Alter Aeon The Great Library

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Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  10520
Title: a book entitled, 'Evocations, Conjurations, Summonings and Teleportations, Volume 1'

Evocations, Conjurations, Summonings and Teleportations

A treatise on the interactions of evocations and transportation magic and
their reaction on the planes.

by Lady Nora, Knight Commander of the Order of the Nymph

After a lengthy forward dedicated to the god Dowart, the author finally
begins the narration, beginning with a glossary of terms:

To begin, we will explain the boundaries of the four schools of magic with
which we will concern ourselves in this treatise.  Note that schools of
magic are not the same as classes of magic.  Schools are broader terms
which transcend classes of magic but are unified in the manner that they
interact with the universe.

Evocation - This school of magic encompasses those disciplines and spells
that involve transporting matter from other planes to the prime material
plane.

The School of Evocation can be divided into three categories: divine
evocations that materialize matter from the planes of light, elemental
evocations that bring forth matter from the various pure elemental planes,
and shadow evocations that bring forth dark matter from the shadow plane.

Examples: spirit hammer, fireball, shadow bind

Conjuration - This school of magic encompasses those rituals and spells
that involve transporting the spirits of living creatures from other
planes.  It is often considered a subset of evocation magic.  The
difference between evocations and conjurations is that conjurations pull
living souls across dimensional boundaries, while evocations bring simple
matter.

A conjuration is more complicated than an evocation since it must find a
willing participant.  It does this by first projecting a beacon to the
designated plane.  A creature must then mentally respond to that beacon. 
Necromancers offer soulstones as beacons (which the demon then gets to
keep), while mages commit their mana to the beacon (which an elemental gets
to keep).  The spell then pulls the spirit of the creature back to plane
where the spell was cast.  A spirit so conjured materializes a magical body
to occupy.  Once this body is destroyed or dismissed, the spirit returns to
its point of origin.  Since a conjuration carries no risk of permanent
death, it is easy to find demons and elementals willing to answer the
beacon.

Note that those necromancer rituals that call forth demons from the Demon
Plane are often mislabeled as summonings, but they are, in fact,
conjurations.

Examples: summon demon, snowman, fire elemental

Summoning - This school of magic encompasses those spells which involve
transporting living creatures from one point of a plane to another point of
the same plane.  There are two kinds of summonings: a citation summoning
brings the target to the summoner, and a termination summoning takes the
summoner (and other willing creatures, depending on the spell) to a target
destination.

Like a conjuration, a citation summoning projects a beacon near the target
that they can respond to in order to be summoned.  Unlike a conjuration,
however, if the target does not respond favorably, it is possible to summon
them against their will, although this is very, very difficult.

A termination (or terminus) summoning also requires a beacon.  The summoner
must be acquainted with this beacon ahead of time.  Such a beacon is
typically a plot of hallowed ground or a waypoint.  Termination summonings
without beacons are teleportations. 

Examples: call animal, summon, group recall

Teleportation - This school of magic encompasses those spells which involve
transporting matter from one point of a plane to another point of the same
plane.  Some scholars consider teleportations to be a subset of termination
summonings.  Unlike conjurations and summonings, there are no beacons
involved, so the destinations for such spells are random.  A teleportation,
however, cannot cause the teleporter to leave the same plane where such a
spell is cast.

Examples: teleport, blink teleport, group teleport