Casting and conjuring

Every creature has magic, even if it's just the magic of life. Some magics has to be discovered or invented and thrive through research or trial and error, often with fatal outcomes. Others are innate, born or amplified through bloodlines, some of these are tied directly to genetic abnormalities, such as the polychrome drafters. Others again, are bestowed by Gods or powerful beings in exchange for services or a greater cause.

Through the lifespan of Alera as a continent, it has been shaped by the magic used within it. Some for the betterment of man, others for power and personal gain. Through time, several different types of magic has risen and fallen, however, four magic schools stands as pillars from which all else sprung.

## **The Four Magic Schools**

### **Witchcraft (most D&D magic)**

* **The caster:** Considered a heretic or witch, hunted and most likely has a price on his head. This art can be innate from birth or learned through study and amplified through bloodlines.
* **The magic:** Witchcraft is something that through sheer will, godly or other-worldly interactions conjure implausible effects or results from nothing, breaking the fundamental law of magic - equivalent exchange. The magic in question is often of unimaginable proportions, often distorting the space around them and bringing utter destruction. Several heinous acts throughout the centuries have stained this specific casting as especially reviled, with necromancy, possessions, memory tampering to literally fueling spells with the soul of the land or the caster themselves. Ever since the mage wars, a murchy line has been drawn between magical effects and witchcraft, which has only gotten more blurry as years passed.
* **History:** Some say it originated from the angels, some say it originated from the devil and his devil-spawn deals. Some say it came from ungodly rituals of mating, which led to the birth of sorceress, who in turn taught their arcane findings to the would-be wizards. However, most agree on that it is a powerful and unwieldy art, not to be possessed by any mortal, or death will follow in their wake.

***Read Spell Alterations before picking your spells***

### **Fury-Crafting**

* **The caster:** Abilities are inherited through blood lines and one grows into their powers at a young age. Most often there are a direct correlation between the skill level of a fury crafter and their status in the Aleran society.
* **The magic:** This magic manipulates the essence of the elemental furies or the furies themselves. The elements associated with furies are earth, water, air, fire, metal, and wood. A fury-crafter can either call upon the spirit of the furies they posses for their attributes or call upon the spirit itself to animate before them.

### **Chromaturgy**

* **The caster:** The caster, or in this case "drafter", is as fury-crafting, inherited and amplified through bloodlines, but for the most part, the ability must be learned and mastered. The catch for this form of “magic” is that it drains your lifespan every time you use it, leading to it becoming illegal to teach at the start of the mage war due to a drafter could go through his or her lifespan over the course of 3-4 battlefields - if he survived that long.
* **The magic:** When a candle burns, a physical substance (wax) is transformed into light. Chromaturgy is the inverse: A drafter transforms light into a physical substance (luxin). Each different color of luxin has its own strength, weight, and even smell: blue luxin is hard and shatters like a crystal, red is gooey like tar, green is flexible like a fresh branch, orange is slick as oil etc. But as drafters change the light of the world through drafting, the light changes them too, much like the sun does to the floorboards of a house. The drafter is changed physically, mentally, and emotionally based on their “colors”. This magic is now mostly only seen by street hustlers willing to use it to make a coin or two, or special legionaries in the army.
* **History:** Was once one of the most widespread uses of "magic" due to its versatility both in and out of combat. It could be used as a construction material for buildings, replacement for the steel blade on a sword or as a devastating weapon in its pure form. In addition, it had a great following in the form of religion, as Orholam, the god of light was praised as the source of chromaturgy.

### **Alchemy**

* **The caster:** Anyone can learn this type of magic, but it is by far the hardest to learn and its knowledge has been largely lost since before the start of the mage war.
* **The magic:** It’s a magic closely related to science. It's based on the founding principle that ignited the mage war – *equivalent exchange*. This magic does not conjure, but simply modifies the materials around one self, but if not understood to its full extent before use, it can have dire consequences. Of all four, this magic has the most severe ramifications of them all, and only few in history has ever mastered this without killing themselves or their loved ones in the process. The magic is said to be split into a three step process – comprehension, deconstruction and reconstruction.

## Magic of the world:

The practiced Arts differ greatly depending on continent and populous.

* **Alera** is mainly dominated by fury-crafting as it is ingrained into the power structure of the nobility and is reliant of the furies of the land.
* **Canea** is known to have so called 'blood-speakers', often referred to as shamans or ritualists.
* **Calcis** has the bondsmagi of Karthain with their witchcraft.
* **Adua** is the most diverse in terms of the Arts, but is mainly dominated by the roots of alchemy (potions, biology and elemental interactions). Adua also has drafters using Chromaturgy, as well as the Art of Sympathy, or 'sympathetic bindings', also referred to as "the magic of cohesion" along with its runic scriptures (not to be confused with the runecraft of the dwarves).
* **Midcury** has Ka'karifers and 'Meisters'. Respectively soldiers of innate power, who can bond with magical items and spellcasters who willingly let themselves get infected by a sentient magic.

*But how does the world of the mundane world at large deal with the magical?* - enchantments, technical advancements, overwhelming numbers and group tactics.

* Enchantments are a large part of the foundation that the civilised world is build upon and one of the few tools left for the commoners to even the playingfield against heretics and witches. Generally doled out by the Magisterium or freelance enchanters (if a small town or village is able to pay the right price), these keep prisons safe, arms guards or entire armies with one-off weapondry or protection, or simply helps keep that old bridge standing that keeps beeing flooded every winter.
	+ Example for the most heavily guarded prison in Alera; An isolated version of thieves cant is the spoken language while on duty, a thieves downfall prevent shapechangers from entering in alternative forms, each guard is decked out in one-off enchantments like Shield, an aggressive version of Earthbind and Alarm, and are rewarded handsomly if reporting a case of bribery. The very stones of the prison are individually enchanted to hinder, confuse or block any non-personnel. Each cell has a slew of preventative measures and are designed to kill you if the alternative is you escaping. The entire grounds are enchanted to make you physically ill when entering the area, deterring any animals from so much as flying by the building. - And these are just the somewhat-commonly known measures.
* Technological advancements are in abundance and not always for the better. Most are focused on material exploration/refinement, constructs of war or improving city infrastructure. That being said, these wonders are almost exclusively encountered in prominent cities given the expertise and maintenance required.
	+ The most wide-spread selection of experts in these fields can be encountered within the steam city of Riva, on the eastern shores of Alera, build partially inside an active volcano.
* Overwhelming number and groups tactics was a hard won lesson during the mage wars. The legion is painfully aware of the relentless hunt and, often nessecery, losses required to dwindle down a witch, as well as the tactics that goes with accomplishing such a feat.

### Everything has consequences.

There's a reason that wizards, witches, magi, meisters, sorcerers and the like are not seen too fondly, everything has consequences, but magic has more than most. - The battlefields of old contained so much magic that it left the land permanently scarred. - Open wounds of the world for the darkness to fester in. A clash of magi may leave patches of grass charred and burned, but within days or weeks, the surrounding area may turn to wither and die off for no apparent reason. Some of the most powerful bindings, gates and locks are works of art, balanced often on closed loops of magic, existing on a scale beyond imagining, and these can be brought out of balance by enormous exertion of magic happening in distant lands, waking that which was never to be woken or unbarring for that which was never meant to be found.

Not only external factors are affected, - especially eager drafters are known to burn through their life force in a few months of war and conquest. Extreme excertion of magic can leave the mind broken with everything from lost memories, to full on insanity and locked-in syndrome, but is more often manifested as white streaks in the hair, blindness, or physical ailments such as discoloured blood, faulty pigmentation on the body or mild mutations.

Magic users (not only heretics and witches) are not only regarded as extremely dangerous, but are largely considered impossible to apprehend. Instead lethal force is almost always the approach of choice (depending on political rank of the target) - this has lead to a history of unfortunate instances of doubtful witchcraft accusations by slighted nobles, resulting in a plethora of unjust executions of commoners.