"It is a vision of beauty! Of absolute wonder! It is so bright that it burns my mortal eyes as well as my immaterial ones! It shines like mother-of-pearl lit by a thousand suns, scouring me with absolute brilliance and yet filling me with indescribable elation. How tempting it is to reach out for it, to try to grasp it and weave it as I do the purity of Hysh. And yet I know that were I to try, it would be my end, for even gazing upon it with the unseen eyes of my Gift, I am brought low and must close myself off to its glory after but a fleeting moment. How I long to stand for even the shortest time in the body of our great master and mentor, Loremaster Teclis, and be thus enabled to reach out at touch the radiance that is Qhaysh..."
- ——Extracted from the private journals of Volans, First Supreme Patriarch of the Orders of Magic
An Archmage of Ulthuan utilizing High Magic.
High Magic, also called True Magic or Qhaysh, is the art of using all of the Winds of Magic. Exclusive to High Elves, Slann, and the Skinks of Lustria, spells from High Magic are powerful, beyond the ken of Human minds and Human ability. In fact, the spells Teclis taught the Human Wizards were but minor spells of True Magic. Teclis’ Human students revealed they lacked the finesse at manipulating anything more complicated than what could be achieved through a single Wind. The reason is because High Elves are better suited to sensing the ebb and flow of the Winds of Magic better than any other race, anticipating dangerous changes before they occur.
Its polar opposite is True Dhar.
Applications
Spells using Qhaysh use elements of many or all the Winds of Magic at once. High Magic is far more versatile than all other forms of magic, and spells woven from it are certainly among the most powerful, as well as being amongst the most difficult to cast. The great Mages of Ulthuan can balance all the different Winds of Magic they channel directly into a spell, ensuring there is little or no magical leakage. The archmages and Loremasters of Ulthuan have mastered the art of grasping and refining the separate Winds of Magic and weaving them so finely and so carefully that they can create spells of flawless and massively powerful effect. This balancing and precisely measured use of the Winds of Magic is Qhaysh, or High Magic, as used by Ulthuan’s mages, and is the most potent form of magic and spellcraft.
While High Magic is a potent force in the Old World, it is beyond the means of most characters to ever attain. Elf Wizards adventuring in the Old World work towards mastering the fundamentals of magic and those who do return to Ulthuan to be ushered into the teachings of True Magic, spending decades, if not centuries in study and meditation.
Famous Practitioners
All famous practitioners are High Elves, Slann, or Skinks, as all other races who have attempted to use High Magic have failed, usually with disastrous side effects.
- Caledor Dragontamer
- Teclis, High Loremaster of the Tower of Hoeth
- Lord Kroak, first of the Slann
- Loremaster Finreir
Sources
- Realms of Sorcery (WFRP 2nd ed.), p. 36-37.