[Stories In The Snow] Back To Basics

by **Sheva** on July 2nd, 2012, 4:42 am

2nd Summer 512AV
It was another lonely day for the tiger kelvic in the frozen city of Avanthal. Sheva often found herself reminiscing on her days of solitude, thinking back to the wise old mage who had taken her in and taught her magic so long ago. She had longed for the sense of familiarity that learning about magic brought her. The days when she would sit and listen to the old man explain the histories of certain magics and ramble on about his own experiences with it. The days she would practice her magic simply because he enjoyed teaching and she enjoyed pleasing him.
Today Sheva found herself in Avanthal's library, 'Stories In The Snow' the sign had said. It was a large stone building, she entered the main room, or... hall rather. It was quite big and she could see many isles littered with literature. It was fairly empty, a person or two sitting in various areas.
Several minutes after entering Sheva had finally found the magic section, she would have found it faster had she just asked someone for help, but Sheva insisted on finding it herself. Having eventually found a book on glyphing Sheva sat herself right there where she had pulled the rather thick book from it's shelf. She opened the book waving away the small amount of dust that had accumulated and was now attempting to suffocate her. There the young kelvic sat slouched against the shelves in the middle of the isle as she began to read.
.
Glyphing: 'Glyphing is a discipline of world magic that allows the user to draw mystic runes and symbols, forming sigils and pictures. These runes have no power of their own, but can manipulate magic from another discipline, for example storing, releasing, channeling, deflecting or confining a spell...'
Yes, yes she already knew that she thought as she turned the pages looking for the more instructual writings. She remembered what glyphing was, and was not. It was the art of drawing magical symbols an sigils with the purpose of affecting other magics in many different ways.
.
Glyphs and Sigils: 'Glyphs are symbols used to for glyphing, a glyph is one symbol with single effect. Sigils on the other hand are made up of a group of different types of glyphs with each group of glyphs having different affects but when used in conjunction with the other's form a specific effect. '
Sheva smiled at the book as she began to recall her lessons on glyphing. A glyph was a single symbol, whereas a sigil was made up of a group of glyphs. Next section...
.
Building blocks of sigils: 'A sigil is a collection of glyphs that performs a given
task. They range from very simple to very complex, but
in general will feature one or more of the following
building blocks.
Focus - A single, large glyph that stores magic. When
magic flows into the Focus, it disappears until
released. The Focus can be thought of as a mirror: if a
fireball is thrown into it, it will be expelled from it with
the same speed when released. The Focus can also
store a magic procedure...
Barrier - A barrier is a series of glyphs, usually
arranged in a circle, that surround another part of the
sigil. They block and restrict the magical effect inside,
typically contained in a Focus. Only exceptional users
can block a real spell coming towards the wizard.
Trigger - Glyphs that specify a condition for another part of the sigil to be activated or deactivated.
Commonly, a Trigger will deactivate a Barrier which in
turn activates the release of a Focus.'
As she read on she began to recall more and more of the details on glyphing. A focus stored magic, a barrier stopped magic and a trigger deactivated a barrier which in turn activated a focus.
.
Sheva flipped through the rest of the book seeing nothing else that she felt she needed, she had gotten the reminder she needed on the topic, the rest she had to learn herself via practice. Placing the book back she stretched her libs allowing herself a short recess from her 'studying'.

by **Sheva** on July 2nd, 2012, 10:32 pm

An hour later a rested Sheva returned to the stone building and the magic isle searching for something else that would grab her attention. Sheva's curiosity to magic was fueled solely by the familiar feeling of self satisfaction she obtained when discovering something new. The old mage had instilled this in Sheva with his constant tales. Sheva may have been a kelvic, and not the fastest reader but she drew pride in knowing she could complete something without the help of others.
.
As she looked through the shelves staring from book to book she saw a title that caught her attention, 'Morphing' the cover read. Morphing? That meant 'changing' didn't it, like her? She morphed into a tiger so perhaps this book was about kelvics? Her curiosity had been peaked and the young kelvic sprawled herself out on the ground and opened the book.
.
Morphing is a discipline of personal magic that allows the user to reshape their physical body by controlling and spending their Djed. Morphing was one of the first arts mastered by mortals, and it is the magic form that gifted the Kelvic with their animal shapeshifting powers. Beginners can simply transform parts of their bodies for a short duration, but experts can perform full-body metamorphosis, also using another creature as a model. As one progresses in the skill, more and
more constraints can be broken, allowing the wizard to turn into something radically different from his true form. Morphing plays with one's very identity, and abusing it can cause someone to forever lose a true notion of identity - much like the Kelvic.'
"Much like the Kelvic. What do they mean?"
Sheva frowned in confusion...'much like the kelvic' she repeated the words in her head over and over again. What did they mean Kelvics had no true notion of identity? She didn't understand, she knew who she was, she was Sheva the tiger kelvic. With that one sentence of literature thousands of questions were raised.
.
Was this how humans thought of the kelvic? Wild animals pretending to be people? The thought bothered her, like an annoying bug poking from within her mind. Sheva placed the book back in it's shelf before leaving the library lost in thought, needing someplace quieter, somewhere she could be alone with her thoughts.

by **Sheva** on July 3rd, 2012, 2:34 pm

A half hour later Sheva approached a familiar set of outcropped rocks not far out of Avanthal. She often came here to be alone when she felt she needed to, which was often. So the human race thought kelvics were confused about who they were, because they had two forms. Sheva was still finding it difficult to understand what they mean as she sat on one of the higher rocks as she tried to make sense of it all. And then it hit her...
.
Ofcourse, how could she not have realized it sooner? It was so obvious. People were often skeptical about things that were unfamiliar to them, things they did not fully understand. Sheva knew magic so she had experienced it many times before. Often when people found out about her magic they were more cautious around her, and it was the same when they discovered she was a kelvic, especially when they realized she was a tiger kelvic.
.
For that Sheva felt sad for the humans, always fearful of that they didn't understand. Having settled this inner turmoil Sheva felt more calm, although her assumptions may have been wrong she felt at ease with them. The tiger kelvic thought back on her day and her learnings, feeling satisfied with her accomplishments. She felt better versed in glyphing simply by having refreshed her mind.
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She sat there for a few minutes eyes closed taking in peaceful atmosphere. Maybe she should practice some reimancy aswell? It wouldn't hurt to be better at it. She began to concentrate her djed slowly expelling it in the form of liquid res, the small ball hovering above her right palm, then she repeated the process but this time forming a ball of res above her lift palm. Slowly she brought her palms closer to each-other until the two balls combined to form a larger one. She was going to try combining the two elements this time, fire and water. Hopefully the fusion would create steam and not a ball of flaming water, although that would be equally impressive. Slowly she forced the res to float further from her till it was about three arms lengths away, hovering in mid air. Sheva took a deep breath concentrating on the ball, she needed to transmute it into both elements simultaneously. Three, two, one...there was a small burst of steam as the res became steam, slowly floating up through the air and dissipating.
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Sheva let loose a small triumphant laugh at her success, she could now create steam, she thought hard on the applications of such an element but couldn't think of any. But that was besides the point, the point being she had succeeded. Slowly the young kelvic mage made her way back to the city, a small proud smirk on her face as she traversed the snowless terrain.
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"The Kelvic Sorceress...that should surprise more than a few people." she said to herself as she walked, having found a new liking for doing the unexpected. Sheva had to admit, even if only two herself, she enjoyed inducing shock and surprise into others. Much like she did when hunting prey in her animal form....shock and awe.

by **Valkyrie** on July 10th, 2012, 4:12 pm

Thread Award

Sheva :

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