The Surge is when a sorcerer's magic discipline is set. Happening in the late teenage or early adult years, the sorcerer experiences a surge of magic and will experience a period of pain, lasting several hours, in which a chosen discipline is set, whether this be elemental magic or a specific adept discipline, rendering a sorcerer unable to use other disciplines of magic even if they trained with them before the Surge. The exception to this rule is symbol magic.
This magic can be used by any sorcerer, however, one that choses it as their chosen discipline is much stronger at this discipline than other sorcerers. Once the Surge occurs, the sorcerer becomes much stronger in their chosen discipline than they were before the Surge. Should a sorcerer have not chosen a particular discipline by the time of the Surge, they will by default become an Elemental. The Surge can be triggered naturally or through an outside force, such as being in close proximity to the explosion of the "magic sucker", as is the case of Valkyrie Cain. However, Skulduggery has said that although changing magic after the Surge is not impossible, it is extremely rare. In this case Skulduggery is a perfect example as he displays great skill in Elemental magic and Necromancy. However, a possible side effect is multiple personality traits (as when Skulduggery Pleasant uses Necromancy, he becomes Lord Vile).
It is possible using symbol magic to capture the power of the Surge and loop it around a sorcerer. This will cause the sorcerer to experience times of extreme power and times of extreme weakness as well as become emotionally unstable, as proven by Melancholia St Clair. If left uncontrolled, the sorcerer could literally explode like a nuclear bomb.
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