Water Magic

When it comes to water magic, the Kingdom of Lorent has a rightly-deserved reputation for excellence. Our best Hydromancers can do truly incredible things with the power of water, and the prevalence of water across Elaienna makes it very reliable indeed... and when there's no natural water, a conjured water jet usually does the trick.

— Lorent Marshal Gustave Bruneau

Water Magic has generally seen a storied history, with a high degree of fame the world over. Intrinsically, its abilities allow for the control of water and the conjuration or control of ice, which can be used to skewer an opponent.

History of Water Magic

The Age of the Hysilens

The history of water magic in antiquity is... complicated. The Hysilens seldom mention the use of water magic in the ruins present of their society, but they were believed to have used it in... inventive ways to pull water-laden bodies around Lantyr to create orbital habitats and the like... at least, that's what some theories say.
Regardless, it's generally believed that they primarily used it for utilitarian purposes, though there are plenty of records as well of them using it extensively for changing biomes and the like. The Raqise in many ways continued this trend, but their study of water magic as an offensive tool was far more well recorded.

Early History

Unlike most forms of magic, the Shard Ritual didn't actually change much for water magic, as it found purchase across the world all the same; its uses in agriculture made it nearly mandatory in the early days, as did its general ability to manipulate water and ice - it was fairly common for Hydromancers to be used to deal with ice build-up, especially in the northern and southern climates, as well as generally deal with water and ice-based problems.

Modern History

Nowadays, water magic has only increased in reputation, though its fame has begun to recede slowly as technologies have begun to catch up with its abilities, but even these make use of water magic in their composition. The Kingdom of Lorent is famous for its Hydromancers and has a powerful hydromancy college as well, but its use and tutelage is practiced in many places besides that.

Hydro Shards

Generally, Hydro Shards are found most prominently along the coasts of Aelnar and the deep oceans of the planet, as well as several other major bodies of water. While they are prevalent, most of the shards are underwater, being harvested and utilised by the various aquatic peoples of the world, such as the Asraiad, and making the nations that can harvest and export them quite wealthy indeed.

Uses of Water Magic

Hydromancer by Ryan Grady

Water Manipulation

Hydromancers can freely control water, which is their main party trick, and this allows them to wield it in a wide variety of ways; redirecting the flow of water, creating high-pressure jets of water and suspending it in the air are all famous components of what water manipulation is truly capable of. At the highest end, it's even possible to drain water out of the ground or create a small amount of water - albeit at a huge cost of Aether - which can prove very beneficial to certain industries.
A few other uses of water magic are the ability to use water as a vector for the caster's other senses, and the ability to manipulate water with such finesse that stronger casters can redirect it around objects in the water to give them propulsion. This particular use case sees frequent implementation by seafaring, maritime regions, to allow for ships to be sailed even in lieu of wind.

Ice Manipulation

When it comes to offensive use cases, few facets of water magic can come close to the manipulation of ice, which covers the creation, control and shaping of ice. Initially, like all forms of magic, only small ice spikes can be conjured, but skilled water casters can control natural ice formations or form great spears of ice to launch at targets.
That said, it's not an exclusively offensive form of magic; ice manipulation can allow for the sculpting of ice into a variety shapes with sufficiently fine control, allowing for skilled Hydromancers to create ice sculptures and such.

Liquid Manipulation

Generally noted to be the rarest and most advanced form of water magic, liquid manipulation is the ability for a water caster to extend their fields of expertise away from just water and ice, beginning to cover other liquids too. At first, a Hydromancer must stick to learning how to manipulate liquids that contain at least 40% water within them - such as blood, though it lacks the permissive abilities of true Blood Magic, being sharply constrained by the foundational laws of magic which makes these abilities only useful on liquids external to the body.
The best water casters can even bridge the gap to use water magic on all forms of liquid that contain even a little bit of water.

Elemental Summoning

While Summoning Magic is the core magical overseer of the summoning process, elemental casters like those with water magic can establish a link to the elemental realm of water to conjure forth limited summons. These typically range from binding small water familiars to summoning larger water elementals.

Aquatic Travel

The Asraiad of the waves are notable within the discussion of water magic for having distinct abilities tied to their practice of the magic, generally referring to the ability for water magic to be used for aquatic travel. This technique tends to allow for exceptional abilities to breathe beneath the waves and utilise the ocean's currents to move far faster than would ordinarily be possible, and expert Asraiad Hydromancers can grant this power to others, too.

Ice Hydromancer by EL-Geron

Combining Elements

The four elemental magics can generally by combined by highly experienced characters to create truly destructive things. To date, there have only been successful combinations of two elements at a time, with three-and-four element combinations proving invariably fatal due to the sheer difficulty in controlling it.

Water and Air

The elemental combination of Air Magic and Water Magic allows for the creation of far more potent storms, allowing for the formation of conditions reminiscent of monsoons, as well as massive snowstorms and hail-storms. At higher skill levels in water magic, ice can be turned into an even stronger weapon by accelerating ice projectiles with wind manipulation.

Water and Fire

The combination of Fire Magic and Water Magic is one of the most famous, allowing a caster to create scalding water jets with the ability to burn enemies, or to regulate temperature using fire and water magic in concert. The most powerful casters can create magical clouds of heated steam, and can even use the ice manipulation component of water magic to chill fire and make fire that both burns and freezes.

Water and Earth

The combination of Water Magic and Earth Magic has generally more utilitarian purposes than many of the other options using either magic type; generally, it's used to infuse the ground with water or ice, which allows the ground to trap enemies in deep mud, or off-balance them with an icy slippiness. Beyond that, the other major known use is to create large streams of mud to damage settlements and structures from a distance.

Water and Dimension

One of the most famous combinations is a combination of both Water and Dimension Magic, which is more colloquially known as Puddle Jumping. This combination specifically allows for the use of bodies of water as a medium of mid-range teleportation, typically being able to teleport from puddle to puddle - hence the name of the technique - but the best Hydromancers can even push it to larger ranges, though certain aspects of the world's magical structure places limitations on the technique, such as it being unable to bridge massive oceans.