Magic of The Crossroads
The Spirit-Root of all Power
not possible. Now, all magic found within the world is possible because of the sweeping changes that caused the waking world to become forever changed.
All magic in The Crossroads flows from a single source: the spirit-realms. Each realm is a reflection of both primal truths and spirit-energies that flow through all living things, each realm casts its essence across the Veil and into the waking world. When mortals touch that essence, whether by pact or by gift, they draw upon realm-borne magic. Though varied in practice, all magic shares the same origin: a tether between soul and spirit-realm.
Principles of Magic
The Veil as a Conduit
The Veil is not only a barrier but also the bridge between the waking world and the spirit-realms. Magic is the bleed of the spirit-realms into mortal hands. The thinning the Veil, the stronger or the stranger the magic it can produce.
True magic requires some form of spirit-pact, a spoken oath, an inherited bond, or an ancestral spirit-link. The stronger the bond, the more reliable and stable the magic or the more profound use it can have.
The Pact-Binding
Techniques can differ between practitioner to practitioner, and they can take many forms (rituals, runes, gestures, or words), what matters is the realm that the caster’s soul resonates with. The more intune the practitioner is with the realm that their magic is drawn from, the more successful an effect that they can have. For instance, someone trying to draw spirit-energies to form magic to help them heal wounds would be more successful if they were drawing energies from The Twilight Paths, whereas if they tried to draw magic to heal with from the River of Ash and Bone they would likely be met with catastrophe and do more harm than good.
Essence Over Form
Consequences
Drawing upon spirit-energies can leave marks, and those who are trying to forcefully bend the magics to their will can cause more harm than good. The spirit-magics often leave a trace of a coloured aura that can be seen by those who have some form of spirit-sight. Overuse of these magics will often cause fatigue as it can start to fray the boundary between caster and spirit, this can lead to madness, bestiality, or dissociation. It should also be noted that the spirit-realms are a jealous and fickle thing. Drawing too much from one realm may attract opposition from others.
Realm-Borne Magics
The Umbral Wilds
Magical Realm: Nature, Primal, Beasts
Schools: Druidism, Enhancement, and Growth
As the Wilds are considered a place of wild energies and primal beasts, the magic from this spirit-realm reflects that. Magic from here is often shaped by body and instinct; drawing upon the spirit-energies of the Wilds can produce enhancing effects such as greater strength or speed as well as instinctive magics to heighten the senses. Those using spirit-borne magics from this realm have been able to help bolster the growth of crops, and as such those who are able to practice these magics are prized practitioners within rural settlements and have helped to prevent many a drought or famine over the years
Though there are those that have been able to cause rain to fall from the sky, many that practice this form of magic find that the larger the effect the more wild and untamed it can become. Some have even become detached from themselves for a time and have shown more feral behaviour.
The Shattered Mirror
Magical Realm: Reflection, Distortion
Schools: Illusion and Glamour, and Transmutation
The nature of the Shattered Mirror is unstable and chaotic at best. Due to the nature of the spirit-realm the magic that comes from using it as a source tends to derive from the very reflections of the realm itself. The magic here forms as illusions, glamorous, and the ability to transform substances. It is from here that the Echoed gain their abilities to shapeshift freely, and allow other practitioners to either alter themselves with illusions that bend the light about them, or to change themselves physically in some way.
Overuse of this spirit-energy can cause fraying between the physical self and the spiritual self. Casters risk forgetting which version of themselves is “real” and which is merely an illusion.
Magical Realm: Liminal ways between Worlds, thresholds, and dreams
Schools: Transportation, Teleportation, Telekinesis, and healing
As the Twilight Paths have connections to all of the other realms and act as a guardian between the waking world and the spirit-realms, magic from them has allowed practitioners to harness the ability to walk between two points and essentially teleport from location to location using the liminal paths between places. The magic of mobility also allows other forms of magic such as the transportation and movement of items. The two types of spirits that live within this realm, the Oruun and the Kaari, also grant the ability to produce guiding lights such as the coyote spirit-lanterns and the foxfire sparks. The coyote-spirit’s nature allows people to draw upon the abilities of spirit-communication, and the nature of the fox-spirits allows those that draw upon the energies the ability to heal.
Those that overuse spirit-energy from this realm can find themselves lost in the in-between, trapped on a path that leads nowhere. Here many have become lost.
The Twilight Pathways
Magical Realm: The Sky, light, and memory
Schools: Warding, Cleansing, Blessings, and healing
The brilliance of the Luminous Expanse holds some similarities with the Twilight Paths in that both spirit-realms can produce forms of healing magics that can aid the sick and the wounded. Whilst the energies from the Path might heal a wound, energies from the Expanse will cleanse and purify that wound and prevent further illness or infection. Due to this, many of those that consider themselves magical healers will often call upon both spirit-realms for their treatments. The Luminous Expanse also allows practitioners that draw upon spirit-energies to produce wards, or to bless people or things.
Overuse of these luminous-energies can start to consume the body; those who push themselves too far may suffer blindness, fever, or even self-immolation.
The Luminous Expanse
The River of Ash and Bone
Magical Realm: Death, memory of the dead, and the flow of endings
Schools: Warding, Decay, Spirit Binding, Spirit Speaking, and Funeral Rites
The River of Ash and Bone is a spirit-realm where all those that have died pass through as they travel down the river to whichever afterlife awaits them. This spirit-realm allows those that oversee the dead to perform funeral rites that help shield the living from the restless dead. The River’s energies can also be used for what might be seen as more shadowy purposes; it allows one to craft wards from bone and ash, cause the entropic decay of matter as it draws the lifeforce from anything living, and can bind spirits to objects or places. As such, some of those who choose to practice this magic have been known to be called “Necromancers” as the fear that someone may some day be able to raise shades from departed spirits lingering along the River’s banks, or even animate dead and corpses, is an ever present concern.
The River pulls at the living; casters risk becoming pale, hollow, or “half-dead” as they become tethered more to the River than the waking world.
The Cultural Practice
of Magic
The world has adapted to use spirit-energies and spirit-borne magics in everyday life and many have learned to harness this to help make their lives that little bit easier.
The Magical Order often employs those that are able to harness spiritual-energies from both the Twilight Paths and the Luminous Expanse both, whereas the Undertaker’s Society often uses Funeral Rites helped along by those who can draw upon the River
Some humans have learned to fully harness the spirit-energies that the realms offer, and these have become known as Wardens. Some of these Wardens go on to become a member of the Oathkeepers, whilst others work to assist more locally with their magic
Whilst ‘everyday folk’ are unable to harness and “cast” magic of their own, they are able to rely on charms, herbs, or whispered rites that lean on the bleed from the spirit-realms.