“The First Spell Breathed: The War for Magic’s Birthright”
First chapter from:
THE MANUAL OF MAGIC
The fathers of magic’s original opera
Every mage is called to know their own history, their roots, and what the Forefathers paid for with their blood in order to practice magic.
No one is truly anyone without knowing at least a little of their ancestors’ history.
At the beginning of Time, after an explosion caused by a single point in the universe and across the Worlds, what is now called “Magic” came into being. It shaped the Earth and everything that walks, crawls, flies, swims, digs, and moves among the trees. And when it had finished creating everything, it gathered into a single point of the Worlds and, from nothing, created Fate.
Being the only living being endowed with even a modest intelligence, Fate spent all its days inventing stories about characters similar to itself. And one day, having grown tired of its solitude, it began to create what it considered “toys”: humans. It decided they would populate the Earth and carry on their lineage. These humans built their homes, their villages, their lands. There was no hatred in them, and their hearts did not yearn for violence. The concept of borders and limits did not exist. Nor did war. Not even the most innocent quarrel: humans were happy and lived without worries.
Fate observed the Earth, feeling satisfied. Watching humans busy themselves was amusing, and seeing them toil even more so. But as time passed, this pastime gave it an ever fainter thrill of amusement. It had to come up with a solution quickly, or it would return to boredom. And so, it was then that Fate rediscovered the old art of creating events that could entertain it.
Thus, Magic intervened, stirred by Fate, in the form of wind. It reached the Earth and came to the ears of a good young man: Uhtogard. He was walking in the forest in search of food when he was struck by Magic, which he channeled into his walking staff. From this comes the ability of Mages to unleash spells through a medium. Uhtogard returned home excited by his discovery. He gathered some inhabitants of his homeland and showed them his power. They were astonished and begged Uhtogard to teach them his art.
Fate reveled in its castle: its plan was bearing fruit, and it delighted in watching humans.
From then on, Uhtogard and his disciples became known for miles, and together they proclaimed the young Uhtogard king of a territory defined by its inhabitants. Fate was intrigued: from that day, humans had begun to create borders. Yet their hearts were still innocent.
Uhtogard had been elected king, but he did not feel satisfied: he did not wish his knowledge to become the property of only a few, but wanted magic to be accessible to all the lands of the world, because it was a good thing. Uhtogard quickly packed his belongings together with his friends and made a decision: he would travel to every land, even the most remote corners of the Earth, in order to satisfy all people. He was determined never to stop.
After covering a great distance, traveling for many days, he finally arrived at a village with customs completely different from his own. He introduced himself and was kindly welcomed by the locals. As evening had fallen, Uhtogard went to sleep before he could show the people magic. But Fate was secretly working on a hidden project: not long before, it had invented a serum to corrupt the hearts of humans. It wanted to amuse itself, in case Uhtogard might one day bore it. Fate fell asleep shortly after its favorite, and in its movements during sleep it did not notice that it had spilled the vial containing the poison onto the Earth. It reached the heart of the chief of the village hosting Uhtogard.
The next morning, Uhtogard was ready to show everyone his magic. But when he performed his first spell, Aktai—this was the name of the man condemned the night before to hatred—felt fear in his heart, mistaking Uhtogard for a threat to his kingdom. And so, that very evening, Aktai took a knife and killed the good young mage. From Uhtogard’s blood sprang diseases, famines, oppression, abuses, and all those afflictions that have always plagued humanity. Aktai realized the error he had caused, but it was too late, and in remorse he stabbed himself, mingling his blood with that of Uhtogard.
Upon learning of the death of their rulers, Uhtogard’s disciples and the hosts chose the path of war, driven by the pain of their losses. But the disciples were vastly outnumbered and were forced to return to their homeland. Once back, they told the story, and Uhtogard’s people felt outraged. They elected a new ruler to lead them into war against their enemies. They chose Kolgar, born in that climate of tension. He had been destined by Fate to destroy all of Aktai’s people.
And so there was war. A disastrous war, which ended only with the annihilation of the country that had murdered Uhtogard. Kolgar inherited the title of ruler over both his homeland and the newly conquered territories.
He renamed his empire “Malzbat,” and over the ages they ruled the Middle East thanks to their superiority derived from magic.
