Sorcery

Sorcery

Major School of Magic.

This school draws its power from the order inherent in the universe, called gaja.

Novels and Short Stories The Misenchanted Sword, Night of Madness, The Unwelcome Warlock, Portrait of a Hero, The Sorcerer's Widow .

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Sorcery is the practice of creating and using talismans, magical devices with specific functions. While it remains a major school of magic many of the greatest achievements are no longer reproducable. What is referred to as "high sorcery," the skills necessary to create the greatest forms of talismans including things like the Towers of Lumeth, have been lost. [1] Many sorcerers rely heavily on the use of ancient talismans they find or purchase rather than creating their own talismans from scratch. Unlike wizardry, witchcraft, and warlockry there’s no psychic component to sorcery; it is an entirely external form of magic. Because of this sorcerers cannot sense magic of any kind except by means of talismans created for that purpose.[2]

	The only sorcerer he dealt with had no tests to perform, but merely looked him over carefully and asked him a variety of peculiar questions, mostly dealing with numbers and unlikely hypothetical situations. Finally she shook her head. "I'm sorry," she said, "but you just won't do."
		The Blood of a Dragon

Talismans

Sorcerous talismans come in a variety of forms, customized to the effects they are intended to anchor. Unlike wizards who give their spells orders, demonologists who have circles of demons, or theurgists who rank the degree of the invocations to their gods, sorcerers don’t divide talismans or effects into levels or ranks as such. They have categories of talismans divided by what they do rather than how powerful they are. Within a category sorcerers may rank them, for example rating weapons by effective range, but there’s no overall system.[3]

Sorcerery has been described as creating effects with a power called gaja, derived from the order that underlies the universe. These effects are channeled by very precise patterns of pure metals and crystals and dissipate if the physical artifacts which anchor the magical effects are even slightly damaged. The effects created by sorcerous talismans are innate to their structure. If a very skillful artisan with a suitably equiped workshop were to duplicate a talisman exactly, down to the most minute details of materials and construction the duplicate would exhibit the magical properties of the original. Given that some of the materials intrensic to sorcery do not occurr in nature and sorcerers in general don't really understand what they're doing, especially as their talismans generally have no moving parts and no comprehensible power source,[4] such a master artisan would by definition be a sorcerer.

Most talismans can be used by anyone who understands their use; others require a sorcerer to use them effectively. Of practicing modern sorcerers no more than half produce their own talismans.

Sorcerers and Society

During the Great War the Northern Empire used sorcery heavily for magical support, although how is not clearly documented. Following the end of the Great War many sorcerous artifacts are destroyed or confiscated by the army. Some find their way into private hands as soldiers took unreported loot which was passed down within families as heirlooms ("Portrait of a Hero").

After the end of the war the use of Sorcery was not expressly forbidden throughout the Small Kingdoms, but it is widely avoided. Few powerful talismans remain, with a higher number of sorcerous talismans remaining in the Baronies of Sardiron, closer to the original territory of the Northern Empire.

Sorcerers are not particularly organized as a group, and what organization they have does not have a particular name.[5] However the Initiates of the Inner Mysteries are widely recognized as the luminaries and leaders of sorcerers, somewhat analogous to the Wizards' Guild's Guildmasters.[6]

Sorcerers don't have standard colors for their garb, but traditionally wear vests and have lots of pockets. Northern sorcerers generally wore round, close-fitting helmets that were colored black and covered in talismans.

Sorcerers put mystic diagrams on their signs, and crystals in their windows. Diagrams like hexagrams or fractals.

The Demerchan claim to have preserved many otherwise lost secrets of this art, and to thus have its greatest modern practitioners working for them.

Notable Sorcerers

• Kelder of Tazmor
• Arnen Azdaram's son