Magic. Such an overused word, and one that I wouldn’t be using if there was a better descriptor. However, if you have someone with the ability to manipulate types of energy, types beyond the detection of most people; and they can use this energy to create fire, make lights, warp water, stand on air, control stone, and cause darkness, what would you call it other than magic.

My name is Kaloron Norconun; however, most people these days simply call me Colvin and I am a magi. You see, when I turned 16 my life was altered irrevocably when I discovered I could tap into these sources of energy. That, of course, was 240-ish years ago (after a while you start to loss track). But, I’m getting ahead of my self. Let me fill you in on some background first.

There are known to be six sources of energy that intersect with this planet. There may be more, but they haven’t been tapped into yet. These six sources of energy are categorized as Fire, Water, Air, Earth, Light, and Dark. Of course these are over-broad definitions. They are really nothing but titles for the different types of energies. The first criteria for a magus is how many of these energy types they can access. Most magi can only access one or two, about 20% can use three, 10% four, 3% are able to use five, and less than half of 1% can use all six. The more types you can access the more potential power you have.

Now, for the next part it will help if you imagine a magus’ body as being like a storage battery. This energy we can access slowly suffuses our bodies, and fills every cell. Now, metaphysical biology isn’t a specialty of mine so I can’t explain why different people can store more than others. Normal physics would imply the bigger the person is, the more energy they could store, but I’ve seen a 5 foot, 90lb woman store five times more energy than a 7 foot, 400lb man. It has something to do with the relative density of the cells and the strength of the cell membranes. Anyway, that is the second factor of determining the potential power of a magi.

Lastly, you have to consider the draw rate. As I’ve already explained, a magus has access to a certain number of energy types, and has the ability to store these energies in their own bodies. The last part in considering potential power is how fast they can absorb these energies. This one is open to debate to a degree, because different places on the planet have different levels of available energy. For example, if I am a single energy magus, say Water energy, and I find myself in a desert there would be very little available energy to absorb. Conversely, put that same magus out on the ocean, and they will absorb energy at their maximum rate. So, for measuring potential power, we assume that a magus will stay in, what for them, would be a preferential environment.

Now that the factors of what type, how much, and how fast energy can be absorbed have been taken into account; once you have the energy you have to be able to use it. We’ll call these uses “castings”. Every casting needs a certain amount of energy to accomplish. When you go to use a casting you draw from your stored energy, as this energy is being drawn out, your body starts absorbing energy from the environment to replace it, until your personal store is completely recharged. As you would expect, energy you already have can be used faster than energy you have to get. So, how fast you can cast is ultimately determined by how much energy you can store and how fast you can replace it.

You put these factors together, and we can estimate what their overall potential power will be. There are a few other factors that make a difference, but for a baseline those are the primary considerations. However, potential power and actual power is kind of like comparing a bolt of lighting to a storage battery. For actual power you have to be able to control that energy, and that comes with training. We study, we learn, it’s a profession like any other, and the more experience you have, the easier it comes to you.

At this point you’re probably remembering me saying that I’m around 240 years old. So, let me explain this. That factor that I mentioned before about how we store energy, that it is actually absorbed into our cells, serves a secondary purpose also. The suffusion of our cells with this powerful energy has the side-effect of reinforcing those cells. Well, biologically speaking, age is determined by how your cells reproduce. If you are producing cells faster than you are losing them you are young, when you reach that mid-point when you are developing and losing cells at the same rate that the middle of the life cycle, then when you are losing cells faster than you develop new ones that’s when you are getting older. Because our cells are reinforced with this energy, they don’t break down as fast, therefore we spend a much longer time in each of those zones. It varies from person to person, but on average, we age at about 1/10th the speed of the average population.

When we develop our abilities is somewhat ambiguous, though. It seems (although we are not sure why) this latent ability to absorb energy doesn’t activate until we come into contact with one of our own, and since we historically only represent about 2% of the total population…that can take a while.

I think that covers the basics. The reason I am making this statement is because I want you to understand us. We have lived in the shadows for generations, afraid that the world wouldn’t accept us for what we are. As the leader of the Magi Consortium, I am here to be the sounding board. Whatever questions you have, magical or mundane, fact finding or fantastical, I will be here to answer them. All I want to do is help you to understand, although our abilities make us different, we are still human.