#anti-magic

by Ahno Nimus, H.E. and Professor J.F.W. Herschel.

"Anti-Magic is more than just magic's negation, although that is how it typically manifests. It is the inverse of magic, and destroys magic by their interaction." "The only way one could see the abilities of Anti-Magic is by propagating Anti-Magic in a truly unmagical environment, absent of the unusable background magic that saturates most universes." These two quotes are from Professor J.W.F Herschel's book "Negation and Propagation: Anti-Magic as a Field of Study". Today I have come to ask him a few things about Anti-Magic.

So tell me: What do you mean by "the abilities of Anti-Magic"?

Well, in a truly unmagical environment, Anti-Magic works exactly like magic except for this one thing: While Magic, the regular kind, works by drawing energy in, Anti-Magic works by drawing energy out. For example, your standard draining spell works not by, as is commonly considered, actually draining the energy out of the target, but by redirecting energy to another target. This is why, as any practitioner knows, a draining spell is often inefficient and tends to have bleed-over. An equal Anti-Magic spell would work by removing energy from the target, and would be very efficient on this end, but the removed energy would be difficult to putt together to any one spot. Does that make sense?

I believe so. So why is the use of Anti-Magic so rare?

As I mentioned before, almost all known universes have a level of background magic that is hard, if not impossible for your average wizard to use. This means that any attempts to use Anti-Magic in one of these universes has a very limited range and almost no control, because they cancel eachother out. It also becomes difficult to use ones own magic in the presence of Anti-Magic as, again, they cancel out.

That explains some things. So tell me about these universes without this background magic?

There are a few universes with no magic at all, which tend to be mostly lifeless, barren places, with small pockets of life.These tend to be fairly well known. In these universes Magic and Anti-Magic stand on equal terms. There is also one universe, designated κ-001, which has been found to have, instead of background magic, background Anti-Magic. This world seems similar to a magic world, but the way energy flows is completely different. A wizard may sustain themselves their because of their own powerful magic, but it is theorized that a non-wizard individual from a magical world would be destroyed slowly from the contradiction. And an non-Antiwizard individual would suffer a similar fate in ours. Fortunately, these are only theories, and nobody on either side has wanted to risk it.

Chilling. But I'm sure you know the main reason I came to speak to you.

Yes, yes, you want to talk about Watts Millenis. I haven't met Watts myself (despite how much I would like to), but I have a theory. During the discovery of κ-001, there as an incident with the portal, and it became unstable. Material leaked into the Spacebetween. You know how there are two types of wizard, yes? Those born with magic and those taught magic? My theory is that that Anti-Magical material leaked through universes and resulted in a natural Antiwizard born into a Magical universe. They would, of course, not have a full set of powers beyond cancelling magic and creating antimagical objects. And they would likely face prejudice from wizards not taking kindly to having their magic cancelled, and they would likely form their own prejudices against wizards due to this. Now, the portal incident happened ninety-seven years ago, so Watts is probably not this poor antiwizard. But as there are made wizards by teaching, there can be made antiwizards by teaching, and the teacher does tend to pass down their prejudices to their students. Ah, perhaps it's something completely different, perhaps I'm just babbling. Next question please.

Of course. Would it be possible to use Magic and Anti-Magic together?

Theoretically yes, and that's what I'm trying to impress upon my students. It would take great effort and concentration, but by combining Magic and Anti-Magic very carefully, you could create some of the most efficient spells known to wizardkind. Let's go back to the draining spell example. A Magical draining spell is inefficient targeting-wise, while an Anti-Magical draining spell is inefficient with dealing with the drained energy. A carefully arranged combination of both, done in such a way that they do not cancel out, would be nearly perfect in its efficiency.

Actually, I met a wizard who believed that they had achieved that.

Really?

Yes, they called it "Before Magic".

Hmm. I would very much like to meet them too. In any case, unless you have more questions, I have a lecture to get to.

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(Image source: indiamart - Black Potassium Humate Crystals, For Crops, Pack Size: 30 Kg; image description: A white dish holding fine, slightly shiny, black particles.)

poison (inhaled)

A creature subjected to this poison must succeed on a DC 15 Constitution saving throw or become poisoned for one hour. If the poisoned creature casts a spell, it takes 4 (1d6) psychic damage per level of spell cast (cantrips count as a level 1 spell for the purpose of this effect).

Background

Despite the well known magical absorptive properties of chardalyn, efforts to discover the magical properties of crushed chardalyn has evaded the best efforts of magical researchers for centuries. It was not until the deeply unethical experiments conducted by minions of Xardorok Sunblight that an important discovery was accidentally made: powdered chardalyn inside the body maintains its neutralizing properties. Instead of capturing and storing the magical energy released by the caster, it produces negative psychic feedback in the mind as the energy fights to make it out of the body. It remains incredibly difficult to produce, as a vast quantity of chardalyn must be ground incredibly fine to be able to enter the body, but it could potentially form a crucial weapon against spellcasters of all sorts.

Story Hooks

A wizard has lost the ability to cast spells without being wracked with horrible pain after prolonged torture in Xardorok Sunblight’s dungeons. They have heard of a way to purge their body of unnatural toxins in a mystical hot spring hidden deep beneath the Spine of the World. The question is, can they make it past the shrine’s elemental guardians?