Ayreonia wrote:On magic, mages and pseudomages
Magic has permeated Soil for as long as there has been a Soil. Its exact origins are unknown, but Cambrian philosophy argues that it's residual energy from the forming of Uriyah during the birth of the universe. Its practitioners are known by many names: mages, wizards, magicians, sorcerers, et cetera. To a layman, these terms are synonymous, but to practitioners, each carries a different meaning. More on that later.
Through the ages, magic has always been a tool of the few seemingly random individuals who have simply grasped it naturally. It wasn't until three decades ago that Precambrian scientists discovered a gene that controlled affinity for magic. Further research proved that every single human being had this gene, but it was "dormant" in most. This discovery allowed the development of magical techniques for non-affinites, but the results were underwhelming: people with the dormant gene were, and still are, exceedingly hard to train, and even if they do learn, they cannot hope to reach the power, precision or finesse of affinites.
This is where pseudomages come in: the same Precambrian scientists came up with a way to forcibly mutate the gene through magical therapy. This "wakes" the gene up and makes it absorb some of the therapist mage's energy, resulting in the receiver of the therapy becoming a so-called "pseudomage." Pseudomages are still non-affinites and thus learn much more slowly than natural mages, but they can easily reach and even surpass affinites in pure power, while still lagging behind in precision. For example, while an affinite sorcerer can light a roomful of candles one by one or at the same time, a pseudomage sorcerer can light the entire neighborhood on fire. An affinite wizard can manipulate an enemy scout so that they return with false information without realizing anything is wrong, while a pseudomage wizard simply makes the entire scouting party kill each other.
Wizards? Sorcerers? Allow me to explain. The differences between the various classes of magic users are purely semantic, but professional pride runs high among them and there exists a fierce rivalry between the groups. We've already covered pseudomage. Mage is a catch-all term that includes all affinites who are trained in the arts. A sorcerer is a mage or pseudomage who focuses on direct energy manipulation: temperature, sound, even light and movement. Most beginning magic users receive training in sorcery, since its basics are arguably the easiest to grasp, and many of its teachings are applied in other fields of magic. Wizards practice wizardry, the art of bridging the five basic senses with magical effects, creating and manipulating illusions and emotions. Magician is a portmanteau of "mage" and "technician," and their art is called magicraft. Magicraft is combining the physical with the magical; the "super armor" effect described in the OP is an example of highly developed magicraft.
May I propose something as an addition to this?
Some ethnic groups are more prone to Mage abilities than others, as the gene for strong magic affinity is recessive, and would propagate through groups that would need the extra edge to stay alive, like steadying a gun barrel to kill a boar or helping a fire stay alight longer. The more prolonged stress, like rough winters or flooding, a group goes through, the more magically aligned they become.
Example: two hunters from Revaalsbandt are hunting Cedar Bear, one has the strong magic gene and the other with weak magic gene. They both fire and hit the same spot on two different bears. The weak magic users bullet hits the bear, but doesn't kill it instantly and the hunter killed. The strong magic users bullet hits the bear and fails to kill it, like the first bear, but the bear bleeds faster than he should and dies before he can maul the hunter.
In other words, some groups are more latently magical than others. This may translate in something as minor as better luck when hunting and gambling all the way up to full magic affinity in most of the population.
