hand, so the size really is the only difference, and there have been numerous instances where a broken segment of a staff has been used as a wand. A staff aids the magus in both pulling in magical energy from the environment and metering it back out efficiently during workings. The end result is more magic use throughout a rote and less overwhelming repercussions.
• Crystal. Any crystalline material can work as an implement to enhance cerebremancy. After the Schism, this implement fell into disuse with most magi, but is still used as an aid in concentration and focusing. The Hidden Masters are said to use crystal implements in many ways forgotten by other magi.
• Globe. A spherical object can be used as an implement to aid sensitivity workings. Sensing further through time and space is the most common use for a globe implement. Some magi require them for sensitivity workings even after apprenticeship, and the spherical shape is commonly used in thaumines that involve sensitivity.

A magus merely declares an appropriate item to be an implement, and it works. A magus who needs a new staff can walk into the forest, find a downed limb of the appropriate length, and decide it is a staff. It takes nothing more, though it is common for magi to modify their implements with artistic crafts and decorations. An implement works because of a combination of some natural magical effect and the magus’s will. As long as the magus believes it is an implement then the object will be one. Scholars refer to this as the Implement Effect.

Some magi have success in combining two or more implements, such as a crystal ball being both a crystal and a globe. Crystals or globes frequently adorn staves or serve as a kind of pommel on wands. There are few limits to the comingling of implements beyond the willpower of the magus, though most believe that a staff and wand cannot be comingled because of the size difference.

A lot of magi view implements as tools to learn magic, and as such they are not appropriate to use after apprenticeship. The idea that an implement is a crutch leads to the perception that a magus who does not need any implements is more powerful or more highly trained. Even with the negative opinions, the majority of magi in the modern era use wands.

One unusual interaction in the energies within an implement is that a thaumine cannot be used as an implement. This is another aspect of implements that is not well understood. An implement transformed into a thaumine stops functioning as an implement. That is one reason why it is so rare to see a thaumine staff. A magus can easily carry two wands, globes, or crystals, to have one that is a thaumine and one that is an implement, but carrying two staves is difficult.

There are also secondary implements that are less common and harder to will into functioning via the Implement Effect. Such secondary implements, such as dowsing rods and binding rings, are for very specific workings, and are too numerous to discuss here. Thealla’s Advanced Magics is an excellent resource on such items.

Mythi came into existence less than a score after the First Cal-Elo War. The conflict between the two might city-states resulted in casualties and destruction across the region. Some cities became embroiled due to alliances with one side or the other, but many other cities suffered indirect losses as the conflict spread. Innocent travelers were collateral damage, crops and livestock were ransacked as supply trains stretched thin, and unaffiliated towns found themselves transformed into battlefields.

The origins of mythi can be traced back to a single event: the Concordat at the Periphery. A gathering occurred at war’s end with representatives invited from every city, town, and village that experienced losses during the conflict. Calibar and Eloria were not invited. The First Cal-Elo War was also the first organized use of magi in war. Whole battles were fought by magi. Many of those that attended the gathering were magi, and perhaps due to the sheer number of funerary rites performed in the region, many of those were the well-regarded magi of the souls: necromancers.

The gathering discussed how to stop the destruction of unaffiliated locales and the deaths of innocent bystanders the next time a war broke out over a large region. The gathering may have been prophetically inspired as, of course, the Second and Third Cal-Elo Wars were even more devastating. These debates ended in an agreement between the various represented municipalities and the necromancers in attendance. This agreement was the Concordat at the Periphery, and its hundreds of pages detailed the responsibilities of the necromancers in limiting deaths during large-scale conflicts. The Necromantic Oath also traces its origins to this document when later generations rebelled against it and sought a return to the idea of a “natural time of death.”

After the Concordat at the Periphery, huge numbers of necromancers sought to make good on the pact through the instantiation of a complex, permanent working that was powered by the energy released when a soul passes into Endscape at death. The working is imbued with a base morality that judges the nature of the deaths. Too many violent deaths of innocent people in an area, with innocence primarily being determined by not reciprocating violence, and a nearby living soul connected to the deaths in a positive way, such as a family member or close friend, is empowered with some of the collected energies. Such a person becomes a salvus mythus, the first type of mythus to walk the orbs.

The mythi legacy is much more complex all these compositions later. Other types of mythi have formed, organically or through manipulation, and artificial mythi further pollute the characterization. The beginnings clearly show that mythi were intended to be a force for good, and so perhaps the tavern tales of heroic mythi can be believed… to an extent.

The Order of Wands was a militant order of magi. Its members, known as guardiennes, were originally all female. After dozens of scores as a female-only fighting order they eventually admitted men, but the feminine term was applied equally to both. In the order’s earliest rotes it was known as the Sisterhood of the Guardiennes, and its adherents strove to prove that magic made the genders equivalent when it came to combat. This goal of gender neutrality eventually led to the inclusion of men and the change from sisterhood to order. The Order of Wands was chosen as the final name due to their wands being a defining characteristic. Guardiennes can be identified by their use of short, thin metal wands as opposed to the longer and thicker wooden wand used by most magi. The wands of a guardienne were usually between 4 and 6 inches long.

By the modern era, guardiennes were known as the best bodyguards. Unfortunately for the wealthy and elite who desired their protection, guardiennes were not mercenaries. They traveled between nations and sought out worthy causes to support or people to protect. A guardienne could not be bought, but some tried to sway them. Those who gained the defense of a guardienne through chicanery were made examples of when the truth came out. To deceive a guardienne was to invite violence.

Guardiennes had no distinctive appearance beyond their wands. Many guardiennes wore the traditional wrapped attire of a magi, but others specifically eschewed any identifying clothing or other characteristics. By blending into the crowd, guardiennes were better able to identify threats without being noticed. Other situations called for a visible bodyguard, and guardiennes were perfectly flexible in this area: both stealth and panache could be weapons. Unlike the majority of magi, some guardiennes did choose to wear armor.

The Order of Wands believed they could change the course of history through the proper application of their extreme combat training. They did not seek to violently remove leaders, but instead sought to keep people, and sometimes whole movements, alive and well to continue working for the common good. A benevolent lord, an inspired advocate for peoples’ rights, or a remarkable healer all might find they had a guardienne watching over them openly or in secret.

The sanctums of the guardiennes were castles in the wilderness or fortresses in the midst of major city-states. As the longest-lived militant order of magi, they took their combat role very seriously. Legends claimed the guardienne fortress in Amathast was their oldest stronghold. It predated the change away from the original name of the Sisterhood of the Guardiennes, and most of the order’s agents trained there for at least a few movements.

The Order of Mysteries was regarded as the oldest of the many orders. Official members of the order were known as mysterians. While there were few true mysterians, frequently a city only had a handful of full members, many people learned basic history at the feet of a mysterian. Mysterians maintained a sanctum in every city-state and many smaller towns. Knowledge was important and was regarded as the greatest possession by many omrun cultures. The mysterians acquired knowledge, but they did not do so to share it. The Order of Mysteries believed that too much knowledge could be dangerous. They also believed a lack of knowledge was dangerous. So mysterians recruited likeminded scholars and other gifted individuals to the Order of Mysteries. They hoarded tomes and manuscripts in locked vaults and meted out parts of history only to those who proved themselves worthy. The mysterians created a cult around learning. They held power and sway amongst nations because over time they had secreted away bits of history that were lost outside their sanctuaries. The mysterians claimed their practices prevented the loss of previous knowledge, but in many ways they encouraged it with the silence brought about by their elitist nature.

The Order of Mysteries was famous for the zeal of its adherents. Everyone who was part of the Order, whether a full mysterian or not, had a numeric ranking. The rankings were earned through extensive learning and testing. It took gyres to move upward through the ranks, but that number determined what parts of history or teachings you could know. The basic elements of history were taught openly, and mysterians referred to these as the Rank Zero teachings. This led to those outside the Order being called Zeroes in reference to their lack of numerical rank.

Full members of the Order received deep black sashes without adornment or pattern. Legends claimed that a person could stare into the abyss of the black sash and secrets would be exposed. The sashes were generally not thaumines, though the Order of Mysteries did recruit magi and a few black sash thaumines were created. Their exact purpose and powers was only known to their creators.

Mysterians believe their founder, who lived hundreds of scores ago, was reincarnated in every generation. Everyone who joins the Order is told about this constant reincarnation of the founder, and encouraged to remember previous lives. The founder lived an ascetic lifestyle and was said to spend rotes fasting and meditating next to a pond. Nature was believed to speak to the founder and aided in expanding the founder’s working knowledge of all things. If low-ranking mysterians attempt to emulate this in the hopes of realizing they are the reincarnation, so much the better.

The sanctums of the Order existed everywhere. Some whispered that mysterians traded in current knowledge, such as political secrets, as well as ancient knowledge. It was rare for any government to accuse mysterians of spying, since without the libraries and teachers the Order provided a nation could lose its intellectual edge, but Order of Mysteries was excellently positioned throughout the orbs and had zealous followers. If the Order partook in clandestine activities, few would be able to pierce the veil of mystery.

Describing the detailed skin patterns of omruns as “foreskeletons” is a misnomer that stretches back to some of the earliest histories kept by the melodians. One such tale, The Skeleton Tribe, claims the term comes from a no longer extant group of people whose foreskels were long lines in an off-white color. It is no surprise this tribe would equate these markings with skeletons.

It is common in many regions for foreskels to be referred to as whorls. This more recent name for the natural designs coincides with the spread of a few large civilizations, such as the Elorians, whose foreskels are curved or wavy. Eschewing use of the more traditional term for whorls is thought by some scholars to be a form of exclusionary tactic. Again going back to the Elorians, they often conflict with the Sheofites whose foreskels are angular lines or triangles.

There is a long history of bias when it comes to the foreskel. With overarching elements being regional it is a naturally-occurring labeling of outsiders. Noting colors, or angles versus whorls, is often the first thing observed about a stranger. With foreskels covering so much of the body it can be very difficult to conceal in foreign lands and has been pointed to by many scholars as a reason why immigration is not common.

Foreskel patterns are unique to an individual, but they have similarities within bloodlines. Experts can frequently identify family connections between people after examining the patterns on their bare backs. Such experts, known as lineage readers or sometimes as skin cartographers, can generally identify a close family connection from patterns on part of an arm or the neck. This is a well-established method for proving paternity without the use of sensitivity.

Any history of the foreskel would be incomplete without some mention of those born without the markings: the unpatterned. There is debate about the earliest references to people without foreskels, but most scholars place it between 6,000 and 8,000 gyres ago. These early unpatterned, then known as blanks, were thought to be cursed or perhaps banished from the sight of the Initiator. Later legends claimed that unpatterned were immune to magic, though this has been proven false. Many unpatterned do find the use of magic distasteful, and there has never been a verified instance of an unpatterned becoming a magus. Whether that is due to the social stigma or to an actual inability is presently unknown.

Lastly, it should be noted that some claims have been made about unique foreskels; people born with markings that match neither parent or even the region. These stories have existed for hundreds of gyres but remain in the realm of fiction. Every attempt to verify these stories has resulted in the unique foreskel being proven a fake. All foreskels are variations of the same patterns that have existed since the first omruns.