Author: Justin Love

Magic: Decimation (Air)

Ok, this is the part I'm not sure about. Besides the fact that the idea of a destruction magic sounds a little munckinish to begin with, I put the power level a little higher than normal baised on these ideas:

  1. It dosn't do anything else. Just destruction.
  2. It takes a while to use (think two-element test. If I am an average warrior (3 earth, 3 fire), and so are you, will I be able to cause you great injury if you stand there and do nothing for a minute while I beat on you?)
  3. It is extreamly exausting. An average person could manage two evenly spaced blasts a day without endangering thier health. Doing two consecutive blasts virtually guarantees such a person will go unconscious. If they can remain conscious, doing a third immediately virtually guarantees death.
  4. It only does big stuff. Use of decimation is basically opening up a small rip in reality and letting a little primal destruction through, before the rip quickly closes again; increasing magic level increases the strength that is used, thus creating bigger rips. But the force and energy used to create the rip can only be done in quick bursts with full strength behind it, so doing the lower level effects at higher levels, well, can't be done. (This is one of the principles that led to it's invention: what if a magic only did big stuff?)
  5. When I made up the magic, I imagined the effect such a thing would have on the character's home realm. It occured to me that it wouuld make castles kind of useless in war, so I needed to have the ability to knock a whole in a castle wall at average ability.

'Casting a spell' requires at least a minute's concentration (perhaps up to five or more would work better for others, but one made the story work) and a verbal, audable, incantation. The way I do them, these incantations tend to call on spirits and forces and such, but I have placed the magic as Air-baised. It has been reduced a science, and is taught and practiced by rote learning. And there is of course the verbal incantation required. These are a little less 'rote' and can be made up on the spot, but they have a tendancy to refer to common elements, such as destruction, hate/anger, and fire.

Levels

[Yes, I was very explicit in the magic's abilities. Better safe than confuse anybody.]

  1. Break a fragile object (glass window); cause extreamly minor injury to an average person (singed hair, and so on)
  2. Break a sturdy object (wooden door); obliterate (destroy beyond any hope of reconstruction) a fragile object; break serveral fragile objects; casue minor injury to an average person or extreamly minor injury to several
  3. Break a strong object (blow a hole in a castle wall); obliterate a sturdy object; break several sturdy objects; casue great injury to an average person; cause minor injury to several.
  4. Break large, strong objects (stone structures); obliterate small strong objects; break several strong objects; mortally wound an average person; injure several average people.
  5. Break virtually any single non-magically protected object; obliterate large, strong objects; break several large, strong objects; kill an average person; mortally wound several average persons.
  6. Bevistate (cause widespread breakage/injury) a village; obliterate virtually any single non-magically protectd object; break several non-magically protected objects; obliterate a person; kill several average people.
  7. Disrupt minor magical energies; obliterate a village; devistate a town; obliterate several average people.
  8. Disrupt average magical energies; destroy minor magical energies; obliterate a town; devistate a city.
  9. Disrupt powerfull magical energies; destroy average magical energies; obliterate a city; devistate a realm.
  10. Disrupt the most powerfull magical energies; destroy powerfull magical energies; obliterate a realm; devistate a sphere.

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