The arcane impact of the Veil

I meditated for hours on the mountain top of mont Amata, the highest possible place I was able to come across in the Squa'osa Archipelago to connect my mind, I shared with the spirit of heat, with the Veil. The Veil can only be described as the birthing pod of everything magical, and on this particular isle the veil was especially strong and potent.
After a long time passed we were able to open our both consciousnesses, allowing the Veil to flow through us both, weaving us together as one mind for a brief moment. Through the mind eye of my symbiotic partner, I was able to look past the limitations given to us mortals and grasped hold on the beyond; a mental state even the most prolific sorcerers of the plane weren't able to enter on their own.
A state, where I was able to see the invisible, and it was beautiful. The deep green isle, mont Amata was on, shimmered now in all colours imaginable, each representing one of the major schools of magic. But that wasn't everything I was able to saw. No, there were more colours present than the nine schools of magic, I learned about in the Arcane Arcanum. And I was mesmerized by its beauty.

Ignoring the voice of my spirit begging to me to cut the connection to the Veil, I reached out my arms and encouraged all these different strands of magic to impale me. I wanted to know their secrets and in my current state, I was able to command the Veil. I looked around me. Coloured misty needles got formed around my head, ready to inject their knowledge into my cranium. I would become an equivalent to Terminus, the Omniscient, but on the spiritual level. Like a madman, I began to laugh screaming to the sky that I was ready.
But the silenced voice of my partner inside my head didn't stop to beg me to stop this madness, we humanoids were not intended to bear so many spirits of different origins in our mind. My rational self, however, was able to hear that and overthought the situation briefly.
But it wasn't fast enough to persuade me and so I let all the aetherial needles stab through my head at the same time.
Many voices emerged out of the darkness and filled up my mind. Closed doors, that never were meant to be opened, got pulled open, each at the same time and for a brief moment, I understood.
I understood everything and anything that these ancient spirits were telling me.
I understood our place in the universe and what happened from the dawn of their creation to this very day. But one voice was louder than any other, the sad voice of the spirit of heat; my partner and friend:

"Good riddance, friend. We had a good run."

I was asking myself what he meant with telling me his farewells, but before I was even able to grasp hold of this thread of thought my head suddenly started to hurt. As if millions of millions of ants were rustling through my very soul, trying to squeeze themselves into the limited space. I held my head in pain and realized that my skull was deformed. It grew like a balloon, trying to make way for all these new consciousnesses in my head; I felt my brain growing and aching under the pressure. Panic rose in my eyes after I realized what was happening to me; I was unable to handle the whole spectrum of the veil at once, their contradicting influencees between each other caused my mind to rebel against its owner. I was doomed and I knew that. I closed my eyes and uttered slowly but with faith resonating within my last words:

"So that is the truth? What is that for a world we are living in? I would love to see how this mess will unravel itself again. But yes . . . we had a good run my friend."

And my mind and my body shattered and reformed.

The last memories of a fool/The creation of the Orb of All

The Veil

The Veil is everything surrounding the planet Prius. The whole atmosphere is its domain. It is serving as a protective figurative bubble to keep the arcane density on Prius on a tolerable level to assure the continuation of the life of all Arcadian Animals as well as Arcadian Humanoids and Elemental Guardians. Not much is known about its origins, nor its purpose; if one tries to connect themselves to the Veil strange, unnatural things can happen.

"I am not quite sure if that, what I saw back there, was really the Veil.
I only know that it was beautiful yet terrifying when it tried to pull my very essence away from myself."

Dross Hegraven

Arcane Ligaments

Normally invisible, the Arcane Ligaments are colorful ghostly threads of magic manifested. If the density of the ligaments get too high even not attuned eyes will be able to make out the shift of colour in the air around them. The Arcane Arcanum has the theory that every living being is producing said ligaments, spreading them based on their actions.

"Every time I enter those blasted lands of our ancestors, the sky suddenly shifts a hue darker and drearier.
The black presence of Necromancy is polluting the majority of Rubeus and the pressing density is causing so many undead, Revenants and ghosts to be 'born' and be kept alive for god know how long."

Avery, Vigilante of dusk

Arcadian Humanoids

When the density of the Ligaments gets too high lucky people could be able to witness a true spectacle; the creation of an Arcadian Humanoid. A living and breathing being get born out of seemingly nothing, solidifying before one's very eyes. These sapient species can only be described as a waste product of the Veil; a way to keep the air clean. This theory could explain as well a strange behaviour pattern, most of these are following: They seem to crave contact with us, begging to link their minds to somebody else. They are like a blank canvas in their first weeks; in need of someone to paint on them, a paragon to help them build their own self.

"These little Coal Carbunclos?
They just jumped me the other day begging me to take them in and showing them the way of living.
As they realized I was a gunslinger, they instinctively offered me the deal to be of my service acting as living bullets in exchange for the warmth and fire of shooting them.
They are a fun company in moody days and I genuinely learned to love them."

Elemental Guardians

Elemental Guardians are the same as Arcadian Humanoids, born out of the Veil. But these specimen, however, serve a purpose in their life. They are, unlike their inferior cousins, able to live and prosper without our aid and don't just randomly pop up when the Veil feels like it. The guardians of Earth, Fire, Water, and the Sky got created to guard a section of the planet on their own. You will never find two guardians in the same area, so their count is quite limited.
In rare cases, when a guardian decides to leave their area behind or dies, the Veil will create a replacement if possible.

"When I made up my heart and decided to spend my time with my love, Furor, my 'masters' decided to immediately replace me.
I was gone for maybe a week, but the Veil felt, that my decision was final and created a new Dryad to guard my former woods."

Videns, former guardian

Arcadian Animals

Every animal on Prius is aligned to one of the nine schools of magic. This means that the Arcadian Animals are able to harness the powers of the Veil being the firm anchor between the Veil and us. Based on how we are attuned to the arcane, these animals reach from dumb livestock to wise, sapient possible partners.
One strange thing about those animals however is, that they are unable to reproduce, the quantity of each species stays however constant, even if one starts hunting them down. If one falls another one gets created by the Veil.

"We from Notitia Inc. had the idea to try to test if we could harness the strange behaviour of these animals for profit.
We found out, that each animal is essentially a spirit within a fleshy coat.
If it dies and we add a huge density of valid arcane ligaments the animal reforms almost immediately.
This way we can hold livestock of creatures that don't reproduce."

Head of the agriculture department

Symbiotic Relationships

The arcadian animals and we crave for completion. The most natural state of living is in a Symbiotic Relationship with one of these magical spirits. We provide the body and capacity to unravel our both wisdom and the Arcane Spirits gift us their knowledge of magic and of the Veil in exchange for implanting their self in our mind. That can happen in many different intensities, a few ways of symbiosis reach deeper than just simple kinship and other can be even dangerous for both participants. Numbskulls differentiate between:
- Purists (No magic)
- Tainted (Healthy symbiosis)
- Taken (Harmful symbiosis)
but there are many more nuances around.

"Since the incident a small harmful spirit, calling himself Sparky, forcefully implanted himself into my soul.
I am now a so-called Sparkmage, but my kinship with Sparky brings nothing but harm.
He is connected to my emotions, feeling my pain with me and intensifies it. He causes me to act against my mentality breaking down borders I didn't ever want to cross.
My hands are bloody and my pride is broken . . . because of him."

Micor Schleicher; Taken Sparkmage

Magic Abilities

Magic is divided into nine known Magic Schools, each with a common, uncommon, rare and exotic variant:

Fire: (Heat, Fire, Rage, Plasma)

Water: (Humidity, Water, Ice, Life)

Earth: (Plant, Earth, Burrowing, Quake)

Air: (Wind, Electricity, Gravity, Glass]

Mind: (Charm, Telepathy, Telekinetic, Emotion)

Matter: (Strength, Adaption, Speed, Transformation)

Dark: (Smoke, Illusion, Storing, Shadow)

Metal: (Spark, Metal, Sound, Omnilingualism)

Poison: (Gas, poison, Degradation, Fear)

All these variants are connected to distinctive Arcadian Animals and after a successful symbiosis the host will be able to harness magic out of that school as well.
Then there are special kinds of magic as well, magic that can only be acquired by two means:

Being a 2nd generation child of sorcerers with at least one deceased grandparent of each side. These free arcane spirits combine themselves into a new kind of magic. (Example: Grandpa was a Pyromancer (Fire), the other grandpa an Accelor: The child will be born with the ability to turn one's body into literal fire.)

Finding and taming one of the unique monsters of Prius; starting a kinship with those allows one to harness these unnatural abilities.

"Our gifted magic acts as an extension of our creative mind.
If you are able to imagine an unorthodox way of harnessing your ability and you are able to do that, while reasonably tapping into the foreign schools, you can make so much more out of your ability."

Arcane Arcanum