Fi'hiiran'tanya
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Fi'hiiran'tanya, or 'Anti Magic', as it is sometimes called, is a rare and mystical ability which allows the user to sever a mage's connection to the Void, leaving them weak and useless. It is rare to find this magic and is generally found in Elven lands in the hands of a select few. Those who practice this magic are a mage's worst enemy, but are weakened physically due to their craft.
Contents
Introduction
Anti Mages are granted the ability to disarm Mages of all fields as one warrior might be able to disarm another warrior of their weapon. Targets of Fi’hiiran’tayna will also lose the mana required to perform their spells, having the their mana siphoned away and cast into the Void whilst fatiguing them. When afflicted in excess a Mage may find themselves completely unable to cast for some time, if not drained of mana to a point of unconsciousness.
Anti Mages may in practice unravel the Active Mana of a less mundane entity (such as Golems, Atronachs or creatures comprised of Ectoplasm), either disabling it completely or outright destroying it.
Practicers of Fi'hiiran'tanya surrender their ability to learn any other magics due to the second soul relentlessly consuming mana. The mage must be of good physical condition due to becoming physically weakened as stated before. Fi'hiiran'tanya corrupts the body twice as much as a normal magic, and the mage's increased metabolism may wither them away without proper care. They will also find themselves with everlasting mental instability. Anti Mages must live with ailments such as hallucinations and the insanity brought about by having a second soul within the same body as their own.
History
Fi'hiiran'tanya began with the High Elves. When the High Elves first bathed in the golden pools, they gained an incredible thirst for knowledge in the arcane arts. One family of High Elves, however, gained the opposite view. They saw magic as a weakness, a liability which would restrict one's true purpose in life. They were the Elibar'acals, the 'Golden Owls' of the Elves. In secret, they developed their own magical abilities which would negate the power of the Arcane that their brothers and sisters were learning. It is here that one finds the strange flaw in Fi'hiiran'tanya. To defeat magic, the Elibar'acals created their own, one that left them weaker then most other High Elves.
The magic was accepted for a time, and it was held only among the most elite members of the family. The Elibar'acals were bound to it by honor, protecting the secrets of their magic jealously... and righteously, for the magic had a terrible secret. It was only when a younger member of the family was caught sacrificing their best friend to unlock the power, in the year 1112, on the eve of Malin's Welcome. It had been this way for hundreds of years, the family killing those close to them to gain the level of power needed to perform the magic. Shocked and betrayed, the High Elves exiled the Elibar'acals, sentencing them to a nomadic lifestyle. The Elibar'acals, now among the many mages of the world, were hunted down, until only a small portion of their numbers remained. They went into hiding, staying away from normal life.
And so they remained, for nearly 300 years. By this time, many of the High Elves had either repressed or forgiven the ancestors of the Elibar'acal. Only a select few of the original clan were left alive, with most of the younger ones unable to perform the magic. They returned in Anthos, seeking the Silver City of Lin'everal. On the journey there, the family suffered another tremendous blow, as their numbers were cut down to a slim few in an attack by human bandits. Seeking refuge, the Elibar'acal settled in the city, and began the practice of Fi'hiiran'tanya once more.
And so, even past the fall of Lin'everal, the magic persisted, sticking to a few select members of the family and the outsiders they deemed worthy. It is spoken of in hushed whispers in the High Elven settlement of The Tomb, and hardly known of outside the walls, but it exists.
Subtypes
Fi'hiiran'tanya has two subtypes of magic: Soul Stealing and Soul Splitting. Both require the alteration or addition of a soul to utilize it as a weapon of magic. The two types differ in the way in which an additional soul is obtained. Soul stealing requires the harvesting of another descendant's soul through the Soul Stealing Ritual, taking it from the host and keeping it under control. Soul Splitting is similar to its title: instead of harvesting an external soul, the mage's own soul is forcibly split into two parts - a third of the original soul removed as a 'shadow soul' to serve the same purpose as the second soul in the other method.
Soul Stealing
In this method, the soul of another must be sundered from its host and brought under a Fi mage's dominion as a weapon. The second soul is held under the dominion of the first, kept in tandem as a leal weapon with the capability to expunge mana from an individual and into the void itself. The weaponized energy manifests as a smoke befitting the dominant souls’ aura, then is applied to the target object or entity. The Fi mist matches on and begins to draw from the targets (living or nonliving, enchantments included) mana, and as stated earlier, releasing it into the Void.
The mist itself may span 10–15 meters from the caster, though it grew increasingly less effective with distance - though as a rule of thumb, it always manages to disable the cast of the opponent if conjuration begins in a narrow span of time. Its gaseous state would also render it able to sink easily through the gaps in armour and fibres of clothing.
There is a great variety of beasts and items effected by this magic is expansive: all that which depends on active mana to function, specifically. When met with a coating of the “Fi” magic, they are initially crippled; further allocation of the magic can quite literally tear them apart at the seams. Effective not only on users of the Voidal Arts, this too works against all manners of degenerate creatures and can be used as a measure to oppose other Dark Arts.
Physical and Mental Effects
With this art would come serious defects to the practitioner: Having two connections to the Void would quite ironically render the Anti Mage doubly as affected by its energies, leaving them on physical par with a mid-range Necromancer. Their body would be rendered unstable from the unnatural presence of a second soul, seldom leaving them to ever feel fully ‘healthy’ again, organ failure and internal bleeding as well as notably slowed healing being the most apparent of these negative traits.
Mental instability and side effects are also prominent - The second soul, whilst eventually growing submissive to the first, can drive the Fi’hiiran’tayna user insane at first. The voice will eventually dull and grow to be blocked out completely by the Anti Mage as they become more practiced and able to influence it, though they’d still be able to commune with it if they desire to do so.
This submission would not be final, however, as in times of immense strain from the magic’s practice it may re-emerge and torture to the extent of an Illusionist’s abilities, such as hallucinations and the urge of foreign emotion. For this reason compiled with the physical discomforts of Anti Magic, users are always stuck to face the defects of insomnia and ever-present nausea as well.
Soul Stealing Ritual
To enable the unification of the foreign and local souls, the teacher must seek out a place of tranquility for their acts. Focus is required for even the slightest blunder can destroy either of the souls depending on the ritual’s stage. For this the primary Anti Mage, their student-to-be and their sacrifice must all be taken within a close proximity. Whilst both the Elven and Human practitioners have their own views on what is and is not necessary for this ceremony, the essential act is the taking of the sacrifice’s life whilst they are surrounded by the Anti Mage’s mist so that as they die and their soul departs their body, it is blocked by the Anti Mage’s pull on the mana surrounding it and cannot reach the soul stream. He with the grasp must then pull the soul towards himself as he’d siphon mana that’d usually be cast into the void by his own soul and at the last moment divert; Throwing it into the student’s body and ceasing their cast abruptly.
The result would be an internal horror as the pair battle it out for dominance - whilst it is not unheard of for a second soul to dominate the body’s primary host from time to time - the soul in its natural place will nearly always succeed in capturing the new arrival beneath itself. The mana of each fuses together into one collective pool with which the former may use to connect to the Void then and at later dates manipulate the second soul into the peculiar mists that’d pull on mana.
This is a binding that’d persist in the soul stream, even monks being unable to sever the two and with disdain returning fallen Anti Mages with their abilities intact on the event of resurrection.
Magic Blocking Ritual
As mentioned earlier, bold acts of mana blockage can have lasting effects and prevent magic from being used for prolonged amounts of time. In this scenario, however, they can come with more permanence. Akin to the ritual of soul stealing, this act must remain uninterrupted as slips in such can easily bring about the demise of the Anti Mage’s target.
For this, Fi’hiiran’tayna mist is flooded excessively into a body until completely surrounding their soul to squeezing it shut and stopping it from being able to produce more active mana whilst the active mana that remained is stolen and cast into the void. This is a barrier that will effectively render ALL magic unusable. One may do this with a dense flooding and disable magic use completely for a certain amount of time or if done expertly leave a mage without their power forever or with a thinner barrier to stunt a mage’s prowess until its decay.
Soul Splitting
Where once the soul of another was needed to be equipped by a student, an alternative - albeit possibly more sinister method has been created by more Pious men of Orenia, in which a teacher might instead choose another path for his student to take. Through immense focusing of their evoked mist upon the soul of their student, where once it might've bound two together it'd instead cleave one en twain by forcing Mana into it and pushing it outwards in a separating motion.
If this event is successful, the result would be an individual forever scarred - a third of their soul missing from its natural place, taking with it the soul's purity and leaving it susceptible to not only Ascended attack as a normal Anti Mage would, but the damage of all Holy Magic and even traditional Anti Magic should the practitioner not first dispel their opponent's approaching attack. This is because the missing third of the soul is kept with the body as a shadow of its former self - akin that which a Ghoul might possess - rendering the Anti Mage as partially Undead in such a regard.
Due to this type of Anti Mage’s outright self mutilation, once able to wield their ability they must rectify their own soul in the same way muscle must break and repair itself to grow. Only by taking on manifestations of energy above the tier of simple spellcasters might they grant their broken souls a chance to grow and heal enough to sustain their own bodily requirements and the powers of Fi’hiiran’tayna, meaning progression in learning is slowed. Whilst this shall grow and heal both the primary and shadow soul to suitable lengths, the latter will still remain corrupt and ‘incomplete’ when compared to a natural source and therefore lead to the magic being inefficient from its dependency on Active Mana to keep it stable. In regards to this where a traditional Anti mage would be capable of spanning their mists further and using them faster, this use of Fi'hiiran'tayna may only stretch 10 meters from the caster as a rule and will siphon away Active Mana a third less quickly than usual Anti Magic.
This shadow soul may be purposed akin to a stolen soul wielded by a normal user of Fi’hiiran’tayna for its practical use, however the mental defects suffered would be somewhat dissimilar. Instead of experiencing the ailment of another presence forever bound to torment for which they are responsible, prying to disturb their consciousness where necessary, causing severe lucid dreams, hallucinations, extreme nausea and insomnia in this instance similar outcomes would occur however due in fact to the unnerving influence of a lesser version of themselves. The shadow soul maintaining some identity from its prior wholeness and suffering equally to a stolen soul, flung into perpetual agony as it is seemingly manipulated time and time again by what it recognises as itself, continually begging the stronger soul for a unity that may never come and lashing out on the stronger half of the soul in the same way a stolen soul would against the host.
Soul Splitting Ritual
Soul Splitting requires an already practiced Anti Mage (Whom either has their own soul split or possesses a second soul, such does not matter) to find a place of seclusion with his apprentice. Then for this, akin to the disconnection ritual, the individual shall saturate their student’s body with smoke - again grasping the mana pool and enveloping it in its completion, though instead of blocking the soul’s access to the mana pool such would be directioned through the soul, meaning to tear a third of it away.
Provided this long and delicate procedure is successful, the aspiring Anti Mage would be locked in immense pain and feel their very essence being rendered asunder. Now things grow difficult as the Anti Mage must successfully retract all of his mists from the host’s body to release the mana and allow it to re-bind the shadow soul in service of the former and stabilise the entities, leaving them fused (though not a singular being) as split souls may be.
From then forth the new Anti Mage’s self shall be split; Mind plagued with a second consciousness that is both their own and external as such is trapped agonisingly in a state of undead abuse from its former self and will act akin to the stolen soul of a traditional Anti Mage, expanding later to bring about the same physical ailments.
View the Official Lore for Fi'hiiran'tanya
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