Wizards

## Overview

Wizards are the most versatile of spellcasters, manipulating the Weave through sheer mindpower, using methods born from centuries of arcane studies, calculations and experimentation. Wizardry can produce a nearly infinite variety of spells and supernatural effects, using a complex blend of intelligence, mathematics, and magical components. While it is the most difficult form of spellcasting to master, it has the potential to become one of the most powerful.

Wizards are the most common and numerous spellcasters in Spauria. They are the primary members of the Spaurian Mages Association, and make up it's most prominent and high standing officials.

## Spellcasting

While sorcerers possess innate power, clerics call upon gods, and spell-singing bards weave magic through their emotions, skilled wizards possess an incredibly deep and intricate understanding of the mechanics of magic. They realize that with the correct words, gestures, glyphs, and materials, along with an intense mental focus, the fabric of reality can be reshaped and manipulated in whatever way they please. These supernatural changes are known as spells, and wizards take great care to document these arcane formulas in expertly crafted spellbooks, made to keep their secrets and their research safe.

When casting spells, wizards often use arcane foci, or implements, such as staffs, orbs, or wands. These implements hold the concentrated arcane power in a spell, increasing its effectiveness. All wizards have a degree of specialization in implements, often preferring one kind over another. Some take a liking to orbs, which can be used to increase the duration of their spells' effects. Others prefer to use wands to enhance their accuracy, or staves to defend themselves. The most basic spells available to wizards are known as cantrips, and require little skill on the part of the wizard in order for them to be cast. Such spells are typically small tricks of magic such as creating a light source, a sound, or moving a small object telekinetically.

The vast majority of wizard spells differ from those of other spellcasters, usually in terms of usage or scale. A wizard often uses their power to control the nature of a battle, a landscape, or even the physical makeup of the universe itself. When in combat, many wizard favor spells that hinder many enemies at once, rather than attacking one, or that empowers themselves or allies. Wizards, like other spellcasters, are also skilled in the use of rituals; powerful spells that require a significant amount of time and energy to cast, thereby making them impractical in battle but immensely useful in non-combat applications.

## Famous/Noteable Wizards

### Galahan the Wise

The current Crownsmage of Spauria, and trusted advisor to the king. Before his rise to Crownsmage, Galahan was considered one of the greatest Abjurers ever to live, renowned by wizards for being the first to master the *Antimagic Field* spell and cast it without a ritual.

### Midas the Mage

Having cast his first spell at age five, and excelled through arcane studies at Monarch with unparalleled arcane skill, Midas has always been a wizard of great power and intellect. Despite his mastery and determined fascination with Conjouration, Midas has never taught, and when offered the position of Crownsmage, he politely refused in favor of pursuing his personal studies, secluding himself in his reclusive tower in East Spauria. Midas seldom makes public appearances, and maintains contact with very few in the outside world, making details on his current status scarce.

### Toben the Otherworldly

Toben Tebkus was a gnomish scientist and arcanist who devoted his life to discovering, exploring and studying the dimensions beyond the Prime Material plane. Raised in a family of simple tinkers and hedge wizards, Toben rejected his family interests at a young age, taking a keen interest in mythology and deep arcana. He excelled in school as a boy, and was accepted into Monarch Academy at age fifteen. There he went on to research, explore, and eventually document the things that would earn him the title "Otherworldly."

### Sarvoldis Ilifiel

In Noogle he was known as a noble teacher of Transmutation in the Monarch Academy, and a skilled arcanist who aided in the creation and simplification of spells such as *Flesh to Stone*. However, the Bois and the Pureblood Guild knew a different and much darker side of Sarvoldis Ilifiel.

Twenty years before the events of the campaign, Sarvoldis and two other mages would construct an artificial copy of Ilifiel to infiltrate and aid the Pureblood cult in Quimny. However, unbeknownst to the simulacrum, it was the original Sarvoldis who descended into corruption in Quimny, not he. For the remaining twenty years of his life, the simulacrum would live Sarvoldis's life believing it was his own, before his untimely demise during the destruction of the Qrow's Nest.