Umbrum - Chronicles Of A Shady Mage

The pages were fluttering, slowly making its way toward the introduction, the shadow of the past were fading… let's go back to the origin.

"Once upon a time, magic did not exist. No, it was all just a fantasy.

A fantasy, they say. A myth. Yet, nowadays, magic is a sign of life. If something does not have mana, it is considered as a dead being, as if mana was blood, the liquid representing life, without it, we are nothing more than shells, that bunch of rotten dirty fleshes."

Reading this completely biased introductory book to magic, the mage sighed as he continued to read it, it could not be more basic than this.

"Then, why is there magic today ? Yes, everyone should wonder about that, if it was not there in the first place, why did it become vital ? How did it become vital ? What happened ?

The most common theory was that the world was dying. It was reaching its expiration, it could not produce enough energy, the branches lost their leaves, the trees lost their branches, the forests lost their trees, the land became dirtied, the snow melted, the seas dried, the air faded, life was dying."

So, the world was in such a state ? The apprentice wondered as he felt another question rising, why was it dying ? However, this question shall not be replied.

"Then, here comes magic, to revive the world, to balance death and life."

How ? How was it possible ? What could revive the world ? It just sounded so shallow.

"The World itself gave up on its dominance on life and death. It became a cycle, independant from fate, recycling spirits, shaping them through merits and demerits, recreating a balance, forming values…"

Dominance on life and death ? Can't the author be less vague ? It gave it up to who ? The essence of magic ? The existence of magic ? What is it in the end ?

"Magic is basically everything that defines our lives as it is under its jurisdiction. To sum it up, Magic simply came to compensate the World's Declining Will. Magic originates from something outside the world, it could be considered as a stranger unknowingly plundering the country's power purposely. It took advantages of its current weaknesses, manipulating the royalties like puppets…

Life drastically mutated, the rules of the world gradually altered into something way more flexible. Any creatures that were either alive or dead could minutely take control of the world, wielding fire, water, air and so on. All signs of life.

The inherent barrier between the world and its inhabitants disappeared. Anyone with the strength, the control, the concentration, the knowledge, the ability, the talent, the essence to pull it off could literally defy the World, overpower it and distort with the laws that were created beforehand."

This book was perplexing, it did not explain much about Magic, it was just a story like any other, a legend, a myth, a hypothesis that still needed to be justified, that still needed to be approved.

Concretely, it was very unlikely to be like this, but anyway, it was just a story, like any other expecting to be told by a so-called sage, sages that do not exist or so the reader thought when he was reading this book.

"Magic is life and death, the ability to control the world, partially that is."

A resume of what magic was according to this controversial author.

"Then, how do we use magic ? As I said earlier, magic doesn't come from this world, then, from where does it come from ? It comes from another plane, the Esoteric Plane, this plane seemed to have fusioned with our world, How and why would not be explained ? My scope of knowledge is limited to our good ol' world."

"The Esoteric Plane is now like a mirror, yes, a mirror representing all the life and death of our world. Every beings has a mind, a soul, a spirit… which are mediators between the world and the plane…

Today, we would call these Mana Cores. What is a Mana Core ? It is basically from where our mana come from, where it is produced, Mana Cores ar purely spiritual, if you cut someone to pieces, you would not be able to see it. The mana core could be said to be in the Esoteric Plane, in the representation of the life that is present in the plane.

The mana core is parallel to the corporeal shell, there is definitively a link between the two, however, they will usually never melt, get together unless in extremes conditions. Like oil and water, mana core and corporeal shell will always be away from each other.

Sometimes, the corporeal shell can drag the mana core and pull it out to his world, using it to alter the world through using magic, through chanting a spell.

Every time you use magic, you draw it out from the other plane to affect the limited reality and space you are living, you can not imagine that basically everything is endless and thus cannot end, then, we are forced to limit the space so it can accord more or less properly to our own sensations and intuitions."

Reading this, the mage did not feel like he understood anything at all, but then rubbed his chin, trying to understand the world of the book.

"The most basic action is to communicate with the foreign plane, in others words, to awaken your magic. Then, it is to use, in other terms, to stimulate, to trouble the water of the plane and let the river cross the mage's world so he can in some sort of way save the mana that has been bordering your corporeal shell."

What he has read is basically how magic works in his world, it is basically an introduction indeed. The object itself, the effect it can have on the populations and so on, thus manipulate as long as it originally come from the second plane. There was nothing he could say to solve this issue, he could simply observe what will happen to the world through the flow of magic that is going to discharge all of its dirt on the mana core.

Was there something else that could be used to introduce magic, mana core and so on ? Maybe. Perhaps. Still, nothing was realizable in the mage's opinion, the origin and birth of magic were discussed, why it happened and all kind of event reproduced according to one of the many actors.

"After, it is only a matter of knowledge and feeling, more your emotions based on an element of the second plane was deep, profound and unquestionable, it could trigger the greatest and most dangerous spells. While your knowledge is based on how each strings from each cores are connected, how they work out together and how certains combinaisons can appear."

The pages stopped fluttering, their mouths closed, the story time ended at that moment, people did not wish those voices to explain about this vital element that reigns over life and death in this little world. Some details are better undisclosed.

"Alright, this is the end of this very short story, how did you find it ? Instructive or useless ? The latter I suppose as learning those do not ease your training, it just gives you some informations about how Magic first came to the world. It was necessary for the world to breath for a second time, to be born again. To see the world in its whole exactitude."

In the end, they still needed magic to live. Anyone wielding magic is thus considered as a stronger person than the average, you do not need much to be above the rest, you just need to be able to chant some spells, to show that you know what you are made of. Nothingness.

The evolution of life can be considered as the evolution of magic.

Today, some people talk about creatures that do not utilize magic. No, about magicless creatures, beings that aren't alive nor dead then. What are those then ? Do they even exist ? Since people talk about it, there is an origin. At the b.a.r.e minimum, there is at least one creature that is unaffected by Mana. First, it must be independent from the cycle of life and death, it must come from the world itself.

Roughly, everything that was inscribed into the world was magicless, then, it is something that came before the cycle of life, the uprising of magic.. something that dominated life and death. That something would be the magicless creatures we can notice from time to time. The only knowledge we have from them is that they exist, the basic characteristics of those are still unknown.

One day, someone will capture one of these creatures and we will be able to explain precisely how and why magic came to this world.

The book definitively closed. There was nothing more they could say, the readers put their hands on their ears, hoping they would not hear the slightest sound from the polemist that created controversy all around him with his thoughts.

Finishing to read, Umbrum felt like he ended up with more questions than responses, but at the very least, if he had something to question, it meant that he got some relevant information from the text.

"...and I will need to do this for when we will begin to recruit…"

Muttering under his breath, he rubbed his forehead as he continued to write a discourse along with annotating the text to perhaps understand the bigger picture through many separated elements, trying to link it with some references that could facilitate his understanding.

Before continuing, the young mage under Drake's wing wondered about the choice of this book, he only began to study it because he was told to do so, however, now that he thought about it. Why this book ? It seemed to be unedited, written by a child trying to sound serious...or so he thought when he was reading and rereading it. Perhaps because this book, in fact, was rather simple ? Because it is cultural reference for both low and high-class citizens ? The former for the stories told to children while the second for the history of Magic in Dailzelkien.

Right, this written artwork was a turning point of Magic's history, altered the way how so many people originally saw magic as what unique people can do, when in fact, if provided the right materials, anyone can use magic. Anyone can be a mage, good or not, anyone could be one. It was the point, it destroyed an illusion with its simplicity.

'Everyone has a chance, everyone can do it.'

The message was quite strong and significant for its era which also concern this era as magic is still reserved to a certain type of people.

'So this is why he wanted this book to be chosen… because it gave such a bright image… such a positive outlook on the individual… there was no elites, no concrete hierarchy… because it exactly fitted how his project shall become, all the Magic Association will be. Eventually… all kind of people will reunite here…'

Will this really happen ? Will people trust Drake and Umbrum ? It was a question that became vital to this mage, if it did not work, he will feel greatly pained for his friend. As for why this became necessary to him, this is really simple… he needed to read before going to do what is needed...