[Figure 1: Alien made oil painting of the mythical bending technique of the Divided Heaven and Earth]

Dear privileged student, have you ever heard of Sand Magic? Ever wanted to learn more about the origin of S'ine? Their full potential, maybe yours too? If you are interested you have found the right tablet! Use my guide and become one with the sand and all her secrets... first and most important step is to check if you are capable of Sand Magic. If you are S'ine and if you always have clean hair after a sandstorm, you are gifted enough to learn Sand Magic. If you are a S'ine and your hair is dusty and dull after a sandstorm, I would recommend to not put more effort into it... Aliens may learn S'ine Sand Magic if they have an affinity with Blood Magic and Necromancy. Practicing Sand Magic of any kind in the Astroid system of Zue without permission of the Clergy will result in a decapitation at one of the markets. Organs of aliens are considered a delicacy and are often eaten wile still warm by the executioner; and present nobles who lord the spesific market. Be wary apprentice!

According to S'ine lore, Sand magic, in its very nature, comes forth out of the essence of the god and guardian of time, C'rak-un. The god died due to unnatural death trough decapitation and separated mummification. His body parts were stored in the great jungle pyramid of La'ir, that has been missing for millennia. All the magical energy was given to the biggest object available, the sand. The planet is essentially the sand for its core consists out of the same material. This has been proven after documented revelation with the gods themselves, and has been declared true by the Theocratic Council of the Clergy, and the representatives of the major noble houses, that signed as witnesses.

The sand eventually became unstable, producing Jackals due to linking with the great oasis of P'dil; how this happened is yet unknown, even to the gods themselves. The sand and the Jackals were stabilized by the rod of life, who bounded with the planet itself to allow balance to exist ones again. During the global bonding with the planet itself the celestial staff depleted most of its energy source and was partly magically sacrificed to sustain this spell for eternity, releasing magical abilities to all pure soul carrying beings born in the asteroid system of Zue in doing too; in reality this happens to splinter group of the population in a small and near unusable form, a very small group of this is however found gifted enough to develop it.

S'ine Sand Magic is different from alien Sand magic for we, the S'ine, use our this remnant of the god of time to form inner harmony. Native Sand Magic users usually learn small tricks at first such as cleaning things, but for some it may develop from thereon into slowly being able to make an hourglass run in the opposite direction. Some of the most noticeable abilities that have been recorded by sand wielders is the ability to manipulate sand into a small projectile cloud, knocking over the enemy with a brutal sand paper like sound of separating skin and muscle tissue. A very rare few have been noted to control the sand into a small tornado or vortex of several meters. Myth even spoke about someone who was capable of using the rarely seen Divided Heaven and Earth technique, by producing a massive tornado to melt the earth and generate electricity trough the caused friction of the sand.. Sand mages have all been known for their ability to navigate and rarely dehydrate, and often have an affinity with traveling in a nomadic way of life. This makes it extraordinary that the sand priests have been in and near their temples for so long, yet most people have forgotten this shaded pearl of the sand mages potential.

Now, where is the catch? You might ask.. for I mentioned Blood Magic and Necromancy. According to the ancient lore that can be found in the planet history of Ci'Zue, the sand was ones the blood of an elder god named C'ara-tok. And as carved in this tablet, the energy inside the sand was the rebound magic of the god of time, C'rak-un, the dead C'rak-un his magic well to say. Because sand has both a necromantic and hermomantic source, the most adept users are able to combine the magic of sand with these two crafts. Two simple examples are Sand Shades, a direct result of sand-necromantic study, and healing, which is a direct result of sand-blood study. Abilities that are a combination often use sand as magical reserve in a similar way as other S'ine Sand Magic, but might also draw their energy from beings, dead or alive.

If an user of S'ine Sand Magic wants to use powerful abilities without sand, or without sacrificing their own energy, they have to find alternative means.. this can be done with help of powerful artifacts or certain blessed ankh necklaces that are shattered across the Ci'Zue`s hidden tombs... These latter items produce a less powerful, but yet useful form of alternative sacrifice. The powers and conditions are different per necklace. It is said that a book, containing the crafting recept and location each and every necklace on the planet is kept within their library of La'a, and that the priests, who always love to support on behave of their gods, are capable of reproducing these necklaces for a former wearer and first discoverer of a necklace in question at a price...

Something that is remembered by a very few people, is that S'ine Jungle Sand Magic is different from S'ine Desert Sand Bending. S'ine who live in the desert often develop more potential for necromancy, as there is a lot of death due to the shortages of water, whilst in the jungle the development of bloodmagic is more common due to the large amounts of water that can be found in plants and animals. On rare occations gifst may develop on either area of the planet, and very rarely may be developed both simultaniously. It is known that the High Priest is capable to use his artifact to draw the power of star dust, that can be found in the gigantic clouds surrounding the system of Zue and the rest of the Galaxy, giving him an alternative source to use his full powers.

This technique is known as interstellar sand bending, exclusively to the user of this artifact, and allows the wielder of the staff of life to bend the galaxy for rapid teleportation. In fact it is the bending of star dust by altering the dimention of time-space. This is possible because the god of death is heavily involved in the staff its origin. The plane of death is only connected trough time-space with the mortal realms. It is said that extraordinary sand benders, possessing either the staff of life or ankh relic, can bend tiny related solid matirals that behave in a similar way as sand, with exception of molten sand of course, this comes at the heavy price of fast degeneration of the body. Some Sand Healers have developed techniques to remove body corruption using long extensive rituals in the temple wings of La'a, but people are unable to enter except upon invitation of the High Priest. This made practicing related techniques, using materials other than sand, soul or blood, very difficult to obtain.

It is unknown what the effect of Sand Magic is on the life span of practitioners. Sand priests are known to be ritually entombed alive, only to be revived after several earth millennia later using Sand Magic. From other records rumors came that priests often die young due to the heavy loss of life energy that this unnatural form of Sand Wielding brings. Some keepers have been entombed multiple times due to having more life energy left than others, common folk says that keeper priests hold a massive gamble party each day, ones every 7242 earth years, that happens during the general clerics reunification diner in their lounge, before the Games of Dawn are initiated.

This tradition caused rumors around people in power that the small group of keeper priests have found a way to maintain their life essence, as they have been heard talking about gambles of that result in a prolonged isolated entombment. This bring more honor to the priest loosing the bet but comes also with the risk of no longer being able to be revived due to fossilization. Their chatter revealed discussions in deep length about bets with a span covering multiple days. How is not known, but secret clerical journals have been passed trough the generations to tell its tails...

Eventually the common folk noticed a decrease in number of keepers running the armies due to the piling amounts of bets that were lost, giving certain advantages for the battling families. Some folk believes that the royal families have extended networks of spies to help the priests win during their gamble evening to gain an advantage during war time, slowly increasing their position over the others... as you know, very well by now... for the sands is always deeper than it appears... With this you are fully informed to discover the beautiful craft of ''the moving gold of Zue.'' If you happen to come across a sand worm during your training, dearest apprentice, please bring me a slice!