"Apart from the commandments of chivalry, there are certain traditional 'rules of honour' which are adhered to and respected by all knights. These rules are an important part of the code of chivalry, and they are true for all Knights of the Realm, including the Chevaliers, Templars, and Grail Knights.
They date back to the very origins of knighthood in Orlais and mark out Orlesian Knights as distinct from those of other realms. The most important rules are summarised below:
A knight shall always accept a challenge towards personal combat.
A knight shall not draw sword against his fellow Orlesian Knights, except in trial by combat or within a tournament.
A knight shall not allow himself to be captured alive.
A knight shall not flee from the enemy, nor retreat without proper tactical cause."
- Unofficial Honor Rules of the Knights of the Realm of Orlais
***
"Because the destruction of the Veil is both a blessing and a curse at the same time. Most Mages want to see Veil being torn down, because it would cause basically a Great Magic Wave, and those with Magic in their veins would get tremendously stronger, and basically, one could say that the entire continent would undergo tremendous evolution. But..."
Kordillus proceeded to explain the Veil and the reasons why it was such a divisive topic.
"Once it's destroyed, it would also mean that the Demons of the Fade and other horrors would have an exponentially easier time entering the Material Plane. So the situation is two-sided as there are benefits and disadvantages to the decision."
Overall, the intuition could be summarized such as follows:
Destruction of the Veil?
- Great.
Destruction of the Veil right now?
- Hell no.
Everything needed to be done at the most appropriate time because if they were caught unprepared, then it would be an even more catastrophic scenario than the Blight. And yes... there was also the Darkspawn threat that were lurking here and there...
Kordillus and his grandfather hoped to use the Magical knowledge of the Aen Elle to boost their chances of going through the turbulent times. Every experienced Mage could imagine how disastrous it would be if the Veil were destroyed, yet at the same time, for the Mages, the destruction of the Veil was their path forward.
If the Veil were torn down, it would mean that far more Magic would be poured into the Thedas, which in turn would make every Mage on the continent much more powerful, and they would also have a much easier time advancing through the Tiers.
"Well, now enough of the chitchat, and let's focus on the current lesson."
Orsted Drakon stated that, as they started the current Magic Lesson, it was, as expected, one oriented toward the use of Combat Magic. The Combat Magic was Orsted's specialization, and he thrived in it.
"Today we will be going through Spellbreaking."
Spellbreaking was something that was developed in the Tevinter Imperium, because the nation of Mages needed a means of neutralizing Magic, too.
Kordillus remembered only vaguely that Templars only came into existence several decades later due to the Nevarra Accords. Right now, various cults of Andraste were using Knights and very crude methods of Spellbreaking reinforced by Lyrium to earch of all dangers to humanity... whether they came in the form of blood mages, abominations, cultists, or heretics.
"Spellbreaking is the art of breaking through the Magic Spells. The Spellbreaking Arts were developed by the founder Archons of the Tevinter Empire, and some speculate that it's another Legacy of the Otherworlds due to how advanced the Spellbreaking Arts were to the current age."
Drakons also conducted some research on the Spellbreaking, primarily because of their declining status within the Tevinter. Spellbreaking was one of the fastest methods of gaining power.
Yet it was also certainly more problematic.
The widespread method of Spellbreaking was...
Suicidal.
When a Mage or a Demon seeks to cast a Magic Spell, they tap into the Fade in order to reshape reality. For the Spellbreakers, there were essentially two methods to disrupt the Spellcasting and achieve the desired effect.
The easy one and primary one used today was done through reinforcing the reality and immutability of the world by ingesting Lyrium. This was a pretty fast method, but at the same time, it was also dangerous.
The mineral of Lyriu was extremely volatile and sometimes exploded for no apparent reason. Physical contact with raw Lyrium ore will cause serious injury and psychological damage for humans, elves, and Qunari, and any contact with the unrefined substance will kill a mage outright.
Ingesting Lyrium will cause one to quickly advance through the Tiers, but they will also be poisoned by the Lyrium and often die.
And rather gruesome death at that.
"The more unconventional method of Spellbreaking is done in two ways, and considering that we are all Mages here, we would go with the Magic method. Every Spell when it's being cast... what are the stages?"
This question was more aimed at Ciri than at him as his uncle looked at her.
"Fade Touching, Spell Matrix Construction and Fade Materialization."
Ciri answered as Orsted nodded neutrally without any changes in his expression as he looked at her.
"Yes... Fade Touching is rather straightforward as you draw Energies of the Fade, and Fade Materialization is the last step. If you want to break through Spell, you need to do it during the Spell Matrix Construction when the Mage is constructing the Spell Matrix. The most common Magic method is to use your own Magic at a specific wavelength to disrupt the Mage doing the Spell Matrix Construction."
In theory, it looked relatively simple; in practice, it would be pretty tough.
The most tedious part of casting Magic was the Spell Matrix Construction.
The first and second steps were rather easy, and Mages at the Gold-Tier and above could basically ignore them entirely, because they had enough Magic in their bodies to cast their Spells without needing to draw out Magic from the Fade directly.
Though if they wished, they could do so and empower the Spells and their Magic tens of times.
The Spell Matrix Construction was the most problematic part of Casting Magic, and it also took the most time. During this step, Mage needed to construct an imaginary Spell Construct of the Spell that he wanted to cast, and a single mistake could be life-endangering.
"If you want to achieve the perfect effect, you cannot use the Magic drawn from the Fade, but use one that is your own. I will show you the basic method of how to do it. Watch carefully."
Every Mage at the Silver-Tier could store a rather significant amount of Magic in their own bodies, and they technically don't need to draw the Magic from the Fade to cast their Spells, so they could basically skip the first step entirely, and the third step could be shortened down significantly.
Though in the prolonged fights, they would still need to draw Magic from the Fade because they would soon run out of Magic, this was also true for the Gold-Tier Mages.
Orsted Drakon then proceeded to show two of them how to manipulate the Magic in his to tune it down to the "Neutral Mode" as he called it.
"Use some spell, preferably the weakest."
He said as he looked at Kordillus, who sighed, but in the end, did what his uncle asked and started casting Fireball Spell, which he considerably watered down.
"Watch very carefully."
The second he said that, Kordillus felt that as he was about to finish the Spell Matrix of the Fireball Spell, foreign Mana interwinded with his own and overflooded his Spell Matrix, causing it to collapse.
"That was the basic form of the Spellbreaking. Did you remember the procedure?"
Both of them nodded as the process was actually straightforward.
"Good, now you girl will be casting Spells and Kordillus will be breaking through them."
Ciri, with the Elder Blood in her veins, at first had very serious problems when it came to casting spells, because she used to overload them with Mana. The Elder Blood allowed her to draw an enormous amount of Magic from the Fade without a hitch, and her body could also store far more Mana than that of an ordinary Mage.
Only with the help of Vanderin Drakon did she manage to learn how to cast some really basic spells without them exploding or just collapsing, and it took her three years to achieve good results.
For her, the most significant disadvantage was that she was too old... not like he dared to joke about that, because once or twice Kordillus spoke about it, and she reminded him why she was a proper "tomboy princess" as he found out that she could deliver rather powerful punches.
Even though she was just eighteen, the same age as Kordillus, she had passed the prime age where she could sculpt the Elder Blood, and now her Bloodline was already developed to a certain degree.
She had partial awakening of her Bloodline, and because she had zero to no Magical training, she couldn't really control the Magic in her body or during Spellcasting.
Both Ciri and Kordillus stood across from each other, as Ciri started casting Spells while he was doing the thing that his uncle showed him. The process was relatively simple, as he replicated them with ease and was easily cancelling all of Ciri's spells.
Meanwhile, the Lion Cub was having problems with the continuous casting of Spells because she wasn't used to it, while at the same time, it was another form of training for her. Needing to learn everything from scratch and then learn to control her Magic was a very lengthy process that took her years.
Soon enough, she would be able to cast more advanced Spells.
What was rather frightening was the fact that despite all of these obstacles in her path, she managed to achieve something that others would take decades to achieve. The Elder Blood was really a terrifying thing...
***
Underground Dungeons
Vanderin Drakon was rather satisfied Mage.
For the past years, the House Drakon was getting stronger and more powerful than ever, despite their fellow Mages in Tevinter, calling their house's decline a thing of the past.
He was in a good mood now, because the Navigator started speaking... after four years one of them finally started speaking and spilling up secrets of their Magic and how they used it.
It wasn't a lot, but it would still be a lot for them to improve their own understanding of the Secrets of the Arcane. The Magic of Aen Elle was indeed more advanced than that of Thedas, but was it more powerful, though?
He would have to disagree.
Primarily because the Aen Elle couldn't draw the ambient Magic of the Fade to bolster their capabilities, as their world didn't have acess to the Fade in the first place.
Not to mention, he felt that the barrier separating him from reaching the Supreme-Tier would fall at any given moment, which was most probably for the best. Once he reached the Supreme-Tier, he would be ranked among the top of the powehousres of Thedas.
Even in the Tevinter, whose national power suffered to a certain degree, the House of Drakon would be able to contend for the Archon position, and in the Magisterium, he would be one of the most prominent figures.
"With the vision of my dear grandson, even Tevinter would become just another province in the Empire."
The old man would be lying if he said that he didn't have any hard feelings toward the Tevinter Imperium. Tevinter Imperium was a cutthroat society with everything, where every single bit of weakness spelled doom.
He couldn't even count how many Noble Houses have perished because they didn't have a powerful Mage among their ranks.
Having a powerful Gold-Tier Mage in their ranks was a must.
If not, then they would be devoured by others.
This was the endlessly repeating cycle in the Tevinter Imperium.