Pyromancy

Excerpts from multiple books on Pyromancy.

Mastery

Frinora spoke on her own process of mastery, and the mastery she has seen from students she taught in the Pyromancers Guild in her journals.

Synko's Breath 78 SA
I wanted to jot down quickly my findings of how people progress with pyromancy. I realized not many write the process, and I had only explained the later parts with expertise in my own writings.

Everyone can learn pyromancy, but only some will get past the beginner stages. Beginners must first learn to control flame, this is not the hardest of tasks, however for beginners it is the hardest bump to get over. As a beginner must be able to not question their own ability to wield magic.

Commonly someone is considered an amateur pyromancer once they are able to produce a flame, this is another hard moment for many pyromancers. As producing your first flame takes a whole new skill from just controlling the flame. This is also where most pyromancers fail, many think they are immune to burnout, and don't realize that its just as deadly now as it is in the latter stages of your journey. This is also where many people stop their journey into pyromancy, as producing and controlling your own flame is all the average person needs to help them in their every day needs.

Amateurs' with begin to feel more competent in their ability over time theres no rank between amateur and Proficient, but this is where you truly begin to understand the power you wield, and begin to experiment with that power. This is the moment you have true understanding of the basics. Along with beginning to learn about Energies.

Proficient Pyromancers will begin to understand energies, from the air around them, to the energy within the human body. If you wanted to provide healing to people this is where you must get to in your journey of magic, and this is more than just cauterizing a wound. Proficient pyromancers learn to control heat around and inside the body. One will learn to heat a room, or manipulate the basic functions of the body to cause one to heal quicker. Though is still only the basics

Proficient pyromancers will soon find themselves amongst the ranks of the experts. Professors, and clerics alike sit amongst this rank. This is where you will sadly find yourself plateauing in skill. You can learn more, but most is esoteric and hard to understand.

Past expert it gets... iffy, the line of what it means to be a Master pyromancer is blurred and hard to follow. I hope to one day give my own accounts of mastery but for now we only have past masters stories and accounts to go off of.

Izahr was said to be able to control the emotions of the people around him, he even recounted some in his own writings saying "Many arguments can be won when able to manipulate others emotions. They Don't even know it happens until its too late, many don't even know about it for ages. Wars fought and won by me alone all because I can make a king more sympathetic." We have no papers on if he truly had a hand in any wars as of now.

Doctor Hezin passed on the knowledge of manipulating ones physical body, they spoke in lengths of helping people with diseases and illnesses of extracting them from ones body. However they also spoke in lengths of people wishing to change their bodies coming to him from all across the lands, they speak on this in their later autobiography titled 'The later life of a doctor' they say "People come to me, from across the lands, journeying to see if its true if i can rearrange their body. Some of these people are vain, only wishing to be more beautiful or more handsome, some want me to grow their genitals out. Those all I charge for, a hefty price amongst walking here to waste my time. Though I find myself not charging some. I don't understand common people, but some have a plight so to speak that they wish their body be different from their one they got from birth. Listening to them it is hard for me not to sympathize with, so i 'fix' their bodies for them, for free. As they traveled all this way to see me, to hope I could help with their bodies which they have struggled with since being young. I cant burden them with the pain of having to pay." There are many accounts of them doing this, and many patients wrote down their experience of this with Hezin.

Master Iroh taught many experts to control lightning, redirecting, and conjuring it all your own. He seemed to struggle with absorption of it, having heart issues later in life. He still fundamentally changed the Relic Age for the better sharing his knowledge.

There are stories of masters who even could control Plasma, not many are known, but one such story revolves around a man who took the hilt of a sword, and would use it to channel the plasma from it, creating a sword from the hilt for a fight. All stories say that he was unbeatable in battle, I would assume this is less because his fighting ability and more the nature of his sword, but i digress. The stories of masters of the ages are endless, any one can reach the rank but it takes time, and endless learning.

On Her Own Mastery

Summertide 102
SA I have done it! I absorbed lightning! I just know masters of the past would be amazed! My heart is racing but I know that this is not the end of what I can do with this craft. This is what mastery truly feels like! I knew as soon I done it I had to begin writing. I learned to redirect lightning in 146 AS, create it in 149 AS and now, in 164 AS I have finally mastered the electricity, I absorbed it out of the sky. A doctor is currently monitoring my heart rate to make sure it goes back to safe levels, but I truly believe I can do so much more with this than anyone could have imagined.
The line between expert and master is still so blurred but when you are a master I now believe you truly know your a master of this craft.

Risk

The Master Pyromancer, Doctor Hezin, known for his abilities to heal the human body wrote alot about magical burn out. It was his most requested topic to cover as to hopefully find a way to heal many of the common long term effects of it.

Experts from his book "Magical Burnout, Prevention, Long term effects, and Signs." Dated: 345 RA

Chapter 1. Stopping it before it begins.
…Pyromancy takes Energy. This is one of the fundamental facts, as is also the first thing you learn from anyone worth your time learning pyromancy. While Common knowledge I find this important to record officially. The largest factor in staving off magical burnout, is hydration. Water will save your life in situations, from healing someone in need, to fighting if needed. Staying hydrated will keep your body cool. Eating healthy, but also eating at all, makes sure you have energy to use magic...

Chapter 2. Signs of Burnout
...Many of the signs of burnout are the same as heatstroke or hyperthermia, for early signs include, fatigue, dehydration, and you will begin to feel lightheaded. At this point it is best to stop, This is your initial warning... ...One May continue past burnout, this is again not advised. Signs will begin to worsen, Your heart rate with begin to rapidly increase, along with rapid breathing. Your skin will begin to feel dry or flushed. you are likely to become agitated or begin to get a headache.

Capter 3. Burnout
...Once your heart race increases your state with quickly begin to worsen if you have not quit. If you haven't your body may shut down itself, if you are lucky you will just pass out. seizures are also a possibility, not fun but they can force you to stop casting. On the lesser end nausea and vomiting may also occur at this time... ...You will begin to feel yourself cooking, where you cast from will slowly burn and cook yourself, this will cause you to begin developing scars, and extremely painful burns...

Chapter 4. Outcome
...Once you have gotten to this point there is not much you can do. The scars will make it much harder to cast in the future. Your outcome may vary as some pyromancers have recorded being able to cast within 1-2 months again, while others have recorded never being able to cast again....

Source

Izahr was a master pyromancer who was open about his ability to control the emotions of those around him. His largest contribution to the world of pyromancy was his book on the source of magic.

This is an exerpt from Izahr's book "How the Sun changes pyromancy."

We all know the stories of the Gods and how Ileos created the sun, giving us magic. While we can not say whether this is accurate we can say that we get our powers from the Sun. The act of pyromancy is the active manipulation of the energies which the sun produces. This can be found to be true through multiple ways alone, but to get this down in writing for any future generations is my goal.

I have traveled all across Iknaas. The northern and southern areas of the world, while far less inhabited they are also less inclined to pyromancy. The suns strength is not as strong in those areas, aswell having long bouts of time where the sun does not come up for months. Pyromancy in these areas are also far more coveted, a lot of the kings i spoke with either knew pyromancy or had advisors that did.

The contrast to this is cities which sit on the equator are often full of pyromancers, they have pyromancers of varying strength. Pyromancy is incorporated into daily life at every turn for people closer to the equator.

This can even be seen in your own daily life. Small things can change the power of your casting. From stepping into shadows, to the time of day. These usually aren't as important for the majority of pyromancy. However is good to keep in mind for training and practice, its far easier to cast under perfect conditions, however burn out is also a bigger concern.