Stallion Mage: A Horse Shifter Mpreg Romance (COMPLETE)

Stallion Magee's Magic System, Culture, & World

As I revise, I'm making background documents for my editor.  It also helps me smooth out the story and fill in holes.  Here is what I wrote down for the general world-building.  Some of the earlier chapters violate these rules, and I'm going to fix those.

Magic

The people worship Nature, the source of all life. There's no concept of moral sin, only actions 'with Nature' and 'against Nature.'

What's against Nature?

* Killing someone
* Fighting in the tribe, because it can lead to injury and death.
* Any actions that wilfully lead to injury and death, or decreases the safety of the tribe

But Alvarr and Laren together is not against Nature - it's just unusual. There may be other stallion/stallion pairs, or mare/mare. But Alvarr and Laren were brought together by Nature because Alvarr is a life-bearer.

Is Nature a god?

Nature is not necessarily person-like; it doesn't speak to them in words, and they don't think of it as a giant person in the sky. Nature is more a tangible force of life, straight from the Earth. But Nature wants its people to thrive, and works through healers, leaders, mages, Elders, and sometimes very young children for the good of the tribe(s).

When people "do magic," it's channeling Nature's energy. How powerful it is depends on a lot of things - the mage's condition, the need for it, their fear of it, etc. It can change, as in Alvarr's pregnancy. He was drained because of the foal. And when he's weakened, his magic area is restricted to where he is. When he's powerful, he can cover a lot more ground, as when he created grass for the stallions, and again for the mares.

If the people reject Nature, Nature will be closed to them, just like how the Mayans over-harvested their forests and affected their climate. It's not a punishment, just a consequence. In the case of the rift, the cause has mostly been forgotten - to the people that live during the story, "it's just the way things are."

The consequence of the rift didn't come from Alvi's loss of control - it came from the tribe thinking that separating was a good idea. Stallions and mares need each other!

Eventually, Nature will engineer a person who can set things back in balance. But it happens over generations, especially because of free will. This is how leaders are chosen, also. Nature's Order is bestowed upon them - it's not a democracy where the leaders are elected, exactly.

Leader abilities:

* Compulsion
* Grazing rotation
* Discipline of members who do wrong
* Leading them through the Time of Mating
* Mares: traveling, finding good ground, herb lore, predator lore
* Stallions: welcoming new tribe-brothers, assigning and building of rough dwellings

Elders / Old Ones

Elders are not necessarily mages. They hold the tribe's history in their memory. Old Ones are the elder mares.

Elder Mastok has specific knowledge of the ancients' writing system, passed to him by his grandfather, Elder Danan, along with the secret of fire. Mastok's line are the only ones who know about their past, along with the current leader, and since the separation of tribes, this knowledge is only possessed by stallions, passed from father or grandfather to the younger apprentices.

Elders choose their apprentices. Not all old mares and stallions become Old Ones or Elders.

Healers

Healers have specific magic and are chosen at birth by Nature - the tribe calls them "closer to Nature." They must learn from an older healer. They are mages who can access Nature's power directly.