In the University System of Sarkoshia, Aethren are ranked. The master ranks are listed below (with abbreviations). I'm not entirely satisfied with this post, but want all things here represented so that I can work on some of my stories with ready reference. Hopefully. But anyway, this is what individuals who practice certain magical arts are referred to by name.
So, a wizard who is being addressed is not called "Hey, you wizard." Instead, you would say: "Hello, Azardel." These terms basically substitute for Master or Doctor or whatever So-and-so for everything. They'll call each other this anyway, sometimes, but when there must be a difference. These are especially used when a person wants to just call the person what they are. Two Aethren talking would refer to each other as Aechanter(tra) or Azardel or Chendel, etc. Peculiarly, this is also what is requested when a particular task needs doing. "I need a Mejen to make medicine," etc. Anyway, enjoy:
· Aechantra(f)/Aechanter(m) (Aech): Enchanters or Artificiers. Aechantra First is the head of all Enchanters in Sarkoshia. Enchanters and Artificiers are not really able to cast but one or two very specific types of spells, and these are used to reproduce other magic mostly. They create tools which channel magic through them in specific ways, which causes the object to become a magical tool. Artificiers are often employed in the Primary Schools in a service capacity providing the tools to be used by the members of those schools.
o Mejen (Mejn): This is a person who particularly works with potions, chemystry, etc. It is a Sarkoshian word for Mixer. These are not necessarily masters of artificery or enchanting, but are instead one of the various specialists of the work of enchanting. Mejens usually pull magic out of the life-force of particular plants, animals, etc.
o Chendel (Chndl): This is a specialist artificier who works with solid objects, usually employing the use of particular formations, carvings, and materials.
o Shayal: This is a specialist in enchanting dusts and detritus. Because their enchantments are very hard to produce, and because very often do not last, and because they make the dreaded magician’s sand (which sticks to anything enchanted, or possessing mystroskus), very few of these types of enchanters exist. Usually, a Shayal will only train one disciple in his entire lifetime.
· Maggar (Magi): Mages, who use the positioning and ordering of objects to form spells and to channel magic. Much like the Chendel works to create a particular shape, the Maggar channel magic through the relative positions of things, much like a computer technician or electrical engineer might channel electricity through several different circuits, the Magi works the same way. Effectively, it would be like if an interior decorator of feng shui master had magical powers. Some of the elven magi have been able to position objects in such ways so that to look upon them from one direction causes people to burst into tears and to look upon them from another direction can cause extreme excitement. This has been used several times to the elves’ advantage during wars, artistic expression, etc. In Sarkoshia, the Maggars are called upon to redirect shipping lanes, trade, movement through the city, etc. as well as to work security and create aesthetic beauty.
o Visionary (Vissiir): This is the person who directs the other members of his team to position things as they should go. Usually, these are the ones who best feel the magic in the area, and can best figure how to channel it to the desired effect.
o Positor (Po): This is a person who actually holds, handles, and places objects in such a way that they channel magic according to the visionary’s tastes.
· Azardels: (Aez): Wizards. These are masters of portals and the use of the Sark. Primarily, they are cartographers, as well as involved in creating and preparing spells, traps, and places of keeping. The wizards of Sarkoshia are not the best nor the strongest, largely because the primary orders of wizards do not traffic with Sarkoshia. The schools of wizardry believe that Sarkoshia has violated Willeonis’ First Law. Mostly, wizards in Sarkoshia deal in magic related to combat and moving trade along.
o Porters: These are people specializing in moving objects into their system using the spell snapfire, but in Sarkoshia, these could also be considered like bankers. They are people that keep up with a particular wizards objects of need. Many wizards will create for themselves what is colloquially termed a Wizard’s Nest. The Porter will usually be someone who knows the proper spells to move things in and out of this nest. Portalians can be made to do similar tasks, but not all wizards trust them (seeing as how they are a type of semi-aav and because they are incredibly hard to maintain most of the time).
o Navigari (Originally known as the Labrinari): These are those who seem to naturally know the paths through the world. They can take you from one side of a continent to another in just a few miles, simply by doing and walking a certain way. Very few of these exist in Sarkoshia, and the ones that do are considered traitors by the rest of them. The Labrinari were, originally, a very exclusive order of monks believed to have been the ones who led the kunjels into Trithofar in the first place (in Kunjelic, they are referred to as merely the Labrinels or the Labrinar). The Labrinari left the Drodbound Kunjels to explore the world of Trithofar and never came back to Frosomia. It is believed they were some of the original discovers of the Untersark, which exists under Sarkoshia, and it is believed they were some of those who also discovered the Where in the Towers of Confusion. But the Labrinari were driven out of the lands they colonized by the Morrigari and the Sarkoshians shortly after the Shattering, or they were wiped out by the Shattering itself. The Navigari are those who either display natural talent at navigation through the Sark or they are trained to do it. They often lead ships near the dreaded storm Polleko, where they can actually portal to other parts of the world.
· Manzri (Manz): This is the term given to aavemancers. Think of the aaviri like spirituous working animals (most of them, with the exception being those who are conscious). The aaviri are closer to the Highest than the mortal creatures, and therefore understand better the Highest’s will and what the Highest approves and disapproves. Therefore, many of the aaviri actually sacrifice their abilities to choose or experience free will in favor of never displeasing the Highest and risk the suffering of an eternal anger from the Highest. These Aaviri are referred to as ‘lesser aaviri’ and are usually about like animals; they forgo any responsibility by doing what they are asked by anyone with a strong enough will.
Then again, there are other aaviri (and these are those often mistaken for gods) who can choose to do as the aavemancers ask or who can choose to serve mortals (either doing as the Highest allows or what they think He allows or deliberately working against what the highest allows).
Effectively, think of aaviri as, quite literally, living balls of pure power. The aavemancers make agreements with them for certain things to take place, and because this is a spiritual agreement, the aavemancer must learn a very peculiar and very detailed language (A binding language), through which aaviri, or even people’s souls, are obliged to carry out their contracts to the absolute. An aavemancer must also know what he is doing or he can be bound within his own contracts or permanently bound to a wicked deity or wicked aav.
Aavemancy was, it is believed, originally designed not to oblige the spirit world in any way, but to establish a living, real connection to it, to understand the Highest, to reach out to the good in the world beyond existence. Unfortunately, because there are evil aaviri the Highest has not destroyed yet, this led to a sort of backlash, and has mutated many aavemancers into being considered disreputable and/or evil. In Sarkoshia, the art of Aavemancy is taught mostly to uphold the law (another of its original intentions) and to reestablish magic in Trithofar after the Shattering. Among the schools of the Aethren, this is the most highly regulated, the most dangerous, and the most despised among the people.
o Spiritmongers: These are people who make deals with aaviri for money, usually on behalf of other people. Among the aaviri, this might be considered a form of prostitution (for lack of a better word for it); therefore, the aaviri you deal with in this way are going to bind people up in a not-so-satisfactory ways. Effectively, Spiritmongers are hoodoo priests (Not an illegal, but not necessarily smiled upon profession. Not trained in the university).
o Soulbenders: Again, a nasty group of aavemancers who make contracts with people’s souls. They can actively enslave people, such that any violation of the terms of agreements allows the soulbender to cause depression, anguish, guilt, insanity, etc. (An illegal activity).
o Ungravers: These are people who attempt to raise the dead by summoning aaviri and/or souls of the dead back into bodies and causing the bodies to rise again. Ungraving is an illegal activity in almost every part of the world of Trithofar and punishable by death in Sarkoshia. Most people believe it was Lord Xenoreth’s experimentations in ungraving that caused the first Qwadro Wars.
o Truthfinders: One of the most important jobs an aavemancer can possess in Sarkoshia is that of a Truthfinder. Truthfinders are, often, called upon to seek the truth out in legal or criminal affairs. They are, usually, the heads of ‘Putright’ orders or brigades. Usually, truthfinders are bound to the service of the Mercelian’s deity: Alterrus Azurias, an aaviri of light and absolute truth and honesty. The trouble with Alterrus Azurias is that it is an aaviri subscribing to ABSOLUTE truth, no matter how painful or terrible. One of the tenets of the followers of Alterrus Azurias is: “Seek first the truth in all things; then, after, put right what the darkness has set wrong.” This is where ‘Putrights’ get their names from. But Truthfinders can do one of two things to get at the truth:
§ Sometimes, they can exchange souls (temporarily) with a particular person and go back and visit that person’s memories stored in their physical brain. This is a long, extremely dangerous, and difficult activity, and to get the full truth, sometimes it is better to go into multiple people’s perspectives. Unfortunately, to do this incorrectly or to do this for too long may make the change permanent.
§ They can oblige, through binding words, a person to tell the truth or to at least not tell lies, under threat of extreme physical or spiritual discomfort.
o Tamers, Averters (sometimes referred to as Soulcutters): These are aavemancers who deliberately bind a habitual criminal against committing crimes. Robert Jordan had a term for something like this called ‘gentling’ whereby a male who tried to do magic was permanently made docile and incomplete. This is very similar in some ways, but consider Averting or Taming as a spiritual lobotomy. If a person was a rapist, for instance, an Averter would make it where they were, at a spiritual level, unaware women were different than men in any way. If a man liked to steal, they might make it where he could not understand value systems or money exchanging any more. This is something that is very dangerous, very difficult, and usually permanent.
· Commancers (Commza): This is the title given to masters among Motivars. Whereas Aavemancers command the spirits and souls of people and the beyond/after or etc., motivars command things through physical control of people’s bodily functions. They can make people’s bodies and particularly their brains, respond in certain ways desirable to themselves. Effectively, all the things an Aavemancer does to the spirit, the motivar does to the body. They can ‘actually’ lobotomize someone by cutting off certain parts of the person’s brain (a spell invented by a particularly nasty customer called Veshniir the Black, one of the original Eight Aethren). They can cause people to experience excitement, enjoyment, pleasure, sadness, pain, fear, anger, etc. merely by magically triggering parts of the brain of their victim.
o Putrights: Mostly, motivars in Sarkoshia, are put to work for justice and police forces. They help in keeping order, putting down riots, rebellions, or escaping criminals. Sometimes, they are employed in torture and inquisition capacities when necessary, because they can cause people to hurt without actually being hurt, and without doing any actual permanent damage.
o Motivars can also make excellent teachers and trainers, because they can relieve pain just as easily, as well as keep people awake when necessary. They can arouse intense feelings of pleasure in students when the student does something well, just as they can cause pain or discomfort for undesired behavior. The trick is that motivars cannot do this, without specific tools, without being within sight of their target.
· Sensers/Seers/The Sighted: Unlike the other branches of magic in Trithofar, Sensers do not form schools usually. Very rarely does a senser take on more than one or two apprentices. Usually, more perspectives will cause a ‘clouding’ and make it more difficult for someone to interpret the sights/sounds/smells/etc. they must to do what they are supposed to do. Usually, a senser can only key in the strongest on things that are important to him/herself, but can hear thoughts, and detect extremely minute details related to what they are wanting to know. Sometimes, there are groups who get together to do a few things, provided they are all after the same things, but otherwise, these do not form into schools to do their work.
· Tah-Nith Masters (Which translates to Mind-Touch Masters). (Dathoa): The irony of the Tah-Nith is that they are attuned to the body, practicing a magical martial art that works entirely on controlling one’s mind, and then using one’s mind to control the body and physical objects in contact with the body. Effectively, when they come in contact with something, for a moment, it becomes as though it were suddenly part of their body. Effectively, their body becomes a living tool of magic, but they can only effect what they touch against their skin.
· Cantors (Maestros): These aethren create art and music with magic which is known to captivate and amuse. They are, primarily, illusionists, able to create what their audiences really want to hear and see. Their magic has been used to motivate, inspire, and even occasionally, corrupt.
o Illusionists: These are people that create very realist illusions of the eyes and ears. With spoken words they can effectively speak a hallucination into existence that is completely believable for the victim/audience. They began as story tellers and entertainers, but use their powers for other things as well.
o Musikars: These people create music that creates emotions. With words and music, they can cause riots or calm them, or inspire any number of emotions. The problem is that they have to actually believe in whatever it is they are singing about to properly execute their art.
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