The ability to perceive and manipulate the flow of lifeforce, that fundamental form of energy that flows around the earth

Lifeforce animates all living matter, from animals to vegetable to fungi to bacteria. There's a careful balance to how much lifeforce any living being must have to stay healthy: too little and the being is listless and prone to illness; too much concentrated in one area and the excess will manifest in overgrowth - cancers and bacterial blooms being the most common forms.

A Vivomancer possesses a Sphere of Perception, which is the maximum range within which they can perceive lifeforce in any direction. They also possess a Sphere of Influence, which is the maximum distance from their own skin that they're able to manipulate lifeforce. In the greatest masters their Sphere of Influence extends as far as their Sphere of Perception.

Laurent, however, has not possessed Vivomancy for long. He can crudely pull and shove lifeforce from up to several feet away, but to perform any useful tricks he needs to have several minutes to consider his target's particular distribution of lifeforce and then have his skin within ten centimetres of his target's body. The slower he can move lifeforce, the less unnatural the change will seem to his target.

Traditionally, the most dangerous part of Vivomancy was that the practitioner had to be careful not to use their own body as a sink or source of lifeforce, for ones own force is the easiest to manipulate and yet one is also so close to ones own body that one might not notice problems caused by an excessive ebb and flow until too late.

This was solved by the invention of a metallic alloy able to absorb lifeforce in the same manner as living matter, acting as a battery for the Vivomancer carrying the alloy. In Laurent's case he's forged multiple rings that he wears on both hands. What he's yet to realise is that this metal will slowly leach his own lifeforce if he doesn't keep them full enough of stolen lifeforce to prevent this osmosis. What he does know is that if he fills them too far they'll burst into heatless blue flame, the lifeforce within them finally becoming visible.

• Joseph Woodiger
• Charlene du Fauncy
• Henry (the elder) du Fauncy
• Jacques du Fauncy
• Eugenie du Fauncy
• Henry (the younger) du Fauncy
• Beatrice du Fauncy

• Kelli Greaves
• Rachelle Powell

• Anne Baker
• Nelly Baker

The Twelve Spheres of Magic: A Glossary

The Dyrnepath: None of the above; can be converted to any of the above types of energy by those able to interact with it. It is agreed that the Dyrnepath is a raw, fundamental form of energy, but it is disputed as to whether this energy is divine in origin.

Sphere(s) of Influence: The 3D area, centred around a person’s body, in which they are able to directly manipulate a single energy type. With practice, the size of this Sphere can be greatly increased.
Sphere(s) of Perception: The 3D area, centred around a person’s body, in which they are able to sense a single energy type. This Sphere is considered the theoretical limit a Sphere of Influence could grow to reach.

Mancer: A person who is able to perceive and manipulate a single form of energy. A Mancer can only perceive the Spheres of their own energy type.
Magician: A person who can manipulate multiple forms of energy, either sequentially or simultaneously. A Magician is able to perceive any Sphere of Influence.
Magus: A Magician who can manipulate each type of energy strongly and cleanly, without pulling from other sources, and whose Spheres are so equally sized that they cannot be told apart. Every Magician strives to become a Magus.
Scientist: A person who does not possess a particular Sphere, but has an academic understanding of that energy as it exists in the natural world. Alternatively, a person who has made an effort to be better educated than a layman about a power they do not personally possess. Can be both self-effacing and a mark of respect.
Alchemist: A derogatory term, originally used only for people who falsely claimed to be Pyromancers, for anyone who claims to have a Sphere that they do not possess.

As the Enlightenment swept the Western World, the Magicians and Mancers began to be aware that their qualitative understandings of the forces of nature were being quantified and slotted into a coherent framework of scientific formulae. The modern names of the Twelve Spheres are derived from the scientific names for their energies, with Nucleomancy finally being renamed just under a century ago.

Life Force does not currently form part of the scientific understanding of the physical world. The debate over whether the manipulation of this energy should be called Necromancy or Vivomancy rages among those who devote themselves to the art, but it is generally agreed that the name will be settled once the scientific community catches up with the magical community.

Chronomancy was briefly renamed Relativomancy, but it was decided that the name was both clunky and unenlightening.

Pyromancy is the lone holdout against this conversion to modernity that has taken place over the last three hundred years. Though the modernising faction of the Magicians wished to rename the art Chemomancy, the Pyromancers themselves refused to teach or acknowledge their art in any Magician who did not first vow to never use that term again. This refusal has precedent; the Pyromancers of Britain have included a caveat for millennia that those who learn from them must never call themselves Alchemists, for that is a name associated with blind experimenters foolishly hunting for the Philosopher’s Stone.