Summary
Perhaps one of the oldest, contiguous forms of
magic upon
Veltrona, Avatar Magic is often associated with
Divine Magic and
the many divinities themselves. While its most traditional form maintains that relationship, derivatives of it were conceptualized for the more mortal and mundane people of the world as well.
The actual origins of Avatar Magic vary from culture to culture, although there are similar themes of 'divine beings descending to the mortal world', 'embodying the virtues of a people/faith', and so on. How much is truth, and how much is obfuscation/misdirection, is an ever contentious problem. There are many strong interests in keeping the true nature of Avatar Magic a secret, particularly among the divine powers of the world. Some renowned scholars on the subject, such as the
baarham Ceryaska zahd Visikarum, and the
jiuweihu Min of the Thousand Moons, have infamously worked against this veil of secrecy for thousands of years.
It's hard to speak of Avatar Magic without referencing their two efforts, as they're often intertwined. According to both Ceryaska and Min, the known Avatar Magic is merely one part of a larger set of magical arts yet unknown to mortal peoples. Their two independently detailed dissertations assert that the nature of Avatar Magic means as one completes one part of it, another one should invariably follow. Ergo, the magic as it is known now is only a fragment.
The two diverge dramatically on what it means to pursue these 'next steps' in the magic, though. Ceryaska favors extensive analysis and dissection of how it works, in order to assemble a next stage form of the magic. Min believes it fundamentally requires shedding of the mortal form, through
cultivation or some other mean. In Min's view, it is a process that even 'natural immortals' like the jiuweihu must undergo, which stirred great questions on
immortality and transcendence proper.
To say their works make them unpopular would be a bit of an understatement.
Almost anyone doing business with the divine–typically organized religions, theological sects, etc–sides with them in matters of their concern. Since Avatar Magic is considered 'protected', they naturally seek to suppress and destroy its spread however they can. Immortals who study it, thusly, have been a constant thorn in the side of such efforts.
Still, even if it is proliferated beyond control, Avatar Magic's particular nature and usage make it unfeasible for the vast majority of people. What with few mortal species having the willingness to try and decipher its nature, it often falls by the wayside. Immortals, too, often tinker and study it before moving onto more feasible issues elsewhere.
In a round about way, although Avatar Magic is 'well known' in scholarly circles, the hard realities surrounding it relegate it to a novelty more often than not. Still, there are many theories pondering over what could happen if the magic art is ever fully 'deciphered' and understood.
Magical Arts
The core structure of known Avatar Magic is as follows:
Sufficiently large, often excessive, amounts of mana and the expertise to wield it.
Condensing the mana into a 'second body', the avatar, which is then linked to one's soul and/or senses.
Retaining control and awareness of the avatar, and the ability to perform actions through it as one would their own body.
The very nature of the avatar makes it both bizarre and alien to almost every person alive, and so most first attempts at creating one result in failure. The primary issue is that adding in another 'entire body's' worth of information causes sensory overload to the practitioner. Without adequate control, the avatar dissipates, and so the magic fails. Overcoming this hurdle is the first, and most significant, barrier that keeps most people out from practicing Avatar Magic.
One's ability to conceptualize the avatar form dramatically affects how it operates, and the level of detail present in its existence. For example, very basic avatars often look like stylized art pieces, possess simplistic but identifiable body compositions, and are largely iconographic. The information the practitioner receives, as well as the magic they can do, is generally limited in scope.
More advanced avatars become more person-like, or higher in granular detail, and are usually suffused with unimaginable amounts of mana. These avatars are deserving of the moniker of 'second body', as they can do almost anything the practitioner's original form could achieve. Most other avatars fall in between these two extremes, and so the skill of an Avatar Magic practitioner is immediately apparent more often than not.
The various other limitations of Avatar Magic take form in the hard limit of range between avatar and original body, the time limit by which it can exist within, and the exorbitant costs associated with even creating it in the first place. Some types of sensory information are not possible, such as: pain/pleasure, hot/cold, hunger/satiation, etc. Even the lifelike, advanced avatars are themselves just empty, doll-like shells controlled by a remote intelligence.
One may naturally wonder 'what is the value in this magic?', even with the consideration of a second, disposable body. As it is a magic most typically associated with the divine, their perspective on its usage can be fundamentally different from mortal people.
For instance, incorporeal divine that cannot interact with the physical universe may occasionally need a vessel in which to do so. An avatar suits well for this. In another case, a divine being may not be able to move safely, or leave an area, but need to exert influence elsewhere. An avatar allows them to project without putting themselves at unnecessary risk. Hence, despite the unusual requirements and costs, when presented with no other option, Avatar Magic is a profoundly useful tool.
For mortal peoples, or those studying it, there are other benefits to consider:
Once the initial cost is spent, the avatar itself does not require mana to sustain itself.
It does, however, have an explicit time limit to which it can exist within. The nature of this time limit differs from avatar to avatar, but typically 'power and time are inversely related'. The more powerful the avatar, the less time it may ultimately exist. Once the limit is reached, it disintegrates.
Any kotro-induced backlashes the avatar causes, only affects the avatar.
A clever mind can abuse this fact to over-cast magic, or do magic far beyond their actual skill, to 'cheat' powerful results out. The stronger the kotro effect, the less time the avatar has to exist with. In theory, an avatar can be made, used to cast a single enormous spell, then 'pop' as it collapses from the kotro backlash.
In addition to all the other benefits, such as increased power, durability, etcetra, those two particular qualities have always made Avatar Magic very attractive to magic professions like
mages and
cultivators. Hence, despite the age of the magical art and its generally fixed, unchanging nature, constant efforts have gone into reexamining how to apply it throughout the eons. Something that is, itself, quite contentious.
Derivative Arts
While Avatar Magic in its original nature is a profound and difficult thing to use, the ideas its composed of are not necessarily as challenging. The two main attractions tend to be the creation of an external body, and the ability to control external objects. Of the two, the former is the most difficult prospect to achieve. Even if an external body is produced, it's not functionally
usable because there is nothing linking it to the one who created it.
This often leads into the second attraction, external control, which is believed to help birth the arts of
Puppet Magic. Named for the usage of strings on a puppet, mana is used to manipulate the action points of an object in order to do stuff. How exactly this is done varies, with the most basic form being mana acting as literal but intangible strings. The most advanced forms of Puppet Magic allow one to animate objects that can act independently of the practitioner.
Not everyone could, or even imagined, such a derivative art in pursuit of control of an external body.
A fairly prominent example would be an artform that is ... somewhat complicated, and fairly obtuse. The concept is that the practitioner makes a magical 'half-body', typically vague, ill-defined, and shadow-like or ghost-like, that emerges out of or connects directly to their main body. These 'Phantom Forms' have a direct connection in some manner, allowing for immediate and feasible control as one would a glove.
Phantom Forms manage to achieve the same rules-bending nature as the Avatar Forms proper, making them powerful tools in the midst of combat. While they can also act somewhat as 'defensive buffers', since the practitioner is also directly there, the usefulness of this is much more limited. One could imagine them as absolute shields up until they break, in a sense. Their usages are basically limitless, and each one is handcrafted to a purpose envisioned by the practitioner.
One infamous, ancient heroine by the name of Nemkalir the Many, is purported to have had over a dozen different Phantom Forms. She would constantly surprise her foes by luring them into melee by pretending to be frail, and then destroy them with her brutally powerful physical attack-oriented Phantom Forms. Some historians attribute her work as helping to destroy the belief that mages are weak or inept in melee combat, a popular belief of the time period.
Phantom Form magic itself is not really a separate field of study, and most consider it a form of Avatar Magic unto itself. Although, it's usually distinguished by names like 'half-avatar' or 'fake avatar'.
That all said, there is a third though directly unrelated form of magical art, colloquially referred to as 'Gigantification Magic', or simply 'Giantform Magic'. This transformative magic enlarges the body to giant heights similar to the
Onpa. In ancient times, size often directly correlated to power in the minds of many nascent civilizations. Great heroines, leaders, warriors, etc, who could achieve Giantform Magic became dominant powers on their lands.
Ultimately, Giantform Magic is very limited by its nature, and has a lot of inefficiencies within it no one has ever really fixed. Still, it's hard to say 'no' to something over forty-feet tall that can punch through solid stone walls, or shrug off most attacks of the era.
Some of the oldest immortal existences of those times that remain still showcase this mentality somewhat–
Seralkono, the Divine Tempest, is one such example who maintains a permanent and impressively gigantic form. Many different
dragons also have a penchant for size as a status symbol or means of power, though they largely treat it as a more ritualistic or honorary practice than something actually useful.
The conceptual link between Avatar Magic and Giantform Magic is that many avatars in ancient times were also, essentially, giantforms. Hence, giant size correlated directly to divine power or presence in a sense as well.
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