Magic - General

While Magic is typically thought of as one thing, there are actually two different forces that permeate the Aether and The Mooring -- Arcanum and Leviance. Arcanum was the first form of Magic discovered, even though it was used by Dragons for several ages by then, but it was not used as Magic by the Humans that stumbled across it. Raw forms were used within Fifth Sun Technology as a power source and even weaponized against one another. As the Humans were replaced by the Hym and their other successor races, they evolved to be able to use it as magic and only lacked the knowledge of how to utilize this new ability.

The various Cuallicallimeh races under the guidance of the Ilhuicahuatin were the first to use Leviance as Magic in a classical sense. It came a rather naturally to them, seeing as they were created with the specific ability to render Leviance into alternate forms. Following the Hymic Incursion, the Hym were able to adapt what they saw the Cuallicallimeh do into Magic for themselves, with the caveat of using Arcanum as their source. While some Hym were capable of using Magic before encountering the Cuallicallimeh, they were extreme outliers and viewed as monster-spawn or foreign. Meeting other races that were capable of Magic helped remove this prejudice, and both groups have been continually advancing the science and art of magecraft since.

All Tonallitecameh have access to the use of Magic unless some other condition would prohibit it. While the Cuallicallimeh use Leviance based Magic and the Ilhuicacapan use Arcanum based Magic; the difference in the origin is insignificant in the end result, only changing the way one would learn to channel and draw upon the latent energy. Cuallicallimeh channel Leviance along nodes that run with their nerves into nodes around their bodies to cast, while the Ilhuicapan release Arcanum stored within a repurposed organ in their upper chest cavity to achieve the same effect.

All Classical Magic, in its most basic form, is a set of simple instructions telling the energy expended how to behave. As Leviance is a refined form of Arcanum, the instruction set remains the same for both systems, making conversion easy in almost every case. The difference in source does cause some spells to inherently behave differently, but the difference is more in affinity than effect and thus inconsequential to most mages. The lowest tiers of magic are simple, being low in the amount of energy expended and having simple instruction sets. Only at higher tiers does Magic and its use become more difficult and more taxing upon the body. Everyone is able to cast spells of the first tier, but each tier beyond reduces those capable of by a one half.

Spell Writing, the most common method for encoding spell instructions, is more typically done through spell circles. These circles are comprised of several arcs and sub-circles within that carry the information of the spell. Larger spells, or those of higher tiers, will have more stabilization to them in order to prevent the spell from unraveling. The same goes for combined spells, as the increased complexity raises the required energy and leads to less stable instructions.

Magic is useful in that so long as one can identify a way to guide a spell with the basic instructions, they can create nearly any desired effect. Most spells are used in warfare and combat or monster and beast subjugation, but there are also a plethora of spells that can be used for everyday purposes from cleaning dishes to mundane repairs. The simplest spell, and often first taught to aspiring mages, is a spell that Stabilizes small structures and can be used to increase spell radii within higher tiers. Most

Overall, the impact on society that Magic and its widespread adoption has had is mostly a reduction in technological advancement. The collective reliance on the simplicity of magic compared to alternative methods discovered has stunted growth and even led most to ostracize those that pursue learning more about and advancing non-magic based technology.