Forbidden Magic

One of the most diverse subjects in Comalan is magic. Magical energy can be found nearly everywhere, and magical practitioners have found countless possible applications. While most magic from elemental magic to medical mysticism draws power from divine sources, there are some sorts of magic that do not owe their origins to the gods. For most people, to use such magic is considered an act of sacrilege. This limits the knowledge of such disciplines to a scant few. What's more is that these disciplines each seem to be anathema to each of the elder gods themselves.

Blood Magic

Blood magic is the discipline of performing spells using blood as a reagent. While elven and dwarven blood will suffice, it is well known that no race is as in tune with the power of blood as humanity is. The magic that blood mages draw seems to come from the life force of mortals themselves, and its most powerful spells have been shown to burn through sources of divine power with little effort. It is for this reason that blood magic is considered anathema to Chaos, whose clergy have expressed scorn at the idea that mortals could produce power which rivals that of the gods on their own. While blood magic is associated with acts of horror, it is also a source of healing as well. It was the unique ability of blood mages to treat the Curse of Suffering that finally earned blood mage covens the legitimacy to come out and practice their craft openly in the Third Age.

Dark Magic

Dark magic results from a negative magical energy that is known to erode normal magic. It is this quality that makes users of dark magic particularly fearsome enemies of any other magic user. The use of dark magic seems to revolve around upsetting the natural order of things. This is seen primarily in a dark mage's liberal use of forced transfiguration on living creatures and the manipulation of other people's minds. Unlike blood magic, dark magic is tied only to some of the worst atrocities in history and doesn't seem to have any positive applications. That, and the insistence of Intalan priests that Crane considers dark magic to be a threat to all of nature, make dark magic even more stigmatized than blood magic. Every possible use of dark magic on record seems to indicate that its users ultimately lose control of themselves in the face of the seductive ease with which dark magic changes reality. It is for this reason that dark magic faces strict prohibition even in Galeon, whose population is otherwise tolerant of any obscure form of magic.

Soul Magic

Soul magic is the magical discipline of viewing and interacting directly with the soul. Using this craft requires only eye contact with the person whose soul you want to cast on. Once that eye contact is established, the soul mage can interact with fragments of the target's psyche in a vision of the place that person considers to be home. These fragments often take the form of people the owner of the soul knows which they feel exemplify their best and worst qualities. Fragments of light represent the soul's positive qualities and show up as helpful guides while fragments of darkness represent the qualities of the soul that the owner is ashamed of and often present a hostile presence for visitors. The nature of the caster's interaction with these fragments determines the spell that they use. Unfortunately, masters of soul magic are rare, and its very practice is under criticism by the Salican church for enabling the forced change of a victim's entire personality.

Fell Magic

Fell magic is the act of casting facsimiles of fey magic by using the bodies of fey creatures as reagents. This is similar to the practice of blood magic, but differs in the fact that magic can be found in every part of a fey creature's body. There seems to be a lot of overlap between practitioners of Fell and Dark magic, but many authorities consider fell magic to be far less dangerous. Since fey creatures are so elusive outside certain forbidden regions of Tanis and Resta, practicing fell magic often carries no legal consequences whatsoever. Even so, users of this magic will find no friends in the followers of Serenity, who is often associated with fey creatures of all types.