magic

Page history last edited by Jessie 1 yr ago

A couple of years ago Tyler asked if I would "do something" about the Circle's lack of a magic system. It is by no means complete but, as I would like some feedback, I have decided to go ahead and post parts of it anyway. -Jessie Kline

Basselitus' Complete Encyclopædia of the Theory and Practice of Magic: Past and Present

Seagarden University, 1604 P.A.

Authors' Note:

The original Encyclopædia was a work of truly great scholarship and it moves me nearly to tears that the name of the author should be lost to posterity merely because they chose to work under the pseudonym Charis Líadan. The real Charis Líadan, while appaernlty a prolific writer and an excellent amateur scholar, is believed to have lived sometime in the fifth century B.A., while the encyclopædia clearly dates from the sixth century P.A. That said, the author was also an excellent mimic and the Encyclopædia has been used by many a textual critic to prove that style alone is not adequate to date a text.

Introduction:

I began this project at the request of my fellow scholars at Seagarden University. It has been some time since such a thing has been attempted, the last attempt being so thorough and the mistakes that were made such a quibbling nature as to make a complete rewriting a pointless task - until now. Now that the practice of magic has finally reached its pinnacle it is time to make those additions that the author of the Encyclopædia Arcanum was prevented from making by not having lived in this enlightened age.

In the writing of this new Encyclopedia I have borrowed liberally from the most excellent work of my predecessor. Many of the kinds of magic related int he Encyclopædia are now either extinct, or, more probably, were never real in the first place. It would be irresponsible of me, however, to cut them from this new addition, as, efficacious or not, they are part of the history of magical practice of which this is a complete compendium. With this in mind I have excerpted their entries from the original Encyclopædia and categorized them as I see fit.