Magic of the Old Religion

The magic used by most human sorcerers and sorceresses comes from the Old Religion. In some way, the essence of magic coincides with the Old Religion itself. The Old Religion is, infact, not only considered to be a simple belief or worship, but an animated or almost living essence or force of the universe, that holds everthing in balance. Balance is indeed the key tenet of magic and the Old Religion: in order for something to be taken, something must be given. This is very clear in the rituals related to the Power over Life and Death or the blood-sacrifice, where a life is required. Even to cast simple spells, there's probably a price to pay: the energy the sorcerer conjures into the world may correspond to a minor quantity of energy drawn from him. Also to negate or destroy magic, magic of an equal power must be used.

The magic of the Old Religion allows to weave power into the fabric of the world, making solid what it is in the mind, and un-solid what it is already solid, thickening the stuff of dreams. The Old Religion is, infact, the very essence of nature, of the universe and humans who possess the gift of harnessing this energy to their own can shape it at their will. The more they can get in contact with the power of the Old Religion, the more they can achieve and conjure into this world. Therefore creatures of the Old Religion, like Merlin, possess an incredibly strong power, for this very energy lies within them. The High Priestesses or High Priests, because they dedicate their entire existence to serve the Old Religion, have a great access to its power too.

Unless the sorcerer is extremely highly gifted (or his emotions are heightened), humans must channel their power with rituals, spells and other instruments of magic, because their humanity doesn't directly allow them to fell and manipulate an abstract energy. Spells are series of words of power of the Old Religion. They contain the very essence of things and when spoken allow a warlock or witch to hold dominion over the object's true nature.

Magic, however, can be performed in other ways, when the conjurer is linked to the power of the Sidhe (Sidhe magic) or troll's (Troll magic). The Old Religion remains, anyway, the source of every power.