#ruchi

She is a brahmin woman married to the rishi Devasharma. Her husband hears that Indra was in the vicinity and immediately remembers Ahalya and decides that Ruchi will also cheat on him with Indra.

Then, Devasharma has to leave the ashram for a few days, and so he asks his student Vipula to keep an eye on her when he is away. Devasharma, before leaving, reminds Vipula that Indra can take the form of any human or animal to try to sleep with Ruchi.

Once Devasharma leaves, Vipula decides that the best way, according to him, to keep Indra from seducing Ruchi is to possess her body with his tapasya powers, and later escape via her menstrual blood.

So, Vipula goes and distracts Ruchi by sweet-talking her and then 'possesses' her by first locking eyes [honestly though the description sounds more like he tricked her into nasally/orally consuming some kind of paralytic]. He then touches his limbs to hers, his lips to hers, and his privates to hers to complete this 'protection ritual'.

Whatever the nature of the 'magic' might have been, when Indra does come to the ashram as a guest, Ruchi, despite being completely awake and aware, and wanting to be a good hostess to him, is unable to control her limbs or facial muscles.

Seeing her unable to respond, Indra loses interest in his plan, and then Vipula shows him out of the ashram.

Types of magic

Every magic user is only capable of one kind of magic. So, someone who can talk to animals can’t also manipulate fire or become invisible. A magic healer can’t shape-shift. A shape-shifter can’t control weather. Etc.—everyone’s got their specific magical skill.

There are myriad ways an individual’s magic can manifest, but they’re formally classified into three categories: nature-related (magic linked to elements present in nature, such as fire, water, weather, rocks, plants etc.), mind-related  (telepathy, truth-telling, future-telling etc.), and matter-related (telekinesis, healing etc.). Kids get tested for each category, and if they test positive for one, The Magic Experts must figure out their specific magic within that category.

There’s endless discourse about which magic is “better” and “stronger”, and everyone has Opinions, but the magic experts agree that it’s the user’s skill and training level that makes the difference in power. But you better believe dumb kids with magic will organize illegal matches to see who’s better. Kids, man.  

Types of Magic Users

After a magic-capable child has trained a few years, they can take a test to become a magicker, e.g. a person certified to safely use and control their magic. Some ninety percent of magic users are magickers.

Magickers can use their magic in its pure form (e.g. a healer magicker can heal people), but they can’t work it into spells (e.g. the same healer magicker can’t put a protective healing spell on someone going into battle, or make a magic amulet to heal the wearer).

A magicker who wishes to delve deeper into the secrets of magic can undergo further training (usually a few more years), and take a series of harder tests to become a mage. Few magic users go on to do this, because it’s hard and takes a lot of time and dedication. what no this isn’t a metaphor for a PhD pshhht i’m not traumatized you’re traumatized

Mages can do everything magickers can, AND they can weave their magic into spells, or create magical objects. E.g. a healer mage could not only heal someone, but also lay that protective spell to heal the person even if they’re not there.

Obviously mages are v respected and feared b/c they can do A Lot of Sh*t

Finally, a mage who decides to dedicate their life to the study, teaching & guardianship of magic can undergo even more academia metaphors training & tests, and become [plot-irrelevant-yet-spoilerish-title]. These are the Magic Experts, summoned when Bad Sh*t is going down, who work as a failsafe/ supervisory body to make sure no one is abusing magic on a world-endangering scale

They also test kids for magic & make sure everyone who has it has resources to train safely; outside of this, they sit on their Magic Island and aren’t plot-relevant until unless someone unleashes the magical apocalypse

Someone who is magic-capable, but has (purposefully) refused to train and take the tests and oaths to become a magicker—or who has broken said oaths by using magic to intimidate or harm others—is called a rogue. 

Rogue magickers are rare. Rogue mages are virtually unheard of. 

Each land has their own system for dealing with potential rogue magickers, usually some form of ‘send some v competent people after them’. The Knight Corps plays this role, in Scania.

What Can Magic Do?

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ anything non-magic can do (healing, building, agriculture, stone/metal craftsmanship etc.), only faster and fancier. Also a few things non-magic can’t do, such as shape-shifting, mind-reading, future-reading etc.

The applications depend to some extent on the user’s type of magic (a shape-shifter can’t throw fireballs), but the better trained the user, the more things they can accomplish with control and imagination, so there are few hard limits.

Those hard limits are: bringing back the dead, rewriting reality, teleporting matter, and time-travel. Yes these are very specific and there is A Reason

Magic can also do one plot-relevant thing! I.e. summon murder-birbs evil undead-y monsters who torment people, generate chaos, and are used to cast The Very Nastiest of Curses

Obvs this is neither an ideal nor an approved use of magic. 

definitely not Sarra-approved 

not saying this is what the High Prelate is trying to do, but.

it is

Fun Plot-Relevant Details

Ruchi is a rogue magicker 

Ahni is a mage yup you better believe my functional unicorn has SKILLZ

Someone else in the book has magic and it’s not Sarra a spoiler

Sarra had a v useful magic object but she uhm, misplaced it