Magic

While magic is available across the skies, it is wild and chaotic at best, sparse and desolate at worst. The vast majority of people do not have access to magic, though many have the potential to acquire a small measure of talent. This makes those who can cast in high-demand, while becoming inherently suspicious and threatening.

* Everyone has the potential to use magic, if they know the specific ritual, song, rite. They do not need to understand how the spell works.
* Magic is powerful, inherently unknowable, and impossible to perfectly harness.
* Magic always has a cost; physical wounds, mental stress, idiosyncratic action, or sacrifice are all possible. If not paid, magic can rebound, its cost multiplied.

One sky above all, Ushua, devotes itself to the study of magic. The city of Harrowsreach, known as the Steps, acts as the magic capital of all skies. The Arcanum of Magi live and study at the university atop the Steps, and all people who strive after magic inevitably seek out the Magi, who are immediately recognizable by their veils.

**Medua can neither cast magic, nor sense its presence; they can only sense magic’s produced effects.**
## **Systems of Magic**

Human, Avoral and Ursus practitioners have their own systems of magic, which is often dangerous, hard to find, and generally not useful as more mundane means. But regardless of the flavour or the way, there is always a cost.

**Human Magi**

The spells and rituals of the Magi, as written out, codified and studied by its practitioners, force their will on reality, shaping it through complex formulae, ritual, and the use of High Common, the archaic root of the common language. While not terribly efficient, spells can be used by anyone, though the effect, power, and cost varies dramatically appropriate to level of skill.

Magi spells can be cast by anyone, and can cause wounds, stress, or other idiosyncratic effects.

**Avoral Windweavers**

Windweaving is often confused with the proud Avoral traditions of singing and storytelling through songs. Their spells weave songs with their desire, asking and coercing magic to bend reality around their wishes.

Windweaver spells can be sung by those who speak Avoral Cheep, and generally cause stress.

**Ursus Namers**

Ursus shamen, mystics, witch doctors, and seers all rely on the art of True Naming, pushing themselves into a trance-like state of mind, and then addressing elements of nature and being by their all-encompassing Names, which in turn grant them understanding and manipulation, at physical cost to themselves.

True Name spells can be cast by anyone one has taught by a Namer, and generally cause wounds to the caster.

**Witches**

Select few are born with innate magic, though many have an affinity, developing spells personally by siphoning the wild, ambient magic of the skies. Commonly known as witches, these casters are more often despised than praised, thought to be possessed by demons or else in league with devils. Large cities might have several witches, but in Outer Rim skies, they are rare and seldom seen. Their spells, developed brought their communion with their surroundings, is seen as a chaotic and dangerous force of nature, and anyone who attempts to wield such powers is to be kept at a distance.

The other reason witches are so widely feared is their ability to hex. By pouring their own spirit into another being, the witch may bless their recipient with good fortune or devastating bad luck. Many seek out witches for a Boon, a beneficial hex, to be placed on their newborn children during the winter seasons. Others seek out witches to Curse their enemies.

Wild Talent spells and hexes cannot be taught to others, though others may attempt to develop the same spells for themselves.

## **Magic Storms**

Nearly impossible to predict, magic storms sweep across the skies, leaving radically altered spires in their wake. Landscapes are molded like soft clay. Magical enchantments strike at random or en masse.

These distinctive storm banks, characterized by constant multi-coloured lightning and melodic thunder, should be avoided at all costs.