Magic in Tian Xia

ust as with the rest of Pal Tahrenor, magic is ubiquitous within Tian Xia, and manifests in a myriad of ways.

Unlike Thar Shaddin, which has made magic illegal except in special cases, in Tian Xia magic is legal and encouraged if used for the benefit of one's community and the empire. A trader travelling through the vast empire might see one day a farmer 'encouraging' his rice paddies to grow more rapidly, and the next day see a labourer carrying wooden beams far too heavy for a human, each by aid of his personal magic. Such individuals increase the prosperity of their communities, and frequently enjoy a level of local celebrity and colourful nicknames as a result. Often the reason why such magic users remain in their villages, rather than seek an Imperial Appointment, comes down to being a big frog in a little pond, and liking it that way.

Magic users in Tian Xia, mostly accepted and encouraged by society, generally feel less need to resort to a criminal life to get by. However, people are imperfect, and not every magic user is a kindly and generous soul. There are always those who succumb to pride or greed, wanting to lord their powers over the people around them. Consequently, there are special individuals tasked with bringing such individuals to Imperial Justice (see Jinyiwei)

The Tianlong Dynasty has at every stage taken steps to minimise the risk of magic users destabilising the empire. The Imperial University of Magical Studies was formed by decree of Tianlong Huangdi, who saw the need to have influence over the magic users born within the empire, and had began to understand his human subjects' tendency to rationalise the energies they could subconsciously feel leaking through the imperfect seal between the material and astral planes.

With government appointments becoming available specifically tailored for magic users, and Ministry examiners rewarding communities which supplied talented children to the Imperial University, the dynasty has been able to cement itself in a position of authority over magic users without oppressing them and resorting to an endless internal witchhunt throughout the empire.

The Imperial University of Magical Studies

Falling under the oversight of the Ministry of Astral Influence, the University originally had three mandates:

• to study and record the seemingly unending variations of magic use, its abilities, and its limitations
• to create a means of study which, if imposed upon children, could help direct their mental processes to 'understand' magic in a way beneficial to the empire
• scout for talented individuals to serve the Jinyiwei if magic-using criminals needed to be apprehended

However, with the successes had in creating serviceable 'magical systems' with which to train talented children, the university now has a fourth mandate: to provide examiners for the various provinces to allow children to be tested for magical sensitivity.

Children brought to the university are assessed, based on personality and examiner observation, to be entered into one of several 'systems' of magical study. The University becomes their home, the Empire their parents, and they are carefully indoctrinated into strong loyalty to the Tianlong Dynasty over the decade they spend at study.

Although not every child succumbs to the indoctrination, and not every child remains secured against influence from the outside world, the majority are, and each year the empire is supplied with new mages of varying talent to be placed in auxiliary roles around the empire.

Imperial Systems of Magic

Kan Yu - The binding of Heaven and Earth

Prior to the flourishing of magic, Kan Yu was a method of divination and geomancy, primarily designed to help orient buildings for good health and fortune.

When magic seeped into the world, it became much more. Once the domain of a few wise masters prior to the formation of the University, Kan Yu has since become the primary Imperial system of magic, given its utility in aiding law enforcement and investigations.

At its most advanced levels, through geomantic alignment and magical symmetry, Kan Yu masters can create portals allowing the teleportation of people and things from one location to another. Advanced applications of this technique are used to aid General Tianlong Run in defense of Tian Xia's western borders.

Lower level Kan Yu practitioners often end up working as both assigned and travelling magistrates, aided in their investigations by the Kan Yu divination compass, the Luopan. Once merely an annotated magnetic compass, in the hands of a Kan Yu practitioner it can be attuned to the sympathetic energies of whatever evidence is placed in its centre to seek out that from which the evidence has come. It is crucial, though, that the evidence is chosen carefully. A piece of cloth torn from a criminal's clothes might lead a magistrate to the clothmaker two counties away, whereas a drop of blood could lead the magistrate to the criminal it came from where he is hiding a few city blocks away. This form of divination requires constant focus, and magistrates relying on it are advised to deputise a local guardsman for the duration of the investigation.

Yi Jing Talisman Exorcism

The trigrams of the Book of Changes had existed in the region of Tian Xia even before the coming of magic, though they were used principally as a divination tool. Today, in the Imperial University of Magic, they are used as a focus for an unusual form of blood magic involved in the creation of supernatural talismans.

The Yi Jing Shenfu system of magic is unique in that it was devised by Tianlong Huangdi as an answer to the frequent appearance of incorporeal supernatural entities within the borders of Tian Xia. Sometimes it was an untrained magic user drawing too much from the astral plane, subsequently allowing the essence of some astral creature through. Sometimes, it is just a random entity formed of magic essence running rampant.

It was made clear over time that such creatures were often an incompatible opponent for most of the Jinyiwei, whose abilities were typically more suited for physical opponents. Tian Xia needed a way to subdue or seal away such entities.

The school started as a private experiment several centuries prior to present day: Tianlong Huangdi learned of an elven orphan from a small community who had approached the Emperor via the Hall of Audience for assistance in relocating the child to better living arrangements. The peasant family had brought the child, and in it Huangdi recognised an as yet un-tapped magical talent.

Officially, the child was entered into the University, and the community who had found him were rewarded for their kindness to the orphan. Unofficially, the child was adopted by Tianlong Huangdi and given the name 'Longmen Shenfu' (Dragon Gate Talisman).

The Principles and Development of Talisman Magic

In principle, the Astral Plane and the Material Plane are meant to be seperated. That was the natural state of things, once. However, the shattering of the seal, and its subsequent 'repair' meant that the seal was no longer perfect.

Incorporeal creatures of magic, being closely attuned to the essence of the Astral Plane, should in theory find the essence of the material plane anathema - if such essence could be distilled and focused via magic. Tianlong Huangdi, being a creature of the Astral Plane once, was not suited for the practical creation of such an art, though he had the knowledge to help another discover it. And for that he now had help.

It took a century of study and experimentation before Tianlong Huangdi and Longmen Shenfu arrived at what seemed a viable and replicable approach. The most potent form of 'Material Plane' essence they could find was in the blood of living creatures. Initially, Huangdi had thought that an elf, having strong attachment to both the material and astral plane, would be the ideal student. To their dismay, elven blood was not as well suited as they had hoped. The next step was to obtain students from different races. Shifters, gnomes, dwarves and anything tainted by the fae proved inept at creating or using the talismans. Only pureblood humans showed any aptitude.

It would take another half century before their human students would show signs of success. And in this time Huangdi and Shenfu discovered the key principles by which the Talisman Magic could work:

• Blood of a human
• A Focus for the mage to rationalise their actions
• Faith in the Magic's Efficacy

With the prevalence of the Yi Jing (Book of Changes) as both a philosophical text and divination tool amongst the citizens of Tian Xia, it was deemed an appropriate focus on which to base the magic.

Talismans: the tool of the Exorcist

Students of the Yi Jing system are known as Imperial Exorcists, and are highly respected.

The talismans are created on parchment prepared by the exorcist, and written at the time of the exorcism using the exorcist's own blood. The exorcist incorporates whichever sequence of Trigrams the caster feels appropriate to the entity they are attempting to seal away, incapacitate, or disperse.

The will and faith of the exorcist is the conduit through which the sealing magics are channeled, and the talismans are the focus by which they direct the sealing magic.

The process of an exorcism can be visually spectacular: In the first stage, with a special bladed pen, the exorcist releases their own blood and rapidly paints the trigrams whilst chanting the associated precepts of the Yi Jing. This serves to aid their focus and concentrate their magic and will.

once the talisman is finished, the exorcist channels as much power through it as possible, directing it at the entity to be sealed. The talisman, carried by the magical energy, whips through the air like a thrown dart, and will seem to stick against something unseen.

For a weak spirit or entity, a single talisman from a powerful practitioner may be enough. However, often an exorcism will require multiple seals, and part of an exorcist's studies involve physical training to endure the drain of stamina and strength such an exorcism requires.

College of Astral and Magical Research

Not every student that comes to the University is young enough for the teachers to overcome the directions their natural talents are already leading them.

In those situations, the teachers are expected to foster the existing talent whilst taking even more care to subtly indoctrinate the students towards loyalty to the empire.

At the same time, whatever the students' talents, they are also taught the shapes and forms of shifters and other monsters which have appeared to menace communities over the many centuries of Tian Xia's history. And they are taught how to combat them.

Students are encouraged to figure out ways to use their talent in defense of themselves and the Emperor, and in the defeat of supernatural beings threatening the citizens of Tian Xia.

Though typically assigned to aid the four Great Generals, particularly skilled members of this course are frequently offered the opportunity to join the Jinyiwei.

Qigong

Brief History of the Origins of Qigong

A mating pair of Fenghuang, during their exploration of the material plane at the time of the Changers' War, discovered through their own peculiar astral senses that most creatures of the material plane had fields of energy (Dantiens) within them which seemed to act and react to the energies of the astral plane. Much like the Tianlong Shifters, the Fenghuang found themselves trapped on the material plane when the seal was restored.

Later, during the Warring Races Period, the Fenghuang were responsible for saving many peasants and refugees from the threat of bandits and soldiers alike. The Fenghuang recognised the possibility for the humans and elves they had rescued to gain varying levels of control over their dantiens. Prevented from returning to their astral home by the seal, the two long-lived Fenghuang saw in their followers a way to use their lifespans to the benefit of others whilst helping their own efforts to stave off the dangers of ennui. Promoting a simple lifestyle and a dedication to meditation and serenity, the Fenghuang founded what are now called the Western Temples and the order of Kunlun Monks.

The most successful of the Fenghuangs' early students were eventually able to perform feats of strength, speed, and endurance beyond that of a normal person. Such students would often go out into the war-torn lands of the Warring Races Period and use their newly learned abilities to save others, just as they had been saved. Inevitably, some of those rescued by the Kunlun Monks would stay on and learn from the Fenghuang.

Over the centuries, not all monks found the serenity they hoped to achieve, and some re-entered the empire of Tian Xia to roam the lands in order to find their own personal meaning. With a strong sense of protectiveness imparted upon them by the Fenghuang, such monks would often act to defend common citizens of Tian Xia from bandits, thieves, ruffians, and dangerous creatures. Some of these monks would pass on their arts to promising students.

A proliferation of martial arts spread through Tian Xia, but not all practitioners had the benevolent motivations of the monks. An increase in qigong-assisted crimes and criminals led to the misunderstanding behind the Fenghuang Prosecution of 910PW - 850PW. Eventually, after the conflict drew to a stalemate, a direct meeting between the Tianlong and Fenghuang allowed the two parties to reach a mutual understanding. Since then, the Kunlun Monks have been granted freedom of travel throughout Tian Xia, and the Fenghuang expect such monks to intervene when martial artists appear to be using Qigong for criminal or malicious purposes.

Principles of Fenghuang Qigong

Long before the Tianlong Dynasty founded the University of Magical Studies to shape magical talents in directions beneficial to the empire, the Fenghuang of the Kunlun Mountains were training their own followers in the arts of Qigong: a system whereby a creature of the material plane could, through lengthy and rigorous training, develop a sense of the magical energies and obtain a limited control over them using their own bodies as a focus and transmission point of that energy.

The only individuals unable to grasp the essence of Qigong are those who are, by heritage or circumstance, completely cut off from the energies of the astral plane leaking through the flawed seal.

It is exceedingly rare that those talented enough to become a fully-fledged mage would spend the time or effort to learn Qigong, the tenets of which usually conflict with the internal logic by which a proper magic user's talent develops.

As a general guideline, those least talented in sensing magic inevitably take the longest to learn Qigong, and are rarely powerful in its use (though will benefit from the physical training nonetheless). Those whose innate talents for magic are strong but not already realised, if capable of following the rigorous Fenghuang Qigong training regimens, are likely to become powerful practitioners.

At even the basic levels, it takes a decade of physical training and preparation to manifest the supernatural aspects of Qigong.

The Dantien, or Qi Centre

Typically, the humanoid races have three primary Dantiens, described below. Because of this a skilled practitioner of Qigong, with a highly developed upper dantien, is able to transmit the lessons of Qigong onto students of their own. Over the centuries, this has resulted in many unique lineages of Qigong use passed down in families or groups of practitioners.

Non humanoid students of Qigong are rare, and due to the irregularity of their dantiens, typically need to be taught by the Fenghuang directly.

The training regimen implemented by the Fenghuang helps teach their humanoid students how to accumulate astral energy in their lower dantien, move it to their middle dantien, and with guidance from the upper Dantien direct it through their bodies.

The Lower Dantien (Xia Dantien)

Located below the navel (about three finger widths below and two finger widths behind the navel). The Xia Dantien is associated with cultivating astral and internal energy (qi).

The Middle Dantien (Zhong Dantien)

Located at the level of the heart The Zhong Dantien is associated with storing life energy (qi) and with respiration and health of the internal organs, in particular the thymus gland.

The Upper Dantien (Shang Dantien)

Located behind the forehead between the eyebrows. The Shang Dantien is associated with the energy of consciousness and spirit (shen) and with perception of astral energy

The Two Styles from which all others descend

As with everything else to do with magic in Pal Tahrenor, there are a myriad of individual variations in how a martial artist will express their qi. At present time there are countless lineages and traditions of martial arts use in Tian Xia - but all descend from the Kunlun Monks in some way, and as a result there are two broad 'styles' or philosophies of martial arts and Qigong use in Tian Xia dependant on which of the two Fenghuang the art has derived from.

Feng Qigong

The male Fenghuang, Abbot Feng, emphasises external transmission of qi in his teachings.

The principle of Feng Qigong is to meet force with force, utilising the mechanics of movement to cut into an opponents attack or to undermine their defense.

Adherents to this style (and its many derivative branches), are known for their fast movements, spectacular acrobatics and powerful strikes.

Training in Feng Qigong starts with building up the physical strength and speed of students prior to implementation of the Qigong training. The strenuous and lengthy physical training ensures only determined and focused students can learn Feng Qigong.

Popular use of Qi in Feng Qigong can include, but isn't necessarily limited to:

• Increasing the rate of energy transmission in a punch, increasing damage and oft-times sending an opponent flying
• Focusing the qi in their dantiens to reduce the effect gravity has upon them, allowing for incredible feats of aerial acrobatics
• Transmitting force over a short distance, or through solid objects, allowing the user to potentially ignore armour or shields

Huang Qigong

The female Fenghuang, Abbottess Huang, emphasises the retention and manipulation of qi within the body.

The principle of Huang Qigong is to yield to force and use relaxed leverage to redirect it, using the aggressor's own efforts to undermine their attacks before countering them.

Adherents to this style (and its many derivative branches), are known for their soft, graceful movements and devastating counters.

Training in Huang Qigong starts with stance training and breathing exercises. Both physically demanding and monotonous, only the truly patient and focused of students progress far enough to learn Huang Qigong

Popular use of Qi in Feng Qigong can include, but isn't necessarily limited to:

• Iron Flesh techniques, where Qi is condensed at the surface of a practitioner's body, allowing a prepared practioner to deflect the blows of weapons (the focus required for this prevents a practitioner from attacking at the same time.)
• focusing the qi in their dantiens to permit them to exert their gravitic influence in unusual directions (such as walking up a wall)
• Acupressure attacks and healing, using qi to disrupt or repair the flow of magical energy in a humanoid's body.