Talecraft Magic

The power to weave tales and myths into reality is a potent one indeed, with a storied history across the old world - be it by Dwarven communities, the foxians of the continents or the people of the far west. It's a magic that only appears in a few people, but those few Bards can effect great change, should they be mindful of the myriad dangers of the art.
— Yin Lei, Headmistress of the Sirtan Bard's College

Talecraft Magic is an Aldrin-exclusive bloodline magic with no Crysium Shards to speak of, but with a strong magical tradition across the world for potently weaving myths and legends into reality. Its power is well understood, as are its significant drawbacks and flaws. In all, the magic is powerful and capable of incredible things, but is also capable of causing great harm to the caster as its powers concern cheating reality's perception of things, its power dependant upon how truthful your words appear to those around you.

History of Talecraft Magic

Before the Ancestors

There exists trace records of Talecraft Magic across the world based on ruins of the ancient Hysilens; the fox-folk themselves appear to have had no power over the magical form, but ruins note their record-keeping of the magic on Aldrin, which the Hysilens appear to have been studying at the time. Beyond this, however, little in the way of written records of this era remain on Aldrin, and so little is actually known of the use of Talecraft Magic in this era.

The Bhailu Empire

The first significant spike in the legacy of Talecraft Magic came during the reign of the Bhailu Empire, which lasted until the Great Demonic War. This time saw the art adopted officially within the Empire and also saw the founding of the Sirtan Bard's College, which was charged with the tutelage of Bards and others with natural talent in the art. Similar institutions appeared in other areas of the globe, but this era was most famous for the grand expansion of the Bhailu Empire, with which Bards became effectively inseparable, their powers used in significant ways to aid the expansion of the empire to its territorial zenith. Things would change starkly with the instigation of the Great Demonic War, which saw the Bhailu Empire pushed to its limits in the opening phase and very nearly shattered. Worse still was that many Bards were brought over to the demons' side, and the magic itself is not picky about the legends and myths it can spin, which led to both sides employing Talecraft Magic to best the other.

The Power of Tales

The power of Talecraft Magic is its ability to invoke those tales of eld - the exploits and recounting of ancient heroes and monsters found within legends and fairy tales. Many of these beings have loosely defined abilities, many of which would not actually work when following the conventional norms and rules, yet do when under the power of talecraft magic. This in general belies the crux of Talecraft Magic; its powers will only work for so long, and effectively require the caster to trick reality into making the abilities and beings of eld into thing realistically plausible to be used and summoned; the trick generally being to master the timing component and to be as enthralling as possible so as to ensure the magic lasts for long enough before the arcane weave catches up and corrects itself. It's also the weakness of talecraft magic, and quite an ironic one, at that; after all, the trope of playing with powers beyond your control is itself a very common aspect of these ancient tales.

Modern History

The end of the demonic war saw things return mostly to normal, though not entirely - the effects of the demons' influence never fully receded, and while the war had ended with their defeat, the demons were only expelled for as long as the great outsider barrier remained in place, and that would not be forever. In the meantime, all that could be done for the field of Talecraft studies was for more tales, myths and legends to be studied to expand the repertoire of powers available to bards for whenever the next conflict that requires their services arises. A conflict that does not look far off, as the powers that be in the Bhailu supercontinent are highly active and posturing for potential conflict.

Uses of Talecraft Magic

Knight of the Void by Anato Finnstark

Legend Empowerment

A major element of many myths and legends are the grand boons and powers thrust upon the heroes and enemies of those tales, and one of the first things learned by a training Bard is how to best draw those boons into reality for the benefits of themselves and their allies. To many, it's the boring preamble to the more enjoyable parts of talecraft magic, but it's powerful all the same, as the boons are generally quite easy - if short-duration - to coax reality into accepting for a time, and are thus quite safe.

Legend Summoning

Not too dissimilar from Summoning Magic, Legend Summoning is a stark increase in difficulty from anything before it, and concerns the conjuration of heroes, monsters and villains from myths and tales into reality. Where it generally differs from Summoning Magic is that it's capable of summoning faithful representations of that being from their myth, complete with their most famous abilities, and requires no Concepts. This is distinct from summoning because a summoned Dominant would never be able to approximate the powers of these myths so accurately, and a Concept can last a LOT longer than a legend summon can once brought to the field, as reality itself places a hard limit on their longevity. Generally speaking, the stronger the mythological creature, the more skill is required to Legend Summon it, with failed attempts commonly driving the Bard mad if not outright killing them, which makes discretion their biggest asset; overplaying their hand can be extremely fatal. One of the most curious aspects is that Legend Summoning even works on legendary figures of the current era who aren't dead, so long as the summoning is done far from where those figures reside.

Legend Shifting

After learning how to summon legendary beings, the natural next step for a Bard is to blend those beings' traits with their own, much like Memoria Shifting from Summoning Magic. This ability is extremely potent, and generally safer than outright summoning a creature as the changes are more limited and blended with the real world through the medium of the caster's own body. Of course, there still remains dangers; the techniques are capable of disfiguration or mutilation if done in error, and as such generally need significant practice and mastery to use in combat, but it certainly remains true that there's no significantly brutal drawbacks like with other elements of Talecraft Magic.

Legendary Communions

An important final step in the art of Talecraft Magic is that of Communions, which allows a Bard to draw forth the true power of the legend; generally, each legendary being is attributed to a special ability tied to their legend itself. The summon cannot use this ability natively when summoned, nor can the Bard use it even when using Legend Shifting, but through one of the most risky techniques of the art, it's possible to convince reality that such an ability is indeed possible, allowing it to be used. The very nature of this effect has a lot of danger to it, as an inexperienced Bard can force the arcane weave to make the complete wrong assumptions, which could have all manner of different, negative effects.

Titanus Tiamat by Dope Pope