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[Smee]

Doh,

Edit 2...  meant to add this to the first.

You use the term 'aura', which I'm coming to mean the same as Car'all (haven't got the accents for the characters bound yet).

If that is true in this case, shouldn't we use the proper term (as already defined earlier) so as to get people used to the terminology. I'd still put aura in brackets though, just to remind folk.

i.e.  ...interpreted by the caster's mind as a distinct, separate Car'all (aura).

[Artimidor Federkiel]

Yup, I see what you mean. Changed that as well. We'll have to include cár'áll then in our terms list as well to make sure that things are properly understood, so this will follow next.

[Falethas Whisperwind]

I'm fair-to-good in skill level when it comes to understanding magical theory, but I'll refrain from inputting any really complex postulates until the discussion — and my knowledge — has evolved a bit more.

However, what I would suggest doing before any other terms have been defined would be to go about cementing meanings for terms referenced in other, more advanced axioms and terms. I'll provide a list of those which I see most frequently, but I won't attempt yet to provide in-depth definitions of them. Just for reference purposes, then:

Cár'áll (one cár'áll, many cár'allía) — I'd think it prudent to also mention in this definition the term "aura" as well, as it seems that these have been used interchangeably.

Oún (one oún, many ounía) — I don't know where the thread has gotten off to, but I remember Coren's guide and his interesting take on the precise nature of the oún as an immensely compacted "particle" of elemental energy. Perhaps worth mentioning?

Xeuá link (one xeuá, many xeuaía) — Elven term for the inherent links between ounía in any given cár'áll, I believe.

Principle of Áhm — Being familiar with Styrásh, all I know is that áhm means "passive," or (more literally) "answering."

Principle of Soór — Again, all I know is that soór means "active" (lit. "speaking").

Idea, Form, Structure, Content, etc. — All terms delineating the hierarchy and composition of the Universal Aura (Universal Cár'áll).

Element — Again, I remember Coren defining an element as something like one of the four main conditions (manifestations?) of auratic energy, and that there are four prinicipal elemental energies of wind, fire, water, and earth.

[Smee]

I think you're referring to this post, which I've been working through, slowly.

Nice list. Cover's all the ones I can recall at the moment. I believe Arti is already working on Cár'áll.

[Miraran Tehuriden]

Does Ounia even have a singular form?


Lets have another go at this..



Car'all (Plural; Car'allia). Also known as Aura. The Xeua structure of an object or being. All Car'allia are subsections of a greater whole, each part adding to the Car'all of "all that is".

Ounia. 'Knots' of Xeua energy, that may be aligned with one of the four Elements. Together with Links these form Car'allia

Link. A flow of Xeua between two Ounia. Can be either Soor (active) of Ahm (inactive). Together with Ounia these form Car'allia

Soor. (Styr; To Speak) A term used by mages to denote Xeua links that are expressing elemental properties, commonly referred to as "Active Links.

Ahm. (Styr; To Answer) A term used by mages to denote Xeua links that are not expressing elemental properties, commonly referred to as "Passive" or "Inactive" links.

Xeua. The energy of which the Car'all is comprised. Can take the form of both Ounia, as their connecting Links.

Element. Both Ximaxian and Elven magic teaches that the world and everything in it consists of the four elements Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. The Car'all is made of the four types of Ounia that represent these forces.

[Falethas Whisperwind]

Does Ounia even have a singular form?

Yessir, it does. Although rarely used when speaking in magical terms (whoever heard of a spell enacted by moving a single auratic particle?), the singular form of ounía is oún, meaning literally "portion" or "part" in Styrásh. Huzzah for bits of random Caelerethian trivia! 

Now for the definitions...

Car'all (Plural; Car'allia). Also known as Aura. The Xeua structure of an object or being. All Car'allia are subsections of a greater whole, each part adding to the Car'all of "all that is".

I don't know that using the word "structure" would be appropriate here, as it might easily be confused with Structure, and that could get messy.

Ounia. 'Knots' of Xeua energy, that may be aligned with one of the four Elements. Together with Links these form Car'allia

I like the knot analogy. However, is there such a thing as xeuá energy? I understand what you mean by the term, but at the same time I'd have to disagree with you that this is the energy that composes the oún. See Coren's brief (pfft, "brief," yeah right) exposition in the post that Smee dug up for an alternate take on the nature of ounía.

Link. A flow of Xeua between two Ounia. Can be either Soor (active) of Ahm (inactive). Together with Ounia these form Car'allia

Soor. (Styr; To Speak) A term used by mages to denote Xeua links that are expressing elemental properties, commonly referred to as "Active Links.

Ahm. (Styr; To Answer) A term used by mages to denote Xeua links that are not expressing elemental properties, commonly referred to as "Passive" or "Inactive" links.

Xeua. The energy of which the Car'all is comprised. Can take the form of both Ounia, as their connecting Links.

Again, I think we'd have to clarify whether or not xeuá energy has been defined as of yet.

In regards to xeuá links and their relation to the principles of Áhm and Soór: it was my assumption that it was not the links but the ounía themselves which expressed elemental properties. As such, I thought that the individual properties were made áhm or soór via Sphere I techniques. Perhaps an example would be appropriate.


A mage of fire walks into a dark cavern in search of an ancient grimoire rumoured to be concealed in its depths. He finds, though, that if he wanders more than ten or fifteen peds from the entrance of the cave, he is enveloped in complete darkness. Being a mage of fire, however, he can easily bypass this obstacle. Centering his mind upon the cár'áll of his hand, he locates the ounía of fire within it. He wills them to express the physical property of light more intensely than they naturally do (as dictated by the Form of the cár'áll of his hand; when was the last time you saw someone walking around with a glowing hand? Hehe  ). This thereby "awakens" that property from its natural passive áhm state into its active soór state. Once he has located his query, he relinquishes his control over the property of light, which then returns once more to its state of áhm, as is the natural will of the cár'áll of his hand.


Did that help to illustrate my point at all? I plan on posting soon a magical treatise — a very Coren-like thing to do, hehe — which sums up my thoughts on certain aspects Ximaxian magical theory. Hopefully we can extrapolate from that some new definitions and possibly axioms, as well as clear up any common misconceptions about the system that I or others may have. 

Element. Both Ximaxian and Elven magic teaches that the world and everything in it consists of the four elements Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. The Car'all is made of the four types of Ounia that represent these forces.

Fine. I think we should mention, though, that the elements are more like (in the words of Coren) "qualifications" — from "quality" — or "manifestations" of the universal energy that is cár'áll rather than actual physical flames, liquids, rocks, or gases. I liken this to the way in which all things composed of Terran matter can manifest themselves in one of four phases: solid, liquid, gas, or plasma (minus the nasty phase changes and other such unpleasantly intricate and thoroughly un-Caelerethian matters  ).

[Eléyr Fásamár]

I think I've heard of several current magic experts having been beaten by their old mentors for using the term. Being forced to write the sentence, "Oun is not a word and I sincerely regret having used it" roughly a thousand times was Twen's experience I believe.

[Emváy]

Ounia do not have a quantifiable number so hence speaking of it in the singular seems to contradict this. Although in recent times I have seen the word become a common trend. Not sure if this is now being used for theoretical purposes or indeed people are now giving them numerical value.

Although I do recall having my fingers smacked for typing the word. ~Winces at the thought of Marvin and his ruler~

[Ta`lia of the Seven Jewels]

Oún is used in the  entry about the Xeuá Principle.

[Artimidor Federkiel]

Ok, here's my attempt on Cár'áll for now:

Ximaxian Terminology: Cár'áll (Aura)
Cár'áll (Plural: Cár'allía) is also often referred to as "aura", "magical energy" or "substance of life". This substance represents the basis for the actual structure of an entity. The structure of the cár'áll forms the entity through the connections (xeuá links) between its elemental parts (ounía).

Magical manipulation affects the constellation of ounía and their relations to each other and thus determines the structure of the cár'áll, and thus its appearance, alignment and orientation.

Mira's version isn't entirely correct, as the structure is how something looks (e.g. like a sand castle), while it is built out of something (sand). Cár'áll is the sand, though the sand always has a certain appearance (a form). I also tried to mention that greater whole, as it doesn't explain the cár'áll directly. All entities of course form "all that is", and entities are based on cár'áll. But this is more a philosophical question, I try to be as precise as possible to just define cár'áll.

We might introduce another term to make that destinction between car'áll (sand) and its current shape (appearance, alignment and orientation) clear - a term that means the current "actual realization of the cár'áll", which temporarily changes when affected by a spell. Expanding on that we can also integrate the tendency of the altered cár'áll to return to its inital state - this happens at Sphere I spells, as an entity is just bent, not changed permanently.

[Smee]

Ok - I've had to stare at this one for sometime. It's understandable, but a little vague in places.

First of all...

Cár'áll (Plural: Cár'allía) is also often referred to as "aura", "magical energy" or "substance of life".

Cár'áll is singular, yet you seem to use it in this sentence as the plural. Unless I'm not understanding something, shouldn't it be 'a' Cár'áll is 'an' aura? But then the other two definintions, magical energy and substance of life, don't work in singular form.

~

The structure of the cár'áll forms the entity through the connections (xeuá links) between its elemental parts (ounía)

This is fine, except I'd reverse the contents of the brackets. So we officially use the real term, ounía, and explain it to the layman (elemental parts) in brackets. The same as we do with Cár'áll (aura). Keeping to an established pattern.

~

Magical manipulation affects the constellation of ounía and their relations to each other and thus determines the structure of the cár'áll, and thus its appearance, alignment and orientation.

I've tried about 4-5 re-arrangements of the sentence. My main aim was to get rid of the double 'and thus', which reads very awkwardly.

~

All put together, I think it should read something like (baring in mind I'm still not totally sure about the plural stuff)...

Ximaxian Terminology: Cár'áll (Aura)
A Cár'áll (Plural: Cár'allía) is also often referred to as an "aura". En masse they are also known as "magical energy" or "substance of life". This substance represents the basis for the actual structure of an entity. The structure of a cár'áll forms an entity through the xeuá links (connections) between its ounía (elemental parts).

Magical manipulation targets and affects the constellation of ounía, and their relations to each other, within a specific Cár'áll. Depending on the type of spell, such manipulations will have varying effects on the structure of the Cár'áll, and consequently, its appearance, alignment and orientation.

[Mina]

Well, my intertretation of Coren's post, applied to the sand castle example, would be something like this:

Form: sand castle
Substance: the sand
Structure: the way the grainsof  sand making up that particular sand castle are arranged relative to each other
Content: the sand castle, specifically the grains of sand it is made up of and how they are arranged

Well, actually the way I usually think is that car'all is Content and it reflects a certain Form, which is rather different from Coren's (paraphrased) "Car'all has a Form and a Content".  But I think it's pretty much just saying the same thing in a different way. 

I deduce from that that a mage can make a table invisible (by focusing on the table), but cannot directly make the objects on it invisible, as the entity table & objects doesn't exist. He can target an area of air however and manipulate it, thus causing a whole area to disappear temporarily.

Okay, let's see if I interpreted this correctly.  Some things, like a table and the stuff on it, are not usually thought of as single entities, unlike eg. potted plants.  (Though that does bring up the question of whether a particularly strange person who does view such things as a single entity will be able to affect it as such).  However, it is also possible to define an entity as an area, which would have the spell affect everything inside it.  In addition, only one effect can be applied to a focus at any one time.  Would this be correct? 

The focus is used to gather magical energies, which then are channeled (=collected, orientated, split etc.) to cause an effect on the target.

This would mean that the focus for such spells is the entire area from which ounia are gathered, and not the area they are gathered at? 

Also, does it mean that spell effects can not only be applied uniformly across the whole focus area or within a single point in the focus, but also to multiple points within the focus? 

En masse they are also known as "magical energy" or "substance of life".

How about "Car'allia have also been described as 'magical energy' or 'the substance of life'"? 

[Miraran Tehuriden]

Okay, let's see if I interpreted this correctly.  Some things, like a table and the stuff on it, are not usually thought of as single entities, unlike eg. potted plants.  (Though that does bring up the question of whether a particularly strange person who does view such things as a single entity will be able to affect it as such).  However, it is also possible to define an entity as an area, which would have the spell affect everything inside it.  In addition, only one effect can be applied to a focus at any one time.  Would this be correct? 
 
This would mean that the focus for such spells is the entire area from which ounia are gathered, and not the area they are gathered at? 

Also, does it mean that spell effects can not only be applied uniformly across the whole focus area or within a single point in the focus, but also to multiple points within the focus? 
How about "Car'allia have also been described as 'magical energy' or 'the substance of life'"? 

And where does this leave us with the thought that all car'allia are parts of a whole? In theory, that would make any combination of objects available as single targets, possibly limited as Mina suggests, by the ability to imagine the target(s) to be one whole. (Wow, if that were true i'd be a great mage)

[Mina]

Yes, that's the problem with it. 

The other possible explanation I thought of would be that 'entities' external rather than internal, ie. that they are not defined by the mage.  But the problem with this would be that it would be a universal rule, not one that only applies to the Ximaxian system. 

[Artimidor Federkiel]

Ok, first to your comments, Smee:

Your rearrangement of the first sentence changes the meaning. There's no plural intended (the "en masse" is wrong). I try to rephrase it somewhat and add material and form for better understanding.

The Cár'áll (Plural: Cár'allía) of an entity is also often referred to as "aura", "magical energy" or "substance of life". This substance represents the basis, the material for the actual structure or form of an entity. The structure of a Cár'áll forms an entity through the xeuá links (connections) between its ounía (elemental parts).

@Mina:

The particularly strange person that sees a plant on a table as one entity with the table indeed does not use the Ximaxian approach. Ximaxians to a great degree try to make magic reproducable - that's why they put up axioms that can be followed by most, just like laws pf physics. They lose a lot of originality with this approach and therefore aren't capable of elven natural magic - they try not to categorize. A human mage won't be able to imitate an elven spell the way an elf casts a spell.

Define an entity as an area, which would have the spell affect everything inside it: Yes, I'd say so.

In addition, only one effect can be applied to a focus at any one time. - Well, you can cast another spell with the same focus if you have created an effect that is longer lasting, e.g. gather wind and then use the wind.

Is the focus the entire area from which ounia are gathered? - No, not necessarily. The focus is the focal point/area to gather ounía within these confines. If you only focus a part of an entitiy (which is possible) you will also pull ounía from the surrounding entity in case they are strongly linked. This is the case for example if you target the surrounding air and pull wind from it. The area you focus on contains that concentration you try to achieve, but wind is sucked into the focus.

Applications through multiple points within the focus: Yes, I guess that is what channeling does. It defines the outlets how an effect appears. The caster applies a scheme of the magical effect, and this is realized through the focus.

Cár'allía as parts of "it all": Elves might see it that way, they have holistic approaches, but this is a philosophical question. Elemental Ximaxian mages however operate with something concrete they try to alter according to their elemental abilities. They are only good in their element, e.g. an Earth mage is good with earth quakes, a water mage can use water masses effectively. If a water mage uses an area spell to alter the air around him and cause a mass effect he is by far less effective than a wind mage.

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