While magic itself can be learned, the powers that can be attained cover a vast range, from simple hand illusions to the altering of reality on a interdimensional level. In some cases, creatures can substitute personal and psionic (mind power) energies for the gift that allows most mages to cast spells and manipulate magical energies.

Magic is not a specific energy or range of energies. It is more of metaphor that encapsulates a "principle" of action and reaction. In the Realms, the true magic is defined as:

The persistent ability to manipulate the environment in ways otherwise impossible without the utilization of natural phenomena, the influence or cooperation of physical bodies, or the use external artifices.

By this definition then, powers such as telepathy, and telekenesis, and other abilities of mind qualify as magic. However, they are not what is considered "traditional" or "ritual" magic.

Ritual magic uses the wielder's magical spark and aspects of "sympathetic bonding" to generate chains of forces that act in place of birth-granted abilities to mentally tap and manipulate energy. In another regard, these ritual formulas substitute for an actual working knowledge of the mechanics and physics that make a particular feat possible. Rituals are coded schemes that at the basic level simply unleash simple reactions while at the higher complexities are actually sonic mnemonics that generate sympathetic reactions in dimensional space that can unleash whole chains of complex energetic interactions. As a mage increases in power and knowledge, his/her reliance on "ritual" totems for the performance of magical feats grows less.

Magical sophistication falls into categories at follows:

There were "greater" and "lesser" versions of these cloaks. Most of these cloaks could make the wearer invisible in the shadows, could create dimensional gaps in solid material, and itself could act as a storage vessel that gave a "summoning" ability to the items stored within. The most characteristic, and perhaps most frightening, attribute of these cloaks was their ability to stretch and move as though alive. The wearer could mentally manipulate the cloak like tentacles and could use it to simply intimidate an opponent or attack them by wrapping the malleable fabric around the target. A person caught and wrapped up by the cloak could be swallowed into its interdimensional depths and thereby be trapped.

The half-drow immort Adorne Doonweir was responsible for the guild's creation and its governing. She acted as an emissary, negotiator, task mistress, and financial coordinator. One of the ways the guild supported its existence was by selling "insurance" to various kingdoms, providing "security" to valued royal assets. Another major contributor to the guild's coffers was its "lost and found" service. For a fee, the guild would track down lost valuables and return them. Because of the lucrative nature of these endeavors, Adorne always negotiated in good faith, and built a sterling reputation as an overlord guild that made good on its promises. The guild also served as a talent resource, hooking up clients with the right people "for the job".

An offshoot of the masters guild were the D'klace who trafficked in a much darker product--murder for hire. The goal of the D'klace was to be so good at their job that they would become a deterrent force. With the shadow cloaks as a tool, there were few places D'klace assassins could not slip into and do their worst. As was their goal, the D'klace did end up retained to protect lives more often than to take them.

Adorne was never really comfortable with the D'klace and tried to keep the two sects as distinct and separate from each other as possible. While no angel, and certainly not opposed to killing for the right reasons, Adorne had no real desire to sell death. She felt, and rightfully so, that sooner or later, the wrong mark would die, and the guild would find itself in the middle of vendetta orchestrated by some powerful adventuring group or kingdom.

The masters guild had very close ties to the Dream Merchants, and used the services of the latter for many purposes. It was fairly well known that rogue Kriar great loremage Theln Azygos of the Dream Merchants and Adorne were fairly close acquaintances. How they initially met, or what the basis of their friendship is, is something that remains unknown.
See Also:  Azygos, Theln, Dream Merchants, drow, D'klace, guild, hybrid (golem), interdimensional, immort, jyril/kriar war, kriar, loremage, magic, Ring Realms

Corim Vale and Ess Targallae are notable realms personalities that follow the lore-knight credo, peace through learning.

Mataya lived about two thousand cycles prior to the events of the different Realms books. Originally, Mataya was a secular paladin of Shani. However, a sect war between the pantheon of Navagraha and the gods following Surya and pantheon of Enlil and the gods following Anu resulted in the death of many mortals dear to Mataya. These losses and the continued agendas of self-involved gods eventually soured him on the sects being the source of spiritual and intellectual truth. He and many men and women who had been inspired by his deeds and courage broke away to form 'The Way' which was essentially an armed institution of higher learning that taught warriors both battle and eridition.

Mataya lived approximately three-hundred years, and inspired several generations of followers. His schools financed themselves by hiring out squadrons of paladins to keep the peace in various kingdoms and worlds throughout the Realms.

In the wake of Mataya's death, the organization splintered into several factions. A few of which emphasized the ideals to the point of draconian rule and zealotry. Two notable factions of the Mataya called the Lore Guardians and Gate Sentinels serve the Magocracy of the Ring Realms. Elite squads of the Lore Guardians serve in the personal retinue of the Crowninshield family.
See Also:  lore-knight, magocracy, paladin, Ring Realms, Surya, Vale, Corim Erik

People tend to think of microprocessors as only being inside of a computer when in fact a great number of devices use one or more dedicated or specialized processors where there is a need to channel, change, manipulate or interpret data. In the real world data can take many forms, it can be radio signals, sound, video, network activity, etc. in all of these cases the raw source material must be transformed into a manipulable form. This is usually performed by a special type of microprocessor generically called a DSP (digital signal processor). These kinds of processors are in practically every convenience device we as humans touch: cellphones, televisions, cd and dvd players, car engines, and on and on... virtually anything that needs to take an input of any kind and act on it in some way. Even things as simple as a thermostats which control heaters and air conditioners are now largely electronic, using a thermal sensor tied to a simple DSP.

Extend this forward to an even more sophisticated world where people are even more closely integrated with data in their lives...
See Also:  data, network

The term is generally used in conjunction with references that are inclusive of subjects originating outside of Eternity.
See Also:  Eternity

Bertram's marriage to Thamara was an adventure in itself and the mercurial lady quite literally put the good-natured gentle Bertram through Hades. Such antics included suddenly changing from her lifelong profession of fighting (at which she was highly ranked area warrior) to one of magic. Blame here can be laid on Cassandra, but the gold mage denies it vehemently. Shortly after her occupational change came occupational hazards... like alchemical experiments that burned down their home not once, but twice. Thamara doing various magical experiments on herself that changed her appearance and altered her personality. In the midst of all these events, Thamara gets pregnant four times, adding to the overall stress. (Where is my wife and unborn child and what are they doing TODAY.) Eventually, the already unstable Thamara went completely looney and through as strange turn of events became a vampire.

The ever loyal Bertram cleaned up his wife's messes summer after summer, but after the vampire incident, decided enough was enough. After Thamara was restored to normal, Bertram informed her of his intention to end their relationship.

Thamara was despondent and promised she would do ANYTHING if he would simply give her a fiftieth chance. After much persuading (seduction?) Bertram acceded to her wishes but on one condition... NO MORE CHAOS. Thamara swore, and thus began the truly downhill trend in their relationship. To go one step beyond in proving she had turned over a new leaf, Thamara took another occupational change. After all, being a mage was just blowing up the house anyway... Thamara applied to become a Paladin of Ukko. A position that, to Bertram's surprise, Ukko personally accepted. ((There is some speculation about what actually occurred and several sources claim that bribes may have been involved.)) It is shortly after Thamara took up the mantle of paladin-hood that she became pregnant with her 5th child. It's speculated that her getting pregnant was another way for her to hold onto Bertram, as the man definitely doted on children and the noble genteel would never leave a pregnant wife. Bertram and Thamara managed to get through another cycle of marriage (and the birth of their 5th child). The husband and wife team bashed evil on several more adventures. Roughly a cycle later the missions had dried up and life was calm and there was no evil to slay. Historically, these were the worst times for Thamara as there were no places to constructively release her frenetic energy. Since adventures weren't finding Thamara, the lady went seeking trouble of her own. Through a course of events too complicated to relate in this already long telling, Thamara ended up alienating the church of Ukko and getting stripped of her paladinhood. One of the infractions that led to this downfall is related to how Desiray Illkaren ends up married to Bertram--Thamara was trying to beat the system... Numerous little lies and secrets came home to haunt the lady and the good-natured paladin simply had no other choice but to bid adieu to the ardent, insane, but well endowed Thamara-- the mother of his five children.

CREDIT: Thom Gilbert's portrayal of the character across many years of roleplay is the inspiration of this character. Thom set the bar for characters with true unpredictability and wildly outrageous quotes like : You don't know evil. Real evil is hanging orc babies up by their heels and changing their sex with sand paper! This was an in character role-play in a live game when he was at the helm of the notoriusly chaotic paladin Thamara. Even though Thamara has not been portrayed in the Ring Realms books yet... the character is just too notable not to mention as she got other characters who are portrayed into trouble constantly.
See Also:  Band Of The Crescent Moon, combat prowess, energy, Felspar, Cassandra Kel'Ishtauri, Felspar, Desiray Illkaren, Hades, mage, magic, paladin, Ring Realms, Tarrantil, Bertram, Ukko, vampire