Krean Magic: sub-schools and off-shoots (overview)

Salvaged from an earlier incarnation of the Krean Arcane Arts entry, which did not make the final cut.

Menu placement: Sub-entry of Krean Arcane Arts, next to Ardelor Hypothesis and Olesian Obstruction.

KREAN MAGIC:
Prevalence (Territory)

Krean Magic originated with the Ancient Krean of Nybelmar and, with time, spread to almost half of the continent. Indeed, anywhere one can find the descendants of the Ancient Krean, one would notice the overarching influence of their magic. The power of today’s Krean mages bears little resemblance to that of their ancestors. The original art, the magic of the Ancient Krean, is now extinct.

Below we list both the sub-schools of the original art and other magical practices derived from the magic of the Ancient Krean.

Sub-schools:
Sub-schools of Krean Magic include the magic of:

The Priestesses of Ankriss:
The priestesses are now considered extinct, having disappeared during the Breaking (1649 BS) with the rest of the Krath Empire. However, their influence may still be seen in the magic of several civilisations today, such as the Amorai and the Sankrean (see below).

Although their magic was not limited to these areas, the priestesses were best known for their unrivalled skill in healing, growth arts, and divination. This magical art is a sub-school of Krean Magic and thus rests on the same theoretical foundation. Unlike Santharian clerical magic, the magic of the priestesses was thus secular in method and religious in its source.

The distinguishing features of this school were: (i) its reliance on dance and gesture instead of runic sequences or geometrical structures in “defining” reality; (ii) Joining of Wills the magnitude and complexity of which were not encountered among other Krean orders; (iii) the aptitude of its practitioners for using nature as an “extension” of themselves, presumably by merging with High Goddess Ankriss. Please consult “The Magic of the Priestesses of Ankriss” for further details.

Most of the legends about this school revolve around the High Priestess of Ankriss, an individual with incredible power who was embedded in the Tree of Ages. In many ways, the High Priestess was more of a demi-god than a priestess. Although immortal in the sense that she could not die of old age, a new High Priestess had to ascend to the Tree of Ages every time the current one began to grow weary of life. The High Priestess was thus the joining of all the past High Priestesses in a single body, each High Priestess adding her soul to the mixture upon ordination. According to legend, not only was the High Priestess connected to every priestess (and in a way to every Krean), but could also feel and see through the bodies of fellow priestesses.

After witnessing the horror she unleashed on the world during the Breaking (aka the Year of Darkness, 1649 BS), the High Priestess sealed off the Peninsula of Shar from the rest of Nybelmar and lapsed into a coma thereupon. Since no contact has been made with the Peninsula since the Breaking, most Nybelmarians today regard the High Priestess as a myth - alive, perhaps, only through the tales of the descendants of the Ancient Krean...

Waterfold (the Aesteran ‘Way of the Water’):
This was the magic of the silver-eyed Priestesses of Arlea, who were the clerics of the Aesteran tribe. The Aestera and the Lillivear merged in 5491 BS to form the Ancient Krean. Consult the Krean Men entry for details.

The magic of Aesteran Floating Cities traces descent from the ancient art of Waterfold (see below).

The Order of Absolutes:
The Absolutes were an elite group of Krean mages which came into being a century after the writings of the Archmage Akiris Akai (3211-3114 BS; considered to be one of the three founders of Classical Krean Magic) and disappeared from the face of Nybelmar three centuries thereafter. Even among the Ancient Krean, these were acknowledged as legendary mages. In ancient records, they are sometimes referred to as ‘the inviolate Absolutes’, because, like the Orihirim, they seemed impervious to magic. In the words of their founder: “To be an Absolute you must be inviolate; you must move all yet be moved by none.”

Emperor Dearan Asaen (ca 2330 – 2000 BS) and Archmage Ren of Zhun (ca 1000 AS; founder of the Academy of Nybelmarasa) were the last known Absolutes to have walked the face of the Disk.

The Orihirim:
The Orihirim were a mythical tribe of humans who are known among Santharian scholars as “Light Humans” by analogy to Light Elves. The most famous Orihirim is of course the Krath Emperor’s “White Advisor”.

The Orihirim were originally a splinter group among the Lillivear, led by Salohar the Bright, who refused to join the Aestera to form the Krean (which literally translates as “the United”). Six thousand years after their self-imposed exile, they reputedly reached ‘Enlightenment’ and took on the name ‘Orihirim’ (which means “the Walking Light” or “of the Living Light”). Thereafter, the Orihirim isolated themselves from the rest of the Peninsula, leaving only the White Advisor behind to keep the tribes in balance.

It is no secret that the Ancient Krean harboured mixed feelings towards the Orihirim – firstly, because the Orihirim possessed the only magic on Nybelmar which was superior to (and indeed wholly unaffected by) their own; and secondly, because they repeatedly refused the Krean access to Tar Oria (the Orihirim realm). Emperor Dearan Asaen was the first and last Krean (or indeed human) to spend time among these “Light Humans”.

Today most scholars accept that the only reason the Ancient Krean remained part of the Grand Empire of Krath (albeit as an autonomous state known as the Twin Kingdom) and did not replace it with an empire of their own was the Orihirim, who kept the Ancient Krean at bay. For further details, please consult the entry on “The Grand Empire of Krath”.

The Lost Ones:
The Lost Ones are descendants of the Ancient Krean who refused to leave the Peninsula of Shar after the cataclysmic Breaking (1649 bS), devoting themselves to fighting the terrors haunting their rainforests.

The Peninsula of Shar and all the tribes on it are now inaccessible, separated from the rest of the world by an invisible barrier erected by the combined power of the Orihirim and the High Priestess of Ankriss. The purpose of this magical divide is not so much to keep the rest of the Disk out as it is to keep the nightmarish entities released during the Breaking in. According to Nybelmarian legend, one day a new Earth King will be born who will lift the curse on the Peninsula and with it the veil separating it from the rest of the continent. Some believe this will be the reincarnation of Emperor Dearan Asaen.

Offshoots:
Other arcane practices derived from this system, like variations from a musical theme, include:

Zhunite magic
Eludian Sorcery: The gnosis of the Witch Queens of Marmarra is a hybrid between a twisted version of Krean magic and the manipulation of Gaisho spirits. Please consult the relevant entry for details.
The esoteric arts of the Efferdita (“Krean Rovers”)
The magic of Aesteran Floating Cities
The Academy of Nybelmarasa spearheaded by Archmage Ren
The Arcane Arts of Krean monks, such as the Way of Wind and Water, the Way of the Sun and the Way of the Eldritch Tree.
Sankrean magic: The Sankrean are another tribe descending from the Ancient Krean, who are known for their music, flying conches, the conch-shaped “lighthouses” dotting their harbours that give aural warning of shoals to passing ships, and their swan-like necks. Sankrean magic is a much specialised form of Krean Growth Arts. Most Sankrean equipment is organic for this reason – so when someone speaks of a Sankrean house being alive with light and laughter, she may not be talking metaphorically! By the same token, Sankrean ships are living creatures. One Santharian scholar, for instance, posits that Sankrean vessels use the conch-shaped “lighthouses” to navigate and find safe-passage along the Sankrean coastline in much the same way flittermice bounce their voice off rocks to find their way.
The magic of the Amorai: These are the Lillivear of the Kaerathi Plains, locked in eternal conflict with the Morchini Men and the dark lords of Essalui Thareliath.
Flowmancy: Everything flows, and therefore the understanding of water is the understanding of life. The flow of water, of wind, and of fire is obvious, as is the flow of thought. The flow of earth and rock is less obvious, but in the long run the hard is as liquid as the soft.

Krean monks of the Way of Wind & Water believe that behind everything we see is a streaming (“streaming emptiness”). And if we look deeply to see what is streaming, we will not find an answer, even though we get the definite impression that “It” – some current, some basic energy – is streaming – is streaming in every kind of stream, streams of rock, streams of light, streams of air, streams of consciousness. And that this “It” is not different from the streaming itself. This, they call the Flow.

The Flow signifies the energy of the universe as a way, current, course or flow which is at once intelligence and spontaneous, yet not personal like a deity. It cannot be defined – for the simple reason that one cannot stand aside from it and examine it as something out there.

The magic of these monks is the art of Flow, of going with the stream. The mountain stream is not pushed from behind, but falls with gravity. The Way, the course of nature, too, like the mountain stream flows of itself, unpushed and unpulled. Flowmancy is therefore the understanding that energy is gravity, and that magic, like brush calligraphy, or dancing, or sailing, or pottery, or even sculpture is following patterns in the flow of liquid.

Flowmancy is a way of sailing the Flow, a form of moving meditation in which the whole art is to generate immense energy from going with one’s environment, from the principle of flow, or following the gravity of water and so making the self one with it. For gravity, as Krean monks say, is the root of lightness.