Magic

The primal force of the universe is Vaala, also known as ‘magic’ among both the sages and commoners of Valerna. Vaala is not a creating force, but it is present in all things from stardust to mountains, in every creature from dragons to fleas. It is through Vaala that stars move and plants grow, but it is also through Vaala that stones float and mortals wield flame. Vaala is the cheating inside the rule and the cheating, the disruptive potential of cosmic order.

Vaala
Vaala is not an energy field or a universal presence. It is not an entity or a consciousness. However, it is everywhere, and it can be sought, taken, even manipulated. Still, Vaala is not a separate force - it is a part of all things. Specifically, the part that can change, grow, transform itself, and in turn cause a reaction in other things. Vaala is in the seed’s ability to sprout, in the chance that a volcano will erupt. The best word to define Vaala would be “potential”. It is what causes the spark to ignite, what makes rocks into earthquakes and mortals into heroes. Vaala is what causes things to happen; the cosmic property that allows things to affect other things.

Also, Vaala is endless. You can take Vaala from a seed, but you cannot drain the seed of Vaala. You can destroy the seed, thereby negating its potential to become a tree, which effectively ‘destroys’ its Vaala, but then whatever remains of the seed will join another thing with its own Vaala, like the air or the ground. Similarly, to take all the Vaala from a living person, you have to kill that person. While things exist, they have Vaala. And Vaala itself cannot be measured or quantified. The seed is a conduit for it, mortals are a conduit for it. Bigger events, and creatures with a bigger influence the universe, are larger conduits; inanimate objects and less influential lives are lesser conduits. But Vaala is endless in each of these things. While smaller sources make it harder to extract, and larger sources almost thrust raw Vaala into the universe, the only limit to how much Vaala you can obtain from something is your own ability to sense and channel it. Vaala itself can’t run out, for potential itself is endless.

Vaala shifts, ebbs and flows according to the actions and interactions of creatures and forces; stronger actions affect it more, causing Vaala in turn to have a greater effect on further events. There’s more Vaala in a spellbook than in a rock, but there’s more Vaala in a magnetic rock than in a closed spellbook. An exploding sun is a greater shift of Vaala than a sprouting seed, but if that seed spawns the tree from which a species of immortal beings will emerge, that will have a much greater effect on Vaala in the long run. This is why sentient beings tend to have stronger concentrations of Vaala, particularly those sentients with a higher potential to change the world. Free will is the greatest activator and Vaala conductor in the universe.