Magic in Corran

"Bards have the capacity to inspire a nation, and great warriors can mow down hordes of fiends, but to witness a mage at work is to witness the world torn limb from limb."
Ithunn Vali, War Mage Commander

Magic is a force enigmatic to most commoners of Thornhelm. Even by great sages and leaders, it is mostly used as a catch-all for any phenomena not understood by the people.

The Schools of Magic

The School system, the standard categorization of magic originated by the Kamal Sovereignty, was popularized and simplified by the Wulfhaven Empire. This system has vague guidelines and fits spells into eight categories. They are Evocation, Conjuration, Abjuration, Enchantment, Illusion, Necromancy, Divination, and Transmutation.

The Source of Magic

There are many different beliefs and paths to attaining magic. However, the general consensus is that the psyche and cognitive forms affect the flow of magic in some way. The main aura of magic around the world is often called the Weave. Magic Users are differentiated by how they attain magic.
Wizards learn how to focus their emotions and thoughts into conscious warping of the weave around them.
Sorcerers and Warlocks instead use the power of some great being, whether they are inherited or given, respectively.
Bards, through passion for their craft as well as words and motions, mold the weave to their whim.
Druids tap into nature itself, communicating with the Genus Loci and evoking magic in a raw form.
Paladins, through sheer dedication and commitment, speak magic into their oath and warp the weave around them.
Clerics, with their alleged source of power being the gods themselves, are a point of contention, especially for those who adopt an atheistic viewpoint. Even among clerics, discourse has been recorded of how exactly power is attained from the gods. Some claim the gods themselves (or divine agents of the gods) grant power to their clerics, while others think they are just tapping into the gods' latent power.
There are a few different beliefs as what the Weave is and where it comes from. These beliefs are mostly separated by the region they are in and the current ruling power. The belief of the source of magic is often inherently tied with religion and deities. For example, the Wulfhaven Empire uses the Merroan belief, but certain towns within it, through influence of different factions, have become atheistic.
Merroan
The Merroan belief is that the Weave is simply an extension of Ve's presence onto Corran, and that the cycle of the Phoenix regenerates it.
Omegist
The Omegist belief, most popular in the east, is that the Weave is the body of the god of magic, and is a mostly monotheistic belief, with several minor and regional deities. This god of magic often goes by the name of Boccob is simply referred to as "God" or "the all father."
Atheism
A much more recent movement popularized by an unknown source is that of Atheism. This belief states that magic is simply a law of nature and that gods, if they even do exist, have no say over forces of the Arcane, and cannot grant power. This belief also often states that Clerics gain their magic through their sheer force of belief and willpower.

Augmentation of Magic

Items known as Arcane Foci are items that work primarily as a substitute to material components (e.g. wands, orbs, rods, etc.). However, these items can be really anything important enough to the caster.
There is a narcotic substance known as Corta (Nexus to some pretentious folk), a drug taken by being spread over the eye. The process of it's creation is still unknown, and augmentation has made it more appealing to consume. However, it's main effect is to increase the presence of a caster's range, letting them access more of the weave to mold.

Magic Items

Many great artifacts were created before the Sundering, but many more contemporary ones were allegedly created via Fae/Divine intervention or by old techniques used to focus magical power into something without a mind, quite a difficult endeavor.
Alchemy is slightly different, as most alchemists define it as either specific reactions between natural materials or divine rituals that imbue magic into certain items.
Runestones are quite an intriguing idea to many common folk, and supposedly work by invoking words of power, much like a paladin's oath. However, this idea is disputed by a few actual scholars.