The Power of the Nexus

Power, Control, Knowledge

  • The Gillieabad (Gill-E-A-Bad): Ancient Spirits who live in every moment of every time and of every space.
  • Ancient Lore tells us that they created the world first for the purpose of guardianship and a forgotten duty.
  • It also tells us that they created humanity as soldiers to protect the world against a danger that would rise one day to overcome all that they had made.
  • In the first days they were called the people of the Earth Tribes and lived in the North in the lands of the Chosen.
  • The Gillieabad gave magic and knowledge to their people until their prophets foretold the coming of a great fire in the heavens that would alter the state of the world forever.
  • This fire was the return of the Nexus; a fragment of the world that existed in the same point of the universe that this world, made by the Gillieabad, does now.
  • It was never supposed to return to the world, a happenstance unseen by the Gillieabad, but when it did it reignited the ley lines of power with magic that was never supposed to return to this world.
  • The power of that world was brutal, violent, an anathema to that which the Gillieabad represented, the creators of that world had invested their magic to be called upon to alter the physical state of the inhabitants of their world and turn them into weapons.
  • In this world the power of the Source, as it became known, began the business of altering the physicality and magicality of the world around it.
  • It was aggressive, dominant and altered the world around it in ways that no-one expected: Source Magic is physical, overwhelming and it changed humanity into the Kuldisar, Kalashinka and so forth although they did not manifest for many years to come.
  • The coming of the Comet meant the rise of Daemons, the corrupted flesh made by those that arrived with the Nexus and their efforts to tame the world to their own making.
  • As the Corruption of Daemons rampaged across the land so handfuls of the Chosen who had travelled South tapped the Ley Lines for the Source of this new magic to oppose them.
  • They learned the power to control the corruption of their enemies’ flesh and banish them from this world, to compel others through their influence over the body and to draw excess energies from the aether to fuel their destructive powers. 
  • The power was named as Chaos and the Sourcerers were compelled to create Colleges where they could learn the rigid mastery needed to control it but its power was infectious.
  • The Source, by its nature is demanding, it is raw power, it is alteration of the flesh and of reality around it and those that used it learned to control it and in turn became addicted to that control.
  • Sourcery at its core has developed, within the Six Duchies, into a power that governs through rigid and strict control of itself. 
  • It still protects against threats from the Daemons although it has since evicted them from their home in the Shadowed Lands. 
  • Sourcerers have reached out into the cosmos and discovered worlds touched by the Nexus as it journeyed amongst the stars. 
  • Those worlds gave birth to species touched by its power and in them one of those species rose to dominance: The Vorokians. 
  • Through Colleges and diplomacy the Sourcerers have learned from and taught these peoples and new politics and knowledge has risen through the world of the Nexus.

What Sourcery is:

  • Ancient Magic from another place that is alien to the forms that exist in this world, they are dangerous to the flesh and difficult to master.
  • A Discipline of Magic that requires rigidity to resist the powers that speak from the void to the Sourcerer continuously tempting them to their side.
  • Focussed on purity of body and intolerant of the corruption which comes from the aforementioned alien nature of the magic as it tries to twist the mortal form into the shape of those soldiers that it was used to create in a long forgotten war.
  • The oldest form of magic that exists in this world, predating the Gillieabad in its creation despite its alien nature.
  • Difficult to control – It is always seeking a way to alter and change the world around it to the advantage of the magic over all other forms of magic in the world. It seeks supremacy. 
  • Personal Magic, rarely working as a unit of Sourcerers, this magic is focussed towards one person supporting a group.
  • Arrogant Magic: Sourcery is power which has won wars, overcome enemies which seemed indomitable and now rules the Six Duchies: Politically and Magically. It is domineering and it demands respect, you don’t find rogue sourcerers
  • Dynamic: Sourcerey is always growing and exploring new parts of the Vorokian access ways to magic. It is adaptable to most situations.
  • Political: Sourcery has sat at the heart of Basanic power for millennia and most Sourcerers are trained in diplomatic and political skills.

What Sourcery isn’t:

  • Old men in beards: You can be an old man with a beard but it isn’t a Gandalf Gang.
  • A Daemon hunting only club: Yes they hunt Daemons but they also explore and make new powers, diplomb and explore Vorokian worlds.
  • Other power bashing: Sourcerers know they are the best but they understand the uses and roles of the other forms of power in the world.

Choosing Sourcery in the Six Duchies:

  • The Sourcerers of the Six Duchies, long ago, formed Colleges to represent the forms and masteries of power of the Nexus.
  • The Colleges represent thousands of years of accumulation of honours and knowledge they consider themselves elite among the casting world.
  • These are the first Orders of Magic in the Royal Basin that were originally set up to combat corruptive elements of the world and specifically defend the populace from Daemonic entities.
  • They are controllers of power, overseers of law and order and enemies of chaos – To them these are sacred and guarded duties.
  • They are battlers of Daemons or those that have been corrupted by the broken forms of the Source and have over the years been willing to sacrifice innocents for the safety of the land.
  • They are the bedrock of the College of Controlling Power, The Black Table and they act as their staunchest supporters.
  • There are five Orders which share an overall directive politically but are directed toward certain forms of the Source.
    • The Order of Kyranry: Is one of the two founding orders of the College and has stood throughout the centuries as the benchmark of Sourcerous Magics
    • The Order of Fae’A’Ryn: The powers of the College began in a state of Council and from that Council sprung two Colleges, the first of which was the Order of Fae’A’Ryn; the Daemonfoe
    • The Order of Ithyarn: Were the third of the splinters that came away from the great trunk of the College when it was struck at. The warrior caster, the defenders, the guardians
    • The Order of Nov: Were the Fourth Order to form; our histories state that it was our duty to try to draw links and parallels between the magics that were birthed by the Source.
    • The Order of Thurid Quek: Were the fifth and final order to be given licence and many say the last. They are loremasters and keepers of the sacred knowledge of the College.
  • Beyond the core of Sourcery are the worlds of the Vorokians the four worlds of the Vorokian Races who had been touched by the passage of the Nexus as it passed through the Universe.
  •  Emissaries were sent to the Four Worlds and exchanges of knowledge, magic and diplomats took place.
  • Many Sourcerers pacted with the great houses of the Vorokian Worlds and became their vassals in among the Colleges that they constructed in their name on Daer Akmir.
  • Those orders in their basic forms are as follows:
    • DeRiche College: Home of the Vorokian magics of the world of Beyleethe whose magic is of the bedrock and foundation of their worrld
    • Shadowreaver College: Home of the Vorokian magics of the world of Jorven Kel Karenik Veek whose power is of war and battle
    • Valordian College: Home of the Vorokaian magics of the world of Ruaeth Kajhar where the wisdom of the ancients is carried on the four winds.
    • Сливк College: Home of the Vorokian magics of the world of Zartherinyialial where the magics of diplomacy and deception is strong.

Casting Brief for Source:

  • The world of Sourcery is governed by tradition, rite and incantation including the words and phrases remembered and used by Sourcerers.
  • In the first days and onwards, the power was tamed and locked to these utterings so that they could be called upon and released when needed. 
  • Each and every Sourcerer is taught how to proclaim these words in a way and with an inflection that summons that power that is attached to them.
  • Each one is a building of that power as they bring their Magnitudes into play with the words between each being the guidance for the effect that a Sourcerer seeks.
  • The Core Words of Power are as follows:
    • Opening Words: A Sourcerer immediately calls on one of the First through twenty first mysteries of the Nageric (Nay Gar Ik) teaching.
    • They then incite the basic rite or gift that they seek from the Source: I call on the Source to obscure my form.
    • Should they wish to invoke more direct words of power to focus their strength then in the second and on invocations they may call upon the following strengths through rote and interaction:
    • The first through to the seventh Malefecarian
    • Any of the five degrees of the Caraskan Invocations
    • One of the Three Revocations of The Void
  •  As such a casting might sound as follows: I call on the third Mystery of the Nageric teaching of the Source to obscure my form, by the third Malefecareian of obfuscation and in the second degree of the Caraskan Invocation I call on invisibility to mask my form.
  • Traditionally each Sourcerer also carries an Amulet that is mostly bronze but also contains traces of the golden rock from which the Nexus is crafted which gives them a link to the Comet.
  • This is usually held in the hand and presented as part of their invocation as they cast.

What are the Goals of Basanic Sourcerers?

  • To represent and control the political and magical expansion of power in and beyond the Royal Basin.
  • To understand and control the Source of many forms of magic through Lore of the Nexus Comet.
  • To further the aspects represented by their current understanding of Magic through the expansion of skill and abilities through casting.
  • The eradication of Daemon kind and the return of stolen power removing the stain on the Orders made by those Sourcerers that have succumbed to their corruption.
  • Protection and maintenance of the Royal Basin and its traditions.

What are the Attitudes of Sourcerers? 

  • Sourcery is the oldest form of establishment magic in Daer Akmir and is the cornerstone of all other magical development in the last two Millennia.
  • Sourcery is controlled by a set of long traditions and paradigms which other forms of Magic are not, such as Focus, making other forms of magic Juvenile and without form.
  • Magic is dangerous, its secrets should be guarded and safekept by those with the knowledge to do so.
  • Be it Nation or Continent the magical power behind any Throne needs to be organised, dynamic and rigid and that is only Sourcery.
  • There is no room in Sourcery for mistakes or forgiveness and there must be an emotional distance between a Sourcerer and those that they are responsible for.

What is the Aberration of The Source?

  • The aberration of Sourcery is the corruption of the flesh.
  • Control to a Sourcerer is everything because Sourcery is power, complete and total power.
  • However to allow that power totally into the body is to have lost the battle of control regardless of how strong that Sourcerer believes themselves to be.
  • But it whispers to a Sourcerer, as it whispers to any who would hear its words and calls for flesh to be made manifest in.
  • The gifts of power that it brings with it are many and the temptation is strong but the results of those gifts are terrible.
  • The corruption of the flesh transforms a mortal into what is called the Daemon Foe; monstrosities twisted in appearance to the things that have plagued mortality since the coming of the comet.
  • Once the flesh has been given then the hunger is upon them, a hunger for power be that magical or physical, political or physical strength it must be satiated.
  • It is such creatures, such failures, that call out along the Ley Lines to answer the call of a Sourcerer’s incantations, attempting to latch onto their strength and whisper to them of the need for more power.
  • Should a Sourcerer break their control and their long training of rigidity then they will gain such strength as they could not believe but their form is forever changed.
  • If a Sourcerer accepts, willingly or otherwise, power from corruption then a link is forged that may never be broken and the path that they may wish to follow could be lost to them forever.
Last updated byHolly Goodall