Sorcery is a powerful and destructive force channeled by the will of a sorcerer and fueled by the consumption of water. Once practiced on an unimaginable scale by the Old Kingdoms, it is now mysterious and feared in the modern Age of Survival, where every working draws upon the same dwindling resource needed to sustain life.
Overview
Sorcery allows its practitioners to impose their will upon the world. Through practiced gestures, incantations, and carefully guarded rituals, a sorcerer might summon flame, move objects without touching them, mend torn flesh, conceal themselves from sight, or unleash forces capable of killing in an instant.
But all Sorcery carries a heavy cost in the harsh barren world of Tarisia: water.
The act of casting draws upon water and consumes it in the working. Small quantities may suffice for simple magic, while greater workings demand considerably more. What remains afterward varies. Water may disappear entirely, vaporize, or be left foul and lifeless, its usefulness spent along with whatever power was drawn from it.
In the Age of Abundance, the cost must have seemed considerably less important. Rivers crossed fertile lands, rain fell freely, and great seas stretched beyond the horizon. Sorcery became woven into the power and prosperity of the Old Kingdoms, shaping their cities, temples, monuments, and eventually their wars.
Their ruins still bear evidence of that relationship. Ancient temples stand amid elaborate channels and basins. Aqueducts converge upon chambers whose purposes are no longer understood. Ceremonial sites contain stone waterways arranged in intricate patterns, while some ruined cities appear to have diverted entire rivers through their sacred and civic centers. Modern Tarisians generally regard these works as remnants of a wetter age, and whatever purposes they served beyond carrying water have largely been forgotten.
The Wanderer
The Old Kingdoms knew the great power trapped inside of lakes and seas.
As the abundance was consumed, the kingdoms fought for rivers, springs, reservoirs, and fertile lands. Even today, their desiccated armies can be found buried in the sands around ancient sources of water, the surrounding ruins scarred by Sorcery powerful enough to suggest that even catastrophe was insufficient reason to stop using it.
Sorcery in the Wastes
Hundreds of years later, Sorcery remains both feared and powerful throughout Tarisia. Its practitioners command respect because they possess the means to accomplish things ordinary people cannot, and hatred because they are willing to defile Tarisia’s most precious resource in the process.
The most infamous and powerful sorcerers are the Thrones, who use their power to rule the last bastions of civilization with ruthlessness and zeal. Lesser sorcerers are found among rulers and temple priests, or in service to armies and wealthy patrons. Even a modest working may consume enough water to sustain someone else for days.
Some sorcerers carry water specifically for their workings. Others draw upon whatever can be found nearby, draining moisture from vegetation, animals, or other living things when necessary. A rare well, cistern, or oasis is therefore more than a source of survival. In the presence of a sorcerer, it is a reservoir of potential power.
While a sorcerer may save lives by spending water to heal the wounded, defend a settlement, or destroy an approaching enemy, the water is no less gone because the cause was worthy.
The dying world makes no distinction between necessity and greed.