Unbounded magic
Unbounded magic on the timeline[edit | edit source]
Unbounded magic was defined in relation to preceptive magic, which was an artificial creation of the Four Great Mages, not something naturally occurring. Any magic that was more directed and controlled than raw magic — particularly spells that could channel the light and dark elements of the pulse into different tasks, e.g. using the light magic to create something and pushing the dark magic waste product into something that can absorb it, such as a magic wand — was unbounded magic. Before the preceptive field was created, all magic in the Kingdom was unbounded. Though there were human mages, the field was dominated by magical spirits.
In 571 KY, King Jonathan I issued the Great Magical Charter, creating the Four Great Mages and instructing them to create an artificial framework within which civilians could do magic, sustained by hidden artefacts, that would absorb the opposite bursts of energy from magical interactions and would limit what could be achieved with magic, for example banning necromancy. This framework was the preceptive field and created preceptive magic. Technically, the preceptive field was simply a complicated unbounded magic spell infused into the artefacts, and therefore all spells ever cast using preceptive magic were simply sub-spells that further complicated the initial spell's interactions with the magical field.
Subsequently, unbounded magic became unlawful. Most of the unbounded magic structures in the kingdom were unravelled and refashioned within the preceptive field or used to help create it. However, not all unbounded magic was constrained or used in the making of the preceptive field; much of what remained fell outside the bounds established by the Great Magical Charter for how magic could be legally used, having dark or arcane connotations, and some quasi-sapient magical entities were able to keep themselves separate, or only partially surrendered to the Four Great Mages and were able to leave some relic of themselves.
In the immediate aftermath of the creation of preceptive magic, there were tens of thousands of remnant powers, entities and artefacts of unbounded magic within the Kingdom. Over the next one hundred years, the majority of these were destroyed, subsumed into the field or banished by the Hermadiúir, or were bound by the Bynmidelle. By 700 KY the few remaining unbounded magic structures tended to be powerful sapient magical spirits that were biding their time and waiting to strike at the Kingdom when it became weaker.
One such unbounded magic entity attacked and killed all of the Four Great Mages in 1620 KY, just before Maisraln.
Preceptive magic was later replaced with crystals
Use[edit | edit source]
Unbounded magic is difficult and dangerous to use — the stuff of magic itself resists any constraint or direction and will always turn against anyone who seeks to use it. Preceptive magic is only safe because the original spell cast by the Four Great Mages is able to hold down this resistance; unbounded mages face the magical field on their own.
Paradoxically, the most successful long-term users of unbounded magic are often powerful preceptive mages, and in particular the Hermadiúir. While the two magics are in some ways antithetical, unbounded magic always seeking to escape the preceptive field, and the preceptive field always seeking to bind or destroy unbounded magic, it is possible to find a balance where both can be used, though preceptive magic must be in the position of greater strength. The Hermadiúir, strong in preceptive magic, use it to trammel and hedge some small amount of unbounded magic so that it can be more safely used.
To others, unbounded magic has a great attraction because it allows for illegal practices to be completed. For example, the ability to channel the impact of the opposite type of magic to the one intended to be cast can be used to restore one's own life energy, raise the dead or strengthen a weapon or instrument by killing another person. Unbounded magic is also the only magic that allows for some magical practices disallowed by the laws of the Kingdom, such as necromancy.