Powers of Malkora

Three primary powers can be found in Malkora, each with different natures, uses, and sources. Some are more accessible than others, but none may be fully controlled by human hands — not since the fall of the Golden Age of Magic in the ancient times of the Antecedents.
Most accessible is the Divine, sourced from the faith and devotion to the gods of Malkora. Following behind the Divine comes the Worldspirit, drawn from partnership with the primal spirits of the land. Finally, the least accessible of all, is the arcane magic of the world's leylines.

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The Divine

The form of magic most people of Malkora will be familiar with is the Divine. It matters not where you live in the world, for every corner of it has seen some form of divine influence in its time. Churches have risen and fallen for millennia, as faiths to different gods fell in and out of favor.
Prayers for miracles do not always see responses, but all who live in places where faith is commonplace have seen their fair share of spectacles brought upon by the gods. Those who bear faith in the gods typically do so with great loyalty and devotion.
In order to utilize the power of the divine for oneself, one must have a strong connection to one or more deities who have granted them their favor — this is a rare and extremely privileged position to hold.

Divine Pantheons

Malkora's divines are many, ranging wildly in might and presence throughout the world. Some pantheons are worshiped globally, such as the Pantheon of the New Age, and the Champions of the Dawn, while others are strictly regional in their influence. The Eastwind Pantheon of eastern Nefyran is one such example.

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The Worldspirit

The worldspirit is the magic of the natural world, of its elements and natural components. Moving the earth, silencing the wind, and burning blazes are all abilities of the worldspirit, granted by Malkora's primals.
Much like the divine, in order to utilize this magic for oneself, one must build a trust and partnership with primal spirits. Unlike the gods, the primals do not operate on devotion or prayer, rather forming true partnerships in which trust is paramount, and can easily be broken by a misstep in action.

Primals of the World

The entities known as the primordials are ancient beings, possibly more ancient than the world itself. Many believe these spirits to have lain dormant for ages upon ages before being awoken in oblivion's wake, where they rose to fight against the darkness just as humanity did. Though they fought for different reasons as the humans, the mutual effort was recognized, and the first recorded occurrence of a partnership between humankind and the primals was recorded in the final battles leading to the turn of the era.
Primals do not seek out human partnerships, and not all are open to the concept. These are entities with their own thoughts, goals, and desired ends — the trust and partnership of a primal need be earned through demonstrated effort and display of a shared goal.

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by Strixxline

The Leylines

Arcane magic makes up the lifeblood of Malkora, making the world itself akin to a living, breathing organism with its own whims and desires. As magic flows through the world's leylines, entire regions and its inhabitants are altered and transformed to coexist with powerful energies introduced in leyline emergences.
Leylines travel deep within the earth in winding patterns, sometimes jumping or shifting over time. Emergences occur when leylines jump near or above the surface of the world, where the magic they carry begins to alter the landscape.

Controlling the Arcane

In order to utilize the powers of the leylines, there is no pact to be made, nor entity to partner with — but one must endure the emergence of the leylines many times before gaining the ability to manipulate its threads for themself.
Most transformations caused by leyline emergences are fleeting — but some are permanent, and even life-altering. Attempting to gain the use of leyline magic is unpredictable and incredibly dangerous. Even when success is achieved, it is almost impossible to guarantee what abilities one gains access to.

Arcane Domains

The arcane is a power of transformation, affecting the physical qualities and traits of whatever it flows through, and wherever it manifests. The magic flowing through the leylines can be categorized into five domains: Energy, Form, Life, Vision, and Power.
There are five domains of arcane magic, each breaking into two separate leylines carrying the magic from either end of the spectrum of its domain. Thus, when leylines emerge, only one of the extremes from the spectrum will present itself, as its balancing force runs along a different path through the world. There are locations in which these balancing forces intersect, and only in these locations does an emergence not completely upheave its native landscape.

Physical Domain: Energy

The domain of energy controls heat and movement of anything within its range of influence. This domain is represented in the leylines of Agitation and Oblivion.

Physical Domain: Form

The domain of form controls the state of all matter within its range of influence. This domain is represented in the leylines of Tenacity and Celerity.

Physical Domain: Life

The domain of life controls the essence and growth of all living things within its range of influence. This domain is represented in the leylines of Genesis and Atrophy.

Physical Domain: Vision

The domain of vision controls aspects of clarity in its range of influence. This domain is represented in the leylines of Revelation and Obscurity.

Physical Domain: Power

The domain of power controls the force and abundance of magic in any given space. This domain is represented in the Leylines of Potency and Oblivion.

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Fall of the Golden Age

In the Golden Age of Magic, during which the Antecedents maintained their Empire of Aether, leylines flowed in predictable, maintained channels throughout the world. There was no duality among the leylines; five leylines flowed through the world, each carrying the full spectrum of each physical domain. These Antecedents, the ancestors to modern humanity, were able to manipulate the arcane at their will, commanding the energies of the leylines to do as the people desired.
Expert manipulation of the leylines created teleportation networks which connected the whole of the world under one empire's banner, as no corner of the world was unreachable, neither by leaders nor the common folk.

Chasing Myths for Knowledge

Many myths circulate regarding the fall of the Golden Age of Magic, but most, if not all, circle back to one common myth: the Font of Oblivion, a relic lost to time, said to have unleashed the uncontrollable essence of the Leyline of Oblivion upon its place of rest.
With the continued presence of Oblivion emergence in Yulrorim, once the crown of the Empire of Aether, many speculate that this is the final resting place of this mythical relic, and where one may find more information about the onset of the Nameless Age.
In the wake of the fall of the Golden Age of Magic, the leylines no longer flowed in consistent channels; they began to grow erratic and unpredictable, as the Oblivion seeped farther out into the world around each leyline. They began to take different routes, cut through lands they never traveled through before, and veered up into the overworld, exposing their magic to whatever lived above — we now know these to be emergences.

Clashing Powers

The gods and primals of Malkora both made themselves known at approximately the same time, during the Nameless Age when Oblivion sought to claim the entirety of the world for darkness. The leylines, however, have been a force both native and active within Malkora for all recorded time and history, likely long before the Golden Age of Magic was struck.
These two powers rising during the same era meant they often butted heads, finding conflict with one another as the gods sought devotion and the primals sought to defend the lands in which they have lain dormant through the ages. As the gods and primals sought to disrupt one another, they have been met at nearly every turn by upheavals of the land at the leylines' discretion.

Inevitable Change

Though the gods would claim themselves to have ultimate power over their domains throughout the world, and the primals would claim themselves to have ultimate influence over the world's lands, both have no command over the leylines and are unable to influence their emergence, or bid emergences to recede.
Both powers bow to the whims of the leylines, whether they care to admit to this or not. The primals are more likely to be open about this fact, whereas the gods will maintain their image with their worshipers with every means available to them. Upheavals of the land are painted by the gods to be divine punishments or gifts, depending on how their people are affected. To protect their faithkept followers from the leylines' energy, the gods will alter their forms in such a way that they will survive their new surrounds, and many will opt to transform their faithkept followers in whichever image furthers the god's own divine goals.
Just as the gods transform those bearing divine blood, the primals lend their power to transform the humans of worldspirit blood, with less self-serving tendencies. They will grant elemental forms that allow humans to bear the environment they now find themselves in.