Magic

Magic is the divine ability to achieve many supernatural feats and perform miracles that aren't possible with any other physical or mental faculty. Only people of the Magus race are able to utilize magic and as such their culture has been shaped around it.

Types or Classes
Magic for the most part can be filed under one of 8 different categories (not counting their many sub-forms). They are as follows;

Light Magic: Deals with the white arts and the ability to manipulate light. This form of magic is typically used to help others or nullify malice. So naturally, the Magister of this class holds the duty of promoting and managing peace. Common uses of light magic involve enhancing one's physical or mental abilities, supernatural surgery, and the reparation or regeneration of destroyed objects.

Dark Magic: While the name carries the implication of being the opposite of light magic, the "dark" usually just denotes more unnerving and overall scary vehicles for using magic. The dark arts include but are not limited to things like casting spells through blood sacrifices, entering or manipulating nightmares, and materializing chains and locks to imprison or bind people in battle. This is not to say that certain Magus don't use their sinister magical powers for more nefarious purposes but it's more of a social stigma than something to be applied to all users.

Nature Magic: This magic is the art of manipulating, generating, or enhancing earth, plants, animals, and/or wood. Magus who specialize in this class are often farmers, forest dwellers, or wandsmiths. Some applications of this magic include manipulating wood to effortlessly build houses, locating and manipulating minerals to create magical items, and cultivating new flowers and herbs to fabricate potions.

Hydro Magic: Deals with the manipulation and generation of water, ice, mist, and weather. Those who specialize in this magic type are often found in or relocate to areas with large bodies of water so they can utilize their magic more comfortably. Some known implementations are lessening pressure and breathing under water to excavate valuables on the ocean floor, crafting ice into buildings or artistic sculptures, and controlling the weather to make nautical travel faster and easier.

Pyro Magic: Denotes the manipulation and generation of fire, lava, smoke, and explosions. Since this magic type has a more offensive means of expression, those who practice it often utilize it for battle. The city-state that was designed around this magic type; Obsidian City, displays a society in which almost everything is resolved through combat.

Aero Magic: The art of manipulating and generating wind, gas, nitrogen, and pressure. Air magic users must be very careful with their powers since improper usage can result in suffocation or crushing oneself with air pressure. Magus very rarely have a natural inclination towards this fickle magic type and those who seek to specialize in it often follow the religion of Amelioration which unlike Humanitarianism, deals with the idea of only improving yourself, to enhance their ability to concentrate. Uses of this magic consist of lowering or heightening air pressure to make things float or get crushed without touching them, manipulating and riding on wind currents to fly, and even outright evaporating objects into thin air.

Energy Magic: Energy magic is the most common magical specialization. It's known for being easy to use but hard to master. Put simply, people who use this magic can perform just about any spell provided that their own skill allows them to. The most popular uses for this magic are associated with transmutation i.e the process of transforming one form of energy into another. The Magister of this magic type is known for her signature spell that can turn literally anything into gold. Another known transmutation spell is the act of giving oneself or others animal attributes like wolf ears for enhanced hearing or monkey tails for enhanced agility.

Spirit Magic: Spirit magic is known as the rarest most difficult type of magic to even use let alone master. Magus who specialize in this magic type rarely pursue it of their own volition and simply have a natural inclination towards it. Chryssy is one such example of this. As the name suggests, this magic type deals with spiritual things like souls, dimensions, and life in general. The overall mysteriousness of this magic grants people who use it strange almost godlike abilities. The Magister of this class is famous for his ability to predict the future. Chryssy is able to speak any language and even talk to animals despite not specializing in Nature magic because of her Spirit magic.

Sub-forms
Sub-forms of magic are lesser classes that may fall under one of the larger types but are more distinctive in their effects, uses, and casting methods. For example, some common sub-forms of Light Magic are Musical magic, Illusion magic, and Charm magic. Musical magic is known for soothing and healing people of emotional or even physical stress, Illusion magic deals with creating mirages through the bending of light, and Charm magic is a means of persuading people and dispelling conflict through sway. All of these sub-forms fall under Light Magic since it's primary function is to help or soothe others. The Illuminettes have to specialize in all these sub-forms so their performances can impress the audience to the max. Sub-forms don't always have to be defined by a particular class since some spells are so generic and easy to learn that anyone can use certain derivative types of magic. One such example is healing magic as recovery spells can be found in the manuscripts of any class.

Manifestation
Manifestation is the form in which a person's magic presents itself. Someone's manifestation usually corresponds with their personality or specialization. For example, Clarissa's manifestation consists of musical notes and bar lines since her main specialization is song magic caste orally through singing. Not all manifestations are simply aesthetic since some specific forms can help to amplify one's magic. Mason on the other hand manifests his light magic as glyphs which depending on the specific symbols he draws, can have a variety of effects.

Casting
Casting is the method or vehicle that a Magus uses to cast spells. Casting usually denotes the type of wand or artifact (if any) a Magus expels their magic through, but people can also cast by singing, dancing, or even just thinking.

The most common casting method is the use of a wand. Wands can actually range in their appearance, size, and form. Mason uses a wand that resembles a fencing sword and while it does help to amplify and direct his magic, it can be used as a normal lance as well. Another unique wand is Chryssy's dancing fan. Her casting method also incorporates focused dance moves which result in her going into a genuine trance to summon spirits. Casting vehicles aren't limited to objects as edible goods can also be used to cast spells on people upon consumption. Madison does all her spell casting through confections that she enchants with her support magic to enhance the consumer's abilities to astounding levels.

Specializations
"Think of the different classes of magic as literal classes; like in school. Most kids only excel at one subject in particular and get average grades everywhere else. That subject would be a Magus's specialization. And when you graduate from school, you would ideally apply the knowledge you learned there to real life by pursuing a career that invokes the skills of your specialization. Those people are sorcerers."

Lucinda

"Then Grand Sorcerers are like the 'straight A students' of magic?"

Kayden

"Exactly."

-Lucinda teaching Kayden about magical specializations.

A specialization is the type of magic that a particular Magus excels at. One's specialization can also encompass several sub-forms of one magical class. While natural talent does play a part, specializations rely more on which set of spells is easiest to learn or use. And that usually varies from person to person. So while genetics don't really impact one's specialization, a child who was raised in an environment where most of their family members used and studied a certain type of magic might grow up with a preference for it. Every sorcerer usually only has one or maybe two classes they specialize in. Grand Sorcerers are those who master every magic type through years of training and studying. Sorcerers tend to end up in careers that make use of their specializations. As a spirit magic user, Chryssy is a shrine maiden who currently works as a religious disciple. While she does this purely for the sake of others and would never demand payment, she was sent to East Concordia with a good sum of money hinting that she does in fact get paid for her work whether she knows it or not. Clarissa used her illusion and musical music to jump start an early career as a magician which led to her being scouted and accepted into Illuminate while she was still in middle school.