Everything that dreams creates Quina, a form of energy. Quina is tricky stuff to quantify; it acts according to rules native more to the unconscious mind rather than bowing to physics; it is tied to primal powers not because it must be but because those things matter to those that create it. Quina is the foundation of all magic.
The Loose Flow Of Power
Where things dream, Quina moves, seeking other Quina that carries similar imprints. This flow occurs in pools that mirror the living spaces of the dreamers; a street or neighborhood has one distinct ‘pool’, while the next block over, a different pool is in motion. Each flow finds a central locus - a place or thing that enough dreamers imprint into it regularly, and which is not active in itself. This locus becomes the place where the flow collects; the touchstone for the power moving through that immediate area. Such spots are known to magicians by many names, but most commonly as Hearths.
Hearths, Thresholds, And Keys
As a Hearth gathers age and power, it has a number of effects on the area. First, the presence of a Hearth causes the pool of power that created it to grow more difficult to influence; a magician wishing to cast a spell or activate an item within that pool must work harder. This is known as the threshold effect. At the same time, certain actions, items, or persons become imbued with a sort of ‘trust’ from the Hearth - those performing such actions, carrying such items, or who have been well-referenced by those persons are not affected by the threshold effect. Such actions, items, and persons are generally known as hearth keys.
Fae
As well as centralizing the flow of power in a region, a Hearth also comes to store Quina. Left to itself, fragments of this power will attain a process that resembles thinking, and emerge as Fae. These beings are formed, however, from the impulses of dreaming minds - and not only human ones. They are always confusing to deal with, usually nonsensical, and sometimes horrifyingly dangerous. Left long enough, a hearth will spin out many Fae, which will slowly cull and duplicate until a sort of community forms. A mature Hearth that has seen no interference for decades will become a Fae Court, which may be protective of it’s dreamers, or predatory, or any mixture of the two. Such Courts exist in states of permanent competition; even the most benevolent of Courts with regards to their dreamers still cull their own ranks constantly.
Hearthbonded
Of course, things don’t tend to be left untouched. Creatures living in an area for many generations, who dream of the personalities of places, sometimes adapt. The signal adaptation to magic is the ability to force it out from a Hearth; the Hearthbonded are those who possess this capacity. Powerful and gifted Hearthbonded, who have not only become aware of this ability (most do not), and have practiced their powers for a significant amount of time, can cause vast flows of power from one Hearth to another. A few Hearthbonded have become lords over Fae courts, simply by being able to feast or starve those courts at will. Hearthbonded have existed from time before memory.
Hedge Magicians
At some point in prehistory, some Hearthbonded were instead born with the capacity to force Quina out of Hearths and into material form. Those that were born empowered in this way became a new kind of magic-worker. Each family line of such magicians, developed and refined the ability to craft a few kinds of magical items. For the most part, these Hedge Magicians outpaced the original Hearthbonded; almost any town has a Hedge Magician or a cluster of them somewhere, while only a few towns have a Hearthbonded in their ranks.
Outsiders
As it happens, this earthly arrangement of power is unusual in the greater scheme of reality (though not unique). On most planes of existence, the local “Fae” are dominant, and dreamers are bred for their ability to generate Quina. In their travels, a number of wanderers from such other planes have found their way to our reality. Such beings found the local powers laughable, and began to establish centers of power - the first human cities. In those cities, these alien gods opened gates to their own planes, letting the rules of far realities leak across. Such power brought about an age of tyranny under beings that wished to remake the human mind into a form more suitable for giving them power.
Lineage Magicians
In the cities of the Outsiders, mad attempts and experiments were untertaken, as hedge magicians sought to eke out some form of existence. They worked to draw tainted Quina from the gates to alien realities, whether to challenge the alien gods or to gain a place of power at their right hand. Their failures were immense. The few and awesome successes came when they transformed their own bodies into gateways to other-planar power, inheriting an entire new suite of powers and abilities, and the ability to store Quina within themselves. These successes were the first Lineage Magicians, and between them, they shattered the thrones of the Outsiders. The alien gods were driving into hiding by humans who had stolen and mastered their own powers.
Those were your ancestors.
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Thoughts?