Magic
The History of Magic
The world we know was built with the use of magic.
Countries thrived with its use as it provided food, protection, healing, and power. It touched nearly everyone in some way, whether it be found in nature or brought to a kingdom in a shroud of mystery. With magic, nearly anything seemed possible.
Magic, in the wrong hands, could be equally dangerous. It was used to strip fields of their crops. It was used to curse and kill. It was used as a means of force. It was, in some places, outright banned. Those knowingly in practice were driven from their homes or murdered. Others who continued to practice magic had to do so in secret.
And in the wild, magic flourished. It coursed through the forests, oceans, and the wide fields that fed man and monster alike. It was a force that defied logic. It existed in even the smallest, hard to find places. Just a pinch was enough to knock a grown man off his feet in the right circumstances. Almost everything had been bound in one way or another by it.
Even in those places where it was banished. Perhaps especially so.
As civilizations grew, so did the understanding of magic. Its use was passed down person to person. Witches formed covens for shelter and protection. Some were called to stand at the right hand of kings where they were declared important and respected. Others were hunted for sport and killed in public places to be used as warnings. Those that did not work in large kingdoms could sometimes be found peddling magic, stopping in small towns and fixing bridges, building homes from nothing, or forcing fallow fields to replenish faster than usual.
Magic did not limit itself. It was tied to weapons wielded by the strongest of the guard. Knights wore enchanted armor. Pirates found escape much simpler with barrels that held what seemed to be an unlimited amount of food as their ships sailed with someone to harness the wind. Thieves found locks simple to pick with the help of a little bit of magic.
While most monsters kept to the shadows, some ambled about during the day. They looked human. They were invited inside, given places of respect at tables, spoke with eloquence and gained favor. In the dark, they did unspeakable things. It was easier for a hunter to slay a dragon than to identify someone turning an entire country against its own leader.
As with almost all things, magic became a competition. Kingdoms called for the best and brightest to show for winnings. These battles could be as gruesome as they were beautiful. Pride, too, became a challenge of its own. There were reports for nearly twenty years of disappearances—included among them were most of those that exhibited magic publicly, for fame, protection, or livelihood.
The Disappearance of Magic
For several years, there were investigations into the disappearances of nearly two hundred class magicfolk. Places began to lock their borders. With the loss of such incredibly talented magic-wielders, it was not uncommon for countries to begin launching accusations at one another. This resulted in the Battle of Alvina and Isidore of which thousands were killed.
In the midst of the chaos, there was a call for each kingdom to send their most talented to form, essentially, a task force to combat the issue. Together, they would rise to protect everyone from inevitable destruction.
Fifty of the most trusted gathered in an undisclosed location to discuss the best way to navigate the situation. The plan was set in place before they returned to their respective homes. Twenty of which never returned.
Mid-year in 852 CE, there was a sudden storm and a flash of green light that traveled the entire world. As the sky fell into darkness, which would later be recorded as a solar eclipse, villages, cities, countries disappeared. Where Kings used to reign, there sat nothing but dirt. People disappeared mid-conversation. This would have been devastating if anyone had remembered. Instead, life continued onward as if nothing had happened at all.
Those who did remember noticed a lack of access to magic--it no longer worked at their command. Those who didn’t remember had no recollection of such a thing having ever existed. Some enjoyed the stories that were told. Others did not respond as well. The number of those that remembered magic dwindled as witchcraft was banned--with the penalty of its ‘use’ being death.
Even so, the idea of magic persevered through time. Accounts of the past were written and hidden all over the world. While the loss of magic meant that people simply couldn’t remember or accept its existence, there was a nostalgia for it.
Magic, however, was not gone. In fact, it was very much so still present. It lingered in the ground where lifesaving herbs grew unnoticed except for those who had a sense of where to find them. Weapons that had once been wielded by the bravest of knights in service to powerful kings had been passed along, dropped in rivers, ignored as nothing but rusty and useless. Those blades cut the deepest in even the hands of someone vastly unskilled.
Unchecked, monsters and magical creatures were able to live rather peacefully. Dragons no longer had to guard their gold. People simply didn’t believe in their existence any longer. For the monsters that preyed on humans, feeding was much simpler. Without magic, they also went unnoticed. To keep villagers safe, Rememberers passed down horror stories. Avoiding siren calls meant that men plugged their ears with wax while sailing. Any small camp was surrounded with salt and fire. Large cities erected tall exterior walls to keep their enemies outside where they belonged.
And...time simply went on.
The Reappearance of Magic
Without the use of magic, the world adapted. It struggled at first, but then it advanced with the development of technology. The stories of a forgotten past were just that--stories. Children learned to stay in bed by fearing what might live under it. Sailors told each other tales of the sea, blaming impossible monsters for storms and drownings while internalizing personal failure. Wildfires that burned entire cities were the fault of angering the gods.
For over a thousand years, people kept the idea of magic alive through stories passed down as silly retellings that grew with exaggerations. Some were closer to reality than they thought with spells and enchantments that would work if magic were accessible. Sleight-of-hand became rather commonplace, though certainly not a viable profession as it had been in the past.
Where fantasy was impractical, creativity bloomed into fiction that surrounded the world with wonder. Best selling novels were closer to the truth than ever before. Strange happenings decreased for a time, there were fewer attacks on humans with the constant growth and expansion of cities.
There were stories that felt too real for some. They would be standing in line for a hot dog and remember another time in another place that felt all too real. But that stuff didn’t happen to real people, did it?
It wasn’t a mass awakening. Some started much earlier than others. Some regained muscle memory of weapons proficiency. Others had dreams that faded in the morning--dreams that felt a little too much like home. The more people that began to flicker into existence, the stronger magic became. But they never knew completely who or what they were. Until now.