[Lecture Series] How to Dispel: For Dummies

[Luminor]

Autumn of Era XVI
Month of Imperos
Brightening 13

The early morning mist still clung to the stands of the Academy of Arcana's lecture theatre. The half-bowl shaped depression in the ground served as the primary teaching location for classes that required more space than the indoor rooms could provide. It sometimes also served a dual purpose of entertaining the faculty, staff and general public with displays of arcane ability sometimes put on by the Academy.

On this brightening the theatre was to be used for its primary purpose, as a centre of learning. The professor that had commissioned the location for the brightening knew well enough that what would be taking place would need more than even a large classroom to be done properly.

Professor Susar, a Cether Master Elementalist, stood in the centre of the lightly sanded pit that was known as the 'stage'. His dark blue teachers robes leaving odd traces in the beige substance as he walked back and forth along its surface. Already he was rehearsing what he would be saying for the candlemarks that he had scheduled the lecture for.

"Welcome students and guests to..."

Muttering to himself as he glanced up into the sky as a stray beam of light clipped his foot. Clamping his hands together as he watched slowly as more light filtered into the theatre and started to clear the mist from the vicinity. Soon those advanced students he had chosen to aide him during his lecture would also be filling their way into the bowl to await instruction from him.

As the mist cleared the first whisper of feet was heard as the four students descended the stands and made their way to their Master. Waiting for them to line up he looked them each in the eye to confirm they were all properly awake and ready for the brightenings coming attractions.

"Good. Now I would have you two begin to draw a circle to keep whatever it is we cast inside the pit. You two are to draw one to keep others out, I'd rather not take any chances with the amount of yahoos that are drawn to Arcane displays."

Waving the four away as they nodded at him he stood and watched them go about their work. They would complete the task quickly and easily before any other students or any of the public arrived. The latter two would have no need to step foot on the Pit while the initial lecture took place and the subsequent displays took place.

"Wait!"

Raising his hands and calling out to the four students that had already begun to construct the opposing circles of magic around the perimeter of the Pit. Realizing that by disrupting them they may have to restart the task he muttered to himself at his absentmindedness, but shrugged it off.

"We should wait until our guest arrives before we complete the circles and close off the stage from the public."

OOCAnybody is allowed to join this thread if you have available FT. It's mainly for Mages, but will have fancy displays of arcana for the public. Mages will gain skill in dispelling which will help them along the course of their career. I will be posting to this thread every 2 days regardless of if the PCs that have joined have posted or not. All you need to do basically is one post for arriving and then another one or two taking notes and listening and such. So come one come all. :)

[Angela Myrsa]

Angela had requested the afternoon shift at her part time job so that she would be able to attend this seemingly very important lecture. She had brought her school supplies with her and wore her initiate elementalist's robe over her leather work outfit. She arrived early to the building and carefully entered as quietly as possible as it looked like they were still setting up.

She saw the instructor in question wearing deep blue robes and wandering the sand pit or 'stage' while several other students of unknown capacity to Angela were drawing circles in the sand, or more accurately around it. She moved to the front to get a good view and be able to hear and pulled out her quill and notepad and started making notes on what the students were already doing. Perhaps the knowledge would be useful someday.

She had to cross her legs so that she could hold the paper up at an angle where she could write, which caused her robe to slip open and reveal her well toned legs. To some it may be distracting, but Angela didn't notice one way or the other and was too naive to think anything of it. She tried to keep her head down and not interrupt as she began taking her notes. Of course she would answer if addressed by anyone. She was to sociable not to.

[Luminor]

As the students of the Academy began to file into the seated depression the Cether watched for any that he recognized. It wasn't surprising that he wouldn't know most of the students due to the size of the school and amount of spheres and different classes taught. There were a few faces without names and others with names that he did know and he gave them quiet nods despite them not noticing.

The Master aside from inviting any willing students to the lecture had also invited the members of the public. It wasn't for anything other than to entertain and delight the public as he knew that moral within the Capitol and the Kingdom was low. Even though his primary focus was arcana he was still a loyalist and when the people suffered the Kingdom as a whole suffered. Allowing them even a few brief moments of respite by his own and his students hands was a job well done, something he knew the Prince would thank him for if he knew what was taking place.

"Welcome students,"

The Elementalist began as his right thumb rubbed a ring on the ring finger of the same hand. The ring was enchanted by one of his fellow professors for just such occasions as this when his voice would need to be heard over a large area.

"And also to our esteemed visitors from around the Scholar Quarter and perhaps further. We welcome you to the Academy of Magical Sciences and to what has become affectionately known as The Pit."

Pausing as the gathered crowd, perhaps a few head over one-hundred with about a third being actual students, chuckled at mention of the lecture theatres nickname. Something it gained as the sandy flooring would be more at home inside the grand Coliseum where gladiatorial matches were fought.

"For those students present we gather today for a lecture and demonstration of the technique of dispelling. A technique that we all learn as an Initiate to enable us to further control and stop our own spells and those of others. For those that have come that do not belong to the school I assure you that your time will not be wasted while you listen and then watch what takes place."

The crowd clapped their hands and a few excited screams from children that had dragged their parents to the lecture theatre could he heard. The excitement of the common folk was infectious as even the students joined in with the clapping as the Cether extended his left arm to the side of the Pit.

"I would ask that you all join me in greeting out guest speaker for this lecture. The current Minister of Interior Aid and former Imperial Mage, His Grace Duncan Sythe!"

As the crowd all turned their heads expectantly to where the Elementalist pointed the clapping began anew. It was truly a treat for the common folk and moreso for the students to see and even learn from the one time Imperial Mage, the highest ranking mage in the entire kingdom.

[Duncan Sythe]

Invitation to such events had been more numerous when he had actually been Imperial Mage, it was true. But then the political situation had been much less stable – granted an oxymoron regarding Sherian but still generally true – therefore it had been much more difficult to attend. Now though he not only had a position but a history and, potentially, a reputation for what he was about to do.

Few knew about it of course, few even knew about Vers…which to some extent made this brightening even more remarkable for the things that would not be said.

He was, for the occasion, dressed in black boots, black quilted breeches, a white velvet shirt and quilted green doublet with a high collar under a light weight black cloak trimmed in the same dark green as the waistcoat slung over one shoulder.

Stepping onto the sand to obligatory applause Duncan had his hands behind his back, under the cloak and his head slightly downward-cast, black hair covering his face and blue eyes along with the trimmed hair on his face and chin that was just on the too-much side of stubble, yet framed the sharp lines and pock-marked appearance of someone who did not spend all his time writing papers or signing documents.

There would have been more to see of course but the high collar of the doublet covered the scars on his neck – which served his purpose well. After enduring the applause he raised his head and glanced around the theatre, taking in the students, the commoners and the academic mages and scholars from the academy and beyond who had come out of curiosity and interest.

“Thank you all.” He began, the voice calm and oddly serene, his eyes deep and empathic…lacking a certain hardness for anyone who might have seen him before. They would be mistaken however for thinking he had softened…it had merely passed on to something new. “And thank you for the invitation, Professor Susar.”

Something wry crossed his face as he looked back at the audience and picked out some of the academy mages and scholars.

“I especially appreciate given my successor’s recent announcements why you might be nervous about my arrival.” He unfolded his hands from behind his back and spread them helplessly. “I however assure you the Ministry is not going to ask you all to create new enchanted visa for mages that will beep when you are within two miles of a city guard!”

No, but the joke was on the surrounding audience given what was coming. This lecture may well become infamous not for what was spoken of but what was not spoken of…then again if they invited him back again on the back of it in a month or two they might find they got more than they bargained for, but even Duncan Sythe didn’t know that at this stage.

Placing his hands together in front of him, palms pressed, fingertips pointed at a roughly diagonal upward angle he paused in the centre of the pit and faced the audience properly.

“I am instead simply here to explain something I am quite familiar with; the technique of Dispelling and some of my own theoretical ideas about its origins.”

He looked across at the students present; one was an Apprentice Elementalist and the other an Adept Sorcerer and it was, he suspected, the Adept that had done most of the wards.

“However so the non-magically inclined in the audience are not kept entirely bored for the next candle mark, might I ask you. Mister...?” He pointed to the Adept, in Meditation now and seeing the world in a different way from any of the non-magical in the audience, seeking the lad's name before he continued. “To throw a series of Force Bolts in my direction when I ask you to begin. Start with two at Initiate level then one at Apprentice with four heartbeat intervals between each bolt.”

Duncan then turned his eyes back on the audience, specifically the ranks of robed students.

“And for the students here, it would be to your benefit if you began to ascend to Meditation else you will miss the practical aspect and just be enjoying the fireworks.”

That said Duncan stepped back and cleared his hands from his sides, moving his right foot back into something almost approximating a martial stance as he faced the Adept and waited, hoping that the students would indeed be ready to answer the questions he would pose once the initial demonstration was completed.

"Begin." He said simply.

[Angela Myrsa]

Angela kept her face down as more students came coming into the 'pit'. She ignored the other students coming in, not out of rudeness, but out of shyness.

Once the people had filed in and the lecture was ready to start she paid close attention. She wasn't familiar with Duncan Sythe, but was interested in seeing the predecessor to her brother's title. Without needing to be asked she started into clara once the mention of spells being cast was made. It seemed this was going to be a demonstrations lecture more than just a theory lecture. She was excited for it. Of course even at her best she would still take a while to reach clara, but she still attempted it.

She imagined herself at the forge, feeling the warmth and hearing the sounds of the hammering. After about a quarter candlemark hopefully she finally began to see the flickering of the lights that indicated the surrounding ara and vis.

[Luminor]

"If you do not mind the wait Mister Sythe we will wait until I notice the Initiate students have entered Clara. It would be shame for them to miss the details due to their longer Meditation times. Once I have determined all attended students are in the focused state, you may begin Betrum."

The student known as Betrum nodded his head at the Cether Master as he himself wound his way into the paths of the Astral Plane to await his fellow students. It would take nearly twenty minutes for the gathered student mass to all ascend into Clara at which time the Elementalist Master would once again nod to the purple robbed Betrum to begin.

"Okay, here we go."

The Adept Sorcerer began the Shaping process immediately as he readied himself to cast the required spells. Betrum being fairly advanced in the technique of CantripsPretty sure this is what it is called, or Stream Casting, so he would be able to fire off both Initiate Force Bolts as the Mystic wanted. The shaping time being doubled for a twin cast was still relatively fast as the Adept flourished his arms in an attempt to direct the spells. As his right arm came about in front of the first of the Intiate Force Bolts spilt forth into the Material Plane, sending ripples through the air as it travelled in the direction of Duncan. Holding onto the casting stream for the few brief moments as Mister Sythe had asked for between spells he felt relieved as he let the second materialize with the same flourish as the first.

"Whew. Now. Again!"

Betrum had dropped out of Clara after the successful casting of the twin Intiate Force Bolts. Now as the ex-Imperial Magus had requested he once again elevated himself into Clara as quickly as possible. His mind instantly pulling Essence from the Plane of Force and shaping the subsequent Mana as fast as he was able to. The result was a rather hastily and unstable constructed Apprentice level Force Bolt that knocked Betrum on his bottom as it exploded into the Material Plane and tore through the air toward the Master Mystic.

"Uh...uh...uh..."

Breathing heavily Betrum was unable to do anything about the hasty casting as he watched it shuttle toward Duncan. If the Mystic wasn't ready for the dispel he would most certainly be hit by the unpredictable spell.

OOCFeel free to moderate the dispel process and effects yourself Dunc.

[Z'kron]

A man with an unmistakable Secyclonian countenance sat in the hall. Slightly stubbled and with a peculiar similarity of countenance to a member of the ruling family- not exact, but enough to make a blink- he we watching the proceedings with a curious intent.

As he watched, his fingers couldn't stop twitching. It all felt so.. familiar. As the force bolts flew through the air, it too all of his effort from just reaching out and grasping them mentally himself. These powers he'd been manifesting with of late were giving him odd thoughts.

The dispelling, though. The way it was done. Not really his style. True, it was how the book he'd picked up had described it- a book he'd all but rolled his eyes at due to its sheer conventionality. No, if he were to dispel something- well, he'd do something flashier. Opposing essences. Filter through material plane essences that were ever present, grab the opposing essences, and use them to interact with the others spell *just* before it's fully released..

Alexandros mused as the thoughts came to his head with uncomfortable ease. His fingers started to twitch, as he absent mindedly slumped into clara and started picking apart vis strands in the air in front of him. One bit nature, one bit sorcery. One bit nature, one bit sorcery. A slow, slow process. Rather like knitting, really. But he kept on doing it.

Maybe he'd demonstrate later.

[Angela Myrsa]

Angela was one grateful student amongst the sea of initiates who had the needed time to reach clara. She watched with childlike amused amazement as the sorcery adept sent the bolts through the air towards the Master Mystic Duncan Sythe. Living in Prime on picked up on names and his was one of them, a master mage, a high political appointment, the adept better hope those spells are blocked because the penalty for attacking a government official was steep.

The effects of the show were made all the more spectacular by the colorful strands of ara that accompanied them. It was like an amazing special effects show and Angela found herself wishing she was powerful enough to participate.

Her breath caught however at the last bolt as it seemed different from the first two, knocking the caster to the ground as it sped towards Duncan. Along with everyone else, presumably, Angela watched tensely to see what would happen.

[Z'kron]

Alexandros turned to Angela, having conveniently taken a seat near her. Through the haze of her clara, Angela would likely be able to see Alexandros's aura as a mage of not inconsiderable power- of an intensity similar to Duncan's, although lacking the characteristic markings of any well-used sphere. He whispered an explanation rapidly.

"It's a common problem with cantrips. Duncan's asked the adept to cast at the speed of a master- which is the type of speed Duncan is used to. Adept can't handle it, the cantrip fails and then the spell is uncontrolled. However, an badly controlled spell tends to be more susceptible to a power dispel, because it's relatively mangled as a vis formation. "

The man gave a grin and turned back to the others, idly picking at the essences of the air in front of him.

[Duncan Sythe]

OOC: Sorry this has taken a while.

IC:

Duncan waited patiently for the assembled students to all ascend, once it was done however...as these things tended to do, it went far more quickly than the process of getting ready would really have indicated.

Ascending to [b]Meditation himself, viewing the world as if through stained glass, the Master Mystic could see the Vis of the Adept Sorcerer as he began the shaping process, drawing Sorceric Essence back to the material and directing it towards Duncan.

He had plenty of warning of course, for now.

Reaching out with his Vis, the very essence of his self, Duncan's Vis seemed to extend a thin tendril towards the oncoming bolt at supremely fast speed, the Ara around the extended tendril reacting with the Vis in its prescience, being absorbed by it and changing it. It was this combination of Ara and Vis that flew insidiously inside the flying Force Bolt as the Dispel effect took place, quick but at the same time gently weaving through the Mana that made up the spell and encouraging it to break apart and become a part of the Ara in the air.

On the Material, the shard of glowing energy dimmed and faded to nothingness half way between Duncan and the casting Adept.

For Duncan? He lowered the hand he had raised in gesture – unnecessary but good for the demonstration – and waited for the next bolt. He repeated the same technique on the second Initiate bolt, reaching out with his self to encourage the Mana of the cast spell to dissipate into the surrounding Ara, it was gentle, there was no flash of energy or after-effect.

This was not the case for the final bolt.

Cast quickly, almost too quickly, it very nearly caught Duncan off guard as well as it exploded from Betrum's fingers rather more urgently than he had intended. The Mystic's eyes widened slightly at this and his chin jutted upward, no hand movement coming to accompany what happened next.

Instead of reaching slowly inside the spell and waiting for it to dissipate, like fingers finding their way into a glove to expand the material, he seemed to punch the spell with his Vis and the Ara that it had absorbed. The resulting effect on the Material was that a bright shower of sparks shattered between the two and the sound of a small thunderclap echoed across the auditorium. Whilst through the vision of Meditation students would see instead of slow, steady dissipation the spell had been fragmented into many smaller shards of mana which dissipated as they exploded in a roughly hemispherical shape away from Duncan and back towards Betrum as the thunderclap reverberated.


“Can anyone.” Duncan called to the assembled audience as he took several steps back and turned toward them. “Tell me the difference between that last effect and the two prior to it?” He inquired, looking to see if anyone already in the audience knew of the existence of two different types of Dispelling or if he was going to have to explain the theory of dissipation from scratch.

[Angela Myrsa]

Because she was in clara herself, Angela watched with childlike amazement as the first two bolts were dispelled and gently diffused into ara. She jumped in shock with most of the other spectators as the last bolt sent forth a thunderclap as Duncan dispelled it. She watched the ara induved pyrotechnics and secretly wondered if perhaps the whole thing hadn't been done on purpose just for show.

At the Master Mystic's question Angela nervously looked back and forth to see if someone, anyone, would answer his question. Only if no one else was forth coming would she muster the courage enough to draw the Master Mystic's attention to her with a slowly raised hand.

Assuming she was called on she would reply, "The first two you were able to dissipate slowly, where as the last you had to dispel it quickly. It cost more mana, but the reaction occured more swiftly as was fitting to the situation."

[Z'kron]

"Power dispel, Duncan. As the good lady said, it used up more of your vis. And had a greater chance of backfiring. But I think you've missed a type of dispelling in your demonstration, good sir. Third type, which is somewhat trickier but highly effective in a few situations."

The druid grinned, his teeth shining as he called out. As a rather well-known practitioner of the arts himself- and indeed a widely respected pioneer in general, he had little qualms about indicating his former-imperial-magus colleague had missed a point. His reputation for rampant unorthodoxy, combined with the numerous unusual discoveries he had made over the years, gave him stature.

"Although perhaps not something to be replicated in a basic educational seminar- still?"

[Duncan Sythe]

“Correct!” Duncan called to Angela as she spoke, nodding. “It uses more energy and also causes a backlash but it is a lot faster and less complicated.”

She appeared to have gotten the logic entirely correct, which was encouraging. However the next to speak up drew a small, thoughtful smile from the guest speaker. Z'kron, he should have known. Although the man did not go by Z'kron any more he none the less knew who he was and probably what he was alluding to. There was of course another way to get rid of a spell...in fact more than one, but such methods were tricky and highly complicated.

“There is always another way of course... but yes, I was going to avoid such complexities for the students.” He appeared to consider a moment after responding thus. “But perhaps you would come down and demonstrate towards the end?” He inquired, then clapped his hands.

“For now! Duncan strode back into the centre of the arena and studied several students and adepts around the room, giving each his attention for a moment before speaking.

“After the next question I'll do some theory, but first, can anyone except you.” He pointed to Z'kron. “Preferably a student, tell me how they believe the Arcanomechanics of Dispel work?”

He inquired almost mischeviously.

[Angela Myrsa]

Angela scooted a little away from the man next to her as the lecturer Duncan Sythe addressed him and almost seemed to be challenging him to show to the class this other method of dispelling. For a moment she thought Duncan might throw a spell at the man and she didn't want to be anywhere near its culmination.

She relaxed a little as the lecture returned to normal topics and she thought hard about Duncan's question. She had to admit she wasn't sure of the answer, after all she had only been going to the school for a short amount of time, but she still wracked her brain trying to remember anything she had studied on the process. Coming up with almost nothing she kept her mouth shut and looked about hoping one of the other students, perhaps from a higher ranking would be able to take care of the question.

oocI looked around a great deal but couldn't find much on dispelling. Anyone have a link?

[Z'kron]

The man reached into his pocket, opening what seemed to be a very small, heavily copy of a treatise on Arcana, and passed it over to Angela. The copy was labelled "instructors manual", and appeared to have come from Mystique. Alterations were in red, and in a neat Trelorean hand.

“Dispel” – Mages can undo non-permanent effects of a spell by slowly Unweaving the spell’s components with a portion of their ArVis, which is known as a soft dispel. Soft dispels are slower, but generally safer, and were the technique used most preaetherfracture. It involves searching out the weak points on the spell, and applying pressure to them- or unknitting the spell, in order that it dissipates safely. In this way, it is similar to techniques such as denaturation, and can be seen as a precursor to it. In contrast, the other major type of dispel operates by hastily breaking the spell with a larger amount of their ArVis which is also known as a power or hard dispel, and operates by triggering a reaction or chain reaction within the other spell to disrupt its pattern. However, this disruption can have random effects. It should be remembered, of course, that hard and soft dispels are in fact a spectrum rather than binary opposites, and a personal style can lay anywhere along the axis- or indeed, entirely off it. The distinctions are primarily for administrative purposes. . This technique usually only works on spells cast by mages of the same proficiency level or lower assuming the caster acts within the bounds of safety- it's been seen to work on adept spells against masters etc. Over time and with practice, mages can become gifted and attuned to advanced Dispel techniques though these tend to be spells rather than techniques and develop countercurses that are capable of undoing the work of spells that were seemingly permanent. Dispelling a spell of the same sphere hastily by power dispel costs as much as casting one of the same level unless specific techniques are developed, Dispelling it slowly costs only half as much. Dispelling a spell from a different sphere costs twice as much as Dispelling one of the same sphere unless it's an opposing sphere, in which case all bets are off, or you get tricky with the techniques and create a selfsustaining antimagic reaction.