Summoning & Shapeshifting

[Roja]

Ok since I'm done reading almost all of your contest stories, I finally have some time to work on some other things story related.

 

I wrote this a few weeks ago, it is unfinished, still a WIP, and I need your input on it.

Derin, I wrote this before I knew/read about the story you made. But I think we can work together on it.

I think perhaps I went into too much detail on the explainations...not too sure.

 

Anyway, for right now, don't worry about how the skills will work in the game, I've pretty much got them covered and i'll write about it a little later. Summoning will stay as is however. Shapeshifting will include some more items needed.

I just want to flesh out the history/culture type things, and also the technical "how it works" stuff too But after reading your story...I'm starting to think that we really don't need it.

 

 

(remember this is incomplete/unfinished):

 

 

The Arts of Summoning & Shapeshifting

 

By Iemar Tolenarky, of the New Order of Mystics*

 

Summoning and Shapeshifting are related in many ways, so I thought it best to write this report on both of them together. What follows is a concise compilation of our general beliefs, practices, and history, with the intent to spread the knowledge of ourselves into the world.

 

 

Introduction

 

Ours is the force of Spirit, the fifth Magical Element. It is the ethereal, intangible force that is visible to those only who seek it out with the utmost skill and patience; or to whom have the innate ability.

 

With the Spirit magic we are able to communicate with all spirits of life. From the smallest flower to the tallest tree. Be it animal or vegetal, living or dead, it's spirit is there, somewhere, for us to find.

The spirits are found in a rainbow of complexities and are communicated with in many ways. Some are nothing more than a feeling, as a small breeze. Others are able to speak with you just as well as any living being, and of course, these are the ones of most interest and power.

 

They don't always speak however. It's important to note that we are merely only able to feel the presence of, and sometimes communicate with the spirits; we can never control them. The spirits walk in a world all their own, and do as they will. If they communicate with us it is because they choose to answer our calls to them. Although, legend has it that there once was ways, to control the spirits themselves..however those ways are long lost to us, likely to never be found again. Which is for the benefit of everyone in the end, as whoever would have such a power would be a deadly foe indeed.

 

 

 

 

Skills

 

In addition to feeling the presence of and communicating with spirits, we also have two skills that we are most known for: Summoning and Shapeshifting. In being able to feel and know the presence of the spirits, we are able to define it's tangible form quite well through Magic. The weaker the spirit, the easier it is to define as the easier it is to understand, feel, and to know.

 

Each spirit has a sort of material code, which can be compared to a DNA strand in any life form. It has an essence of it's living appearance and structure, which we can feel as it passes around us when in it's presence. It's this spiritual essence of the living form which we can then take and use to bring life to, using the mediums it was once made up out of (summoning), or transforming one medium into another (shapeshifting). Keep in mind that although we are able magically animate or transform into other beings, we can not put the spirits themselves back into these forms. And it is because of that that nothing we ever summon/transform remains permanent. Without the Soul, the life only exists until the energy of the magical essence is depleted.

 

 

 

History

Long ago, we lived at peace with the other four Magical forces of the world: Fire, Air, Water, and Earth.

We were the Magic order of Spirit.

 

 

 

*The New Order of Mystics objectives are to revive the ancient arts of the past that have been shunned by current day Mages and Technologists. Their goals are to create a "New Order of Mystics", in the hopes of finding more people gifted in the arts, so that they will carry on these traditions and not let them die out or become hunted down and destroyed, but to one day be accepted in society.

 

((Basically the majority of people think of these guys as evil doers, bringing bad spirits into the world. Some radicals blamed them for the war of the gods(bringin the evil upon them), and burnt their books/records..even killed some of the people(think witch trials). To speak of these arts is taboo in the "proper" societies. There are more than one "order" of Summon/shapeshifters however. "The New Order of Mystics"(refered to hereafter as NOM) is just one out of many groups, and it is the largest and most known. Each group calls themselves differently, many even having slightly different beliefs and traditions. The NOM have been also trying to spread knowledge of themselves and their practices to the masses to show them that they are not something to be feared but are simply another side to Magic and Life itself. So far they have not be so successful, as the majority fear new things and are hesitant to change. Still other groups are not so outgoing and keep to themselves, prefering to live entirely to themselves and have no care if their art dies out. They would only say that it was the way of Nature and the Gods, and what will be will be. Others have a different option(such as the NOM); that it is their duty, and as subjects of Nature would be doing it a great offense to sit back and do nothing.))

 

 

 

 

Mysticism

2. A belief in the existence of realities beyond perceptual or intellectual apprehension that are central to being and directly accessible by subjective experience.

 

Spiritualism

1.The belief that the dead communicate with the living, as through a medium.

 

Necromancy

1. The practice of communicating with the spirits of the dead in order to predict the future.

 

Animism

1. The belief in the existence of individual spirits that inhabit natural objects and phenomena.

2. The belief in the existence of spiritual beings that are separable or separate from bodies.

3. The hypothesis holding that an immaterial force animates the universe.

 

Shamanism

1.The animistic religion of certain peoples in which mediation between the visible and spirit worlds is effected by shamans.

 

Summoning

1. To call forth or evoke the body of one who has passed on from the living. Binded by magical properties-yet souless-the summoned being remains in control of the Summoner until it's life essence runs out, or it is slain before that natural course(thus disrupting the energies and causing it to dissipate).

 

Shapeshifting

1. The transformation of oneself into another physical likeness.

[Derin]

Great!

 

I think there are excellent opprotunities to merge these histories (yours and mine).

 

My idea:

The summoners and the shapeshifters are seeds of the same tree, but with different beliefs, or rather, they have different approaches.

 

The summoners are based on divine knowledge (Selain) and the shapeshifters are based on studies of the the fifth Magical Element.

 

Thus, they derive their focus from similar sources, but they come to different conclusions. One could easily say that little or no love exist between them, but as both are shunned by society, they are sometimes forced to work together.

 

 

 

So how does that sound for basis of a merger?

 

 

 

Reference - Lodge of Land:

http://www.eternal-lands.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=14806

[Roja]

Hm..yeah that may work. Although I woudln't think that they would hate/not like each other. Hm..one thing though, see I made the story with the 5th magic element being shunned because it dealt in messing around with life/spirits/death...and summoning fits into that more than shapeshifting would(which would be just altering appearances).

 

I do however want Selain involved in one, if not both, of these skills. And there's no reason why he can' t be the master over this 5th element-the Spirit element. It can be just that man set up the magic school to teach, and a long time ago, for a while, the Spirit element of summoning/shapeshifting was accepted in the school. And they started to mistrust it because it involved messing with the spirits themselves they found out, and selain was involved who wwasn't a really good god.

 

What about something like that?

[Derin]

I like it, and will try to make something of a merger following these lines. However, I want to finish up the god quests first, so it may take a little while for me.

Having that said... if this is urgent, maybe someone else should take a stab at this.

[Roja]

No it's not urgent. I was just writing this (and going to start others), as a reference guide for writers. It was only going to be a pretty dry explaination of the basic main historical points and "how it works" for the skills.

 

I might finish it, so don't worry if you don't have time