Roleplaying Magic

''NOTE: This page has NOT YET been vetted for THEME. It is considered an incomplete work in progress, and should be used at your own risk!''

Magic on Chia isn't nearly as cut-and-dried as it seems. More than any other choice, the choice of 'magic' or 'no magic' in chargen shapes and drives a character, tapping into the fundamental underpinnings of the game's moral backdrop. This page is an attempt to help players get a feel for roleplaying past the dice, for getting a sense of a part of theme that is at once utterly the core of the grand conflict hiding behind all of the history and yet conceptually slippery. It is by no means the definitive answer to the deeper questions - that's left up to the player - but it's a Good Start.

A lot of what's here doesn't really apply if your character isn't 'in tune' with Chia's magic at all, but if you're intent on building a Shadow Touched or Sunkissed alt down the way, or in OOCly understanding the deeper conflict, you might find all of this of interest. For most 'untouched' characters, however, one of the most rewarding bits of roleplay on the grid is discovering the conflict waiting in the wings.

Please, read this with that in mind. There are spoilers.

The Light and the Shadow
We can't talk about magic without starting by at least laying in the basic notions of both sides of the great coin. Would that it were as simple as 'Light Good!' and 'Shadow Bad!' (though in some ways it is) - but thankfully, for the stories that can be told, it most certainly is not.

The Light is warmth and love and righteousness, compassion for others and upholding the Law and Right. As far as any human can understand it, the Light is the motive force of creation, the source of positive emotion and energy, the very essence of creation. It is pure, uncorruptable - and yet unknowable, though it does offer a form of guidance to those who learn to hear it.

The Shadow is darkness, entropy, chaos, rage and hate. It is the decayer, the ravager, the lurker-just-out-of-sight. Oceans of darkness swim around every source of Light, ultimately kept at bay by it, but never wholly lost; in fact, some have pointed out that it is nearly impossible to see the Shadow without the Light. Insidious and corruptive, it tears down creation, hoarding its secrets and demanding stern prices for its power.

Yet, in the words of the Imperial Cult and echoed by hints and whispers from the Dragons, these two forces exist in a near-perfect balance. That they MUST exist so to let the world grow and change as it must, that in the center between them is all that is and will be.  Whether that is ultimately true is as unknowable as either the Light or the Shadow, but it has offered hope to both sides that there is at least Choice.

The Blessed and the Cursed
If the Light and Shadow stand largely outside of the world, their agents are the Sunkissed and the Shadow Touched. Born with an innate connection to one or the other of the Great Powers, no scholar yet has found rhyme or reason behind the choosing. It does not run in bloodlines, nor does it choose noble over common man. The taint of Shadow or the blessing of Light may even stand side by side in brother and sister. No one knows how many there are - most who have the potential never realize it, and of those that begin to, most have only minor abilities and weak manefestations.

Yet there are a rare few - usually recognized as the PCs themselves - who have the potential for real magical strength, deep powers that run strong in them.

The Sunkissed
Born to warmth and Light, the Sunkissed have long been hailed as heroes of the common folk - and with good reason. Guided almost instinctively to protect others, to care for their fellows and mend their hurts... or to defend them when there is need, the Sunkissed almost naturally tend to become paragons, using their abilities for what they see as good ends.

The Light offers, more than anything else, guidance. The powers it brings to bear stand athwart the shadow and offer succor and enlightenment to both the wielder and those around them - but its urgins are gentle, quiet things, that can be lost in the fires of fantacism, hubris, or righteousness. The light allows its wielders to choose their own path, allowing them to trip while constantly pointing them back to a better Way.

Some of the Kissed consider the light a burden, a load that must be carried and a heavy responsibility that must be met. For others, it is simply a power that lets them shine forth with the best that they are. What it means, and what it becomes, to each of those that carry it ultimately tempers and strengthens them. Provided they do not lose their vision, it acts to make the world a better place in their passage.

The Shadowtouched
There is nothing kind or redeeming in Shadow, as its Chosen are certainly quick to say. Everything it gives, it demands a price; ever secret it teaches, it leaches something more of you away. Those aren't the words of the Church of True Light or the Imperial Cult. No, these are fundamental principles that everyone who is born to the Shadow learns quickly as their power grows.

For the Touched, the Shadow is always there, whispering. In every moment of anger, in every dissapointment and instant of envy, it nudges and suggests. At its heart, it is a maelstrom of negative emotions that shift and pull within the caster, always offering the power to act whenever the fledgeling Mage feels powerless, always nudging them to take, to presume, to lash out, and to strike. It is a core of darkness that rests just above the heart, sometimes subtle, sometimes strong; a connection that grows so familiar and intimate that the wielder of the power often forgets just how much it hungers for them.

The source of the power of the Shadow Touched is not benevolent. It is an addictive, heady thing that wants to destroy all they have, all they love, and all they know.