User blog:FateAlbane/Ye Olde Sorcery Library

"Of Energeia, Magic and Sorcery" - Some fundaments
As it permeates everything there is in the world, Energeia has various uses (or misuses).

While just about anyone can employ it to control the elements for strenghtening of oneself or use as deadly weapons, others can go a step further and take control of both their energy and that of the world to give - or enforce - an order and translate their intention to reality. This is commonly known as Magic by normal people, and also Sorcery as a more broad and sophisticated term for those well-versed in its use¹.

''¹ The reason for such a distinction is simple. While both Sorcery and Magic can be used as terms to encompass all others, there's a definite distinction between the *many* different classes of those who apply Energeia for magic. So, while people - and even adventurers - who don't fall under these classifications don't bother much about such details, the Sorcerors use them to more easily separate the classes of complex Sorcery.''

For instance, this is a world where Mage, Spellcaster, Warlock and Witch are not the same thing (not to mention Shamans, Restorers, Alchemists, Magic Knights and so forth). Mages perform Magic. Spellcasters cast spells, Warlocks throw curses and Witches are an unfair class in-verse that can generally throw everything they damn well want at people with or without spells if they feel like it.

All of these classes have Titles that one can obtain once they become notorious enough, once they know enough spells or once their magical power is on a class of its own. As a general rule, there are four well-known methods of employing Sorcery.

The four known Methods of Sorcery
1. One can use their own Energeia to change the world accordingly. This method is the usual one, labeled Alter  - for it's understood that the user is altering the world.

2. One can take the Energeia and elements already present in the world to fuel the technique. While achieving the same end result, this one uses up less of the caster's stamina. For example, it would be easier to cast a fire magic in a volcano already brimming with similar elements but the same thing could not be said in a glacier. Knowing this, many sorcerers generally gather elemental energy from wherever they go as an "spare" receptacle of energy to fuel spells. This is also a common method, labeled Inherit  - for it's understood that the user is inheriting power of the world to change it, as the previous state of it disappears.

3. The third method is simply a mix of method 1 and 2. It's more complex in execution, but ultimately combines both the energy of the Magician and what was gathered from the land, giving whatever magic they used a boost in potency. This is also risky however and its use is not at all recommended to beginners: If the force gathered from the world ends up being far greater than their own, they may lose control of the sorcery - ultimately bringing disaster upon allies and, quite possibly, even themselves. Labeled Synergy - for it's understood that the user and the world join hands for a moment and a sole purpose.

4. Finally, and the most unconventional method is number 4, "Synthesis". Or as it's more commonly known: Amalgamation. The strongest form of sorcery when it comes to effects, potency and quality, it gathers force not just from the elements involved in its casting, but from all others in resonation with each other, ultimately reaching for the shared source of them all with the caster acting as the medium. It's not only ludicrously hard to achieve, but also entirely theoretical as nobody has been seen doing it. Some of the strongest spells are exclusive to this method, however, which makes the most adept at magic strive to master this more than anything else... Some give it up. Others persist for a lifetime. Others, keep going even if they need more than a lifetime for it. It has this name for it's understood that ''the World coalesces together as a primal one through the user's will as he too becomes a single whole with it. To understand how big the difference in purity is from this method to another, a mere fireball cast through Amalgamation would overcome and consume a highest level fire sorcery done by any other method.''

Sorcery Tier Names
1. Spark/Scintilla 2. Fraction 3. Discharge 4. Despair 5. Destruction 6. Calamity 7. Catastrophe 8. Cataclism 9. Epitaph 10. Purgatorium 11. Tartarean Entirely Theoretical: 12. Empyrean 13. Ragnarok 14. Armageddon 15. Stigmata 16. Asphodel/Asphodelus

Sorcery: A distinction from Auraments and Energeia's inner-workings around it
Magic or Sorcery is separate from and seen as superior to the Auraments - which are the basic control of elements. To put things in perspective, let's use the Aurament of Fire. It can generate flames to burn the target. Its control (or to be more specific, an affinity to it) is a pre-requisite before a caster can use fire sorcery. Meanwhile, fire sorcery would be more like manifesting in reality a mental idea of: "A fire that annihilates/extinguishes my targets from the world." "Target" can be seen as a rather broad locution in this context. If someone were to throw fire magic at normal fire, it would be annihilated in much the same way that a person or object would. The reason any fireball doesn't instantly burn others to warped cinders is that Energeia - as a stabilizing and balancing substance - has defensive properties in the same scale as their destructive ones, and everything in the world has it to a greater or lesser extent. Unlike inanimate objects, however, a person's Energeia is refined and grows in its defensive capacity as one fights magic - as it does against any other such power - even if they are not wielders of it. The simplest way of putting this into perspective is to compare it to a host's defense system that acquires immunity and does not fall as easily - or at all - to the same disease after experiencing it once. The person doesn't need to do anything about it: Their body simply "knows" and thus what once was a hazard can become less harmful or outright harmless. In this case, while someone fighting an Aurament needs only a resistance to fire to withstand it, someone fighting Sorcery builds up resistance to the Component Element in use, to the warping of reality and the order enforced by the sorcery. In principle, the Energeia coursing through the target grows used to rejecting changes it already perceives to be nocive as compared to its present state of being. In-verse this is a given, but it still bears saying that Energeia follows the principle of Symmetry when interacting with sorcery: A user who wields sorcery will be just as resistant to its effects as their own spells are powerful.

List of known Sorcery (separated by Levels)
Lvl 4 - Despair