Magick

Magick is the art of cultivating one's essence, through a variety of means, into techniques and effects called spells. On Narava, there are four branches of magick available to its denizens: Wild Magick, Inherent Magick, Crystal Magick, and Dark Magick.

Overview
Essence is the term used to describe the innate energies that are found in every living being. It is, simply put, an energy of life that is bestowed by the goddess Narava and is the foundation of all magick. In order to cultivate essence into magickal spells, a vast amount of focus is required. For this reason, many practitioners of magick utilize gestures and incantations in order to center their focus in order to achieve the desired effect. Furthermore, magick requires a fundamental understanding of the nature of essence in order to be utilized. One cannot simply have access to essence and expect to be able to manifest spells; a prime example being the Ve'lik whom possess access to essence through vitrecite. Though they have physical access to the key component of Magick, they lack any true understanding regarding its nature and therefore cannot hope to use it.

Essence is vastly more than an energy source. It is a living entity that is both unique and common. It is apart of the goddess and understanding of its nature is only achieved through her bestowing it as a gift to those she deems worthy. Thus far, the entirety of her children have been granted both her essence and the innate understanding required to utilize magick. As such, for Naravi, utilizing magick is an inherent skill and the formation of viable spells is instinctual to them. On the other hand, with only a handful of exceptions, the entirety of the Ve'lik race are devoid of the understanding required to utilize magick. They have access to essence, as aforementioned, through vitrecite but without the fundamental understanding, the essence is only good for being converted into a power source. The exceptions to this are unaware of the reason why they had been gifted the understanding. The truth of the matter is, the goddess has taken it upon herself to grant those few Ve'lik who see past the racial divide and love her children as much as they love their own people the understanding as a reward. For this reason, the members of House Cassiore have been granted access to magick; as the King and both of his siblings have found true love in the arms of a Naravi.

Magick is capable of a many great things. It can heal as it can harm. It can change as it can return to normal. It can shatter and restore. It can tame and release. For those who can access magick, nearly anything is possible. However, all magickal usage comes with a price: the consumption of essence. For this reason, magick is used with caution among the Naravi, for if their essence is completely expended they run the risk of death. However, a Naravi's essence naturally replenishes itself, a provision by the goddess, after a period of rest. Those few Ve'lik whom can access magick through vitrecite are fortunate in that the cost of their spells is deducted from the shards they possess and run no risk of death through expending all the energies therein.

Wild Magick
The essence of the Goddess is ever present on Narava. Called the Najra, or "The Presence of Narava", it is the form the deity adapted when she abandoned her physical form. Through theNajra, all newborn, native life receives a portion of the mother's essence within them. In the same manner, upon death, the essence of every, native deceased being is return to the Njra. As is a common fact, the Najra causes changes within nature over time. Flora and Fauna merge, change, grow, etc. all in response to the powerful, ever-present Najra.

Wild Magick is the term used to describe these changes and cannot hope to be controlled by anyone, save Narava herself. However, the Queen-Mother of the Naravi, has, throughout history, demonstrated the ability to tap into the Najra itself and augment the inherent magicks at her disposal. It is through this ability that the first Queen-Mother was able to elevate Nebesa, and the entire piece of land it stood upon, into the heavens. In addition, it is the ability which has earned the Queen-Mother reverence as the single most powerful being in the world.. It is to be noted that the Goddess personaly alows the Queen-Mother, and the Queen-Mother alone, to access the Najra in this manner. Furthermore, it is Narava herself who dictates the nature and magnitude of the effects her wild magicks have upon the living beings upon her world.

Inherent Magick
Shortly after creating the Naravi, the goddess Narava abandoned her physical form and granted each of her children a small piece of her essence to reside within them. From this moment forward, the Naravi became the only race on th planet who could utilize Inherent Magick. Inherent Magick is, by far, the most common of the four branches of magickal arts and is utilized by each and every member of the Naravi race. It is, literally, a gift from the goddess that manifests itself as the instinctual cultivation of essence of into magickal spells. For a Naravi, weaving a spell is as easy as breathing, requiring minimal effort, nergy, or focus. However, as aforementioned, Inherent Magick consumes the essence of the Naravi utilizing it and is therefore to be used with caution. It is noted, however, that the amount of magick require to slay a Naravi outright is one that atempts to accomplish an enormous task, such as moving a mountain. Fortunately, most spells require only a small portion of essence to achieve andall Naravi can combine efforts to accomplish large spells together, without expending massive amounts of essence.

As a whole, the applications of Inherent Magick are nearly limitless. However, most Naravi utilize thir magick in order to manipulate the surrounding environment, manipulate or generate thevarious elements, and to heal.

Crystal Magick
This form of magick is exclusively utilized by the handful of Ve'lik whom truly love a Naravi as they love themselves. It is a reward from Narava for seeing past the racial barriers. Crystal Magick is aptly named for the crystalline substance which substitutes the essence required to utilize magick: vitrecite. As a whole, this branch of magick closely resembles Inherent Magick; with the only difference being that the Ve'lik can, in theory, carry as much essence as they desire within numerous shards of vitrecite. A special note is that, upon being expended, the essence absorbed by the vitreite returns to the Najra like all essence; which is one of the reasons the Naravi begrudgingly permit the usage of vitrecite as a power source.

As aforementioned, the Ve'lik run no risk of death by utilizing crystal magick, as the essence consumed by their spells is that of the vitrecite on their person. It is for this reason that a practitioner of crystal magick is easily identified by by the vast abundance of vitrecite shards that are imbedded into their flesh (oftentimes as jewelry), arms, and armor. Furthermore, as a whole, the applications of crystal magick mimic those of Inherent Magick for the most part. However, Crystal Magick has the potential to shift into Dark Magick, should the corrupted essence be absorbed by vitrecite.

Dark Magick
Dark Magick is the most unique of the four forms of magick, as it requires more than just access to essence and fundamental knowledge to utilize. It requires a connection to the ancient nemesis of Narava, Sestra, that is attained through the corruption of one's essence. This requirement can be fulfilled through a number of means. First and foremost, one could have their essence corrupted through an encounter with the Dark One herself. However, she is more likely to simply drain a hopeful user of dark magic of the entirety of their essence, thereby replenishing some of her lost strength, than to dole out some of her power...unless, of course, the hopeful has something of value to offer. The second option available is a ritual corruption which involves the sacrifice of a living individual and the ingestion of their blood from a chalice. The final option is exclusive to the Ve'lik and consists of utilizing vitrecite to gather corrupted essence from a Naravi in service to the Dark One.

Dark Magick is peculiar in that it draws strength from the presence of blood and death. Through the ingestion of blood, the drawing on of ritualistic symbols in blood upon the skin, or being in the proximity of deceased life (such as carrying bone or standing near a corpse) the power of Dark Magick amplifies. As a whole, the art is entirely malicious in nature. It revolves around the manipultion of blood, both inside and outside the body, the causing and amplification of pain, the creation of disease, the subjugation of minds, the crippling of wills, and everything in-between. Furthermore, it is the only branch of magick with the ability to outright claim a life, though successfully utilizing this ability requires a dangerously high amount of essence and is excessively difficult to achieve.