Magic, and the Orders of the Exodus Covenant

Magic!

Ah, magic. Always a pain in the ass.

Magic is broken up into a few subcategaories.

Racial Magic: Racial magic is magic that is innate to all members of a species. Very few races have magic common to every member of a species – a good example would be harpies; every member of their species has racial magic enabling them to actually fly. Dwarves, too – they have sort of an earth sense.

Personal Magic: Personal magic is magic that is innate to a certain person; they are born with the innate ability. This one is a bit odd – for example, 90% of all non-Covah humans are born with magic that makes them highly adaptable; that 10% means it’s not racial. Most people have two, maybe three gifts like this, and half the time, they don’t precisely seem like “magic”. For example, the naga in my NaNo – her special talent, in addition to the human adaptability, is a gift for languages – it takes her very little time to be able to be fully fluent in a new language. The dwarf, in addition to his racial magic, has a whole bundle of personal magics that make him a very effective alchemist – he’s immune to poison, can eat something and know what it would be good for making like in Skyrim, and can figure out how to replicate any poison or similar chemical that he ingests; to the point of being able to manufacture it in his own body.

Active Magic: This is the traditional form of magic, wizards and sorcerers flinging around spells and so forth. No more explanation is really needed, I think.

Psionics are the last type of “magic”, and are the only available to clerics of the main “gods”. This is because as part of their training they are altered to be able to use psionic abilities, but that is a kettle of fish I refuse to touch for the time being – especially since it’ll only be relevant in the very last part of the novel.

 The Exodus Covenant and the Orders Thereof

Yes! These things finally have names!

Basically, when the ancient humans who decided to retreat behind the wall of Covah did so, they formed a pact between the five leaders of the movement called the Exodus Covenant. Each leader had a special type of personal magic, despite being human, and took a lot of people with subtle or unual personal magics with them.

In modern times, Covah residents are almost unusually lacking in magic; they bred to the specific talents they wanted for each order, and turned the humans with the adaptability or more traditional magic talents and personal magics into monsters - and more and more people have only one personal magic ability - or none.

In short, inside Covah, magic is slowly but surely going extinct.

The Orders have let the truth of their origins blur - rather than recognizing that they themselves practice magic, they view their abilities as granted by their absentee gods. Anything that is not procribed by their religious texts is considered anthema, and punished if discovered.

The funniest thing: the real difference between "divine" magic and "bad" magic is the target. The Orders teach that the "divine" is only able to effect other people; purity of self means that your own magic cannot effect you. Bad magic effects yourself in additon to others - the funny thing is that the magic of the Orders CAN effect the user; they've just been taught to fear that happening, so it doesn't.

Delicious hypocrisy!

(This is just a really general overview)

Order of Genese

The Order of Genese is talented in healing, and more specifically, the reshaping of living material. Though their magic can make up for a lot, it really helps that they are extensively trained in anatomy and biology. Most of them also can sort of ping a personal's body to get a sense for their internal makeup and any really obvious problems.

Order of Striget

The Order of Striget are the military order; most of their abilities are offensive and elemental in nature. Yes I am sort of ripping off Avatar the Last Airbender here, though not to the extent that it might seems.

Order of Jaiger

The Order of Jaiger have a lot of abilities involved with imbuing things with their essense, and seeing through them. Golems and such are very common in their areas, and they are the most mechanically gifted order.

Order of Ewasse

The Order of Ewasse are druids, more or less. Harvest and urban druids, but druids nonetheless.

Order of Tekstiel

The Order of Tekstiel are...interesting. They have creation talents, their hands being able to create materials and arts that defy resonable explaination - the greatest of these items are considered divine relics. They are the keepers of secrets and knowledge.


Can you tell that I am still preeeeetty vague on a lot of this stuff?