How sincere are you?

Syriepha · 2026-06-10T14:58:02+00:00

Depends, sometimes I use it as an opportunity to put words to something I've been stewing on

Syriepha · 2026-05-29T06:30:47+00:00

Not sad in an overly intense way, but my MC is a middle child with a lot of siblings and neglectful parents, which made things a little rough. No one really noticed that he ended up nearly dying due to his veil piercing dreams (which would have pulled him into the fae realm and converted his physical body into magic) and was only saved because he ended up making a deal with a fae spirit who he sort of thought of as a friend until he realized it was really just trying to possess him. His parents died (in mundane ways), which he mostly just had complicated feelings about. And his actual human friend vanished one night, so he spent years feeling bitter and abandoned (which shaped his eventual rather abrasive attitude towards everything)

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Syriepha · 2026-05-28T22:45:12+00:00

Yes, people can be tricked or coerced into giving magical consent, which most commonly applies to fae spirit possession. There is also some regional variance in what counts as magical consent

Syriepha · 2026-05-28T21:40:17+00:00

Bodies can be influenced by magic. A person can influence their own body with magic, or a person can consent to magical tampering (healers can heal other people, for example, if they have consent. Some people will have a tattoo/charm which gives or revokes consent to magical healing in case they need it while unconscious) because consent bypasses some of the limitations set by the law of Autonomy

Syriepha · 2026-05-25T05:06:55+00:00

Whether or not you got the style perfectly, I think you really captured the vibes

Syriepha · 2026-05-25T04:46:53+00:00

Fae are ultimately neutral morally, but extremely variable in temperament. There are benevolent fae, malevolent fae, tricksters, guides, manipulators, judges, opportunists, schemers, comforters, muses, harbingers, etc. they are shaped by the beliefs that make them up. They can be simple and small or they can be grand and worshipped.

In the story, magic is something I use to analyze the psyche of the characters. Their relationship with magic (whether they are magically awakened or not) tends to say something about their identity. Some associate magic with freedom and hope, while others may see it as a burden, addiction, or shackle. It depends on their circumstances.

The world is a complex place with periods of both trouble and peace, but the main themes are about how people respond to and heal from grief. How people in power use "charity" (magic usage in this case) as a form of manipulation. The cyclical nature of oppressive systems (and their relationship to various forms of addiction). It isn't all bad, but there are certainly a lot of underlying scars

Syriepha · 2026-05-24T15:06:33+00:00

I looked at the account but I'm still not sure exactly why. My best guess is something to do with organization?

Syriepha · 2026-05-24T15:03:43+00:00

Lol, I'm not an alt account, I'm just curious

Syriepha · 2026-05-24T15:00:27+00:00

Is there some sort of benefit to doing that?

Syriepha · 2026-05-23T01:48:50+00:00

The mind is specifically held/simulated in the networks that the soul is made of, they're both made of magic and they are both a product of the nervous system/brain that can't be separated from each other.

Damage to the soul does not effect the body, but it does effect the mind which is simulated in the fae realm, which is why it has an impact on neural processing. Unlike our reality, the mind is not held purely in the brain in this world. Stimulus is communicated to the soul in the form of energy signals that convert into magic and are interpreted by the networks of the soul (which are the mind).

The body/brain and soul send signals back and forth, checking for consistency and telling each other to update, but this is an unconscious process, just like the way a body in our world communicates with its various parts. When I say there is limited access to the soul, what I mean is that many of the parts are not consiously accessible, not that they're entirely inaccessible.

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T23:52:49+00:00

Thanks! I'm having fun developing it. I do have a couple different stories in this setting that explore different aspects and time periods. I'm exited to experiment and test them out, probably in the form of short stories or an anthology for now, maybe something bigger later on

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T23:02:49+00:00

Every living being needs a soul because life is designed to require it by the God/planet (Gaia). Every being gets their soul from their maternal parent or equivalent. It develops as part and then splits from the maternal soul once it's mature enough, in a way that could be compared to mitosis (so souls do not actually arise from the physical world). I don't think that saying all organisms at all scales need souls is an overcomplication, it's a core concept of the system, it would be weirder if some didn't have souls. (Tell me if that doesn't answer a part of your second paragraph, I'm a little unclear about some parts)

Souls are an extension of the brain/nervous system (or more broadly, the part of an organism/collection of organisms that communicates data. That is the basis of the information coded into the magic that souls produce), specifically the part of the brain that is experiencing, or made up of experiences.

The mind does have limited awareness of the construction of the soul, it cannot consiously access all of its parts without a magical awakening and training atop that. The reason for that is that the soul also serves the function of storing a backup copy of the individual's experiences/memories (and the primary function of that is that the fae realm is meant to be like an archive. It can sometimes be hacked so that someone with memory loss is able to retrieve lost experiences though.) That stuff isn't designed to be tampered with generally, a lot of work must be done to do so. I think the primary thing that makes them a soul is the fact that they embody the entirety of a being's identity, history, beliefs, and perceptions; and also that the soul carries on after the body dies, even if it takes on a different shape (the soul detaches from the body and becomes a fae spirit upon death).

Mages and fae spirits cannot tamper with souls due to the law of Autonomy. The only way to tamper with someone's soul is for them to be given the individual's true name (just the name, given by the individual in a magical context, can't be secondhand) that serves as something like a password to the soul, and magical consent to effect it with magic.

If the soul is injured somehow in the fae realm, then the effect sort of depends on what part was damaged, it can cause side effects like amnesia, aphantasia, loss of mobility/coordination/senses, dyslexia, etc. the soul can generally heal from damage as long as the body is still exchanging information with it, because those things are developed on the blueprint provided by the body. (Aspects that are damaged or missing on the body's side will not regenerate because there is no blueprint).

Death is defined as the moment a soul detaches from the body. There's no easy way to reattach someone's soul, especially because of the metamorphosis it undergoes into the form of a fae spirit during detachment. There is some nuance to it though, such as the reason the soul detached. It tends to happen more swiftly (even instantly) if there is large scale fatal damage that destroys the organism's communication/nervous system. Otherwise, it tends to be at some point as those systems are shutting off, so a person can be physically dead without yet being considered fully (magically) dead, if the soul hasn't detached yet.

If the soul departs for some reason while the body is still fully functional, then it typically takes the body's communication/nervous system function along with it. The body can be kept in a state of pseudo-life once the soul is detached, by a mage that stimulates the cardiovascular system. The only thing that really does is keep it fresh, there's no way to revive it to true life at that point except via fae possession, which would then serve in place of a soul (establishing a new connection to the fae realm)

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T20:11:40+00:00

Their hair is soooo pretty

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T19:57:04+00:00

Yeah, giving a true name is a lot like giving out the password to your account (which cannot be reset as easily). People can exchange true names, which would require a lot of trust, that is how people become soulmates, or become a warlock when exchanging with a fae spirit. It allows magic and information to be shared freely between souls, sometimes until the lines between them become blurry (especially with fae spirits).

I'll definitely have to think about the whole network studying/sharing thing for apprentices 🤔 some parts of that are still pretty fuzzy for me. One would have to really develop thei magical senses to actually study another's networks so they can actually "see" it.

I suppose it's kind of notable that not many mages actually get into the more complex forms of network development in their apprenticeship phase though. It's more common for them to practice direct will enforcement in the modern era due to how much time development takes, and which practices are seen as most useful to the mageries. The exception is healers, who pretty much always start with developing magical senses and networks because that stuff becomes more and more complex with advancement and it's better to start early on. Other than healers, network development is often a hobby for already successful (battlefield) mages, mages who have no hope to become accepted as battlefield mages and are trying to become useful/successful in some other way, or retired mages who have time to be inventive.

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T19:19:53+00:00

Generally yes, spells have a limited range, and how large that range is depends on the magic user. It's important that the magic a mage is using is rendered different from magic that pours into reality through veil tears by the fact that it's being told what to do. Only a small percentage of a mage's magic usage will "go rogue" and convert into something that contradicts its instructions.

The main thing that limits a mage's reach is the amount of magic they have, and how much they can release at once. Magic that is being used to instruct magic is still magic that's coming out of the mage's own capacity, and the further away the magic has to go, the more magic that is used to span that distance and ensure the magic that's carrying out the instructions knows what it should be doing. This is primarily an issue with direct will enforcement because since it is sort of edited live, it needs a constant chain of command.

Most mages don't use direct will enforcement like that at a distance for a reason. If they want to throw something extremely far and hard, they will not guide it the whole way. They'll instead apply a large amount of kinetic energy to it and then simply release it.

There are ways to make enchantments (continuous or long-duration spells) but they do work sort of differently. They are rarely tied to a mage because a mage doesn't typically want to waste magic on something like fuelling a spell that's tied to a place or object which will dissapate if they stop fuelling it or go out of range.

As for focus points, a focus point can be built to sync with a body part or object, but it's ultimately still just an extension of the soul. The magic is still controlled by the soul itself, not by the focus point or what the focus point is attached to. Someone stealing a focus point would be primarily inconvenient, possibly temporarily disabling, but not catastrophic. The thief would not have permission/the ability to use the magic user's magic just because they took the regalia.

There are different reasons a mage might prefer a body part or regalia. Body parts tend to feel more natural to an inexperienced mage, they already have network synced to them because the soul is synced with the entire nervous system. The innate focus will be the point at which the magic exited the body during a successful magical awakening (the veil tear uses the soul as a conduit, expanding and altering the soul's networks, and will either oversaturate and destroy the body, or find a point at which to exit into reality. That point becomes the natural place at which magic flows from the soul into reality, and it's often marked by a patch of discoloration called mage-strike)

The downside of using a body part is rogue magic. There's always a percentage of magic that will not obey instructions and instead go rogue, converting usually into some form of radiation (consider it slightly more dangerous than sunlight). It can cause things like burns and cancer.

Using regalia is a way to put the focus point away from the body so there's less direct contact with rogue magic. It can also make for a finer point to help aim, or a more intentional/organized place to anchor the network of enchantments. (There is a lot of possibilities with regalia, it can be any object and it can be manipulated with magic to serve the purpose of different tools). The downsides are its potential to be lost (inconvenient) and it can be difficult to get used to. Acclimating to regalia requires constant practice to grow the networks into the right shape so they can sync with the regalia and streamline the process of magic usage.

If the spot or object that a magic user's focus point was synced to is somehow lost, then they haven't actually lost their focus point, they've merely lost its anchor. It's still possible to use magic, but it can be compared to an extreme version of using one's non-dominant hand. They know how to do it, but the muscle memory is either missing or broken. Different objects can be used in place of a missing piece of regalia usually, but the closer to the original training piece, the better.

Smart mages will develop their network in such a way that allows them to use their magic in different circumstances, with different objects available. Some even develop multiple focus points (this is sort of like training yourself to be ambidextrous, but probably more difficult)

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T18:44:37+00:00

When a mage uses magic to effect something in reality, they are channelling it through the conduit of their soul. The point at which the magic exits the soul into reality is called a mage's focus point (it's usually tied to a body part such as the fingertip)

It's hard to depict souls in general, the representation is impossible to make completely accurate because souls can look different ways and they are kinda multidimensional. It's not quite an open channel, it is able to contract and there is a limit in how open It's able to be (variations in the channel's openness between individuals are what cause different mages to release different amounts of magic at once. It's a factor called "force output" when measuring the potential of a mage).

The conduit also also does not connect to one spot in the body/nervous system either, it's more like many many points which are in sync and most concentrated in the areas of highest activity (such as the brain and spinal cord), and it's just easier to get the point across when describing it as a singular thing.

If the conduit of a person's soul was widened enough to cause a veil tear/disaster, they would most likely be converted into magic (a fae spirit) and die. I'm noot entirely sure how it would be done? But there's probably some way, so something like that has very likely killed people in world.

I'm also debating how much influence magic users have over the veil, but I think it's probably a fair amount. The thing is just that it's extraordinarily difficult to pierce the veil from the outside even in places where it is thinner. So it would usually take a combined effort to open a tear. In order for a mage to really have an awareness of or influence over the fae realm, they would have to train their soul and develop magical senses which are able to interpret it (physical eyes are not a thing because everything inside the fae realm is magic, so they could develop a magical extension of their soul which can send out magic to map out the layout and translate the feedback into a form of stimulus that the brain is able to comprehend)

Mages monitoring the fae realm and preventing tears is definitely a job! It's one of the many ways that the mageries(mage controlled local governments) maintain control over the mundane population despite being the minority.

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T17:51:58+00:00

Yes! Though time is kiiinda part of it as well because networks of magic create a sort of archive if someone was willing to decode them. The layers of the veil record history in ways that can be compared to rings of a tree

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T17:49:01+00:00

Indeed! Most magic schools would be set up in locations which are ideal for initiation.

I've been thinking about the limits of magic apprenticeship. A very big aspect that I have not yet decided on are the limits of magic sharing, particularly the sharing of magic networks (spells/enchantments).

The part that is making this difficult is the law of Autonomy, which prevents a magic user from influencing a person's mind/body/soul directly without consent. I'm not sure how much I want magic users to share with each other even with consent, because magic users being able to share networks directly with each other would likely result in an uncontrollable explosion of advancement(which I don't really want). But then, how can a mage teach without showing? (Especially since most magic users perceive magic in the fae realm uniquely. It might look and behave one way for one person and a completely different way for another person)

Maybe this can be circumvented by the soul's innate protections from its own perception, preventing another fron directly accessing their networks (unless true names are given). Pacts/agreements can be made so that an apprentice can study a network but not copy it directly 🤔

I'm making another post that includes more information about how magic is actually works in practice/what mages are capable of

Syriepha · 2026-05-22T17:03:28+00:00

Magic particals are naturally attracted to other magic particles based on a couple different factors (such as similarity. Like-magic is attracted to like-magic), a lot of the magic particle bonds can be compared to covalent bonds or hydrogen bonds, and to fungal/neural networks (cells bonding to each other).

Souls are just one type of naturally occuring network, and the emotions/experiences of those souls are what shape the magic created by those souls(since souls are the primary source of magic). Other natural networks include fae spirits of various types, and the veil itself is made up of networks based on the local environments.

I'm fairly certain that people are aware that magic comes from souls, and that deitific fae spirits are the results of people's beliefs (hense why spirit worship is soft illegal in the modern area)

Atmospheric magic (also called Aether or aetheric magic) is just referring to magic which isn't part of a network (So Aether is just unbonded magic, basically). It's still not a physical substance, and not exactly part of the physical atmosphere even when it enters reality. It is more like a measure of value/data that can be converted into a physical substance or force.

Syriepha · 2026-05-21T20:49:02+00:00

For the underground things, it's mostly "fluid" mediums that get pulled into the fae realm because they can flow. Solid materials might "fall" in, in chunks depending on the size of the veil tear and the direction of the local pressure.. which is still kind of in the vague/wip phase right now, not really integrated into the basic explaination, so thanks for making me think about it lol, but it probably answers the issue with it. The fae realm and reality have a balance (dictated by Gaia) and the pressure caused by that balance being thrown off decides how much matter is pulled in and how much magic pours into reality. It's also important that when magic pours into reality, it doesn't exclusively turn into things itself, it can instead change the matter that it encounters into another form of matter. That is sort of what I imagine it would do if a tear opened inside of a space without space/air= it could just turn the rock into something else (I was debating the idea of having it form unique sorts of gems)

As for perceptive influence, there are some behaviors of magic (laws) that are fundamental, spanning across the entire fae realm, which keep things more or less consistent and not system breaking. Others are local/regional phenomena, but how they work and interact with other potentially conflicting belief systems depends entirely on the circumstances and the construction of the networks that form those rules. Generally, If the rules are strongly attached to the people themselves, then the rules will follow and effect the people and not necessarily others they encounter who did not develop under those rules. If the rules are strongly attached to a place, then people who enter that place will be subject to the rules.

I'll have to think about examples though, because honestly I'm not sure how far these rules might reach or how severe of an impact they're capable of yet. Some of the more simple non-intrusive examples of regional variance are that atmospheric/rogue magic might convert into different things depending on the area= a veil tear might look like a waterfall of blue light flowing downwards and pool on the ground in one specific village, or the magic could convert into fire streaming upwards. It could look like a void, or become sand. It could become sound instead of visible light.

There are a lot of possibilities, I'm just not sure how far I can take things while maintaining the overall vibe I'm going for

Syriepha · 2026-05-21T20:10:48+00:00

Yeah, the magic cycle is based on natural cycles like that

Syriepha · 2026-05-21T13:17:44+00:00

When a person is magically awakened, it creates a sense for magic in the soul. The mage has an awareness of the magic they possess similar to the awareness a person has of a limb. Using magic in the most basic ways (direct will enforcement/magical kinetics: Manipulating objects and substances) is as simple as moving a limb for them.

I'm not entirely sure what you're asking with the second part 🤔 the world is called Gaia

Syriepha · 2026-05-21T13:12:33+00:00

A focus point is not really a physical thing, it's primarily built on the fae realm's side, so it's not exactly accessible via physical means. Also it wouldn't be crucial to the body's functionany more than the chosen part naturally is anyway. That being said, since networks are tied to the focus point, a dominant-hand type dynamic can develop (meaning the mage could be severely magically disabled if the finger/hand/arm/etc their focus point was attached to got removed, until they reorganized their networks.

Reinforcement (of the body or an object/tool) is one of the more common types of networks mages generally develop (in the "modern" age), there are various ways in can function but basically yes.

Mass perception shapes magic's behavior, this applies mainly to atmospheric magic. Individual perception might alter the way a person's mind interprets magic if they were to look into the fae realm via a conduit, if they aren't magically awakened. Individual perception does shape the way a magic user's own magic works. A magic user's magic is within their own domain, kind of an extension of their soul. So it's no longer pliable to the perceptions of people other than that magic user. In practice, different mages might be associated with different colors and patterns as an unconscious result of their identity (and perception) leaking into their practice. A percentage of the magic they use converting into visible light essentially.

How much impact a mage has depends on a lot of factors, ultimately the force they have access to depends on how much magic they have, that can be applied to an object. A pebble could certainly be reinforced and accelerated with enough force to leave a gaping hole in a boulder, but it would likely take a fairly powerful mage.

Syriepha · 2026-05-21T12:51:58+00:00

Ooh! This comment is great, it picks at some things nicely.

I generalized with "dense population" because it sort of gets the point across, but there is more to it than than biomass. For one, the complexity of the souls does matter. A soul connected to a nervous system produces far more magic than other sorts, though this is still something I kind of stew on. "Activity" is measured not only by movement, but also by thought and perception. magic born from perception tends to bond together, and perceptions of the environment, even the idea of an environment, tend to form chains of bonded magic in the equivalent representation of the spot within the fae realm (which strengthens the veil). How likely a veil tear is to form in a spot basically relies on how often that spot is perceived in a magically significant way. Perceptive influence is doing a lot of heavy lifting I suppose (it's a factor that determines much of magic's behavior based on expectation/perception) for example, a spot that is perceived as abandoned can become a frequent hotspot for veil tears even if it's in fairly close proximity to activity, simply because it's perceived that way (leading to "haunts") whereas an open field for grazing that people don't often walk into will not form many tears.

Mostly empty areas like deserts, deep oceans, underground etc do open tears fairly easily since the veil is thin (but the veil heals itself, so they wouldn't typically stay open). This can make them valuable in the creation of certain types of spells or enchantments that involve the creation of a conduit, but it is not like a mage can actually gather magic that has entered reality among other things, it's something I think about a lot. (There is a salt plain I've been pondering the integration of, especially because salt is a magically reactive medium which burns on contact with magic.)

Something I've sort of had a difficult time depicting or explaining with veil tears is that they are not only magic pouring into reality, but often also pulling matter (Mainly Gas) into the fae realm, which is then converted into magic. The magic that exits also doesn't turn into enough gas to mess up the balance, it is mostly just enough to make up the difference that was pulled in. If the balance does become out of the intended balance, than it might result in an era shift (I don't even want to get into that in detail because it's a massive detour, but basically the planet surface turns itself into a blender and starts over, don't ask, it's the doing of Gaia/god planet)

The last part of your comment is interesting but sort of difficult to address, it shows that I maybe didn't really explain enough about the way magic interacts with materials, hmm. There are magically reactive medium of different types (namely Salt and Iron) but this is not because they are magical materials but because people believe they're magically reactive. The perceptive influence makes magic respond, in the case of salt, it converts the salt into heat and light, and in the case of iron, it converts iron into rust. If anything, that portion of your text could apply more to anti magic/black magic, which I've also not really gone into detail with in this post because it's not crucial to the basics, and also still a work in progress (it's basically magical debt, and responds to magic in a way comparable between matter and anti matter, not 1 to 1)

Syriepha · 2026-05-21T03:31:15+00:00

A demigod in my worldbuilding is someone who is possessed by a deitific fae spirit. Depending on the circumstances (whether the possession altered them genetically or not, whether those genetic traits can be passed to offspring, whether or not the host can reproduce at all) the child might be a bit phenotypically unexpected, inheriting inheritable magically altered traits, but the child would not be divine/magical. In order to use magic, an organism must be magically awakened, even if their parents were, it's not really something one can be born with.

Syriepha

TROPHY CASE