MAGICS OF THE WEAVE

Arcana is not a common practice for the vast majority in the Neptaverse but its existence is apparent everywhere. Its effect can be seen in everyday life to a varying degree on all planets of the Empire but its practice is a well guarded knowledge. The Empire runs off Arcana-Tec, a technology created from the study of Arcanum.
  Only a small percentage of the population have the mentality and intelligence to study the craft and even fewer who can master it. The Empire casts a wide net to find these individuals and to appraise their abilities. One manner in which this is performed are their education systems. These are controlled by a cooperation of the Magistrate and it's branch, the Magus Collegiate. Through the Magistrate, an organization with the authority of the Realm, these individuals are 'collected' from their homes to be educated within the Magus Collegiate's system. This practice is an honor in some cultures while a great many others feel this to be the best example of the Empire's tyrannical methodology. Whatever the opinion, it is adhered to.
  Arcane knowledge is part of the regular education in the hives, cities and towns of most planets, but it is mostly basic, restricted to task-oriented or fun small illusions and light tricks. For the greater masses, simplistic scientific explanations are used but the complexity of the realities is restricted to those within the Magus Collegiate. Within the Collegiate, magic is taught through schools. These schools are their own specialities and are further divided into the nine well known Majoris Schools and the many lesser known Minoris Schools.
  In short, the Collegiate teaches that Arcana, at its foundation, is the science of the Neptaverse. All Arcana takes root at the sub-atomic level through the amplification of the material properties with somatic gestures, powerful incantations and/or ancient rituals, spells of different schools can be cast. The more powerful the spell, the more difficult the casting process.... or so the Collegiate teaches.
  Within this education system, the Empire's arcane machinations are maintained by those who graduate as Mage-Wrights of varying industries or technologies. They are the labor force that keeps the Empire operating. Arcana is the technology and industry of the Empire and even the ancient gates of L'Astra Porta are controlled by its power. Its use is what the Empire is built upon and allows it to continue its expansion through the cosmos. Its empowerment allows the Empire to travel the Astral Sea and the planes of existence in search of new species and races to assimilate into its fold.
Those that are formidably adept are most often conscripted to be trained further in the crafts, sometimes for decades. Wizards and Artificers are a very rare breed and within the Empire they oversee the Magistrate’s research into the arcane arts and its offspring technologies. This protected knowledge is carefully guarded; those chosen for the task of protecting the most powerful Arcana most often become members of the ‘elite’ ruling or upper class of their populations, loyal and servient to the Empire's will. Often at the forefront of discovery in exploration or deep in research within their own facilities, the history of these members and the Collegiate are a part of the Empire’s founding.
  It is very rare but there are instances of those whose potential goes undetected. Some are able to conceal their abilities to the Magistrate. Whatever the case, it is nearly imposible to keep the secret forever and they are often hunted by other industrious organizations amongst the Empire or beyond for a myriad of motivations. Unsanctioned use of magic is punishable with incarceration, forced servitude or worse although that doesn't stop the fanatical whose intentions oppose the Empires. A few of the more nefarious make it a priority of theirs to seek these individuals out before the clutches of the Magistrate steal them away.

The miraculous magicks of the gods are equally held in awe and fear. The Divine are mysterious, their motivations unfathomable to mortals, the bulk of which do not perceive what the Divine do. On every plane, in every universe in all existence there is something the Divine refer to as the Weave. This Weave is best described as the fabric of all creation but that is an extreme oversimplification. The Divine can manipulate this 'fabric' to varying degrees.
  To the Divine, time is currency and devotion is power. The very few Supreme Deities are well beyond mortal understanding; even their own kin do not fully comprehend what they are composed of. Except for a few entities like Aesha, it takes the most extreme of situations for the Supreme Deities to meddle in mortal affairs; only once a millenia or two, do they even consider their existence.   They are often worshiped directly, but have been known to siphon off the influence of their Descended. The Descended is a broad term that encompasses a few classifications in which a supreme deity will reveal themselves, most commonly as an avatar of their will on the Mater.
  In most cases, the Descended, in whatever form, has a divine influence that is reflected by the amount of mortals that worship them. This devotion imbues those that descended from a supreme deity with more and more power and influence in the cosmos. Power they can then splinter or cycle to their mortal devotees through the Weave with Divine Magicks. A mortal, through devotion, ritual and prayer, can highlight their reverence for the Divine. If their soul flares in the Astral Plane it may attract the gaze of a Descended. If a mortal has potential, they can become a receptacle to divine influence and power, an intermediary between the material realm and the distant Trinity Planes of the Gods. Their devotion and dedication to the descendant grants the chosen mortal morsels of knowledge and greater access to the Weave.

Known as the Runes of Power—ancient sigils that embody the fundamental magic of the Weave's creation. The Giants were the first recorded to master Rune Magic, though a few other races eventually stole away or traded for that power. Of the young races, the Dwarves in particular were adept in its use and though much knowledge has been lost since the fall of the Giants, its mark can be found on a large number of core planets. Rune Magic is exceedingly rare and what lore remains is jealously guarded. Heavily regulated, few master Rune-scribes or Rune-smiths share their mastery with others. Indeed, most Rune-masters take on new students only if there is great benefit in some fashion as the teaching of Rune Magic is often a decades long process to master the art. Within the Empire, the Dwarven dynasty shipping and masonic guilds house the most Rune-Masters. No one is born with the ability to read runes, it is something that is taught and learned. Unlike Divine Magick or Void Magick it is not something that can be gifted or inherited. Runes can only be accessed by those with the knowledge or mastery of runes and the number of known resources in the Neptaverse that provide this knowledge is continually dwindling.

Ancient stories from a time lost to history tell of the birth of the Abyssys by means of spoken words. Words that spun the Void into the unreality it is; a reality of inverse where creation is destruction and union is division. A reality in which darkness confines all.
  The Rune Magic of creation is powerful, but—as light creates shadow—so too does creation cause destruction. Whispers of the ancient words of the Void bled into the narrow spaces between existence and nonexistence, and those whispers echo to this day. The power-hungry, the desperate, and the mad can find such whispers—with great effort and terrible risk. When spoken aloud or inscribed correctly, these words draw the power of nonexistence into the speaker’s magic, the Magick from the Void. The ultimate source of the power that drives Void Magic is unclear. In most respects, a Void Magic spell is nearly identical to Rune Magic and reaches toward the same mystical forces for its energy. The addition of void speech into the spell’s verbal component, however, subtly alters the spell at the moment of casting, so that the spell reaches beyond the usual wells of runic or divine power to siphon energy from strange realms of darkness, madness, and horror.
  Several hypotheses exist to explain Void Magic’s origin, from tapping the power of the Great Old Ones to drawing the last energy of a dying multiverse, but the truth is knotted in an enigma that can’t be untied without tangling oneself in utter madness.

The Weave, is a way through which raw magic is accessed, tapped into and used by casters of all types of magics. The Weave is the way in which magic presented itself to beings for their use, and it flows throughout the Neptaverse, touching almost every corner of existence, with the exception of the rare abnormalities of dead-magic zones. The Weave is considered many things to many cultures, including the God Lawthyre's body or the tree of life among many other myths. All the studies of casters, arcane and divine alike, teach that it is the many energies and forces that exist around the planes. Many see it as the 'fabric' of creation on which magic is drawn, and damage to the fabric can cause magic to go awry. Some Magistrate textbooks deliberately falsify the nature of the Weave, as an attempt to limit the knowledge associated with spellcasting. It is not until you've proven yourself within the system, that the higher magics and the truth are revealed.   In the years after the Extinguishing of Faith, the term the Weave also became a synonym of the Divine's influence. The Church of the Reflection Creed teaches that Lawthyre, the God of Magic created the Weave to aid the Argent in the creation of life. Not all believe this however and even within the Church itself there are detractors of this theory.   In the Magus Collegiate, the study of Arcanum proves casting a spell is the equivalent to making the Weave rearrange itself to create an effect. The Weave is simply the amplifiable physics of the world around us.   The Weave was also linked to fate, and a rare few individuals can manipulate such connection to alter the future to their advantage. This magic is dangerous to the Weave itself and mistakes will have the God Lawthyre punishing any transgressions. Those who do use magic in such a way rarely escape his wrath.