Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Rectify Conflicting Magic Systems
In the context of Arborous, magic is defined as any action, effect, or expression of power that bends, warps, or violates the natural laws of the universe (such as - but not limited to - physics, biology, and some formal systems like probability). Put in layman's terms, magic is “any thing that happens through unnatural means, or any object that exhibits unnatural properties.”
In general, this breaks down into a few major groupings:
Magical workings that only a god could pull off. This includes things like magical flora/fauna or, on a more “mundane” level, the magical strands of arcane energy that keep the islands we inhabit floating above an endless void of nothingness.
Yes, people have tried to work cosmic magic. No, it does not turn out well for them. That isn't to say none have succeeded, only that the costs inevitably far outweigh the benefits. There are some workings of magic mortals were simply never meant to grasp, and it's likely to stay that way.
This is what the majority of people think of when they contemplate magic - it's the sort of magic one can actually use and wield. However, workable magic is a fickle thing - the word is more a categorical description than it is a specific “thing” one can point to. However, there is one thing to keep in mind: all workable magic is a contract between god and mortal. That isn't to say that magic necessitates a personal relationship with any particular deity, but magic cannot exist in a place where no gods deem it so.
There is…one exception to the previously stated rule. Alchemy itself is not “magic” per se, in the sense that the mixing of ingredients is not very different to cooking or baking or brewing. However, there is a certain “common understanding” among the Ordered Gods that, regardless of location, magical properties of flora and fauna are to be upheld, even if used outside their territory of origin. There are some RARE exceptions to this rule to be found in the Crowns, but these are rare indeed, and almost always short-lived; the Ordered Gods do not take kindly to their works being snubbed in this way.
In the context of Arborous, gods are immortal, sentient, magical beings whose existence relies upon the symbiotic, contractual relationship between themselves, their territories, and their followers.
Let's break that down in a bit more detail, shall we?
Gods can be killed, but not in the sort of way that humans can. While some choose to take on physical forms from time to time, a god itself is not bound by that form - if the form is killed (assuming it even CAN be killed) the god still remains. The only way to kill a god is to sever all its relationships to the real world, something we'll discuss later.
Not all gods are particularly talkative - some outright refuse to communicate at all - but they are sentient, capable of thinking, planning, and making decisions, and susceptible to all the influences that come with such sentience, albeit to varying degrees depending on the deity.
The gods are not simply capable of magic - they are the source of all magic itself. Mortals alone are not capable of bending the fabric of reality to suit their whims; only the gods are so strong. This also means that whatever magic a deity chooses to empower, that magic's existence rises and falls with the existence of the god which created that magic.
Gods are sentient, but they are not wholly invested with free will. Magic is, in a sense, a binding set of rules, one that a deity imposes upon themselves in the form of a contract to ensure their own self-sustenance. The terms of these “contracts” are not always clear, and they can vary wildly from one another, but the contract is, in a sense, the self-identity of the deity; their personality, their ideals, their very self is wrapped within this contract. More details are discussed below.
What exactly does ascension to godhood look like? Well, to become a deity, first you have to be dead. Sorry, but shedding the mortal coil is the first cost of ascension. Once you die, your soul is now free to pursue one of three outcomes:
Those who served a deity often choose to become a vassal for them after death. Not all gods take vassals, but others accept vassalage from any who wish it after death. Vassalage is an imprecise term - some deities have specific tasks for their vassals to do, while other deities simply offer a place of eternal, quiet solace. This also offers spirits the opportunity to occasionally visit the mortal plane in some fashion, depending upon the agreements made with the deity that controls that territory.
Alternatively, there's nothing stopping a particularly ambitious spirit from ascending to godhood, other than the difficulties involved. To ascend means to be in constant competition with other deities - good, evil, and indifferent - in an eternal, cosmic power struggle. It also means that a newly-ascended spirit-turned-deity is easy prey for malicious gods to try and kill, manipulate, or drive mad.
In addition, there's the necessity of forming symbiotic contracts in order to ascend - this is not a well-understood process, given that deities don't generally converse about this with mortals. It's unclear if the lack of communication on this subject is because deities are somehow universally forbidden to speak of the details, or because the details are so cosmically incomprehensible that there aren't proper words to even describe the concepts involved. Suffice it to say, there appear to be solid, dangerous reasons why you don't see many new deities popping up in the world, and it's probably best left at that.
This is, in theory, the end state of all deities. Gods without any anchoring to reality through contracts simply…cease to exist after a time. It's unknown where these souls go, but presumably they have to go somewhere. One of the great mysteries of the universe, I suppose. In any case, whatever this force is, contracts are the counter-force; they serve to anchor a deity to reality. The only way for gods to avoid consumption is to anchor themselves to reality more strongly than the force that tries to annihilate them.
As mentioned, gods become gods through the creation of contracts. Some gods tie these contracts to their territories, others to an entire race, and still others to select mortals whom the deity deems worthy, or to mortals who worship said deity. Some gods choose to sacrifice power amongst the pantheon for stability, and tie their contract to multiple sources. This makes them weaker, but also harder to kill. Other deities crave the power of godhood, and thus tie themselves strongly to one source, leaving them empowered but vulnerable.
Some deities choose to directly select specific mortals for contractual agreements. The most common example of this is a pact warlock, an individual who operates as an agent of their patron deity's will in the mortal realm. Usually, these sorts of contracts provide a sense of limited immortality for the contract-holder, as well as immense magical power that the individual may wield through various means. In return, the mortal provides an “anchor” for that deity, and are often required to perform certain obligatory actions as directed, lest they violate their contract.
Deities that create individual contracts usually have much more direct control over their vassals, and the vassals themselves often wield much more magical power, as they have a direct connection to their patron deity. However, this creates weakness in both vassal and patron: killing all a patron's vassals effectively kills that deity, and vassals only wield their full power when within a territory that the patron controls. When outside the patron's direct territory, the individual becomes significantly weaker the further they stray from home. Usually this is expressed through loss of immortality, diminished magical effect, or physical illness.
Some deities will bestow contracts upon an entire clade, clan, bloodline, or group affiliation. The most common example of this is a clan patron, often an ancestral spirit who bestows certain minor boons in exchange for simple expressions of faith or belief. These contracts, while weaker than direct selection, are still stronger and more specific than religious or systemic contracts due to the nature of shared belief among a community.
Deities that create lineage contracts are heavily reliant upon communal belief, often requiring acts of worship in some form to sustain their power. In return, the patron deity is obligated to uphold certain “lineage qualities” as established by whomever initially forms the contract (usually the first ruler of a people, the first head of a lineage, the founding clanmaster of a clan, etc) and is upheld and occasionally amended by the head of the lineage (ruler of a people, head of a lineage, clanmaster of a clan, etc).
The benefit of a lineage contract to a deity is that it spreads out the contract among many people - it's much more difficult to wipe out an entire group than it is to kill a few warlocks. The downside is that beliefs can shift or sway - should a people stop believing in a god, that god loses power and may die entirely.
Some deities, rather than specifically bonding with a specific group, will instead create open-ended contracts with any who choose to adhere to specific tenets (or “ideations”, hence the name). These tenets/ideations are not specific actions - though many groups of people form certain rites or rituals as a learning aid - but rather are specific concepts, ideals, morals, or philosophies that must be embraced. Those who more fully embrace or embody these tenets tend to receive greater magical benefit, though whether this is due to the deity awarding greater power or simply because rigorous training tends to yield mastery is unclear.
Finally, a select few deities choose to create the most open-ended - and simultaneously, the most complex - contracts. These contracts involve open access to any mortal willing to learn and, to the extent possible, understand the intricacies of whatever contract the deity chooses to create. These contracts can be, and most often are, enormously complex and convoluted affairs, even by the standards of deities, which pushes them into the realm of near-incomprehensibility to any one mortal.
Many systemic contracts become the foundation for entire schools of study by the magically-inclined, and for good reason: those who can learn to understand and abide by the rules of such a contract can perform surprisingly strong magic without binding themselves to a fixed set of ideals, a group identity, or a will-binding agreement. Hubris has been the downfall of many a mortal, however, who dares to believe they fully understand the extent of a systemic contract; while a systemic contract cannot be nullified once created, it can most certainly be amended, meaning that new side-effects can constantly arise should the deity who formed it be capricious, or just particularly bored.