Notes from the grimoire
By: Prpl_Mage

I hope I can master the arts written in this volume. The basics of arcane energies are starting to make sense now. But my parents keep pestering me about mathematics and grammar. Why should I put so much effort into normal school subjects when I can learn to bend the world to my will? Not yet though, first I need to find a way to channel the energies without this woozy feeling in my head.

My friends do not understand me, I dabble into these forbidden arts to do something of my life, to learn what people don’t understand. They want to talk about boys and horses - , horses?! Who in their right mind care about horses? I managed to pull a unicorn into this world last week, at least it had a unique feature to talk about…

I tried my hand at using Arcane Missile again, the nosebleed was okay and the trashcan got out okay. I’m starting to think there is a limit to how many invocations your mind can remember. It would explain a lot about my difficulties lately. 

I heard a voice today while invoking my spell, thinking back on it I can’t remember the words, just the meaning. Something about an offer of power in exchange for something. It seems my arts are attracting something beyond this world. But what it is, I don’t know. From what I’ve read this is common, there are a few techniques to try to silent those voices. 

I finally found someone to guide me on my path. Sure I realize that he is not a master of the arcane arts but a Tibetan monk working as a conserver of knowledge. But sometimes insight and a buttload of scrolls are what you need to help arcane dabbling teenagers with their problems. 

My teacher confronted me about my dabbling into the arcane today, she insisted that it will summon the devil or break my mind. But I find this literature course to be far better at that job. Why would I want to read a book from hundreds of years ago that is pure fiction? I’m handling tomes with purpose that are thousands of years old every day! That’s the real literature. 

Arcane energies are created by people? It makes sense I suppose seeing how it is absorbed into our bodies and what it can do. But to think that creativity and imagination could lead to arcane energies is still alien to me. I understand the whole belief thing, it corresponds well to the fact that people believed in gods in the past and would go lengths to appease them. 

I realized that I’ve been going about this all wrong, thankfully my guide once again helped me back to the right state of mind. Arcane powers needs to be understood just like any science. I’ve been messing around steered by emotions to serve as motivation and thinking practice is enough to become a master. But the mind can only perceive what the mind knows. 

The laws of physics applies to this world, by understanding the laws of physics we can understand the world. At least that’s what my mother and teacher are telling me. But that’s a load of bull. Because of the arcane energies, especially in places of powers like the distortion zones the laws and rules of nature don’t apply. There is little to explain why throwing a ball in there does not collide with objects and has it instead passing through everything at a constant speed without slowing down…

My guide showed me how music and dance are said to work as an arcane source. I didn’t tell him since it would freak him out, but he was right. I could feel the energies seeping from every movement and every tone. It wasn’t much though, far from as much as the other things I’ve felt. 

Out of my classmates, only six people could tell the difference between my arcane summoned pie and the real pie I baked last night. Out of those six, maybe half got the right answer by a stroke of luck. Still, baking the pie was more irksome than summoning the other one. 

I’ve heard about a distortion zone on Summath Island known by the commoners as the Shifting Alley. I have decided on making journeys into distortion zones to excavate and do readings. It’s just weird that nearly all of them are centered around the proximity of Summath Island. 

I’ve met with a traveling merchant, although their face probably discourages a lot of people I felt inspired. The merchant did remind me of another group I’ve met in the past, but who am I to judge? He carried tomes and grimoires from other lands, times and worlds. It always surprises me how many of these are written in common English however, but I’m not complaining. I rather learn spells than languages.

I went into a distortion zone again to try my spells, it’s interesting how arcane energies are literally seeping up from the ground beneath your feet. All distortion zones are the remnants of great arcane events of the past. Some people talk about a mage war, but wouldn’t it make more sense if arcane energies were absent rather than in abundance after a war?

I’m not sure how it works, but arcane powers are different from the powers of the elements. I don’t understand where the elements fit into the world though. I mean, we have the physical world - cats and dogs. Then we have the ethereal world - dragons and werewolves, sometimes they collide but mostly not. But the elements apparently cover both worlds? So while mastering the arcane would make me the master of the ethereal world I would still have to master the elements? Ugh, I guess I’ll have to put some more backbone into those ancient tomes. 

I finally visited the Shifting Alley. I did the coin test and was baffled by the results. The typical procedure is to flip the coin until something strange happens. But my first try just kept going without coming down, the second enlarged and slammed down the size of my head and the third one turned into a duck...

I told my guide about what happened today, he looked worried. As I noticed during my earlier practice you can keep up invoking arcane spells by draining your enemies of arcane energies. But today when I did it I could feel something else joining in, it might not be the correct use of terms but there seemed to be a second presence draining parts of the arcane to itself. I’m not sure what caused this, more investigation is needed, although my guide tells me I should stop. 

I did some testing on a crystal today, it seems like these type of crystals are able to turn arcane energies into objects. I’m still trying to grasp the core concepts of it but I should be able to apply them. It would make sense that these crystals would’ve been used in the past to channel a throng of religious people's’ faith into something into a physical form. If my hypothesis is correct then this result could be mimicked by any type of conviction and not just religious belief.

My powers of the arcane are getting stronger for each day that passes. All this training and reading has shaped my mind perfectly like a hexagonal. But there is something at the fringes of my mind, something or someone is following my progress. I don’t like this one bit and will try to make my presence less known.