Affinities

Books one and two by Wisandria Quixoia.

[Published by IPCS on the 8th of Highsun of the year 631]

## **On the Affinities: An Exploration on How Mages Interact with Mana and the Limitations put onto Mana (Book One of Two)**

The mortal mind constructs laws by which mana must abide by when we are controlling it. The most common means of understanding mana is by understanding the limits we place onto it, and we refer to these limits simply as the Affinities. For they are more so styles of controlling the Arcane that the mind commonly finds easiest to construct magic with, often affinities account for the personality of the mage or what studies they have pursued. The reality is that magic is not constrained to the original affinities that one might be a part of, but rather we can compose ourselves to meld these laws to our whims. The art of Magic is truly the art of creation and destruction, that which God was originally made to do, but instead, the power has been granted to all mortals with the desire to practice the art. To be a Mage is to be God, not in spirit, but in manifestation.

Affinities are the manifestations of the god-like nature that is magic, for they provide a means for the Mage to express himself. An affinity is often denoted as a school of magical practice, these are the styles of magic that are not created by a mage but already structured by the renditions of another mage. Affinities range as much as the schools of magic do, but the most common ones will be listed below and explained in depth. As aforementioned, the laws that Mages naturally place upon themselves can be melded as the mage practices magic, but it is important to denote that the levels of magical capability are based primarily on the experience of a mage— there are always race exceptions.

Types of [common] Affinities:

* Light
* Dark
* Earth
* Wind
* Fire
* Water

These six schools are referred to as the Affinities, for these are natural elements of Terra that we commonly affix to mana. The technicalities of these schools are but the first base to which a mage can leap beyond, and they provide the easiest means of controlling mana beyond the tedious nature of more technical styles— such as simple incantations of raw mana. As a Mage advances in his learning, to go beyond affinities is not uncommon a higher levels of Arcanic knowledge. It is once when the mind breaks from the conditioned set of elemental magic that the true schools of magic can be practiced, but it takes these rudimentary affinities — although some might claim these base elements are possibly the most power— to truly advance as a Mage. The structure of magic common to mortals is dependent on knowledge founded in the Affinities. These affinities are the set of guidelines for understanding magic, but that does not mean that they are the only way to attain magic. Magic is commonly a learned style of controlling the mana around us, but recent focuses on studying the Alvs have found a new means of attaining adept knowledge in the control of affinities.

## **Beyond Affinities: The Magical Beyond Rules and Regulations (Book Two of Two)**

The study beyond affinities is one left to established Mages, along with the select mages who have been handpicked by divine mandate. In short, the study beyond affinities is simply the conscious’ fixation with *regulations* being broken by the willpower of the Mage. This willpower is what is often utilized to control mana to begin with, thus with the honing of the mind comes the strength to break from these fixations of order. The damage this does is speculated to be the shortening of life but said theory is counteracted by the lengthening that a Mage can naturally commit himself to. Once the limits of mana control are broken — to note, this is not just singular breaking of all laws, teaching and conditions that the mind commonly abides by when interacting with mana, but several episodic breaks that may possibly take years to accomplish— then the mind can freely control mana to their discretion. This grants a mage the opportunity to create new spells, establish rituals, and further advanced forms of mana control that are often popularized as being all a mage commonly does. Once this break occurs, the Mage also begins to lose their touch with the Terra. It is not uncommon for mages to disappear into the Florientum and return to Terra at an arbitrary time. This could be the first steps into teleportation magic, but entrances into the Florientum are prone to be lethal to mages when not mentally adept for the travel.

As for how an individual might easily go beyond affinities, it is speculated that the control of two schools provide the means to hone the willpower of an individual to break from the laws that the mind forces mana to naturally abide by. I personally would argue that it is dependent on the experience a mage holds, for the first mages broke past the affinities even with only focusing in a singular school. The power of an individual is always relative to the skill they seek to possess and the practice put into honing said skill. The break from affinities grants access to skills that the first mages saw as unforeseeable, but provided us with the capability to further study magic past the conventional means to the more abstract levels. But the price is always the heaviest toll for the power to understand the world, and to go beyond the confines our mind places for us demands us to pay said toll. To lose a mage to the darkest of thoughts or madness is common at the higher echelons of studying the arcane, but it is the punishment that a mage accepts to understand, study and retain such a great power. For the control of mana beyond the precursors is pertinent, as guides us in our questioning of the natural world.