Contested Magic: A Primer on Conceptual Conflict
From the Argent Archives of the Silent Fulcrum
Foreword: The novice mage studies power. The adept studies systems. The master studies conflict. Magic is not a monolithic force, but a spectrum of competing, often contradictory, truths. When two of these truths meet on the battlefield—when the absolute law of Binah confronts the seductive phantasm of Yesod, or the merciless judgment of Gevurah faces the unshakeable integrity of Tiferet—the result is not a simple contest of wills. It is an argument, and the victor is the one with the more compelling reality. This is the study of Contested Magic.
1. The principles of contestation
When magical philosophies clash, the outcome is rarely determined by raw power alone. It is governed by a set of principles that favor leverage, integrity, and a deep understanding of the opposing system.
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The Principle of Conceptual Leverage: A specific, targeted counter is more effective than a broad application of force. A mage who understands their opponent's magical philosophy can use its own rules against it. This is the foundational principle of the Concord's Sophist Hunters.
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The Principle of Auric Integrity: The more stable and less tainted a mage's own soul, the greater their resistance to conceptual attack. A mind free of internal contradiction is a fortress against external paradox. This is why the Way's focus on inner balance is a potent defense.
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The Mundane Anchor: Reality itself is the ultimate arbiter. A sufficiently complex or paradoxical magical effect can be "grounded out" by a simple, brutal physical truth. The Unawakened excel at this, particularly the Lamplighters' Guild.
2. Archetypal conflicts
a. Binah vs. Chokmah (Structure vs. Possibility)
This is the fundamental conflict of the Arcanum of The Empress. It pits the boundless, chaotic potential of Chokmah against the rigid, perfect form of Binah. Their Dissonant combination creates powerful but dangerously unstable "Prototypes."
- Binah/Chokmah's Advantage (The Flawed Prototype): The Dissonant cycle between these two Sefirot,
The Loom of Conception, is the source of the Genesis Architect's power. Their creations are potent but inherently unstable, as the single, rigid form (Binah) struggles to contain the infinite other possibilities (Chokmah) from which it was drawn. - The Inherent Flaw (Catastrophic Failure): This instability is the prototype's greatest weakness. As demonstrated in the Siege of the Unstoppable Prototype playtest, even a successful prototype can fail catastrophically when its core paradox is put under extreme pressure. Architect-Errant Cassia's "Temporal Anchor" successfully stopped an unstoppable force, but the resulting conceptual strain caused a
Stillbirthfailure, destroying the device in a temporal explosion. The prototype worked, but its internal contradiction was its undoing.
b. Hod vs. Chokmah (Data vs. Possibility)
This is the conflict between formatted, logical systems and raw, chaotic potential.
- Hod's Advantage (Patching the System): Hod's strength is in understanding and perfecting systems. When faced with a "glitch" or exploit created by Chokmah's probability-twisting, a Hod master does not counter it with an opposing force, but by reinforcing the underlying rules of reality. This was demonstrated when Praetor [Kael](/build-wiki/w/character-guide/character-exemplars)'s Logic Bomb didn't fight Cassian's paradox, but "patched" the flawed contract, making the exploit impossible.
- Chokmah's Advantage (Denial of Service): Chokmah's strength is in creating a storm of pure possibility that overwhelms a structured system. A Hod Scribe's Formatted Magic-Vision is designed to read and interpret data. Chokmah can create a field of "conceptual static"—a blizzard of contradictory, meaningless, but equally possible data points. The Hod system, trying to analyze everything at once, is paralyzed. This was the strategy used in the Battle of the Glass Plains, where Chokmah Star-Moths blinded a Logos Scribe.
c. Gevurah vs. Tiferet (Judgement vs. Harmony)
This is the conflict between the drive to excise flaws and the drive to integrate them.
- Gevurah's Advantage (Finding the Flaw): Gevurah's power is surgical. Against a Tiferet adept, it does not attack their harmony directly, but seeks the single, suppressed flaw, the tiny seed of hypocrisy or self-doubt at the core of their being. A successful Weight of Judgement can turn a Tiferet adept's own power against them, causing their harmony to collapse into self-recrimination.
- Tiferet's Advantage (Unshakeable Integrity): Tiferet's strength is a perfect, unshakeable sense of self. Gevurah's judgement requires a flaw to latch onto; it needs to deem the target "unworthy." A true Tiferet master, at peace with their own imperfections, presents no such flaw. Their integrity is a perfect shield. This was demonstrated in the Blighted Heart of the Garden incident, where Lord [Malachi](/build-wiki/w/character-guide/character-exemplars)'s parasitic judgement, the Tyrant's Tithe, failed utterly against Justicar Roric's profound integrity.
d. Binah vs. Yesod (Structure vs. Perception)
This is the conflict between objective reality and subjective truth.
- Binah's Advantage (Seeing the Code): A Binah master's Structural Analysis can perceive the underlying framework of a Yesod illusion. They can see that the conjured wall is merely a construct of light and memory, making them highly resistant to being fooled.
- Yesod's Advantage (Weaponizing Belief): A Yesod master does not care if the illusion is "real." Their power lies in making the target's subconscious believe it is real. The Binah mage may know the wall is an illusion, but a Yesod master can infuse that illusion with a specific, archetypal fear drawn from the Binah mage's own psyche. The Binah mage sees the code, but their own mind provides the terror that makes them act as if the illusion is real. This dynamic was tested in the Architect and the Ghost playtest scenario.
e. Hod vs. Yesod (Splendor vs. The Subconscious)
This is a conflict between the beautiful, constructed ideal and the messy, authentic truth of the inner self. - Hod's Advantage (The Perfect Argument): Hod's power is to create a splendid, internally consistent form—an ideology, an argument, or a persona. As demonstrated by the Preceptor in The War of the False Saints, this can be so compelling that it overwhelms the target's own sense of self, converting them through sheer, beautiful logic. - Yesod's Advantage (The Unspoken Truth): Yesod's power is to access the subconscious. An Alchemical Soul-Binder counters a Hod-based ideology not by refuting its logic, but by forcing an integration with the messy, flawed, and suppressed truths in the user's own subconscious. In the War of the False Saints, Adept [Lyra](/build-wiki/w/character-guide/character-exemplars) didn't argue with the Preceptor; she forced his perfect, idealized shell to confront the terrified, inadequate self it was built to imprison, causing the entire splendid structure to collapse.
f. Gevurah vs. Malkuth (Judgement vs. Matter)
This is not a conflict of equals, but a direct application of a higher, conceptual force onto the purely physical. - The Sunderer's Cadence: The Dissonant cycle used by the Concord's Pragmatist schism during the Siege of the Salt-Forged Gate is the ultimate expression of this principle. It is a crude, brutal art that bypasses the elegant upper pathways to apply Gevurah's raw, destructive judgement directly to Malkuth's physical matter. It is not an argument; it is a hammer blow, treating a fortress wall not as a structure to be analyzed, but as a flaw to be shattered through overwhelming, focused force. The cost is a devastating psychic and physical toll on the user, as the raw energies are not meant for such a direct, unrefined application. The cycle is detailed here.
g. Chesed vs. Gevurah (Growth vs. Restriction)
The fundamental Dissonant conflict. This is not a simple contest of healing versus hurting.
- The Paradox of Feeding: As demonstrated in the War of the Carrion King, applying pure, life-giving Chesed to a blight born of a Qliphothic entity can have catastrophic results. The life-giving energy, with no structure to guide it, becomes fuel for the cancerous, mindless growth.
- The Surgical Synthesis: The only known resolution to this conflict is not to have one principle overpower the other, but to integrate them. The Alchemical Justicar's legendary cycle, The Surgeon's Mercy, is the ultimate expression of Contested Magic. It uses Gevurah's precision to excise the rot and Chesed's compassion to heal the resulting wound, all held in perfect, unshakable balance by the integrity of Tiferet. This is not a victory of one over the other, but a harmony forced upon them by a higher principle, as demonstrated in the case study of The Blighted Heart of the Garden.