THE FORCE: this, according to Lucas and our role play, is inherent in all things, something which (rather mysteriously, heh) ties us and binds us. Tapping into this Force allows the user to utilize telepathy, to sway the weak-minded, to augment physical prowess, to levitate objects, Mara what else am I missing here?

SITH MAGICK: this is straight magick, guys. It is strong, but like most magicks works from the principle of being BELIEF BASED. It is primarily straight deception to the observer, and if done well enough fools the observer into reacting as the magician decides. There has to be a spell cast, or a device put into use; if the belief of the one casting the spell is strong enough, it would carry over and deceive the onlooker/observer, etc. In reality, the spell designed DOES have the desired APPARENT effect, but again, it is based on deception only and needs to be cast. (ie: a magick user believes in his abilities strongly enough that he can APPARENTLY alter reality by turning someone into a frog. To all intents and purposes, as far as reality is concerned, that person "is" a frog. The spell can only be undone by the one who cast it, unless an addendum of sorts has been put into the spell, like "kiss the frog and he will return to normal.") Also, magick requires "fuel" of some sort: Phalomir, a Sith, becomes sapped every time he uses his inherent magick, it takes energy out of him. Devices and such must be used to make the magick work.

THE ALL: this is the true "All-that-is," based on The Force created by Lucas but goes beyond it. With the All, devices are not needed to make it work. (Gray's few Sith devices are designed around the All, to augment it or in some way constrain it, not to control it). What is necessary is a true balance within which supercedes the whole duality-based ideas of such things as "good" and "evil," "dark and light," "black and white," etc. With the All, space-time itself can be broken through (Portals) or altered (actually physically changed by rearranging existing molecules and atoms). Since space-time can be used, the user can actually look forward into Time, as well as backward, and can transport himself in either direction. (These are the main differences between it and The Force.)

But it cannot be used "willy-nilly." Again, a true inner balance must be reached, recognized on a gut level, and accepted. The whole "look at the Big Picture" kind of thing.

This can only be achieved by being taught of it by another All user, and then it is up to the student to reach that innate recognition needed to use it. So, long-term role play is necessary if another character is to be able to use the All.

(The only exception to this, so far, centers around PG's characters, who come from the FUTURE. In the future Sith civilization, the All is a bit more common, devices have been created by the Armorers to augment or restrain it; he has shown by his posts that he will not go "supercharacter" mode with it and thus I said he could touch upon the All a bit with his characters, as the role play need arises.

This was established via intensive PMing when he first came to the Pod, thank you.)

Magickal spells can be broken, sometimes by the death of the one who cast the spell. This happens time and time again in stories, movies, games; the list goes on. I would think that this would occur if the original spell wasn't strong enough to last, ie: the magick user wasn't that strong, or didn't "believe" hard enough.

Another example of magick used in role play: while on Korriban, Rykounagin used his Sith (learned) magick to hurl rocks around. This was truly a deception; in reality those rocks didn't really fly around. But if the magick spell, if his own belief in his ability to use that magick, was strong enough, then as far as the intended victims were concerned those flying rocks were real. The deception APPARENTLY altered reality, but they were fooled into thinking that it really WAS real.

This is how voodoo works, guys. People have been known to "believe themselves to death."

And people, let's not get into the "ok, I don't believe this is real" posting mode to combat an attack by anyone using magick. I won't allow that as it wouldn't be fair, nor would it be realistic, really. The victims are already afraid of those who use the magic, to them, magick IS magick, and would work.

ONLY ANOTHER MAGICIAN WOULD BE ABLE TO SEE THROUGH THE DECEPTION... and then it would take A LOT of energy to combat it... and then probably not defeat it.

Also, it seems like--at least, in all the Star Wars literature I've read--that most Force users have some sort of weakness as well as some sort of strength in the Force. Corran Horn couldn't levitate but had a great ability to trick weak minds; Luke Skywalker seemed to have difficulty in leviatation, etc.

As for Sith magick, I've always taken it as it is written when the term comes up. So, if I'm reading you right Gray, that would mean that whether you use the Force or the All, you could be deceived by Sith magick so long as your character believed the deception was real. This belief in the deception would come this way simply because our characters believe in the Sorceror's abilities (i.e. we all believe whatever Sith magick Aelvedaar uses results in something real because every single one of our characters believes in his ability to begin with).

Am I getting the Sith magick stuff right there, Gray?

When Aelvedaar used the All to reach out and dissolve that bit of shard Sa'kal'ishaalas was holding, it really did happen. With the All he was capable of dissociating the molecular bonds of the shard, and it just "fell apart" at a molecular level, heh.

If that had been something via Sith magick, to all intents and purposes that shard would simply have "disappeared." Sa'kal'ishaalas would have thought it was gone, because the magick was real. But a countering spell cast at later on would reveal the shard once more. THE SAME SHARD.

As far as the shard goes, it is gone, gone gone. Nothing can bring it back now; I mean, Aelvedaar could follow a reverse procedure and create A BIT OF SHARD by putting together the correct molecules, but it wouldn't be THE ORIGINAL SHARD. Just one that looked like it.

All-users can be deceived by magick just like anybody else. Of course Sith magick users can as well; if the user is a strong magician he could see through the deception but have difficulties combating the spell cast. I guess the best approach would be a good defensive spell cast first??? Which would be difficult too.

Aelvedaar is really a nasty canasta because not only is he a powerful Sith sorcerer (Dark Lord of the caste) but an All user too. The All can combat magick easily: reality proving itself to be "truer" than deception.

But at the cost of maintaining that inner balance, and at the expenditure of great energy. (He's just good at not showing fatigue.)

A spell cast by Sith magick is for all intents and purposes real. But, the degree or extent of the spell depends primarily upon the strength and capabilities of the magician: ie, how far reality is changed and all that. IT WORKS. Those who believe in the possibility of it happening make it work better ("gee, he's a sorcerer, wow I bet he can do neat stuff...") But the change can be seen for what it is by another magician, and if that one is strong enough, the spell can be countered (although this is tough to do and takes a lot of magickal power to do so). Otherwise only the one who originally cast the spell can break it.

A change implemented through All use IS a true, physical change. Molecules are actually rearranged and so on. It's permanent. If another All-user would come along and try to "break" the "spell" in order to return the object to its original being, he could not. He could only rearrange yet more molecules and make a copy of the original, as that original is altered for good.