Magic

Magic is the creation or destruction of matter using an invisible energy called aether. In ages past, aether was plentiful and even the lowliest apprentice wizard could summon fire and ice with a wave of a hand. Nowadays, magic is waning and aether is rare. To make up for it, wizards must resort to using innately magical materials as a catalyst for their spells, but these too are running out.

Spells
Spells are associated with either creation or destruction. Creation spells conjure water in thin air, cause trees and plants to spring up and grow, or restore injuries and disease. Destruction spells bring forth fire, sunder swords and crack stone. All spells require two things to cast: knowledge of the spell and magical materials. In days past, aether was used in place of materials, but it can only be found now in places where magic still lingers. Instead, wizards use innately magical things, the most common being aetherstone and the wood of the great green dragontree.

Casting a spell requires about five seconds of concentration. This seems short, but in the heat of battle, timing is everything for a wizard to cast the spell and stay alive. Wizards have fallen out of favor in standing armies for this reason. A notable exception is in Byros.

Wizards
Spellcasters go by many names- mage, witch, shaman- but for the sake of convenience they are referred to here as wizards. Wizards are almost universally very old as casting any spell in the modern age requires a great deal of training and practice. The rare wizard schools, such as the Pale Tower, accept students as young as 10, though they may be learning for upwards of 40 years before being declared a journeyman wizard. Making wizards even more rare is the fact that they must be literate and of relatively good social standing to attend a wizard school.

Wizards learn to cast spells as well as record them in their personal spellbook, a massive tome with pages upon pages of diagrams and charts dedicated to the simplest spell. Casting a simple spell requires intimate knowledge of how and why it works, as the lack of natural aether in the world means wizards often have to improvise.

Magic & Society
Most common folk have little knowledge of what magic is, some going so far as to denounce genuine wizards as being charlatans. Those who accept the existence of magic are often superstitious of wizards anyway, viewing them with equal amounts of awe and fear. Some wizards take advantage of this to further their own goals, while others assuage such fears by proving their brand of magic useful and helpful. Still, some villages will quicker lynch a wizard than accept him.

Wizards on the open battlefield have fallen out of favor, but wizards in cities have not. Urban communities in Byros often have a local wizard whom the rest go to for healing and counsel. In Calamont, capitol of Kasimar, the Guild of Magic still operates and performs helpful spells for the public in exchange for a fee. In Arqar-Sharri, the Dustspeakers of Aqal-Shatat are powerful glass mages, cultivating a culture of fear that helps keep them in power, while beggar-mages in the streets conjure water and food in exchange for gold coins. In Nubaka, bone shamans claim to be able to contact the dead loved ones of their clients.

Magic & You
THIS SECTION IS NOT WRITTEN IN AN IN-UNIVERSE STYLE.

What does all this mean for you, if you want to play a wizard character? Well, for one thing, it means you're going to be fairly old. A wizard worth a damn in Erindon is at least 50, but probably older. It means you'll have to take a trait for either Creation or Destruction, and it means keeping track of what kinds of spells you know and what materials you have.

Like an actual wizard in the world, you will be in charge of creating your own spells and keeping track of your materials. I'll leave it up to you to come up with spell ideas, but keep in mind the restrictions of setting- there are no huge +5 Fireballs in Erindon. The goal of this kind of magic is not to restrict you or gimp wizards. The goal is to create interesting opportunities for role-playing and to not make wizards all-powerful compared to people who fight in other ways.

If you have genuine interest in playing a wizard, contact me and we'll figure it out!