Cosmology

Renewal is a world of magic – not just a world in which magic exists, but one formed of magic and governed by its rules. It looks much like our world, and seems to function in much the same way, but attempting to unlock its secrets based on ideas like gravity, evolution, germ theory or electromagnetism is doomed to failure. The study of the world and the rules governing it is referred to in the game as Cosmology.

The basic principles are well known. Magic is threefold, split into three spheres.

• Elemental: Elemental magic is the most coarse, granting all things substance, fluidity and energy and driving them to change (and destroying them to take on new forms). It is generally held to have four natures – air, earth, fire and water – which can be found in some mix in all things.
• Corporeal: Corporeal magic organises elemental stuff, granting it form and complexity. Things strong in this magic assert their own form, resisting change, healing injury and copying themselves, either by reproduction or infection. It is thus strongly associated with life, death and health.
• Spiritual: Spiritual magic governs material patterns, giving them will and identity. A thing strong in spiritual magic has a name and a purpose, forms bonds that exert influence over time and distance, and by this means has a destiny, forming a web between all things in existence.

Living things, like the people of the world, have all three spheres, more or less in balance; but supernatural creatures have them in strongly unbalanced amounts, especially demons (which lack any corporeal magic), undead (which lack any elemental magic, but for the inert remains of the substance they had when they died), constructs (which lack any spiritual magic), and spirits (which consist solely of spiritual magic).

All things have patterns, describing the mix of magics within them and how they are organised. Patterns shift and change, and can be recalled or passed on. Those with the right tools can alter them, temporarily or permanently.

More than this, players can unlock for themselves. There is already much knowledge out in the game, and a great deal yet to be discovered, for those driven by the search.