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This page lists out a (not comprehensive) list of the common "Schools of Magic" in Aloria, which are broad umbrella concepts that describe how magic manifests, and is used. This page requires reading the Magic page first, to understand the concepts.
Evergrowth Magic
Evergrowth Magic revolves around the creation of plants and fungi of all shapes and sizes. Evergrowth Mages cannot create new kinds of plants from scratch, but they can conjure any kind of plant that exists and that they’re aware of (seen, described to them, read about in a book, etc). Common spells involve the creation of thorn whips for weapons, or walls of flowers to protect oneself, or even speeding up the growth of existing plants. Notably, fruit and vegetables created from scratch with Evergrowth magic have no nutritional value (though they are tasty). Occasionally, novice Evergrowth Mages who are not careful will mutate crops that they use their magic on, causing sickness and disease in people who consume them.
Blood Magic
Blood Magic is a mostly taboo form of magic that involves the manipulation, preservation, and usage of blood and life-force as a casting implement. On its own, Blood Magic does not work well in any situation where the blood is still alive, or moving around in someone or some thing’s body, as it becomes too difficult to manipulate. When blood is gathered from a (willing or unwilling) donator, however, it can be preserved via magic and used to cast curses or in any number of Spirit-Summoning rituals. Blood Mages can even spend their own blood, and life-force, to give themselves a sudden boost of power they might need for another spell, as a variant of Sinistral Magic. In doing so however, they are sacrificing their own lifespan, or making themselves gravely ill/injured.
Celestial / Light Magic
Sometimes called Celestial Magic, Light Magic involves using various forms of magical and conjured hard light for a variety of utilitarian functions. Solid, “hardlight”, is used to make dome shields, or weapons, or any number of implements or tools. In its simplest form, Light Magic creates motes of illumination to allow mages to see at night, or even used suddenly in brighter flashes to disorient their enemies. In its most extreme forms, Light Magic can be condensed to the point of creating a laser, though this exclusively has violent applications. Light Magic is also the most common form of healing magic, as it can be used to close wounds and stabilize the grievously injured. It has no effect on, however, things like infections, poisons, or diseases.
Leveia Magic
Often looked down upon by many contemporary mages, Leveia magic is considered rudimentary and harmlessly whimsical by most. A Leveia Mage skills themselves in the conjuration of small sprite-like creatures, usually taking the form of insects like beetles and moths and butterflies (though some specialize in producing woodland animals more mammalian), in order to perform both dazzling visual displays and also aid themselves or their allies in indirect ways like creating distractions and fetching objects. Despite its reputation as innocuous and juvenile, there are some Leveia Mages who make for excellent thieves and con artists and use their tendency to be overlooked to their advantage.
Warlock/Theurgist
The term Theurgy (or Karamatology, if one subscribes to the Suvial-originated philosophy and methodology) is a broad umbrella that covers the many bylaws, methods and uses of summoning demons and spirits. As it most directly relates to magic, though, Theurgy is the utilization of said evoked spirits (usually demons) for the casting of magic: conjuring minor entities in the moment to help combat foes, perform tasks and chores, use them as material for rituals and powerful spells and place hexes upon others. Theurgists who combine this practice with magic schooling are colloquially called Warlocks.
Paper Magic
It is widely disputed among arcane scholars where exactly this paper-folding magical art originated: the Origami mages of Dexai claim that the magical folding and manipulation of parchment is Draconic in origin, but the street performers of Montania who puppet sheet music and schematics attest the school was developed and honed among their own circles. Regardless, both accomplish the same purpose of manipulating paper of all sorts to fold and serve the caster’s will. Paper magicians can cut and slice, wrap and cover, and arrange their chosen parchment into intricate shapes like animals and even mannequins that act with a light degree of autonomy. While versatile, the greatest weakness of paper magic is the frailty of the paper utilized and conjured.
Ferromancy
Ferromancy is the favored magic of smiths, craftspeople who work with metal, and those with strong cultural ties to the earth and its ores. Even the most amateur of Ferromancers must possess an intimate knowledge of Aloria’s metal, elements and minerals and utilize this familiarity in order to bend them to their will. They create and bolster their own and allies’ weapons and armor, form shields and barriers spontaneously and create traps and obstructions for their foes. The most skilled Ferromancers can even manipulate metal as fluidly as water, sculpting and moving it like mercury.
Lyre Magic
Just as the art of music belongs to no specific peoples, neither does Lyre Magic: originally intended to simply amplify and enhance the volume and harmonics of performed music by voice and instrument, the desire for tools of subterfuge led Lyre Magic to evolve its purpose even further. Its casters learned to manipulate sound for more than just performance art, muffling footsteps and silencing voices or amplifying volume to decibels so loud they stupefy and agitate others. Lyre Mages are united by their common usage of a musical instrument or implement as their focus for casting.
Rune Magic
Rune Magic is an innovation of the Dwarven peoples of Aloria who desired to combine their talent for engineering, stoneworking and crafting with an affinity for practical magic. Rune Mages, or simply rune-smiths, are experts in their own nuanced form of enchanting: runes are etched into solid material like tools or even the structures of buildings, and in these runes lies a deceptively simple ‘language’ of spellcraft that bestows magical traits and qualities to the inscribed surface. A tool can become more durable or always return to its owner's hand when they’ve lost it or a mighty door could be entirely impenetrable and open only once a chosen password is spoken aloud. Some rune-smiths employ much more universally classic spells into their craft, though: it is not uncommon to see a runed warhammer that spews lightning or something of the sort.
Fire Magic
The conjuration and manipulation of fire is as old as magic itself is, and is so many-varied throughout Alorian history and cultures that to try and encapsulate its uses and variations wholly would be a pointless endeavor. Pyromancers can conjure and manipulate fire to their liking and achieve any purpose that fire can serve: illumination, searing, torching, destruction, even cooking and cauterizing and healing. What varies most among those who practice fire magic is the culture they grew up in, deeply affecting how they manifest their fire and in what shapes and forms.
Air Magic
Air mages, like the masters of other elements, have existed as long as magic has, and are as broadly varied as Aloria has cultures. To them, the wind is a force of nature to be pushed and guided toward their own purposes, and because of this a great many air mages find themselves aiding seafaring and other nautical crews because of their ability to guide wind through sails and help temper the effects of storms. Air mages have a reputation of being nimble and agile, using their talents to move and leap with surprising quickness and distance.
Water Magic
Water is the stuff of life, and thus the history of water mages is as adept healers and caretakers. The magical manipulation of water is adept at cleansing things: not just people and their wounds, but also the material world. Cleaning clothes, homes, polluted bodies of water are all possible for an adept water mage. Water mages can also be capable swimmers, navigators of the ocean, and also capable combatants by moving water at high concentrated pressures and speeds.
Earth Magic
To be an earth mage is to understand every facet of the soil one treads on, and all its many types and variations: dirt, sand, stone and everything in between are at the behest of the earth mage. While there is some notable overlap with Ferromancy in the way of earth containing ore and minerals, earth mages do not focus on the metals but instead the diverse array of materials within. Earth magic is used for similar purposes: blocking, defending, bludgeoning, but also ensnaring and staunching the movement of foes.
Body Magic
What is simply called Body Magic is largely a creation of the Kathar and their self-instilled fixation on evolution and personal improvement. Body mages do not shapeshift, per se, but instead alter what is present in the corpus: increasing muscle mass and density, altering and adjusting organ function, making other practical improvements to the self in order to increase strength and physical prowess. Body Magic is the art of the aestheticist, too, and employed by those in search of perfecting the beauty of their appearance and fine-tuning each and every detail of it.
Shapeshifting Magic
Shapeshifting magic is simple in premise but deceptively so in purpose. So-called “Shapeshifters” are able to change their appearance to replicate the appearance of others, completely altering their body composition in order to either imitate or compose brand-new identities for themselves that are near-indistinguishable to the naked eye. Some describe the process as painful, others as uniquely enjoyable: it is a decidedly horrible thing to witness, however. Shapeshift mages are possessed of sharp memory and keen eyes for detail, finding the nuance in peoples’ appearances that would often go overlooked in order to create the most believable guise possible.
Pictomancy
For the Pictomancer, the limit of their magic is as far as their own imagination: spells and conjurations are brought to life by way of paintbrush, pencil or pen, carefully constructed from color and paint or ink. The act of creating art in order to spontaneously spellcraft and cast does require some amount of artistic ability else the caster risks bringing to life a poorly-drawn tortured abomination from their easel, but the well-practiced pictomancer can seamlessly create just about anything into (temporary) existence.
Ancestral Magic
Ancestral Magic is practiced exclusively by the Eronidas peoples of Aloria. Unique to their own history and cultural heritage, Ancestral Mages (commonly referred to as shamans) utilize their peoples oral histories of heroes and ancestors that came before them in order to conjure up spiritual manifestations of the very essence of those stories and use them for many purposes, combative or otherwise. They are not necromancers, or theurgists, as they do not actually call upon or resurrect the spirits themselves, instead creating spirit-like projections that embody the ancestors in question so that they can do what they did best in life.
Shadow Magic
The magical art of both obfuscation and destruction, Shadow Magic varies in its use and manifestation. Some Shadow Mages exclusively utilize the physical trait of shadow and darkness– that it obscures and covers and hides things– to be silent actors. They create pockets of darkness to move through undetected, they leave their foes blinded and they hide things from sight behind cover of shadow. Other Shadow Mages are less content to be so subtle, though, and employ concentrated bursts of umbral power to cut and rend through light and flesh alike.
Illusion Magic
Illusion Magic is a magic of the mind, despite the presumption of those victims of its illusory potential. When they see a swarm of spiders crawl up their body, the Illusion mage is not actually making an intangible horde of arachnids; they are tricking them into seeing it. Thus, the mind is the Illusion mage’s page to be painted upon just as the Pictomancer works on their easel. Anything that a person can perceive with their senses is a potential subject of manipulation by the Illusionist: sight, smell, taste, hearing, touch. What is always important to consider, though, is that what the Illusionist creates is not real. No matter how real it might seem.
Beast Magic
Beast Mages are at times confused with Body or Shapeshift Mages by those who do not understand the difference between them. What uniquely separates Beast Magic from those other schools, though, is its focus on animalia and the natural world of Aloria. Beast Mages are capable of changing their bodies and parts to mimic and emulate animals they have seen and studied, like gaining the strength and razored claws of a great bear or the powerful wings of an eagle. They are in tune with the world’s animals and utilize their understanding of their biology and also their instinctual nature in order to channel their strength and senses. While some Beast Mages go so far as to try and transform their whole bodies into Animals, this act is generally considered taboo due to the risks involved. A mage who transforms into an animal cannot preserve their mind for long, and runs the risk of losing themselves forever, and being incapable of transforming back.
Wyld Magic
Wyld Mages are often confused with Beast Mages, and for good reason, as they similarly have a deep and intrinsic connection with Aloria’s animals. They are notably different in that they do not transform themselves and their own bodies, though, and instead tame and communicate with these animals in order to call upon their help in a variety of ways. They forge bonds of respect and understanding so that they can bring animals into battle with them or have them help with housework, be ridden as mounts, and defend themselves and their allies. Wyld Mages are able to create unique bonds of kinship with these animals through their magic, letting them perform rudimentary acts of communication and empathize in ways others typically cannot.
Strings Magic
Innocuous to some, the magic of Strings is a school of absolute control over the world around you. It is unclear whether the performance art of puppetry inspired this magic or vice-versa, but the uncanny similarity between the two is impossible to ignore: a Strings Mage has the capability to create ‘strings’ that connect to objects, or people, and seize control of them. They are made literal puppets to the mage, to be pulled and pushed physically at their whims. Strings Mages cannot connect their strings to anyone’s minds directly, and so cannot dominate thoughts, but their constraining grip is usually torturous enough to get what they want. Those who use Strings magic upon others are made pariahs from magical communities for the amoral nature of what they do, and so most Strings mages are wise to never let anyone know exactly what it is they do.
Whimsy Magic
Whimsy Mages are a broadly-labeled group of mages whose magical focus is on performing harmless feats of entertainment. They make for the best performers, partygoers and celebrants of all, easily creating bursts of confetti from thin air or producing brilliant fireworks for a revel. They change wardrobes at-will, make eye-catching visual displays for others, and sometimes even concentrate their talents on creating mouth-watering meals and feasts for others to partake in. To be a Whimsy Mage is to hone one’s talent for magic toward a lighthearted and joyful purpose, and share in your ability with those around you.
Technomancy
Technomany goes hand-in-hand with more mundane forms of engineering for those who practice it, and often its mages are referred to as Arcane engineers for this reason. Technomancers have a magical affinity for technology in its many forms and practice both the magic and study the schools of engineering that interest them in order to blend both into their use. Technomancers can manipulate their works, levitate and construct and repair machinery with a simple gesture, and attune themselves to technology so that it obeys their commands remotely. They often embed spellcraft into their constructions, like arcane weapons that fire off magical bolts or deployed magical shields from pocket-sized devices.
Gravity Magic
Gravity Magic manipulates the physical laws of the world itself. It does not make or destroy anything from the air, it neither conjures nor projects: the Gravity mage taps into the force of nature for which it is named and bends it to their will. No object within reason is too heavy for the Gravity mage, lifting entire horses with the raise of a hand or bringing someone buckling to their knees beneath the suddenly exponentially-increased weight of their own body. Gravity mages can fling people and things around like dolls or make them as heavy as boulders. They can leap to high places, ignoring gravity’s own laws themselves or grounding themselves into immovable objects. They do not actually change the physical composition of anybody or anything, but just the force of gravity they exert and how it is exerted upon them. Because of this, Gravity mages are seen as some of the most well-studied in traditional mathematics and sciences, because even a minutely miscast spell upon themselves could make their entire body so heavy it collapses into a bloody pile beneath its own weight.
Soul Magic
Perhaps the most rare, powerful, and thus taboo magic of all, Soul Magic is the art of altering the veritable soul of another person in order to permanently change their memories and personality. It is exceedingly difficult to find any intact texts or tomes that teach it, and its teachers are secretive for fear of their own lives and preserving the dark art they practice. Soul Mages are capable of reaching out and unwinding the very fabric of a soul in order to re-weave it as they please: they can change someone’s memories of an event or a person, their feelings toward it, make adjustments to their personality and disposition, implant new thoughts and emotions as well, and even remove the victim’s memory of having said magic performed on them at all. For this reason, to admit to being a Soul Mage to anyone of moral conviction is usually considered a death sentence, for who of sound mind would let themselves keep in company of someone so dangerous?
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