World of Æor

What is the world but what we perceive around us? There is more around you than what you can see with your eyes and touch with your hands. Most people will live out their entire lives believing the simple reality that surrounds them is the extent of all there is. They are content to believe that something exists because they perceive it or that it does not exist because they cannot. The reality that we perceive is only part of a much larger whole. All of the threads that make up the Tapestry of reality weave a pattern intricate beyond comprehension. The wizards divide people into two groups. Those who see the Tapestry and its intricate workings are called The Awakened. Those who are content to live out the mundane life of their sensory perception are The Sleepers–the commoners.

There have always been those few that labor their entire lives to attain some partial control of the arcane magic that flows unnoticed through their world. Years of study and practice can lead to ground-shattering power and understanding. These are the wizards, the reclusive society that nurtures and manipulates the world around them. More than just awakened, the wizards are students of the Tapestry and learn to control and weave their own patterns into it as it flows. Wizards have no general interest in the doings-on of the sleepers; they are at best useful pawns in a much greater political struggle. The sleepers also pay no great attention to the works of the wizards. Each group exists with little interaction with the other, both believing that they alone control the destiny of the world around them.

Caught between, there are others. Not everyone who sees the Tapestry has a desire to make changes. Still others wield the power of magic, but may not see or understand the powers they command.

Vis is the force that sustains magic. It flows like waves, unnoticed by the sleepers, through both objects as well as the open places. When Vis comes into contact with Essence, the waves of Vis are bent and distorted while the Essence is unaffected. Essence is the shared life force of all living things. It radiates from all living things like an eternal torch, invisible to the eye, but seen by the awakened. Every living thing has a natural amount of Essence that is bound to it. Like a river, it's never the same Essence–but the volume is constant.

More on Vis and Essence below

Essence can be stored in any object. An object used to contain Essence, however, will always be very apparent. Because Essence is the force of life, all items containing Essence are alive and will show signs of their Essence – motion, vibration, perhaps intelligence. No item can contain both Essence and Vis. When both are introduced into an object, the Vis is released and the Essence remains. (More below)

Vis can be stored in any object that doesn't contain Essence. If Essence is ever added to an object containing Vis, the Vis is immediately released. Unlike the Vis that flows through the expanses of the world, stored Vis is usually woven to perform some specific task – a combination of forms and methods (see wizards). Stored Vis is volatile and potentially dangerous. Wizards exchange stored Vis and Essence as currency. Unlike objects holding Essence, objects holding Vis are not apparent to a sleeper. The awakened can identify both stored Vis and stored Essence and in the case of Vis, can identify, roughly, its purpose. (More below)

We are not alone in our search for answers. There is a voice inside each of us, call it a conscience, or a gut feeling, or whatever. Once a person has become awakened, that small voice becomes just as loud in our head as our own thoughts. Whatever their nature, a wizard must learn to act and react in concert with that other voice. It is a constant presence, even if only an imagined one. It is this presence that is called our avatar. The avatar bestows the ability to see the Tapestry and weave patterns into it. It is possible for the avatar to be separated from the person; leaving them a sleeper with no ability to interact with the Vis. All living things born with Essence have an avatar. The avatar of a wizard is just much stronger than one found in a sleeper. There is some evidence that when a creature or person is destroyed, their avatar returns and joins with another soul that is just emerging from the Great Well.

Every weave in the Tapestry whether by chance or by spell leaves a mark of the person who has performed it. Some doubt the existence of resonance, but the signs are too many to be coincidence. When casting a spell of healing in a church that was used for the same purpose, the spell is more potent and easier to cast. The karma that follows a person is a form of resonance. Be careful what you do, for everything is recorded in the Tapestry and anyone who is awakened has the chance of figuring out what has happened.

Paradox is the backlash of Vis and its Tapestry against those trying to alter it. Small changes to the Tapestry are cumulative, but mostly of no consequence. The larger the change, however, the more resistance the Tapestry will give to being changed. Vis is the collective perception of not only the awakened, but of everyone and everything that exists everywhere. Reality is the collective perception of countless entities. When things happen to alter reality, Vis resolves the inconsistency by forcing reality back on the weaver. For example, a wizard making a small stone rise an inch above the ground is only making a tiny stitch in reality. Making an entire ocean turn to fire, however, is an incredible undertaking that affects billions of entities that each believes that such a thing is impossible. Any wizard attempting to turn an ocean to fire will be crushed so hard by the resulting paradox that they will probably never recover. THIS is paradox, the greatest foe of those who attempt to alter the Tapestry.

One such effect of paradox is Quiet. When the wizard has designed his change to reality and the Tapestry brings forth paradox and denies him his version, the wizard retreats into his own reality and withdraws from the other. The wizard exists in a comatose state in this reality and stays that way for an indeterminate period of time – fighting to get back (perhaps) from the altered reality he had created but could not weave.

• Storing Vis - Wizards have the ability to store Vis in an object. In any given day, a wizard may store as much Vis as he can control. This Vis is very unstable if it is stored in the form of raw Vis. Instead, it is usually polarized as Vis of a certain task (storing Vis of water creation to intensify a rain spell that will be cast the following week.) Every 100 units of Vis stored in this fashion is withdrawn only as a single unit. This is the Vis that is usually used by the wizards as currency. Raw Vis stored this way is very volatile and is converted at a rate of 1000 to 1 instead of 100 to 1. As stored Vis is removed from an object, the object suffers noticeable permanent distortion. Vis cannot be stored in metal or in a container that contains any Essence. Vis is immediately released if Essence is ever added to the container or if the container is changed into metal.
  
• Binding Vis - Some wizards have the ability to bind Vis to an object. Binding Vis to an object releases all stored Vis or stored Essence. When Vis is bound to an object the binding wizard gives up his power by an equal amount. This Vis is usually stored raw and is not polarized for any specific task. When the object with the bound Vis is in hand, it returns its power two-fold to the wizard holding it and does not deplete during usage. In this way, the wizard can as much as double his power, but this power remains bound to the object until the object is destroyed or the Vis released. If anyone other than the binder breaks the object, the Vis is released into the surrounding field. Only the binder of an object can release the Vis without destroying the object. If the binder breaks the object or chooses to release the Vis, half of it will return to him and the other half will be released into the surrounding field. Releasing bound Vis does not distort a container in the fashion of stored Vis. Bound Vis is identifiable to anyone who is awakened. The bound Vis also gives some indication of who bound it.
  
• Storing Essence - Some wizards have the ability to store Essence. Stored Essence drives out any stored Vis in its container. Essence can be stored in anything except an object with bound Vis. As stored life, Essence in a container is very obvious and animates its container to a degree equal to the amount of Essence. When Essence is released from storage, it apparently disappears unless the person releasing it has the ability to store it in another container.
  

In its normal state, Vis is warped and distorted by Essence. Unlike normal Vis however, Katravis actively displaces and destroys Essence. It can still be stored or bound like Vis, but with no restrictions. Unlike regular Vis, Katravis can be stored in anything and will destroy Essence if added to a container that already contains stored Essence. Wizards have not been able to control Katravis for use in magic. The only time Katravis has been known to work for magic is when the magic is specifically bestowed upon an infernal sorcerer by a Katravis-existing entity.

The existence of Quintessence is doubtful. Those who believe that Quintessence exists argue that it is a counter-force to Katravis. Quintessence supposedly warps and distorts Katravis just as Essence does Vis, at the very least changing the Katravis into regular Vis.

Demons are made completely of Katravis. Although they do not reside naturally in Æor, demons are occasionally summoned by some means from their own place of existence. Demons detest wizards and anyone that is awakened. They consider non-magic-wielding people merely as a nuisance. In Æor, free demons must devour Essence to exist, favoring concentrated sources. Enslaved demons must be fed Essence either BY their controller or FROM their controller. Only very powerful wizards can summon or banish demons and only an elite few wizards could destroy one. The most powerful of demons often summon other demons to serve underneath them.

Demons are not to be trusted. They will keep a promise as best they can, but will purposefully mislead the contractors with the wording of the request. When demons are summoned to this world, they are here for a specific purpose and will betray everything else to reach their goal. Often serving powerful evil wizards, they look for every opportunity to break free of that control and take their own path.

Because Demons are made of Katravis, they can be bound into an object just as regular Vis. The worst torture for a demon is to be bound and slaved to an object. In this state the demon exists in a universe only as large as the object. Although bound demons don’t need Essence to survive, they are in a state of constant pain and torment. A demon-binded object always shows some sign of its state that is obvious to the awakened and can be detected by a sleeper; a constant hum, a fiery blade, intelligible speech. Most of these items also have additional powers under certain conditions. Each time a demon-binded object is passed to a new owner, a battle of wills decides if the demon is able to escape. Once a demon wins a battle of wills, he is freed. Woe is the person holding the object of his torture.

The nature of a Dwimmer is very much a mystery. There are only a handful of supposed sightings of such entities in the last thousand years. If one were to believe the rumors, the Dwimmers seem to appear from nothingness and disappear just as quickly back into it. The stories generally tell of some mystical human-like being appearing in the middle of an impossible situation, disabling or removing the stronger side, and then simply disappearing. Tales tell of Dwimmers appearing, binding the Katravis of a demon lord into a stone, and jumping back with the stone into the void they emerged from – having never spoken a single word and all in one swift action. Of course, these are just tales told by old drunkards around a campfire.