Sorcery
The only mana based form of magic, sorcery is practiced solely by humans. While individuals of other races are capable of learning and using sorcery, most either have their own natural magic that suits their needs or take moral objection to the wanton use of the world’s life energy. Even amongst their own race, sorcerers are a secretive lot who carefully guard their magical knowledge and only share it with those of their choosing.
Anyone can use sorcery if they have some basic knowledge of how to evoke it, but to use it with any form of competence one requires extensive education. It takes a keen intellect, patience, determination, and often a massive ego to even wield it with any amount of skill, let alone master it.
Despite the dangers of sorcery, its attraction is the potential to do nearly anything. The ultimate goal of a sorcerer is to become akin to a god, to do things that normal humans are not supposed to be able to do. For this reason, sorcery does not sit well with many religious orders, as sorcery trespasses on the power of the gods.
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Mana and Sorcery
Mana is the life-force of a planet, and sustains the lives of plants, animals, humans and other races. The world has a limited pool of mana, from which life is nourished, and when living things die, the mana that existed within them is returned to the world. Sorcery is a subtractive form of magic, as it removes mana from the world. When one uses sorcery to cast a spell, it draws its power from mana; both from within the caster’s own pool and from the surrounding environment. Most spells of weak to moderate power will not have an obvious effect, but powerful spells will cause more acute and immediate destruction as plants whither and wilt around the caster. Every person has their own finite reserve of mana. When a person’s mana depletes, they will not die, but they will feel exhausted and simply cannot control magical essences. However, a good night’s sleep or a long meditation is all humans need to regain their mana supply.
To reduce the environmental impact and personal exhaustion, mana can be stored in crystals and used to fuel spells. These crystals, or manastones, occur naturally where there is a high concentration of mana—namely the world’s leypoints. In their natural form, they only contain enough power to fuel one or two minor spells, but can be recharged. The nation of Emkal in Kalesten has taken to mining, cutting, and charging manastones, as they are near one of the Air leypoints in the Gayntos Mountains. Manastones can be purchased in Emkal, and they do export some to other markets.
Another innovation of Emkalian sorcerers is liquefied mana, which is more concentrated than a manastone, but is derived from manastones by melting and distilling them. When the distillation process is completed, the liquefied mana is collected in glass vials, then distributed and sold. It is only made and sold in Emkal, and is very expensive. Magic traders can sometimes get a small stock of liquefied mana to trade in other nations, but even the wholesale prices are hard for many to afford.
Archanist Language
In sorcery, words are power, but mages do not speak common tongues for their spells. Instead, they speak a language that was devised purely for magical purposes, Archanist, to cast spells. Every single Archanist word has a power unto itself, and when spoken, causes an effect.
Sorcerers maintain tomes full of spells in Archanist writing, which resembles no other written language, and thus, cannot be learned without a cipher (usually provided only by one’s mentor). New words are created from time to time as needed, and distributed through guilds and academies.
Schools of Sorcery
Sorcery is divided into five basic schools—or five distinct ways of using magic—and within each school is a myriad of spells and rituals. Sorcerers may take from any school of magic, but depending on the ethics and interest of the sorcerer, they may completely disregard certain schools while focusing on others. Some schools are on entirely different levels, and require a far more complex and experienced understanding of magic, while others have spells that can be easily grasped by beginners.
Warding
The first school of magic is what is most readily taught to beginners; Warding Magic. Warding teaches defensive magic, mostly in the form of barriers and shields. With wards, sorcerers can create simple “fields” of magic that will alert them to danger, or complex and immovable shields that could defend against dragons.
Attack
The second school of magic is on par—in scope of learning—with warding. Attack Magic focuses on aggressive spells from the quintessential fireball to destructive spells that could decimate armies.
Summoning
The third school of magic is an advanced and often dangerous form called Summoning Magic. This school deals in the summoning of many creatures and spirits from other realms. Angels, demons, fae, spirits of the dead, and even living creatures (such as familiars) are called upon to do the bidding of the sorcerer. Depending on the being summoned, it may require a strong force of will and command of magic, lest the summoner lose control and become a victim of their own spell.
Support
A relatively new school (one of about a couple hundred years old), is the fourth school of Support Magic. Created by a skilled sage, taking some otherwise unknown elements of other magic systems, the Support school contains an almost haphazard collection of sub-schools and spells that fit nowhere else in the entire classification system of sorcery. Sub-schools include Divination and others yet to be defined.
Necromancy
The fifth school is classified last, as it is the most advanced, dangerous, and morally questionable. Necromancy deals with the raising of dead and creating of life. Those who employ necromancy can make skeletons and dead bodies into their minions, or even create homunculus—human constructs created solely by magical means. Necromancers seek to tame and enslave death so that they can live forever without fear of it. This school of sorcery encroaches on the territory of the gods and is considered most unholy and blasphemous by most followers of those gods.
