Is anyone interested in helping me to complete The Nature of Magic: A Beginner's Guide? I need help with magic history, languages, theory, and more. If you're interested either post comments below or pm me. I'll set up a link to my Google drive folder that contains a copy to look at and make changes to later. And yes you can post content below too.

The Nature of Magic: A Beginner's Guide

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Alchemy
I have my deepest respect for this branch of magic use. If it wasn’t for alchemical healing potion that Zecora made, I’d be a hornless unicorn. The mere thought of that sent shivers down my spine. The one thing I had going for me; almost lost.

When I learn everything that Twilight knows, I may yet have some questions for Zecora.

Anti-magic
This includes different branches of magic from alchemy to elemental magic. What sets it apart from other magic branches is its effect. While most magic deals in influencing matter, Anti-magic deals in canceling magic resultant. This is achieved by synchronizing with magic flows, turning them benign; canceling results of magic; reflecting magic; containing the spread of magic or binding with magic in a way that produces little to no consequence, but consumes all the magic in the process.

The lack of any useful outcome make this magic fairly unpopular. Though, some cancellation usages did find their way into medicine books for treatments of various magical poisons and after spell backlashes.

Black magic
The forbidden magic isn’t really an actual branch of magic, the book, however, tried to portray it as such. In reality, it’s more like a moral branch. Ponies stick all the spells they deem immoral in black magic category. But it’s not the magic itself that is different. It consists of all the other magic branches. The only difference is, that the means or the effects of the spells can be harmful. Separating things by that criteria is too superficial, though. We do scate the surroundings all the time. We annihilate plants to feed. We trample fertile earth beneath our hooves and prevent it from flourishing. Black magic spells are just the next logical step from the harm we do already.

Blood magic and necromancy spells are the most detestable ones in this category. That has less to do with them being offensive orientated and more to do with ponies perceiving them too alien to be tolerated. They fear the magic subcategories that they don’t understand. At the same time, they shudder the thought of getting to know them. It’s a mental loop that is bound to keep black magic hidden from a general population for millennium to come.

Blood magic
As plants have their magical effect that be used in various alchemical brews, so do animals. Of various parts that a biological creature consists of, its blood is the most potent with magical properties. Even in the undiluted state, it mostly gets used as a catalyst for casting or binding other spells. The book failed to mention that some creatures are better for brewing than others. Ponies and dragons being the most potent ones of all. I drew a pot with a dragon and a pony at the bottom of the page.

Chaos magic
The least understood magic branch. Not because of its complexity but because of the lack of structure. There are many hypotheses as to what Chaos magic actually is.

I circled out the theory that was the least wrong and crossed out the other ones. The remaining one stated that Chaos Magic is magic in its most primal form. The nature of magic is not as smooth as some imagine it. It consists of fluctuations that may or may not form different structures within the field. By influencing the field in a certain way, one might produce consistent effect from random fluctuations. Most known creature capable of influencing the field directly is Discord. Sadly, no books were written by him.

According to this theory, Chaos magic is the basis for every other magic branch. With a certain set of stimuli one can produce a bulk effect of the field with some result being random, but majority of it having a unvarying property usually referred to as frequency of the channel.

It takes a special breed of creatures or ponies to spread out the main channels into more primal forms. Many master magicians try to fiddle with this magic, but, mostly, abandon the studies due to lack of improvement in consistency. Casters experienced with Chaos magic can form powerful spells, but their degree of invariant is usually no better than with the castings by a novice. After experimentation phase, serious casters usually abandon the study in this field, for the same reasons they stay clear of emotional magic.

Teleportation
Teleportation spell avoids the random effects of the field manipulation by not directly affecting the field itself. Instead it merely establishes conditions that activate the innate property of synchronized fields. The field can then, under such conditions produce a predetermined magical event on its own.

The main focus of teleportation is the transfer of energy from the original caster’s body by forming harmonically vibrating endpoints of same vibration frequency than those of the starting area of the matter being transferred.

This process always leads to the loss of original body, as interchanges between energy and matter fall under the consumption—creation type of transformation. The basic requirement of transformation between matter and energy is the preservation of magical amplitude.

With formed channels, the magical energies themselves can be transferred from starting points to the endpoints. This part of the spell is a mere classical magic transmission. Chaos magic comes in play in matter to energy conversion at the start of the process and in the last phase in the reverse transformation.

Copying of mass
Attempts of copying matter without loosing the original body of mass have been reported to have some limited success. Those methods, however, involve entirely different concept than teleporting.

The main idea behind copying is to establish an energy charged pool of vibrating higher states of potential magical fields. Those fields can then be harmonised with mirroring intermedia. The matter passing through such fields initiates a release of stored energy of the fields. The mirroring media ensures that the frequency of the released energies matches the frequencies triggered by the passing matter through the field. Resulting magic-matter transfer process concludes in a subject of exact material properties as the original trigger of the effect.

Only matter can be transferred with this technique. Magical based properties of the transporting subject are absent in the copied matter.

Classical magic
The basic magic manipulation process used predominately by unicorns and alicorns.

In its simplest form this magic does not produce any effects, but merely transports magical energies from one point to another. By forming channels, innate magic produced with a horn can be transferred to the desired destination by conducting it through the formed channels. At the conclusion of channels (known as endpoints) the magical energies assume it’s original state.

The forms of magical energies (heat energy, kinetic energy or potential energy) are usually created using solely innate magic. The classical magic merely allows the transfer of already formed effect to destination that differs from the point of formation.

The use of Classical magic is only partially connected to the innate magic as the channels themselves are magical in nature. After the channels are formed, the use of classical magic mostly uses the mind focus of the wielder of channels. The focus itself is connected, but not entirely set by individuals concentration and attention span abilities. The capacity of those is already determined at birth, yet immense training is required to make use of one’s full potential.

The caster can influence the channels by methods of lengthening, shortening, forking, merging, spreading, weaving, connecting and disconnecting.

The most common usage of channels is lengthening and connecting. This level of classical magic manipulation is achievable by most unicorns. It allows for a basic, one item kinetic manipulation (levitation in its balanced form) by transferring kinetic energies formed with innate magic to the endpoints, connected to the manipulated item.

Expert magicians with innate ability to form magical energies of different frequencies can form new instances by the means of channeling magical energies of different wavelengths through multiple formed channels that merge at their midpoints. The range of frequencies available to the caster is therefore closely related to both classical magic abilities (number of channel connections) and their innate ability (number of different frequencies).

Alicorn magic
I drew two brackets beside the subtile and wrote ‘Best magic! Yay!’ within them. My eyes rolled around, then continued skimming through the text.

In most channel mergers, the end result is a unified frequency ranging somewhere between the scales of the ones being fused. By choosing the correct combinations, one can achieve a disharmonic frequence conjunction superposition, forcing a negative reaction from all the channels involved. The resulting specific type of innate magic—alicorn magic assumes a higher state which is less reactive to the physical matter. The magical energies at the higher states are highly reactive to miniscule changes in the channels and consume less focus for the same level of manipulation as would be intended by normal state magical energies.

The usage of higher level magic is not limited to Alicorns. They are however most outstanding within the Alicorn population, as the formation of higher states requires adapt usage of both innate magic and expert usage of classical magic. Such levels of magical capabilities are only rarely seen in unicorns, but are quite prominent with alicorns.

When higher frequency is achieved the usage of all classical magic methods of channel manipulation are increased, because even unsturdy channels can transfer higher level magic without significant losses.

Due to the channels high reactiveness, this form of magic allows for increased detection spells. Unlike with gem finding spells that respond to magic residues, crystals can not be located via the usual detection spells. With alicorn magic, however, the absorption properties of the crystals interact via tunneling effect on the disharmonic channels. That negative energy reaction on the fields can be detected by the caster, and with triangulation, so too can the crystal.

I sighed. The book was lacking again. I scribbled a segment about magically assisted crystal growth on the side of the page.

Elemental magic
Because of matter and force manipulation spells that it consists of, it’s often referred to as the nature magic. Utilising elements like earth, fire, water and wind is an example of that. Achieving the manipulation of the element mostly consists of different usages of telekinesis.

Hurling a fireball is an example of this type of magic. It usually relies on innate magic, but can also be achieved by classical telekinetic friction alone.

Emotion
The book presented emotions as is a special branch because of their spell-boosting effects. That was as ridiculous as saying a crutch helps you with walking. It’s only true if you’re a cripple to begin with. Helping mages to overcome their inability to tap into their inner reserves should not be called boosting. Still, when one corners an enemy, emotions can run rampant in the prey. That usually hinders any last struggle that they could put up. However, if the emotional channels happen to resonate with the current spell, the power output could increase tenfold. That is why magic-wielding victims should never be underestimated.

The paragraphs only mentioned the technical side of it, though. Usually, the conscious part of brain is fully responsible for magic manipulation, but activating the subconscious part with emotions can potentially increase the flow of magic by an ample amount. Certain emotions open up only particular channels. For assistance with a current spell you have to feel the right kind of emotion to increase it’s power. A wrong kind of feel can mess up the spell or annihilate it entirely. Emotions are fairly uncontrollable making the use of this kind of magic unreliable.

The book also stated that emotions act as a catalyst to spells. That was clearly wrong and needed to be fixed. With the pencil in my mouth, I scratched it out. Emotions merely open up the parts of the brain that are normally dormant, which in turn can open up extra channels. No catalyzation involved!

The master casters usually try to limit this magic despite its potential. They learn to limit the effects of emotions on the flow, as in most cases the extra variable is detrimental to the spell. Limiting the variables in oneself allows the caster to perform magic with consistency and finesse.

Geometry magic
The shapes themselves do not produce magical effect. They can however present a media for magic to travel across.

Geometry magic is used as a compensation when classical magic can not be supplied or as augmentation of classical magic when an ample amount of arcane is needs to be transferred to an endpoint. Non-unicorns use these techniques to simulate the effect of the magical channels as they can’t them on their own.

This magic type is one of the oldest. Evidence of its use can be found in ancient archeological sites where some geometric configurations are actively countering a spells decay for even more than a millennium.

When forming and distillating spells, a mere circle shape is ineffective. However, it does provide the shortest magic traveling distance with maximum field of effect. The inherent friction of magic arises when its flow abruptly changes directions. Absence of edges preserves formed spells longer because it protects them from such decaying mechanisms, but it doesn’t add to the spell’s ramification. Mastery of geometric magic often relies on balancing the use of both principles in unison.

There were a few drawings of a geometric structures in the book. I thought I remembered something similar at Zecora, but I couldn’t force myself to visualize it. My mind just got hazy somehow when I tried. I skipped the pictures and continued skimming the text.

Some non casting beings can master this technique allowing them the ability of casting spells. The process involves structuring complex symbols and media paths where magic effect converge in a planned manner. The magic itself can be supplied by innate magic or magic prepared beforehand in form of runes.

The other name for this is ritualistic magic. I scratched that last statement as it was misleading. Expression Ritualistic magic came from ignorant ponies who didn’t know a difference between useless rituals and intricate magic usage.

Innate magic
It is separated into active and passive based on its effects.

Plants usually harbor passive innate magic, while some animals, unicorns and alicorns harbor active magic.

That’s just a rule of a hoof though. There are many exceptions, like plants with active effects. An example of that would be the truth flower or the poisoned joke. On the opposite specter, there is the passive magic in pegasi that helps them with flying and enables them to walk on clouds.

Earth ponies have innate magic also, it just isn’t as clearly reflected.

I assumed that what the book meant by this, was that if they had no innate magic, using them for blood magic would wield no results. Earth ponies do, in fact, harbor magic. Even though, the book didn’t mention this, they can be just as potent as the other pony races if prepared properly. When alive, their innate magic also accounts for their increased physical capabilities by subconscious flash telekinesis that offers extra support to the muscle exertion motions.

Imbued magic
Certain simplistic spells can be sealed up in runes. Complex spells are only capable of imbuing an object for a short period of time. A work around for that limitation is a construct of multiple runes, each holding a part of the spell with the proper geometry magic connecting them.

Imbued magic is used mostly by non-caster species and casters who wish to perform more lasting or complex effects.

Wards, totems and talismans fall in this category.

A growing agreement among casters is that necromantically raised beings could also fall under imbued magic, thus rendering the mostly unexplored necromantic branch as redundant. However, the mere existence of zombies is still disputed. Some of the undead creatures sightings could be sufficiently explained by telekinetically imbued puppets or corpses.

Source: My novel

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Thanks for the content, it'll take a while to go through it. I'll try to work it in somehow.

5488250 This is just my head-canon. I merely posted it to try to inspire you. You can do it differently if you want.

5488310 I know, its just that I'm in agreement with some of the things you brought up.