Editing Kulmorost Divided (section)

== Sinister magic ==

Magic in '''Kulmorost''' ''can only be conducted through organic material, such as flesh and bone.'' All artifacts and magical devices are built from once living (or in some horrible cases, still living) creatures (although plants can be substituted in some cases).

While common animal bones are suitable for minor magical items - temporary light sources, directional tools, one-use "ammunition" - nobody has ever managed to make a powerful magical item with anything other than the body parts of a thinking being.
This creates some demand for corpses in areas with numerous enchanters of skill.

Magic uses a caster's life force to manipulate the world around them. Casting spells causes physical and mental exhaustion, and casting too much causes potentially terminal conditions, such as heart attacks, aneurysms, and lung collapses.

It is possible to gain greater magical powers by consuming the flesh and souls of other sentient magically adept beings, the cost of one's mental stability and health. At it's peak someone who does that will become a trembling husk barely able to stand but capable of summoning city-destroying magics.

If magic is used to fortify ones physical attributes in an attempt to counter-act these negative effects (creating a magical oxymoron: use magic to prevent the drawbacks of overusing magic) it causes a condition known as Arcane Hemorrhaging, this causes a caster's magical essence to leak out, deforming the caster and weakening their magical ability. This also tends to create a magic dependency, making a person want to gain  more power to make up for the leakage of essence, although this always makes things far worse for them. If the condition is allowed to advance, it can lead to the complete loss of magical ability as well as any bodily enhancements. But at least don't suffer the usual negative effects of casting magic, and never will again.

There is also a degree of "sympatheticness" to magic: you can enchant anything organic with a enchantment to prevent breakage for example, but the bones of creatures that are themselves tough are easier to enchant. Human bones and leather, oddly enough make for good magic resistant materials, which some scholars believe is one of the reasons the human genocide began: dwarves and elves were hunting humans for materials to improve their own defenses. It should be noted that while human bones and leather take anti magic enchantments well, living humans have no particular resistance to magic. 

Although it is less common as it requires more skill, trees and plant can also be used and manipulated for magic as is common in the Elven principalities. These magics are generally centered around agriculture and extending ones life (although attempting to become immortal is strictly forbidden). Prolonged exposure to this kind of magic can cause someone to begin to resemble the kind of plant that gave them their long life (usually a tree). This transformation comes in the form of leaves and root sprouting from the appendages as well as the hardening of skin and the dampening of the senses (poorer hearing, sight etc.). This can reach such an extreme that they become something known as and Elder Tree (which is literally an elder who has become a tree)

Of all organic materials, teeth are the best to store charms and curses. It is common in elvish society to wear necklaces made of your own milk teeth, with the rich getting each one individually enchanted with some small boon.


Metals in turn are not seen as worthy materials, and only used for common tools among the magical races. One exception is '''Silver'''. It is notable and reviled by mages for its anti-magic qualities. The more pure the Silver, the more potent the effect. Alloy with traces of Silver irritates magical flesh, pure Silver outright burns it, and Silver reduces and deadens offensive magic. Silver weapons, armor, and jewelry are highly prized among Humans and Beastmen, and are considered contraband among the magical races.