Thaumalogical Ethics

Ethics of Magic according to Zerathix Vaal, Magister of the Crimson College

"Magic is not evil. It is appetite with a will."
— Zerathix Vaal, Discourse on Blood and Boundaries

I. The Nature of Thauma

Zerathix Vaal, an ancient vampire and scholar of the Crimson College, defined magic not as energy but as desire made manifest. Thauma, the raw current of power, flows through all living and unliving things, but it responds most fiercely to hunger — the yearning to alter the world.

To Vaal, every spell is an act of willful violation. The mage intrudes upon the natural order, reshaping it in their own image. Such acts demand moral scrutiny, for to cast magic is not merely to act, but to choose what must be broken.

II. The Triad of Magical Morality

The Magister outlined three ethical axes that govern the morality of spellcraft:

Intent — The purpose for which magic is invoked. Mercy or malice matters, but only in the shadow it casts upon the world.
Cost — Every spell consumes something — blood, memory, or the silence between stars. Ignoring this cost invites corruption.
Consent — The most overlooked axis. Power cast upon the unwilling, no matter how righteous the aim, stains both caster and world.

In this triad lies the eternal dilemma: few spells are wholly good, for few wills are pure.

III. The Ethics of Contagion

Vaal warned that magic is morally contagious. A spell reshapes not only its target, but the caster’s soul, which slowly bends to mirror the forces it wields. A necromancer learns decay. An enchanter learns deceit. A healer learns sacrifice.

This contagion, he argued, is not punishment but osmosis. One cannot handle the divine without becoming a reflection of its temperament. Thus, he wrote:

“There are no dark magics — only dark hearts grown comfortable with their tools.”

IV. The Covenant of Blood

As a vampire, Zerathix embodied the paradox of moral dependence. He required life to sustain undeath, yet saw in blood not sin but covenant — the binding of one will to another. Magic, like feeding, was not wrong if mutual need was recognized. Exploitation, however, severed the covenant and invited damnation.

In this philosophy, the feeding mage is the ethical mage — one who acknowledges that power demands tribute and offers it consciously. The gluttonous mage denies this debt, devouring endlessly until even their reflection refuses them.

V. On Divine Hypocrisy

Vaal’s most controversial thesis condemned the gods themselves:

“If a mortal mage’s transmutation is sin, then the sun’s rising is blasphemy repeated daily.”
He accused the divine of hypocrisy — reshaping creation endlessly while forbidding mortals to do the same. Thus, he claimed, ethics must come not from divine decree but from empathy, awareness, and restraint.

His words led to his excommunication from multiple cults, but among the Crimson College, they became gospel.

VI. The Silence Between Spells

In later years, Vaal taught a discipline known as the Still Weave — the ethical pause between will and action. In this silence, a mage must ask: Who will this harm, who will this feed, and what part of me will be spent?

Those who skipped this pause, he warned, were not sorcerers but beasts. True mastery lay not in power unrestrained, but in the hesitation before ruin.

VII. Legacy

Though executed by sunfire in his fifth century, Zerathix Vaal’s writings endure in the Crimson College as compulsory study. Necromancers, blood mages, and divine casters alike quote his final words:

“The question is not should we use magic, but *how much of ourselves we can afford to lose each time we do.”

To this day, his ashes are sealed in mirrored glass, ever watching the mages who walk past — a reminder that reflection itself is the first form of restraint.