Welcome to Gaia! ::

Based upon the "magic" system I use there are certain people which radiate a field where my type of magic does not work. These people are blank to the warp, which is the source of my character's power. Or in other words they have no soul, in fact the effect just doesn't negate magic is makes them repulsive for others to be around them; but it can be overcome depending upon the strength of the comparitive blank to the spell user.

As for the pommel grab, a little iffy I know, but if thrown in soon enough and at the ranges we were at was conceivable. Though how he intended to slash where he stated when I would have shifted my body in such a way that he would instead, if the move continued unabated, strike Quin's upper left arm on the outer side.

Winds of Magic:

Colour Common Name(s) Runic Name
White Light Hysh
Blue Celestial Azyr
Yellow Gold Chamon
Green Life/Jade Ghyran
Brown Beats/Amber Ghur
Red Fire/Bright Aqshy
Grey Shadow Ulgu
Purple Death/Amethyst Shyish

Hysh is the Aethyr's coalescence and metaphysical certainty of light - including the uses that light can be put to and the abstracts that light sometimes represents. Hysh is the magic of illumination, the absract of high-mindedness and consciousness in its most general sense. It is intangible, diffused and all permeating, needing the total focus of will and an absolute determination of mind to make use of it. It is perhaps the most difficult of the colours to bend to one's will.

Learning to control Hysh has been described as being as much a hourney of self-realisation as anything else, and the study of Hysh is surrounded by lengthy mantras and meditative invocations designed primarily to focus the mind and calm the spirit. The magisters of Hysh are repsected for being peerless philosophers, and the acolytes of the College of Light have made some of humanity's greatest philosophical advances.

Hysh is not so much concerned with knowledge and facts so much as it is with wisdom and truths. Hysh requires only that we know ourselves. From one standing outside looking into Hysh, it can be dazzling and overpowering in too great a quantity, but to one submersed within Hysh, looking out as it were, all darkness is dispelled and the whole world is illuminated and clear.

Hysh has many potent applications and is most renouwned for its powers of healing and protection. The magisters of Hysh, or the hierophants as they are sometimes known, are amongs the wisest of men, behemently opposed to the Chaos of the daemon-gods in all its countless forms. Where Hysh is steady and constant, Chaos is random entropy, and where Hysh stands for controlled grace and self-understadning, Chaos promotes a total lack of control, confusion and insanity. For this reason, the magisters of Hysh are particularly renowened for their abilities to exorcise and banish daemons from the Mortal Realms.

Azyr is the Blue Wind of Magic, and it is the Aethyr's metaphysical drive for inspiration and that which is out of reach. Azyr is creativity and the desire to emote. Azyr builds upon abstracts, and seeks to find certainty within the unknowable. It finds and creates meaning and narrative for and within things that are without meaning or narrative. Azyr wishes to express the inexpressible

Azyr reaches into the future, and as such the magisters of Azyr are particularly fascinated with divination. Azyr epitomises the pursuit ofr omens, and its magisters are experts of interpreting dreams and rune casting. They are oracles and seers, fortune tellers and diviners. They are also great theoreticians, dealing more with leaps of logic to make great discoveries than the analysis of arduous trial and error that so fascinates the magisters of Chamon.

Azyr is light and insubstantial, and afer passing into our realm through the Northern Gates it quickly dissipates into the upper portions of the heavens, becoming a haze of eldritch cloud, visible only to those who posses the witch-sight. It is for this reason that Azyr's magisters are known for their greates predilection of star gazing, and they are renowned for being astronomers and astrolgers without peer. It is no doubt for this reason that they are sometimes called celestial wizards by the less educated folk of the Empire.

As the Azyr Wind blows fromt he timeless realms of the Aethyr across the distant sky, it is supposed to be possible for Azyr's magisters to predict important events, apparently by the manner in which celestial bodiesa re distorted by the drifting cloud of Azyr's blue light.

Chamon is the Yellow Wind, and it is the Aethyric abstract of logic, the dsire to quantify, to instruct, and the wish to implement learning to practical ends. Chamon is complexity, and it is investigation and experimentation (a pursuit epitomised by the endless search by many of humanty's scholars for an alchemical formula that will turn base metals into gold).

Chamon is thought to be the densest of the Colours of Magic, and is attracted to metal as surely as water runs down a steep slope. It is said that the denser the element, the greater Chamon's attraction to it - which accounts for the reason why gold and lead are so often used in magical experiments: one as a magical conductor and the other as a magical insulator.

In addition to being spell-casters of prodigious skill, the magisters of Chamon are also students of the sciences and seek to explore the natural order of the universe, the unnatural orders of magic, and their effects uopn one another. Indeed, it could be said that the magisters of Chamon seek to find the traces of the Aethyr that they believe resides in all physical things, and find a way to unlock its endless potential.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the magisters of Chamon are regarded to be the finest alchemists outside Ulthuan's isle. They work closely with our Empire's engineers and gunnery schools, seeking always to create mroe efficient forms of black powder, and also safer alloys for the casting of our Empire's great cannons. Chamon's magisters have particular power over any and all metallic elements, and can easily corrode and weaken metals, as well as strengthen alloys with enchantments. They are also the most capable manufactureers of magical weapons on the continent (with the notable exception of the dwarfs, of course, whose skills at weapon-smithing, magical or otherwise, eclipse even the greatest ahcievements of mankind).

Ghyran is the Green Wind of Magic, and it is the Aethyr's momentum towards growth and the need to nourish and be nourished. Ghyran is nuturing, it is fertility and it is the echo of life.

Ghyran rushes from the Northern Gates and is said to fall like rain upon the mundane earth, where those with the witch-sight can see it form into pools and flowing eddies. These pools and streams of magic gradually form into rivers, flowing in much the same way as water does. When the Winds of Magic blow most strongly, it is said that the streets of every city become awash with Ghyran's flows, running across the cobbles and flagstones as an immaterial stream that the common man neither sees nor feels. For this reason, Ghyran is said to be drawn to rivers, waterways, lakes and springs of our world. This water is drawn up through the roots of all plants, and therefore feeds all living things.

It is said that Ghyran's magisters (or jade wizards as they are more commonly known), are the most sensitive to the natural order of the countryside, and so spend little time within the confines of the Empire's cities. Such is their skill with, and love for, the forces of nature and living things, Ghyran's magisters are often called upon to cure crop blights, or bring nourishment to barren soil. Because these magisters are so closely tied to the bagaries of floral life throughout the world, their own magical strengh tends to wax and wane as the season do, being vigorous in Spring, most powerful in Summer, waning over Autumn, to beomce weakest in Winter.

Ghur is the Brown Wind, and it is the Aethyr's bestial spirit. It is the breath of the animal wild. It is the predator and the prey. Ghur is the Aethyric abstract of beasts and untamed places It is a savage wind, an unreasoning as it is devoid of malice. It is completely inhuman. Ghur blows not where the walls and turrets of civilisation loom, but through the deepest forests and jagged peaks where onlwild animals dwell. It is said that to open one's mind to Ghur and to learn the secrets of its magisters is to become one with the creatures of the dark wood.

It is small wonder, then, that Ghur's magisters are known to be solitary individuals, prefering the company of beasts to that of their fellow men. They tend to avoid all settlements unless there is some pressing need that draws them from the mountains and forests. For this, I am all the more pleased and impressed by the help given to me by Magister Setanta Lobas, Patriarch of the Amber College of Ghur, during my investigations into the foul and unnatural beastmen.

Although Magister Lobas was of amenable apperance, the magisters of his order are renowned for their bestial visages, unkempt hair and shaggy fur garments. There are those who believe that these amber wizards shapeshift into the forms of beast. Although I have never seen this for myself, I see no reason to disbelieve it.
Ghur's magisters have control over beasts and can inspire bestial terror in men. They are said to have mastered the feral heart that lies under the civilised mask that hides the animal nature in every human. Indeed, these magisters are said to be able to summon the strength, speed, and heightened sense of wild animals to aid them whenever they might need.

Aqshy is the Red Wind, and it is the Aethyr's coalescence of the experiance and abstract of passion in its widest possible sense. Aqshy is brashness, it is courage, and it is enthusiasm. It is the flame that warms the heart and lights fire in our bellies. Aqshy is the fire that banishes the darkness, and keeps wild animals from our doors.

Aqshy blows down from the north as a hot and searing wind. It is attracted to whereever there is passion and argument, excitement and vehemence. Temporal heat acts as a vortex for Aqshy, and so the rites of Aqshy's magisters almost always invollve fire. For this reason Aqshy's magisters have come to be known as bright wizards and pyromancers, as they can control any flame, natural or otherwise. As such, the magics of the Bright Order tend to be the most spectacular and impressive to the ordinary folk of our Empire.

It is no coincidence that the magisters of the Bright Order are held above all others insofar as matters of warfare are concerned. Aqshy spell-casting is aggressive and vigorous by nature, and the bright wizards can summon anything from fireballs to raging infernos to assail their enemies. The art of pyromancy (as the manipulation of Aqshy is sometimes known) is not a subtle one, and wherever it is employed, great change or great ruination tend to follow, whether intentionally or not.

Ulgu is the Grey Wind of Magic, and it is the Aethyric reality of the sense of being lost or confused. It is disorientation and natural deceptiveness. It is a sound altered and muted by the densest fog, and it is that sense of mystery that descends with the morning mist. Ulgu is bewilderment and mystification. It is puzzlement, it is perplexity, and it is paradox.

Though counted as one of the Winds of magic, Ulgu is said to be more like a thick and impenetrable fog, broiling across the earth, invoking a sense of mistrust and confusion in ordinary people who pass through it. Ulgu is drawn to the natural mists and fogs of our mortal world, and hangs upon the quiet chill of the air, wrapping all in smoky shadows.

Ulgu's magisters, or grey wizards as they are so often called, are predominantly illusionist who specialise in those enchantments that manipulate perceptions and emotion. Their powers, though considerable, do not lend themselves well to the favour of common folk, for their spells are those of concealment, illusion, confusion, and occasionally unseen death.

Ther are some who might scorn these grey magics as pointless or without use, but I in turn would point out to them that the Shifting Isles of the coasts of ulthuan are a demonstration of Ulgu's power. How many of our greatestnavigators have foundered upon the Isles' shfting sandbanks, and how many invasions of Ulthuan's realm, whether it be by the raiders of cruel Norsca or one of the ambitious lords of our own great Empire, have been halted without the lost of a single elven life, just by merit of the SHifting Isles?

Shyish is the Purple Wind of Magic, and it is the Aethyric certainty of the passage of time, of endings and of death. Shyish is trepidation in the face of the unknown, and it is all sentient life's fear and terrible awe of death. yet Shyish is also reverence and respect, it is the non-divine aura that mortals project onto those things they consider sacred. It is the realisation of the transience of life, and yet it is also the belief that there is something larger than us - the knowledge that creation itself is permanent, even if all things within it are not. Shyish is the dusty misma where all these concepts meet.

Shyish is a puppet to the passage of time. It blows from the past, because the past has ended and is gone, through the present, because endings and the expectation of death are intrinsic parts of the living of life, and into future, for the future leads inevitably towards endings and death. Shyish is our reminiscence of days gone by, our acceptance of the day we now live, and our longing for the days that may come. Some have equated Shyish with destiny, for it does not control what was, is or shall be, but instead permeates and reflects these things with absolute intimacy.

Shyish blows strongest wherever death must be faced, or endings take place. It is drawn to battlefields where men must embrace or submit to their deaths, because all soldiers must accept the possibility of their own demise as part of their daily lives. Shyish lingers around the gibbets of execution, and hangs in the silence of graveyards where mourners gather in longing and reminiscence. it is said to be strongest in times of most obvious transition - at dawn and dusk, for one is the end of night, and the other is the end of day. Its times are spring and autumn, and yet also the equinoxes of both summer and winter, for they mark the longest and shortest days of the year and therefore the beginning of the end for each of the seasons.

The magisters of the Amethyst Order of Shyish have an affinity with death and endings of all kinds. Indeed, they are renowned for their philosophy of initiating no events or prjects, unless it is to end them. Theirs is invariably the final say.

Once a man has grown to full maturity, and the point has been crossed where growing up is replaced with growing old, the magisters of Shyish are said to be able to actually see his slow demise, as death claims him in tiny increments, second by second, hour by hour, and day by day. They see the approaching end of all things that live.

Indeed, these magisters can even see spirits and souls as they travel between this world and the next, and can communicate with them, after a fashion - although this ability ends, or so they say, when that soul is devoured or embraced by one of the many gods of men and daemons.
There are thsoe who wrongly accuse the amethyst wizards of dabbling in necromancy, but this must surely be untrue. For necromancers defy death and fear endings, while the acolytes of Shyish accept death and embrace endings. Despite this, the Order of Shyish remains tainted by their apparent association with the powers of darkness.

High and Dark Magic
Colour(s) Common Name Runic Name
Spectrum High Qhaysh
Black Dark Dhar

Qhaysh is the force that magisters and wizards througout the world refer to as high magic. It is magic in its purest and most undiluted form - the force of creation itself. Qhaysh is a constructive and creative force that encompasses all the natures, spirits, drives and certainties of all the other colours. Indeed, Qhaysh can be seen as all the colours of magic connected together and working in tandem, though wihtout losing their unique and individual properties.

Spells of high magic use elements of all the winds of magic at once, utilising them as a gestalt whole. As such high magic is far more versatile than all other forms of magic, and spells woven from it are certainly amongst the most poewrful. According to the lore of the Colleges of Magic, high magic is too vast, too energetic and too undisciplined for a human mind to manipulate.

All the considerable difficulties that exist in the weaving of spells with any of the eight refracted colours of magic are increased eightfold iwth high magic. This is not to say that magisters cannot learn separate spells that utilise each of the colours in isolation, it means simply that human magisters would find it almost impossible to weave a high magic spell that uses many, or perhaps all, of the colours at once.

Suffice to say then, only the elves and certain others of the ancient raes use high magic with any degree of success or regularity. Indeed, the dwarfs, though not magically inclined as such and unable to cast spells, can still apparently bind Qhaysh into runic form - although such a thing is doubtlessly the domain of only the greatest runesmiths, and the runes in question must surely be the so-called master runes.

Dhar is the most frightning and unwholesom of all Aethyric energy, for Dhar is black magic. Like its opposite, Qhaysh, Dhar is a blend of all the colours of magic, but where Qhaysh is creative and brimming with possibility, Dhar is entirely destructive and is the stealer of potential. it is entirely inward looking and self-serving. If Qhaysh could be considered the pure stuff of dreams, Dhar would be the raw stuff of nightmares.

Where Qhaysh can be seen as an unfragmented cooperative of all the colours of magic working together in perfect harmony, Dhar is the result of all the colours being crushed together to stagnate. None of the eight colours of magic retain any independent identity within Dhar, they are squashed together and left to go sour.
It remains unclear why dark magic forms, but where the winds of magic cease to blow and its colours sink into pools and pockets, dark magic begins a process similar in its way to fermentation. It is magical energy that has become trapped too long within the materium and has therefore lost its vitality and creativity. Indeed, if Dhar gathers long enough in any particular area, and is not agitated or used, it is known to grow even denser, taking unto itself more and more temporal laws, until it solidifies into that exceedingly rare and dangerous substance that the scholars of our Empire have called warpstone.

Dhar could be seen as Aethyric energy that, instead of unlocking the potential within physical things and transmuting them into new forms and states, instead smothers them and breaks them down into their component parts. A magister might argue that although it is no more evil thatn Qhaysh is good (for both are blind forces and are aside to such value judgements), Dhar could be seen as something that is almost entirely bent towards deconstructing, suppressing and dominating physical things, where Qhaysh (and therefore its eight fragments) adds to, permeates and excites physical things.

It is for this reason that Dhar is drawn to those who seek ill for others beings or for the world at large. Although Dhar and Qhaysh are both elements of Chaos - Dhar romtes the entorpy of endless cycles of destruction while Qhaysh promotes cycles of creation and adaptation. Dhar flows like sluggish tar, and any being it is drawn to will be slowly drowned in its black and sticky depths. This state of affairs means that Dhar is the msot destructive of all Aethyric forces, one utilised by only the most cruel or power hungry spell-casters.

But the prce of tapping into the energies of Dhar are high indeed, for not only is it just as hard to use and control as Qhaysh, but it is also far more likely to consume the one that uses it. Where Qhaysh is an energy that demands from a spell-caster subtlety, total tranquillity, and acute sensitivity if it is to be woven properly, Dhar must be wrestled into submission, requiring supreme strenght of mind, a self-confidence that borders upon megalomania and an absolutism of will that only those humans of true or borderline insanity could ever hope to grasp.

Having said this, Sister Marie Duvallier of the Hospice at Frederheim (an exper in the diagnosis and treatment of psychical and spiritual ailments) has assured me that if even the sanest and most balanced of people were exposed to this malign energy long enough, then rest assured, over time, exposure to its unwholesome energies undoubtedly affect the sanity of the user. This causes many adverse symptoms including (though not restricted to) hysteria, paranoia, violent mood swings, a dual personality or perhaps even all of these. Of all the moral beings that use Dhar, only the druchii (or dark elves) seem to have any immunity to its adverse psychical effects.

..What? And how about projectiles? Does he simply reflect those at you, or something?

And I noticed that in his battle he kept saying everything was made of "Chaos." Uh, explanationplz? Or does someone have a link or something?

I want to know what my guy is made out of :O