DESUN

A world of magic and machine on the cusp of a new century.

[storiesfromdesun]

Greetings from Desun!

Hi, and welcome to the OFFICIAL BLOG for my fantasy worldbuilding project, Desun. I'm Milque, and I'll be posting little tidbits of lore to this blog periodically. Now that the introductions are out of the way... WHAT IS DESUN? Desun is a fantasy setting of mine taking place in another world based roughly on the late 1890s. Magic and machinery have been put to use to tame the wilderness, fostering the growth of a series of civilizations on the cusp of modernity.

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Magology

"The work of a magician is without a doubt the single most important work that anyone can perform in the modern world." - Raibeart Weswood, senior magician

Magology, simply put, is the study of magic. This can include but is not limited to the licensed practice of magic in a professional setting as well as the formal research of how magic interacts with the world around us.

Magology has existed in some way ever since humanity first gained the capacity to use their own mana, with the oldest surviving examples of magic use dating back thousands of years. Since that time humanity has always found a practical use for magic, and with that use naturally came those who were simply better at it than everyone else. These early magicians often found themselves at the core of their tribes, acting as witch doctors or faith healers who would pass on their knowledge to family members or trusted apprentices. Even today, this kind of magical practice exists in a few pockets of traditional life, with the newest generation learning the same methodology as their eldest ancestors.

In these more enlightened times, however, people have found more effective ways of practicing magic. Centuries ago, the ancient magician Daryava discovered a way of imprinting magical knowledge into papyrus, allowing her students to learn through symbolic representations of magical reactions. These distinct, repeatable reactions are today known as spells, and allow the modern magician to study magic in half the time it took their ancestors.

Following the advent of spells, master magicians began to codify their abilities into writing in order to pass their knowledge on to future generations. Magic academies were established to train effective, disciplined magicians who could use their magic in public efforts such as construction and warfare. Admission into these schools was typically reserved for persons of higher social standing, namely the children of priests or nobility. Even today, magical education can be prohibitively expensive in some nations and the official practice of magic is seen as a mark of respect.

But magology is not simply the application of magic, but the understanding of it. By researching inherently magical substances, ancient magicians were able to contribute a greater understanding of how the natural world operates. These were the first alchemists, paving the way for modern practitioners to build upon their observations and further uncover the secrets of the natural sciences. Today, professional alchemists typically find their skills used in pharmaceutical or industrial applications, unlocking the magic in everyday materials to create lifesaving potions or power entire cities.

[storiesfromdesun]

Magic 101

"If there was ever to be a word more puzzling, indefinite, and vague, one might very well declare it nonsense." - Kender ab Annergrave, linguist Magic, in the simplest terms, is an enigmatic, pervasive force of nature which interacts with and alters the world around it. Simplifying it into a single sentence, however, is a bit of a fool's errand. A person may spend their entire lives studying magic without being able to truly describe it. Fool I may be, because I will try to do so here. Physics as we know it is governed by a series of forces like gravity or electromagnetism. These forces interact with each other on a daily basis, and the result is the observable (and inobservable) universe. Think of magic as another one of these forces, acting both as a wave and a particle in the way it interacts with the physical world. Magic exists everywhere, with different concentrations of particles that exist on different wavelengths. Most "ambient" magic exists on the neutral spectrum and shifts to the negative spectrum as it gains energy and to the positive spectrum as it loses energy. When high concentrations of ambient magic are subjected to sufficient heat and pressure. they turn into a solid, crystalline form called materia. These materia crystals are natural stores for magical energy, sending it back out when struck like a tuning fork producing a musical tone. Today, materia is used to power magical engines, guns, and other modern devices. Most organisms possess specialized cells containing mana, a type of organelle used to convert ambient magic into a usable form. After drawing in magical energy, the cells can then re-emit it to produce magical reactions that can do anything from heal wounds to create gouts of flame. And that is what most people think of when they think of magic- the loud, visible displays of professional magicians that occur every day. But even without recognizing the arcane nature of it, one need only look around at the telegraph wires overhead or the hedges lining the road to realize that magic truly exists everywhere.