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Thaumburn


Lago
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Magic is an innately unstable thing. With practice, mages can control magic and work great wonders with it. However, as all mages know, magic is dangerous. Even amongst mages, some things are held to be impossible, not because they cannot be attempted, but because attempting to do so causes Thaumburn.

 

Thaumburn is a rare phenomenom that occurs when the laws of magic are broken. Most mages are incapable of performing magic beyond their abilties or "above their tier". If they attempt to do the magically impossible (breaking OOC magic rules), perform magic beyond their abilites (powergame) or perform magic above their tier, they will fail. Normally it will backfire, nothing will happen or the mage will collapse from exhaustion.

 

Very rarely, however, their connection to the void or patron will rupture, with magical energy surging into their mind. The result is a powerful illusion. For the mage, their magic appears to succeed. Then, like the afterimage of a bright light fading, the mage's mind returns to reality. This can take anything from a few seconds to an elven day. Their magic either failed to happen or happened without breaking the laws of magic. The laws of magic are not broken, but the mage is. The mage is likely to be slightly brain-damaged by the magical surge, and Thaumburn can occur.

 

Imagine the connection as a pipe. A short while after the initial rupturing, magical energy begins to flow out of the holes torn in the connection without reaching the mage: they cannot draw upon magic at all. They still know how, but it is impossible for them to do so. This is called Thaumburn. One's connection to the void is ruptured and burned out, preventing the use of magic.


How long it takes for the Thaumburn to heal depends on how severe the violation of the laws of magic was and thus how severe the rupture of one's magical connection is. For very minor infractions, the damage is very little and the connection heals before the mage loses their ability to use magic. However, their connection is more likely to rupture if they violate the laws of magic again. For severe violations, the Thaumburn can take years to heal, even elven (IRL) months. It is not unheard of for Thaumburn so severe to happen that it will never truly heal and the mage is unlikely ever to be able to perform magic again.


((IC explanation for sudden loss of magic upon MA revoke for breaking magic rules. The third paragraph is an IC explanation for voiding powergamed magic. Can also be used in normal RP if desired.))

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I would edit it to make it so holy magic also is not affected by this the same way shamanism is not. It's how it's always been RP'ed, and would make sense given that part of war cleric magic involves physical fighting. That's my two cents, anyways. Otherwise, from my very quick skimming, it looks quite nice :)

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A disease for mages i guess? Sounds interesting for me.

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I would edit it to make it so holy magic also is not affected by this the same way shamanism is not. It's how it's always been RP'ed, and would make sense given that part of war cleric magic involves physical fighting. That's my two cents, anyways. Otherwise, from my very quick skimming, it looks quite nice :)

 

Only because Chaqery changed it so he could be Master Swordsman AND Master Mage. Besides, those two paragraphs are about existing things. I've put a clarification in the initial post that those two paragraphs are not about the Thaumburn and rephrased a few things. This lore isn't about magical withering, even though it is relevant to it.

 

EDIT: Have concluded that restating the existing magical withering is not actually necessary and have removed it from the main post.

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Would I be right in saying this could be a viable reason for some RP occurrences (whilst the MAT decide whether somebody powergamed or not) to have "happened" or be thought to have "happened"?

 

If so, jolly good show.

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Paragraph 3 is the explanation for voided magic RP: the damage to the magic connection surges someone's mind so that they believe they performed the magic. Once the OOC argument is over the afterimage fades.

 

So yes.

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Only because Chaqery changed it so he could be Master Swordsman AND Master Mage. Besides, those two paragraphs are about existing things. I've put a clarification in the initial post that those two paragraphs are not about the Thaumburn and rephrased a few things. This lore isn't about magical withering, even though it is relevant to it.

 

EDIT: Have concluded that restating the existing magical withering is not actually necessary and have removed it from the main post.

 

To be honest, I only skimmed it, so I thought this was more directed towards magical withering.

 

That being said, what you said wasn't entirely correct. Chaqery wasn't a master swordsman, he merely carried a sword and brandished it whilst he performed magic. Or at least, that was what I witnessed in the four or five RP fights I witnessed him doing. I was actually more referring to Wardog's character, Areon Baldwin, the most iconic (and in my opinion, best lore-following) holy magic user there was.

 

Anyways, I love this lore Lago, and I support it wholeheartedly. It's probably second only to your cakeman lore! Now we can have some sense to why revoked people suddenly lose their magic, and they can actually have something to RP rather than just go "Oh, well, I'm a mage, but I'm not going to use my magic..."

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Yes. I really think this would be nice to explain OOC influences in an RP way. +1

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