Black Magic, Tome I : The basis - By Neth, wizard.
Any decent book would start by describing the origins of the subject it is trying to deal with. As far as black magic is concerned, it is impossible for me to do such thing. This art - as I would never call it magic, but art - is older than any Dragon or Mountain. Some say it came with the world, some say the world itself needed black magic for its creation.
As for the name, "Black Magic," as I said before I do not consider it as magic, much more as an art. It does require one to incant and utter magic words, but, like any other form of magic we know, it does not use any reagent or spell energy of any sort. The "magic" as we know it is a gift, a trainable gift. As you develop your body, you will be able to generate more energy, and to transform it into the magic you want to cast. Black Magic is very different. Unlike the magics we know, it does not require the "caster" to produce any energy.
You will be surprised to learn that Black Magic, in its most pure form, is everywhere. Every tree, every building, every single human being is constantly surrounded by that energy. Every breath that you take contains some of it. In this form, however, it is totally harmless and unable to affect us in any way. Only those who are skilled in the Art of manipulating this energy can actually create anything.
How do these people manipulate this energy? Is this an Art we can actually learn, or is it just a gift from above? Wise is the one who could answer this question. I myself am able to manipulate a bit of this energy, but I will tell you about this later.
The main purpose of manipulating this energy is to open gates. The first is the gate to your own body. Before being able to do anything with Black Magic, you must let it flow inside your body, fill it entirely, take over all your senses, and try to control you. In fact, the more Black Magic you let inside you, the more easily you can fall under its control. If that ever happens, it will only take a few seconds for Black Magic to consume any form of life inside you, leaving a babbling emotionless shell of a man where you once stood. I have heard of some of these "consumed" individuals roaming the lands, killing and pillaging those who were once their own families, before falling to the ground and dying, their hearts totally consumed by the energy they once tried to manipulate...
It is also said that once your body was touched by this energy, never again will it be the same. The most obvious change would be dark spots appearing all over the magician's hands. The more Black magic is used, the bigger those spots get, to the point of covering the whole hands, and then starting to spread to the arms. I have never heard of anyone using Black Magic so much that those spots started covering their torso or heart, but I can only imagine what would happen if that was the case. Again, I will tell more about all the side effects later.
As I said before, the main purpose of manipulating Black Magic is to open gates. It is mainly used to open a gate between two beings, and to allow instant transportation from one to another, without even requiring both of them to be able to manipulate it. I have tried to gather and understand the magic words, from my personal experience and witnesses, and here is what I have so far:
* Mora * : The main word. It is used to open the Gate of your own body and to let Black Magic flow inside it. All Black Magic "'spells" begin with this incantation. Depending on the power of the spell one is trying to cast, they may need to utter this word more than once, in order to allow more energy to flow into their body.
* Olsa * : The localization word. It is used to locate (and open) someone else's Gate. Doing so, however, does not give the caster any information about this person's current state or whereabouts. There is no way to know anything about someone just by opening their Gate. Also, one will not be able to open a gate with someone he never met before.
* Preldian * : The transportation word. Once a gate is opened between two beings, this word will allow instant transportation between them. It is up to the caster to decide which of the two will come to the other.
* Elarum * : The conjuration word. This word will open a very special Gate, not bound to any being or place, but out of space and time. It is very hard to describe the purpose of such a Gate, as there are no common words to describe the place it opens to. This is a preparation spell, as it will give the magician the place and energy to create something from nothing, before bringing it into our world.
* Erarum * : This word is very similar to the conjuration word, but it serves the opposite purpose. The Gate this word will open leads to absolutely nothing, and anything crossing it will instantly vanish into eternity... Using the words Elarum and Erarum in the same spell, as pointless as it may seem, is actually quite often used, as it can allow the magician to be granted more Black Magic energy. Elarum will open a Gate and create this energy, which will flow through the magician's body, who will then use it as he sees fit. However, since the magician has to be very careful the energy does not take control over his body, he will also open a Gate to nothing, where the unused energy will vanish. The sentence * Elarum Mora Erarum * typically gives the magician a temporary huge energy boost, which he can use to then cast a major "spell".
* N'eshra * : The summoning word. This word will be used to create enough lifeforce to inhabit a "lesser" body. By lesser body I am talking about what we humans usually refer to as Monsters. Fortunately, the amount of lifeforce needed to create a human is far too great for any known magician to handle. Some have tried, no one actually survived.
* Alt'er * : The alteration word. This word is surprisingly close to our common word "alter", and it serves the whole purpose. After opening a Gate to another human being, this word is used to alter some of its functions. A weak magician could prevent someone from talking or moving, while a powerful one could literally take control of someone else...
* Phesta'h * : This word is the last one I could define in my years of research, and I am not quite sure about its function. All that I know is that this word was used in two events that looked quite similar to me. The first one was during a battle. A human leader decided it was time to teach a tribe of lizardmen a lesson, and sent a ranger to scout the camp. As soon as the ranger left, the leader went his room and asked not to be disturbed whatever the reason might be. It is said that a curious servant listened to the door and heard the human leader casting the * Mora Olsa Phesta'h * spell. A few hours after the Ranger left, the leader came out of his room and claimed it was time for them to attack. Surprinsingly, this day, not a single human fell into the many traps the lizards set...
When I was only an apprentince, my master woke me up one morning and told me that a thief managed to steal one of his parchments while he was asleep, and that he saw him running into the mountains. I was still very sleepy and could hardly follow my hasty master, but after casting the very same spell, he was able to tell exactly where the thief was hiding. I will not make any conclusion about what this word could be used for.
Here ends the first tome of my Black Magic encyclopedia. After reading this, you should be able to apprehend and maybe even understand what took my master and myself years and years to figure out, and what will be on the other tomes I will write after this one.
