Ok so yesterday I introduced the concept of magic as a principal. Today I'll go over the types of magic, and their frequency in the world. Magic is the most dangerous force in this world, those who can use it are as dangerous to themselves as they are to their enemies. To be able to wield magic you need to have ability (aside from Necromancy which is ritual magic and can be taught though there is a belief you have to have natural ability with magic prior to learning necromancy to be able to learn it in the first place, I myself have never tested this theory as training someone else to be a necromancer is just about the worst idea I've ever heard!) for most people magical ability spawns up at a very young age, and unlike say being extremely smart (of which I am) magical ability is a bit of a death sentence.
Why you may ask? Well other then being able to do incredible feats with relatively nothing (like say set someone on fire), you are also subject to the corruption. See using magic is utilizing a destructive force and hoping not to get burned, burned in this case being disfigured by the corruption and going insane. No one exactly knows how the corruption works, its mainly on a sliding scale of using magic for prolonged displays of power. Say igniting candles in your room, very minor display and you could probably do it all day no problem. Igniting an entire army of men? Most likely to damage you in a way that would be immediate, painful, and potentially fatal (if not for you, for those around you when you go insane, insanity by corruption is not the drooling nitwittery of the lower classes, instead its a murderous rage fueled by your magical powers, a lot like a forest fire).
There are Four major type of magical users:
Shooters: One of the most common types of magical powers, able to utilize one elemental force (or in extreme cases two) with some propensity, most are either fire or earth based, with a rarer subsection being wind or ice (I haven't done the research why wind and ice are less common, perhaps the nature of the land I inhabit? like in colder climes fire is more rare and ice more prevelant?). I'm a member of the shooter type of magic, outside of my ritual necromancy I'm also a pyromancer (two great tastes that go awful together).
Bleeders: These are a nasty set of people, basically natural born necromancers without the ability to steal the life they are taking. Unlike shooters, bleeders abilities are purely offensive and for the most part once a person is identified of this school they are either put to death or locked up (worse then death). Their powers work on ripping the lifeforce from those around them, I have once witnessed this used in a helpful manner (a powerful bleeder was a healing woman in a local village, she would "bleed" the infections out of people, this was a rarity and even then she hid her work behind a mask of being the other type of magic user) but for the most part a bleeder in adult hood is some twisted corruption maniac. They are rarer then shooters but still sadly way too prevalent.
Healers: The second most common magical type, able to repair life force of others at the cost of their own (so it has to be used sparingly not only out of fear of the corruption but also out of extending themselves and dying). A misconception of the magicless is that skilled healers can bring back the dead, which is just foolery, to do such a thing would certainly kill the healer, fixing cuts and breaks are hard enough, which is why traditional medicine and herbery is still practiced and improved.
Shifters: Shifters are the most rare and most dangerous of all magical users. Their power is to melt into the ether of this world and reemerge elsewhere. I've also heard of shadow/daylight shifters who can completely dissapear into the dark/light and remerge in other connected darkness/beams of light. I don't know if they are an actual subtype of shifter or just shifters who learned their powers with some kind of mental block (like I once knew a fire user who thought he could only wield it with a wand, it was hilarious how inept that belief would be). Bleeders are often given the benefit of the doubt and allowed to prove themselves dangerous, shifters are not. Their power is too prone to the corruption, and a corrupt teleporting crazy is not something anyone would ever ever want. Thankfully they are very very rare, I personally only came across the aftermath of a shifter once, and never the actual shifter himself.
Those are the four major types of magic, there are other lesser types, and even within each school you can either be a major user or a minor one (I personally am quite proficient with flame, I've met other fire shooters who can barely light tinder). It is possible to get better at magical use, but as I said the corruption makes it dangerous to attempt.
Necromancy is not a school by itself, again as its ritual based (though with proficiency you don't need the rituals, like I have forgotten most of the early ones I started out with and can use necromantic magic with frightening ease). Much like the mistaken belief that healers can raise the dead, neromancers also lack this ability, traditional necromantic magic is more of a soul cannnibalism. You take life to extend your own (its how I have lived all these years) unfortunately this life usually has to be very much still ticking for it to be worth anything (much like trying to start a fire, if you take someone at the end of theirs you gain very little, which is not to say I haven't done that too, because a hundred small snacks can still fill you up, yes I know thats horrible). Part of this soul cannibalism is also viewing into their life as you take it, it can be maddening, but also insightful. Like say you "ate" someone who was an author, you'd gain an insight into writing (something I've clearly not done based on my really sloppy writing). It can be really habit forming the thrill of new experiences, another reason for necromancies danger. Which is not to say that necromancy is all bad, you can also act as a conduit for healing (taking life from one person to give it to another), I have done this a couple times in the past, although usually not to the person I was healings knowledge (most people have this silly moral quandry about taking life to save their own, idiots).
So there you have it strange person who knows nothing of the magic of this world. A bit longer then I would have liked, but it again is necessary. I can't really go on about how I had to deal with four shooters and have you thinking they were all carrying fire arms (which are at this time very real technology has caught up to magic, though when I was younger this was not the case). Also I hope I've given you a slight insight into the dangers of magic and necromancy, so you'll have a proper fear for the man whose journal you are reading should I still be alive.
My next entry will deal with my least favorite aspect of this world religion, and hopefully the last one before I finally get to the point of this silly journal that being me!!! Seriously I've spent more time explaining the mechanics of thing like some kind of strange instructor then being a self centered person, you know how hard that is for me?
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