Origin magic is a form of magic distinct from the ordinary schools of essence. It includes unusual senses, inherited abilities and spells that use particles with different properties from essence. Its practitioners range from people with small practical gifts to the Oracles of Eternity and the powerful users trained in Rahmavir.
Origins and imperial technology
Long before the fall of Malverand, Lothar gave Arcanis the ability to see the world's patterns, instructions and calculations. He later gave Barachiel the ability to learn spells almost instantly by observing them. Lothar lost those particular abilities when he passed them on, while retaining his existing magic. Arcanis used his perception to develop inventions, while Barachiel's gift became known as copy magic.
In the other Valrindor, the Malverand Intergalactic Empire developed nanites that reproduced ancient magic through technology. Their designs drew on cosmic, aether, divine and elemental magic. Different particles served communication, defense and shielding systems connected to the Maraveth core. Others were programmed to respond to people's wishes, granting minor abilities useful for their work, such as knowing when food was perfectly cooked or seeing precise angles.
These particles leaked into Valrindor through the source beneath Zarephon. These programmed abilities normally required users to have little or no essence. Some abilities grew far beyond their intended purpose: Isandro recognized Eira's perception as a development of ancient divine sensing, but her power exceeded its original design. She could perceive much more in the empire, where the particles floated freely. Likewise, Abraxas used abilities resembling Isandro's at a strength beyond what the imperial researchers considered possible.
Learning and inheritance
Origin spells have a written language whose forms protrude from the surface. They are inscribed on walls and other solid objects; writing them on paper causes the pages to fall apart. The buildings and cave murals of Zarephon held such spells. Abraxas taught through unusual hand movements, including zigzag gestures used to cast rays that cut through stone. Understanding the script does not by itself grant the ability to cast it.
The Oracles protected the source and trained people capable of reading its spells. After Rahmavir conquered Zarephon, it integrated former Oracles and studied their methods. Its strongest ordinary mages failed to master origin magic, while some children with very little essence could learn it. Those students avoided absorbing essence and devoted themselves to origin practice. Only a small fraction of the population developed usable abilities, many suited to narrow tasks rather than combat.
Affinity can pass through families. Ravira was born with origin magic after generations had cultivated its properties, and children of practitioners found its functions easier to grasp. Rahmavir consequently regulated parenthood involving origin users. Inherited talent could bypass the Oracles' prohibition on learning both origin and ordinary magic, but mixed abilities remained dangerous. A boy at Halvarim's origin school demonstrated fire and a shield resembling liquid glass, then exploded shortly afterward.
Uses and countermeasures
The abyss uses essence reversal to return a large area to an earlier moment. Abraxas explained that it would reverse far further in the absence of essence.
Eira's origin perception works differently from her divine senses. Instead of feeling essence signatures directly, it leaves gaps while outlining powerful mages. Concentrating it on one point produced red sparks that snapped a tree in half. Those sparks and lines are reactions between origin magic and essence, rather than the successful casting of a particular spell.
Isandro demonstrated attacks that read the frequencies of divine shields. A black ray passed through Eira's stable shield, but an uneven, wavering shield stopped it. Prismatic beams demanded faster changes, which she achieved with rotating layers. His adaptive nanite forcefields also adjusted to physical blows. Simply increasing the strength of a punch made the field rebound more violently; varying the timing and strength of successive attacks broke through it. Isandro said Hyperion's gravity fields could overpower it directly.
Rahmavir used origin magic in weapons designed to disrupt spells. Alistair and Oktlix devised a container for Boss's volatile origin power. Firing it alongside a normal temporal spell with a slight delay, or having a temporal mage detonate it manually, triggered an explosion that destabilized nearby spells. The projectiles were difficult to produce and were fired from the spellblaster. Eliona stopped Thalena's abyss with one, but darkness magic blocked the corruptor, limiting where it could be used.
Compatibility and limits
Origin magic and essence can struggle for dominance within a person's body. Attempts to combine them have caused death, explosions, lasting injury and loss of sanity. The Oracles therefore forbade their students from learning ordinary magic and ordinary mages from taking up origin training. Children who inherited both types often died young.
Aurelia secretly continued divine training alongside copy magic, suffering pain as her essence increased. She later copied part of Abraxas's essence reversal spell from the cave murals, but her body rejected it. Her arm began to deteriorate, and healing only briefly removed the damage before the pain returned. Abraxas allowed that shard wielders might survive both kinds of magic.
The interaction could also damage the wider world. Isandro warned that enough nanites entering the God Realm would sever its veins of essence, while mixing them with essence could have unpredictable effects. Khauren sought a stronger body capable of surviving that mixture. When Cassian dismantled his essence during the battle in Ulzathir, origin magic remained that Cassian could not touch.