Magic

"Magic is the song our soul sings to the world. It expresses itself in dazzling flame, howling gusts and the groans of the land." - Aeryn Fleur, Head Priestess of The Faith

The natural phenomena that occurs when mana is shaped and refined, wielded by the Magi of the world. These magi study and practice their magics to cause various effects by casting spells, either for practical reasons - such as the development of technologies through artificing - or for combative purposes. 

Four Pillars of Magic

There are hundreds of types of magics throughout the world, but they can be categorized into the following four. Within these primary forms of magic eixsts many sub-types, some of which are still being discovered to this day.

Elemental

The four elements that make up the physical universe, such as the oceans, sky, forests, and volcanoes. The building blocks of the world: Fire, Earth, Water, and Air. These are often the most approachable for an apprentice magi due to their primordial aspect.

Ethereal

Magic in an unrefined form, such as the raw, blue energy of mana, or the golden rays of cosmic magic. Unlike elemental magic, rather than taking this innate mana and shaping it, ethereal magi will reinforce it and conjure it as is; this is an especially malleable type of magic in that sense.

All magi are capable of using ethereal magic to some extent, even if it's as simple as causing ripples in the water by generating mana at the fingertip.

Metaphysical

The unseen mechanisms of the world, such as gravity, the timestream, or even a person's senses. 

Arcane

Light and dark. Destruction and life. Positive energy and negative energy.

Magic Power

Whether or not someone is capable of harnessing mana, they passively generate magical power as it is required to live. Certain magitech can even take a read on how much of this energy flows through a person, though it's purely a measure of their raw magical potency rather than their overall combat skill. There are five tiers that individuals might be placed under depending on this reading.

• Basic: Minimum of 10 Magic Power.
• Intermediate: Minimum of 50 Magic Power.
• Master: Minimum of 100 Magic Power. Higher than 70% of Magi.
• Exalted: Minimum of 300 Magic Power. Higher than 95% of Magi.
• Mythic: Minimum of 1000 Magic Power. Among the millions that live in Esshar, there's rarely more than a hundred at a time within this tier.

Forbidden Magic

These techniques, while not considered forbidden necessarily due to their school of magic, but rather the danger they pose to society and the user themselves, are illegal depending on the circumstance under the nation's law. The category is also a factor in assessing the overall threat of a person's magic; someone with a level 5 technique might not be aligned with the dark forces of the world, but have the power and capabilities to single-handedly massacre thousands should they choose to do so.

• Category 1: The user can practice the techniques freely but must register it with their local authorities. Certain abilities that might allow someone to discreetly cause harm or *assassinate a target, such as a powerful blood magic attack or enhanced poison.
• Category 2: They must be granted express permission to use the ability. The dark arts would fall under this as a general rule of thumb.
• Category 3: The potential for destruction is at a level where distant monitoring is necessary unless the individual is trusted.
• Category 4: This technique could endanger society as a whole if misused, causing massive amounts of damage.