Now, the most well-known and often representative aspects of sorcery are the production of highly charged, luminous energies. Their notoriety amongst the laymen doubtless stems from their traditional use in magicianry and general showy nature. That I address such things today is due to a public misconception I have noticed as to their properties. The average man seems to think of these as some form of airborne flame, or electrical sparks. Indeed, this is quite far from the somewhat more complicated case.
The general term to use for what I discourse is “parachemical synthesis” (often referred to as “magic”, or “spells”, terms which I as a professional sorcerer despise). These substances possess some properties of traditional elements – in this case, noble gases – but lack others, particularly their non-conformity to the behaviour of energy or matter.
The parachemicals in question, namely metaneon and heter-cyan (the latter being used as an inclusive term for a substance with properties analogous to argon, krypton and xenon), are transparent, scentless, volatile and fleeting in their inert states. Almost all means of their production, however, involve some way of exciting them to some notable intensity. The reason for this is that, up until very recently, the inability of determining the presence of the incorpuses invariably lead the summoner to logically conclude that the experiment intended to was a failure.
When these parachemicals are made active, they brightly glow in a characteristic colour (red for metaneon and blue-violet for heter-cyan) and release heat. Now, the important thing to understand about this is that it does not violate physical conservation laws. It is a strange property of parachemicals, but all energy or matter seemingly produced at their presence is known to be transported from other places; or, in the case of some, times. The exact locations of these are difficult to control, but fortunately, the two I have discussed today are subject to probability: the location of transport invariably falls on some random place in the current universe. However, the function of others (such as the metaferrous solids) is subject to vicinity. Safety concerns have thus ensured their underuse. Almost all professional sorcerers will be familiar with the case of Edgar Anure in 1666, after he attempted to use two of the three iron analogues to artificially create a great mass of ice from water. The heat removed from the liquid was then transported to a compressed point several feet away, which unfortunately happened to share the same space as his ceiling.
Being the most simple of experimental acts, there has been no end to their testing and refinement over the last few centuries. There is most certainly more than one method for the creation of parachemicals, but the most commonly used involve largely organic materials, primarily proteins.
Metaneon can be produced from the coat phosphors of Furcifer quiritatio [Anomal.] (an endocorporeal parasite), several ocular pigments found in Salamandridae specimens, and toxins easily extracted from Aconitum. For those with a basic knowledge and the resources, the process can easily automated for anything that requires a consistent input that cannot be provided by personal completion of the necessary rituals.
— Lord Charles H. Walsh
Book of Eleven Hours, Volume VIII.