Magic in Elmeron

The Rainbow of Magic

The Magic of Elmeron is a return to what magic always was, a force unable to be labeled, with endless possibilities, impossible to comprehend to the human mind in its entirety. However the peoples of this Elmeron have assigned labels to this magic which allow it to be better understood in and out of the world, so just understand that the contents of this document is a human perspective on the magic of this world.

The Rainbow Analogy

This magic system is best explained with an analogy known as the Rainbow Analogy. This analogy states that this magic system is like a rainbow, in which lies every color, with them all originating in the end from the same source, pure white. However, in order to better understand and use the colors within the rainbow, humanity has assigned labels to this spectrum. These labels are many, and can help greatly when trying to paint great works of art, but ultimately will never truly encompass the literally infinite scale of the rainbow, and the colors it contains. The magic in Elmeron is emblematic of this idea, and will be described using many of the terminology of the color spectrum. This is also a very common way for the peoples of Elmeron to explain the fundamentals of magic to children, at least in the civilizations that have a better understanding of magic.

The 10 Hues

The world has 10 Major Hues of magic: Time, Light, Dark, Mind, Space, Heat, Cold, Stone, Water, and Air. There are 2 categories within these Hues, Ethereal (Time, Light, Dark, and Mind) and Physical (Space, Heat, Cold, Stone, Water, and Air). These 10 Hues compose the most major of the Hues of magic. An important distinction to form is that only Physical Magics have physical presence in the world, while all Ethereal magic flows through the world at its own whims (with very rare hotspots and exceptions).
From this point onwards into the spectrum of magic it becomes exponentially difficult to list every variant of magic, and most Hues magic will be referred to on a case to case basis. Some examples of these minor Hues are Ice (Cold Water mix) Lava (Heat, Stone, and a touch of Water) Illusion (Mind, Light, and usually one of the physical) Life (Mind, Light, Dark, Stone, and Water). In specific regions there are even more specific magics, including Coral (Life and Water) Moon Divination (Cold and Dark) and Sandstorm (Stone, Air, Heat).
More information on the Major Hues of magic and where they are practiced in the main article The Hues of Magic.

Weaving Magic

In the common tongue, the term for people who cast magic are known as Weavers. This is because in order to cast magic, one must draw upon the magic flowing in the world, and "weave" it into a form suiting their needs. The souls of all living beings are what allow them to do this, as pure magic is the ultimate conduit for all types of magic. However the different cultures of Elmeron still cast magic in various different manners, with a few examples being the Air Weavers of The Verdant Isles, who draw in air magic into their lungs, allowing them to stay underwater for hours, or the Nature Weavers of Yakala, who use branches molded with nature magic into staves to help weave nature magic more effectively, with the staves carefully molded to guide nature magic through and out its crevices. However the most common and instinctual type of Magic Weavers are those who use the flow of magic by weaving it manually with the inherent prowess of the soul to weave magic. Ultimately, so long as a person has a soul within them, they can effectively weave magic to their whim with proper practice.
More information on the practise of Weaving magic in the main article Weaving Magic .

Souls

To expand on the idea of souls and how they weave into physical bodies, within every living being lies a soul made of a piece of pure magic. This soul surrounded by magic absorbed from both the parental souls and the environment in which the soul was born. This magic will form the physical body of the person, creating the potential for as many races, flora, and fauna as there are types of magic. The pure magic within Souls are also what allow them to weave all types of magic. When a soul's physical form is wounded beyond repair, it leaves in its bodys last breath and ascends into the sky becoming a star, assuming the cause of death was not related to Elementalism or Soul Manipulation. After ascending into the sky, the star will take on the Hue of the personality of its formar life, and its magic will slowly descend back into the world to be recollected and put into new Souls. This process, known as the Soul Cycle, takes about 10 years to complete.
More information on souls, the Soul Cycle, and different outcomes of death in the main article The Soul Cycle.
More information on all creatures in the main article Life in Elmeron.

Elementals

Another quirk of the concepts of souls is that powerful mages can take the magic within their own souls and convert it to a more usable type of magic, sacrificing their consciousness. This process is known as Elementalism. Upon committing to the act of Elementalism, the user of the act will gain all the power stored within their soul for a very limited amount of time before losing consciousness forever. However the powerful magic and emotions created upon committing this act will live on in the form of an elemental, a being with no mind, but imbued with the emotions of the last act of its creator. For example, a person who sacrificed their life to protect something might produce an elemental who will fiercely guard whatever it was they were protecting, or seek vengeance against a specific people.
A notable exception to this is an elemental that was created without a strong will, for example a will for pure chaos, and these elementals will be incredibly unstable and temperamental. These beings are on the power level of dnd dragons, however the creation of them are extremely rare, as it requires a magic user who is incredibly powerful, associated strongly with a specific magic, and who possesses the will to sacrifice their life something. The creation of elementals are known to be created most commonly at times of great turmoil in the world, and usually can turn the tide of entire wars single handedly, but at a great human loss on both sides, as the impacts of the creation of an elemental can take years to recover from. An elemental with a will to kill as many people as possible (usually created in times of war) can haunt entire kingdoms for generations before they are taken down.
More on Elementalism in the main article Elementalism .

Gods

Gods are created when human perception of the world and its magic is that of Personification, and the magic of The Veil makes that real. These gods are effectively manifestations of the Veil itself, and thus reflect what lies below it, the Physical and Ethereal world. Gods are composed of raw magic, and represent entire sections of the rainbow of magic, sometimes multiple areas at once. After all, the only limit to their power is the limits of the human mind and magic itself. However, because of the nature of The Veil, these beings of immense power cannot make physical appearances within Elmeron, as they are made partially of Ethereal magic, which is impossible to manifest physically. However, they can manifest themselves Ethereally, such as guiding the hand of an archer in need, conveying thoughts and emotions through methods unique to individual Gods, and even providing temporary increased control over magic itself.
More on Gods and The Veil in the main article Gods.

Manifestation

The world is magic, all physical and metaphysical things in this world are variations upon the origional pure magic. However, some Divination magics can allow one to observe magic flowing through the world in color, and upon doing this, one will descover that all magic has a physical Hue that represents its variations upon the origional pure white Magic.

Localization

Magic flows through this world as a force of nature, and thus magic is unstoppable, and the removal of magic in an area is the equivilent of creatiting a Vacuum in which more magic will attempt to flow to fill the space. However, just because magic is everywhere doesnt mean that certain types of magic are not unwelcome in certain enviroments. For example, it would be quite difficult to practice water magic on a large scale within the burning deserts of Ra'akar without some sort of catalist of water magic.

Type

Metaphysical