Castor was on a ship exploring the lands to the North of Sentenza. His journey to the Forest of Brotherhood had turned out to be rather pointless, shortly after his arrival, another envoy of spectra arrived and took him home. What a magnificent waste of time.
Now though, this journey was not a waste of time, not when they had found... This.
It was strange at first, to see humanoid creatures who had lost physical form, existing as the purity of fire, or a shaped gust of wind. Whatever they were before, Castor knew not, but what he did find, unmistakably, were the signs of something greater.
The signs of Magic.
There was great energy up ahead, something waiting to be discovered.
Deep inside a stone temple, buried under the blowing sands, Castor found a strange congregation. A being of flesh and blood stood forth infront of his peers, and underwent a strange ritual.
The being created a veil of fire from nothing but the energy of Gaea itself! These beings were great magicians. He must pry these secrets from their minds.
When the veil dissipated, out came a being of pure flame. He tried to repeat the casting of fire, but to no avail. Another failure, another exile to be thrown to the wastes. Such was the price for failing to ascend.
As the being was cast from the temple, Castor followed. When he was sure they were alone, Castor reached out, and touched its mind. With an iron grasp, he willed the creature to stillness, and underwent a through, methodical, almost surgical search of the poor creature's psyche.
As the creature's mind collapsed, Castor received a great amount of knowledge. The fools were attempting to better harness the power of Gaea, through a training now ingrained into his mind, they achieved control of this new energy. They could bend it, shape it, define it.
Yet they failed to master the energy, they failed to be one, to achieve total control. Hence the ritual. Who could manipulate fire better than a creature of pure flame, the winds as well as a being made from the very winds? None, and thus they sought to transform themselves to better control and shape the energy at their disposal.
"Fools." Castor smirked. "Such is not the true path to power through magic."
Magic is not in the flames, it is not on the winds. Magic, is itself. To become fire to understand magic is pure folly.
No, to wield magic as if it were yourself, you need not to become the elements you wish to manipulate, such are the old ways, for old fools. This is the new dawn.
Castor saw the ritual instructions, and made a slight modification. This valuable find would be stored in one of the memory crystals he carried.
To wield magic, you must become the very power itself. To become its manifestation is a mere mockery. This, is the TRUE RITE OF ARCANERY.
Castor discovers the Rite of Arcanery, a spell that allows someone with understanding of the magical energy within Gaea to become the living embodiment of the energy itself, being able to wield this new magic as if it were natural. It allows for increased power and control over this magic. The Rite uses a mix of energy manipulation and umbra magic, applied directly to the caster. In essence, it converts the caster into pure power so they become a powerful caster. There is no caster among the spectra that has the understanding and mastery of the manipulation of magical energy yet to complete this rite.
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[–] NobleParadox [S] ago
[–] bobusdoleus ago
[m] I thought that it might still be appropriate. For instance, initially one turns into magic partially, as one does more and more metamagic (That is, affecting other people's magic. Breaking curses perhaps, redirecting spells, screwing with people that are partially or nearly-fully transformed, the more transformed the more screwing, that sort of thing) and then when turning completely into magic, one can become, for example extremely powerful for a while before fading away, or do a single great feat of metamagic - say, denying all magic in a large area, or countering a powerful spell, or exploding all partially-transformed people in an area - and, in so doing, become undone, in a single instant of supermagical ecstasy and understanding. Is that appropriate? I'm not trying to ruin things.
[–] NobleParadox [S] ago (edited ago)
This is acceptable, inventing meta-magic was not my intention, but it serves to be interesting nonetheless. I thank you for your output and co-operation. I would almost rather prefer that they would become completely self-obsessed and unconcerned with the affairs of everyone else around them, and perhaps become unstable and highly destructive, rather than simply collapsing into a heap of energy.