There's a common stereotype that a wand is an essential tool for magic. In reality, at least in this world, a small, narrow implement is no better a tool for precision than one's finger (and, ultimately, one's mind); indeed, having to conduct energy through a thing that is not part of you before releasing it could cause the energy to become ( Read more... )

An example of the kind of lecture I'd give to first-year magic students. Healing magic is generally among the first kinds of magic taught, though it's actually an ethically difficult subject to teach: what do you practice on? We can't encourage students to harm themselves or others in order to heal them, and those in genuine need of healing should ( Read more... )

Upon commencement of a spell, a faint tingling often begins in the veins, a sense of heat or coolness at the source of the power feeling as if it's spreading outwards through the nervous system, causing prickling along the arms or in the temples. Instinctively, muscles around the forehead or in the arms may contract or relax. As the energy builds ( Read more... )

A few miscellaneous thoughts and ramblings on Temple life; by no means exhaustive, and may well be expanded upon at a future date ( Read more... )

Each of the twenty-seven True Runes, over time, may have a number of successive bearers; individuals who will bond with the Runes and thus gain a direct connection to one of the fundamental forces of our world, gaining the ability to comprehend and manifest that force, as well as taking on the immortal nature of the Rune. In return, the Rune gains ( Read more... )

A quote from safiiru that I asked permission to repost, because I think it does an extremely good job of laying out Harmonia's former perspective on war:

I'm kind of thinking of something along the lines of "we want peace, and if you want peace too then of course you'll want to work together with us, but if you're hostile to our goals of attaining peace ( Read more... )

In certain regards, many people of this world would find Harmonian culture oddly progressive, though we ourselves would not call it progression; we have had no foundation of intolerance in these regards to progress from. I do not wish to sound pompous and superior in saying this; I am merely stating the fact that our world, unlike this one, has, ( Read more... )

Magic is a force-- no, less a force; more a skill, of interaction with a force-- that is inherently lifeful. To practice magic one interacts with and directly guides the forces of existence, and being that the ultimate progenitor of the forces of existence, the One Force behind them all, is that which can variously be thought of as Goodness, Love, ( Read more... )

When I was a child, I used to frequently explore the caves near where I live. The mountainous region within which the city of Crystal Valley is situated is riddled with cave networks, from down near the valley itself where the caves are lined, true to the name of the place, with crystal formations that spill out onto the open ground and cause a ( Read more... )

The Harmonian language has a two-tiered system of formality; there are two slightly different ways of speaking, and transcribing, any given word, which is achieved by, in speech, varying the vowel pronounciation (and also sometimes altering consonants), and in writing by the use of altered letter forms. A lot of emphasis, in mage culture, is placed ( Read more... )