Category Archives: Encyclopaedia Arcana

It’s possible for a mage to cast a spell with only their mind and will, but most don’t.  Instead they add extra ingredients to a spells formula, and these are referred to as components. In theory just about anything that … Continue reading →

The powers of a novice mage manifest in weird and unpredictable ways.  The magical energy is channelled into effects, but since the mage has no real idea what he’s doing it’s anyone’s guess what the result will be – they’re … Continue reading →

Time is one of the more common types of universal magic, though given the rarity of universal mages time mages are still vastly outnumbered by elementalists.  It’s a notoriously difficult type to master:  many time adepts give up in frustration … Continue reading →

Chance magic is also called luck or fortune magic, and just like divination it’s a type of universal magic.  A mage who can use it is called a chance mage, a luck mage, or sometimes (especially if the mage is … Continue reading →

The first part of this entry explained that divination magic allows its user to see the probability of future events.  This second part will take a look at what that means in practice. A Hundred and One Uses for Seeing … Continue reading →

The first type of magic this Encyclopaedia will look at is divination, a type of universal magic.  A mage who can use divination magic is called a diviner, a seer, a probability mage, or (if you want to annoy them) … Continue reading →

Dark mages are the counterpart to Light mages.  At various points the two factions have fought against each other, most recently in the Gate Rune War of the twentieth century, but at present Light and Dark mages share an uneasy … Continue reading →

There are two main power blocs within mage society – Light mages and Dark mages.  Mages who don’t side with either are called independent or unaligned.  Of the two factions, the Light mages are by far the more organised. Dark … Continue reading →

So far this Encyclopaedia has mainly dealt with mages.  There’s a good reason for this – mages represent the greatest concentration of power in the magical world.  They don’t rule every corner of it, but it’s very much built in … Continue reading →

Mages usually categorise each other in one of three ways.  The first is by affiliation – whether they’re Dark, Light, or independent.  The second is how trained and experienced they are – apprentice, master, or somewhere in between.  Finally they … Continue reading →