Cascadian Magick

Belief in magic, ghosts, and spirits is a fundamental aspect of Cascadian life. Its something taken for granted, part of the "normal" world view.

Most people have a handful of stories relating to themselves, friends and families that cannot be easily explained away by rationalistic science. The Academy has developed a style of nomenclature for magick/medicine that is popular in the central and southern duchies but rarely used by non-graduates in the far north or most tribalands even if the concepts its based on are expressed there in other language.

Magick is powerful, seductive, effective and very hard to control. It taxes people physically, psychological and emotionally. Too often, magickal humans fall prey to hubris or the fallacies of self-created beliefs that obscure their ability to make wise choices. The fact that magick is so idolized but feared by ordinary humans adds to the intoxication and grandeur for far too many essence-wielders. Sensitives often pretend to have greater abilities than they do. Gifted people sometimes demand special priviledges or engage in selfish acts out of a sense of entitlement. Prodigals can endanger entire communities when they unleash essence in moments of madness or imbalance. Knights of the Throne, the most rigorously trained essence-wielders in Caerleon run themselves ragged dealing with these kinds of scenarios across the kingdom but suffer from the same risk factors.

Essence
The Sinclair Academy teaches that living energy, called essence, is an active principle that flows within the patterns of any living thing. Called chi, qi, prana, spiritus, mana, life force, and a variety of other names outside of Cascadia, essence can be consumed, manipulated, and used in a multitude of ways by human beings and non-human intelligences that can all be broadly defined as magick, medicine or tamanass.

Magick done for benevolent/medicinal purposes is Sagalie or Sacred Medicine. Magick done for evil/malifc purposes is Mesachie or Anathema. Magick that might be selfish but causes no harm is the wide, subjective river than runs between the two extremes. According to Academic Metaworld philosophy human beings can be divided into 4-5 categories based on their magickal potential (ability to gather/channel essence and learn formal magickal traditions): mundane, sensitive, gifted, prodigal, demigod.

Mundanes
30% of Cascadians (and 50-80% of Outsiders) are "mundane"-- for a variety of reasons, they cannot consciously manipulate essence and their bodies channel a very finite amount of it. They are often at the mercy of both magickal human or spirits if they somehow tresspass into their affairs but are usually ignored in day-to-day life and therefore rarely experience magick, ghosts or spirits. Mundanes typically are non-religious and non-supersticious. Material life, whether stressful or grandiose, tends to be the focus of their attention.

Sensitives
Many people (60% of Cascadian) have very mild and usually untrained capacity to channel and direct essence. They may pray, chant, attempt spellcraft, believe in gods or spirits but they lack the ability to accomplish much except through normal direct means. More often then not, they might experience warmth or cold, desire or revulsion, odd dreams, flashes of inspiration or streaks of good or bad luck but its often fleeting and not self-directed. With dedication and desire, sensitives might develop a greater ability to channel essence but generally it is not something they feel a need to- often, they consider magick to be for others or they prefer to feel safe, secure, "normal".

The Gifted
About 10% of the living population of Cascadia has the natural or trained ability to preform magick and actively practices one of the Traditions- even if they might describe their powers or gifts in different language. Gifted humans exist in every community with huge varience in personality, upbringing, the nature of their gifts and how/why they use them. Called naturals or hedges, the Gifted reap the benefits of their powers but they are also the most likely to attract the attention of darker, hungrier beings human and otherwise.

Prodigals
About 1% of the living population possess the potential for magick that once was exclusively the domain of the greatest medicine men and the likes of the the Halaayt. Called prodigal, metahuman, homo superiors or the godblooded, people with potential magick of this level are usually recognized as "special" at the onset of puberty. Most but not all prodigals are born within the Pentadeca or to a lesser extent in the Hyas Tyee. Unfortunately, the purity and power of the essence channeling through such children makes them especially tasty prey to canibal spirits and other predators. Prodigal levels of essence can also cause a great deal of undesirable even debilitating personality defects and idiosyncracies in young children. For this reason, being Godblooded or Prodigal is considered a curse or a mutation in some communities. There, such children are ostracized which often becomes a self-fufilling prophecy of corruption as they become bitter and misanthropic from a lack of nuturing and love.

Beyond Prodigal- Or Not
Certain people like The Bendevi, Gremory and Sedna are worshipped as gods. There are many Cascadian citizens who consider them to be more fiction than reality and that fictional stories told justify the magocracy of Cascadia rather than reality.A recent popular book written by the feminist witch Judith Wolfe called "Sunstroked" provides a very scathing portrayal of The Bendevi. It suggests that he and the Haalayt misled their followers regarding the nature and scope of their powers. Wolfe provides evidence that they were simply prodigal-level magickans at time and place when magick, especially European magick, was extraordinarily. She also laid the accusation that the Bendevi died in the 1890s and it is his son or grandson currently rules Tahoma.