Sahir

From L5r: Legend of the Five Rings

Sahir is the name given to practitioners of magic in the Burning Sands. The sahir is similar to the Rokugani shugenja, in that sahir wield supernatural forces, although they do not follow a rigid priest-like code of ethics as shugenja do.

The power of the sahir is based off of Hakim's Seal, a magical geometric formation that is representative of the forces of the universe^[1]. The sahir learns to create the seal in his/hers mind, and manipulate the image to achieve various magical effects. When a sahir is casting a spell and making physical gestures, he/she is in fact doing so as a mental aid and memory tool, much in the same way a person would imagine how to solve a puzzle by pretending to move the pieces and imagining the change^[2].

Invoking Hakim's seal is believed by many factions of the Burning Sands, such as the Qabal, to be the last remaining way to access magic after the Day of Wrath. It is a scrap of magic leftover from the times before, discovered by the man Hakim^[3]. In reality, the configuration of Hakim's Seal was discovered by the Ashalan, and given to Hakim so that he could share it with mortals so the tradition of magic would not die out in the Burning Sands^[4].

Some cultures with sahirs, such as the Senpet, do not use Hakim's Seal, but instead wield magic through invoking their Pantheon of Ten Thousand Gods^[5].

Sahir magic is divided into five types corresponding to the elements, much in the same way as a shugenja. These five types are Summoning(air), Death and Life(earth), Blessings and Curses(fire), Divination(Void), and Illusion(water). Sahir practice of illusions has given rise to the common and popular belief that sahirs can accomplish anything. Sahirs do not dispute this belief^[6].

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