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Description
What is Magic?
Magic is the term for manipulation of energy through various internal and external means, often in the form of spells and rituals.

Magic starts as a fundamental force of Subspace, originating from the Astral consciousness known as Yog-Sothoth. Sothic energy enters our universe layers through entities perceived by Yog-Sothoth, through window areas and through the weak points worn through the veil by spiritual activity.

In humans it is usually focused on the pineal gland, the mystical third eye and atrophied descendant of Shoggoth Twsha organs. If the gland is damaged, sothic energy will still flow through the individual but it will impede their ability to perceive and interact with extradimensional phenomena.

Sothic energy flows through the body, carried in the blood to the heart and throughout the rest of the circulatory system. From there the energy filters out through the skin in an imperceptible aura and a low density field that surrounds the body.

Every being under the perception of Yog-Sothoth will have their own sothic field. At its natural state it is entirely passive and far too weak to be of influence in ordinary space-time.

Learning Magic
Magical instruction is not a common thing and self study is difficult.

Books on the subject are rare and those that do exist are poorly translated at best. There are spells written in Aklo, Tsath-yo, Senzar, Naacal, Rongorongo, Carian and many more languages that are not officially deciphered, if they’re believed to be real languages at all. Even if you do understand them, there’s only so much text and images can convey.

The vast majority of the world’s magical knowledge is jealously guarded by an underground of cults, covens and secret societies and that knowledge is contingent on membership. Even then their knowledge tends to run long on Aeonist histories and short on actual spells.

Magic simply isn’t very common on this planet and hasn’t been since the fall of the sorcerer kings of Atlantis.

Occult Science
Although some see them as diametrically opposed, once sufficiently analysed magic becomes science. There are many cultures, both alien and human, who would not consider magic to be a separate enough concept for there to be a meaningful difference between occult and “regular” science. They would say that the otherworldly energies are no more magic than electricity.

Some may baulk further at the terminology and make noises about psychokinetic energy fields, Kirlian auras, Tillinghast radiation and subspatial matter states but it makes no difference to Yog-Sothoth. The energy is there regardless.

Conduits
The energy of subspace is called “psychoactive” for a reason. It can be shaped and wielded through the power of thought alone. By simply opening the astral conduit and willing it, a great deal of magic can be done. It’s not completely free form as there’s only so much sothic energy can do in its rawer forms.

Some humans are born with instinctive control of their conduit. These people are commonly referred to as psychics or espers. In most modern humans this is a rare mutation but the people of K’n-yan all have the ability, an evolutionary response to the high levels of sothic energy in their subterranean environment. In prehistoric South Africa a human sub-species also developed powerful natural conduits but the “pineal man” turned out to be an evolutionary dead end as their own psychic abilities grew out of control and destroyed their civilization.

Examples
Telepathy
Much as vocal cords vibrate air to generate words, the astral cord can vibrate subspace to transmit etheric “sound” directly to the mind. Telepathy is actually surprisingly easy to learn once you’ve been exposed to it.

Fires of Yog-Sothoth
Exciting the matter of subspace has much the same effect as it does in our space-time, creating high-energy ectoplasma. The Ectoplasma can then be summoned, shaped and contained by sothic energy and then released at whatever the sorcerer desires to destroy. More than a few mysterious arsons and burning deaths have been the result of this form of magic.

Fleshsculpting
Enough of the Shoggoth remains in Earthly life that if someone has the supernatural means, they can reactivate the dormant biomachinery to enact great changes on a biological organism. Once active nearly any physical change can be made through mental domination, as the Progenitors designed shoggothim cells to be receptive to telepathic control. Fleshsculpting can be used for many purposes, both benign and horrible; from healing physical wounds, to shapeshifting, to baleful transformations, even replicating the gaze of Gatanothoa.

Formulas
Formulas could be considered a subtype of conduit magic, just another way to control projected sothic forces through intelligent minds. However, instead of being freeform and adaptive, formulas are reliant on certain rigid lines of thought. If contemplated and solved successfully, the formulas change the form of the conduit and shape the magic accordingly.

Examples
Dao-Hna Formula
Beneath the skin of the world, in another dimension, at the end of a river longer than the space between Earth and Moon, is a city. Yian-Ho. The home of the Deathless Sorcerers. There are two ways to make the journey to the city, either you travel to one of the magnetic poles and enter the magical gateways there or you could simply meditate on the Dao-Hna. When performed, the Dao formula alone allows for the viewing of the inner city, while the full Dao-Hna breaks through the dimensional boundary and transports the formulator. The Formula can be found in Al Azif, as Abdul al-Hazred learned it from a sect of the Cthulhu cult that had been in contact with the Deathless.

Pnakotic Formula
Originating from the Yith, the Pnakotic Formula recorded in Al Azif is a part of the technology they use to transfer minds through time and space. The formula alone is fully capable of making the switch between two ensouled organisms but cannot send a mind through time.

Gestures
By holding the body in particular ways and manipulating the current of internal sothic energy a spellcaster may turn their body into a rune of flesh and blood. Simple spells may be cast with a single flick of the hand, while others may be dances that last hours.

Examples
The Elder Sign
There are several spells known as “the” Elder Sign but what I am referring to here is one of the simplest forms of gesture magic. As long as the sign is held and the wielder has the energy their sothic field will be reinforced against subspace phenomenon, making it difficult for entities such as ghosts or elementals to approach and much more difficult to cast other spells on the bearer of the sign.

The Voorish Sign
Something of a counterpart to the Elder Sign, the Voorish Sign is used to bring the caster’s sothic field more in tune with subspace, giving them greater vision and easing the flow of magic. It is significant for being the first Sign of Aklo spellcasting tradition and is the base of many longer Gesture spells.

Glyphs
Much like the use of gestures, glyphs shape sothic energy as it passes through them, allowing for magical effects. Chains of glyphs are used for more complex magics and serve as the basis of many rituals. Glyphs can be carved, painted or cast but they all need to be made of something conductive to sothic energy. Quartz crystals, blood and tulu-metal are all common bases for Glyphs. Ectoplasmic solids are particularly good but are difficult to keep stable in our spacetime facet.

Examples
The Elder Sign
Like the gesture of the same name, the Elder Sign glyph is a ward against subspatial forces. It appears as a twisted, five-forked tree branch. On its own it does little more than the hand sign, generating a weak, artificial sothic field that incorporeal entities find difficult to cross. Its true potential lies in amplifying other magics cast by a sorcerer that syncs their own field to the glyph.

The Yellow Sign
This glyph carries the memory of Carcosa. Any being that witnesses it will be haunted by those memories and may be drawn into further contact with Yellow Frequency carriers.

The Rune of Black Magic
A spell to bring back the dead, although not in any way resembling true reanimation. The glyph is inscribed in the flesh of a corpse, turning it into a gate to the netherrealm and opening it to possession from any spirits that desire to enter physical reality.

Alchemy
Most of what has been called alchemy throughout history is simply ordinary chemistry. Even the fabled Reanimation serum is a clever combination of completely mundane (if rare) earthly materials. True Alchemy requires ingredients that have more alien properties.

Examples
The Plutonian Drug and Liao
A fine white powder that when taken actually expands human consciousness enough to perceive time like a spatial dimension, if only shallowly. If the user is proficient in astral projection they may even travel through time, although going too far can provoke the Hounds of Tindalos. While the drug originally came from Yuggoth and the Fungi, an alternative is derived from the leaves of the magical Black Lotus flower.

Fool’s Tulu
In popular perception the primary goal of western Alchemists was the transmutation of gold. That isn’t quite the whole of it. While some were certainly seeking wealth alone, what true sorcerers sought was the replication of Tulu-metal, the naturally enchanted golden alloy. While that goal has never been attained by humans, the Deathless Sorcerers came close. Fool’s Tulu is much tougher than pure gold and mildly magically conductive, while being highly repellant to true Tulu-metal.

Space Mead
Although it contains many of the same ingredients as regular earthly mead, the use of Byakhee honey gives it a powerful magic. Space mead is able to support human life in interstellar space, at least for a few hours. It is also enjoyed by the very Byakhees who supply the active ingredient and so it is also useful as a bargaining chip when obtaining their services.

Incantations
An incantation is a request for an external entity to aid you in performing magic. Most incantations require a certain degree of awareness to be drawn from the entity in question before they can function, although there are a rare few that call upon near omniscient beings. Incantations are often paired with some form of calling ritual in order to ensure they are received. It is also common for incantations to be accompanied by a sacrifice as payment for the magic.

Incantations encompass more than spoken words, as not all entities that might answer calls can perceive vibrating air. There are visual incantations commonly referred to as sigils and even olfactory ones in forms such as incense.

Examples
Dragon Ascending Dragon Descending
The Dragons are a pair of Incantations to Yog-Sothoth, part of a larger ritual calling on the Outer god to raise or destroy the Undead. The Incantation is in an alien language strange to human tongues and it can take a great deal of practice to make the correct syllables.
Y’AI ’NG’NGAH, YOG-SOTHOTH H’EE—L’GEB F’AI THRODOG UAAAH
OGTHROD AI’F GEB’L—EE’H YOG-SOTHOTH ’NGAH’NG AI’Y ZHRO

The Call of Carcosa
The reason Hastur is often called “the Unnameable” is the ability to draw its attention with the simple repetition of its name. The incantation is not infallible, the incanter must know the word is a name and what it refers to. Having read or performed the King in Yellow or speaking the name in the presence of the Yellow Sign will also make it easier to catch Hastur’s attention. What actually comes of contact with Hastur is entirely to the will of the Black Star itself. It may send portents, turn the speaker into an undead creature, manifest as The King in Yellow or do nothing at all. The spell is generally only used by those possessed of madness, naivety or staggering hubris.
HASTUR, HASTUR, HASTUR

The Symbol of Jhebbal Sag
Jhebbal Sag was once of the thousand gods of Mu and later its worship was picked up by the hyboreans. As an Earthborn child of Shub Niggurath, Jhebbal Sag has a connection to Earth animals, particularly non-sapient predators. Its Symbol is an example of a visual incantation and if successful will be seen as a powerful, dominating presence to animals, often causing them to flee or submit. It is also the base of summoning rituals for Jhebbal Sag’s own hybrid children.

Rituals
Much like a machine is often many smaller mechanisms working together for greater effect, a ritual is a way of combining many small spells into a single magical working. Another important aspect of rituals is that most are designed to include multiple participants, allowing them to divide the toll of performing magic.

Examples
Mao Ceremony
Created by the serpent people of Valusia, at the behest of the Lloigor, the Mao Ceremony is an extremely powerful communication spell. While other spells might allow telepathic contact with other places or times within Yog-Sothoth, the Mao is able to send messages Outside the local multiverse entirely. The most common version only sends to the Gulf of S'glhuo in the Tru'nembra continuum. The spell more commonly known as “summon hounds” is actually a Mao for the realm of Tindalos, provoking the usual response.

Witch Angles
Beginning with various incantations to Nyarlathotep, this ritual is used to submerge specially angled surfaces into subspace, allowing for them to serve as gates to other places. Nyarlathotep involves themself in the function of the gate in exchange for horrific acts of sacrifice.

The Star of Ommum-Vog
Named after an ancient Hyperborean wizard, this ritual involves pre-human incantations being spoken within a ring of specially prepared braziers. If successful the flames will turn gold and condense into a single burning point which follows the direction of the mind within the ritual circle. It was nearly lost with the wizard Ommom-Vog after an Ice-Demon overwhelmed him but it was rediscovered by Eibon.

The Dangers
Magic begets magic, widening the astral conduits through use. While in theory this is a good thing, the human body didn’t really evolve to channel such energies.

The practitioner’s body and mind act like a circuit for sothic energy and much like an electrical circuit provides a certain amount of resistance to the current. Even the passive flow of too much magic can damage blood vessels, causing blood blisters and bruising as energy surges through veins. Over time it can lead to chronic pain, strokes, aneurysms and internal bleeding.

The really awful consequences come from the flares of magic caused by actually casting it. This opens the sorcerer to all manner of magical ailments through Aura poisoning, from mutations to being cast out of space and time. With overuse the sorcerer’s body might even combust as the rush of Sothic energy ignites them from the inside. As they burn they enter a short lived feedback loop as magic rushes out into the world through the burning hole in reality before detonating. This kind of magical self destruction leaves fallout, flooding the area with lingering Aura.

There are ways to ease the dangers. Meditation on the flows of magic helps the sorcerer to understand how it moves through their bodies and compensate for surges. Most rituals include multiple participants to cast greater magics while preventing overly taxing any one sorcerer. There are even techniques and substances to harden the body to the burn of magic but they often come with their own side effects.

External Magic
If possible, it is safer to use magic that comes from without. Alchemy and incantations are essentially built around doing so and rituals and glyphs both don’t require the magic to come from the caster. So, if you’re not using your own magic, where is it coming from?

Window Areas
Some occultists imagine there is a complex geomantic web of ley lines criss-crossing the world. That’s an inaccurate view of things. They’re more like currents of energy flowing through the planet’s own sothic field. They’re sometimes predictable but not static. The window areas they flow from are much more useful. A window area is a weak point in the subspace veil, and they are places of heightened ambient magic. If harnessed, they can provide more energy than a dozen sorcerers.

Megalopolisomancy
As human cities grew more dependent on large scale roadways it became possible to exploit the movement of huge numbers of people in guided lines to gather large amounts of magical energy. Megalopoisomancy is the practice of using intersecting, high traffic paths to create artificial ley lines. They’re inefficient but the input more than makes up for any losses. If you’ve ever driven through an intersection that seems like no sane mind could have laid it out, you’ve likely been part of a Magalopolisomantic glyph! While primarily practiced by the Deathless, the Fungi have also slipped an operative or two into city planning departments.

Bound Entities
There are a lot of beings out in the multiverse that have a much greater capacity for magic than humans and most of them aren’t out there listening for Incantations. But if they can be captured, their magic can be drawn out. The greatest example of a bound entity kept for this purpose is Cyaegha, under Dark Hill in Germany. A cult once bound it there to take its power for their own and while that cult is now long gone, their guardian demons maintain the binding.

Sacrifice
Provided you are not morally opposed to it you can just kill people for their magic. There’s even a nice little surge as brain death occurs as Yog-Sothoth pops in to make sure it got everything. Not all sacrifices are made equal of course, while every self-aware being does have some sothic energy it would take a truly staggering number of cows to equal one human. Still, it’s a lot safer and more legal for a cult to operate a slaughterhouse than to go around murdering every time they want to talk to their god. On Earth, humans, cats and cetaceans tend to make for the greatest sacrifices.

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TLDR - Magic is energy from another dimension. It comes through everyone’s pineal gland and makes an energy field some people learned to use to make stuff happen. You can shape it with your mind, your body and with carvings and doing too much too fast can hurt you really bad. You can also yell at gods and spirits or mix magical stuff together so they do the magic for you. Sacrifices can be useful but it’s mean so don’t.

For other worldbuilding essays that touch on the subject of magic, check here!
Strange Aeons - Tomes
Strange Aeons - More Tomes
An Exploration of Ghosts in the Cthulhu Mythos
Know Your Vampire!

Description
What is Magic?
Magic is the term for manipulation of energy through various internal and external means, often in the form of spells and rituals.

Magic starts as a fundamental force of Subspace, originating from the Astral consciousness known as Yog-Sothoth. Sothic energy enters our universe layers through entities perceived by Yog-Sothoth, through window areas and through the weak points worn through the veil by spiritual activity.

In humans it is usually focused on the pineal gland, the mystical third eye and atrophied descendant of Shoggoth Twsha organs. If the gland is damaged, sothic energy will still flow through the individual but it will impede their ability to perceive and interact with extradimensional phenomena.

Sothic energy flows through the body, carried in the blood to the heart and throughout the rest of the circulatory system. From there the energy filters out through the skin in an imperceptible aura and a low density field that surrounds the body.

Every being under the perception of Yog-Sothoth will have their own sothic field. At its natural state it is entirely passive and far too weak to be of influence in ordinary space-time.

Learning Magic
Magical instruction is not a common thing and self study is difficult.

Books on the subject are rare and those that do exist are poorly translated at best. There are spells written in Aklo, Tsath-yo, Senzar, Naacal, Rongorongo, Carian and many more languages that are not officially deciphered, if they’re believed to be real languages at all. Even if you do understand them, there’s only so much text and images can convey.

The vast majority of the world’s magical knowledge is jealously guarded by an underground of cults, covens and secret societies and that knowledge is contingent on membership. Even then their knowledge tends to run long on Aeonist histories and short on actual spells.

Magic simply isn’t very common on this planet and hasn’t been since the fall of the sorcerer kings of Atlantis.

Occult Science
Although some see them as diametrically opposed, once sufficiently analysed magic becomes science. There are many cultures, both alien and human, who would not consider magic to be a separate enough concept for there to be a meaningful difference between occult and “regular” science. They would say that the otherworldly energies are no more magic than electricity.

Some may baulk further at the terminology and make noises about psychokinetic energy fields, Kirlian auras, Tillinghast radiation and subspatial matter states but it makes no difference to Yog-Sothoth. The energy is there regardless.

Conduits
The energy of subspace is called “psychoactive” for a reason. It can be shaped and wielded through the power of thought alone. By simply opening the astral conduit and willing it, a great deal of magic can be done. It’s not completely free form as there’s only so much sothic energy can do in its rawer forms.

Some humans are born with instinctive control of their conduit. These people are commonly referred to as psychics or espers. In most modern humans this is a rare mutation but the people of K’n-yan all have the ability, an evolutionary response to the high levels of sothic energy in their subterranean environment. In prehistoric South Africa a human sub-species also developed powerful natural conduits but the “pineal man” turned out to be an evolutionary dead end as their own psychic abilities grew out of control and destroyed their civilization.

Examples
Telepathy
Much as vocal cords vibrate air to generate words, the astral cord can vibrate subspace to transmit etheric “sound” directly to the mind. Telepathy is actually surprisingly easy to learn once you’ve been exposed to it.

Fires of Yog-Sothoth
Exciting the matter of subspace has much the same effect as it does in our space-time, creating high-energy ectoplasma. The Ectoplasma can then be summoned, shaped and contained by sothic energy and then released at whatever the sorcerer desires to destroy. More than a few mysterious arsons and burning deaths have been the result of this form of magic.

Fleshsculpting
Enough of the Shoggoth remains in Earthly life that if someone has the supernatural means, they can reactivate the dormant biomachinery to enact great changes on a biological organism. Once active nearly any physical change can be made through mental domination, as the Progenitors designed shoggothim cells to be receptive to telepathic control. Fleshsculpting can be used for many purposes, both benign and horrible; from healing physical wounds, to shapeshifting, to baleful transformations, even replicating the gaze of Gatanothoa.

Formulas
Formulas could be considered a subtype of conduit magic, just another way to control projected sothic forces through intelligent minds. However, instead of being freeform and adaptive, formulas are reliant on certain rigid lines of thought. If contemplated and solved successfully, the formulas change the form of the conduit and shape the magic accordingly.

Examples
Dao-Hna Formula
Beneath the skin of the world, in another dimension, at the end of a river longer than the space between Earth and Moon, is a city. Yian-Ho. The home of the Deathless Sorcerers. There are two ways to make the journey to the city, either you travel to one of the magnetic poles and enter the magical gateways there or you could simply meditate on the Dao-Hna. When performed, the Dao formula alone allows for the viewing of the inner city, while the full Dao-Hna breaks through the dimensional boundary and transports the formulator. The Formula can be found in Al Azif, as Abdul al-Hazred learned it from a sect of the Cthulhu cult that had been in contact with the Deathless.

Pnakotic Formula
Originating from the Yith, the Pnakotic Formula recorded in Al Azif is a part of the technology they use to transfer minds through time and space. The formula alone is fully capable of making the switch between two ensouled organisms but cannot send a mind through time.

Gestures
By holding the body in particular ways and manipulating the current of internal sothic energy a spellcaster may turn their body into a rune of flesh and blood. Simple spells may be cast with a single flick of the hand, while others may be dances that last hours.

Examples
The Elder Sign
There are several spells known as “the” Elder Sign but what I am referring to here is one of the simplest forms of gesture magic. As long as the sign is held and the wielder has the energy their sothic field will be reinforced against subspace phenomenon, making it difficult for entities such as ghosts or elementals to approach and much more difficult to cast other spells on the bearer of the sign.

The Voorish Sign
Something of a counterpart to the Elder Sign, the Voorish Sign is used to bring the caster’s sothic field more in tune with subspace, giving them greater vision and easing the flow of magic. It is significant for being the first Sign of Aklo spellcasting tradition and is the base of many longer Gesture spells.

Glyphs
Much like the use of gestures, glyphs shape sothic energy as it passes through them, allowing for magical effects. Chains of glyphs are used for more complex magics and serve as the basis of many rituals. Glyphs can be carved, painted or cast but they all need to be made of something conductive to sothic energy. Quartz crystals, blood and tulu-metal are all common bases for Glyphs. Ectoplasmic solids are particularly good but are difficult to keep stable in our spacetime facet.

Examples
The Elder Sign
Like the gesture of the same name, the Elder Sign glyph is a ward against subspatial forces. It appears as a twisted, five-forked tree branch. On its own it does little more than the hand sign, generating a weak, artificial sothic field that incorporeal entities find difficult to cross. Its true potential lies in amplifying other magics cast by a sorcerer that syncs their own field to the glyph.

The Yellow Sign
This glyph carries the memory of Carcosa. Any being that witnesses it will be haunted by those memories and may be drawn into further contact with Yellow Frequency carriers.

The Rune of Black Magic
A spell to bring back the dead, although not in any way resembling true reanimation. The glyph is inscribed in the flesh of a corpse, turning it into a gate to the netherrealm and opening it to possession from any spirits that desire to enter physical reality.

Alchemy
Most of what has been called alchemy throughout history is simply ordinary chemistry. Even the fabled Reanimation serum is a clever combination of completely mundane (if rare) earthly materials. True Alchemy requires ingredients that have more alien properties.

Examples
The Plutonian Drug and Liao
A fine white powder that when taken actually expands human consciousness enough to perceive time like a spatial dimension, if only shallowly. If the user is proficient in astral projection they may even travel through time, although going too far can provoke the Hounds of Tindalos. While the drug originally came from Yuggoth and the Fungi, an alternative is derived from the leaves of the magical Black Lotus flower.

Fool’s Tulu
In popular perception the primary goal of western Alchemists was the transmutation of gold. That isn’t quite the whole of it. While some were certainly seeking wealth alone, what true sorcerers sought was the replication of Tulu-metal, the naturally enchanted golden alloy. While that goal has never been attained by humans, the Deathless Sorcerers came close. Fool’s Tulu is much tougher than pure gold and mildly magically conductive, while being highly repellant to true Tulu-metal.

Space Mead
Although it contains many of the same ingredients as regular earthly mead, the use of Byakhee honey gives it a powerful magic. Space mead is able to support human life in interstellar space, at least for a few hours. It is also enjoyed by the very Byakhees who supply the active ingredient and so it is also useful as a bargaining chip when obtaining their services.

Incantations
An incantation is a request for an external entity to aid you in performing magic. Most incantations require a certain degree of awareness to be drawn from the entity in question before they can function, although there are a rare few that call upon near omniscient beings. Incantations are often paired with some form of calling ritual in order to ensure they are received. It is also common for incantations to be accompanied by a sacrifice as payment for the magic.

Incantations encompass more than spoken words, as not all entities that might answer calls can perceive vibrating air. There are visual incantations commonly referred to as sigils and even olfactory ones in forms such as incense.

Examples
Dragon Ascending Dragon Descending
The Dragons are a pair of Incantations to Yog-Sothoth, part of a larger ritual calling on the Outer god to raise or destroy the Undead. The Incantation is in an alien language strange to human tongues and it can take a great deal of practice to make the correct syllables.
Y’AI ’NG’NGAH, YOG-SOTHOTH H’EE—L’GEB F’AI THRODOG UAAAH
OGTHROD AI’F GEB’L—EE’H YOG-SOTHOTH ’NGAH’NG AI’Y ZHRO

The Call of Carcosa
The reason Hastur is often called “the Unnameable” is the ability to draw its attention with the simple repetition of its name. The incantation is not infallible, the incanter must know the word is a name and what it refers to. Having read or performed the King in Yellow or speaking the name in the presence of the Yellow Sign will also make it easier to catch Hastur’s attention. What actually comes of contact with Hastur is entirely to the will of the Black Star itself. It may send portents, turn the speaker into an undead creature, manifest as The King in Yellow or do nothing at all. The spell is generally only used by those possessed of madness, naivety or staggering hubris.
HASTUR, HASTUR, HASTUR

The Symbol of Jhebbal Sag
Jhebbal Sag was once of the thousand gods of Mu and later its worship was picked up by the hyboreans. As an Earthborn child of Shub Niggurath, Jhebbal Sag has a connection to Earth animals, particularly non-sapient predators. Its Symbol is an example of a visual incantation and if successful will be seen as a powerful, dominating presence to animals, often causing them to flee or submit. It is also the base of summoning rituals for Jhebbal Sag’s own hybrid children.

Rituals
Much like a machine is often many smaller mechanisms working together for greater effect, a ritual is a way of combining many small spells into a single magical working. Another important aspect of rituals is that most are designed to include multiple participants, allowing them to divide the toll of performing magic.

Examples
Mao Ceremony
Created by the serpent people of Valusia, at the behest of the Lloigor, the Mao Ceremony is an extremely powerful communication spell. While other spells might allow telepathic contact with other places or times within Yog-Sothoth, the Mao is able to send messages Outside the local multiverse entirely. The most common version only sends to the Gulf of S'glhuo in the Tru'nembra continuum. The spell more commonly known as “summon hounds” is actually a Mao for the realm of Tindalos, provoking the usual response.

Witch Angles
Beginning with various incantations to Nyarlathotep, this ritual is used to submerge specially angled surfaces into subspace, allowing for them to serve as gates to other places. Nyarlathotep involves themself in the function of the gate in exchange for horrific acts of sacrifice.

The Star of Ommum-Vog
Named after an ancient Hyperborean wizard, this ritual involves pre-human incantations being spoken within a ring of specially prepared braziers. If successful the flames will turn gold and condense into a single burning point which follows the direction of the mind within the ritual circle. It was nearly lost with the wizard Ommom-Vog after an Ice-Demon overwhelmed him but it was rediscovered by Eibon.

The Dangers
Magic begets magic, widening the astral conduits through use. While in theory this is a good thing, the human body didn’t really evolve to channel such energies.

The practitioner’s body and mind act like a circuit for sothic energy and much like an electrical circuit provides a certain amount of resistance to the current. Even the passive flow of too much magic can damage blood vessels, causing blood blisters and bruising as energy surges through veins. Over time it can lead to chronic pain, strokes, aneurysms and internal bleeding.

The really awful consequences come from the flares of magic caused by actually casting it. This opens the sorcerer to all manner of magical ailments through Aura poisoning, from mutations to being cast out of space and time. With overuse the sorcerer’s body might even combust as the rush of Sothic energy ignites them from the inside. As they burn they enter a short lived feedback loop as magic rushes out into the world through the burning hole in reality before detonating. This kind of magical self destruction leaves fallout, flooding the area with lingering Aura.

There are ways to ease the dangers. Meditation on the flows of magic helps the sorcerer to understand how it moves through their bodies and compensate for surges. Most rituals include multiple participants to cast greater magics while preventing overly taxing any one sorcerer. There are even techniques and substances to harden the body to the burn of magic but they often come with their own side effects.

External Magic
If possible, it is safer to use magic that comes from without. Alchemy and incantations are essentially built around doing so and rituals and glyphs both don’t require the magic to come from the caster. So, if you’re not using your own magic, where is it coming from?

Window Areas
Some occultists imagine there is a complex geomantic web of ley lines criss-crossing the world. That’s an inaccurate view of things. They’re more like currents of energy flowing through the planet’s own sothic field. They’re sometimes predictable but not static. The window areas they flow from are much more useful. A window area is a weak point in the subspace veil, and they are places of heightened ambient magic. If harnessed, they can provide more energy than a dozen sorcerers.

Megalopolisomancy
As human cities grew more dependent on large scale roadways it became possible to exploit the movement of huge numbers of people in guided lines to gather large amounts of magical energy. Megalopoisomancy is the practice of using intersecting, high traffic paths to create artificial ley lines. They’re inefficient but the input more than makes up for any losses. If you’ve ever driven through an intersection that seems like no sane mind could have laid it out, you’ve likely been part of a Magalopolisomantic glyph! While primarily practiced by the Deathless, the Fungi have also slipped an operative or two into city planning departments.

Bound Entities
There are a lot of beings out in the multiverse that have a much greater capacity for magic than humans and most of them aren’t out there listening for Incantations. But if they can be captured, their magic can be drawn out. The greatest example of a bound entity kept for this purpose is Cyaegha, under Dark Hill in Germany. A cult once bound it there to take its power for their own and while that cult is now long gone, their guardian demons maintain the binding.

Sacrifice
Provided you are not morally opposed to it you can just kill people for their magic. There’s even a nice little surge as brain death occurs as Yog-Sothoth pops in to make sure it got everything. Not all sacrifices are made equal of course, while every self-aware being does have some sothic energy it would take a truly staggering number of cows to equal one human. Still, it’s a lot safer and more legal for a cult to operate a slaughterhouse than to go around murdering every time they want to talk to their god. On Earth, humans, cats and cetaceans tend to make for the greatest sacrifices.

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TLDR - Magic is energy from another dimension. It comes through everyone’s pineal gland and makes an energy field some people learned to use to make stuff happen. You can shape it with your mind, your body and with carvings and doing too much too fast can hurt you really bad. You can also yell at gods and spirits or mix magical stuff together so they do the magic for you. Sacrifices can be useful but it’s mean so don’t.

For other worldbuilding essays that touch on the subject of magic, check here!
Strange Aeons - Tomes
Strange Aeons - More Tomes
An Exploration of Ghosts in the Cthulhu Mythos
Know Your Vampire!