The Naali

Overview

The Naali is an efficient yet dangerous style of Alteration employed by the Yzmir. This style involves directly channeling ideas — referred to as Aether — from the world of imagination and the collective unconscious. The Aether invoked through the Naali is highly potent and enduring, almost pure.

Contamination and Remanence

In exchange for this power, the ideas channeled tend to seep into those who manipulate them. Over time, Yzmir mages become tainted, parasitized by these ideas. When this contamination exceeds a certain threshold, Initiates can lose control, unable to restrain the ideas that bubble up and manifest within them. In the worst cases, the affected Initiate may give rise to a pocket of The Tumult within themselves, with dramatic consequences.

This contamination has given rise to Remanence, a form of alienation that plunges even powerful Yzmir into trance-like states filled with visions, recitations in an unknown language, or long periods of deep sleep. Those afflicted can regurgitate Aether into reality at any moment, risking erratic and dangerous alterations. The Council has asked sorcerers to restrain their use of magic while seeking a cure.

The Mandates

Aware of the power they accumulate, the Yzmir have imposed upon themselves a set of strict conventions and rules regarding the use of their talents: The Mandates. The first Mandate states that Initiates must never use their gifts for personal gain, but always for a cause or an ideal in which they believe.

The Five Spheres

The Yzmir have divided their practice into five complementary disciplines known as The Spheres of the Naali:

1. Eidomancy: Invocation of ideas using Effigies
2. Horomancy: Divination through study of idea currents via Irises
3. Phonomancy: Manipulation of ideas through voice and sound — the Psalms
4. Kinemancy: Mastery of primal and elemental forces through gesture — the Signs
5. Gephyromancy: Magic of idea transfers and reinforcement through Sigils

Each Sphere has a Temple that serves as a learning place, with a Magister at its head. The five Magisters sit on the Magisterium, the High Council that guides the entire faction.

Practitioner Specialization

While there are Alterers capable of mastering all five Spheres, others prefer to specialize in one domain to develop a single primary expertise. Most commonly, Alterers practice two or three disciplines, as it is challenging to devote oneself to the study of all these fields simultaneously.

Relationships

• Alteration: Broader technique of which the Naali is the Yzmir style
• The Aether: Substance channeled directly from the Empyrean through the Naali
• The Empyrean: Realm of imagination from which Aether is drawn
• The Spheres: Five disciplines that subdivide Naali practice
• Magisterium: Governing council of five Magisters, one per Sphere
• The Mandates: Rules restricting Yzmir use of their talents
• Remanence: Affliction caused by cumulative Aether contamination
• The Tumult: Can manifest within an Initiate if contamination exceeds threshold
• Yzmir: Faction that practices the Naali