External Magic

One of the Facets of magic that Manifests in the world. It is considered the oldest and most 'raw' of the facets, known to the people of the Mortal Lands since the dawn of Creation. However its use has drastically decreased in modern times in favor of Successive Magic, due in no small part to the dark legacy of the Wizards.

Structure and Nature

External Magic is magic and the ability to manipulate the world around the Caster via Sources; wellsprings of magic that manifest throughout the world. Each Source is self-regulating and have flora and fauna far more robust than what one would normally find in nature. Although Magic flows naturally throughout all the known world, it is at Sources that it is most easily manipulated. It was not uncommon in the earliest days to see villages and entire cities spring up around the Sources.
Magic is an energy, same as that which powers the flames of campfires and the winds of the air. As such it wishes to move, and often does so with great gusto. If restrained or poorly regulated it tends to cause electrical storms, which can easily feed back on itself unless the magic is properly ventilated and dispersed. Kingdoms would keep retainers on hand specially trained in this ventilation procedure, whose sole duty was to watch over the Source and its health.
Because of such easy access to the Sources, any layperson could learn to wield the magic within. All Schools of Magic were open to be freely wielded.... and abused.

Training And Usage

Any person could use External Magic, with the right training. Teachers would spend years instructing their students on how to manipulate the wind and the waves to steer their ships, or grow crops or stoke fires. Magic was used with the upmost respect for the precious gift that had been bestowed, and while not used sparingly, was not used in excess. Many layman trainees only learned a few spells, ones necessary for their daily work. Very few considered themselves 'masters' of the arts, although kingdoms would commission certain men and women to learn as much as they could, to be teachers for others.
For casters who spent their time far from sources, they would fill bottles and flasks with water from the Sources, also imbued with their power. These bottles could never be stored for long, as Magic tends to move as a rule. Still, it was enough for merchants to push their ships up the windy straights and rivers, and see them home again. The especially well trained could pull magic from the very air around them, although it took more concentration than it would from a Source.

History

While External Magic is as old as the Mortal Lands itself, it unfortunately is considered a stain on recent history, and that is due to the Wizards that abused it. Wizards came about after the fall of the Aegis Kingdom in {date}, and the lands of the Eastern Sea lost any sort of formal governing power. These men and women studied the use of Magic from the Sources and put it to new use. All well and good, had their sources of knowledge remained pure. Alas, one rotten apple spoils the lot, and one fallen Wizard caused a cavalcade of dark magic users. Although it is not currently known who that first dark wizard was, their legacy was keenly felt in the notes and magic spells they passed down; it is speculated from researchers that this dark Wizard treated with forces from the Infernal realms to learn secrets that men were not meant to know.
Over time this corrupted knowledge poisoned the minds of every Wizard or Witch who took up after their predecessors. It was not the magic itself that corrupted them, but rather their knowledge of its potential uses, and their own paranoia that they may one day face recompense for their actions. Wizards were reclusive at best, tyrannical at worst. They became the new governing bodies, small holds springing up across the land centered around their precious Sources. Technological and societal progress ground to a halt, and the land was thrust into a dark age as Wizards hoarded power and hunched over their territories.
Hundreds of years later, at the end of the {name} era, The Good Witch Perenelle began to refine the form of Successive Magic, creating a new, purer line untainted by that of the Wizards. With no one to pass their knowledge to, the tyrannical reign of the Wizards began to decline. Soon External Magic fell out of use altogether, although not without some prompting from the Mages; External Magic had become too intertwined with the dark techniques that corrupted its wielders, and could not be safely used until all traces of that dark knowledge had passed from the pages of history.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane