Owlbears and Chickenhawks

The first Fall was the mightiest of acts of Falling; it happened, when Sin sprang like wisdom from the head of Satan , and he was cast down from the limitless heights of heaven to the bottomless depths of hellfire by God's wrath. The fall here is twofold. The physical fall was surely grand; but Satan performed a great and unprecedented act before that, in creating Sin wholly anew from his mind, fathering all Falls from then on into eternity. This, surely, was the greatest Fall. But this puts Satan and his demoniac followers in a difficult spot; for if war with heaven is to be waged by inspiring further Falls, and this first fall was not great enough to topple the Almighty, how do they ever usurp that loathsome, limned throne? Satan's first try was to consign all of humanity to sin, through the temptation of humankind. But the Son of God came down to earth, died for their sins, and returned to heaven to settle that score. And so the creative space within which Satan has to ope...

 This series of posts has covered, exclusively, magic coming from lesser sources. What makes this final post so interesting to me is that the source isn’t necessarily lesser. It is stranger, darker, and more dangerous than the other methods. This is magic as radiation, or as we call it in this setting, Spirit-Calling. Magic as Radiation: Enter the Spirit World Magic as radiation is unique because one needs little to no formal training to call spirits. Spirits are willing to enter any human’s body. That being said, those with strong force of will and innate magical ability will be better hosts for spirits.  The Mages of the Cyclica and the Church of the Human Font might be disconcerted by the questions about consciousness that Spirit-calling forces reconciliation with. Most would prefer to see the art eradicated than devote time answering such questions. Setting Element: Spirits Spirits are creatures that embody some kind of symbolic or elemental force. They live all around th...

 The two major academic models of magic have origins in the same general theory, leaning on a single ritual that draws magic to them in one fell swoop. But there are other ways of channelling magic; more time-consuming, perhaps, but more fruitful as a result. It is a technique abandoned by academia for its volatility and brutishness, but which flourishes in the cracks between the Churches. Magic as Fire:  In the Cracks Some liken it to drawing in a breath through lungs that aren't your own; others, to bailing out a sinking boat. Either way, channelling magic is a long, drawn-out process. Channelling magic and maintaining it requires lots of Fuel, and the longer you try to maintain it, the more fuel you'll be expending.  Setting Element: Containing Magic When a decent-sized spell builds up, it has to be contained. Most wizards contain the spell in their mind; after all, their mind is almost always on them. Others contain it in a Gong, or an a group of minds, or in a brewin...