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Spirit is bound in man, as Magic is bound in mind; Unity in spirit attained, mastery of Magic gained.
Often it be mentioned, "Know thyself to know thy life" For destiny dwells in hand and mouth. Life is only an illusion, and Magic is life's fusion, therefore seek no more than life itself.
Foolish multitude have tried, many have thus died. To lord over thy imagination, is to defy all of creation.
The birds in the sky, as long as it can fly. Magic is spirit, as long as the spirit is alive. Unification of mind and spirit is fullest of life can summise. Thus, seek no further than the essence of life itself.
-Cancer
It was the time and place where mystical beings and man and all of creation lived in harmony. It was the time of improvement and great inventions. It was a time when magic and reality combined to form progress and, even simple luxuries unthinkable of in this time period. Out of the three groups, the mystical beings, both ethereal and astereal in nature, supplied the raw materials; man, simple though his formation, expounded on it and, using his imagination, created all of what the beings could never dream of. Everything else lived in perfect bliss and contentment. Time was not a factor to progress. In that plane, the world had no time. To the beings, time existed only in their minds. If they thought it was night, all they could see were as though they were experiencing night time, complete with moon, stars, etc. If they thought it was day, so it was. If they thought that 50 years had passed, so it must have passed.Or if they thought that time stood still, time, to them, would stop at that very instant. Cumulonimbus. He was a powerful wizard. Self-made, self-taught, he experimented with spells. Although, relatively unheard of, his spells could make even the greatest of kings tremble at its untold powers. He lived in the clouds, built an empire known only to spiritual beings able to fly as high as the galaxy. In seclusion, he worked on his spells without any hampering. Mainly, most of his research was based on offensive spells. To create a more mystical outlook, he gave all his spells names based on ancient cultural-mixed languages: Sham-Si; Vertox-no-Xetripatel-ya; No-nac-No-bod; were amongst the more exotic names. Others had a certain oriental flavour and Gothic accent.
There was a time when man and gods lived as one on the planet. Altair's Great-grand-ancestor was a powerful mage-god specialising in monster summoning spells. The whole family lived in the clouds (hence the family name Cumulonimbus). All practiced magic with monster summoning as a speciality. The 33rd generation of Cumulonimbus saw a young woman falling in love with a commoner (a footman). After the birth of their first child, the woman was banished from the city of the clouds to live with that man. Precisely 6 years after she was banished, the gods and man fell into a bitter war that lasted 66 years. Technology and much magic was lost and never recovered as a result. The war resulted in a stalemate. The gods ruled the exterior planes of existance while man ruled the prime material plane. Because monster summoning was a difficult school to master safely, many of the later Cumulonimbus generations turned to fighting as their profession. Gradually, they became naught but a distant memory of a once glorious past. After 60 generations in the sell-sword profession, Altair was born. Coincidentally, he was the 13th child and was born 6666 years after the start of the war between the gods and man. At that time, technology was on the revival, but magic remained much untouched. Maybe it was the stars, or it could have been the parent's genes, or it could have been an ancient spell: Altair was born physically weak. A bane to all fighters. But he possessed his mother's dexterity and his father's constitution. At a very young age, he was constantly bullied by his other siblings. But his sharp wit usually got him out of serious trouble. Because of his physical difference, he was shunned by many, thus making him suspicious and he had difficulty making friends. At a very young age, he was always being taken advantaged of due to his weakness. At 12, he ran away form home. During the age of 12 to 14, he stole food to survive and lived from hand to mouth. At 15, he was lucky enough to witness a warlocks' gathering without being discovered. He found the spells they exchanged both intriguing and could be used for self-protection. Up until the age of 17, he stole magic spellbooks from an old hermit to satisfy his desire to learn. However, he was caught after 2 years. Fortunately, the hermit agreed to take him on as an apprentice. After 30 years of intensive training, Altair became a 6th level mage. He was then 47 summers old. The hermit then taught Altair an unorthodox spell invented by magicians millennia ago: Shue. A complicated process. By the time Altair mastered the spell, he was already 92. The old hermit then gave Altair a choice: To live this life and complete the mastery of Shue, or to live another life... but sacrificing the 45 years of hard work. Altair chose the latter. After 6 days, Altair was once again 26, but with the mind of a 92-year old. But this time, he was on another world. A world the hermit called "Terrania". Before Altair left, the hermit gave him a staff and said, "I think this belongs to you..." On Y.E. 1463, Altair joined an adventuring party of 3: A bard, a fighter-thief and a fighter. He became friends with the fighter-thief, Nosir. In time, they became known as "No-Sir" and "Can-Sir". A negative/positive joke of sorts. Nosir taught Altair the art of coin-flicking, the only art known to him. On one adventure, when Altair was 60 summers, the party was brutally slaughtered by a high-level assassin. Nosir escaped alive but Altair never saw him again. 7 years later, he joined the Heroes of Helfron, his present adventuring party. Throughout his entire career on Terrania, he was constantly researching on Shue and eternal life. |
