Sacred Geometry - reimagining the magic user [under heavy construction!]

[Lmns Crn]

[ooc]THIS IS TOTALLY NOT FINISHED-- Yet.

For now, this is a collection of half-formed thoughts. I am posting them as a way of getting them "down on paper," with the understanding that this is very much a work unfinished. This is, at this point, a stream-of-consciousness exercise, a chronicle of my thought process. If you're interested in that kind of thing, here's a glimpse inside mine.

This is not necessarily a Jade Stage project, although it might be. It might be more than that altogether. What I am trying to do is manifold: to put magic in its place, to give it a little definition and direction, to put together a basic underlying symbolism and mysticism that magic-users can draw upon by way of flavor, and to define what magic is and is not capable of in a way that is suitable for a low-magic game. My solutions will not be the kind of solutions that appeal to everyone.

I will welcome feedback on this idea, and I hope you'll weigh in with comments. Just let me get it all written down first, and we'll talk it out. :yumm:

Thanks,
-LC[/ooc]

[ic=In the house of Luka the Younger]One by one, the students gather in the study. Entering singly and in pairs, shucking off coats, rubbing hands in front of the fire, they filter in. Chattering among themselves, boasting and theorizing, perusing the titles on the bookshelves, they filter in. Until there are six of them, they filter in.

A bearded man, heavyset and bespectacled, cheerfully enters the study from an adjoining hallway. He is burdened with a tray of steaming drinks in red clay mugs, which he places on a low table in the center of the room. He takes a mug and seats himself in a cushioned chair, and one by one, the students do the same, arranging themselves in chairs and couches, forming a loose circle around the edge of the room. The air is filled with the spicy scent of the drinks, and the bearded man smiles broadly.

"So," he rumbles. "It's been five weeks. Somebody tell me something they've learned during that time."

A mouse-brown girl sips her drink, then speaks up from the corner where she stands: "Apple, mostly, professor. With extract of... carrot and red pepper. Honey-sweetened, and the honey is from... clover-flower and yellow dart. And cinnamon and nutmeg and allspice."

"Very good, child," says the bearded man approvingly, "but your nose and tongue could tell you that."

"Yours has brandy instead of honey, professor."

The bearded man's smile broadens even more, and he takes a deep drink. "Ha! Good! Now... let's get down to business."[/ic]

The bearded professor leans forward, elbows on knees, clay mug in both hands. He scans the faces of his students as he speaks. "That's the essence of the next lesson. You've got to expand your awareness outward, filling the whole Circle with your senses. And you've got to focus your will inward, to a fine, precise point that you can put all your mental weight behind. Out and in, broad and specific, both at once. That's the trick."[/ic]

"I know that some of your have started to sense the Circle. That's good."

The professor turns suddenly, indicating a startled young man sitting crosslegged on the floor, stroking the feeble beginnings of a moustache with a spindly finger. "Foga! What do you see?"

The young man shifts uncomfortably, turns bright red, turns the now-empty clay mug over in his hands. "I don't see anything, professor," he says to the floor.

The professor leans back in his chair, props an ankle up on the other knee, house-slipper and all. He raises an eyebrow. He waits.

Foga stammers while his classmates watch. "I... I hear things."

"What do you hear?"

"Like a... a chorus of reed-flutes."[/ic]

Perceiving the Circle

Different people sense the Circle in different ways. The untrained are typically ignorant of its presence. In rare cases, people somehow naturally aware of the Circle's "finer manifestations" without understanding of how to interpret them are typically driven quietly mad by sensory overload.

Students of the Circle possess an awareness of magic as an extra sense, seperate from sight, hearing, and so on, although most find it easiest to conceive of magic as contained under one of these. For example, while magic is not a visual phenomenon that can be seen, one magic-user might describe experiencing the Circle as "like seeing a haze of color." While magic is not an aural phenomenon that can be heard, another magic-user might describe experiencing the Circle as "like hearing a buzz of sound." While magic is not an olfactory phenomenon that can be smelled, a third magic-user might describe experiencing the Circle as "like catching the scent of spices." The specific sensations evoked seem to be entirely personal and unique.

Touching the Circle

There are three ways in which magic-users "touch the Circle:" magic thought, magic gesture, and magic inscription. Each is distinct, and the effects produced by each method are widely varied. Magic-users typically learn all three, using them interchangibly as the situation warrants: when events call for a magic inscription, for example, neither thought nor gesture will do.

It should be noted that perspective is involved in this and all other matters of magic. While one might say "in the practice of magic, a mage touches the Circle," another might say, "in the practice of magic, the Circle touches a mage." To use magic is to entangle one's self in the Sacred Geometry, and that is not a decision to be made without consequence.

Magic Thought - the quintessential power
A magic-user typically relies on magic thought of the bulk of his power. The effects of magic thought are passive, subtle, and long-lasting, and many magic-users maintain one or more magic thoughts at all times, resulting in the common perception that mages are possessed of peculiar senses and powers. A magic-user touches the Circle through magic thought by carrying within his mind an image of the Circle, carefully crafted to facilitate a particular effect. Focusing on this mental image gives the mage this power.

Magic thought allows for many passive effects. It can extend a mage's mundane senses, and allow for the perception of magic and the Circle. It can enable a mage to drink poison as if it were water, or breathe water as if it were air. It represents a subtle and profound change in the mage himself.

Magic Gesture - the ephemeral power
When people refer to mages "casting spells," they are typically referring to the use of magic gestures. Magic gestures are the quickest and most delicate ways to touch the Circle; their effects are spontaneously produced, but are typically as brief as the gesture that provokes them. A gesture might turn aside an arrow, plant a fleeting doubt in a mind, or undo another spell. Mages touch the Circle through magic gesture by physically tracing an Arc of the circle in the air with a hand.

Because it is the fastest variety of magic to perform, magic gesture is of the most use to mages in battle or similar situations of stress. However, its protective uses are limited, and its offensive uses are nearly nonexistant; many mages confronted with battle will use mundane martial training and weapons to defend themselves, or will employ magic gesture to facilitate a quick escape.

Magic Inscription - the enduring power
By physically recreating a representation of the Circle or one of its Arcs, a mage can create a lasting effect tied to the image. Depending on the complexity of the desired effect, constucting such a Circle may take hours or even days, since even a tiny flaw in the diagram may render the magic useless or even dangerous. Many mages employ permanently-engraved inscriptions when possible, especially in laboratories and other long-term sanctums, but a carefully-constructed chalk diagram (or even a line scratched in the dirt!) will work just as well.

Of all the ways to touch the Circle, magic inscriptions typically have the most potent and lasting effects. Magic inscriptions might be employed to ward a place against intrusion, to confine a magic or sensory effect, or even to amplify the power of effects within them. Magic inscriptions are limited by the time-consuming and sometimes costly methods of their construction, their non-portable nature, the fragility of their image, and the constant possibility of errors in inscription, but the power they grant carries a great deal of momentum.

[Wensleydale]

*drool*

Want to see more! Need any help with anything, hey, I'm DROOLING, and that doesn't happen often ;)

Great flavour!

[Túrin]

Great idea. I applaud what you're attempting here. Some additional comments on two specific things below.

[ic]"Yours has brandy instead of honey, professor."[/ic]

:D Nice imagery.

...self-contradictory. Magic is defined by dichotomy, and the balance of opposing ideas. Much of the "mental requirement" for magic users is a result of the necessity of holding multiple contradicting perspectives in the mind at once.

Something about this rubs me the wrong way. The whole "Circle" business will need some time to settle in my mind, but right now I can't get rid of the feeling that the fluff is too much "it's magic so it has to be weird and complicated and alien". As if you're deliberately trying to create something that will be (or seem to be) incomprehensible. The above quote in particular gave me this feeling. Since I don't really have anything constructive to say on this point, I'll just leave you with this question: does it have to be that way?

Túrin

[Ghost]

I really like what you've done so far. Especially with the mini-story.

But are you planning on making a full magic system? or is this just a way of describing magic?

If it is a full magic system, how easy will it be to convert from the d20 rules on magic? I ask mainly because, with your permission, i'd like to implement something similar in one of my new settings, Rayne.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

More power to you LC.  I'll try to watch this thread, as I agree with much of what you've said.  I am always ambivalent on the elemental thing, though.

I want magic to be as it was classically, subtle, practiced behind closed doors and not a battle thing. On the other hand, there is something appealing within the genre of the rare sorcerer powerful enough to control the waves or the flame - more so because magic should be rare.

[Lmns Crn]

But are you planning on making a full magic system? or is this just a way of describing magic?

is[/i] before I can even think about writing a mechanical scaffolding to support it.

More power to you LC. I'll try to watch this thread, as I agree with much of what you've said. I am always ambivalent on the elemental thing, though.

I want magic to be as it was classically, subtle, practiced behind closed doors and not a battle thing. On the other hand, there is something appealing within the genre of the rare sorcerer powerful enough to control the waves or the flame - more so because magic should be rare.

Interestingly enough, your Kishar Mechanics may have been part of the reason why I wrote this. The ideas of subtlety and geometry have been increasingly nagging at my brain for quite some time now, and I suspect it might have been your work that catalyzed it for me.

But, you bring up an issue that's going to be a big hurdle for me here: what is magic actually capable of? Can a gesture start a fire? Can an inscription revive the dead? There are a huge amount of question of that nature that I'll simply have to figure out, because those answers will do a lot to shape the direction of this whole project.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I'd generally say nothing can bring back the dead.

Otherwise, perhaps the sky's the limit, it's just a matter of what can you do with magic (not what can magic do), what can you imagine, what do you know how to do, and what price are you willing to pay to do it.

[Lmns Crn]

Right: that one was a question I'd already predetermiened the answer to. Being rhetorical and all that. Been a bit of a long day, and I'm suddenly bad at exampling.

[SA]

I'm loving this, Luminous.  This is precisely the way I envision magic, and you've expressed it in a logical, yet undeniably mystical way.

It's funny; you use Sacred Geometry, and I use the Geodesy, both which use circular symbolism and contrast the outward awareness with the inward focus.

I'll be watching this thread with great interest.

[Lmns Crn]

I'm loving this, Luminous.  This is precisely the way I envision magic, and you've expressed it in a logical, yet undeniably mystical way.

I'll admit, Whisper-and-Sorrow taught me a few things.

It's funny; you use Sacred Geometry, and I use the Geodesy, both which use circular symbolism and contrast the outward awareness with the inward focus.

I'll be watching this thread with great interest.[/quote]Good to know. Hopefully I can decide fairly soon where I'm going to go with it next.

[SDragon]

"Magic is defined by dichotomy, and the balance of opposing ideas." I guess you could say this is how I'm "organizing" magic. Instead of a "four elements" model or an "eight schools" method of classification, I'm taking a more pseudo-Newtonian approach: everything has its opposite counterpart. Specifically, magic involves finding a point of balance between extremes.

Luka the Younger alludes to that, with his class. You have to expand your awareness, he says, but contract the focus of your willpower. See the big picture, operate at a fine level of detail. Additionally, you have to find your own comfortable place between the extremes of simple-Circle approach and complex-Geometry approach (a choice which is entirely flavor.) Since one of the most prevalent circles is the 360 degrees of horizon that surround you, that circle seperates another set of opposites that must be balanced: ground (the familiar) and sky (the ambitious).

polarity. the yin and the yang. dual forces that define each other by opposing each other. correct me if i have this wildly seperate from your vision, but i'm picturing it as being something along these lines.

 many modern martial arts come to my mind as an example; the grace, beauty, and fluidity is constantly present; this can be seen as feminine (particularly when demonstrated by a female), but then the same exact moves, using the same exact amount of grace, beauty, and fluidity, can seem to do a full about-face and become "warrior-like" masculine (particularly when demonstrated by a male).


and you said you were rambling.....

[shadowls]

my mind, shows me a large tome with syboles, diagrams, seals, sigals, ect. all very wonderful for a low magic game. as you said most magic is slow. in my world this is one of the paths of magic, but i brake it up different.

writen, ritual, nature, stone, energy and regular.

[Numinous]

I've read it all, probably when I was supposed to be doing something more productive, and I love every bit.  If you can stand the pressure, I wait with baited breath for the result of these ponderings of yours.  Quite possibly, they will be one of the few concepts I assimilate into a setting wholly made by another person.  Thank you Luminous for this absolutely nifty concept.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

I couldn't help looking over this thread.  I now proclaim myself a student a threadcromancy.  Anyway, have you ever done anything else with this?

[Lmns Crn]

I couldn't help looking over this thread.  I now proclaim myself a student a threadcromancy.  Anyway, have you ever done anything else with this?

God. Moses. What the hell is this thread. Who posted this?

...

Actually, I've done two things with this. This thread and its brainstorming acted as springboards into both the Triad System magic mechanics, and the various Jade Stage magic user traditions. Both are on the wiki, though the former is spottily detailed in the TS wiki pages, and the latter is sort of tenuously and abstractly connected to Sacred Geometry. (But look to Sorcery for similarities.)