When Yhera created and ordered the cosmos, she codified the magical foundations of the world; she set the first patterns which all things must follow. When she had finished creating the cosmos, she wrote her first book, and upon each of its pages she scribed and fixed one of the great principles underpinning her creation. 21 of those pages were numbered, and there was a 22nd page which was unnumbered. The magical principles of her creation are usually called the Arcana; they are at once ideals, archetypes, themes, memes, principles, agents, and actors in the lifeblood of the world. The Arcana, with their numbers, are sometimes known by a variety of names — I. The Minstrel or Magician. II. The Great Priestess. III. The Empress. IV. The Emperor. V. The Great Priest. VI. The Lovers. VII. The Lover or The Hermit. VIII. The Sword or The Chariot. IX. Justice. X. The Fates or The Wheel. XI. Strength. XII. The Hanged Man. XII. Death. XIV. Temperance or The Circle. XV. The Sphinx. XVI. The Riven Tower. XVII. The Stars. XVIII. The Moon. XIX. The Sun. XX. The Judgment. XXI. The World. And last and unnumbered, The Fool.
The Arcama manifest themselves in the world in many ways; they are present in the divine world, part and parcel of the gods, and they manifest as creatures and spirits in the celestial, chthonic and material worlds. Their powers can be accessed as spells, magics and ecstasies, learned through priestcraft, magical study or inborn and innate knowledge. The Arcana of the Lovers, for example, is closely identified with the goddesses Ami and Dieva, and can be seen in the celestial world as the Graces and angels of love, in the chthonic as spirits of lust and succubi and incubi, in the material world as sirens and satyrs and rabbits. The Lovers inspire powers of mesmerism and fascination, charm and lust and empathy, and fuels spells and magics devoted to love, fellowship, attraction, and lust of all sorts.
Enchantments are one of the principle forms of magic in the Known World, aimed at awakening or imbuing magical power in objects, locations, and people. Many things found in the natural world have a latent magical power that can be focused and made manifest by ritual or rune. The skin and mane of a lion, for example, can become a magical aid to strength, vigilance, and rulership with the proper rituals, and will sometimes be made into an enchanted mask, hood, or cloak; a brown agate, inscribed with a victory rune, becomes an aid in war and conflict to its bearer.
Common enchanted items include apotropaic herms, guardian statues, cult statues, and cultic amulets; less common examples include spirit masks, which magicians use to see into the Otherworld, and magical grimoires, which must be written with a magic ink. High nobles in Divine King lands wield a triad of objects — orb, scepter, and crown — which aid them in thier offices. Enchanted ams and armor are produced by almost every culture: the Palatian Arsenal produces enchanted copper armor, the city of Hemelin produces enchanted steel harnesses for the League, and the smiths of the Imperial Court make scimitars capable of cutting steel plate. Enchanted items of great power belonging to the gods or great heroes have even been passed down through the ages. The divine smith, Brage, made numerous items of great power which he gifted to kings and queens and cities, perhaps most famously the Dragon Throne of Islik the Divine King, lost in the destruction of Millene.
Alchemy is an ancient practice, first discovered by Ariahavé, and later refined by Daedekamani, who inscribed his secrets upon tablets and gifted them to his followers and descendants amongst the Golan scholars of the Great Schools. Alchemy in the Known World primarily pursues the refinement of the two great chemicals, mercury and sulfur, into first the White Elixir, capable of great acts of healing, and then into either the Alkahest, the elixir of transmutation capable of transforming the material, or the Red Elixir, the elixir of immortality capable of transforming the spiritual. Over the centuries, Daedekamani's original writings have spawned different methods of varying success for achieving the various elixirs, and these processes are jealously guarded secrets passed from master alchemist to apprentice. Various uses for those elixirs have also been discovered, ranging from the creation of the dreaded basilisk to the transformation of lead into gold. Generally, two camps exist amongst the alchemists — those who pursue the Elixirs for the material powers they possess, and for whom the Alkahest is the primary goal, and those who believe that alchemy concerns the transformation of the spirit of man, for whom the Red Elixir is the penultimate end.
To aid in the casting of spells and enchantments, magicians have over the
centuries created a number of different systems of magical runes, sigils, and
glyphs, which can be used to focus the deeper powers of the world. The oldest
runes are the Daedekine Runes, the daedeki grammata, created by
Daedekamani himself. First used in the Gola, they have spread far and wide but
fallen into disuse in more recent times, with the advent of newer sign systems.
Brage developed a set of runes in his forges while in Düréa, but he
was the only one who could use them; Brage's Runes may still be found on
many of the wondrous magical artifacts he gifted to the world. The Riven
Runes, also called the labira grammata, or the witch's runes, were
inscribed upon the cult statue of Djara Luna
taken from Ürüne Düré to the Great
Temple of Labira. They are used mostly by practitioners of the Old Religion, who
still hold Yhera above all others — mostly in Palatia and Amora, and amongst
the Thulamites and some other barbarians on the edges of the Known World. Of
more recent creation are the signs and glyphs variously called the Thessid,
Imperial, or Daubanite Sigils, which were created in the court of
Dauban Hess prior to the sailing of the Golden
Fleet. The Imperial Sigils are fewer in number and in scope than the runes of
other systems, but have benefited from both a certain ease of use and the
official endorsement of the Empire. Imperial magicians use them almost exclusively,
and they are also widespread throughout Divine King lands. Another set of runes
has appeared of late in the north, amongst the Panagh Kings across the Panoch
Sea. The Panaghs call their runes Dragon Runes, while they are called
claw runes by the Palatians.
Artesia's sword bears upon it five Riven Runes.
A glamour rune — an aid to glamours and illusions, towards magics which
transform surfaces and appearances, manifesting the powers of the Moon Arcana.
A binding rune — an aid to entrapping, binding, and controlling
otherworldly spirits, in the name of the Magician Arcana.
A command rune — an aid to leadership and the magical control of
spirits, animals, or men, in the name of the Empress Arcana.
A victory rune — an aid towards victory and success in conflict and battle,
manifesting the powers of the Sword Arcana.
An oath rune — an aid to oath magics, giving strength to vows and promises,
connected to both the Empress and Emperor Arcana.
