Guns for Hire Magical Mechanics

A page for the magical mechanics of Guns for Hire

Basic Magic Theory

In Guns for Hire, all magic ultimately stems from an aggregate of magic known as the NeverNever. Many theories abound about the exact nature of the NeverNever, but for the purposes of understanding how the game works, it is sufficient to know that all power originates from the NeverNever in one way or another. In general, the further removed from the NeverNever the power is, the safer it is to collect and to use.

Nuts and Bolts

Magic is measured in points. Points regenerate given time, or can be instantly refilled to capacity if other techniques are used. Magic use generally follows gradients, using the flow of magic energy from a high potential body to either the environment or a low potential body to achieve practical effects which do not follow the laws of physics. Magic in concentration will inherently infiltrate and influence whatever it is in contact with, with existing magic systems gaining complexity with exposure to other systems.

Gathering Power

Magic energy can collected in matter and in properly formatted magical constructs. Depending on which theory of the NeverNever a magic practicioner adheres to, he may call these one and the same. Power can passively pool through the collecting body's footprint in the NeverNever or can be actively collected through consumption of existing magic, through construction of an interface between some aspect of the NeverNever and the collection device, or through passive absorption of radiated magic in the environment. Magic energy left to its own devices will passively follow the rules of osmosis: a low magic body in proximity to a high magic body will gradually absorb magic radiated from the more magical body.

Using Power

A wide variety of magic techniques exist for manipulating magic energy to achieve desired effects. In all cases, there must be some Will or Intent driving the original composition. In the case of items which have spontaneously become magical, the magic's practical effect will follow the origin of the magic and the form of the item (with the intent of the original crafter of the mundane item shaping the format of the spell that takes shape). Most magic is used through interfaces which are part of a body, mind, or soul, or by using the body, mind, or soul itself as the interface.

High Level Magic

High level magic follows constructed rule sets, and is usually used through a dedicated interface seated in the body, mind, or soul. It is safer than low level magic, and is often built into packages with are heritable (bloodlines) or originates from the Self (chakra, mentalism, and quirks). High level magic which does not originate in the Self must adhere to a format following one of the four seasonal courts (or fall into the Wyld category).

Low Level Magic

Low level magic, otherwise known as Conceptual magic, follows existing rule sets. It is usually used through a personal interface developed not to collect power but to channel power in a controlled manner using the personal interface medium (usually the entire Self: body, mind, and soul) as a valve between the interdimensional interface for the aspect of the NeverNever being used and reality. If the interdimensional interface is damaged or unavailable, that aspect of the NeverNever can't be directly manipulated by anyone in the dimension that interface would service.

Magic Classifications

While all power ultimately stems from the NeverNever as a whole, a large variety of systems for manipulating and changing that power have developed. All magic is influenced by the four courts of magic with the exception of the Conceptual, Planetary, and Self magic systems.

Belief

1. Belief: Magic generated by the weight of human belief. If enough humans, over a long enough period, believe that something should be, then the NeverNever field of the planet itself will respond. This effect is completely confounding to most non-humans and non-divines.
1. Divine: A system which works because humans believe it should work. Many of its effects are instant. Divine systems are used by Gods, Saints, Wizard Saints, Angels, and mortal followers of such. Gods can be generated by belief energy whole cloth, or can be created by existing beings taking up enough belief specific to them.
1. Angelic: A magic system designed specifically to build useful servants, Angelic magic is a more rules-based version of Divine, optimized for practical effects on souls and for power throughput.
2. Were: A magic system which was designed by Divine users in the course of performing experiments with merging souls through the use of spirit shaman triple-bindings, were-magic has its roots in Divine magic, but is distinct enough that it is classically its own system. Were-beings can shift into animal forms. The condition is infectious in some cases, and is usually hereditary once established. This class of magic represents the major intersection between the Mortal and Divine fields. Were magic is opposed to Devil magic, and interacts explosively with it.
1. Skinwalker: The culmination of research by the Divine beings who developed were-magic, Skinwalkers are dragon-class entities who can assume a variety of forms. The sheer amount of spiritual power available to them thanks to their technique of repeatedly absorbing new forms through spirit shaman rituals gives them their own form of were-magic.
1. Warwalker: The result of research in Skinwalkers by the Neonazis, Warwalkers have many of the powers a Skinwalker has, but have no appreciable Divine element to their magic system. Strictly speaking, their magic is a mortal refinement of the Skinwalker system.

Conceptual

1. Conceptual: The low level format of magic that directly taps the NeverNever for its power, but which is very dangerous to users because of the ease with which the trifecta of Self (Body/Mind/Soul) can be damaged by incorrect application. Concept interfaces can serve as the basis of a bloodline (though the bloodline will be court affiliated).

Draconic

1. Draconic: Draconic magic is a logical math-based set of rules which allow for the high level manipulation of magic energy through constructed bloodlines. It synergizes well with Eldritch magic.
1. Leprechaun: The Leprechauns arranged a Contract with the Dragons to create an entire sub-class of Draconic magic designed to manipulate luck and wealth as the primary energy source. As part of the terms of the Contract, the Dragons that created this magic do not remember the specifics of its rule set.
2. Mortal: Mortal magic bloodlines are based on Draconic magic and thus follow many of the same logical rules. Lucifer introduced magic to Mortal humans as an experiment, which Dragonkind as a whole views poorly. Mortal magic has since diverged into its own full-fledged field, with enough differences in rules and application that the dragons can deny its roots. The defining feature of Mortal magic is that it is designed and optimized to take user commands from things which will age and die normally.

Eldritch

1. Eldritch: A force which is wholly math-based, Eldritch power is endemic to all planetary bodies of sufficient size. A given celestial body will have its own eldritch signature, unique to it. As the name implies, this force was largely locked away on the planet Earth to its own dimension by the terms of the Accords.
1. Elder: The Draconic analogue to Human Gods are Elder Beings. These are pure mathematical constructs which wield Eldritch power. Elder beings are locked away in their own dimension as part of the Accords. The Elder power system is incomprehensible to most mortals.
1. Elder Bloodlines: Bloodlines granted to mortals by Elder beings. These bloodlines are inherently corruptive, and will eventually mutate the mortal into something non-human. This class of magic represents the major intersection between the Mortal and Eldritch fields.

Fae

1. Fae: Faerie magic systems are very rule based as a whole and heavily exploit the four seasonal affinities all high level magic sources exhibit. Fae systems which do not exploit one of the four seasons fall under the Wyld catch-all designation, with the result that Wyld systems vary greatly within their own class.

Infernal

1. Infernal: A logical set of rule-based magics which allow for the high level manipulation of magic energy. While there are similarities to Mortal and Draconic magic, this field was developed independently of them.
1. Demonic: A sub-set of infernal magic which uses significant divine elements, as a result of the Demon-Gods having a divine nature. The greater the divine elements of any given demon, the more erratically it will behave due to the interaction between Divine and Infernal energy sources being inherently unstable.
2. Devil: A sub-set of infernal magic which closely resembles Fae magic due to its strict adhereance to rules.
1. Vampire: Vampirism is a consumption based spiritual disease which was designed by Infernal beings. It has since diverged into a field of its own thanks to frequent corruptions of mortal magics. While technically classed as part of the Infernal magic tree, vampire magic is distinct enough to not be detected as Infernal according to classic definitions. This class of magic represents the major intersection between the Mortal and Infernal fields. Vampire magic is opposed to Divine magic, and interacts explosively with it.
1. Feaster:The culmination of research by the infernal beings who designed the vampire disease, Feaster magic can consume and interact with Divine power and benefits greatly from the enhanced power source. Like Demonic format beings, Feasters have problems with erratic behavior due to the opposed nature of Vampire and Divine energies.

Planetary

1. Planetary: Any magic which uses the planet itself as a power source.
1. Ichneumon: The dragon-slaying mythic weasels, Ichneumon, are capable of channeling magic energy directly into the planet, and of channeling Earth magic into themselves so long as they are touching mud of some sort.
2. Wizard: The traditional all-powerful wizard is a direct conduit between the planet's NeverNever field and the point in space-time the wizard occupies. Anything which the wizard believes should be will be generated by the planet's local NeverNever field. While this effect is very powerful, it is not always compatible with existing magic.

Ritual

1. Ritual: Magic effects can be achieved by channeling energy from an available power source and modifying it with the correct actions and ingredients at a given point. Rituals follow the general format of standard operating procedures, and can be used by practically anyone. The practical effects of rituals are as varied and dramatic as the rituals themselves.
1. Contract: Contract magic uses a magic interface (be it of Divine, Draconic, Fae, Infernal, or Wizard origin) to directly manipulate the NeverNever to encode a contract into it, with given effects being enforced by the NeverNever itself. The contract interface is in essence a kit of tested rituals which work well together.
2. Music: Many forms of ritual magic are based in music. Most music-enabled rituals have malicious elements that activate when used by non-magical beings or by mortals.

Self

1. Self: Any sort of magic which is drawn through some aspect of the trifecta of Self (Body/Mind/Soul) instead of through a dedicated bloodline or other interface. All such magic initially has no court affiliation. It is possible for it to acquire a court affiliation if the user has one due to bloodlines or other sources. Transcendent humans have a natural efficiency boost to all Self techniques.
1. Chakra: Chakra is the active manipulation and shaping of the chakra gates between a user's soul and body to achieve magic effects. Since chakra depends so much on the way an individual's chakra gates express, chakra is a highly individual power. Chakra spells, otherwise known as chakra gate orientations, may share common features but will ultimately be customized by any given user to his own gates. Chakra techniques are ultimately less efficient than bloodline techniques. Specialization in chakra can serve as the basis for a bloodline (though the bloodline will be court affiliated). See the article Guns for Hire: Mortal Magic for specifics on chakra.
2. Karma: Karmic Balance allows for individuals to, through performing positive actions, collect a balance of net positive Karma which can be used as a power source for effects such as Karmic Mentalism (a branch of Mortal Mentalism which uses Karma instead of gradual accumulation of energy through willpower to achieve practical effects) or for Karmic rituals. There is some question about what exactly constitutes a Karma-positive action, given that the person who has acquired the most positive Karma gets to decide what code of behavior contributes to positive Karma. In general, selfless and kind actions are Karma positive.
3. Mentalism: Mentalism as a system is based on rules which evolve from naturally occurring features in all Minds, and as such is available to anything with a mind. A mentalist's power comes from energy filtered through his mind, from the ability for willpower to directly shape other minds, and from the refinement of the innate ability of a mind to build features into a mindscape (a mind's self-constructed reality). Mental objects which have been built with enough care and investment of energy, or with enough skill by a top-level Mentalist, can be expressed in reality. Mentalist techniques are ultimately more flexible than a mind manipulating bloodline, but are inherently very dangerous to the user. See the article Guns for Hire: Mortal Magic for specifics on Mentalists.
4. Quirks: The Body, Mind, and Soul can each host small purpose-built spells called quirks. Such quirks can develop on their own in wholly mundane individuals, or can be encouraged by outside magic, or can even be built whole cloth by outside magic. Quirks tend to be as varied as the individuals which host them.
5. Skill: Learned skills can gain magical elements either by design or by chance if the user has enough innate magic. In the Guns for Hire skill system, any physical skill above Level 3 will have some magical element (as level 3 represents the peak of mundane ability). Any mental and social skill above Level 6 will have some magical element (with level 6 being the peak of mundane ability). Very high level skills have a large amount of innate magic, enough to have a chance of affecting very magical beings.

The Four Courts of Magic

What are the 'Four Courts' of magic?'

The four courts are the founding forces of magic, be it draconic, human or otherwise. The courts are tied to the seasons, being Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. In general, each court is inclined towards a general concept: Spring to growth, Summer to heat, Autumn to decay, and Winter to cold. As one may surmise, some courts oppose others (Summer and Winter, Spring and Autumn) while non-conflicting courts can synergize (Spring with Summer or Winter, Autumn with Summer or Winter).

All bloodline and other non-innate (i.e. non-Self) forms of magic must adhere to a court. The interactions of the four courts are integral to understanding how different practitioners' magics will work together or against one another. In general, it is hardest to harm a magic user with the same magic they use: Summer court based mages are hardest to hurt with Summer magic, Autumn with Autumn. While opposed courts do the maximum amount harm possible to one another, most mages try to avoid directly pitting opposed courts against one another, since it's possible to have a runaway magical chain reaction that slays both fighters in such contests. The most common form of magical combat, where the courts are concerned, is to either attack someone with a Court other than their own, or the court they are opposed to (Spring or Autumn on a Winter bloodline, for example). This gets more complicated with Dual Bloodline opponents, as unless they have opposed court bloodlines they will not have a court that is neither opposed to them nor the same as the ones they use. Another solution is to use internal manipulation magic to enhance a fighter's physical aspects and thus avoid directly pitting opposed or similar magics against one another.

It must be noted that Dragons are considered the dominant force where it comes to manipulating the four Courts. Because Dragons frequently have at least one bloodline of each court, there is no way to attack them where they will not have the same court to defend with, and there is no way to avoid them having access to a court opposed to their attacker. This is one of the many reasons Dragons are left to their own devices.

I remember something about the Courts being fae things-how's that work in GfH?'

The Courts are more than just how all bloodlines are classified-they are a classification system for non-draconic magical creatures large and small, and is the basis of the five Fae Courts. There is one for each season, with Summer and Winter being heavily dominated by Gaelic Fae while the Spring and Autumn courts are dominated by Eurasian Fae. In addition to each seasonal court, there is a fifth, Wyld Court that governs the creatures that manage to exist without having a Courtly orientation. It is by far the smallest group, and commonly is not part of any major gatherings of the other Courts, due in no small part to the hands-off approach the Wyld Court's ruler, the Erlking, manages his 'empire'.

In general, any Fae being that encounters a mortal practicioner of magic of the same court will be friendly, while one of the opposed court will be met with more hostility. In the case of a dual bloodliner with opposed courts, how they are received is dependent entirely on their accomplishments and endorsements of other Courtly beings.

Okay-so how about some examples of how to abuse this?

A Summer bloodline external Fire Manipulator faces a dual bloodline Spring and Winter practitioner. Despite the danger, it would be most tactically beneficial to still ply the explosive energy of opposed courts clashing, in the hope of avoiding the chance the dual bloodline foe will overwhelm them.

The Body, the Mind, and the Soul

The Trifecta of Self has its own article explaining it in detail.

Transcendent Humans

Perfection in any aspect of the trifecta of self is a means to achieve Transcendence. See the article Guns for Hire: Mortal Magic for specifics on Transcendent Humans.

Conceptual

What is Conceptual Magic?

Where Courtly and Chakra based magics are considered to be high level magic that tap power sources of comparatively small potential, Conceptual Magic is a low level format that directly taps the NeverNever for its power. Each Concept embodies a given sort of magic, and can either achieve effects by itself or can interact with other magics and matter in a flexible manner. Conceptual magic is generally held to be a dangerous field in general, since each Concept is its own topic to learn and presents significant risks to the user in terms of damage to Body, Mind, and Soul from missteps.

What is a Concept?

A Concept is the sum total of all the magic its Concept encompasses. Concepts are innate to the NeverNever aggregate (commonly called the 'NeverNever Root'). Accessibility to a Concept is only limited by how much energy the user can handle channeling, and by how the given Concept's dimension interacts with a given user's occupied dimension. This interaction between the Concept's dimension and the user's dimension is sometimes called the 'Interface'.

A "locked" concept is one where the interface is wholly controlled by someone or something, and no further access by others is possible. A "burnt" concept is one where the interface was destroyed, purposefully or not. Burned concepts can, in theory, have their interfaces rebuilt with enough use.

How do I use Conceptual Magic?

Where a Wizard accesses the NeverNever by acting as a planet's chakra gate, a Concept User accesses the power of the Concept by directly interfacing with the part of the NeverNever where the Concept is housed. Concepts are "learned" through exposure to the Concept in carefully metered amounts until the Concept User develops an interface with the Concept, effectively a low level access method with the NeverNever which channels power from the dimension the Concept in question is housed in.

Wizards

What are Wizards?

Wizards (and Witches) are living conduits, effectively chakra gates for the planet's NeverNever field (or some other power source in the case of lesser wizards).

What Can A Wizard Or Witch Do?

Whatever they want. They outclass everyone in terms of power with the exception of the three wizards who have become living gods. Ruling dragons, very old dragons, and very powerful gods can approach a Wizard in terms of power storage but (generally) cannot match the raw output or power regeneration rate a Wizard enjoys.

How Can I Become A Wizard?

Wizards aren't born. They're made by a flood of energy from the NeverNever attempting to vent through their souls. Provided conditions are right, a soul can attune to the NeverNever gate event and become a conduit between the raw energies of the NeverNever and the expressed reality the Wizard lives in. In one sense, the Wizard's soul is a chakra gate for the entire planet.

A Wizard or Witch is a power unto himself or herself. Dedicated teams of dragons, skinwalkers, or other Hekatoncheires-class fighters have a chance of killing a prepared wizard, but no more than that. Even Owner, the oldest and most powerful of the Ruling Dragons, would have trouble with defeating an experienced wizard in a serious fight.

What's A NeverNever gate?

A NeverNever gate is an event where different dimensions interact. The gate is expressed as a rush of magic energy flooding from the invading dimension into the target dimension, usually focused on a locus of low magical energy- though such gates can be actively aimed at specific individuals. When a gate interacts with existing magic, it usually creates a violent explosion. With proper modification of the gate itself though, interesting interactions are possible. The origin of the magic performing the modifications is important: Dragons, Divines, Skinwalkers, and Wizards all have the ability to modify the event with different results.

In short, a divine intervention creates a Wizard or Witch Saint. A draconic intervention creates an Elder Wizard. An intervention by a skinwalker creates a Were-Wizard. A wizardly intervention creates another Wizard. Unknown circumstances cause a Reversed Conduit.

What Are Witch Saints And God Wizards?

When a god interferes during the transformation to Wizard or Witch, the conduit is redirected to the divine being instead of to the earth. Thus, the would-be-wizard becomes a divine conduit, or more commonly, a Wizard or Witch Saint. There are 60 known Wizard and Witch Saints, with there being notably more Witch Saints than Wizard Saints. Their powers are strongly biased by the god they are connected to, but as a whole they can easily dominate divine beings and are known for being able to emulate all divine magics with relative ease. They also are largely banned by the God Wars treaty, with A.O.R.B. playing the part of policing and enforcing body.

Wizard and Witch Saints have a reputation for being mentally unstable, since they develop a Gate of Self (a conduit that links to others like itself) when they become multidimensional. The most common effect is that the Witch Saint loses herself entirely to the Gate of Self, her personality being overwritten repeatedly by personalities from alternate versions of herself. Ultimately this leaves the Witch Saint in a state of confusion about her own identity (as alternates can have very different lives), primed to lash out at random. This can be avoided if the correct candidate is chosen, or if the patron god takes steps to shield the new Witch Saint.

Wizard and Witch Saints were traditionally seen as the 'hands' of their respective gods. Since the format of their magic makes it possible for them to replicate and emulate magic, experienced Wizard and Witch Saints are effectively living superweapons.

When a normal Wizard or Witch gains enough Belief power to eclipse their personal planet-based magic, they become a full god with both divine powers and the planetary magic wizards enjoy. There are three known god wizards: The Yellow Emperor, King Solomon (a.k.a. Solomon Grundy), and "The Third" who actively masks his or her identity entirely.

What Are Were-Wizards?

Skinwalkers are masters of were-forms, thanks to their proprietary techniques, and thus have a Divine aspect. When a skinwalker interferes with a gate event, the resulting being is a Were-Wizard, a more specialized version of a Wizard Saint. Were-Wizards are linked to the skinwalker that performed the intervention, and are principally known for being able to affect all forms of were-magic (but not other sorts of divine magic, or indeed, other magics in general). They are usually considered inferior to Wizard Saints. As Skinwalkers are by nature secretive and isolationist, there are very few known Were-Wizards.

What Are Elder Wizards?

In antiquity the new human Divine Gods and the dragon Elder Beings (gods which were based primarily on the mathematical draconic magic) battled in the Elder Wars. A decisive factor in the conflict between humans and dragons was the existence of human Wizards. Ultimately, the dragons lost, and their pantheons were banished to the Elder realms.

After the war, the dragons eventually learned how to create their own sorts of wizards by aspecting a NeverNever gate event properly. The resulting being is an Elder Wizard. Such beings are exceptionally rare and secretive, numbering less than thirteen total. Elder Wizards are effectively chakra gates for the dimension the Elders are stored in, and can access that aggregate.

What Are Reversed Conduits?

Unknown and extremely rare circumstances can cause a gate strike to effectively have reversed polarity. The first two reverse polarity strikes damage the soul of the afflicted person, and do not turn him or her into a living conduit. The third strike effectively adds enough power for the afflicted person to be able to leech all the energy from a Rule of Three binding so that it does nothing to them.

Unknown effects occur with more strikes, the afflicted soul being more and more damaged and changed by the reversed strikes until by the seventh strike it is notably difficult for most magic to affect them. By the eleventh strike such a person poses a direct threat to even very potent magical beings such as skinwalkers or dragons as by merely touching them they actively drain their energy back into the ground.

By the thirteenth reversed polarity strike, the person has become a full fledged reverse-polarity living conduit, and poses a massive threat to all forms of magic in their vicinity. Even souls, which are effectively bundles of magic energy in an ordered state, will unravel in proximity to a Reversed Conduit.

Dragons

Why Are Dragons So Powerful?

They can learn every school of magic, innately have multifaceted blank bloodline slots for each court (and can develop more as they age), can learn all forms of magic, have no innate point they start aging, have inborn perfect regeneration that's mundane to act as the foundation of any magic they learn, and they have a long history of bullying lesser beings.

Spirit Animals

What Are Spirit Animals?

Spirit Animals are Souls bound both to prevent their dissipation after-death, and to slave their soul to that of the one binding them. There is only one requirement for what may constitute a spirit animal and that is that it must have a soul which, by definition, means it is self-aware. A variation on the concept of spirit animals is what is called a familiar, which is a spirit animal still in it's living shell-not a soul slain and enslaved, but enslaved while alive. There are some who could argue it is the origination of the concept, but nevertheless there are minor differences between the two all derived from the nature of the familiar's embodied existence, primarily it's ability to continue soul growth after enslavement.

How Do I Get One?

An aspiring master of a spirit animal must first have the desired ensouled being it wishes to own, generally these are animals which have been sanctioned by the Accords-which include any non-sapient mundane creature that develops a soul sometime after maturity, or from the wholly bestial facets of the magical realm: Mythic and Divine Beasts and the like. The difference between ensouled mundane creatures and that of Mystic, Divine, or Demonic Beasts is in their monstrous power and master's ability to adopt their possessed magical abilities.

After acquiring an appropriate ensouled being there is the ritual required for slaving one existence to another, this comes in three general forms based on the facet of the owner's existence he wishes to bind the spirit to-to whit there are Body, Mind, and Soul binds. A spirit animal can have multiple forms of binding, requiring additional rituals per bind. The rituals themselves are age old, thankfully requiring low to no magic, but demanding careful attention and adherence to. These rituals are rarely innovated on as they involve one of the binder's crucial tethers to life and the use of a valuable resource like a would-be spirit animal.

There are general rules that come with binding a spirit animal that apply across all binding types and methods. A spirit animal cannot exceed three times the potency of its master's soul as this could result in the failure of a ritual or worse it's success which would render the binder the bindee. A person may also only have so many spirit animals, each binding area (Body, Mind, and Soul) has it's own limit which is largely dependent on it's magical development. The average person has a limit of one, normal spirit animal per binding site. A spirit animal taken from the magical realms will generally consume all available binding slots in it's binding area, exceptions to this rule being exceedingly rare among the human population.

Assuming all of the preceding steps have been completed and requirements fulfilled the prospective master can safely consider him/herself the proud owner of a spirit animal.

How Can Spirit Animals Be Altered?

A somewhat popular "augmention" among spirit animal owners is that of rendering a spirit animal chimeric. These generally require the consent of the spirit animal undergoing the spiritual change, but after that can be done in the following legal ways:

1: Have consent from the other spirit animal you wish to merge.
2: An untrained soul manipulator can claim in self defense it destroyed/warped it's spirit animal in self defense, although this requires investigation and confirmation by a draconic council.
3: Purchasing preshredded soul bits (do not think of this as a conventional commodity-people who acquire legally okay soul shreds usually covet them.)
4: Use bits of the master's own soul (note that feeding your own soul to a spirit animal in this more permanent sense, rather than funneling spiritual energy, can greatly disturb the spirit animal bond and mutate it)
5: Have a god imbue it after getting the spirit animal to agree to the specific thing you want to do
6: Have the spirit animal ascend to Mythic status while other spirit animals are bound in the same location(s), this will result in them being forcibly unbound and potentially converted into soul scraps which the newly mythic spirit animal will consume.

What Do Different Species of Spirit Animals Do?

There are three types of Spirit Animals: Defensive, which empower their master's body, Sensor, which grant spiritual awareness and preternatural senses, and Assault (otherwise known as Predator among shamanistic circles), that can use their soul mass to directly harm other souls-and sometimes flesh. Those three types are the way you classify what kind of spirit animal any given bound spirit is. In general, Sensor bonds best with Mind, Predator best with Soul, Defensive best with Body; but there are, as always, exceptions and particular circumstances where that's just not true.

The specifics of what a given spirit animal can do are largely variable, but generalizations can be made for species. For example:

• Hummingbirds: Sensors with an eye for mundane senses, speed gauging, and mental quickness boosting or Defensive spirit animals built for speed and mobility.
  
• Gorillas: Defensive type spirit animals widely regarded as the best boosters for physical strength and offering strong secondary defensive boosts.
  
• Orangutans: Defensive granting impressive durability and stamina buffs.
  
• White Harts: Defensive types who give mobility boosts based on stride length and terrain, most often for forested areas and involving limited spatial manipulation.
  
• Mimic Octopus: Sensor or Defensive, with the Sensor type individuals offering a diverse suite of magical sensing bonuses including Elder and the Defensive types granting the curious ability to mimicry to it's owner, making them a near perfect copy of someone they have touched at will, though only the last person they've touched and only storing two disguises at once, one per hand. The cost of these abilities is however dire as members of Cephalopoda class they corrode the sanity of their owners and incline them towards inhuman thought processes.
  
• Squids: Sensors or Defensive who provide a range of senses which lend themselves towards amplifying mental acuity and providing the oft desired ability to sense Elder magic. As Defensive spirit animals they are known for impressive flexibility enhancement. As with the mimic octopus they carry negative mental effects
  
• Sheep Dogs: While dogs are traditionally Predator-types, a dog which was ensouled in the process of working as a sheep dog can make a very effective Sensor spirit, with abilities that improve mundane senses, spatial awareness, empathetic reading of intent, and effective soul-level communication in sublime examples.
  

What Happens If I Mix Binds On A Spirit Animal?

It is possible to apply a second bind to a spirit animal to more tightly integrate it to the master, as long as the second bind is of a different category than the original bind. For example, a spirit bound assault class spirit animal could also be flesh bound. This allows the spirit animal to convey more aspects and abilities to its master.

Applying the last bind forces the master to merge with the spirit animal and become a were-being of the same type as the spirit animal. The spirit animal itself is consumed in this process, becoming one with the owner.

What Are Skinwalkers?

Skinwalkers are the undisputed masters of wereforms, as they have the ability to convert themselves into almost any sort of mundane animal. They are well versed in were-based fleshcrafting techniques and enjoy personal power slightly below that of dragons of similar age and experience. They are secretive and isolationist, as their techniques for making more of themselves require significant investment.

In antiquity a spirit shaman with a brilliant soul got the idea to bind a werebeing as a spirit animal instead of an animal. This same shaman then tried a triple bind to become something new: the first skinwalker. Each subsequent triple binding with new werebeings added to the complexity of the skinwalker's soul and granted him further magic reserves, until he finally became a being capable of challenging dragons. Long before men knew how to make metal tools, the first skinwalker had absorbed werebeings representing every mundane creature on earth, as had all the members of his clan.

The first skinwalker clan recognized that they could not add mythic-creature based weres to themselves indefinitely. Mythic weres represent a far more dense soul to integrate through a triple bind, and are used by individual skinwalkers as a way of specializing.

The skinwalker creation technique is a secret that the disparate clans will work together to protect. Interlopers who steal the secret or learn it independently are usually killed.

Skinwalkers and dragons almost never cooperate. The proprietary techniques skinwalkers use to make more of themselves are completely illegal by Draconic law and the Accords.

Vampires

What Are Vampires?

Vampires are people who have been infected with the vampire spiritual disease.

What Can Vampires Do?

Vampires can auto-push their bodies to the breaking by design (muscle recruitment, bones breaking, etc), but need to unlearn being safe to utilize it fully. They get immunity to shock and pain caps off, barring magical attacks. As an example, a vampire could have all his guts on the floor and blown off legs and talk fine.

Vampires are obligated to take in 5 liters of blood per month, 1 and 1/4th a liter per week, and it has to be from beings that have souls. It's hard to not drain someone to death when a vampire is running on empty. Vampires are instantly rendered catatonic in sunlight. Vampires are very vulnerable, compared to humans, to spiritual attacks, as a vampire's soul is always in his blood, and thus both very easy to find and less warded than a conventional soul. Vampires can sense bloodflow, as a sense, but don't have boosted normal senses.

NeverNever Theories

Matryoshka Magic Theory

The NeverNever can be thought of as the multiverse, the dimension from which all other things developed and to which all other things are ultimately connected. Different aspects of the NeverNever manifest in different ways, each successive iteration nested within the previous one like a matryoshka doll, and each iteration having less and less magic, until culmination in the nearly non-magical mundane dimension known as Reality, otherwise called the Real. This system of nested manifestations occurs repeatedly, and results in an infinite set of parallel worlds.

In NeverNever Matryoshka Magic Theory, the general hierarchy is:

1. NeverNever Root
2. NeverNever
3. Local Planetary NeverNever Field
4. The Dark
5. Reality