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<!doctype html><html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="UTF-8" /> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" /> <title>Magic and Rituals Guide</title> <link rel="stylesheet" href="book-page.css" /> </head> <h1>MAGIC AND RITUALS</h1> <p> In a natural fantasy campaign, magic is a field where the themes of balance, coexistence, mistakes, and punishment emerge at their strongest. Moreover, the relationship between humanity and supernatural creatures hinges on a few core assumptions, discussed in the following pages. </p> <h2>MAGIC AS A NEGOTIATION</h2> <p> Magic represents the delicate relationship between humanity, the ecosystem, and the mysteries of life itself: it’s important to ask what is the source of the magical powers wielded by the characters and how such abilities might alter the existing balance. </p> <p> The “Everything has a soul” pillar, from <a href="/books/natural-fantasy-atlas/#page-14">page 14</a> of the Core Rulebook, comes into its highest expression in natural fantasy – magic is alive, often incarnate as a local spirit or presence, and reacts according to its own will and personality. </p> <p> Depending on which characters are involved in the campaign and what kind of threat they face, this approach might express itself in many ways and should influence the game mechanics. The following sections contain advice and considerations on how to handle these themes, which require special attention. </p> <h2>SPIRITS, DEITIES, AND PRESENCES</h2> <p> “Divinity” isn’t something far away and limited to specific moments of prayer; it’s close, everyday, and omnipresent, but also extraordinary, sentient, and unpredictable. It’s part of everything on both an individual and universal level. </p> <ul> <li> <strong>Individual.</strong> Divine entities often appear as spirits or presences inhabiting a place, object, or creature. Sometimes they manifest as elemental beings, other times as demons born from a build-up of spiritual power or due to a creature’s extreme longevity, or as a conglomerate of magical energy, lacking a conscience but still “alive”. </li> <li> <strong>Universal.</strong> Divinity as a concept also represents the global, cyclical and interconnected totality of everything: a symphony of lives that are born, transformed and pass away, feeding upon and influencing each other. This universal dimension of the divine often appears in the guise of a spirit realm, permeating reality but visible only to a few. </li> </ul> <p> We can say that magic draws power from a universal energy through an individual medium, but in doing so it causes immediate reactions on the individual level and/or long-term consequences on a universal scale. </p></html> |