Patreon Insights: Magic Part 1 - An Introduction

As promised, here is part one of my series of insights into the magic of Ardent Tears.  With this being just an introduction, I won't be doing a full deep dive like I did yesterday for my inspirations, that'll come later, but I do hope to give you a basic rundown of all the magic systems at play.

First we have Resonance which is the system from which all other systems are derived. This may sound counter to what I said yesterday, as I said that Ardents were the start of it all and were at the heart of everything. That's still true, but this introduction is from the perspective of the world as opposed to the order in which things came to me as I designed the world. It's kind of like how in Pokemon, Rhydon was the first pokemon designed, but Bulbasaur is 0001 in the Pokedex and Mew is supposed to be the ancestor of all pokemon.

Anyway, back to Resonance. What is it exactly? Well as I said before it is the primary magic system of the world and all other magic systems are in some way related. Alas, that doesn't really tell you much about what it does or how it works, so here goes. At its core, Resonance is a term used to describe the metaphysical interactions between the physical realm and the divine realm. In short, when something happens in the physical realm, there is a reaction in the divine realm. Of course, the reverse is also true. For this to become Resonance, however, there needs to be a feedback loop of sorts. Something happens on one side which triggers a reaction, which also triggers a reaction, and that continues until we see a tangible effect. This is Resonance. If you still want to know more about Resonance, I will be covering it in detail later on in this series.

Next I'll touch on Resonance Crystals. Resonance Crystals are a class of crystalline object that is able to consistently trigger a certain type of effect through Resonance. Common examples include Light, Heat, and Sound, but there are many more and some that are yet to be discovered.

Alongside Resonance Crystals we have Gifts which are even more ubiquitous. Gifts are the result of Resonance caused by the alignment of the Sun, Moons, and Illyria at the time of a person's first breath. They get their name from them being the Heart of the Sun's and the Goddess' gift to life on Illyria. Most gifts you will see mentioned in the story are those belonging to humans, Ferrans, Miriel, and Kairosi. These are all Gifts of the Goddess. Al'duur have a different set of Gifts that are instead granted by the Heart of the Sun. This has been the case since humans and Al'duur diverged all those years ago.

Now it's time for Ardents and Stoics. I'm not going to say too much about them because I'll be here all day if I do. What I will say is that, in overly simple terms, their abilities come from the Resonance that results how they respond to emotional stimuli. And with that said, I will move swiftly on.

After Ardents and Stoics, we have the strange magic of the Al'duur. Al'duur cannot become Ardents or Stoics as they are blessed by the Sun, not the Goddess. What they got instead was an innate understanding and talent for Resonance Crystals and the ability to use them to make magical scars and tattoos. The most notable example of this are Rowan's slave scars.

I still have a fair bit to cover, but I'm going to end this introduction here and leave Soulforging, Genesis, and the Mark of the Goddess for their own deep dives.