Of Blood and Sorcery Excerpt

Excerpt from Encyclopedia Magi, page 1456 sub section C: Taboo Magic’s, Blood Sorcerers.

Summary

Blood Sorcerers are the oldest known class of mage, appearing as early has 245 BC. It is believed that the first Blood Sorcerers, or Prima Magus as they are called in Latin, used primitive Runes and Wards to better chase, hunt, and trap game. Modern Blood Sorcerers use their heavily enchanted blood to cast all manner of Spells, Curses, Runes, Wards, and Charms the power of which goes unmatched by any other class of mage. However, due the amount of magic energy in their blood, most individuals can expect a normal life span of only 30-40 years. This reduced life is caused by the strain that enchantments place on living tissue and affects Chimeras and Minotaurs as well. However it also means that Blood Sorcerers develop much faster than ordinary humans, sometimes reaching a mental age of 16 at the age of 4 or 5.

Since the introduction of elemental magic, Blood Sorcerers have been ostracized and oppressed by other mages. To further compound this Blood Sorcerers have been vastly outnumbered in all eras. This position was due to the fact that all Blood Scorers are decedents of a single lineage.

Today, after nearly being wiped out in the Purging Wars, there are only 3 Blood Sorcerers in existence. The following articles will cover the history initiation, behavior, and common magic’s of Blood Sorcerers.

Alex closed the thick volume; he didn’t have the patience to read anymore. When he had asked his father why they moved so often and why Alex never went to school, his father had told him to ask the Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia was not a book in the traditional sense but rather a spell that summoned the information one was searching for. All that was needed was a blank page and an incantation. Alex knew the spell, he’d used it often to learn about the many fantastical beasts that he only saw out of the corner of his eye. But those pages had been filled with colorful pictures and terrifying tales of before the assimilation. The article on Alex’s ancestors and eventual future, on the other hand, looked long and tedious and had only a small black and white illustration of a deer being trapped in a low level Rune. And a five year olds mind has little patience for such boring reading.

Ever since his initiation when he was one and three quarter years old, Alex had been fascinated by the magic world around him, and furious the he was not allowed to explore it beyond the presence of his father. Only through the Encyclopedia Magi was he able to stand face to face with werewolves, harpies, and Minotaurs. The Encyclopedia had also told him how nearly all of these creatures had been hunted to extinction and then had their memory magically erased. It did not, however, tell him why. At least the pages he had access to didn’t. So he had made it his life goal to search out the few remaining magical beings and find out for himself.

But he couldn’t do that if he wasn’t allowed the leave the house. Not that he hadn’t tried, but his father had placed dozens of Runes around the property to prevent Alex’s escape. None lethal of course, but magical fire still hurt, even if it was only has hot has a warm day in summer. And his father had always managed to lock down new houses even before they moved in. Despite all his scheming, spell casting, and tricks, Alex had never managed to leave the confines of his home.

But today Alex had a new plan: today instead of evading or breaking free from the traps he would walk straight into them. Well, to be fair that was only half the plan. He had been reading up on Runes, and as it turned out, in order to keep them from going off when anything other than the intended prey entered the circle, Runes had a very specific set of criteria needed to activate. Higher level Runes could identify individual people and target them and only them, they also tended to have much more lethal penalties. But low level Runes, like the ones surrounding Alex’s house, were less capable. Most likely these Runes were triggered by intent. More specifically, blood pressure; anyone who was not supposed to be leaving would be nervous and their blood would show it. So in theory one needed only to act like they were doing nothing wrong and the Rune would ignore them. In theory. Alex knew the Runes that stood in his way were simple, but how simple was up to how much time his father put in them, and that was a mystery. But Alex wasn’t about to let that stop him, he’d been caught leaving before. At the most he would be left without a story that night.

Alex giggled under his breath as he strolled towards the front door, it was silly how his father still thought this a valid punishment. There was a time when the idea of losing his story would be enough to scare him stiff, but he was five years old now- one night without a story wouldn’t kill him.

Before he opened the door, Alex took a deep. The first Rune would be on the handle as it always was. He put his cunning scheme into motion, first by thinking not of sneaking out but of walking through his own bedroom door. That was all this was, just any old door. He forced himself to keep his eyes open, and when he felt as calm as he was ever going to get, gripped the handle…nothing. His plane had worked.

Keeping his excitement from raising his heart rate turned out to be harder than lowering it in the first place, but he managed it. This was where things got tough, there would be three more Runes to deal with. One on the front mat, one three or so feet beyond it, and one at the gate. And Alex had to keep up his charade through all of them. Of course Alex wasn’t thinking this, he was walking. Perhaps a little faster than someone who was supposed to be there, but none of the traps were sprung, no circles with flowing text came into being. Sooner and easier than he had expected, Alex was free.

This was not the first time Alex had seen the outside of is home, he’d accompanied his father on outings to practice sorcery and of course during his initiation too. But this was the first time he’d been out on his own, able to go anywhere, do anything. His well-maintained poker face vanished in an instant, and for a moment he just stood in place. The late fall wind breezed lightly over his face; Alex inhaled through his nose taking in the crisp smell. Not even the relative cold seemed to affect him in this moment.

Alex had come out on to a lonely street with nothing but emptiness for miles around. He never knew why every new house they moved to had no neighboring homes, or why the building itself was always the same. The last time he had asked his father to explain he got nothing more than a lecture about “necessary sacrifices” and “accepting the status quo”. Needless to say, Alex neither understood nor cared to learn the meaning behind his father’s words, and had simply nodded and swore to obey the house rules. An oath, Alex reasoned, he had never meant to keep.

Right, he thought, first things first, let’s get moving. Alex pulled a thermos sized flask of light red liquid out from under his jacket. The liquid was, in fact, roughly 6 parts water and 4 parts of Alex’s blood. Fully-realized Blood Sorcerers used blood straight from their veins, but initiates like Alex had to use a diluted mixture to avoid overstretching their manna pool. Even so the highest concentration Alex had ever used before now was 2 parts blood. He had mixed in more this time to ensure he had adequate power if any of the creatures he met were less than friendly.

He opened the top of the flask and willed the mixture out into the air, a thin stream of pale crimson liquid flowed out of the container. For a moment it hung in the air, then, as per Alex’s spell, swirled into two separate masses, turned to vapor, and spiraled down to be absorbed into his shoes. He gave his feet a few experimental taps with his finger. Satisfied, he looked ahead at the road before him.