This article does not provide information on the modern day relationships of magic all the countries possess, for that article please go to Different Cultures' Relationships with Magic .
Creation
In the beginning there was naught but an endless void of magic, known simply as the Sea of Magic. This void was made of pure magic, before the magic of time and space had been born. Then, all at once, as if the light had hit the prism, the sea began to split itself into infinite different variations in a vortex of color and pure raw energy. Then, slowly, over time the sea began to settle, first with the primordial magics of Time and Space, then Light and Heat combined to form the sun, and Dark and Cold combined to form the moon. Then, Light took its place at the top of the world, and Dark took its place at the bottom. Next, Air spreads itself across all creation, filling all space. Then stone rooted itself at the bottom of creation, and water began to fill the gaps between the stone, carving out space for itself. Next, the leftover pure magic began to coalesce and draw in magic to form a protective shell around itself. All throughout this process, magic continued to shift and complexify as it worked its way through the world in great swathes. Eventually, as this began to settle down, the pure magic which drew in protective shells began to shift around, being the first of life.
Early Life
As life began to spread throughout the world and diversify as they traveled and mixed magic in their own physical forms, those beings with higher amounts of pure magic began to utilize their heightened ability to weave magic to give them the upper hand in survival, but for now it was all instinctual, with most simply feeling the magic around them and using it for the simplest of tasks, like basic air magic boosting the speed of a thrown spear, or basic stone magic helping to sharpen a rock by softening it.
Tribal Stage
A few thousand years pass with animalistic humans roaming, but eventually they begin to learn to live in small nomadic tribes. This allows some to hunt and some to focus on other tasks for the betterment of the community. This also allows those staying back to develop magic weaving skills, and the use of magic in day to day life takes a higher precedence. Some examples of this era's use of magic would be basic life magic to make a nearly ripe fruit grow that little bit faster, using any of the physical magic to form magical projectiles. Some more advanced tribes will discover some very primitive forms of Ethereal magic around this time, with some notable examples being a far more primitive form of sun and moon divination in the peoples of the great north to get readings of things like fortune in the near future, or bountiful crops. Another good example is the Verdant Isles developing crude versions of their breath techniques, allowing them to magically draw in more breath to hold their breaths for minutes at a time. Essentially magic is becoming less of an instinctual act and more intentional.
Gods
It is around this time that the various tribes of the world begin to form basic forms of worship to different types of magic, depending on the area and culture of course. This inadvertently draws upon the magic of Belief, and this causes the worldwide advent of worship and development of rituals to create the first gods. At this point in time the people who are actively worshiping gods are few and far between, but enough to allow certain types of magic to develop the basis of consciousness. This means a basic response to worship, real emotions forming over the human perception of emotion in the magic flowing in the world. Personification turned real.
The Great North
Also around this time, the twin empires begin their rises to power. The people of the great north were faced with great adversity because of being a people of the harshest environment in the world. This meant they needed to adapt or die, far faster than anywhere else in the world, except maybe the Teeth. This caused the people of the great north to develop magical prowess at an astonishing rate, with them utilizing heat and cold magic in great amounts to stay alive. Some examples of these early advancements would be the use of a particular heat magic involving practicing drawing raw heat magic into oneself through breathing, allowing for regulation of body temperature and magic relating to fire breathing, and an advanced technique practiced only by the most skilled elder Nivéllum mages, in which one will infuse a pendant with cold magic, and it will slowly over time add cold magic to one's physical form, allowing for traversal of extreme cold and increased ability to manipulate cold energy by physically freezing oneself. As these tribes grew into nations, they both developed increased potency of magic, with the Helkemt developing some of the first Magma magic, allowing them to make obsidian cities from molten lava forcefully frozen back into place by the harsh cold. The Nivéllum also developed advanced city building magic, although for them it was a mix of pure ice architecture and white marble. However they were inevitably bound to end up in combat with one another. This would also be the first development of magic specifically designed for war, along with the birth of the first Elementals. On the Helkemt side of the conflict, we had techniques such as lava trenches, fire breathers weaving firestorms, and magical wildfires. On the Nivéllum side we have improved ice pendant magic, which can now temporarily convert one's body to dense ice and protect you from weak fire, and the offencive technique of flying ice blades, some powerful sorcerers could even weave ice storms that would rain icicles. Also, on both sides was the discovery of Elementalism, which turned the war from a conflict with a possibility of a clear winner into a war of self destruction on all sides, with both sides underestimating the fleeting nature of the Elementals. It was not long after the birth of Elementalism in the war before both civilizations fell to ruin.
Widespread Development
Outside of the great north, the rest of the world is beginning to catch up magically and technologically. This was most prevalent in one particular region, the ocean. The Nation of Eldrathil was rising fast due to the peoples of the ocean developing water magic much earlier than the nomadic peoples of the surface. The people of what would soon become Eldrathil became one of the first peoples to master a type of magic outside of the great north because of the intensely water aligned people that live there. Some examples of what early Eldrathilian magics looked like would include manipulating currents around oneself to propel oneself at insane speeds, using magical whirlpools to hunt enough fish to last weeks, even manipulating the way the light travels through water using currents to spy. There is also a very common divination culture in this people, they will commonly read the reflections of light on the ocean floor in shallows for insight (Wave divination), reading the way certain sacred species of seaweed wave in the currents for insight (Seaweed divination), Bubble divination, the list goes on. They are not the only culture in the world to adapt divination, the tribes in what will become Ra'akar begin reading the lines in special sand formations known as "Sand Circles", the people of Yakala commonly will trace the bark on sacred Cherry trees for insights into the future. And with these methods of divination, the people are bound to imagine these insights are originating from divine sources. This further solidifies the Gods existence, and they are starting to make appearances every few decades. The most universal and commonly worshiped gods are the gods of the sun and moon, Haelion and Nyxian, at least in the surface dwelling civilizations. At this point tribes are developing cultures around their particular flavors of magic and how they cast them.
Grrdrr and The Teeth
It's also around this time that the nation of Grrdrr begins its rise, with its people being a mix of underground and above ground stone weavers. They used the strong presence of stone and magma magic in the Teeth to develop some of the first metallurgy in the world, and create great cities of stone above and below ground. Their greatest stronghold was in the city Grrdrr, which overlooks The Basin. They developed techniques such as the Stone Swimming technique, the magma rain technique, the stoneskin armor, and many other great achievements that set them above the tribal era. However the people of Grrdrr kept their technology to themselves, seeing the tribal peoples of the outside world as "barbarians''. However their tendency towards greed would also be their downfall, as they dug too deep, and were the first civilization to discover the Dark at the bottom of the world. Upon reaching this point, the dark struck back, and turned all those present at the unveiling into Pure Dark Elementals. These beings had only one desire, to kill and reap chaos. The Elementals began to slowly but surely take down the civilization of Grrdrr, and one by one they destroyed entire cities, until finally the people at the capital managed to drive them away using impromptu light magic. However the nation was ruined, and Dark elementals now roamed the Teeth freely, isolating the once prosperous nation to a lone capital, slowly choking down the population to a few hundred people.
Advancing into Modern Times
Now we get to a relative era of peace, in which some notable points are as such. Metallurgy has made its way to the common folk, and within a few generations, the world has shifted from wandering isolated nomads to peoples beginning to set down roots with the advent of farming. Also the culture of magic has begun to reach its global peak, and this fact is never more prevalent than in the advent of common knowledge of the Ethereal Hues. These practices have become well known and documented in most cultures, especially in what is to become Calidor. An issue faced by most common folk is the advent of Illusion Thievery, with petty thieves who once could be stopped by a simple lock now making use of advanced knowledge of the Ethereal Hues. This creates a war on criminality, with leaders of villages often commissioning wandering mages to cast warding spells upon important buildings, assuming they are not being conned by another Illusionist. However not all Ethereal magic was being used for nefarious purposes, with some of the greater Religions of the world developing magics relating to summoning divine help. This can range from increased bounty in crops to divine strength boosts in battle. Another use of some Ethereal Hues is the development of non-divine divination, usually relying upon some catalyst physical element, combined with Light, Dark, or Mind to form connections, eyeglasses, and many other advanced techniques to allow for increased senses. As the strength of these magical techniques improved, the need for a central government arose.
The Illusory Isles
It is at this point Calidor has its war with Ra'akar, and upon winning the conflict and taking some time to settle, they decide to perform an expansion into the only unclaimed territory remaining in the world, The Tail. Calidor offered anyone who had gone against the law at any point passage into the new lands, creating a strong illusionist population in the new continent. However, as time passes and the people of New Calidor begin to differentiate themselves from Calidor Proper, they begin to develop their own culture and practices. Eventually this evolves into a whole new country, separating itself culturally from Calidor and adopting the name of its first city, Kaa'aath, while still legally being connected to Calidor. However, those who migrated from Calidor in hopes of a new start found Calidonian law to be just as harsh in the new land, and they wanted more than just physical seperation from Calidor, they wanted to fully separate from the country that caused them to need to resort to criminality, before effectively exiling them to a new land. So they began to start revolts, and attempted to rile the people of Kaa'aath, but only about 1/3rd of the population was willing to dissociate from Calidor completely, seemingly satisfied with the deal they had been given. So those who wished to abandon the central government were told to "Sail South-West from the tip of the Tail, and once you sense a change in the air, declare your allegiance to the resistance" upon which they would be welcomed into the Illusory Isles, where the Illusionists who onced used their advanced magic to simply scrape by in an unfeeling nation could use their power to resist the power of the Calidonians, and train the coming generations to become strong illusionists and to take down Calidor. As we get closer to modern day, let's delve into the different Modern Cultures and their unique magics, Religions, and Laws around the two.
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