Magic in the World of Gaia

The following is a summery of a lesson plan written by the great magical scientist, Silgrad O'Fiel meant to be delivered to the magical university of Cieth Le Ciel before just before his mysterious disappearance.

Many centuries ago, an inexplicable cosmic event shifted the position of Alfhiem closer to Gaia on the world tree, Yggdrasil. This not only stranded dozens of fey species in our world, but also exponentially increased the total sum of magic energy and magical particles present across the entire planet. Before this event took place, casting magic in any form was incredibly difficult even for extremely gifted magicians. During the decades that followed, more magicians were born per year, spells became far stronger, new supernatural species surfaced across the world, and even inanimate objects began to show signs of possessing their own magic energy reserve. The world was changing drastically for both the better and for the worst. Magic gave rise to the grand conqueror, Draygonix, but also gave rise to the Travenhall Empire. It no doubt caused the events of the Cataclysm to unfold, but if we had not had magic, the Cataclysm would've have exterminated all life as we know it. Despite what conclusions you draw about magic as a whole, its significance in our world cannot be ignored and it shows no signs of ever disappearing.

Magic is difficult to understand. It has properties similar to energy while simultaneously containing physical properties of mass such as particles and even its own element. In its most basic form, magic can be attributed to an imbalance in 3 sub atomic particles called panacea, aether, and quintessence. Any imbalance in these 3 particles can lead to nearly unpredictable effects. Those who would intentionally unbalance these particles are called magicians.

Manifestation

Unworked magic energy lets off a bright blue hue. Before being converted into another form of energy by a spell, there is always a flash of blue light that emits from the caster's hands or eyes. Magic items exert this blue light as well. Some practiced casters are able to stifle this light and cast spells without any telegraphic lights or movements.

Localization

Hereditary Gifts

Magic cannot be used by everyone. Only those born with a significantly higher concentration of magical particles within their brains have the ability to cast spells. Even if someone is born with the ability to cast spells, they are only able to cast spells from certain branches of magical science. Most casters are born with the ability to use only one branch of magic but some rare prodigies are able to use two branches. Less than a dozen casters throughout the history of magic since the Great Happening have ever had the ability to use 3 branches with Draygonix the Grand Conqueror being the first and possibly only being with the ability to use 4 branches.
It is theorized that the ability to cast magic is hereditary. It is a dominant gene in the fairfolk species but recessive among Gaian species such as the human, orc, goblin, ettin, and ogre. This means that there are far more fairfolk magicians in the world than there are human or orc magicians. Goblin, ettin, and ogre magicians are almost unheard of.
Supernatural beasts are species of animals that can cast a select few spells due to mere decades of expedited magical evolution. Some cryptologists believe that species like the cockatrice were born from as little as 2 generations of magically sensitive chickens. If this is true, new supernatural beast species could be created every few decades rather than over thousands of years.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane