Janosh A'Kai

Janosh A'Kai was the Great Sceptre of Emerrin and one of the greatest Magic-Users and most gifted scholars of the early Age of Power. He led a series of breakthroughs in the understanding of how Magic functions and how magical Energy is gathered which enabled non-Draconic / Divine Magic Users to accurately and consistently use magic for the first time in recorded history, as well as vastly advancing the creation of new Spells. He is generally consisted to be one of the most brilliant Magical Minds of all time.

The Rules of Magical Equivalency
While most Magic Users were content to reap the benefits and attribute the success of their castings to pure skill / divine favour, Janosh took an unpopular and underdeveloped approach that Magic must have some definable, physical basis. To many this seemed fundamentally opposite to the core concept of Magic and accordingly he had minimal help in his research.

For two years Janosh made little progress. He was able to prove that the separate versions of certain Spells from different texts produced inconsistent results, and that as such the process and methodology of the Spell Casting must have some practical impact but this was almost universally treated with little interest and attributed to the personal preference of individual users and/or the whims of the Gods.

The major breakthrough came one night when Janosh was investigating the properties of conjured substances with their "natural" equivalents. After many successive conjurings of fire he realised that the temperature of all nearby objects (distance proportional to the size of the flames created) decreased slightly. For individual castings this was seemingly negligible but when repeated he was able to prove that the amount of heat lost could be definatively correlated with the amount of Fire conjured.

With this new lead to work on Janosh eventually proved that casting a Spell draws power from the surrounding area and that this process followed predictable patterns:

1) Energy would be collected via a path of least resistance - as Energy within living creatures is bound to it, energy will be collected from the closest objects to the Casting whenever possible

2) Usually the Casting would attempt to draw power from all available sources equally

3) If available, energy of a similiar type to the conjured Object of the Casting would be drawn from first. For example, conjuring Fire drew heat, conjuring Water draws moisture, etc

4) The distance at which energy could be drawn was variable, but extending the "natural" range increased the required Energy for the Casting

5) With practice it is possible to draw power from specific targets while Casting, but this increased the required Energy for the Casting

6) All Energy, including the "life-force" of living creatures, was equally viable for powering spells.

7) If there is insufficient Energy available for a Spell but the User forces the Casting anyway, the Energy will be taken from the caster.

8) Energy cannot be drawn from a living creature without its consent or some form of offensive magic to steal it. However stealing energy seemed to cause corruptions within the Casting. For ethical reasons, Janosh did not pursue this line of inquiry.

This list became known as The Rules of Magical Equivalency (named mostly for rule no. 6) and quickly caused enormous upheaval in the Magic-Using circles. Many were now quick to praise Janosh and promote both his research and methodologies while others criticised his entire approach and felt that it had little practical benefit.

The Principle of Intention
The link between the emotional state of a caster and the potency of the Spell has always been well-known but Janosh was the first to mathematically describe it in a way that was considered physically useful, accurate and most importantly, consistent.

Janosh proved (that which was long known/suspected from common lore) that a Spell which performs a function parallel to the Caster's current mood is more effective. This was shown to be an example of the previously unknown technique of Arkana Energy Gathering - the Energy of the Caster which matched the intention of the Spell was subconsciously redirected towards it. While essentially confirming what was already considered obvious by many, understanding the principles behind it allowed the effect to be performed consciously and deliberately. From this the field of Arkana Spell Casting was born.

Further to this, Janosh proved (and Arkana perfected) that with sufficient concentration the Caster could actively direct their energies more efficiently, thus eliminating the need to be emotionally invested in the Spell Casting. He believed that bar extreme emotional circumstances a calm, clear mind focused on the intention of the spell and the direction of Energy provided a more potent effect. This belief is widely upheld today both by Magical Scholars and Practitioners.

The Four Impossibilities
Janosh determined that as Magic relies on Energy and is an application of Natural Law, not an exception to it, it is not possible to be truly omnipotent. Even assuming an infinite amount of available Energy he theorised 4 uses of Magic which would never actually be possible:

1) A spell which produces more Energy than it requires

2) A spell which cannot be broken / revoked / reversed by another Spell

3) Raising the dead without degradation to the Soul

4) Travelling backwards in Time (erratad in WY3986 to "Travelling backwards in Time without use of a Time Gate")

Even in the modern Era no-one has been able to disprove any of these and as such they are often called the Four Fundamental Limits of Magic.

These was some contention over the final Law when Aparthos Trell created and maintained the first Time Gate, as this does technically allow those who enter the gate to travel backwards through time. However this only allows Users to travel back to the point at which the Gate was created and no method is known of which allows backwards Time Travel to a point before. As such it is generally agreed that Time Gates do not truly contradict the final impossibility as you cannot travel to before the casting of the spell, though it was erratad as noted.