Magical Arts

Ah, magic. The limitless potential of bending reality itself to your whim through raw thought and will. Yet, no matter how far we delve into the depths of its secrets there seems to only ever be more questions. Even the fabled Firstborn never managed to crack all of its secrets, an infinite puzzle granted to us by The Creator, if you will. I never tire of its riddles and mysteries.

— Archmage Zeldric Romun

Natural Magic

Natural magic is the rawest and most instinctual form of mystical art in the world. A form of magic that is controlled through nothing but raw mental focus, willpower, and the ability to vividly imagine what effect the user is attempting to have on the environment. The fuel for this magic is raw physical stamina, and the cost is a percentage of what it would require the individual to perform the action normally. For instance, if a mage wished to cast a spell that would cause a nearby boulder to lift up and fire at someone, it would likely cause an amateur mage to fall over in exhaustion from the sudden loss of energy.
Natural magic, though technically a skill that can be learned is more often something acquired at birth. When one is born with the aptitude for Natural magic, they are different due to a unique spiritual fragment found within them. This is known as a mana or ki core. A spiritual receptacle that holds a fraction of Gaia's power, able to act as an energy magnifier and is often the sign that the child is a Talent Holder. These individuals are born as one in a thousand and are often hailed as geniuses. Though some races are born with higher aptitudes than others.
"Natural Magic" at its root, is the art of transferring physical stamina from the body, into mana for the individual to use to manipulate reality itself through their will to various degrees. The only true rules that limit Natural Magic, are as follows: Natural magic can be as complex, and unorthodox as the user wishes, limited only by their imagination and physical pools of stamina to fuel the spells in question. The more efficient ones mana control from their core, through their circuits, however, dictate their actual skill.

Mana Cores & Pathways

A term used in many areas of the world is "Mana" or "Ki" Pathways, or Circuits depending on the continent one resides upon. This term refers to the flow of one's natural energy and transferring that into mana. This effectively multiplies the energy output from what is normally held in the body into a new form of energy. This energy, mana, or ki, then traverses through the body based on your willpower and thought forming a pathway or circuit from your mana core. These cores are located within the center of the body where your vital organs are focused and have various stages representing the density of energy your body has naturally accumulated through this training.
Mana Pathways are the aftereffect of channeling your mana repeatedly through specific areas of the body. When one is born they hold no mana circuits at all. Their first uses of mana carve the initial pathways through their body. The more mana is focused through these pathways, the stronger they become. As a pathway becomes stronger, the amount of mana lost through the control diminishes as the mind and body associate it with a sort of mental muscle memory. For instance, a child born with mystical aptitude may subconsciously channel mana into their legs to run errands as a mail-carrier in town. As a result, the mana circuits in their legs could become highly developed, allowing any spells cast to amplify their lower body and legs to be done with tremendous ease.
On the other hand, the same child may try to throw a punch and waste a tremendous amount of mana to only slightly augment the power of their strike. Due to this phenomenon, mental and physical conditioning along with repetition for spells through meditation are incredibly important for any mage. As without use, a mana circuit will slowly break down, just like a physical muscle no longer being used.
The forced formation of a new Mana Core is possible for those born without the aptitude. As is the creation of circuits over a short amount of time is excruciating, often compared to feeling as though fire has filled one's veins. This can be done through force of will but is comparable to forcing a near-starved person to become the height of physique in as little time as possible. Forcibly refining circuits will cause intense fatigue, pain, hot flashes, and intense nausea to the point of risking death depending on the severity of the circuit being formed.

Mana Core Tiers

Though difficult to measure precisely, Mana Core's have a color that is generally only viewable through the Ethereal Plane. This is separate from the color of normal energy, which is always white, or the soul which varies from one individual to the next in hue and shade. Instead a Mana Core's color is based on the purity it holds, based on the amount of blood and impurities that form with it naturally due to it being manifested within a living body. These impurities are slowly forced out of the body as their energy is circulated through their cores. Cores begin at the 'red stage' and will slowly purify from hues of pink and orange to yellow and eventually pure white.

Terminology

There are various terms used when referring to magical arts, but the primary three are "Natural Energy" which acts as the untapped, basic energy found in the body of every person. This can then be transformed into two other forms of energy.
Aura or Jing is the term used to explain inner energy, or when a user manages to take their natural energy and magnify it, focusing it through their bodies. This is generally viewed as a magnification of the energy, allowing the host to perform superhuman feats in bursts. It can only be used to augment the body, and cannot be expelled from the body. True masters are able to channel the aura into an item that they make constant contact with. Usually a shield, weapon, or armor.
If aura is a magnification, then Mana or Ki are an multiplication. The greater one's skill, the more this power is multiplied. These terms are used to describe the energy after it had exited the body in any way, and is used to produce numerous effects. Generally with no real limit (see Natural Magic for details), except for one's own natural energy pool and their level of mastery. Anything that uses mana will always have a far steeper cost than aura.

Physical Magic

Though magic users are rare, they are not so rare that every single one realizes they have the potential to learn magic early. Many magic-users hold the aptitude but never learn how to properly manifest their energy into the physical plane, or simply hold beliefs that restrict them from doing so. For these individuals, it's not uncommon to instead use what is known as "Physical Magic" or "Aura" by mages. This is a form of primitive Natural Magic as instead of draining one's stamina to release an outward effect from the body, this energy remains within the body.
This is a far less complex form of magic, as there is only basic control used and is often the first sign of a mage, though few realize it. Generally, this form of energy control allows the user to amplifying the body's durability, or senses and balance, etc. Outside of mage circles, this form of magic is known by many names based on the continent. Those within the Ceridian Empire call these "Aura Users" and are seen as signs of great warriors. On the other hand in the Celestial Empire this energy is known as Jing, not Aura and it is considered the foundation to be considered a "Samurai" instead.

Dark Flash

A dark flash is a term coined for the moment when an individual enters a state of absolute zen in the midst of their energy manipulation, it is a rare phenomenon that effectively allows an individual to temporarily weaken the planar bounds separating the Material Plane, from the Ethereal Plane. This results in a flash of pitch-black energy around them as the Aether appears around the user and suddenly magnifies their abilities immensely in that single instant. Causing whatever they were attempting to perform with mana or aura to multiply several times over in power, for better or worse.
After an individual has experienced this effect, they suffer an intense headache and severe fatigue for the next day as their bodies have been forced to absorb the pure energy of the Aether. This results in their own abilities greatly increasing, however, usually magnifying their mana core to a new level and permanently enhancing their Natural Magic and Aura with energy from the Aether, effectively adding the power of Primordial Magic to their physical feats.

True Magic

True Magic is the purest form of the mystical arts, beaten only by unique forms of mystical control done through the practice of True Names. Only a handful of the most powerful mystical races in the world are capable of this form of magic. Thus allowing the user to reach out and connect with the natural flow of life energy from the surrounding environments. This then becomes fuel for the mage to utilize for their spells. Allowing the mage to effectively cast Natural Magic, but by using the energy of life around them instead of their own physical stamina. This doesn't come without its risks, however, as all environments have a limit on how much energy they can offer, and draining too much can cause the land to wither and die.
Similarly, the users can only drain out energy from beings that hold weaker willpower than themselves, and must actively battle to drain that energy from them. This means it's quite easy to draw out energy from plantlife, rodents, and similar species--but the larger and more intelligent the animal the more difficult it is to draw out their life force and the more focus it requires. Similarly, drawing energy from humans or other sentient creatures is nearly impossible unless all focus is on a single individual and even then it becomes a battle of wills with barely any energy drawn from them, or possibly none at all.
A battle between two users of True Magic is a battle of creativity and willpower to see whom can gather the most of the natural energy from the environment. Often devastating the landscape for many years due to the toll it takes on the land.

Primordial Magic

Through advanced study, individuals are able to learn the written and spoken language of the Primordial beings, the creator and the entities it split into from the founding of the world. This language was used in conjunction with the power of True Names to create the world, and as such, holds a small amount of power similar to True Names within them, though nowhere near as advanced. These words are the watered down versions of True Names that the Primordial being used to teach its first children, The Firstborn how to use magic. These spells pull energy from the Ethereal Plane in order to power their effects directly.
These words can be inscribed through their written form, Runes, or spoken through their verbal form, Incantations. Either way, they hold comparable power to Natural Magic, but with a different variety of benefits and weaknesses. The language of the Primordials is incredibly complex, both in its vocal usage and runic form. A single slight mispronunciation can change an entire incantation's meaning from 'Heal this cut' to 'Explode this wound'. Similarly, a single slight shift in a runes design can cause the exact same change, and as such immense study, dedication, muscle memory and time are required to use either form effectively: and even more to use them effectively under duress for combat.
In general, most mages only know a handful of Primordial words, and rarely do they know both the written and vocal forms of them. Finding a teacher willing to offer this knowledge is incredibly difficult, especially among humans, and even more difficult to master once one finds a teacher. Generally, tremendous amounts of currency are required to obtain lessons due to this. Though Runic Magic and Incantations are incredibly low-cost magic by comparison to Natural Magic, due to their nature anyone that knows the Incantations you're using, or the Runes you're using, they are able to automatically know what spell you're attempting to cast before you can finish and easily counter you mid-combat.
Only those that feel the flow of energy, and are therefore capable of using Natural Magic, are able to understand Primordial and therefore learn incantations. To those unable to use magic, Incantations sound like unintelligent gibberish. Though they are still able to learn to read runes, and can utilize them with energy orbs, they cannot use their own energy to activate the enchantments as they cannot feel the pull and flow of their own or other energy to control it.

Incantations

Incantations are the vocal variant on Runic Magic and are used in combination with either Natural or True Magic to amplify the magic's power to far greater levels. By speaking out in the Primordial tongue, the user is able to call upon True Magic, without having proper access to the talent. These spells cost absolutely no energy from the caster, nor the environment, however, the spell will not activate until the entire incantation of the spell is completed. Similarly, just as with Runic Magic, Incantations can only be done with a single effect per word and required a name to be used at the end of their spell as a final activation call. Due to this if an individual wished to use an Incantation-based spell to throw a boulder at someone, they had to speak the Primordial words for "I call upon the primordial power to lift this boulder, and fire it at my target! Crush!" by the end of the spells name, the boulder would have begun lifting into the air, and then fired a second later with its speed and power based on the users master of magical energy control. The longer the incantation, the more power the spell will have.
True masters of Incantations are able to perform multiple at once, forming multiple lines of thought and combining them into one great incantation that is then used to summon up tremendous mystical forces. However, the weaknesses of this form of magic are clear. Easily countered by others who know the primordial language, a tremendous need for great study and time dedication to the art, and even easily countered by non-magic users as if an incantation is interrupted at any point the spell is rendered nullified.

Runic Magic

Runic Magic allows the user to enchant items by carving the intricate language of the Primordials into an item or material, however, these enchantments are not passive and require an energy source to actually trigger the enchantment.
A basic example of this would be a sword with the enchantment for 'heat' inscribed in its blade, and 'protection' inscribed into the hilt of the blade to ensure that the heat doesn't then spread into the handle burning the wielder instead. The wielder could then channel their own physical energy into the blade, causing it to ignite with heat comparable to a red-hot iron while protecting their hand from that same heat.
A single rune can only cause a single effect, so in order to perform complex spells using runes one must create a long string of runes and activate them in order. For instance, one could not simply make a rune for 'Fireball'. They would have to use runes for 'Wind', followed by 'Condense', 'Fire', and 'Release' while aiming their runes at the target area, to create even a basic bolt of flames that are aimed in a direction. Runes can be layered together using a circle, and activate in a clockwise rotation until they come full circle to the original 'Ignition' rune that started the entire process. They will then merge into the next inner layer of the circle, starting from the same position, and repeat until the layers of the circle are gone.
The material required for all enchantments, be it scrolls, seals, or proper enchanted items, require the runes to be created through a pure medium of some sort (such as molten metal, pure black ink, etc) filled with diamond dust. This is the reason diamonds are worth so much within Xardia, as they are the key component necessary for utilizing magic and enchantment as a whole.

Runic Magic

Each rune will retain its individual cost. Due to this, layering runes in more than a handful at a time can rapidly get out of hand due to the required timings to effectively combine the effects of the rune as there is a delay of one second between runic jumps, and two seconds should it need to jump between layers of a circle.
Runic magic can be cast without pre-cutting the runes into an object by using True Magic or Natural Magic to create runes out of other materials such as light, earth, and so forth to form the required runes manually, and then activating the runes with magic. However, due to the excessive amount of energy this requires, it is generally seen as a last-resort action by most. The benefit is that due to the unpredictable nature of this form of casting, even other mages generally don't have time to prepare and counter the spells.

Energy Orbs

The amount of physical stamina a rune drains is equal to a single push-up per rune activated, per second it remains active. Due to this, fueling any enchantment through raw stamina may be more efficient than Natural Magic on its own, but it's still very rarely used in active combat unless as a last resort. Instead, enchanted items tend to have runic crystals that can be infused with raw energy through magic. Essentially acting as extra energy for the user to dip into and use at any point as long as they are making contact directly, or indirectly (ie. touching an object that the gem is attached to) with it.
The amount of energy these orbs can hold is based on their material quality, and size. The stronger the material, the more energy that can be stored within. The material must be absolutely pure (ie. Pure Iron, Pure Wood, Pure Ruby, etc.) and carved into a perfect orb in order for the rune to work, as the circle with all forms of magic holds absolute importance. Even the slightest misshape will render the orb useless for energy storage. As well, once an orb holds energy within it any mage with an understanding of the rune used to seal energy (this is always the same rune) is able to draw on that stored energy and use it as they wish as long as they are within direct or indirect contact with it. Due to this, mages tend to keep their items holding stored energy hidden and only utilize them in emergencies.
Orbs that are holding energy will have the rune clearly engraved in them, and always have a dim shimmer to their surface representing the energy stored within it, similarly they will feel warm to the touch about the same temperature as an average living being and seem to pulse, similar to that of a heart, though far weaker in force.