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| Life in the current ageDon’t mind Zorast- he’s really good at talking without saying anything. History’s nice, but survival in a world like ours depends on finding out what’s really happening in the world, not legends and pretty stories. Come over here, I’ll tell you what’s going on in the world today, and why. I'll try and keep it short, but there's a lot to tell, so I probably won't succeed...I’m Jarith, one of the Sage’s helpers. Not an apprentice- he’s got plenty of those, but I know enough in my own right that I don’t need to study under him. I’m a wizard by training, and used to travel all over the world getting into trouble, like the adventurer I was. I ended up here a few years ago, and the place just sort of stuck on me. It’s quiet here- the troubles of the outside world don’t reach us much, and Methus likes it that way. That’s Methus the Immortal, by the way- he doesn’t come here much, but he doesn’t have to, to make sure this place stays safe. None of Them do, really- that was why They made the Forbidding. Don’t know what it is? I’m not surprised, most don’t- and that’s part of the problem. Let me explain... The ForbiddingWay back at the end of the Annihilation, when Damok and the others saw what had happened to the world, they were horrified by what they saw, like Zorast said. What he didn’t say was that they all made a pact right then and there, that they would never let a war happen again, ever. Sounds like quite a problem, right? After all, people can argue about lots of things- and little arguments have a way of turning into big ones, and then fights, and then wars.The Immortals decided to stop that cycle before it could get out of hand. They all pooled their power, and set up the Forbidding- a magical field covering the whole world, that stops fighting. No fighting, no wars, right? Simple idea- but of course, in the real world, things are never that simple. The Immortals had to build in some loopholes- exceptions to the rule against fighting- to get the Forbidding to work the way they wanted it to. The real idea of the Forbidding was to stop people from fighting each other, not to stop violence completely. Wolves, and spiders, and draculs, and other predators need to eat other animals to live, and the Immortals didn’t want to kill off half the animals on the planet just to stop wars. So that’s the first exception- the Forbidding doesn’t affect any living thing that isn’t intelligent, that isn’t "people." And because it doesn’t affect them, they can still attack things, and won’t starve to death. Of course, this causes a problem for the people, because predators sometimes eat them when they get a chance! Not letting people fight these beasts if they get attacked by them wasn’t very fair either, so the Immortals built the second exception in- the Forbidding doesn’t stop you from attacking things that aren’t affected by it. That’s why you can defend yourself if a hungry wolf decides you look like dinner. Those two exceptions wouldn’t cause any problems by themselves- but of course, they’re not the only problem. Wild Zones and CorruptionThe real problem with the Forbidding is that it’s a magical field, so like other magical fields, it has to use the magical energy in the world, what the Ancients called the Matrix, to do its thing. But the Matrix, like everything else, got hit hard by the Annihilation- hard enough to change how it works, or kill it completely, in some places. In those places, magic doesn’t always work how it’s supposed to, or at all, and that goes for the Forbidding too. People who wander into those areas often find themselves suddenly able, and willing, to fight each other instead of just animals- and be attacked as well, because the Forbidding doesn’t stop a person from fighting something that isn’t affected by it. That’s why those areas are called Wild Zones- things just go wrong inside them.Even Wild Zones wouldn’t be too much of a problem, if not for another one. Normally, they can only affect people inside them, and the Forbidding starts working again after they leave. But some of the Wild Zones are worse than normal- worse than natural, if you believe some stories. People who wander into those bad zones can get Corrupted by them- changed by them- so their bestial instincts come out, and the Forbidding doesn’t affect them any more at all, even outside any Wild Zones. They can fight anybody, anytime, and because the Forbidding lets you fight things that aren’t affected by it, they can be fought as well. So some people can fight other people, and wars could still happen between Corrupted people and each other, or Corrupted people and normal ones. Some Corrupted get changed and twisted by the powers that Corrupted them, but most don’t- and there’s no way to tell them from anybody else, until they start bashing heads. If you travel much, you’ll see some sooner or later, and you’ll probably have to kill them if you do. Corrupted usually don’t listen to reason- they just attack anything they see as an enemy, which includes anybody who isn’t Corrupted. And sometimes, people killed by Corrupted don’t stay dead- their bodies get back up and start moving again. These "undead" people rarely remember their former lives, and don’t care- they hate the living, and since they aren’t alive, the Forbidding doesn’t affect them either. Of course, Damok and the others don’t like this situation very much, and they try to fix all the Corrupted zones when they find them. But that’s what starts the stories about the Corruption going- it seems like every time they fix one, another pops up somewhere else. Something evil might have survived the Annihilation after all, and if it did, it definitely would want the people to keep fighting. If there is something behind the Corruption, it’s a sure bet the Immortals will do something about it sooner or later, or they might as well have never put up the Forbidding in the first place. I don’t like to think about what they might have to do, or what will happen to the rest of us when it happens. The Matrix and MagicEven without the Wild Zones and Corruption, the Matrix is still a powerful force in everyday life on Taera. How could it not be? We may not be as powerful or knowledgeable in magic as our ancestors, but it’s still useful for a lot of things. Being able to shape reality to their will is probably the best (or only) reason the survivors of the Annihilation stayed alive long enough to start rebuilding.According to ancient sources, the Matrix is something arising naturally from every living thing in the world, an invisible web of energy that encompasses everything. New living things create new energy, and dying things release the last of their energy into it before they go. This energy usually does nothing by itself, but it can respond to the desires and impulses of the things which create it, and when it does, its focused power can overcome any normal force of nature. That's what magic is- the wizard focuses the power of the Matrix in some special way, to get it to do what he wants. The Matrix is alive, in a way, and a legend says that it knows how it's been used in the past- which would mean that every spell ever created is in there somewhere, and could probably be learned by someone who knows how to get them. What happened when people first came into being, was that they became aware of this connection somehow, on an unconscious level. There had always been animals and plants which made some use of Matrix energy to do things other creatures and plants couldn't, but what made people different was that they knew it was different, and were able to tell others of their kind how to do it. Knowledge about how to use it grew slowly over millennia, until full-blown wizards were a normal part of life, using the Matrix (and reality with it) like any other tool. Of course, this meant that they used it in wars as well as other parts of life, and wars with magic are definitely worse than wars without! And that's supposedly where Lord Damok's title comes from... Ultramagic and the ImmortalsAccording to myth, the magical wars in the first dim days of Taera got so fierce that they threatened to destroy all life on the world, or even the world itself. The Gods who had created life on this planet didn't like that, and so they gave part of their power to the most powerful wizard in the world, to set her apart from every other wizard, to allow her to do things no other could do. This was the power of Ultramagic, and no normal wizard can match it. The pact said that she would use her new power to keep other wizards in line, and make sure they didn't blow up the world or something equally bad. The title for this guardianship was Lord Protector of Life, but over the centuries people shortened it to just Lord- there's only one real Lord on Taera, the magical one.That original Lord passed on the symbol of her office, the Medallion of Power, to the next most powerful wizard when she died- and the power, and responsibility, went with it. That wizard passed it on in time, and so on, until it got to Damok. He did something none of the other Lords had- he figured out how to use the Ultramagic to make new Medallions, and he gave them to friends. Then they could use it too. One of them figured out how to use the Ultramagic to stop the aging process, and soon the Council of Lords became the Council of Immortals. Since they all had Medallions, they were all effectively Lords, but Damok was the one who kept the title, and the original Medallion. They eventually came to rule the world, and when Taerans vetured to the stars, they continued to rule over the new Empire. They aren't gods, as far as I know, but they're so old and powerful that they might as well be. Eventually, their own infinite life energy put so much power into the Matrix that even normal wizards could use the Ultramagic, and that's one of the reasons the Ancients were so powerful- any wizard could have godlike power, if he knew what to do. It was the Crystal Tower that most helped do that- Damok built it on a mountain, early on, to contain and focus the Matrix to new levels of power, and it became the symbol of the Immortals and their presence on the world. It also, by focusing the Matrix, created a new type of magical energy. Ley Lines
One of the effects the Crystal Tower had on the Matrix was making parts of it stronger. These parts are like thick cords running through the thin web that the Matrix used to be, and they're like rivers of magic, to the normal Matrix's trickles. The Tower itself is gone, but these magical rivers are still around. They're of obvious value to wizards, because wizards around them can use them to anchor their spells and throw more energy into them. They're called Ley Lines, and they're important to know about.
A spellcaster around a Ley Line usually doesn't know it, unless he watches his spells closely. Everybody has good and bad days, but sometimes a mage's good day isn't just due to blind luck. Power flowing through Ley Lines can be tapped to power spells, but they don't have to be tapped to have an effect- the entire Matrix around a Ley Line is stronger, and that has an effect whether the caster wants it or not. Power just flows more easily around them, and that can't help but affect things. Actually, Ley Lines affect all magic that happens close to them, not just magic made around them- this means that magical weapons hurt more, and magical armor stops hurt better. Potions and spells last longer, and wands and other spell-storage items use less of their own power to produce effects. Of course, people who DO know the Ley Line is there can use it more directly- even tap into the knowledge in the Matrix itself, to learn spells and similar skills more quickly, supposedly.
Now, before you go off running for the nearest Ley Line, there's a couple of things you should think about. First, like I said, all magic is more powerful around them, not just the stuff from people who know about the Line. That means that if you're unlucky enough to run into a magic-using monster, it'll be more powerful too, just like you. And I feel genuinely sorry for anyone who runs into Corrupted wizards by a Ley Line- they probably won't live long enough to find out why the enemy's hurting them so much.
Second, since we don't know as much about the workings of the Matrix as the Ancients did, Ley Lines are very tough for us to spot- they aren't as obvious as glowing lines in the air, or anything. In fact, they usually don't do much of anything at all, like the normal Matrix. Like Zorast said, the Ley Lines do have some effects on the land around them, but they're usually very subtle- stuff like a valley that's too straight, or a forest where the trees are all the same height. Stuff, in other words, that most people ignore, or don't think too hard about.
Of course, there are a few places where the land is obviously changed by something. Those are usually Nodes, places where two or more Ley Lines cross. The Ring of Fire, that blasted land of ash-spewing volcanoes and seas of lava, is supposedly the result of all the Ley Lines in the world converging in the middle of it, which some say means that the Crystal Tower is still there, hidden in the center somewhere. Now I don't really believe that story, but I've seen some good maps of the mountains around the Ring, and I have to say that the Ring looked a little too round to be completely natural- so something's there, but it's anybody's guess what. I'll probably go look after I'm dead. Yes, that's right, after I'm dead. There's one more thing the Matrix does to people...
The Afterlife
As I said before, the Matrix is made of the energy from all living things. They have some of the Matrix energy in them all their lives, and according to the Ancients, that's what makes them alive in the first place- living things are connected, nonliving things aren't. That connection doesn't stop when the animals and plants do, though- it goes on after death, and what's left of the entity's life energy gets reabsorbed into the Matrix after it dies.
People are different from animals and plants in one big way- they know about themselves, they have a sense of self. This is so much a part of our being, that it doesn't stop when we die- it stays with the life energy, even after that energy becomes a part of the Matrix. So we still stay alive, in a way, after death- our spirits roaming the Matrix as we choose. Supposedly one's knowledge and memory stays intact during the transition, so you could probably learn a lot of secrets by talking to the dead- but most of them aren't very talkative. They're not being unfriendly, it's just that life doesn't matter that much to them anymore. Also, "life" in the Matrix is supposedly like a featureless Limbo, pretty boring- and most of them just prefer to sleep forever and not have to deal with it.
I've heard stories of some people who had strong souls, strong enough that after they died, they were able to use the Matrix to form new bodies like their old ones, and effectively come back to life. This isn't the same as being undead, mind you- those are usually bodies without souls, or with souls that refused to join with the Matrix. No, these people really do come back to life, though the new bodies usually aren't as good as the original ones. I've never met anyone like that myself, but I suppose it's possible.
That's just about all I know about the world and how it works, but don't think that's all there is to know- you'll find plenty of new things, if you travel carefully and keep your eyes open. Stay sharp, and you can live a long and happy life. I only hope I've helped you do that a little better.
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