Magic

Magic is a constant throughout the grand design, being the manifestation of the fantastical aspects of the world tapping into its fundemental non-tangible properties. Through the skillful manipulation of these intangible essences known as potentia, through a process of visualsation, or assisted by special magical aids such as focuses or invokations, casters are able to then cultivate special particles from potentia to manifest effects that resemble what we see as magic.

## Magic in the World: Potentia

Magic and the fantastical are all fundamental aspects of the Grand Design and the myriads of worlds in it. What is known as magic to the commonfolk, all exists thanks to the existence of Potentia. Potentia is the name given to the raw unadulterated particles that exist in the sea, the skies, and the land that allow for the formation of spells: all being originated directly from the All-Mother herself, during the birth of existence. Typically illustrated in the form of triangles, these particles can be found in everything. Although the amount of potentia contained in everything varies wildly. Despite the fact that everything contains this essence of potentia, this does not mean every being can utilize magic well or even at all, as there is no direct relationship between the amount of potentia something contains and the amount of magic they can actually exercise.

The only known exception to this rule of potentia existing in everything are creatures from the World Inbetween the Walls. As they come from a place that was a mistake in the Grand Design's creation, they don't have the same fundamental magical essence in them. While these beings are able to cast magic, even if it can seemingly performing spells much like potentia users: what they contain is something else entirely. And due to these differences in the fundamentals of their magics, when the magics mix: it often creates abstract and unpredictable outcomes.

Concentrated bundles of Potentia and magical energies can form special ore known as Fervorstone. Fervorstone is the physical manifestation of raw magical essence condensed into a crystaline ore form. Fervorstone can be both found naturally in areas where that magic's presence is high enough to cause the formation of fervorstone, or artifically synthesized. For partically rare elements, or complex branches of magic, elementally aligned fervorstone will usually have to be created.

## Applied Magic: Exculta

Exculta is the term for applied potentia, as potentia is the raw material that allows for magic. Exculta are those developed particles that manifest themselves in the pillars of flames casted in spells. Once potentia has been turned into exculta, it generally cannot be reverted, which is why potentia is a much more important point in the discussion of magic. Exculta is only something that is formed out of the deliberate casting of magic, and not the passive or natural abilities of a host. An example of this would be with creatures such as the phoenix, which naturally spews out flames and magma similar to a pyromancer. The difference is potentia isn't turned into exculta for the phoenix's flaming projectiles, is because this is the same as breathing for them, simply exercising natural behaviors for them.

Casting magic is not something that was accounted for in the beginning, and as such: exculta can be thought of as unnatural, being one of the things that has accelerated the degredation of this universe, whilst also being such an importance development in the prime continuitity that it attracted the All-Mother herself. The relationship between potentia and exculta can be visualised as potentia being an unrefined gem, that has a high potential to become a super fast rolling ball. But this ball has to be refined further into a sphere to actually roll properly, at which point it becomes exculta. This refining process is the act of casting spells: whether through intricate hand gestures, or verbal cues.

## Process and principles: Mindscape visualization

Visualiztion is the process in which potentia is refined into exculta, where thoughts tap into a cerebral zone known as the mindscape. The mindscape is a metaphyiscal zone that acts as the hypothetical organ to convert potentia into exculta. While the brain allows for normal thoughts, when casting magic: these thoughts are passed into the mindscape, where they are further refined. In this mindscape, casters are to visualize their actions and magic. The clearer the image is in the caster's mind, the more refined the polishing process, which is why visualization is such a corner stone process of this magic system.

In essence, the mindscape acts almost as an aura. The strength of one's mindscape and visualization process as a whole can be improved through increasing one's potentia capacity, simply allowing to take in more potentia to make up for the subpar conversion process. This can also be improved through the use of focuses, which are objects that help concentrate potentia, come with prebuilt visualized spells and outcomes already, or simply speed up the conversion process. This aura, while all encompassing, should be considered different from soul. Much like any aura, it can be disrupted through proper manipulation or external forces.

## Schools of Magic

Amongst scholars and magi, there exists 3 prevailing schools of thought regarding magic and its categorization. All 3 schools of magic hold their own merit in academia, covering the entire spectrum of magic. However, they are not fully distinct and unique, often sharing overlapping notes and terms.

Some prefer the elementalist school of magic where there are set elements and types of magic fall under those. Others prefer the perception school of magic where branches of magic are sorted by how it is cast, and how it is utilized. The final school of magic is that of the emergence school of magic, where magic is categorized based on its origin and history.

### Elementalist School of Magic

The first school of magic is the elementalist school of magic. This is the understanding of magic through the lens of control over the various properties of the material realm. Elemental magic is an extremely broad term, often an introductionary term that is sooner dropped by high academics in favour of the subcategories within this school. There exists multiple subcategories of elemental ranging from your primary to unique categories. Elemental magic is the most common magic form that most will encounter as its inherent connection with the world extends to it being utilized by non-sapient creatures quite often.

#### Primary Elemental Magic

The primary elemental branches of magic are the most fundamental aspects to this school of magic, as they appear in reality the most commonly and do not need to be created through a combination of bases. These elements can be found in naturally occuring fervorstone in areas where the magic potency is particularly high. The known bases of elemental magic are as such:

* **Fire** magic / **Pyromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate fire.
* **Water** magic / **Hydromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate water.
* **Plant** magic / **Floramancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate plants.
* **Air** magic / **Aeromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate wind and air.
* **Light** magic / **Photomancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate the visible light spectrum.
* **Electric** magic / **Electromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate electricity.
* **Earth** magic / **Geomancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate the ground, stone and other manners of terrestial material.
* **Mind** magic / **Telemancy**
	+ Magic that allows for telepathy and other neural based abilities.

All of these elements can be mixed in some or fashion, leading to a seemingly infinite amount of possibilities regarding elemental magic. The terms listed above following each element describe the school of magic that that element falls under. This is done to create a specific distinction between magical control that uses the kinesis suffix instead of the mancy suffix. The kinesis suffix is attached when the elemental attribution is more inherent to the being itself, relating to the motion of the element.

#### Complex Elemental Magic

This branch of magic is as inherent to reality as elemental magic, but involves more complex and abstract influences. These types of magic will often invoke or utilize some form of elemental magic in their conjuration. An example of this would be the usage of Blight Magic, which is the magical school of afflictions and curses. Curses may cause combustion, showing a relation to the fire element, but this is still within the magical branch of Malumancy.

* **Metal** magic / **Ferromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate metalic ores and alloys.

* **Ice** magic / **Cyromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate ice.
* **Blood** magic / **Haemomancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate blood.

* **Blight** magic / **Malumancy**
	+ Magic that allows influence over curses and afflictions.
* **Sound** magic / **Audiomancy**
	+ Magic that allows for the manipulation of sound waves and frequencies
* **Undead** magic / **Necromancy**
	+ Magic that allows for magic that directly uses influences from the realm of the dead.
* **Shadow** magic / **Tenebromancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to manipulate the visibile light spectrum.

These complex elemental magics can be found in nature, however it is exceedingly rare to find high enough concentration of these magics in areas to the point where it will form natural fervorstone. An exmaple is with mind magic fervorstone, which can be found naturally growing in the Faerin caverns due to its long influence by telepaths and the culture of Faerin. However, even after decades of influence, the fervorstone is still exceedingly rare. As such, usually fervorstone of these elements is crafted and synthetically fabricated.

An example of complex elemental magics being extensions of the primary elemental branches is with Tenebromancy. Photomancy, or Light magic, allows for the manipulation of shadows too, but it is the inherent focus on shadows and the extent at which shadows are manipulated which provides Tenebromancy its own distinction.

#### Unusual Elemental Magics

This branch of magic is for those that do not abide by the conventions of other elemental categorizations. All the magics listed here are extremely rare and not directly able to be taught without magic influence through other beings or artifacts. Specific combinations of primary and complex elemental magics that are considered potent enough to have branched off entirely into their own form of magic are placed here.

* **World Code** magic / **Praceptamancy**
	+ Magic that allows users to alter the world code, essentially providing reality warping.
* **Null** magic / **Oblivomancy**
	+ Magic that allows actively nullifies other lesser elemental magic without using a directly opposing element.
* **Time** magic / **Chronomancy**
	+ Magic that allows for influence over the flow of time.

Magic categorized here has the most powerful base level, with minimal manipulation of these being highly potent on their own. This is not to say that mastery over tiers of elemental magic cannot reach this, simply that these branches are stronger at the starting point. While these aspects certainly exist and can be obtained through special influences, finding naturally occuring fervorstone of these elements is nigh impossible. Whilst directly learning these magics by purely by themselves is not possible, there are work arounds. Utilization of powerful artifacts, such as the null magic focuses that Vaudrin utilizes, allows for access to null magic related abilities and spells. Another method in which unusual elemental magics may be utilized is through the correct combination of primary and complex elemental types, as that is how some of these came to get their own distinction. An example is utilizing telemancy, malumancy and electromancy to create a faux time magic based spell, where the affected target goes under a process similar to accellerating the way they experience the flow of time.

### Perception School of Magic

The second school of magic is the perception school of magic. This is the understanding of magic through the lens of the actual effects and result of the magic in question, being less concerned on the elemental properties displayed. This school of magic is often prefered by those that exercise a more pragmatic view of magic, as the applications generally allow for better understanding of magic utilization in situations. In this school of magic, there exists 6 main branches with all types of spells falling under maximum 3 of these branches. Any spells which display traits of 4 or more are considered abnormal magic by this school of thought.

Damage is not considered its own branch of magic, as all magic can inherently damage in one way or another.

#### Precision branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that focuses on a singular target and concentrates the ebb and flow of magic between 2 agents specifically.
* Example of this branch of magic would be **Magic Missile**, which focuses a singular burst of magic to stun one single target.

#### Inate branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that is not cast and is instead instinctual or inherent to the being.
* Example of this branch of magic would be the fire breath of Dragons, where they are not casting spells compared to the spell **Flame Spire**.

#### Zone branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that when cast, has area of effect.
* An example of this is **Frost Blast**, which blasts an area on the ground with ice.

#### Regent branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that can only be self cast on the caster, being unable to directly target another being as the focus of the spell.
* An example of this is **Wind Walk**, which turns the user invisible.

#### Construct branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that creates constructs or matter in the process. Minions or summons would be categorized under the construct branch as they are addition units containted or linked to the invocation of the spell.
* Constructs created this way are temporary, as they still have to abide by the nature of the World Code.
* Elemental constructs such as ice and wood would be categorized under this branch of magic.
* An example of this would be the spell **Wall of Swords**, which generates a barrier of blades in front of the caster.

#### Influence branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that manipulates the attributes for targets. The influence category consists of both negatively and positively altering attributes of targets.
* An example of magic that would fall under this branch would be **Invigorate**, which through altering the health based statistics of the target, causes their vitality to regenerate twice as fast.

**Example of magic which involves multiple branches of magic:**

* **Mirror Image** (Construct, and Regent)
	+ This spell counts as both construct, and regent magic as it creates imperfect copies of the caster only, with only the caster being able to be affected displaying regent properties, and the copies displaying construct properties.
* **Frosted Grounds** (Construct, Influence, and Zone)
	+ This spell counts as construct, influence, and zone magic as it affects an area when cast, creates ice on the floor, and slows down the casting rate of enemies in the area of effect.

#### Abnormal branch of magic:

* This branch of magic concerns magic that possess traits of more than three other branches within one spell. One could display all seven instances of this through casting multiple spells, but for all of them to be contained within one spell is considered highly abnormal by scholars of the perception school of magic.
* It should be noted abnormal magic is not abnormal in the sense that it is forbidden. It is simply referred to as such due to its uncanny nature to not be easily categorized, as well as being extremely rare.

### Emergence School of Magic

The third and final school of magic is the emergence school of magic. This is the understanding of magic through the lens of the origins of each branch of magic, attempting to structure magic in a topological manner. This school of magic was the most recently developed, and can be seen as a middle ground between the other two schools, borrowing theories and terms heavily from each of the other schools in a fashion that appeals to those that are more focused on the history of magic.

There are constantly new categories of magic in this school being developed as the developement of magic has exponentially since the dawn of the second age, considered the golden age of development and innovation for mortalkind. Below is a list which provides a rough approximation of some of the main categories found and discussed within the emergence school.

* **World Code:** This is the base code of magic and as such is the progenitor of all magic. This type of magic can only be properly influenced at its absolute highest capacity by the All-Mother and the Creator. Praceptamancers draw from this, in extremely small capacities compared to the two administrator beings.
	+ **World Inbetween The Walls:** An altered anti-world code of sorts, this bizzare realm is the origin place of Abzulor's magic and is a derivative of the World Code's magic.
	+ **Blessed Children:** The magic formerly held by the Blessed Children, this is the same magic that was used to fuel the Arklight. In the current day, there are multiple users of magic that originate from the Blessed Children such as Axcel, and Moira.
		- **Demon:** Demonic magic is a branch of magic that is a direct descendant of the Blessed Child Triialri. After the species was birthed out of the black pool, their magic loosely resembles the magic of the Blessed Childrens.
	+ **Ancients:** The magic of the ancients is the true progenitor of modern magic as the ancients were the first beings to properly cultivate and morph potentia into exculta. Their primitive magics were not as refined as the modern magics which utilize pure exculta, and instead were slightly different. These slight differences provided the ancients with an extremely high theoretical ceiling, at the lack of ease of manipulation.
		- **Modern:** This is the most abundant magic in the past three ages, cultivating potentia and converting it into exculta for ease of casting.

## Limitations of Magic

Despite magic being inherent to the construction of existence itself, it does have its limitations. Many groups, namely the Arcanist Conclave, are in pursuit of these limitations. Some other beings such as Zalynx are actively attemping to subvert these rules set by the world code and instead shift the influence in ways they consider more favourable, spitting in the face of the grand calculus of the All-Mother's design. As stated above, the exact limitations of magic may depend on the timeline due to major events that caused a different shift in world code structure, but for the prime timeline, below the main limitations of magic has been listed as well as any subclauses or clarification points.

### Magic cannot create permanent physical matter.

* Magic allows you to create constructs or objects that appear physical and are able to be interacted with such as creation of ice shards through ice related spells. However this is not the same as naturally occuring ice, and will wither away even if the tempreature is below freezing. The duration of physical constructs will depend on a multitude of factors such as: spell type, caster's magical aptitude, and caster's concentration.

### Magic cannot create fully autonomous extant life.

* Magic allows you to control or summon appartions in battle. However, creating an entirely new autonomous extant being is impossible. The utilization of minions or summons which have a nueral link is not the same, as it falls within the same vein as creating constructs.
* Necromancers do not violate this rule, as their reanimation magic does not create fully autonomous beings, merely creating a facsimile of the deceased being through multi-realm manipulation as a part of the conscious is dragged back to the physical body from the realm of death. This is also why beings that end up in the 221594th realm cannot be influenced via necromancy.

### Magic cannot fully revive those whose soul has been fully detached.

* When someone dies in this universe, it takes some time for their nonphysical being to pass into the realm of the dead. This lack of an instantaenous death can be interpreted as the Grand Design processing the death, and is the reason revival items exist. Revival methods can bring a back from the dead if their metaphysical being has not fully been seperated yet, but the process is still not without risk.
* Full revival of the deceased is theoretically possible, but involves direct reality manipulation using the world code and as such is considered impossible by mortals.

### Magic cannot duplicate genuine articles nor possessions.

* This limitation stipulates that magic cannot simply create or reproduce everything, namely the materialization of genuine objects. Items or currency themselves cannot be magically generated, and even if a very close duplicate can be somehow produced, you still run into the issue of the first rule.
* Transmutation of objects is definitely possible, but being able to perfectly duplicate the magical signature and physicality of items is extremely difficult.