News and creature profile - mages

Hello everybody, it's your friendly neighborhood author.  I hope everybody's weekend went well.

To start with, some news.  A few of the admins and I have decided to compile an anthology for short stories.  They are all tremendously talented, and I consider it an honor to be included.  More information on the short story will be available as it comes up, and if I get off my lazy butt, I may even be able to include a preview of the short story I'm planning on sunday.

Now, onto your regularly scheduled profile.  So monday I plan to do a look at some of the creatures that exist in my world, and for the first update we will start with the creatures that make up the vast majority of my stories, sparkly vampires!  Wait....wrong notes, sorry.  We start with Mages!

So most of the time you think of mages you imagine the Merlins, the Harry potters, and the Dresdens, who is definitely one of my favorite wizards.  You imagine men with long white beards throwing fireballs, calling down lightning, and manipulating the basic forces of the world.  That's certainly part of it, but mages also consist of the yogi who can slow his heart to one beat per half hour, the master martial artist who can shatter stone and catch arrows, and the gurus who can sit at the bottom of a pool of water for hours.

There are two kinds of mages:  Internal and external.  External mages manipulate the forces of the world around them, while internal mages manipulate themselves.  Internal mages can leap over buildings, heal themselves from horrendous injury, and perform great feats of strength.  Both are limited by their own strength and conditioning:  drawing on mystical powers is very draining, and as a result a mage's power is often due to their own strength and stamina.

Mages are at their core the same as every other human.  Mages work in corporate law offices, are titans of industry, wait tables, and pump gas.  They live in all aspects of human life, and have the same desires and drives as everyone else.  This leads some to become heroes, others villains, and most are just trying to live their lives.