zadhuyr

My magic system is pretty darn complicated, and more scientific than mystical.

A thaum is a particle capable of bending the fabric of spacetime. Thaums naturally flow in circuits, and when the circuit is broken, the thaums are transformed into antithaums, and reality folds in a predictable and measurable way. Thaums and antithaums can also flow together in opposite directions in circuits called full paths. Circuits of thaums and circuits of antithaums are attracted to each other, and running an antithaumic circuit next to a thaumic circuit will break both circuits and combine them into one full path. Thaums and antithaums travel along underground pathways called ley lines in one enormous full path that stretches across the entire planet. Many believe that the ley lines flow outwards from another world.

The thaumic system is comprised of two small muscles wrapped around the spinal chord in the middle of the back that manipulate matter within a short distance of their owner. The thaumic cortex takes in thaums and expels antithaums, and the thaumic medulla manipulates reality by creating and breaking microscopic circuits. These muscles are controlled by the Thaumic Lobe, located on the brain stem. The Thaumic Sacs are located behind the heart and lungs. One contains thaums and the other contains antithaums. The thaumic veins complete the circuit between the sacs, cortex and medulla.

The thaumic system evolved as a way for humanity to gain a physical advantage over other animals and to aid in construction of advanced tools for prehistoric humans. Learning to control the medulla takes an immense amount of practice and study, and few have the determination and wit to even learn to move an object with their thaumic medulla. In the modern era most thaumic cortexes have been rendered vestigial due to the advancement of technology, but with meditation, sensory deprivation, drugs, physical trauma, or intense thaumic exposure, they can be activated. Wizards’ abilities are severely limited by both the amount of thaums in the environment and Telekinetic Decay Syndrome, which usually kills them within about 5 years after they start to use their thaumic system, but with the advent of modern medicine wizards are able to stave off this problem. They also become more and more thaumically irradiated, which means that reality is altered by their very presence.

To perform magic, a person must have enough thaums in their environment or stored up in their cortex, have a cortex that's developed enough not to be injured by the energy buildup, and have a complete and unfailing understanding of the composition and nature of what they want to alter. When a wizard performs magic, it enters a trancelike state where it sees with its thaumic system. The thaumic medulla is just like any other muscle in that the more magic a wizard performs, the more developed its system becomes, and it can accomplish tasks that are more complex and further away from the it. However, a more developed thaumic system means less room for the heart and lungs, and so most wizards must either forego magic past a certain point or learn how to survive without their organs, delivering oxygen to their cells with magic alone and enduring terrible pain. The only way to avoid TDS is to use magic sparingly and efficiently, never altering an object unless you have meditated on it for many days and understand it completely and utterly. This is called “mastering a substance”.

Thaumic instability refers to a method of breaking circuits that will reverse the reality alteration in a certain amount of time, depending on the level of instability. Learning to create thaumic instability is very difficult, but it can enable a wizard to create reality alterations that will disappear or happen in a certain time. A wizard can break another wizard’s instability using thaumic patterning.

Thaumic patterning means rehearsing the magic one will do beforehand and storing it in a thaumic instability, and then applying it to the real world by breaking several large circuits. The instability is usually carried around inside the wizard’s body, or in an object. The medulla is incapable of doing this, so many wizards create circuits through parts of their body other than their medulla using their thaumic veins. They touch their fingers, wrists, tongues, and teeth together in certain combinations to do connect and break the circuits. The circuits can also be created using an object called a focus. The energy is only used once the circuits are broken. If the wizard does not have enough thaums in themselves, the instability will burn up the wizard’s body and redirect nearby thaums in order to complete itself.

Magic performed without mastering a substance is called red magic, and is extremely dangerous to the user and those around them. It can be used only to project cones of force, heat, electricity, or light outwards from oneself. Red wizards are wizards who learn to use red magic without killing themselves. It is useful because it can be done in any situation without forethought or meditation.

Wizards tend to be solitary folk, often spending months isolated from the world to develop a new magical technique. However, some wizards find delight in passing on their knowledge and are willing to take apprentices. Because of magic's deadly nature, master wizards are few and far between. Some shrewd masters will require payment and rigorous testing to take you on as an apprentice, while others share their knowledge freely, and ask only that you are attentive and respectful.

When a wizard performs magic, their view of spacetime is forever altered. Space curves differently for them, and they see the laws of the world and the way things move as not absolute, but rather a fragile coincidence. The wizard will gain a mathematical understanding of the movements of thaums that is incomprehensible to a non-wizard.

Most wizards focus their practice on one particular magical discipline. Disciplines vary from place to place. Common magical disciplines include:

Agromancy - large-scale agriculture and organic growth magic
Herbomancy - small-scale horticulture and medicine magic
Anatomancy - flesh magic
Morbumancy - disease magic
Neuromancy - brain magic
Tectomancy - large-scale mineral and tectonic plate magic
Petromancy - small-scale rock and metal magic
Baromancy - large-scale wind current and storm magic
Aeromancy - small-scale air magic
Pyromancy - temperature magic
Luxomancy - light magic
Bellimancy - combat magic
Archomancy - architecture magic
Technomancy - machine magic
Logomancy - logical / mathematical / predictive magic
Digimancy - digital / computational magic
Regiomancy - spatial magic
Aethereomancy - phasing one’s body in and out of the aether and manipulating aethereal matter

Balgayzaj, or Squatter Magic, was developed by the first human colonists on Zadhuyr. It can manipulate the unique elements and structures of the Native ruins, and many ancient Native machines, tools, weapons, and gates exist that can only be utilized with this unique magical discipline.

Alchemy is the study of magical atomic fusion and fission in order to transmute elements or create unimaginable destruction. No known Alchemists are alive today. It is forbidden even within magical communities, and the possession of alchemical literature or equipment is punishable by death in many places.

Thaumaturgy is the art of redirecting the flow of thaums outside of one's own body, and studying the flow of thaumic currents in the natural world.

Sorcery refers to magic performed using stored energy, while channeling refers to magic performed by running a temporary current through one’s body. A sorcerer stores thaums in their body for later use, while a channeler takes in thaums only when they want to do magic. Channelers usually tap ley lines for thaums, but they can also use objects to store thaums, such as a magical amulet or staff.

Many wizards try to alter their body and mess up, so it's safer to just turn oneself into an animal that one has meditated on. To turn oneself into an animal, one must learn a lot of biology and how to alter/grow cells, and then one must meditate on several healthy examples of the animal. The parts of the animal’s brain that are dependent on the animal’s life (memories, disposition, etc) will be altered to fit the wizard’s brain. The wizard can make sure they are turned back by creating a thaumic instability which makes them into a human again, but they will have the memories they gained in animal form.

Zadhuyr has no surface oceans, and it almost never rains. Instead, it has vast underground lakes, rivers and aquifers which flow parallel to its ley lines. This water flow creates gargantuan cave systems, and the vast majority of Zadhuyr's biodiversity is found underground in these cave systems. The planet has mountains reaching 14,000 meters into the sky. It is also dotted with hot springs and geysers where both water and thaums boil up to the surface. Even though most of the planet is desert, the the planet has jungles that can be incredibly green and beautiful. Zadhuyr's jungles are seemingly made of trees that can grow up to 90 meters, but because of the ways the "trees" reproduce they are technically ferns. These enormous ferns have roots that dig all the way into the underground lakes and rivers.

There are several species of animals living in the Native ruins that do not seem to have any evolutionary relatives, and it is speculated that they were bioengineered by the Natives in order to fulfill some unknown purpose. There are many dangerous and predatory animals on Zadhuyr, but strangely few venomous ones. Since the ley lines on Zadhuyr are so powerful and so close to the surface, many animals and plants have evolved to consume thaums for nutrients. These organisms can use their own primitive forms of magic to protect themselves, alter their environment, and hunt their prey.

When human colonists first arrived on Zadhuyr many decades ago, they were astonished to find the remnants of a lost alien civilization. The planet of Zadhuyr was dotted with cities and ruins of extraordinary beauty and complexity, but by the time the colonists had arrived, most of the ancient structures had collapsed, and whoever had built them had long ago left or gone extinct. The original colonists took up residence in these ruins, and learned many secrets from their architecture and the machines they found within. The Native cities extend far underground, and their winding passageways often follow the path of Zadhuyr's ley lines. The Natives, as they are now called, seem to have been obsessed with the number seven, and it shows in the layout of their odd, cyclopean architecture. It is said that looking at a well-preserved Native artifact brings one an intense sense of longing and melancholy.



The Federation has destroyed many of the old Native structures to make room for development, but many still stand and are inhabited by strange creatures and even stranger people. Many archeologists have ventured down into the depths of the old Native cities, but none have returned. Many theories exist as to what killed the Natives or why they left, but no Native corpses have ever been unearthed, or if they have, the Federation has done a good job of covering it up. No clues exist as to what the Natives may have looked like, but based on the size of their buildings, they were significantly larger than humans. The purpose of most Native buildings and machines is a complete mystery.

Every possible universe exists. This means that many universes exist where very little is different, and those universes look relatively normal to us. These worlds are called the Near Side. There are also universes where physics are different, there is no gravity, there are no particles, everything is totally incomprehensible to us and would drive an inhabitant of our world insane. These universes are called the Far Side.

In our world, spaceships regularly travel in and out of a Near Side universe known as the Aether (a nearly infinite ocean of a strange colorless substance which is used to reduce the duration of space travel), but all other universes are so far inaccessible to our technology. Luckily, powerful beings exist in other Near Side universes that have mastered the art of interdimensional travel, and they are willing pull people and objects through the dimensional veil in exchange for complicated favors. These beings can be contacted by performing various rituals, often at places where the separation between worlds is weakest. Beings such as these also exist in Far Side universes, but contacting them is often dangerous, and a Farsider's arrival in our world can have strange effects on physics and spacetime.