#◜❝ 𝙼𝙰𝙶𝙸𝙲 ⟩⟩ I’m not the old town crier . I’m the one who sets it all on fire ❞◞

[incendiorum]

I think I've touched on both the positives and the negatives of this before. or at least, more so the positive and hinted at the negatives but - io's magic is tangible. to those who are able to sense such an energy, it's omnipresent. always there, clinging to them like smoke. it's hot, and electric, and not unlike a caged animal. always pacing and probing and trying to find ways to interact with the world around it. to a certain extent, it feels very alive. and to those who are not able to passively sense such an energy, io can make it so that they can on certain occasions. when their emotions become powerful their magic can be felt and sensed by anyone, and is a blanket of electric, buzzing heat that varies in intensity and comfort. powerful feelings of love can feel warm and cozy, like a purring cat in your arms or a warm fire on a cold day. powerful feelings of irritation can feel like a hot car heater blasting on your face, choking and dry. rage can make the area around io entirely intolerable, if not harmful or even deadly depending on how furious they are. and that's not even including the fact that io's magic does all that poking and pacing and probing for a reason - rage means it has every reason to light things on fire. but io's magic can also be felt through touch. this can be accidental, and they have absolutely burned people unintentionally before. but it can also be felt in the exact same way io feels it. warmth, pooling under the skin and spreading slow. it can be electric and thrilling and exciting. it can feel loving, or it can feel arousing depending on the context and how io wields it. it is something they can control, but like every aspect of io's magic it sometimes makes itself known without io's input. and it can also be felt painfully. searing into the muscle, burning from the inside. like swallowing a torch and feeling it still burning in your body. this kind of thing isn't restricted to io. their kind of witch is perfectly capable of this, and the exact feelings vary from person to person. latona's, for example, is cool. like mint and spring rain. but it can also be as cold as an arctic winter. the kind of chill that can't be worked out of your bones and flesh no matter how hard you try. io's mother's was like a hot iron. they don't know what her magic felt like when it was gentle. they only know the anger of her power, and feared her touch.

[incendiorum-arch]

venadeus has a magical presence that mirrors iovita's to a T. their magic is volatile, oppressive (sometimes even physically), and barely contained. their magic can often feel like it's constantly probing for an outlet. io's latent magic can be sensed by nonhumans or special humans with the ability to do so. it often carries warmth with it, as well. the electric, thrilling, and dangerous feel of a dry storm and wildfire intertwined, as well as all of the features listed above. io's magic, however, can also be felt by anyone when they're using it. it becomes a strong pressure, felt physically. venadeus's magic is able to felt always, and by anyone. he has a uncomfortable, unsafe presence to him. something that can evoke whichever feeling a person might feel when in danger. fear, anxiety, anger. he is a god, and his power is palpable. and beyond that, he is a god whose domain extends over any magic that has become violent, deadly, and dangerous.

[venenorum-archive]

the way io being corrupt and surrounded by their flames, justing eating away at everything and having that low, evil chuckle as people cower away from those scalding flames....that's very sexy of them.

❝ unprompted.

          this is very, very sexy for corrupt io but also -

          not entirely outside the realm of possibility for io as is. 

          every single person who led col down that wrong path? io had their fucking names. io had a god damn list. and they worked their way down it. at the end of the day iovita is an extremely vengeful person. iovita does not forgive and forget. ever. they hold a grudge even after they’ve killed you in cold blood.

          I can only imagine that the people iovita chased down died choking in their fire - the countryside burning in their wake.

          they didn’t do it laughing, though (now that would be on par with corrupted io), they did it while furious sobs wracked them - the kind of crying you do because you’re so. fucking. angry. screaming until there’s no difference between your voice and the roar of the flames. those people died afraid. 

          is it right? no, probably not. iovita isn’t a morally good person. I’m not entirely sure they ever were one, and they certainly never will be one.

          which is why I think if they ever fell to that temptation of power, and had just the right catalyst to really set them off, they would make an impressive villain. a terrifying one, at that. can you imagine someone surrounded by fire hot enough to melt steel laughing? that’s a fucking force of nature, baby, and they’re coming for you!

[incendiorum]

feeling the full force of io's magic, feeling it exactly the way they do, would absolutely feel like being your own singular wildfire. like being lit up from the inside out. now... for io that's euphoric. it entirely depends on the other person how they'll interpret it.

[incendiorum-arch]

I don't think... it's easy to understand how much io revels in destruction. in the feeling of letting the world burn down around them. it's like an unbearable itch they can't scratch except with one thing. an unnameable emotion building and building and building until it snaps in two. letting their power run rampant feels euphoric to them. io isn't who they are because they lack magical control... that's just not how their magic is supposed to work? it's wild, it's intrinsically nature-based. it's untameable. it revels in doing what its supposed to do and nature is so, very, very destructive sometimes.

[incendiorum-arch]

io is capable of teleporting other things, too. in fact - that's where they've gotten a lot of their money in the past. need large things moved very quickly very discretely? oh, io can do that.

[incendiorum-arch]

it's important to realize iovita as an absolute powerhouse in terms of magic. they have so much power that they can't even control it a lot of the time - it's constantly bending the world and her laws with or without iovita's input. active flames sputter and grow and bend towards them. the air becomes unbearably hot. water boils, things melt, combustible materials... well, combust. their lack of control is a strength and a weakness. io can do these things with just their emotions, and they know how to work that to their advantage. nurturing their anger and fury can have devastating consequence. and using all that power feels fucking good. shutting it away is stifling and uncomfortable. and they rely heavily on their magic. to get them without that renders them weak and distraught. to somehow inhibit their use of magic and to be in their presence when they regain it is a dangerous, dangerous game.

[incendiorum-arch]

chest, arms, and hands is where io's magic tends to concentrate, and those are the warmest parts of them by far. they also tend to get hotter when io is actively using their magic. io also runs at a base temp higher than other people - something that would be considered feverish at 99F (~37C). this also increases if io is actively using their magic, but has not ill effect on them.

[incendiorum-arch]

io cannot create fire around them/in their surroundings if there's no combustible material. at that point all they can manage is extreme heat (also bad, though. like. not fun to deal with at all!) and flames contained within their hands.

[incendiorum-arch]

me saying io is wildfire and then presenting this w/o additional commentary

[incendiorum-arch]

io can't fight hand-to-hand, sure, but they still kill with their hands. between their cupped palms is the hottest they can burn their magic - well upwards of 4,000F. it doesn't matter if someone grabs them, as long as io has their hands free they can grab on and burn until people scream. go for the neck, the limbs, an iron-grip that's indescribably painful until it's not. and sure, io comes back from it all bruised and aching but they also come back from it with burnt viscera to clean from their palms, peel from between their fingers. turning the water in the sink charred black and ugly red both. sure, you can grab them. they wait for it, in fact. calculating and patient and they'll sidestep and duck make sure at least one hand is free until the last moment. because they know that they can make someone hurt the second their fingers meet flesh.

[incendiorum-arch]

io's magic will never be perfectly controlled. ever. they've tried, very hard to, but it's simply not wired that way. their magic is ridiculously responsive to their emotions, and io is not the person to control those, either. anger is hot, love is warm. frustration is heat radiating off of them until it makes it hard to breath. maybe it's a bit unfortunate. after all, there's so many scorch marks in inter mundos. sparks leave holes in clothes. singed sleeves. the smell of smoke. but it's not io to stop that. it's just... part of who they are and it will never change. it's physically impossible.

[incendiorum-arch]

io feels their magic mainly in two places - their chest, right below their heart (a proximity that makes them call it cor secundum - second heart), and in their arms. if io is actively using it they can feel the warmth and energy of it burning in their chest and along their arms, especially their inner arms and down into the palms. this feeling is shared by most magic-users in their canon. an energy in the chest, always present even if it's duller when passive, and an energy that trickles along the nerves of the arms and hands. the exact feeling of it (for io it's warm-hot, for latona it's cool, if not chilling) changes from person-to-person, but there is certainly a commonality among all of them.

[incendiorum-arch]

          before I get further into how hot io can make there fire, here’s some quick facts to put it into perspective:

a campfire averages ~900F/480C. this, of course, can get much hotter depending on fuel and size.

bodies are cremated at about 1400-1600F/760-870C.

iron melts at 2800F/1538C. the melting point of steel varies depending on the type, but will melt around the same temperature.

3rd degree burns reach the fat layer, and require skin grafts. burns of a higher degree can reach bone and char the skin black.

         the heat of io’s fire is restricted by range and how much power io can pour into it. within the palm of their hands, io can manage upwards of 4000F/2204C. I would, perhaps, put the cutoff at about 4500F/2482C.

         within a five-foot radius, they can create fire at 3400-3800F/1871-2093C.

         within a 10-foot radius: 3000-3300F/1648-1815C.

         within a 25-foot radius: 2,500-2,900F/1371-1593C.

         the standard temperature (io’s either not trying, or their fire has grown so large they can’t feed it like they can smaller amounts) would be 1700-2000F/926-1093C.

[incendiorum-arch]

          also like... even getting your hands on io, they would have to be without the ability to use magic bc if you grab io they’re latching on and setting their hands on fire. and, referencing my last post, fucking ouch that would hurt. and they have absolutely killed people that way, before.

[incendiorum-arch]

          io is magically powerful and gifted, yes, but they’re also incredibly skilled. they’ve been using their magic for seventeen centuries or so, and have rarely gone even a day without using it. I think of my magic users as strong both because of the power given to them, and also because of the work they do to use that power. which is why io is, in their canon, the most powerful witch. magic in their canon is like a muscle. if you don’t use it, it grows weak and atrophies. 

          which is why io can set the world around them ablaze and not even blink an eye. or why they can melt metal with little effort. why they can move inter mundos across the world and still feel fresh afterwards. io has prowess.