Magic

**Magic** referred collectively to the different ways of exerting ones will over reality by manipulating the various leylines, fluctuations and harmonizations of arcane "energy" that collectively made up **The Aether.** Some people were believed to have been born with an innate understanding of this type of energy, whereas others could learn to bind and exert control over it.

The different classes and colleges of magic comprised many collectives of thought throughout all of the ages. Thus it would be likely impossible to classify every single one of them, an attempt will be made to list all of the most popular and most important fields of knowledge that related to Magic.

## Arcane Colleges

The Colleges of the Arcane were the systems of thought and categorization tied most heavily to powerful manipulation of The Aether. This is where the concept and root of the word "mage" comes from, as the earliest Magi were believed to laid the foundation for this simple-yet-effective school of magic.

An Arcanist preferred direct, immediate usage of Magic via simple words or gestures that often provided immediate effects. Mostly these spells tapped into the various Elemental Planes. Many people that would eventually become powerful magic users belonged initially to some manner of Arcane College.

A common misconception is that a mage can simply speak a word and have it effect the world. This is simply not true - even the simplest incantation requires learning hand signals or words rooted in ancient tradition. These are the most basic form of all reagents used to create magic, and their power grows or wanes depending on their relationship and meaning to the world.

This college of thought comprised almost all of the simpler forms of magic.

* **Features**

If a spell was meant to provide an immediate, elemental response to the casters will, it came from one of the arcane Colleges. If a spell also required very little external knowledge of rituals or reagents, it also likely would be considered arcane in nature.

* **History**

The fact that this manner of spellcasting was simple enough it could be taught via oral tradition over centuries contributed greatly to it being the backbone of all spellcraft in Celestus. From the deserts of Mithros to the shores of Tioga, many civilizations can refer back to their earliest use of arcane magic as the reason they were able to enter the world stage.

* **Additional Notes**

Due to the fact that they rely upon only the most immediate kinds of magic and worry little about external knowledge or education, Spellswords were invariably all mages of this manner. Complicated melee combat left little time for the incantations or effects of more powerful magic.

## Runification

Runic Magic was the term used to binding magic to its own language of symbols and characters. Practicing this type of magic required one to be extensively educated in different languages and cultures, as Runic Magic was something that developed over eons of interaction between different corners of the world.

Curiously, it should be noted that while Runes may generally have in common characters from many different alphabets, simply invoking or writing these characters down on their own was never enough to invoke their power.

Being a physical form of magic, Runecraft generally was used for different types of enchantment or artificing.

## The Green

The Green referred to not a school of thought, but a powerful magic that bound all living things and was tied heavily to nature. The Green could even, in a sense, be considered one of the more "raw" forms of magic, being that it was tied directly to the primary leylines of the world.

As Nature gave life to everything on the planet, many magi would attempt through the years to tap into The Green only to find themselves warped and changed by its power. Such was their hubris that they attempted to dominate life itself and found themselves dominated in return.

Thus, culturally, many different civlizations associated The Green with a type of forbidden power, and even the simplest spell that invoked it would have been used by only the most talented and powerful spellcasters in the world.

## Infernal

If The Green was magic tied extensively to life itself, Infernal magic was a corrupted, distorted mirror of it. It's not known who first gave people in Celestus knowledge of this magic, or indeed what civilization could have stumbled upon it themselves.

The most common hypothesis is that as all of the Circle Lords and Daemons exert control over infernal magic, perhaps the earliest deal with a devil brought this power into the natural world.

Infernal Magic was the magic of hellfire, necromancy and rooted in corruption and devilry.

* Comprises

Necromancers that attempt to create life, corrupt the living or tap into the darkest shadows of the planet. Tieflings and half-demons very nature is rooted in this, so while not all of them are *evil,* many a Tiefling mage's power takes on an aspect related to the demons that their ancestors made pacts with. Blackguards and Clerics or Paladins corrupted by undeath take on a warped version of this, given to them by the evil gods that they are oathbound to.