Private Tales Researching the four forms

[Jair]

College of Stormhold

Magic did what magic did, and nearly every one can perform a little, but like any other thing in this mortal world there were the haves, and have nots, the talented, and those that practice to a skill beyond raw talent. Jair had some talent, and a tremendous amount of raw power, what he didn't have was practice, so he found him self a seat, on the floor, with several tables moved out of the way for his legs, in the College library with a small work table between his legs squinting at one of a pile of books on the subject he wanted to study.

"On the subject of polymorphism, to the layman shape shifting, one must be aware of the four aspects which govern shape shifting. Those being the physical aspect, mental aspect, spiritual aspect, and finally balance. Let us take for example the loup garou, the cursed werewolf. He is incapable of controlling himself, neither when he changes, nor his ability to act on his urges. He is blessed with both the best aspects of the wolf, and e.g man bipedal movement, incredible strength, and heightened senses. He is at the same time cursed with the most vile parts of both species, humans cruelty, and the wolfs savagery. In short his is unbalanced in all aspects, his physical body is disproportionate between the two species he's stuck between, he is spiritually unbalanced being cursed, and unable to control his changes, finally his is unbalanced mentally unable to control his urges.

He is in stark contrast to the lycanthrope, a balanced form of werewolf, his body is more proportionate adding smoothness, and grace to physical power, he is spiritually balanced being able to control his changes (all be it more easily on the new moon VS the full moon), and finally he is mentally balanced being able to think, and act on his own accord making him a much much more dangerous foe than the loup garou."

Jair read, and reread the passage jotting down notes, and his own thoughts. His plan was to add a series of runes to his back, interconnected in design, and purpose, that of shape shifting. He had seen it done by a college wizard, and wanted to duplicate the effect via runes. The trick was that with runes, the more complex the spell, the more complex, and therefore more prone to mistakes. Therefore a heroic amount of research must, and practice is needed for the spell especially one that will be tattooed permanently on his flesh.

 

[Jair]

After jotting down the notes, and thoughts on balancing all the aspects he would have to in the rune, he found that he needed even more information before he even attempted to put the rune to parchment. He changed out books detailing more of the physical aspects.

"Shape shifting, is a well practiced form of magic, performed by both druids, and wizards, and a myriad of lesser practitioners, and cursed individuals. But it can not be stressed enough to consider the amount of mass being transmuted. Mass can be compressed into hammer space when the transformed creature goes from something larger, to something smaller. In the transverse going from something smaller to something larger extra mass can be retrieved from hammer space. The rub comes from when something overly large, or overly small is transmuted into its transverse. For example, a Giant shape shifting into a squirrel while it is possible the time requirements it takes to do so is prohibitive, especially in times of stress. Further, should the transformation not be smooth, or complete pain will be experienced.

On the subject of time, remember magic has an end, in this case the end takes the form of the cut off of spiritual energy be it called mana, qi, prana, or eldritch energy, once it is cut off, the spell has ended, and the time it takes to transmute into your current form, is the same amount of time to revert."

In short Jair thought ~it would be most prudent to shape shift into forms close to his size.~ Jair leaned back against the wall of the library, and groaned against the timbers. On a side note on his considerable tomb of gigantic wisdom...or maybe "giants grimoire" he started to list out his ideas for animals that would be a potential match. The first that came to mind was the killer whale/sea wolf/orca. That was a give in, he was a sea giant after all.

 

[Jair]

Jair was not at all surprised that he still did not have as much information as one would need to inscribe a rune onto himself, safely. He moved on in his reading, he read on the entire idea of balance, the physical aspects, and now he was moving on to the spiritual part of the study.

"Let us look on the seven laws of magic, and how it concerns shapeshifting. The first law: magic has a price, to that end, what ever you are using to power your magic (eldritch energy, mana, prana, blood, and so on) will feel a significant drain; so be prepared do not shape shift when your energy is near is end, remain conscious of your limits. The second law: this may be the most important. Magic ends, it has a limit, imagine that you are swimming in the form of a pike, and your magic resources runs out at the bottom of a deep lake. Your change would come to an abrupt end as you struggle to keep from drowning, while at the same time reverting to your nominal form. Would you be able to concentrate on a smooth shifting, concentrate on not drowning, and swimming with changing limbs all at the same time? The third law: there is no way an animal can control time, this law is moot in shape shifting. The fourth law: this law is also moot, you will not be trying to cheat death as a bear, or snake. The fifth law: again is also moot, you will not be teleporting as an eagle. You will be flying."

So to sum up what that excerpt has said is that to shape shift into something there would be a spike in the use of the giants eldritch energy, and then a steady flow of eldritch energy would be required to maintain the form. Dangerous but useful. Jair closed his eyes, and began to imagine the aspects he would have to combine to make sure that his physical form would be properly sustained as he was changed. It was an economics issue, a finite amount of energy, to cover what needed to be covered. He began a cursory sketch leaving room on the sketch for the mental aspect.

 

[Jair]

This research was bordering on druidism, in fact many druids used this particular form of magic it was safer than contracting any form of werewolfism after all. But magic A was magic A, and all magic had to obey the same seven laws of magic as any other discipline of magic. Jair leaned back against the wall of the library, and wondered if magic A was magic A, why didn't people study all magic. Wizards studied the arcane, druids studied well druidism, warlocks delved into the eldritch, and so on, and so on, and so on. Maybe the equation's were too great to be easily be balanced.

It was a mystery to work on later, right now he began to work on the rune for his killer whale transformation. The mental part of the transformation was already covered in a previous books. But he had to still work on it, he started adding the mental, and spiritual aspects making sure that they were well blended. The rune did resemble an killer whale with a myriad of runes with in, looking more like waves, or flow lines throughout.

Theory only went so far though, it would sooner or later have to go into practice. But Jair wasn't stupid enough to draw the tattoo onto his body. Pulling out some leafs of paper, he drew the rune proper on it in magical silver gal ink. If the rune worked, he would use a mixture of fresh sea monster blood, and some other bits of power to make the tattoo ink. But had to make sure it worked first.
This research was bordering on druidism, in fact many druids used this particular form of magic it was safer than contracting any form of werewolfism after all. But magic A was magic A, and all magic had to obey the same seven laws of magic as any other discipline of magic. Jair leaned back against the wall of the library, and wondered if magic A was magic A, why didn't people study all magic. Wizards studied the arcane, druids studied well druidism, warlocks delved into the eldritch, and so on, and so on, and so on. Maybe the equation's were too great to be easily be balanced.

It was a mystery to work on later, right now he began to work on the rune for his killer whale transformation. The mental part of the transformation was already covered in a previous books. But he had to still work on it, he started adding the mental, and spiritual aspects making sure that they were well blended. The rune did resemble an killer whale with a myriad of runes with in, looking more like waves, or flow lines throughout.

Theory only went so far though, it would sooner or later have to go into practice. But Jair wasn't stupid enough to draw the tattoo onto his body. Pulling out some leafs of paper, he drew the rune proper on it in magical silver gal ink. If the rune worked, he would use a mixture of fresh sea monster blood, and some other bits of power to make the tattoo ink. But had to make sure it worked first.