Magic
Fantasy needs magic in it, but I try to control the magic very strictly. You can have too much magic in fantasy very easily, and then it overwhelms everything and you lose all sense of realism. And I try to keep the magic magical — something mysterious and dark and dangerous, and something never completely understood. I don’t want to go down the route of having magic schools and classes where, if you say these six words, something will reliably happen. Magic doesn’t work that way. Magic is playing with forces you don’t completely understand. And perhaps with beings or deities you don’t completely understand. It should have a sense of peril about it.
The Practice of Magic in Valyria
All Valyrian magic is rooted in blood and fire.
All aspects of Valyrian culture is touched by magic. Not all Valyrians are capable of its practice and the sorcerers control the use of it through the Brotherhood of Mages and their Brotherhood Laws.
Valyrian mages can set dragonglass candles to burning with strange, unpleasantly-bright light.
With the obsidian candles, they can see across vast distances, look into a man's mind, and speak with one another though they are half the world apart.
It is known that the older mages at the dawn of Valyria, did not cut and chisel stone, but worked it with fire and magic as one might work clay.
The people of Valyria are strong in magic, and they use their powerful wizards and their Dragons in conjunction with their armies to pillage and conquor.
Dragons are controlled by whips, dragon horns, and sorcery.
Sorcerers:
Weild the liquid fire that flows in and around the Fourteen Flames, and know it to be intimately tied to their own fire, their life blood. It's a latent power that waits to be tapped but it tapers off dramatically the further from their source. Or so they believe.
Sorcerers sit atop the mage heirarchy and are utilized by the Arch Mage to monitor and investigate the use of unsanctioned magic users in the city in conjunction with the mage hunters.
They are entrusted with the most vital charge any Valyrian can be given, to subdue the core of the volcanic range and ensure that geothermic activity is safely diffused. It is said that when a sorcerer dies, volcanic activity shifts and threatens the very peninsula that all Valyrians dwell upon.
Firemages:
are magic practitioners that conjure and control flames. Elemental control allows practitioners to manipulate elemental forces. Firemages can evoke fire with their bare hands in order to engulf their weapons in flames, to use the fire alone as a means to attack enemies, or just to amaze crowds.Pyromancer:
A subspeciality of a firemage, these mages work singularly with Valyrian Steel and its creation.Bloodmages:
Practice bloodmagic or blood sorcery, which is a type of magic rooted in the use of blood and sacrifice. Are very powerful, and not all bloodmages come from dragonlord families, although there are overlap between the two groups. Bloodmagic is considered the darkest and possibly the most powerful sorcery. Practitioners of bloodmagic, sometimes also known as maegi, have dark spells to save a man from death, though some say death is cleaner. In the flesh pits of Gogossos, Valyrian bloodmages mate animals to slave women to bring forth half-human creatures.Alchemy
is a diverse range of practices involving the creation of substances or materials with magical powers.Divination
is the ability to see the future either through dreams. Known as dragon dreams if it is done by a Valyrian.The Practice of Magic in Greater Essos
Asshai:
Shadowbinders, spellsingers, and aeromancers from Asshai are capable of great and terrible feats. Worshippers of R'hllor, the religion of the Lord of Light, can be found in nearly every city and outpost of the Freehold. Red Temples are springing up in the free cities. Valyrians pay little mind to the religions of others, the magic supposedly weilded by the Red Priests is another matter however.Water wizards:
The wizards of the Rhoynar are able to use water magic to manipulate water, such as the river Rhoyne.
Type
Metaphysical, Elemental
Manifestation
Magic is a potent supernatural force in the known world.Localization
The Valyrians are known as weilders of magic. Their sorcerers and mages draw their magic abilities from their blood and from the fire within the earth beneath Valyria.Valyria isn't the only place in Essos where magic is present. Asshai by the Shadow, and in Sothoryos there are those that practice sorcery.
