Sacred 2:Book 6 - Forbidden Magic

Forbidden Magic

For more than forty years I have been devoting my studies to Forbidden Magic. Of course, officially and by request of the academy and for investigation purposes only. It is not easy to deal with the dark sides of magic day in and day out - to study all these repulsive rituals and monstrosities and to concern oneself with the scum within these dark circles.

Little is written about Forbidden Magic. The essays you may find in libraries are few and far between, typically incomplete or they are based on assumptions and speculations. This is understandable since Forbidden Magic is... well, forbidden. How does one report about something that is not meant to exist officially? When I began my research for this book, I was facing this problem myself; however, owing to my position I enjoy certain privileges and those opened the doors to several secret documents. Otherwise, this book would have been unthinkable. Now, however, I hope to present to my readers a reasonably correct and comprehensive treatise about the subject, although this scroll is not meant for everyone's reading pleasure. Let me begin without further delay and let us delve into the realm of darkness.

The seemingly most harmless variation appears to be the Curse Magic. At first glance, this branch of magic would not seem very dangerous. However, appearances can be deceptive! Curses can be extremely dangerous and it is almost impossible to lift them.

Then, of course, there are necromancers. They are abominable scum, obsessed with everything connected to death and reviving the dead. These people will not stop short of anything, they animate dead flesh and turn the mortal remains of creatures into mindless puppets. Semi-decayed bodies aimlessly amble through the night screaming for brains, despite the fact that their bodily functions have ceased to exist. The more advanced the decay, the more repugnant these monsters become. Even skeletons may be reanimated by Necromancy. They wander about although they cannot see where they are going - obviously, as they lack eyes - and they will lash out at anything that crosses their path. An experienced necromancer is able to create entire armies like this. Hordes of mindless warriors who do not know fear. This is repulsive and condemnable. And unhygienic!

Alas, this does not satisfy every necromancer! In an extremely repulsive incident, a necromancer attempted to create a body from many parts of corpses by sewing them together. However, he had to break off his experiment without being successful, sold his memoirs for an obscene amount of money and moved abroad.

In comparison to Necromancy, Curse Magic is much more subtle. Curses are almost impossible to lift once they have been activated. Unfortunately, there are no limits to the minds of curse magicians. Curses can be hexed to individuals, to groups of people, families of tribes. The probably best-known incident involves sword master Crauthain, who apparently incurred the wrath of a dark magician during a seemingly insignificant dispute. He spent the rest of his life with a rain cloud over his head. Even inanimate items can be subject to curses, such as corn fields, for example.

Another aspect of despicable Forbidden Magic is the Demonology, which deals with the conjuration of creatures from hell and other frightful spheres. Once brought into this world, these creatures of chaos can only be controlled by an immense amount of magic. If this magic falters, they break free and then, they are able to roam around the world freely, which is equivalent to the major disaster. Something like that will happen eventually; maybe in a thousand years, or even two thousand years, but it WILL happen.

Beware of Forbidden Magic, for all it breeds is disaster. Beware of cursed hags, necromancers and demonologists and bring them to the attention of the authorities. Baneful are their deeds and nefarious their desires.

You believe that to be strange? Well, such are the words written down in this scroll...