Within the pages of the Necronomicon Enchanter book in Lita’s library, the curious may learn the Enchanters’ magical matters. Beware, for the knowledge might drive the reader mad with bitter desire and luscious regret. Today’s chapter describes how Sye balanced its magical power.

Previously:

• Evolution of Sole-Source Magic
• Magical Discipline
• Essence Kiss
• Five Schools
• Uslar Rings

Essence Required

The Enchanters’ efforts to collect Sye’s weak and scattered magic into the concentrated essence form caused a fundamental imbalance. After the Enchanters formed the essence reservoirs in the schools, there was no turning back. The humans and certain magical creatures now needed daily doses of essence to work, and the essence mad showed the consequences of magical deprivation.

A Moralistic Outcry Against the Enchanters’ Essence Kiss

The Enchanters had now sequestered themselves in the protective spells of the five schools and used the Merchant and Magic Worker Guilds as buffers. A moralistic outcry against the essence kiss and its recipient’s subjection to the Enchanters gave many non-magicians a common purpose. They formed small groups that met in secret where they plotted overthrow the too-powerful Enchanters.

The schools’ protective spells sheltered the fragile magic of the Enchanters, but disrupted the Magic Guild’s ability to draw off magic into the essence charms. For a time, the Enchanters’ magical essence became scarce. Some non-magicians died fighting the essence mad for their stockpiles of essence charms.

Old Forest Summoned Grandmasters Surat and Cha to the Site of the Original Enclave

Intervention

The Old Forest trees that produced the concentrated tree magic summoned Grandmasters Surat and Cha to the site of the original enclave. The settlement had been mostly disbanded and now retained a single building where the Enchanters processed the trees’ bark and sap. The Old Forest trees gave them a dire warning and instructions. Surat and Cha spread the word to the other schools.

The trees instructed the Enchanters to send for the six sanest opponents of the Enchanters’ magic to a meeting in the seaside town of Isor, where the school that sheltered Enchanted Dance and Walking the Pattern awaited. Magic Guild representatives arbitrated the meeting, and after five grueling days of negotiation, the Church Magicians’ magical discipline appeared.

Priests Established Five Counterparts to the Enchanter Schools

Priests and His Divine

Five of the opponents became Priests, and the sixth took the title of His Divine. A priest returned to each Enchanter School town, and with funding from the local Magic Guild, established a counterpart to the Enchanter School.

The five original Priests wove spells for essence usage that did not have the wanton nature of the Enchanters’ magic. The Church established marriage, hospitals, and ritual magic to honor the dead. Within one hundred days, the widespread strife stopped. The moralistic alternative to Enchanter magic appealed to the masses that craved the guidance. The Enchanters returned to their essence-producing craft and deepened their spells.

A year later, the Church flourished. Sye thrived. But the Enchanters learned the true personal cost of being the most powerful magicians in Sye. And it was oh, so very dear.

Next time: Greatest Sorrow

Find out more about the books in the Enchanters of Sye world:

• Wrath, Prequel to Tredan’s Bane
• Tredan’s Bane
• Ghost Orchid