[Ivory Tower] Essence Conversion [Masterpiece Spell]

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Late Pontius, in the Season of Winter,
Era I of the Celestine Mandate, Era XV Post Fractum

Serion had been in Zinn'Sunn for a few brightenings now, and his loty ligh. The majority of students seeking Thaumaturgy seemed to head to the Darui’Torek, ready to give their lives away to the order. It didn't really bother Serion, afterall. He wanted more time to work on his masterpiece spell, but the ability to find a necromancer had been rather lacking. It was on a slow day that Serion had decided to stay in his room. He couldn't seem to hurry his search for a necromancer, so he would spend more time getting preparations put together. Sitting at the small writing desk in his room, the Dark Paladin had managed to go over a lot of the information he had researched in Natura. While many mages spent their entire lives studying mana manipulation, the dark elf knew very few people that focused on the essences and techniques in particular.

As a mage who was once attached to the Plane of Death, Serion had learned much about the ritual required to erradicate all connections to an astral plane via soulstones. Becoming rebound, to the Plane in opposition to his prior one, the vysstichi's eyes had been opened to many similarities amongst the essences. Unfortunately, it wasn't until the creation of his Staff of Arcana, Light's Darkness, that Serion could truly analyze the arcane. Looking over his research notes, the vysstichi had managed to compile some writings on his findings.

Essences seem to appear different shades and textures when studied under Meditation during their injection into spells. Essence of Force: Used in Sorcery. Ruby Red in color. Translucent. Smooth Essence of Element: Used in Elementalism. Color changes based on type of element. Fire: Yellowish-Orange. Constantly fluctuating. Water: Deep blue. Translucent. Smooth. Earth: Brown. Solid. Rough texture. Air: Light blue-white. Translucent. Whispy Essence of Thought: Used in Mysticism. Blueish-purple. Smooth. Essence of Life: Used in Thaumaturgy. Golden-white. Smooth. Essence of Nature: Used in Druidism. Dark Green. Thick. Smooth. Vine-like. Essence of Death: Used in Necromancy. Black. Greasy. Smooth. Essence of Song: Used in Bardism. Essence of Rune: Used in Ikos.

Serion had surmised that the appearance of essence changed from person to person based on the way their mind percieved the Astral Plane. It wasn't anything major, but it had got him started on the proper path for his newest spell. Something the vysstichi had always hated was how difficult it was to properly use arcana in certain situations. Even with a way to maintain Meditation indefinately, the shaping of mana still took time, and often too much of it. If he could fashion a way to steal away another person's hard work, and use it against them, then his efficiency as a mage would be nearly indescribeable.

Looking over the basic writeups on Arcanomechanics, and the Astral Plane itself, the thaumaturgist could speak from experience that the essences themselves were not completely different in nature. It was his theory, that by applying some basic techniques to the essence itself, he could create something controllable that was concieved from someone else's vis. As a former necromancer, Serion had been an intimate practitioner of the art of using Death Essence. It was the most familiar essence next to Life, and it only made sense that his experiments begin there.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Raising his head at the knock on his door, Serion eyes the wooden, iron bound entryway. "Come in..." Serion says lightly, turning in his seat to fully face his guest.

"I beg your pardon Master D'Rinishad. I am Osmund, Osmund Douglas. The Tower Masters have me clean the rooms every few brightenings." The human was an odd sort for this particular city. A vagaran amongst Kemites was similar to a vysstichi in Sylrosia. While most Kemites were darker haired humans with dark eyes, this Osmund character was fair skinned, with blonde hair and blue eyes. "I am not dsturbing you am I? It shoudl only take a minute, you seem pretty tidy."

Standing up from his chair, chuckling a bit at the human as the middle aged man seems to nose around the dark elf's room without even entering. "Please, be my guest. I would hate to hinder you in your duties to the Tower." Leaning against a far wall, Serion would let the man meander a bit, dusting edges and sliding the papers on his desk to ensure nothing was missed by his dusting cloth.

"I take it you get to be pretty familiar with the mages that come to this tower, being the person in charge of cleaning their rooms, eh?" Serion asks, suddenly getting the idea that he might be able to push the vagaran for some information. Letting the man finish dusting about, the vysstichi folds his arms casually across his chest. "Oh, I do indeed know many people within the tower...past and present. Is there someone you wish to know about?"

Turning to face Serion, the human tucks his dusting rag into a pocket on the side of his trousers. "Actually, I was wondering if anyone knew anything of illegal practitioners within Zinn'sunn. Necromancers. I'm sure no one openly wields the art of death, but every city has at least a couple of dark mages about."

Smiling a rather odd grin as he cocks his head to the side, Osmund starts to laugh. "Necromancer? What makes you think I would know anything about necromancers? You been hearing rumors?" Osmund's smile suddenly disappears, his eyes shooting towards the door as a cold look comes upon his face. Rushing over to the door, the man crouches, poking his head out to glance both directions down the hallway. Turning back to Serion, Osumund points a thin finger at the dark elf. "You after my bounty? Who sent you? There's nothing wrong with what I do!"

The odd turn of events managed to catch Serion off guard, but composure was his friend as he kept his face calm and serene. "To be honest, I've never even heard of you." Letting a smile slowly form on his dark features, Serion nods slightly to Osmund. "I merely wish a necromancer to aid me in research. As a former necromancer myself, I couldn't bring myself to turn someone in for simply choosing one face of a dice. All faces are essentially the same, though some sides seem to have greater favor than others."

Osmund's eyes narrow as Serion speaks, suspicioun evident on his features. Just as quickly as his fear had come however, so too did it disappear. The bright looking human was grinning again. "Ah yes. I love experiments. I have a lab of my own. In the basement. With the cleaning supplies. No one knows what I do down there, part of the reason I deal with cleaning up after everyone else. Privacy is so lovelu. Perhaps I can help. I am free in the evenings, when people sleep. Perhaps you can visit?"

It was an odd stroke of luck, in Serion's mind. Perhaps it was his being in Zinn'Sunn, the Ikos capital of Aelyria, that was to be blamed. Regardless, it was an offer he coudl not refuse. "I would be honored to visit you Osmund. Perhaps in time, we can get to know each other as we experimet together." Inclining his head to the human, Serion will make his way back to his desk, reorganizing the papers that Osmund had shifted in cleaning. "Yes, yes. Tonight is good. Maybe we could be friends."

With an odd twirl as he pivots to head back through the door, Serion can only shake his head at the human. The man was indeed an odd on, but perhaps he would be just what he needed. At least this way he wasn't trying to sneak a necromancer to his own room.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

The basement was pretty dark and quite at the Ivory Tower. It reminded Serion a bit of the dungeons at the old D'Rinishad Complex back in Hon'Elgg, though a bit less full of unspeakable horrors. Osmund had told Serion he could find him here after nightfall, and the Dark Paladin figured it was good fortune to have such a willing assistant. Making his way to the bottom floor, Serion could smell many things that made his nostrils flare a bit, the conjoined scents leaving an interesting affect on his senses. Chemicals and dankness were apparently the norm down here, and the vysstichi could see why no one really bothered the janitor's lab area.

Stopping as he notices the movement of shadows, Serion calls out quietly. "Osmund? It's Serion. Are you down here?" A few silent moments passed before the moving shadows stopped, shifting to move towards him before the familiar form of the Necromancer comes into view. "Ah, Mr. D'Rinishad! So good of you to join me. Please, follow me to the lab." Following the lanky human, Serion comes to an open area, full of beakers and bottles containing multicolored liquids--a few of which bubbled as they were slowly heated by small flames beneath them.

"I have been toying around with potions lately. Please forgive the mess." Grabbing an armfull of clutter from a dusty seat, Osmund thumps it down on the floor, patting the worn cushion as he smiles crookedly at the vysstichi. "Come. Sit. Tell me of your experiment. I love new creations, and I'd be happy to help you." Spinning around, the human takes another chair that appears to have been used more recently than Serion's own, and plops down, crossing his legs in front of him. Brushing off the dirty cushion a couple more times, Serion hesitates a moment before easing into the dirty chair. It would take him forever to clean the dirt from his clothes, so perhaps his next spell would be of a cleanling nature.

"I appreciate your hospitality, Osmund. For the moment I was simply hoping you could cast a few spells for me while I analyzed them. I can explain my plans as we work, this way we can be efficient with our time." Eyeing the necromancer, Serion smiles when osmund shakes his head in agreement. "Oh, of course! Let's begin. I'll cast an acid orb, it's a prety basic spell."

One hand lightly resting on Light's Darkness, Serion nods his agreement back to the necromancer. An acid orb was good enough for his research at the moment, and in Clara Serion could see every aspect of it's creation. "As you do that, I shall have my own spell to compare the two." Drawing forth his own Life Essence from the Astral Plane, the Dark Paladin creates the mana required to cast a light dart, letting the spell float above his hand as it glows dimly in the darker light of the basement lab.

A few moments later, as Serion watched, Osmund fashions his acid orb, holding it in a similar nature to how the paladin holds his own spell. With both spells in place, and the vysstichi's silver eyes in Clara, Serion began to compare the two spells, picking apart the differences with his magically inclined vision, trying to find the commonalities of the two spells. It would not be a quick process, but at long last Serion was able to get a good look at the Essence that he had forsaken so many eras ago.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Eyes scanning the two similar spells, Serion begins the process of slwoly unweaving the two spells via Dispelling Techniques. His intentions were to watch each spell as he slowly seperates the essence from the mana. "Try and hold the essence in place, even though the rest of the spell is beginning to dissipate..." Serion directs his necromantic assistant. The two essences were complete opposites, but the dark elf's research had led him to the theory that their cores were the same. The Astral Plane contained numerous levels of Essence, but surely there was some Astral Energy that had to make up all of them. It was this that Serion wished to localize and analyze.

It took a while, the Dark Paladin not wishing to dispel too qucikly, the results would leave a golden-white strand above Serion's hand and a smooth, greasy black strand above Osmund's. Shifting his ebon-skinned hand closer to Serion attempts to overlay his essence strand atop Osmund's. It was merely a hunch, but with the two spheres being opposites, Serion was hoping that they would seperate from each other, like oil and water. Keeping his mind clear, Serion pushes the Life Essence from his hand to Osmund's, mixing the two.

Leaning close, Serion's eyes widen a bit as the two strands begin to glow, their contact seemingly having an affect on one another. "Amazing..." mumbles the vysstichi as he watches the reaction. Moving forward, the thaumaturgist stops suddenly, realizing the glowing of the two essences begins to pulse brighter, the single strand suddenly expanding and contracting. Concern begins to show on his brow as he slides back from Osmund, attempting to release the Essence--the Essence that still remains, flashing and convulsing violently. "Osmund! Release the Essence!" Hearing Serion hiss his warning, the necromancer drops his hold on the Essence as well, but Serion's eyes inform him that it was no good. The combination was still apparent, and it appeared to be that things were not going as planned.

Stepping towards the combined Life and Death Essences, pushing the Vagran back as he hurredly traces a circle about the glowing phenomenon, Serion pushes his vis into the circle, enacting a Circle of Magic. Barely completing the technique in time, the Essences flash brilliantly, causing even Osmund to gasp as a sudden explosion occurs within the dark elf's magical containment. Filling the cylinder with enough light to cause the two mages to cover their eyes as the dim light of their surroundings brightens, the explosion vanishes as quickly as it occured.

Slowly removing his arm from his eyes, looking around to make sure the Circle of Magic contained the damage, Serion turns his attention to Osmund. "Well my friend, it appears that we may need to take things a bit slower. It seemed to have a decent reaction at first, but I was too swift in combining the Essences..." Laughing a bit, the Vagran nods his head. "Indeed, Master Serion. I haven't seen an explosion so ground in some time within the walls of the tower. It is a good thing you have your Staff to be able to erect your spells so quickly."

Chuckling a bit, Serion could only agree. As a mental note, he also stored in his mind the fact that Osmund was much more aware of things than he gave him credit for when they first met. He had never mentioned his staff, but obviously the necromancer realized where Serion's increased spellcasting speed came from. "It is a good thing. Now, how about we try this again. This time though, let's create our spells within the Circle--just in case."

[Serion D'Rinishad]

The two Adepts begin their spellcasting once more, shaping their spells into the forms of a Light Dart and Acid Orb. As the spells are held in place within the Circle of Magic the Serion had erected, the Thaumaturgist begins the Dispelling process once more, picking apart the two spells until nothing is left but the two singular strands of slgihtly glowing Essences--Life and Death. "All right," Serion says quietly to his comrade. "Here I go."

Using his Vis to control the Life Essence, the Dark Paladin slowly shifts it towards the strand of Death benig held in place by Osmund. The fist attempt was nearly a disaster, but Serion was always known to be a quick learner. He had mixed the two opposites too quickly, and the result was a deadly explosion of Astral Energy. The upside was the proof that the Astral Energy was indeed there, and Serion needed only to discover how to harness it on purpose.

Instead of overlaying the two strands, Serion forces his will upon the Life Essence, bending it to wrap around Osmund's Death Essence so that their energy was constantly in touch, but not combined. With one hand resting on Light's Darkness, the vision of Clara told the dark elf that the two essences were glowing slightly brighter than when seperate, but no where near as volitile as earlier. It was witha patient mind and a steady hand that the vysstichi directed his vis to squeeze his Life Essence around the Death, slowly constricting the two Essences together.

As Serion watched the reaction, he slowed his constriction whenever the brightness of the Essences seemed to increase to quickly, awaiting for the light to subside to a constant level. Even with Light's Darkness Serion could feel the strain on him as he constantly held his will upon the Essence glowing in front of him, but he had plenty of reserve, and plenty of willpower. It was perhaps half a candlemark before Serion could get the two essences to combine, and unlike the explosion of the first combination, the second attempt was much more fruitful. "Excellent!" Serion's joy at the effects were easily noticeable from his outburst, and Osmund's eyes widened in anticipation. "What do you see?!"

With a smile, Serion describes the sight before him, the process of his experiment bearing the information that his theories had pointed to. The two Essences, slowly combined, had managed to negate themselves, leaving what appeared to be multiple threads of thin, glowing energy. The Astral Energy that Serion had hoped to find was indeed here, the key to the spell he wished to create. With this knowledge, the next step would be harder than this--altering the necromantic Essence into thaumaturgic essence.

Releasing his will upon the Astral strands, the dark elf watches them disappear before his magic sensing vision, indicating that Osmund do the same. "The Astral Energy is the same. The next step is much more intensive, and will require much trial and error. I think it best if I rest, and we try and pick this up again at a later time. Perhaps tomorrow night?" Standing, his eyes on the necromancer as he removes his hand from Light's Darkness, Serion awaits the vagran's opinion of the situation as the glowing aura of all things magical fades from his sight.

Standing as well, Osmund nods his head. "I am obciously of little use, other than casting spells. If you think you should rest, than that is what we shall do. I needn't clean the rooms tomorrow, as I'll be focusing more on the training areas, but I shoudl be free around sundown tomorrow. Feel free to visit." Smiling his crooked grin, the blonde human laughs. "After all, it has indeed been a while since I had someone willing to talk to me. Most people think I'm wierd."

Waving farewell to the human, Serion makes his way out of the basement, the strange laughter of Osmund echoing quietly as the necromancer returns to his own studies in his lab. The human was an odd one, the dark elf thought to himself, but he was helpful. At this point, that was all that mattered.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Making it back up to his room, Serion takes a seat at his desk, lighting a small candle for a bit of light. Shuffling the papers in front of him, the vysstichi finds where he left off in his notes, grabbing a quill and dipping it in his writing ink, the Dark Paladin begins jotting down what he has deiscovered thus far.

Astral Energy- the core of all Essence drawn from the Astral Plane. When two opposing Essences were combined, the results led to a disippation of Essence, leaving only a strand of energy. Possible Ideas Attempt to use techniques on the Astral Energy, and determine it's effects. If techniques are effective, attempt to use Alteration through the Astral Energy on the opposing Essence Determine the best way to convert and control the resulting creation

Most of Serion's ideas at this point were pure theory and conjecture. Until he could physically test his ideas, he would have no idea what sort of path this project might take. From the previous experiment, he already discovered that dangerous events could transpire, and every precaution should be made.

Standing up from his desk, stretching as he lets out a silent yawn, Serion releases the belt holding his blades and leans the sword's agains the side of the desk. Stripping down, he leans over and blows out the candle before heading to bed.

Tomorrow evening would be an interesting one should his tests go well. The principles of the Absorption spell used by Duncan would come in handy, especially when trying to control whatever creation appeared from the dark elf's arcanic tinkerings. Letting his mind wander off, Serion knew that his time was being well spent, and all was seemingly going well.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

The next day had been pretty uneventful. Serion had taken the time to explore the city a bit, but in the end his time was found spent in the library of the Ivory Tower, reaserching the arcanomechanics that he'd be meddling with in this evening experimentation. Of all the information, the most important seemed to be some of the more basic techniques:

Abjuration: This technique creates motion and movement. It is used for moving energy out of one place to the other, forcing spells or objects to move in a certain pattern. Such as shaping a fireball’s movement trajectory into a spiral one rather than just releasing it on spot or in a throw, when taking energy out of a person or giving energy into a plant. Alteration: This technique creates or changes shape and form. It is used for creating or changing texture, shape, density or form of a spell or an object. Such as shaping a fireball into a firewall or a fireshield, a piece of wood into a certain form or covering something over something.

While the vysstichi had merely combined the two essences to discover the Astral Energy, it was through abjuration that he hoped to inject a small amount of Life Essence into a spell so that he may use alteration on the rest of the mana to cause it to become Life Essence as well.

It was a simple conjecture, but one that Serion had studied for many seasons now. The only part left was to actually apply his theory and hope all went well. Reading a bit more on mana shaping, just to refresh himself on the scientific nature of the technique, Serion will close his texts and scrolls, standing as he begins to depart the library. The sun was going down and it was about time for Osmund and he to meet once more.

[Serion D'Rinishad]

Finding Osmund was much simpler this go around since Serion had already visited the basement lab once before. The odd vagran was tinkering with some glowing concoctions when the dark paladin arrived, and after a few moments he looked up. "Ah, Master D'Rinishad! Welcome back! This can wait, let us continue with your research. Come, come." Motioning towards a spot that had apparently been cleared out since his last visit, Serion sat down upon one of the two chairs that faced each other, a circle already chalked out on the floor.

"I see you have alrady prepared things my friend," Serion smiles to the necromancer, motioning towards the circle that would serve as their lab area. "Yes, of course. I had much time on my hands today, figured it wouldn't hurt, eh?"


Nodding, the dark elf lets one hand rest upon his sword of arcana, drawing upon his vis to erect the Circle of Magic before they begun the rest of their casting process. "Okay Osmund. Our plan for this darkening is to cast your spell, and for me to attempt a few techniques upon it. Your acid orb should be sufficient."


With the plan in place, Serion could only run over it in his mind while the necromancer begun creating his orb within the Circle of Magic. The vysstichi's first step would be to use abjuration on a small portion of Life Essence, sending it into the acid orb, similar to a disruptive dispelling. With the abjuration however, the Essence should merely combine itself with the orb, linking it's astral energy with that of the death essence.

The next part would be to use Alteration on the astral energy, cusing the Life Essence to envelope the Death Essence, leaving a holy sphere of energy. At least, that was the plan. Whether it worked or not would soon to be seen.

Keeping his silver eyes on Osmund's spell as it forms, watching it through Clara, the dark elf had to admit that he was impressed with how far his knowledge of arcanomechanics had come since the fracturing of the aethergem.