Life Magic

Life magic is the manipulation of life energies, primarily in plants and fungi. The manipulation of animal life is taboo. When referring exclusively to the manipulation of plants and fungi, the term Gardening is used as a substitute.

Phaedra's Laws

 * 1) Life has its most potential upon its entrance into the world.
 * 2) Life has its most value at the penultimate moment before it tranisitons into death.
 * 3) The versatility of life is linked to the relationship between its potential and cumulative value. The point of most potential is the point of greatest susceptibility to change. Conversely, at the point of most cumulative value, it is at its most resistent to change.

The Languages of Life
Established life has unique languages. A Gardener may communicate with a lifeform if he or she understands the nature of the particular dialect that life form speaks.
 * Trees communicate through electrical signals passed between their roots.
 * Grasses and flowers communicate via complex pheromonal signals often referred to as perfumes.
 * Fungi communicate via spores which coontain contain complete, embedded messages in the form of complex compounds. These spores function similar to letters.

Seeding
Seeding is the act of imparting the characteristics of one life form into another at the stage of most potential, or the seed stage. The Gardener uses magic to manipulate the information contained within seed, thus fundamentally altering the characteristics of the plant.

A working understanding of the characteristics of a plant or fungus are required to manifest those features in the plants those seeds produce.

By incorporating magical energies into the seed or plant, time can be dilated or contracted around it, causing plants to reach maturity rapidly or remain in bloom for prolonged periods of time.

Taboos
There are three taboos in the use of Life Magic.
 * 1) Imparting sentience into non-sentient lifeforms. This is achieved by embedding mortal genetic code into fungal spores or pollen prior to fertilization and planting.
 * 2) Hybridizing animal life. The process must be done prior to the onset of gestation. It requries taking life from both source materials or creatures in its totality, blurring the lines between Life Magic and Necromancy. The process requires a surrogate, most often placing the life of that surrogate in danger. The method was discoverd by studying the breediing habits of darkworms, which manifest similar effects naturally.
 * 3) Seeding established life. The benefit is that the subject gainst he natural defenses of the source material, but the process severely destabilizes the integrity fo teh genetic code and the healing process for overcoming this instability dramatically shortens the lifespan.