History of Magic
"In the time before dates were written and the great empires of Feanor had not yet been dreamed of in the minds of Furres, the very words themselves were magical." - Excerpt from the Grandmastery Dissertation of then-Master Vision Na'Graath
This document does not purport to be all-encompassing. It is only meant as a broad overview of the history of Magic on the continent of Calenndor.
The Beginnings
The modern history of magic on Feanor begins with with the Elves
of Hæ'eska (
). Most scholars
agree that the Elves were the first true civilization on Feanor after the
Primes left as Elven tradition holds smatterings of records that date back
at least an eon before the First Age of Calenndor. Due to their inherently
magical nature, Elves were truly the first to harness the magic of nature,
but they did not discover, or perhaps did not wish to discover the magical
languages left by the Prime Patrilius before his departure. Approximately
a hundred years before the First Age of Calenndor, a cataclysm caused by the
Heretic Balseraph ruptured the lands of the Elves, and those that escaped
the destruction of Hæ'eska are known to scholars as the Elves of
the First Diaspora, also known as the Sun Elves (Anar'Quessir,
),
as they came from the uttermost west, where the sun sets. These Elves founded
the nation of Westernesse on the continent of Calenndor, as well as Hyarmunesse
on the Isles of Cunbar, and Rhûnaresse on Pirostia (sometimes today
called Kasuria)
The First Age of Calenndor
The founding of Westernesse is the first day of the first year of the First Age of the Elves on Calenndor. The Elven calendar is still in use today, thousands of years later. The earliest records of the Elves' interactions with the Furres and Humans of Callendor show signs of strife, as Calenndor was covered in racial tribes, and had no governing order beyond that. The status quo on Calenndor did not change for at least 2 millennia, with Human and Furre kingdoms rising, warring and falling every few centuries, while the Elves simply watched in disgust. During this time, magic was wielded only by the High Priests of each tribe, who drew strength from their faith in the Gods and Primes. The rituals may be different, but to this day, Celestial and Infernal Magic, the power of the Clerics has not altered substantially.
The appearance of the Wizards, in the third millenia of the First Age was unexpected, even to the immortal Elves. Furres, Men and Elves of great learning and power arrived one by one over the succeding decades until there were no more than twenty on all of Calenndor. The Wizards lived as great philosophers all over the Continent, and took students rarely. Using their wisdom and power, they helped the populations of Calenndor to overcome their xenophobia, and set the stage for the great empires of the continent.
In the far south of the continent, the jungles of Ðamzon spawned the first true city-states of Calenndor. Though each one contained a majority population of one furrish race, the Wizards' philosophy had taken root, and trade was abundant between the cities of the south. The Humans, however, shunned the furres, and founded their lands in the north. During this time, the Wizards themselves seemed to fade, and were seen rarely in public. Their students, called the Magi, became the public face of the Wizards, though even they were small in number. At no time were there more than 200 or so Magi on Calenndor.
In the year 4739 of the First Age, the Wizards vanished, leaving behind their libraries and their students. Their dissapearance sent shockwaves through the populace of Calenndor. Blaming the Magi for the assumed death of their masters, many of the Furre Magi were killed or exiled from their homes, and their books burned. A large number found refuge with the Elves, who protected them. By the time Mowrtsestra I crowned himself King of Furres in 4741, there were no Magi in all of Taigorr. Those Magi that survived, spent the rest of their lives compiling and studying the remaining texts, creating the defining masterwork of all magical thought on Calenndor, and perhaps all of Feanor: The Codex Arcanis.
The Codex Arcanis
The Codex Arcanis is not a single book, rather it is a library
of 24 books spanning the entire knowledge of Arcane magic. It has been said
that the Codex contains all possible Arcane spells in its pages, and
the study of the Codex has consumed the lifetimes of nearly every Archmagus
since the tomes were compiled. The books themselves are penned in the Elder
(Greater) Arcane, ()and themselves form the basis for all the grammar and
vocabulary of Elder Arcane. Each volume contains the same number of pages,
divided into chapters called Librim (
),
each of a different length. The language is sing-song and fluid, reading very
much like an enormous epic poem, containing self-allusion, allegory and rhyme,
such was the method of learning Magic from the Wizards. Unfortunately, understanding
the Codex has been likened to completing a complex jigsaw puzzle if
you only had a description of what the pieces looked like. The commentaries
on the Codex span hundreds of volumes, and it is not unusual to find
two authors who take the opposite stance on the meaning of a passage, or even
a word. The symbols of the Elements and the Arcane schools actually come from
the Elder Arcane sigils that were printed on the covers of the original Codex
Arcanis. They, in turn came from the books penned by the Wizards themselves.
To one versed in Elder Arcane, these sigils seem to have no meaning, for example,
'Fire' can be read 'hmhay', or possibly 'haamhay'. Neither of those readings
make sense in Elder Arcane, and it is generally thought that they are mnemonics
in whatever the original language the Wizards spoke in.
The Codex Arcanis consists of the following books, the names of which can be read as a poem:
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Aractha
The Magi who remained with the Elves in Westernesse developed
and nurtured magic, developing new ideas and new theorems over the next millennia.
The Humans, however, absorbed magic as part of their culture, and when the
Empire of Valdor was founded, the humans pledges allegiance there, or moved
northward to an escarpment known later as Sargothas (
,
north-man-land). Over the millennia, certain groups of Elves and the Magi
interbred, and their cultures mixed, laying the foundation for what was to
come. A form of pidgin Elder Arcane, called Arcanic, was developed as the
common tongue of these peoples, who were known as the Aramagi (
),
and that language would later develop into Common Aracthan.
The death throes of the First Age brought about a tide of refugees fleeing the destruction of Taigorr. Many ended their journey, by death or settlement, in the lands of Tigath, but a large fraction settled north of Westernesse. These refugees, shell-shocked by the destruction wreaked by the Heretics, quickly assimilated into their new society, adapting and absorbing Arcanic into their native Taigorrean. The Aramagi, led by Mirterannumias, fearing that the sudden influx of refugees would destroy their culture, quickly asserted control over the masses using their magic, and founded the Empire of Aractha, with Mirterannumias as the first Emperor. The early Aracthan scholars and nobility (made up of the Aramagi) developed their own 'Noble' tongue, based on classical Elder Arcane, Taigorrean, and Elvish, and cast an enchantment upon it, which prevented anyone besides the Aramagi from ever deciphering it. (In the Third Age, this decision was called the 'Folly of the Magi', as the Lich King killed every living desendant of the Aramagi).
Under the nearly 2 eons that Aractha was ruled by the Mage-Emperors
(later called God-Emperors), magical learning spread throughout not only Calenndor,
but also most of Feanor. In many ways, the Second Age of Calenndor was the
Second Age of the entire world, such was the power of Aractha. During this
age, many magical disciplines were lost, or subsumed to the religious fervor
that the Aracthans promoted the Codex Arcanis. In those lands where
the ancient Wizards had left other texts, many libraries were scoured out,
taking these so-called 'heretical' books out of the public view to be 'destroyed'.
In fact, they were taken to Aractha, and the magical secrets within were exploited
by the Aramagi to further enhance Aractha's glory. The dissemination of magic
was primary to the power of Aractha. To ease the learning of magic, the Aramagi
devised a simplified magical language called Arcane (
),
which is written using a shorthand notation for Elder Arcane.
About the middle of the Second Age, a group of young Aramagi,
disillusioned with the politics of the Empire, absconded to the midlands and
founded a settlement which would later grow to be known as the City of Towers
in the lands of Valanthas. In the late Third Age, the City was known as the
center of magical learning on Calenndor. Only a few millennia later, a group
of mages who escaped with a library full of the 'banned' magical tomes founded
a magical academy on Themhall, an inhospitable crag of rock in northwestern
Pirostia. The Themhallan mages devised their own version of Elder Arcane,
Themhall Arcane (
)
to compete with Aractha.
The Third Age
In the first half of the Third Age of Calenndor, Aractha had fallen into a painfully slow decline. The loss of the western peninsula, and consequently half the landmass of Aractha took its toll on the populace. Consequently, the City of Towers became the primary center of magic on the continent. Almost exactly halfway through the Third Age, ten thousand mages of Valanthas were kidnapped and forced to create the Runes of Power. A great dark tide swept over Calenndor, punctuated not only by the creation of a weapon that could decimate the continent, but also by the great war of the Lich King that was spurred on by the Heretic of Destruction. In these dark days, Aractha fell, and much of Calenndor was depopulated. The City survived, and the runes were locked away for two millennia. In that time, the free peoples of Calenndor thrived and grew, founding great kingdoms, and pledging peace with one another. At the end of the age, the Runes were found, and a great mage named Thelmin conspired to do what the Lich King could not. Thelmin was thwarted and cast into the void, but the damage done to the City was irreperable. Evil flowed from the City of Towers like blood from an open wound. It was only a matter of time.
The Fourth Age
This is the modern period. Only five years after the fall of Thelmin, the City of Towers was decimated by the festering evil sores left since the War of the Lich King. Far from destroying magic on Calenndor, the fall of the City has freed the mages of Calenndor from the philosophical logjam than has affected Calenndor since the beginning of the Second Age.