Esoterica

The magic of Shem is broadly split into five categories:

• Elemental or aetherial: magic of nature and the elementas. Click here for more.
• Celestial or popular: magic coming from the people, from acts of protection, kindness, or resistance. Often forbidden. Click here for more.
• Infernal, industrial, or imperial: magic coming from power, control, and harm. Click here for more.
• Fey: magic coming from stories and legends. Click here for more.
• Unaligned: various forms of magic unconnected to the above-listed magics, including powers of faith, conflict, paradox, and powers deriving from the identity of a person. Click here for more.

Names

The name of a thing is the whole of a thing...

A True Name is a concept, a power that encompasses everything that a person, place, thing, or idea is. A True Name has enormous power. The universe is called the "Book of Names", because a book containing all True Names would contain the whole of all things. Nommic magic derives from a True Name and its component parts - mind, body, heart, and soul. There are infernal, elemental, celestial, and fey True Names as well.

Faith

A person's faith, if felt and believed strongly enough, is powerful. Belief in a Divine being can give a person power if the Divine gives them favor, but belief in non-Divine beings may also give power if the being worshipped is powerful enough. Furthermore, faith in concepts has power. There are many who believe in a concept called "mortalism", which is the belief that though Divine beings exist, they do not deserve worship, and mortals can function without them. Religion on Shem is complex and varied.

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Former Esoterica Pages