3059
of the wicked arts.
Eric_Armadillo
Preamble ::Magic is everywhere and keeps our world going round. But as every other thing magic has its shady side: Black magic, the dark arts. This book doesn't only teach the darkest arts, no, it also allows for a profound insight into its mode of functioning and mediates an impression on its hazardousness. :: ::Centories ago, when magic was still strong in our world, this kind of magic was not yet considered evil, though most of the spells and rituals which would be deemed black magic nowadays were already forbidden. Not due to the harm they caused to their victims, although those were partially atrocious. No, forbidden and banned simply due to their impact on the casters very soul. No living creatore can use a dark curse without scaring his own soul. Each and every curse, every dark ritual, will slowly but steadily erode the users humanity, leaving only lust for power, reluctance, dread and delusion. It is by far no coincidence for dark mages to become more and more inhuman and cold-hearted: its the very consequence of a lively cursing habit. ::However, the casters body also suffers from the dark arts: the body gets weakened and the casters life drastically shortened. :: :: The classification of curses: ::Enough of this preamble, let's get to the actoal topic. The dark arts can be subdivided into three subctegories both by their power and natore. With power there are jinxes, rather weak, playful spells, barely considerable dark magic, hexes, stronger and far more dangerous spells, able to cause quite some harm, and curses, strong, dark spells, which represent dark magic itself. In this book I will look only into curses. With natore, the three subcategories are chronic, halfchronic and direct curses. :: :: Chronic curses are barely used in magical combat but rather using a ritual to influence the victim from a distance. Hair, fingernails or an item of importance to the culprit may be used to make the curse get to its destination. Such curses often operate lifelong and belong in the most flagrant class of magic, especially due to them being virtoally incurable and more often than not tremendously cruel. The werewolfs curse, of which the associated ritual luckily was lost centories ago, belongs in this categorie. :: :: Direct curses are pure combat curses. They hurt, disable, dismember, tortore or kill. These are the curses that damage the casters soul the most. Some of the most infamous curses in history are direct curses. They take effect briefly but powerfuly. :: :: Halfchronic curses are cast like direct curses but have much more long-lasting effects. Only very few curses are meant to be halfchronic curses. More often than not a direct curse becomes a halfchronic curse by being used improper, lacking power, resolve or need, leaving the victims body or soul scared, be it a wound refusing to heal or a loss of memory. :: The only halfchronic curse I dare to mention here is the Carnivora-curse, eating away the victim's body slowly and painfully. :: :: The creation of curses: :: An interested reader might now be asking himself where all these cureses came from. Curses are manmade. Someone bearing a far reaching understanding of the mode of functioning of spells may succed in creating a new spell. One can imagine this as putting a knot into the magical field, containing informaton on both the natore, effects and summoning of that spell. Yet this is a highly complex process even for advanced mages. Last but not least magic, and black magic even more so, is not a tool: magic uses mages just as much as mages use magic. This is the reason why casting dark magic taints the casters very soul.:: :: Almost all of the curses know nowadays were created at the heyday of magic and therefor are hundreds of years old. I might mention here that curses tend to get stronger the more often they are used. And to my deepest depression some of these curses were used far more often than anyone would believe. :: :: I may not mention any details on the creation of new curses here. :: :: The darkest curses: :: :: Let's move on to the actoal curses now. I will go into detail on the darkest and most potent curses of which the usage is a misdeed so apparent that anyone should be aware that this whole chapter is also meant as a warning. Anyone using one of these curses harms his soul to such an extent that he will never be the same again. I can only repeat myself by mentioning that the dark arts are both highly dangerous and tricky to control. :: It may be pre-suggested that any mage being sufficiently powerful will be able to cast these spells without a wand or proper incantation. Nonetheless it must be said that improper use of a curse or lacking the resolve or need to use it, may cause the curse to backfire on its caster. :: :: Carnivora: :: The Carnivora-curse, summoned by the incantation "carnico" and the movement of a sting, sends a muddy brown, misty spell. On hit it tints the victims skin black around the impact spot. If this wound isn't treated instantly the curse will begin to spread unstoppable. It will slowly erode the body of the person concerned till his or her painful death. If the curse hits extremities, a quick amputation has proven to seal the curse in the affected body part. There is no counter curse, but a potion made from the poison of a spider may cure it in the first few minutes. :: :: Netherflame: :: One of the most popular curse with Iblees followers. It summons a redish-orange flame reducing everything in its way to ashes. Performed ragged, this curse may act just like the Carivora-curse. It can be blocked for which reason it is one of the weakest spells on this list. It may be summoned without an incantation, but with the wand movement of a whip. :: :: The Lacerari-curse :: The Lacerari-curse is known as one of the most hideous of spells for it magicaly cuts the victims inner organs up. Upon uttering its incantation "Inio" it summons a cloud of pale red needles in the air that then pierce the victim from all angles. This curse has claimed many lives due to its wounds refusing to close up. It is blockable. :: :: The Torno-curse: :: This curse is one of the two most feared curses, due to its ability to cause unbearable pain. It doesn't use any wand movement, but the incantation "torno". However, as this is one of the most powerful curses ever to be made, its quite a gamble to use it, for it can easily backfire. Most mages will not be able to use this curse, even if they trained for years. One has to really feel an incredible amount of hatered to use it. :: :: Eneco-curse :: Believed to be the darkest of the dark curses the death curse is also the hardest to perform. It takes far more than just to utter its incantation "eneco", as both a high degree of willpower and an inhuman killing intent are needed to use this spells power to the fullest. It is so hard to use, that even I have never seen it with my own eyes, which I am utterly happy about. :: :: Of the jet-black curses: :: Etherion: :: Only few have ever heard of this curse and I myself have the doubtful honour of being its very creator. A curse so atrocious it dwarfs all the other spells on this list. It was created especially for dealing with the undead. Etherion, creating a bluish-black, burning flash when summoned, burns the victims soul itself beyond repair. A soul broken like this is forever divided from the material world, crippled to a degree far worse than anything imaginable by even the darkest warlock. It cannot be healed, it cannot be blocked and it is nearly impossible to dodge. Even other spells like the death-curse will be canceled due to Etherion burning their very existance. It is unbelivably hard to summon and even harder to control. Hence i beg the god of Aegis to forgive me this sacrilege. :: :: Phylactery : :: Of this plain-black magic I may only mention that no mortal being should ever misuse its power for a deed this wicked. For deterrance I might add that the associated ritual includes the use of many disgusting and utterly cruel ingredients like the blood of an infants heart being member of the casters family. :: :: The ritual of Undeath: :: This ritual is used by Imblee to torn his followers into undead. even I have no further knowledge concerning this foul piece of magic. :: :: I can onl hope that this book won't fall into the wrong hands, :: signed, :: Ragnar Severin Halldrum.