(Malkhar) Magic 101

The elemental compass - all seven elements, except for Onyx, gathered around the four-pointed star of Opal magic, with the symbol of the crown at the top.

     The Malkharines define magic as controlling the elements of the natural world through one’s thoughts.  There are seven known elements of magic - Fire, Air, Earth, Water, Lightning, Ice, and Nature.  There is also an eighth branch which all Malkharines are forbidden to practice.  This is the Necrotic element, the powers of Life and Death.  Its gemstone is the Onyx, and it is also referred to as black magic due to the color.

     Magic acts like a muscle, like music, and like electricity.  Let me explain.

     It acts like a muscle in that it’s instinctive to use.  The same way you give a ghost to a thought about walking and you move your leg, all you have to do to summon a magical flame is to think about it.  Magic also grows stronger with repeated training and use, like a muscle.  This strength is called Willpower.  Greater willpower can take that magic flame and turn it into a blazing fireball.

     It also works like music.  Practice is the difference between playing Chopsticks and playing Beethoven on the piano.  So too does practice with magic let you perform more elaborate spells - the difference between casting a simple thunderbolt and manipulating light, magnetism, circuitry, and riding electrical currents to travel at near-light speeds.  Magic is a mental construct - techniques have to be learned.

     Finally, it acts like electricity in the fact that it can be conducted through certain materials.  Electricity is conducted through metal, magic is conducted through organic material - either living or previously alive.  Like electricity, it’s hard to conduct across air or a vacuum, so it has to originate at the body of the caster.  Some materials resist the flow of magic and can’t conduct it - non-living material, particularly plastics and metal.

     This last facet of magic, that it can be conducted through certain materials, is why gemstones are so important to magic.  Gemstones amplify magic when magic of their corresponding element is conducted through them.  Fire is called Ruby magic because it becomes amplified when conducted through a ruby, Water is Sapphire magic for amplification when conducted through a sapphire, and so forth for all the elements.

     But wait!  Crystals aren’t living materials, they’re just rocks!  That’s... not exactly so on Malkhar.  Gemstones and crystals grow like plants under certain conditions.  I’ll get back to this concept later, but suffice to say that the crystal of Malkhar is a living material, and the bits that make up jewelry are the hardened remains of these living crystals.

     A word on Opal magic.

     Opal magic is a fusion of all possible elements of magic.  It’s sometimes called Miracle energy, since feats inexplicable with the standard eight elements of magic can be explained by Opal magic.

     It’s also much harder to cast than the others.  Since it’s a fusion of all possible elements, the challenge is to keep it balanced, to keep one element from dominating the rest.  An expert Water wizard would be tempted to put more power behind that element, and thus the Opal magic would become unbalanced and turn into simple Water magic.

     However, it’s easily the most powerful element.  Since it contains all possible elements, it always contains the weakness of whatever lies in its path.  Similarly, if one uses Opal magic to defend oneself, it always contains the strongest defense against the oncoming attack.  The only way to effectively defend against Opal magic is to counter it with more Opal magic, getting the two forces to cancel each other out.