Voiding

From Mizahar Lore

"Wizard Aelobius taught us Voiding. He was a local authority in the field and widely respected by the magical community. In fact, he had no enemies around the Academy - they all tended to vanish without a trace. So did his three wives." - Vuld Shaik, "Magic and I"

Voiding

Personal magic
Full name	Voiding
Availability	Throughout Mizahar
Learned from	Users, books
Key concept	Opening portals to and from the Void
Uses	Getting rid of unwanted things, storage and retrieval, limited teleportation
Risks	Self-voiding, freeing dangerous banished creatures and objects

Voiding is a discipline of personal magic that allows the wizard to open portals and blackholes to the Void, a dimension of emptiness that serves as a cosmic junkyard for magic users. Portals can generate a pull, sucking their surroundings into the other side, or simply transport whatever crosses them either way. More skilled wizards can also retrieve things from the Void, at the risk of fishing things previously Voided by another wizard. According to statistics, most things cast into the Void deserve to be there. Very powerful wizards can even link several portals, making things enter one portal and exit another, thus achieving a limited form of short-distance teleportation.

Contents 1 History 2 Overview 3 Opening a Portal 4 Customization 5 Risks 6 Progression

History

The origins of Voiding are lost in the mists of time, but it is thought to be one of the most ancient magic forms. Before the Valterrian, Voiding used to be part of the standard magic curriculum as a support discipline. Wizards without any training in it were considered second-rate. The reason was that many magic disciplines, such as Reimancy, do not have an explicit way of undoing a spell once it has been cast (see the laws of Djed); Voiding served as a partial replacement to make up for this lack.

Much like all other forms of magic, the Valterrian elevated it to a rare and mystical artform, even though it was originally meant to be a precaution above anything else. Today, Voiding is still practiced in some form by most organized magical communities around Mizahar.

Overview

While Voiding is a simple discipline at its core, it is capable of rather complex effects. Most Voiders are not interested in the subtleties, since they only use it for basic dispelling and anti-magic purposes, but highly creative uses are possible for the astute wizard.

The Voider will refer to the world as "This Side" (TS) and the Void as the "Other Side" (OS). Voiding can thus be broken down into three basic elements.

• Portal. Any construct linking TS and OS. The wizard can create Portals with pure strength of will through their Djed. The Portal must be created near the user's body, typically in front of their outstretched hands. Lower-level wizards will usually accompany the effort with gestures and incantations, or runes of Glyphing painted on their palms for focus.
  Depending on the wizard's Djed, the Portal will look slightly differently, but it will resemble a swirling vortex, usually looking like a black hole of sorts. Skilled wizards may move the Portal around with their will, or even push it across large distances with Projection or other methods.

• Pull. A Portal may or may not have Pull. A Pull is attractive or repulsive force, designed to absorb things into or eject things from the Portal. Novices will only make Pull-less or attractive Portals, and even those are somewhat risky. While it is possible to create omni-directional Pull, this is almost suicidal as the user will usually be nearby and might get sucked into their own Portal (self-voiding). Most often, Pull will have a specific direction.
  A Portal can get engulfed if it tries to pull larger objects than its own size. Particularly skilled wizards can generate selective Pull, which only attracts certain things or materials. Master-level selective Pull can literally eject metallic nails out of wooden boards across a large room.

• Anchor. An Anchor is an item charged with the user's Djed that is sent to the OS. Later Portals can be attuned to a previous Anchor by simply willing them. This means that the Portal will not open onto a random area of the Void, but exactly where the Anchor is. A typical use is to allow for storage of items on the OS - the Anchor is some kind of container which can be accessed by a later Portal.
  A good Anchor must be able to withstand the harsh environment of the Void and any creatures able to survive in it. There are many creative uses for Anchors, but perhaps the most impressive of them all is a master Voider's ability to open several Portals using the same Anchor at the same time. In practice, this allows them to use the Void as a stepping stone to move between two Portals on the physical world. This is a highly reduced version of how the god Aquiras powered the Watchtower system.

Opening a Portal

Customization

Risks

The first and foremost risk of Voiding is ending up trapped in the Void as a consequence of one's own spells. This is known as self-voiding, and is a highly humiliating demise for any wizard. Portals cannot be opened from the Void, not even through scrolls or other portable methods. Any rescuing devices must be activated from This Side, not the Other Side.

Progression

Novice (1-25)
	At this level, the Voider can open small portals about as large as their hands or slightly larger. These portals are static and may only generate a weak pull; moreover, they only allow travel into the Void, not out of it. Creating a portal requires around 30 seconds of concentration and is usually aided by gestures and incantations.
Competent (26-50)
Expert (51-75)
Master (76-100)