Monster Marriage

Mystery: is a sliver of power of many different types that comes from belief. It is the source of all supernatural phenomena such as Magic, Curses, and Voodoo. Supernatural creatures such as Ghosts can only maintain their existence through this power. Mystery accumulates over time and grows stronger with age, which means the older something is, the stronger it is. However, since the beginning of the Common Era, human history has been in the process of systematically expelling Mysteries. To the same degree the light of science expands, the darkness of Mystery recedes. No matter how supernatural creatures resist this fact, this law remains unbent. The Mysteries of the Age of Gods have become so distant that even realizing them temporarily in the modern world is next to impossible. Humanity has reached the point where everything is explainable with human knowledge, from the workings of nature to the operation of the cosmos that was once the purview of the heavens, anything that was once beyond the ken of man. The decline of Mystery had been accelerating since the death of Solomon, the King of Magic, before the Age of Gods came to an end at the start of the Common Era. This greatly affects Magecraft. A Magecraft that has had its nature revealed can't become a mystery, no matter what kind of supernatural methods it uses. It's now nothing more than another mundane method. For example, automatons have become a lost art in magecraft and the concept of Homunculus creation is steeply in decline because, as knowledge of the human body deepened and spread throughout humanity, to the point humanity accepted that there were no Mysteries to be found within their own bodies, they had lost the grounds to be fields of Magecraft. Even if one accepted the theory that the human body still is a black box, and the Mystery within it was not yet entirely erased, the fact that modern magi in the field can't compare to even antiques from hundreds of years ago is an undeniable fact. Magecraft thus gets weaker when it's exposed, though what is meant by that is not the magecraft of a particular individual, but all of magecraft and in the future, not the present. Magecraft: It is the ability to bring about what is possible through science with supernatural means; although the process is considered a miracle, the result is not. The limits of Magecraft have changed with time, as science evolved and Magic from the past became possible through science. There exists no impossibility for modern Magecraft within the rules of the world and limits of human intellect; there are limitations, however, where it only appears that something is possible. Because Magecraft acts as the reenactment of preexisting phenomena, it is impossible to use it to create new Mysteries; even with an infinite amount of research, there exists a "wall" preventing human wisdom from doing so in the current era. The realm past this "wall" is known as Magic. Modern Magecraft is inferior to that from the Age of Gods in terms of magnitude because magi from that era had acquired their magical energy from the source directly. The difference between modern and traditional Magecraft is explainable by the difference in civilizations - while the civilization of the Age of Gods existed side-by-side with the truth, the civilization of the Age of Man exists in order to search for the truth. Being originally magic, magecraft draws upon a predetermined power from the Root. However, because that amount of power is fixed, the more people draw from it at the same time, the more Magecraft’s capacities become mundane. In short, the greater is the collective number of magi, the weaker their individual power. If it is believed that the subject of a Mystery "exists," the World permits its existence. Definite affirmation of said belief is not required. For example, even though the majority of modern humans reject the existence of ghosts, modern science cannot outright demonstrate that they do not exist, and, thus, within the unconscious, there lurks the vague suspicion that "they might indeed exist." This sort of "suspicion" falls under the category of "faith." "Ignorance" is the force that opposes "faith." If the existence of ghosts is itself utterly unknown, faith cannot foment. Magic: is the highest class of Mystery that surpasses Magecraft and all current sciences of that age. It represents the actualization of events that are impossible to reproduce in a certain era, whether by humans or the planet, even if given an infinite amount of time and resources. The acquisition of the capacity to perform magic is considered the ultimate accomplishment of a Magus, and only within the grasp of those who have accessed the Swirl of the Root. "Magic" can be differentiated from "Magecraft" in that the consequences of its use are ostensibly "impossible" or "miraculous." The end output of a spell that creates fire is within dictates of the world because something as mundane as lighting a match can yield the same effect. Concepts like time manipulation, teleportation, spatial warping and quarantine, and the resurrection of the dead are miracles thought to be possible only through the application of Magic. Magus: is the term for a human practitioner of Magecraft, the magical science, as opposed to a Magician, who is capable of bringing forth true miracles that are impossible to be reenacted at the current scientific stage. In ancient times, the term magus was used for both the users of Thaumaturgy and Magic, but with the advancement of science that made past miracles possible and the decline of the overall power of Magecraft, the differences between the two became clearer. In the modern age, there are only five Magicians left. A wizard, just like a magus, has a long life. If one uses life-prolonging magic, it wouldn't be impossible to live a few hundred or thousand years, either. Magi frequently, but not necessarily, descend from old magical families, as affinity to magecraft is something transmitted through blood relations. More than just a name, the term "Magus" defines a whole set of beliefs and lifestyle, the first of which is the desire to reach the "Truth". No matter the cost, they use all their assets and abilities to reach that goal, and any abilities gained in the process are a by-product. They hold no meaning except as a means to reach the Truth. A magus also dedicates himself to the study and refinement of Thaumaturgy while driving himself apart of the values of common people in the process. He searches for the greater truths of the universe not to answer existential questions, but just for the sake of knowing. Ideally, a magus would render his own self transparent while still retaining his ego. Arcana Species: is the common term used to refer to all non-human creatures that are found in legends and fantasy. They are those existences that deviate from their original form by the impact of factors alien to their ecology, those existences born from the thoughts of humans and those existences that ascend to a higher order as a consequence of longevity. Then, if it is believed that the subject of a Mystery "exists," the World permits its existence and definite affirmation of said belief is not required. There are also existences desired by the world, but not by humans, and because of this they have gradually gone into hiding and dwindled in numbers. Rather than a classification for a separate ranking for beasts, it encompasses everything from demi-humans, such as fairies and giants, to monsters, such as dragons and oni. Age of Gods: The time period beginning with the genesis of the Earth 4.5 Billion years ago until the beginning of the Common Era around 1 AD is referred to as the Age of Gods, during which the world followed laws based not on physics but on Mystery. The Age of Gods period is marked by a greater proliferation of Phantasmal Species and greater interaction between gods and mortals. This is the age of heroes and mythology, when rules of mankind and the laws of the world were different right down to the very fundamental physics of reality itself, but this period ended many years ago. Magic Circuits: are a pseudo-nervous system that spreads itself through the human body and what qualifies a person to be a Magus. They have two basic functions; one is to convert Life Force into Magical Energy and another is to allow their owner to access Magecraft. They also are paths that connect the material world to the astral plane. To perform mysteries, a Magus sends a command and Magical Energy to a Thaumaturgical Foundation through his Magic Circuits as if someone switched a computer on and sends it commands to run a computer program.