Divine Magic is the magic received by mortals as a reward for devotion to a gods . It is very different from Primordial Magic and spirit magic .
Divine Magic either comes in the form of blessings that Priests can bestow on people or in the form of an effect of a divine ceremony taught to priests or crusaders .
Priests have learned to receive power from the prayers of followers, most of this power is send directly to their Deity by that priest, but the Deity gives the priest permission to keep some of that power for themselves to cast blessings with as they see fit. This is usually about one fifth of the actual power but can be more if the god trusts the priest extensively.
The more a Deity trusts you, the more power you are allowed to keep for yourself. Saints (the highest form of "trust" a Deity can put in a mortal that still has free will) are so trusted by a Deity that they are allowed to keep all of the power from prayers themselves.
Divine charge
Every mortal produces divine charge. An energy that is brought out of the mortal by strong emotions, most often and easily by the emotion of worship. After worshipping a mortal reaches a state of emptiness or "vacuus" which usually lasts around a day. In this time the body can replenish the divine charge. When a mortal is attuned to a certain deity they can speed up this process with their force of will. Devout worshippers can, trough this process, send energy to deities several times a day.
Divine charge is captured by a nearby priest and sent directly to the god of the priest in question. Often the priest is allowed to keep a portion of the charge to perform miracles on his or her behalf.
If no priest is present when the mortal prays the divine charge is often captured by an amulet, shrine or altar. Priests or passing divine beings (often while remaining invisible) can at a later time sent these charges to the god in question. Crusaders can use the divine charge in shrines to bless themselves to help them on their holy duties.
If no priest nor divine object is present than the divine charge caused by worship is simply left in the air and will slowly seep towards the divine realms on it's own. However wandering spirits or other entities might be interested in this "free energy" and might grab it before it disappears.
Divine ceremonies
Apart from the standard blessings that can help others of the community perform their duties better, priests are often taught many ceremonies. Here are some examples of effects that priests can achieve with the help of ceremonies:
- Initiate somebody into the faith
- Divine knowledge
- Summon divine beings
- Turn a place into a holy place
- Bind two souls in holy matrimony
- Convert an altar to the altar of a different deity
- Help heal wounds, infections or illness
- Send along prayers to the divine realms
- Speed along a soul to the afterlife or request the sanctification of a body after death
- ..or undo many of the effects above
Crusader ceremonies
A crusader is different from a priest. Some crusaders are also priests but most crusaders are warriors and some crusaders are other professions all together.
Where normal mortals can only carry one, crusaders are taught to receive multiple blessings of the gods so they can better help to complete their holy tasks. But having multiple blessings also gives them the ability to "unweave" these intricate patterns of blessings in often destructive ways.
These ceremonies can for example cause the following effects:
- blight or outright destroy holy objects of rival deities
- bind divine beings of rival deities to the material realm
- destroy a bound divine being completely (normally when you destroy a daemon or angel it will simply form a new body after a while)
The unweaving of multiple blessings in this way is not something that was originally taught by the gods but something that crusaders have over many generations found out for themselves. Many churches don't teach their servants these techniques as they believe mortals should never have had such powers at their disposal.