Farseer

Overview

Magic touches all aspects of the Mortal Sphere, wefting life to life and weaving stone to stone. A Farseer seeks ever to understand that weave and to grow their skills in manipulating and using it without ever harming it. Some mages simply learn the spells and speak them while forcing the mana they wield into the pattern they have learned. Others use their emotions to empower their spellcraft and some a fierce discipline born of long years of patient meditation. Most such users of magic create new patterns in the flow of magic, eddies and ripples that perform their task and in the main quickly fade away as the magic takes effect. A Farseer instead looks to the threads of magic around them and from the patterns they sense crafts the spells they need striving ever to leave the pre-existing weave as they found it.

This care is born of a particular understanding of magic and its potential impacts. The theories of the Farseers are unproven, but contend that each use of arcane power is a permanent change to the nature of the world where the magic was performed. By manipulating the very stuff that defines the Mortal Sphere Magi change it in usually very small ways. Unpredictable ways. A Farseer, so named because of their sense of the possible implications of magic, but also because of the predictions of the founder of the theory of magic they follow, is ever careful to minimise the impact of their casting.

Need:

Magus

Farseers are arcane spellcasters, and do not exist outside of this tradition.

Reccomended:

Spells: Heal, Reforge, Mend Limb, Shackle, Stun and Purify

Farseers tendency toward working within the pattern has them show an affinity for spells that restore or restrain the natural order such as these.

Costume Marker:

Bands of Fate

The Farseers wear woven cords or braided straps around their forearms, wrists, and hands. They will often unwrap these while considering the weave around them and rewrap them in different ways, perhaps helping them to better attune the patterns of magic they have sensed in their meditations. The length of these wraps varies but they are always enough to encircle the wrist several times. Styles of wraps that are appropriate include finger woven cordage, inkle waving or tablet weaving.

History:

The Valley has been dwelled in for many generations reaching back hundreds of years and the Folk of the Valley have ever had amongst them those capable of using arcane power for their own devices. The many spells crafted again and again as Magi manipulate mana to perform magics were laid one over another upon the weave of the Mortal Sphere heedlessly. Many Magi still do. 540 years ago a magus who became known as the Farseer, and whose followers now name themselves Farseers in their honour, came to recognise the damage carelessly crafted magic was doing. Being a powerful voice amongst the Magi of the Valley at the time they were able to sway others to recognise this damage and encourage a better manner of using magic carefully, synergistically, within the pattern of the weave.

This teaching spread amongst the Magi of the Valley such that most Folk of the Iron Valley with magical talent now learn magical casting as the Farseers teach it. Only those whose concentration is upon battle magics and other destructive forces tend to use the common careless methods, and even they will seek to use their magics rarely and only when necessary, and spend time afterwards when they can restoring any damage they have caused.

The first Farseer also predicted many possible implications of the ongoing careless use of magic, including the creation of unnatural monsters, terrible cataclysmic tremors, the awakening of ancient evils, and the ultimate doom of the Valley. Ever since the Magi of the Valley have been careful to keep the weave stable and whole within their borders, and sought to calm any twisting or tearing they detect in the weave.

Three Things Farseers Are:

Careful

The Farseers are careful with how they craft their magic, often taking longer than others, or practicing the intricacies of the art of magic endlessly to diminish the risk of causing damage to the weave. They will quick cast, but usually only one, or perhaps two, spells that they use regularly enough to be able to cast them carefully and within the pattern of the local fabric of magic. Such care in their craft often extends to other aspects of their life and they are often cautious and relatively quiet folk.

Mystics

The Farseers have a clear understanding of Magic and its structure, and are able to easily accommodate this understanding to any new knowledge they acquire. Their understanding of magic is not necessarily reflected in all who use the magical arts, and it is entirely possible that other Magi may see them as being inflexible, or indeed potentially irrational mystics. They themselves tend to be proud of their certain understanding of how magic interacts with the physical aspects of the Mortal Sphere, and see it as a profound truth that all other facts must universally connect to, regardless of if they can explain how.

Attentive

Studying and being aware of the patterns of magic around them makes Farseers seem distracted, but nothing could be further from the truth. Indeed they are usually highly aware of what is happening around them, and train themselves constantly to improve this awareness. They can be relied upon to recall, if not the exact moments or movements, then the meaning or pattern of things they are witness to no matter how little they seemed involved. When engaged in a task of observation they tend to be extremely focused as they seek to sense all aspects of the arcane that connect all that they observe together.

One Thing Farseers Aren't:

Oracles

The first Farseer may well have been an oracle, but those who follow rely on the lessons they left behind and are themselves no better at telling the future or truth than any other. They are, however, very interested in ensuring they do everything they can to prevent the terrible fates their founder predicted would come to pass if they failed in their task.