Magic

Magic is the art of focusing your body and mind in order to channel paranormal forces through your own body and is  a natural physical phenomenon such as gravity or magnetism. Some people are born with the ability to interact with, control, and shape it. Learning Magic is no easy task, but almost anyone with the qualities can learn to use it, ideally a mage would begin learning the fundamentals from the age of three years old, any later development would be stunted.

With the proper training, mages are capable of manipulating the basic elements, such as conjuring gouts of flame and small, localized ice and electrical storms. There are also spells that allow for the temporary reanimation of corpses and the draining of an opponent's life-force. More altruistic mages can use their powers to help and heal, or summon benevolent spirits in times of need. Though they are often ostracized to the point of persecution, mages are key for everyday life in the Continent. They serve as its healers, scholars, scientists, and weapons of war. Spirit mediums are caled the mages who possess the rare talent of detecting and communicating with demons and spirits.

History
In the past humans believed that magic was the only viable defense against demons, ghosts, and evil sorcerers. To defend themselves against the spirits of those they had wronged, they would leave offerings in the person's tomb in hope to appease them. If that did not work, they also sometimes took a figurine of the deceased and buried it in the ground, demanding for the gods to eradicate the spirit, or force it to leave the person alone.

The ancients also used magic to protect themselves from evil sorcerers who might place curses on them. They had no distinction between "light magic" and "black magic" and a person defending him or herself from witchcraft would use exactly the same techniques as the person trying to curse someone. The only major difference was the fact that curses were enacted in secret; whereas a defense against sorcery was conducted in the open, in front of an audience if possible. One ritual to punish a sorcerer was known as "The Burning". The person afflicted by the witchcraft would create an effigy of the sorcerer and put it on trial at night. Then, once the nature of the sorcerer’s crimes had been determined, the person would burn the effigy and thereby break the sorcerer’s power over him or her.

Human's ancestors also performed magical rituals to purify themselves of sins committed unknowingly. One such ritual was known as the "Burning", in which the caster of the spell would transfer the guilt for all his or her misdeeds onto various objects such as a strip of dates, an onion, and a tuft of wool. He or she would then burn the objects and thereby purify him or herself of all sins that he or she might have unknowingly committed. A whole genre of love spells existed. Such spells, which usually invoked the aid of the love spirits, were believed to cause a person to fall in love with another person, restore love which had faded, or cause a male sexual partner to be able to sustain an erection when he had previously been unable. Other spells were used to reconcile a man with his patron deity or to reconcile a wife with a husband who had been neglecting her.

Human like Elves had no distinction between "rational science" and magic. When a person became ill, doctors would proscribe both magical formulas to be recited as well as medicinal treatments. Most magical rituals were intended to be performed by an expert in the magical arts. Doctors in magic would prescribe both magical and practical remedies to their patients. They would interrogate their patients to find out what ailments the person was suffering from. The symptoms of the disease determined which deity the doctor needed to invoke in order to cure it. Doctors were extremely expensive, so, for most everyday purposes, the average folk would have relied on individuals who were not professional doctors, but who possessed some form of medical training or knowledge. Among these individuals were folk healers and seers, who could set broken bones, aid mothers in giving birth, proscribe herbal remedies for common ailments, and interpret dreams. If a doctor or seer was unavailable, then everyday people would simply cast their spells on their own without assistance. Although most creatures were illiterate, it was likely commonplace for individuals to memorize spells and incantations for later use.

The profession was generally passed down from father to son and was held in extremely high regard and often served as advisors to kings and great leaders. An Witcher probably served not only as a magician, but also as a physician, a priest, a scribe, and a scholar. He would have likely owned a large library of clay tablets containing important religious texts and hymns.

The ancient humans also believed in omens, which could come when solicited or unsolicited.Regardless of how they came, omens were always taken with the utmost seriousness. People would often wear magical amulets for protection. The most common material for such amulets was a kind of ceramic known as faience, but amulets were also made of stone, metal, bone, and wood. Amulets depicted specific symbols.

The main principle behind magic seems to have been the notion that, if a person said something with enough conviction, the statement would automatically become true. The interior walls of the Elven Palaces of Unas, are covered in hundreds of magical spells and inscriptions, running from floor to ceiling in vertical columns which contain spells needed by the ruler in order to survive in the Afterlife. The Texts were strictly for royalty only; the spells were kept secret from commoners and were written only inside royal tombs. During the chaos and unrest of the Elvish Rebellion, however, tomb robbers broke into the palaces and saw the magical inscriptions. Commoners began learning the spells and began inscribing similar writings on the sides of their own coffins, hoping that doing so would ensure their own survival in the Original's realm.

Eventually, the sacred texts became so extensive that they no longer fit on the outside of a coffin. They began to be instead recorded on scrolls of papyrus, which would then be placed inside the coffin with the deceased’s own corpse. A whole industry of scribes arose for the sole purpose of copying manuscripts so that customers would be able to buy copies of the spells to be buried with them in their tombs. The quality of manuscripts was highly variable. Some editions were ninety feet long and contained beautiful, color illustrations to illuminate the text; others were short with no illustrations whatsoever. The scrolls were copied before they were bought, meaning that the name of the owner was unknown. As such, the scribes would leave the places for the person’s name blank and fill in the person's name after the scroll was purchased. Sometimes scribes would accidentally misread or miscopy what they were writing. Sometimes the spells would be abbreviated in order to avoid running out of space. Such mistakes could render the texts unintelligible.

Theory
Conversely to the Theology, Philosophy and to the orthodox sciences that deal with and matter about the causes, magic, to self-fashion and define itself, is defined as the manifestation of the supposed marvelous veracity of some effects that do not require discovering their causes. Knowing the causes or the wonderful non-marine effect of magic and magical thinking migrates to other types of thinking, from the supposed "magical effects" derives historical metonymy with medicine and pharmacology.

Through the acceptance of the existence of magic, it is implicitly accepted as the abstract cause or pseudo-abstraction of the magical effect, as a primary principle or truth from which all the pseudological paraphernalia develops. From very remote times, one aspires to unveil, to know and to use what presumably can be heard from the senses, to hide from classical sensory perception, logic, reason and criterion. These are at least the three essential elements of generic magic:

An "effect" that is perceived as "wonderful" whose cause is unknown and "unexplainable"  fact at the time considered.

Magic does not seek imperative axioms, an antonomasia of magic is the topic of the "object that appears from nothing" or by the art of magic, magic is the cause itself.

Among its most ancient and characteristic attributions (archetype) would be the faculty of divination, which should not be conceptualized together with prophecy.

Magic, in its most archaic meaning, is the resolution of the rational axiom that would affirm that the masked is the result of "natural or material" known or to be known and only by matter. This archaic magic, with an inherent criterion of duality spirit-matter, gave rise to the magical thought and in the environment of the first civilizations, to two evolutionary classifications of magic, historically called "natural magic" and "unnatural magic or hidden philosophies »

In short, a possible definition of the relationship of the idea in relation to the relationship with nature or supernatural mechanism. Relational contacts, stories such as invocation, evocation, divination, numerology or cabals, among many others. Another subjective and logical classification established for supernatural entities and mechanisms.

Etiologies of magic

 * Magical thinking: magic is the principle, the first etiology, in the matrix of magical Thought by which the ability to perceive and modify physical or psychic alterations of all life, a will or sin is presumed, not always subject to the laws of nature.
 * Material and spiritual entities: Lightning, fire, sun, darkness, stars, earthquakes, spirits or souls that inhabit air, water, forests, caves, the sky, specific places on earth, forests, etc. Sections currently in prehistory, for interaction with the "magic of nature" and with "magic or philosophies"

The Eight Magic Arts
Magic really depends on what a being is. There are some beings that have higher magical affinity and others have lower magical affinity or even no magical affinity. For example, a Therianthrope (were creatures like a werewolf) has no magical affinity, while Djiin have the highest general magical affinity (excluding gods and god-like beings). Humans in general have a low magical affinity, due to neglecting it for many hundreds of years, leading to the majority of humans not even believing in the existence of magic. Their affinity has been increasing due to the rediscovery of magic in the last few decades. It is also worth mentioning that humans that do have a high enough magical affinity (naturally or through magical affinity raising trinkets) only have access to very limited magic, and fit into one of the Eight Human Magic Arts. Beings with higher magical affinity are capable of doing things that do and do not fit into the Eight Human Magic Arts. This leads to many different magic arts that are often unique to the type of being.

Spirit Arts
The Spirit Arts are magic that is heavily based in the making of deals/contracts/pacts, the building of relationships and strength of one's own soul. The Spirit Arts are considered one of the most powerful of the magic arts and one of the hardest to master or even use. The Spirit Arts revolve around the souls or spirits of the dead and the summoning of them to aid the user in battle. The two most common uses of the Spirit Arts is necromancy and the summoning of Legendary Spirits. Legendary Spirits are the spirits of great historical or human mythological heroes and villains from throughout history. However, due to the fact that necromancy is seen as taboo, the later of the most common form of the Spirit Arts is more prominent.

Summoning a Legendary Spirit of the past/legend is a tricky thing, as there are many factors involved, that is with summoning a Legendary Spirit for the first time. A first summon of a Legendary Spirit requires quite a lot of magic power depending on the Legendary Spirit. Generally, the more powerful they were, the older they are and the greater the mark they made on history determines how hard they will be to summon, for example summoning Charlemagne will require more magic than summoning Jeanne d'Arc. Also, the harder to summon a Legendary Spirit is, the more powerful they are. It is possible to lessen the magic power requirements for a summon however. This can be done by using a relic or catalyst associated with them, and/or summoning them where they were born, where they died and/or where they were buried. Another short cut is using human sacrifices, but this is highly frowned upon. Using these shortcuts are not required and can only be used for the first summon. It is also worth mentioning that each Legendary Spirit that is summoned either has access to their own magic, and/or spiritual versions of their legendary weapons.

During the first summoning, and any summoning after, not only is magic power required but three other things are needed. The first thing other than magic power is blood of the Mage doing the summoning, usually letting it drip on the ground is fine, but if using a relic the blood must drop onto the relic. The second thing is a specific incantation, which always points to the Legendary Spirits deeds and claim to fame or infamy, while the Legendary Spirit can also be named during the incantation but that is not required. An example of an incantation would be "Child of the gods, born of Alcmene, redemption for thy sins through 12, thy legend lives on. Heed my call and prove thy legend.", this one specifically would be able to summon the high level spirit, Hercules/Heracles, who is already contracted with someone. I believe now is an appropriate time to mention that a Legendary Spirit can only be summoned by one Spirit Art user, but a Spirit Art user can have up to three Legendary Spirits summonable. Finally the third thing required is a strong enough soul. If a Spirit Art user has a broken, damaged or weakened soul then they will be limited to what spirits they can make a deal with, as if they try making a deal with a spirit who is stronger than their own soul many disastrous consequences can be expected.

Elemental Arts
The Elemental Arts are easily the most commonly seen of the magic Arts. They are literally the manipulation, and in some cases, creation of specific elements through magic and require less magic power than other Arts while maintaining a position of being one of the deadliest Arts. One who studies the Elemental Arts is restricted however to one of six elements; earth, fire, water, air, electricity/lightning, and metal. Each element is strong against others while weak to others and it is key that an Elemental Art user is aware of their weaknesses and strengths. Earth is strong against electricity/lightning, while weak to air. Fire is strong against metal, while weak to water. Water is strong against fire, while weak to electricity/lightning. Air is strong against earth, while weak to metal. Electricity/lightning is strong against water, while weak to earth. Metal is strong against air, while weak against fire.[/spoiler]

Summoning Arts
While Spirit Arts revolve around the making deals with and summoning of dead humans, the Summoning Arts are much broader. The spirits of dead people can not be summoned in the Summoning Arts as the Summoning Arts revolve around summoning familiars (animal spirits), mythical beasts, weapons, demonic beings, holy beings and even in some extremely rare cases deities. The Summoning Arts only require rituals for powerful beings, and said rituals often require many ingredients and the occasional sacrifice. Sacrifices vary depending on what a summoner is attempting to summon. Rituals in the Summoning Arts only call upon incantations for high level summons, or as shortcuts to save magic power with lower level summons. What is required though for every summon (except for weapon summoning) other than magic power is a willpower strong enough to sway or force the summoned being to do as the summoner wishes.

Alteration Arts
The Alteration Arts are based around the idea of altering the physical properties of anything around them. This makes the Alteration Arts one of the most adaptable magic Arts. However, to alter something, an Alteration Arts user must first touch said item, and have a working understanding of what the item is made of including the elemental composition, the bonds between the molecules and much more. That means, the Alteration Arts are heavily tied to science, and those who study Alteration Arts are required to study harder than other mages. But once they know what an item is made of, they can become some of the strongest mages. They can alter a roll of paper and make it as strong as steel, but retain its flexibility, and much more. They can also alter the physical aspects of bodies. They can make themselves or others faster for example. It should be noted that Alteration takes time as well, the more complex the longer it will take.

It should be mentioned that transmutation through the process of alchemy falls under the Alteration Arts, while the rest of alchemy falls under the Creation Arts. Also, on the topic of Runes. Runes are a complex form of ancient magic that fits under the Alteration Arts, and can be extremely powerful, but not as powerful as they were in ancient times. In ancient times, runes could have altered the fabric of reality, now they have lost that ability. Runes are able to alter objects and people to an extent. Of course, there are some beings that can still use runes to their fullest, but none are human, and they are very rare.[/spoiler]

Druidic Arts
The Druidic Arts are a unique magical art, as it is the magic of nature. The Druidic Arts are based around the "control" of plants and animals. The Druidic Arts are by far the rarest magic Arts as they can only be done by Druids and one does not simply become a Druid, unless one undergoes the Green Pact Ritual and survives. The Green Pact Ritual is not only said to be incredibly difficult, but is almost dead as not many Druids know how to perform it. As such, one's best bet to become a Druid is to hope to be born one. Out of the Druids that still live today, most belong to ancient Druid families, but some, a very small few, are what other Druids may call impure Druids, those born to non-Druid parents. Anyways, the Druidic Arts allow for one to manipulate plant life, poisons, and command animals. It should be noted that Druids hate Fire Elemental Art Mages.

Illusionary Arts
The Illusionary Arts are based around the creation of illusions and the manipulation of the human mind. Though not possessing any offensive capabilities, a powerful illusionist can be far more dangerous than a Spirit Arts user. They can trick enemies into fighting for them, make things disappear, Jedi mind trick people and much more. It is said that the only limit to what an illusionist can do is their imagination. That however is not completely true. The effectiveness of an illusionists illusions is determined by their understanding of the human mind, their targets intelligence and willpower, and finally the amount of magic the illusionist uses.

Guardian Arts
The Guardian Arts are the most ignored and misunderstood of any magical Arts. Most people associate the Guardian Arts with just healing, but it is much more. They are the most support centred of the magical Arts, but arguably deserve the greatest respect. Not only does the Guardian Arts provide healing, but they also can create wards, are capable of repelling the undead, magic nullification in rare cases and binding. On the topic of healing however, Guardians must make contact with the wound, and in the process of healing they always take on the pain of the victim. It has also been seen that Guardians can acquire a minor healing factor for themselves.

Creation Arts
The Creation Arts focus on the use of magic to create. Be it the creation of magic weapons and magic tokens through the process of enchantment, the creation of potions through alchemy, the construction of golems and other magic constructs and so on. The Creation Arts are generally take more time than the other Arts as Creators need to actually gather materials, build the thing or start the process of creation and then add magic via incantations. Fun fact, Leonardo Da Vinci practiced the Creation Arts.

Demonic Elemental Arts
Demonic Elemental Arts are very similar to Elemental arts, except that the elements they use can be referred to as Black Elements. Black versions of any element not only affect the physical body of their target, but the metaphysical aspects of them as well such as their very soul. The only thing that can effectively counter Demonic Elemental Arts are Demonic Elemental Arts, Holy Elemental Arts, Divine Arts and the extremely rare Void Arts. As the name suggests, only Demonic beings (Demons, Daemons, Djin, etc) are capable of using this art.

Holy Elemental Arts
Holy Elemental Arts are much like Demonic Arts, except for the fact that the elements that they use can be called Holy Elements. Holy versions of any element have the same effects as the Black versions, but they also have another effect. Holy Elements only harm those that the user perceives as an enemy, and heal those they see as an ally. They are effectively countered by Demonic Elemental Arts, Holy Elemental Arts, Divine Arts and the extremely rare Void Arts. As the name suggests, Holy Elemental Arts are only used by holy beings.

Blood Arts
The Blood Arts are simply put, Blood Magic. Aspects of the Blood Arts can be seen in the Summon Arts, Spirit Arts, Alteration Arts and Creation Arts. But the key word is aspects. One who practices the blood arts is able to do a wide array of things. They can be used to summon other beings, bind other beings, free other beings from binding, create portals to other locations (and realms in some cases), magic tracking, telepathic communication, banishing, creating magic barriers, and manipulating blood of the caster or in rare cases, their enemies. The blood arts are generally used by many beings above humans in magical affinity. But the most common users of the Blood Arts are vampiric beings and demonic beings.

Reality Arts
The Reality Arts are one of the most powerful magic arts. They are only capable of being used by Divine beings, Djin and other extremely powerful demonic beings. As the name suggest, they revolve around the manipulation of reality itself. Due to the strength of the Reality arts, require vast amounts of magic power and as such can’t be effectively used for massive things (such as rewriting history) and have rules that must be followed (they can’t kill).

Vampire Arts
The Vampire Arts are a magic art that can only be used by Vampires. They can be best described as just the normal powers associated with a vampire such as shape shifting, mist walking and such. They also allow for the caster to absorb the life force or magic power of their target as well.

Divine Arts
The Divine Arts are the magic used by Divine beings. They are basically an overlapping Art as they can do pretty much what every other art is capable of, with the exception of the Membrane Arts. They are only capable of being used by Divine beings.

Membrane Arts
The Membrane Arts are the most dangerous and rarest magical arts. It revolves around the manipulation of the Membrane, the space between universes, or just nothingness. It can counter any other magic art and is the only magic that can literally wipe a being from existence, or even ever existing. There is only one being that has ever been known to use this magic art, and they haven’t been seen for quite a long time.