Moderating Magick: Energy

You’ve read Magick, so you know about energy. You know it’s everywhere, you know that it’s categorized into things like “earth” or “death” energy. You know that energy comes either from the surroundings, from a deity or other powerful entity, or from deep within the caster themselves. You also know that energy is the fuel to all spellweaving of Tazlure. In short, you’ve already got a pretty good idea of what energy is about.

A new definition of Energy

Now, for a moment, I need you to let go of all of those labels. Forget about death and earth energy, forget about deities and demons and all the other reserves that you have for energy. Leave them all behind, and think of what you have left: energy. Just pure energy, not categorized, no more or less powerful, but just a pristine, untainted kind of energy.

This, in fact, is what energy really is. All energy is more or less the same. It helps to compare it to electricity was we know it: there is no specific “earth” electricity, and the kind you get from a coal plant is exactly the same as you get from a hydro dam. This energy is basically the same wherever it is, or wherever it comes from.

So why do we even bother with the distinctions, then? Why mark three separate sources, why think in terms of death and earth magic? The answer is deceptively simple: because the people of the world of Tazlure see it that way. They don’t essentially know about energy (well, at least unless they’ve become archmages). To them, it makes sense that energy drawn from cemeteries or corpses is ‘death’ energy, and that it powers spells dealing with death; to them, it makes sense that the energy you draw from a rock is vastly different than the energy you are granted by a god. Similarly, the limitations that a sorcerer has, the kinds of energies he uses well and the ones he find difficult to grasp, are also in his or her head. If a sorcerer doesn’t understand that ice and fire energy are at their base the same, if he cannot perceive and sense that despite all the differences there is one core, this also limits the way in which he can cast spells.

This also means that, as a spellcaster progresses in his understanding of magick, he starts to realize more and more what the true nature of energy and spellweaving really is. He becomes able to use more diverse kinds of energies because he starts to look more at their similarities; he is able to use more powerful spells because he is more in tune with the pure, pristine core of energy. Master sorcerers have come so close to discarding their mental limitations that they effortlessly weave intricate patterns of energy in the most powerful spell. A rare few gain such an insight into energy that they see through every misunderstanding and obscurity and become acutely aware of the true nature of energy; for those, sources, types and methods don’t matter any more. They are called archmages, and they wield energy directly. Capable of anything, they are quite literally masters of the reality around them… but more on that in the Spellcasters section.

Perception of Energy

This being said, it becomes obvious that everybody also ‘sees’ energy in their own way. Normal people are only rarely able to sense or perceive energy without some training. How you actually do perceive energy depends on two things: your own nature, and the person who’s teaching you.

In this way, energy perception is very, very metaphorical, very symbolic. Some people see energy as strands or wires, with colour and thickness giving hints as to what kind of energy they’re dealing with. Others see it as a sort of mist or thick fog, depending on what the type of energy they’re looking at. For some people, it’s a sensation of smells; for example, a cook who learns magic might identify fire energy as the smell of superbly roasted beef, and the energy of death as a smell of rotting meat. Yet another might identify it with the elements, feeling sensations of boiling lava as heat magic and burnt ashes as death. The possibilities are almost endless; if you, as a gm, work well with a particular system, you can adapt that into energy perception. If you play a musical instrument, you might be comfortable with translating energy perception into melodies or tones, or perhaps simply musical experiences; if you’re into oils and incense, you might try your hand at translating energy into different kinds of smells. As long as it suits you, the story, and the player, then it’s good.

A large influence on how people are going to perceive energy is the person who teaches them to. Excluding the few rare talents who have the natural ability to see energy, most people need to be taught how to ‘sense’ energy around or within them. If you have a mentor who uses the way of smells himself, then his explanations will be based on that; after all, you can only teach those things that you understand yourself. In this way, for example, the perception of energy as coloured strands is a very popular one, because it is taught at two of the largest schools of magick in Tazlure: Prismatic College in World’s Mouth, which teaches this method exclusively, and the University of Magick in the Citadel, which falls back on this approach for students who are only marginally talented at magick.

The three sources are called: Sorcery, which draws energy from one’s surroundings, Faith, which receives energy from a greater being, and Mindcraft, which draws on energy present within oneself.