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The Will to Power
Sorcery.
The ultimate expression of the mastery of magic. The purest way to manipulate the fundamental building blocks of the Universe. An incredibly dangerous method of working magic that kills three out of every four who attempt it.
Sorcery.
At the most basic level a sorceror is someone who has managed to unlock and control his sheut, the wellspring of mana in his soul. This description, however, massively undersells the depth of that achievement. The process requires three major steps, the first two of which can take years to complete - the final step takes no more than six seconds.
In order to unlock his sheut the prospective sorceror needs to forge a key. The creation of this key is, by itself, a major feat of magical engineering - it has to be precisely tuned to the would-be sorceror’s soul. The aspirant’s mentor can, and will if they’re any good, give plenty of advice regarding the construction and can test the soundness of the enchantments surrounding it when complete, but only the aspirant himself can decide whether or not he believes it is ready. No test has, as yet, been created to determine whether or not the key will actually work.
The second step usually occurs in a ritual space or with a small audience of the would-be sorceror’s friends, family and mentor. It is now that the aspirant takes up the key and with a single motion thrusts it into the seal of his soul (the heart in humans). If constructed in precisely the correct manner the key will phase out of material reality and go slot straight into his soul, unlocking his wellspring. If not made perfectly then the tip of the key will rupture the aspirant’s heart, usually killing him in a matter of seconds (the advent of medical nanoswarms has made failure at this step somewhat less fatal that it once was, but it still requires fast work on the part of the swarmer). For the student to falter at this point is well-known, it takes a powerful act of will to use the key, much as it’s creation is a major act of skill. Many would-be sorcerors can wait years before finally discovering whether their construction was accurate enough.
The final step occurs once the sheut has been opened. The outrush of mana from the wellspring at this moment is overwhelming, and it must be controlled by the sorceror or it will kill him, his body burning away in a retina-searing blaze of energy, and he must do it in six seconds. This is the moment where all of the training regimens and all of his study comes into play, because the one thing every sorceror willing to talk about the experience agrees on is that the experience itself is impossible to describe in useful or coherent terms. They will use words like “drive”, “push” or “divert” to describe what they did, but these are after-the-fact words, chewed over in late-night hours weeks or years after the six seconds of terror that follow the wellspring being opened.
Should he survive the aspirant is now a sorceror, and his troubles have, really, only just begun.
