Miss Winters

Prologue

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In darkness and light, magic is born.

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It has long since been believed that magic was the result of evil or dealings with the devil. This presumption was popular in the years 142 BV to 159 AV. It is of note that this began before the event that history calls the "Opening of the Veil" where magic was first officially recognised as being within the realm of possibility and not that of fiction. It is this event that led to the formation of our calendars and the current dates of history 一 BV meaning before the Veil and AV meaning after the Veil.

Practitioners of magic are known in the current era as caelum and hold different titles placed before their name depending on how they identify. If they identify as female, they would have the title of caela. If male, it would be caelus. If they were outside the gender binary, they are titled as cael. Initially those who practised magic were slandered as witches, hags, sorcerers, and necromancers. These terms are less common in modern society but do appear in not-so-favourable persons and groups. One such group, the Witch Hunters, have made it their mission to eradicate the practice of magic and those who use it. In 273 AV, a group of Witch Hunters were believed responsible for the assassination of John Webber, the first magic user to be employed by the Crown and was titled the Royal Caelus of Idrimis. Webber was renowned for his work in expanding the rights and privileges of his fellow magic practitioners. In 243 AV, the year Webber was hired, job hirings for caelum gained popularity throughout Idrimis and this rise was seen in other countries around the world. It is this coincidence that is thought to have placed a target on Webber. His successor, Penelope Patrick, kept relatively quiet during her tenure as Royal Caela. Her most remarkable accomplishment being the publication of her book, 'Patrick Bestiary: A Collection of Monsters and Creatures'. To this day, the book continues to be popular among those interested in hunting monsters, those who do this work are known as Hunters 一 unrelated to Witch Hunters. Royal Cael Emrys Rose is the current caelum that has been employed by the Crown. Their most notable achievement thus far is their contribution to the further understanding and creation of automaton.

The usage of magic is specialised and makes practitioners valuable within society as they create and power the machinery found throughout our cities. This includes factories, mills, trains, steamboats, automobiles and automatons. There are levels to the mastery a caelum has over their magic. An adept caelum is one that has trained to balance the aether and erebos that comprises their magic to create and power more complex machinery. Novices tend to struggle with this balance leading to issues of malfunctions. The levels of mastery are as follows: novice, disciple, adept and master.

In regards to the use of magic, this can only be achieved by caelum as any artificial replications of the process have led to inconclusive results as all attempts dissipate upon combining. This is theorised to be due to the substances that comprise what we call the steam-like substance known as "magic". Magic is the combination of aether and erebos which caelum are able to naturally extract from the air with the use of an organ in their body known as the magia. Aether was discovered in 3 AV by a Jayan alchemist. They observed that the substance was composed of an ethereal light and would disappear during the night, only to reform in the day. The alchemist noticed that the aether would spew up from the earth like a spring and would constantly stream upwards. Erebos was identified in 8 AV by a Rosmertían alchemist. It was instead composed of utter darkness and would vanish during the day only to reform at night. Rather than rising, erebos remained close to the ground. It wasn't until 192 AV when a Viridian chemist discovered that magic was made of the combination of aether and erebos. As magic is theorised to be a relatively infinite source of energy, those who used magic became instrumental in the development of new inventions leading to the eventual employment of a caelum by the Crown.

Death is an interesting subject when discussing caelum as they have a unique disposition. When a caelum dies their body expels any magic inside itself. There are rare cases of this raw magic forming a wraith. Wraiths are beings of pure unlimited magic and tend to exhibit a specific negative emotion felt when the caelum died. Wraiths mirror the caelum they once were and retain most memories but this is easily overridden by whatever intense emotion led to them being formed. This corruption has caused wraiths to be classified as a creature and by extension, caelum have fallen into that category as well.

To this, I must disagree. Caelum are a sentient species, separate but similar to humans, that share in their ability to think, learn, communicate and control their environments beyond that of common animals. To identify caelum as well as other like-minded beings as mere creatures is degrading. They are sentient persons that are on par with humanity when it comes to intellect, curiosity and social dynamics. To put them any less is unjustifiable. Caelum are not mere creatures.

An excerpt from the book 'Understanding Magic and its Practitioners' by George Winters

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