On magic

Magic is among the world's oldest arts, dating from creation to the present day. There do not exist any physical records of the ancient times, but oral traditions remain detailing the various perspectives of that time.

While they have their own differences in accounts, one thing converges. Theirs was a time a strife. A time where the gods were in eternal conflict with one another, leading the armies of their creation with them.

What did they fight for? No one knows, or their motives were simply not made known to the lesser beings in their eyes.

The descriptions of the battles of that time one finds hard to believe. How much of it are myth or reality is hard to ascertain.

Entire regions were in one instant in flames and in the next frozen over, legions of greater water elementals marching from the oceans onto land, vast vortexes that uprooted everything from the ground and consumed it.

Then, a miracle happened. The gods reconciled with one another and decided to stop fighting. The reasons for that are varied too, but that's not important. They decided to leave this world, and brought with them the knowledge of higher levels of magic.

The reason, it is believed, was that the higher forms of magic are too destruction to the world to remain. It would be better for the health of the world if such magic were never used again.

It is important to note however, that what magic remained still sufficed for our purpose, for only a handful could ever hope to achieve that level of mastery even in those times.

The one unfortunate thing is that after the gods departure, magic begun slowly fading from the world. Those who possess magic potential gradually reduced in number and capability.

This greatly worried many, as with the dwindling of magical abilities, so do mankind's ability to deal with outside threats.

The demons from the demon realm are in almost every aspect superior to humans in their abilities, with the only respite being that they posses fewer individuals of high abilites than we do.

Even so, over time the situation will only get worse and worse.

Some have proposed looking for other beings called elves or dwarves for help, but no evidence of them exist, and none of the expedition teams sent to explore the uncharted regions of this continent returned. It is likely that these uncharted regions are so for a reason, and that other sentient beings do not exist, and even as they do, as claimed by various traditions, it is in a bygone age.

In the end, the only way to make up for lack of raw power is with technical advantage.

Magical research was the most intense during this period of time, with new variants paths appearing, and even wholly new paths in of itself.

Unfortunately, this period of time is another period that lacks historical records.

All that is known is that during this period, three mages dabbled into death and blood magic, and crowned themselves mage-kings, brutally ruling over their land with their vile magic.

They were eventually defeated by the crusade lead by Victor II, who during this period also defeated the demon army and drove them back to their world for good.

With the mage-kings defeated, Victor II set out to rid the world of their influence. He established the inquisition, who went and rooted out any blood or death mages remaining, as well as burned all of their research findings, outlawing the practice of these forms of magic.

Victor II was canonized as a saint for his role in rooting out corrupt magic and driving back the demons.

An unfortunate side effect of that time period was the destruction of much of the remaining knowledge on magic. Many manuscripts were destroyed indiscriminately, and the various mages' guilds and associations were forcibly dismantled. Many were forced to renounce magic use altogether.

It took the better of four hundred years for mages to regain their autonomy and run what is now called the mage academy.

...

There are nine paths of magic: fire, water, earth, air, nature, high, death, blood and holy.

Fire, water, earth and air are what is known as elemental magic, and mages who specializes in them are sometimes referred to as elementalists.

Nature mages are sometimes druids, although there are non-druid mages who practice them.

High magic is the least common path, for not many have the aptitude for it. It is the first of all magic, for all magic paths have their origin in it, hence the name "high" magic. It is also the magic path with the most versatility, although not necessarily combat related. Its spells range from teleportation, astral projection, to antimagic barrier, a variant spell that the inquisitors use.

Some places refer to high magic as "star" magic, for they believe that all things originates from the firmament, but that idea is neither provable nor falsifiable.

Death, along with blood, are the youngest of the paths.

Death magic was discovered when old mages were conducting bold experiments as their time is limited. Initially, it was used to extend the people's lives beyond their natural lifespan, though they still aged normally. Later, they discovered how to cure diseases, mitigate plagues, very much similar to what nature magic is capable of.

However, unlike nature magic, what death magic can do it can also do the opposite. Spreading plagues, aging a person to death, and finally, they discovered how to control the dead itself.

The undead created, if not controlled, will begin to attack any living creature in sight, creating more undead creatures.

This form of magic is banned and any practitioner will be pursued by the inquisition.

Blood magic was taught to it's first users by devils via a pact. It is perhaps more evil in nature than death magic, for at least death magic had a good alongside the bad.

The medium for blood spells are blood, be it from the caster or others.

Higher level spells requires more, and as such human sacrifices are used in performing those spells.

This form of magic is banned and any practitioner will be hunted on sight.

Holy magic are practiced by priests, and is used for healing, boosting allies as well as smiting undead or devils. Conventional holy magic users are not able to learn magic from other paths.

...

There are two types of magic spells. Normal spells and ritual spells.

Normal spells can be casted by an individual, whereas ritual spells requires multiple mages to cast, although it is theoretically possible but not feasible to cast them alone.

Spells are furthered divided into levels from 0 and up for easier classification.

Level 0 spells are considered to be mundane, as its effect are so minor that their effects can be ignored.

The higher level it is, the harder it is to cast them. Mage apprentices are able to cast level 1 spells, mage adept level 2 and level 3 to graduate from the academy. Level 4 spells are

where true mastery lies, and level 5 is the limit.

Casting spells beyond level 5 is impossible, as the gods took the knowledge and ability to with them.

The only exception to this are the mage-kings who managed to break through using blood magic.

One important fact to note is that holy magic, unlike the other paths, has only 5 levels. This makes it the only magic not affected by the gods departure, and as such, the only magic to retain its full potential.