The Nature of Magic

There are two main branches of magic on Earth: sorcery, and alchemy. Both are available to suitably trained prosaic practitioners on Earth, but are difficult to learn because of the difficulty that prosaic folk have with mythic insights. Both are covered under Normal Magic in Chancel Creation.

Sorcery can conjure, bind and abjure spirits of things, with a difficulty based on the availability and tractability of the Spirits, and what nice things you've got to help condition their behaviours. It can not change the nature of spirits - just get them to do things they are normally capable of doing. Many law of magic have ben developed to reflect this, but it can often be summarized as the laws of sympathy and contagion.

Alchemy is a kind of spiritual surgery. It can excise bits of spirits to form other spirits, or splice bits of spirits together. In this way you could (for instance), potentially split an anger spirit from a fire spirit (who is often feisty anyway) - creating an anger spirit plus (perhaps) a spirit of gentle warmth. Or you could incrementally add spirits of nobility and yellow to a lead spirit to transmute it into a good facsimile of a gold spirit. Alchemy is generally slower and less reliable than sorcery because the prosaic tools used for spiritual surgery are the spiritual equivalents of flint daggers and twine. The alchemical effects may not last forever either - depending on the quality of the "surgery".

The Alchemy Chancel Quality reflects a higher Order, having the ability to work with Spiritus Dei.

Failures in sorcery can result in no effect, or getting something you didn't expect, or a spirit that doesn't behave like its fellows, or that doesn't listen to you, or that gets actively cranky with you.

Preparation of yourself, your environment, and knowledge of the things that can condition a spirit's behaviour (ie, an understanding of the spirit's view of the world) help you perform well. Hence there are often high levels of ritual in sorcery. (See more on the Mortal Magic System.)

Failures in alchemy can result in destruction or injury to the spirits, or aggravation, or occasional "Frankenstein monster" artifacts. You sometimes have to "anaesthesize" the spirits before you operate, using suitable materials that will make them sleepy - like moonlight, or water drawn in darkness - hence the very weird materials and practices used in alchemy. If you're not careful, the surgery you perform on the spirit can "slip" and may be performed on yourself instead, resulting in damage to your own spirit.

Obviously, alchemists and sorcerors can help each other - if they have sufficient understanding of the spirit realm to realise exactly their processes are doing. Since most of their arts are couched in symbolism, individual practicioners often do not have the framework to communicate. Having the Sight helps - but doesn't guarantee that you'll understand what you see.

Naturally, Nobilis or any other beings with a good understanding of the mythic and spirit realms can become consummate sorcerers or alchemists - performing feats reliably in a fraction of the time it takes a prosaic practitioner.

Using the Sight, Nobilis can quickly piece together (and mess with) the magics of mortals.

Individuals can accomplish interesting magical effects if they invest a bit of effort, patience and imagination. The same way someone can with technology.

The power of magic, like technology, is naturally limited to much less than what Nobilis can do - since magic cannot create spirits, or change their qualities arbitrarily -- whereas miracles can.

See Also these bits of some import to the Chrysalis campaign.

• Mortal Magic System
• Santeria
• Voodoo