In which the three basic cobhas of the Red World, having much in common with its neighbor worlds, are discussed.

Oh that delightful word that I have never heard anywhere but here...
Cobha

The Red World magical cobha is divided into three zones: Craft, Magic, and Power (Tyyr)

Craft is a science, in a sense. The thinking or speaking of certain words and phrases will create an effect in the realm of physics. This effect is sometimes referred to as a spell. For instance, if by craft a wizard creates a wave of fire, this would be an "Azuntyyr" spell. This word (azuntyyr) combines the word for "Fire" (azune) and "power" (tyyr). Thus, the word phrase azuntyyr is used in many fire related spells. All such spells are related to one of the five elements: water, fire, earth, air, and star.

Magic is a spiritual thing. Starting point: it is always wrong. It involved the contacting of certain spirits, paying them off to cast spells for you on demand, and helping them perform them. Its effects are very much like that of craft, but the source is altogether different. Some wizards dabble in magic because they figure no one else will be able to tell the difference from what they do and craft. Magic is a great temptation for the powerful because power is so addicting.

For both of these, there is one major limitation. Every spell saps a certain amount of "power" from the user. The best way to picture this power is to imagine a battery powered machine. Complex and lengthy maneuvers will drain it quickly, while simple calculations and moves drain only a little. As wizards get more skilled and more practiced, and understand more advanced spells, they will be drained less and their maximum "power capacity" will increase.
Power returns naturally to wizards over time, but the rate can be increased by concentration. In times of dire need, a wizard can actually go into a sort of sleep to bring in power faster, but he is naturally very exposed when in this state. Also, some wizards find ways to spend power they don't have, but this always has permanent side effects, such as great physical weakness, paralyzing, and sometimes death.

The third cobha type, is also called power, though substituting the High Tongue word "Tyyr" might simplify discussion, as well as using instead the English "authority." Some beings, particularly the kings and the lesser spirits, have this ability. There is nothing tyyr cannot do, if the user's authority is great enough and unchallenged. For instance, the division of the worlds into continents would have been a work of tyyr by the White Cross, if HE was responsible (of which no one is sure).

To some extent, all people have this sort of "authority," especially in the earlier times when men had greater knowledge of the cobha and metaphysics. Some blacksmiths retained power over the things they made, to un-forge them simply by ordering the thing to unforge. This sort of tyyr, especially wielded by mortals, is exceedingly rare.

Ooh, good job Reiyen!

So what sort of spells go with star power?

Star craft is often times mixed with any of the others. Indeed, there are few spells that can be well used without at least some knowledge of star craft. Pure star craft spells would include the command of lightnings and lasers, command over light (and in some senses, darkness). Star spells tend to be more intelligent than others, capable of aiming themselves at their enemy or avoiding allies. Lightning bolts can home in on their target independently, whereas most fire or earth spells have to be aimed at a spot and hope they hit.

One example of light acting as the base of other crafts is the historic poaching-gone-wrong of an earth dragon. The earth dragons had turned reclusive after the first loss against men in the early history of the Red World. They had disappeared into the mountains, never to be seen again for many long ages. As they hid amongst the mountains and their caves and caverns, some adapted to become very small, no longer than a man's arm from tail to foot, while others (though very few) adapted to become enormous, and hid mostly among the giant caverns with wide entrances. The longer they lived in the mountains, the less they remembered of the light and its crafts. They became ten-fold adept at their earth crafts, but could still do little without any knowledge of light.

One day a pair of traveling bio-hunters (they gathered mostly plants or rarer animals, not so much hunting for food) were at the edge of the mountains. Spotting a certain flower that they were after high up on the mountains, they dragged their cart all the way up the slope to the flower, which, as they had hoped, was only one of many. The flower trail continued into a cave they had not spotted before. They went inside gathering, until they were ambushed by one of the small dragons.

After a brief scrum they got the better of the tiny thing, and chained it securely to their cart. And then they pulled the cart out onto the mountain slope, rejoicing at their good fortune. Dragons were worth a lot, they figured. But then the dragon opened its eyes and saw the light around it, and deep inside its dragon heart it recalled the basics of the light crafts.

In a flash it commanded the metal of its chains to snap into pieces, and as it flew away it brought up out of the earth to spires of rock, which skewered through the two poachers and raised their bodies thirty feet in the air. The dragon flew about testing out its immense powers over the earth, now magnified by knowledge of the light, carving deep gashes in the mountain and raising high walls. And to this day if any hunter or gatherer or any wise wandered sees the two spires, they flee immediately, for it is known that some great power lives there. And only their own lack of care or curiosity keeps the earth dragons in the mountains, and the wise among men know that someday they will come out, and if it will be for the better or worse for men none can tell.

Wow. That's very interesting.

So can the three types of cobha be merged or combined at all or are they all really separate from each other.

It's very cool. *tosses confetti in the air*

I suppose that they can be merged, though their effects are so similar that it would be difficult to notice. Of course, the "good guys" so to speak would not be found practicing magic (since magic is only ever used by evil) and power/tyyr is awfully rare.
The demon lords of old are very often said to have blended magic with craft before, especially in the fashioning of demons, particularly their most deadly creations. But it is difficult to ever know what those dark monarchs have done in their shadowed halls in the underworlds.

So demons were a sort of magical hybrid between powers? The lower demons, anyway...

Yes, they generally are the product of a mixed process, though they can be made from a single process. Those darker arts haven't been well codified by that world or by me yet, except by the darker powers themselves.

That's very interesting. It draws to mind a mix of personifications that I find quite fascinating.

So only 'bad guys' use this Cobha. Oh, and while I'm here can someone define Cobha?

Cobha is something that is physically impossible in our world but made possible in the writer's world by the writer. (I believe).