Blood Magic
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Blood Magic is a malevolent form of magic, classified as a Dark Art, though much like Shades, bearing a lot of resemblance to Alteration. Modern day Blood Magic, the second generation of the art, is a weaker bastardization of the original magic used by the original Order of Blood. Due to recent research into mana and life force, discoveries have been made that make possible the reinvention of the magic.
Blood Magic is, at it’s core, the magical art of drawing power (mana) from the blood of any living being, be it yourself or any other. Use of the magic sacrifices vitality and “life” in exchange for increased power and a temporarily deeper mana pool (explained below). It can be used to cast or enhance spells as well as cast some spells of it’s own at later stages, although it’s used most efficiently in the performance of powerful rituals that would otherwise be far too draining and taxing for even some of the most powerful Arcane mages. During the process of drawing the power from the blood, the natural energy is twisted and morphed, creating an unnatural and crude form of it’s original state. It is a violation of nature and an abominable magic, thus classified as a Dark Arts magic.
Practice
Blood Magic in Combat
Blood Magic is not designed for combat, being an almost purely complementary and support magic, however there are a number of ways Blood Magic can be used in combat, both in the heat of the moment as well as prepared Blood Magic.
At it’s core, Blood Magic is simply the art of drawing power from the blood in order to enhance spells. In combat, a Blood Mage would be able to create a wound on either themselves (or on another if they were powerful enough) and draw the mana from the bloodstream and fuel their spells. This is rather useful as mages can cast combat spells for much longer than a mage normally would, though at a heavy price. There are different ways a Blood Mage can increase the efficiency of which they draw power in the heat of battle, but these secrets are unknown to the majority of people.
Sometimes, in the heat of battle, a Blood Mage may become overwhelmed. In this situation, the mage may see no other way out and may be willing to weaken themselves to near death, in order to escape. Doing this is extremely dangerous and not a viable tactic for standard combat or escaping any situation requiring a mage to be active in their escape. To do this, the mage would draw a hefty amount of power from their blood in order to overcharge a spell (higher tier mages can overcharge spells by combining blood magic with arcane magic, drawing power simultaneously and with less risk, but also less power), in order to cast cataclysmic tier spells, putting their life at risk.
Blood Magic in Rituals
Blood Magic is not designed for combat, however useful it may be. Blood Mages can reach the full height of their potential during rituals. To put it simply, rituals are premeditated and focused events, where a Blood Mage (or any other mage for that matter) will use many different means (collaboration with other mages, sacrifices, enchantments, incantations, symbols and other power sources) to gain as much power as possible to achieve some form of magical goal. These goals are as endless as the forms all magic can take. They can be literally anything, however they can usually be classified into one of the three types below. (When anomalies are found, more sections will be added.)
However there are a number of things that all these rituals have in common. First and foremost, they all require at least one Blood Mage (the numbers will vary regarding the ritual). The amount of power required would be too much for a normal mage to summon and handle. Second of all, they will more often than not need blood sacrifices. Those blood sacrifices can come from either the casters, volunteers or prisoners, it matters not. But drawing power from oneself, like a Blood Mage might do in the heat of battle will not nearly be enough to cast such monstrous spells.
Finally, the Blood Mage rituals rely heavily on the use of ancient symbols and markings, first used by the Order of Blood in Asulon. The nature of these symbols and the mechanics behind them is unknown, however it is known that these marks create some form of loosening in the veil between us and the power we are attempting to draw upon, making the draining process so much more efficient. These symbols may be marked on the ground, on sacrifices or on the casters (only the ritual itself may tell what is required). There are many symbols used, many of them are incorrectly written and discovered from memory of the few that have seen them, thus they have a lesser effect than that of the originals.
Ritual Types
There are Elemental Rituals which is the most simple of the lot. This ritual will usually be done at the behest of a Blood Mage in collaboration with one or more evocationist (the type of evocationist obviously depends on the ritual itself) in order to summon a mass amount of this element in a certain way. For example a fire storm or blizzard etc. To put it simply, Elemental Rituals are simply huge enhancements to standard evocation.
Summoning Rituals involve the summoning of beings, be them ethereal or corporeal, from the other worldly planes. It is possible that summoning rituals do not summon anything at all, however what links them all is the opening of gateways or tears in the planes, be it the void, the ancestral plane amongst many many others. These rituals are quite dangerous as history has proven that more often than not, something will escape and it is not guaranteed that it can be controlled. Summoning Rituals are very much the wild card rituals. They require at least one Blood Mage, as per usual, numerous blood sacrifices as well as the appropriate mages (to sunder the veil between the void and the world, many arcane mages would be needed, to open a gate to the ancestral plane, a shaman would be needed etc), including many symbols marked.
Finally there is what is called Creation Rituals, which involve a number of different magics in order to form twisted and crude forms of life. This is by far the most difficult type of ritual to perform and requires a lot of research and knowledge into what it is you are attempting to do. These rituals require a number of different mages (could be conjurationists, shamans, necromancers), alchemy and a huge amount of power, an amount that can't be reached by blood magic alone. The nature of these rituals will vary quite a lot, but they will require the most preparation and will be the most strenuous on the casters.
Restrictions
Draining From Others
Blood Mages require blood from a living host for their magic to work, however you needn’t always drain from yourself. However what will always remain the same, is the need for an open wound and physical access to the blood in order to drain from it. Draining from others is far less rewarding than draining from yourself and also far more difficult.
As you climb the Tiers, it becomes increasingly easier to drain from others, you don’t have to be as close to your victim in order to drain them as the lower tiers, more power can be absorbed and drained, not simply wasted. Though when draining from others, less of the carrier mana can be “caught” and thus more is dissipated and less is absorbed for spell usage.
The act of draining power itself is a fairly painful one and can cause stinging and burning feelings within the wounds you are drawing from, akin to pouring lemon juice onto a cut. The more skilled a Blood Mage becomes, the less of this pain they will feel when drawing power from within themselves, their ability to draw power from the blood becoming more and more refined.
Blood Bending
You might imagine blood magic as manipulating the blood itself to extremely overpowered lengths, actually managing to fully control people’s bodies and puppeteer them. This form of Blood Magic, true Blood Magic, does not encompass that whatsoever. There are a few spells that are for the higher tiers (Tier 4 upwards) that do resemble the control of blood, but nothing nearly to that extent.
Tier 4 spells will be able to, for example, magically latch on to the carrier mana within their “opponents” blood and in a very crude form of blood control, causing blood clots and, if enough blood clots the arteries, hemorrhages (Tier 5 spells, rather powerful). This is because the bond between the blood and the mana that is attached to it is so strong, it is extremely difficult to rip them apart manually, even through magic. High Tiers can manipulate the mana in blood in similar crude ways, however it is extremely difficult as well as physically draining.
This type of spell however, is difficult to cast, requiring a lot of necessary conditions in order to cast. For example, the blood vessels must be skin level and fairly visible (no rupturing of the heart, or internal organs). Should blood vessels burst and the skin become ruptured, the wounds would be rather small. The purpose of this type of spell is create a wound so that the Blood Mage may proceed to drain, not as a kill move. In order to latch on to the carrier mana and the blood in your opponent, you will be draining a large amount of your own mana pool in the process, likely having to drain from your own blood beforehand.
Mechanics
Strengths
The ability to temporarily access more mana than their usual mana pool will allow.
Able to overcharge spells to cast them with more power than usual.
Able to use the increased mana pool for performing powerful rituals.
Useful for passively combo'ing with other magics and other mages (enchantments, seals, rituals etc).
Weaknesses
Sacrifice vitality for power at an uneven ratio (more vitality is lost than power is gained).
People are practically impossible to manipulate and control via blood magic.
Cannot draw power from “dead blood”. (corpses, gathered blood in vials etc)
The amount of vitality lost when using blood magic in combat, is too much to be a viable combat method (last ditch effort to cast however is an exception).
Increased use of Blood Magic will cause a noticeable corruption of the person, causing both physical and mental changes/instabilities.
Aesthetics
One of the more important aspects of a magic, there are a wide range of aesthetics that Blood Magic effects, both effects of it’s own as well as it’s effect on other magics. When draining mana with Blood Magic, from both yourself and others, the carrier mana (still attached to some blood) will come out on the form a dimly glowing red mist (picture above). It remains in this form and the glow continues to intensify until the power is used in a spell.
When the power is used for other magics, such as fire evocation for example, the colour of the spell’s effects will change to a luminescent green, the overcharged spell now tainted by the unnaturally absorbed mana from the blood. This change applies to all spells with an aesthetic effect (including all rituals), Illusion being the exception.
Blood Magic will also affect the mage’s body and mind, with extreme use turning the mage’s skin pale, their face slightly gaunt and milky eyes with dark bags beneath them. Because the magic is so unnatural, extended use will cause madness and a lot of mental instabilities, including irrational thinking, paranoia and insomnia.
Power
There are typically three different sources of magic. The first is divine power, gifted to the descendants by the the high beings of our world. The second is mana, that of which flows through all living things. Finally there is life-force, that of which the foul Necromancers manipulate from our very being. But thanks to recent discoveries, we have found out that there is a fourth, something between mana, and life-force.
Blood courses through all of us, carrying our life-force through our body and keeping us alive. The rest of the mana is split into two. There is the mana that continues to flow through the body in the mana stream, the maximum amount of mana an Arcane mage is able to access. And then there is another type of mana that courses around the body in the blood, carrying the life-force to all it’s destinations. This “carrier mana”, cannot be accessed by necromancers, arcane mages, shades or any other mage known to man; other than Blood Mages.
Blood mages are able to extract this “carrier mana” (though not all of it) from the blood itself, from an open wound, and manipulate the mana to cast spells. The life-force that it was carrying, instantly converts back to mana, returning to the stream as quickly as possible to continue it’s journey out of the body. As a result of this, the caster’s mana pool is increased temporarily at the cost of vitality.
Requirements
A living source of blood to cast with blood magic. Mana does not travel through vials of blood.
An open wound or access to blood from the living host, a closed wound will not work for lower tiers.
Knowledge of Blood Magic.
Lore by Raptor
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