Magic

Magic is one of the Five Magics, and is performed by the exercise of rituals, the steps of which are derived from extensions of rituals deduced previously. The goal of these exercises is the production of magical objects. The power of magic is limited by the time and expense involved in performing magic rituals.

Laws
Maxim of Persistence - perfection is eternal

Practitioners
One who practices magic is known as a magician. There are four levels of mastery:


 * Neophyte
 * Initiate
 * Acolyte
 * Master

Appearance
Magicians wear blue robes. The darker the robe, the higher they rank. Their robes are covered with circular rings. Unlike thaumaturges, their robes have no pockets.

The Art
The Art of Magic is the art of perfect ritual. Through the flawless performance of often insanely complicated rituals, magical artifacts can be created that will, if not otherwise destroyed, last literally forever.

Each magical ritual consists of a number of steps, each of which must be performed correctly, with a very small margin of error, for the ritual to succeed. Each ritual exercise has a numerical value, and magicians strive to organize these steps in such a way to create a perfect mathematical postulate. An example of this is the magic square. A magic square has numbers in every smaller square, which add up to the same value no matter whether they are added horizontally, vertically, or horizontally. Once this has been established, the magician takes the magic square row by row.

A step in a magical ritual can be simple: "ring a 3-inch gong made of brass hanging from a silver chain, using an iron hammer," or complicated: "Douse the nearly-completed sword in the blood of a virgin born on the night of the rising of the Great Comet, and raised for twenty-nine years on a diet of millet and honey, who is wearing an ermine robes trimmed by ..." etc.

The more powerful the effect added to the spell by a given step, the more complicated, time-consuming, and expensive the step tends to be. Many steps involve more than one person, and might require precious metals, troupes of dancers, the position of the stars, and any number of esoteric conditions.

Each part of the ritual also requires an incantation by one or more trained magicians, perfectly pronounced or sung, in perfect timing and pitch. Needless to say, Magic is a performing art at its base, and few have both the magical talent and the ability to master the precision and art necessary to advance in the craft.

Magic and Society
Due to the strictures of the craft, Magicians tend to cluster into Orders, with large colonies of non-magical craftsmen devoted to supporting their endeavors. With the huge outlay in time, money, and effort that can go into the creation of a single magical item, such Mage Orders support their expensive activities by selling their created items, reserving only a portion of them for their own use. The items sold are incredibly expensive by normal standards, but since they last forever, they are purchased nonetheless.