Thaumaturgy

Introduction

Thaumaturgy is one of the three main types of supernatural powers in the Grand Empire of Karadia, and the one that's the most popular by far - there is easily fifty thaumaturgists per a single theurgist, and fifty thousand per a single techmaturgist in the modern Karadia.
Thaumaturgy is the easiest type of magic to learn, is particularly versatile and has a mostly reasonable ways of ranking up. In short, it's the default form of supernatural powers in Karadia. On other other hand, it has its own limitations, and carries certain risks.
It works primarily by channeling mana, the ambient background power filling the universe that's projected outwards by the World Engine in the very center of the imperial cosmology. Normally the channeled mana is the white one, the one hailing directly from the World Engine. However, as many gods has fallen, the white mana is no longer the only option.
As a result, a significant part of mana passing through the Radiant Worlds is corrupted, resulting in different forms of mana, which can be used for different types of thaumaturgy - but lacks a varied level of risk of being corupted yourself

The Three Professions

Regardless of the type of mana used, there are three primary professions behind the thaumaturgy. They are mutually exclusive (save for some truly special cases, such as the godlikes of the Divine Wisdom), and offer completely different set of abilities and both strengths and weaknesses. These three professions are as follows:

Mages

Together with magicians and wardens, mages can be considered the most basic form of the thaumaturgists. To become a mage you need to go through a controlled awakening of magic (done by exposure to a very strong concentration of mana, be it from a powerful mage or environment) which is then used to form a mana core (also mana hearth, furnace or flame) in the midst of their body. This concentration of magic serves as the fuel source for their magic.
It's size is limited, and so is the mana pool of a mage. However they excel on the field of mana regeneration, and due to how controlled their mana source is they all uniformly excel at control and subtle employments of magic. While competent combatants on their own (with a reasonable balance of offensive and defensive magic), they tend to excel on the fields of buffs, debuffs and active effects.
They can also supercharge their cores, which - if there is enough energy and control over it - will result in the core permanently rising to a higher energy level. This is the so-called Circles - all mages are spread between nine of them. Ninth Circle is the theoretical highest concentration of mana in a mana core that's possible to be held by a mortal, with any further improvement requiring a more radical approach (so, typically, an Ascension ritual that changes the mage into something decidedly different).
If the process fails, the mage might die or devolve into a sorcerer due to their mana core being shattered, which is the main limitation (save for time and resources) on the number of higher ranked mages.
The problem with the mages is that they can relatively easily fall. A mage bound to the white mana can theoretically cast dark magic, but each cast (that's also subpar in power) taints his mana core. Due to their control over their cores they can purge the taint, however it's not always that they want to do that - the core is a such a powerful source of energy in their bodies that it can and will influence their behaviour and thoughts. As a result, a mage can easily - and accidentally (or completely willingly) pass the point of no return, from which on they slide into one of the nine forms of corrupted mages.
The corrupted mages' magic might be thoroughly different (enough that they cannot use the 'normal' magic), but it will still follow the standard framework of magehood, including the Circles, the mana core, and the focus on indirect combat.

Subtypes

There are three subtypes of the mages, at least in the Grand Empire of Karadia. Each of them is de facto part of the mages by the way their powers work, however they are sufficiently different to be considered a separate magical profession.
Magicians, also known as hedge mages, ar more amateurish mages, who aren't allowed a regular membership in the Imperial Magic Guild. They are typically trained to serve as part of various armed forces (typically of the client states) or the adventurers, and serve as mobile buffs/debuffs/active effects dispensers on various battlefields.
They lack the finer bits of mage educations, and rarely go past the lowest four Circles. They are only encounterable in the ranks of the Grand Empire, since the Lost Lands factions rarely have enough manpower to waste it on subpar thaumaturgists.
Wardens are close quarters combat mages developed by the Imperial Magic Guild as mage and daemon hunters (plus law enforcement and guardians of the Collegiums). They are recruited from mage candidates who were deemed unfit for becoming a 'proper' mage, typically due to their character, and were instead trained to be wardens.
They go through extensive physical and combat training, receive crystalline armors and weapons that augment their own magic, and are expected to make up for the difference between them and their enemies with stacks of self-buffs (empowered by the armors) and some elemental effects on their weapons.
Archmages are the unofficial Tenth Circle mages. Once they achieved the Ninth Circle, they decided to strive for more and went through extremely dangerous ritual of ascension. Their mana cores were supercharged to a ridiculous degree and shattered, but with the mage in question possessing willpower, control over magic and knowledge enough to superimpose their minds over the resulting explosions of magic, to the degree where they managed to reconstruct their own bodies from magic.

Warlocks

Warlocks are the mages whose cores have been tainted with one particular type of corrupted mana, which blocked their ability to use the white magic. They can recover in certain circumstances, but it's a lot of hard work and not all of them (even those that fell by accident) want to recover (or even consider such a thing a form of 'recovery'.
Warlocks usually operate partially on the rules of theurgy, meaning that they're capable of altering the world around them in a much more thorough way. This is what causes the risk of corruption while also empowering it to be in competitive range of the white mages.
Necromancers are mages who were corrupted by the usage of black mana and fell into the ranks of the Breathless Tide. They are capable of raising the dead as an undead, casting potent (and often hard to dispel) curses and draining life from the vicinity. Their ascended form are liches who operate roughly similar to archmages.
Druids are mages who overdosed on the green mana and fell into the ranks of the Wild Courts or, rarely, Amber Crown or Dragon Claw. This is a rare case of dark mages whose mana isn't connected to any of the Hierarchs, making their status as dark mages somewhat debatable. Druids can command wildlife, have it share certain traits with them and buff anything in the vicinity. Their ascended form are the hierophants, whose ascension ritual turns them into quasi-fae.
Witches are mages who were corrupted by their usage of brown mana and fell into the ranks of the Rampant Bloom. They are known for being able to control the horrible creatures of the Bloom, and use a varied forms of pretty horrifying magic that deals in poisons, venoms, parasites, insects and diseases. Their ascended forms are crones, who are less mortals and more humanoid concentrations of worms, insects, and other horrible things that happen to be wearing human skin on top of them.
Sensalists are the mages who were corrupted by their usage of orange mana and became servants of the Rapturous Ecstasy. Their weapons are charms, glamour, ability to project certain feelings and emotions onto others (often rendering them either compliant or at least temporarily harmless), being able to make themselves or other go through the feelings of being drugged or intoxicated and so on. Instead of becoming immortal through the final ascension ritual, they instead stay physically as they were, but receive a certain restriction built-in into their soul that is applied at random and does makes them much more powerful, but is often really, really yucky.
Shamans are mages who were corrupted by the usage of red mana (or, more often, trained to be a shaman by the tribes of the Nine Hordes). They can amplify the strength of their brethren or control blood, while tending to be treated as wise-men among their tribes. They lack ascended form entirely, usually caring little for immortality.
Tricksters are mages who were corrupted by the usage of violet mana, usually becoming members of the Shadowlight Covenant. They are illusionists and shadowmancers, that can also manipulate certain mechanisms through the power of Laenimentus. They are easily underestimated, but can be immensely dangerous.
Mentalists are mages who were corrupted by the usage of yellow mana, usually seen as a part of the Immutable Hierarchy. They are capable of dominating minds of others by crushing their will, empowering their own minds to be able to perceive or detect more and so on. They are especially feared by their ability to change people into their mindless thralls.
Occultists are mages to a degree and theurgist also to a degree. They are corrupted by the usage of colourless mana, usually seen in the ranks of the Umbral Bond and Pentagram. They are usually completely insane and can share that trait with others.

Magic Schools

There is a limited number of magic schools, each of it divided further into aspects that use the same mana and are used by the same type of mages/warlocks. They are some rare cases of magic schools that are considered unaligned with any type of magic in general, usually born out of magical anomalies making them come from another universe altogether. They won't be listed here, at least for now.
White Magic is the default form of magic, the one available to regular mages using white, uncorrupted mana.
Elemental Aspect allows mages to manipulate and control the four base elements (and some connected meta-elements like ice or stone).
Arcane Aspect allows mages to manipulate the very fabric of spacetime. Slowing times? Making your backpack bigger on the inside? Hitting enemy with a concentration of pure mana? It's all here.
Material Aspect allows mages to manipulate certain materials that aren't elements. Changing shape of metal objects, manipulating them as projectiles etc.
Nature Magic is the type of magic used by the druids, requiring one to cast its spells with green mana to reach their full strength.
Leaves Aspect allows druids to strengthen and promote growth of plants, with most of its spells being of more utility nature.
Thorns Aspect allows druids to rapidly empower and control plants. It's what the druids use for self-defense only, as the growth here is so intense that it will usually kill the plant or sterilize the soil.
Beast Aspect allows druids to borrow certain traits from animals and beasts, and even control them.
Black Magic is the type of magic used by the necromancers, requiring one to cast its spells with the black mana for them to reach their full power.
Death Aspect allows necromancers to drain the life of others and to resurrect the corpses as undead.
Curse Aspect allows necromancers to invoke the powers of Calamitas and place curses on their opponents.
Filth Magic is a type of magic used by the witches and requiring brown mana to be used for them to reach their full power.
Poison Aspect allows witches to generate and control a variety of poisonous or toxic liquids or gasses.
Plague Aspect allows witches to store and spread a variety of diseases. As one can expect, this is perhaps the most feared of their abilities.
Life Aspect allows witches to control the many abominations of Occasa and even take in some of their traits temporarily.
Desire Magic is a type of magic used by the sensalists, its spells requiring orange mana to be cast to their full power.
Hunger Aspect allows sensalists to obtain certain traits (or just rapidly heal) by eating them. The more they devour, the stronger the effects usually.
Lust Aspect allows sensalists to... well, you can probably infer it from the name.
Rapture Aspect allows sensalists to control the drugs, forcing others into suffering their effects or boosting themselves with the magical equivalent of strong stimulants.
Wrath Magic is a type of magic used by the shamans, its spells requiring red mana to be cast to their full power.
Rage Aspect allows shamans to empower others (and themselves) by amplifying their rage, restoring their fatigure etc.
Blood Aspect allows shamans to control their own blood (and those of others), usually for attacks but also for healing.
Dark Magic is a type of magic used by the tricksters, its spells requiring violet mana to be cast to their full power.
Shadow Aspect allows tricksters to merge themselves with shadows or to solidify and control them to use as projectiles and shields.
Illusion Aspect allows tricksters to create things that aren't actually there, fooling one or all senses of other people.
Cogs Aspect allows tricksters to manipulate and control machinery, which most of them use for deployment of various small gizmos (and traps) to confuse or kill their enemies.
Mind Magic is a type of magic used by the mentalists, its spells requiring yellow mana to be cast with their full power.
Domination Aspect allows mentalists to mentally dominate other people, crushing their will and make them subservient, either in short or in a long term.
Enlightment Aspect allows mentalists to expand their own mental capacity, making themselves think faster, understand more things and become more perceptive.
Doom Magic is a type of magic used by the occultists, its spells requiring colourless mana to be cast with their full power.
Depths Aspect allows the occultists to cause pain, tearing and warping flesh at will.
Void Aspect allows the occultists to destroy things, including entire chunks of reality itself.
Abyss Aspect allows the occultists to warp the minds of others, driving them insane or just confused and terrified.

Tools

Mages and warlocks are likely to use a wide variety of magic tools to enhance their ability for a precise control over mana. An example can be the wands and staffs, either made from mana crystals (wands) or with a mana crystal at the top (staffs). Their magic is about control, and being able to use an external tool to precisely set the 'start' point of for example a fireball spell helps with visualization of details. When made from proper materials, such tools can also be used to store excess of mana, which means that one - or many, depending on the caster's will - spells casted through them will be stronger than they should.
Another tool for the mages are the grimoires (also known as spellbooks), although those are growing increasingly rare ever since the Twilight War ended. Sufficiently competent mages can 'save' spells together with packets of mana necessary to cast them in a form of specially prepared paper pages. A grimoire is a collection of up to several hundreds of those in a portable form. Even when used, one only has to recharge said packet of mana after the battle to be able to use the page again. However the knowledge behind their creation has mostly died during the Twilight War, meaning that the remaining grimoire's are mostly priceless relics.
The weaker form of the grimoires still available to the modern civilization are the magic scrolls. They are pretty much the same thing as grimoire pages, however are of inferior quality, are typically on-use only, are still very valuable, and require being a mage or warlock to use the in a controlled way. The alternative form of the magic scrolls are items (typically jewelery) enchanted in a way that allows them to be used to cast a particular spell - they require recharging, but technically aren't a one-use only. They are also ways of enchanting a passive effect onto them, although in that case it's something that other thaumaturgists can use too (and in fact anyone else too).
The last of the common mages' tools of the trade are their robes (though at least for the Imperial Magic Guild it's more of a longcoat today), who are typically enchanted with some passive defensive magic and are capable of intercepting a number of attacks (depending on their quality) before stopping to work. This is mostly due to the mages being extremely vulnerable to unexpected attacks before they can set up some active defensive magic, since they lack both the regeneration and almost instant casting of sorcerers and the combat abilities of the martial artists.
Majority of the warlocks will have their equivalent of such tools, although with widely varied aesthetics and way different materials. An example can be the necormancers who can store the excess death mana but in remains of sapient creatures (bones, typically) instead of mana crystals, or the witches who use a variety of insects and parasites living in (or on, or next to) their body.

Sorcerers

Sorcerers are often seen as 'broken' mages, which is both true and false. It is a fact that many of them are former mages that attempted to improve their circle level and failed, leading to the shattering of their mana core. However, there are also many sorcerers that are born because they wanted to become sorcerers or because that's where they lives lead them to (slave adventurer candidates rarely have a choice on that matter).
Sorcerers do not possess a mana core, instead mana is freely flowing through their body in a manner completely uncontrolled, often said by the sorcerers to be like a raging flame that they cannon control. The fact that the mana is capable of occupying a much larger part of their body means that the sorcerers' mana pool is absolutely insane when compared to the mages.
Their lack of control, however, means that using it for a more detailed manipulation is simply impossible, and their mana regen is much slower than the one of the mages (which means that if you managed to make a sorcerer spend their mana, they will be pretty much harmless for a while. Sorcerers are essentially living weapons of war, capable of decimating anything that moves with what is basically a barely shaped discharges of the power that's filling them to the brim, called sorceries instead of spells.
In short, they excel at offensive magic, especially of the AoE kind.
They get corrupted easily, and are almost impossible to be reverted back to their original form due to both lack of control and the overwhelming amount of magic that - when tainted - will affect their minds to an extreme degree. Many of the fallen sorcerers are barely cognizant living weapons who live for their faction and only think thoughts aligned with its will.
Their mana overflow attunement are extremely prone to changes even within the constraints of their own mana type. In a way, they resemble elementals given human form, with a lot more detailed system of attunements than the magic schools mentioned above. Instead of elemental sorcerers, you have fire sorcerers, water sorcerers, electric sorcerers etc. etc. They can easily swing between the attunements, who for them are akin to aspects of mage's magic schools. However, the more sorceries of a single attunement they cast in short succession, the stronger their attunement, making successive spells stronger but also harder to control.
On the other hand, when they are thoroughly filled with mana, it empowers their body's recovery. They might not grow back a limb, but they might recover from, for example, massive third degree burns within hours. Their healing is directly tied with the overflow attunement - a sorcerer with high fire attunement will be able to heal their burns extremely quickly, but will struggle greatly with frostburns. This mechanism does nothing to numb the pain, however.
It's entirely possible for them to accidentally kill themselves by going too far. Freezing or burning themselves to death. As a result, focusing on attack sequences or jumping between two or more attunements are both valid tactics for the sorcerers.

Subtypes

High Sorcerer is the ascended form of the sorcerers. Their progression is linear, with the sorcerers continuously empowering their mana pool size with ambient mana (especially in the Lost Lands) and by larger 'foreign' discharges of it (so, in short, by banishing or killing powerful supernatural creatures). At some point they, however, reach the highest possible power level.
However, if they manage to slay (or be right next to slaying) of something particularly powerful attuned with an element that their internal mana is presently attuned to (and extremely so), the result might be a breakthrough (or death). High Sorcerers are permanently attuned to a single element but are also something akin to a elemental, just with mortal mind in charge.

Fallen Sorcerers

They are fallen sorcerers for every type of mana save for the soul and time ones - while in theory such sorcerers should be possible, their inability to mask their usage of magic and tendency for a large-scale spell casting means that they would be instantly found and exterminated by the Searing Light.
Listing them all down is rather useless, as they can be summarized as AoE equivalent of their mage versions. So, for example, death sorcerer will generally lack control over the undead but can sap life from a large area (sometimes to the level when they are pretty much walking wastelands) and sometimes spontaneously resurrect everything in the vicinity (but, as it was said, without control over the resulting undead) and so on.

Tools

Sorcerers typically do not use tools special tools to guide their power, unless you count items such as painkillers as their 'tools of a trade'. Their overwhelming discharges of magic would have quickly damaged any wand or staff, and that's if they somehow achieved enough control over them to actually guide their power into the tools before eruption (but if they did, they would be mages rather than sorcerers).

Martial Artists

The result of application of magic theory to the martial arts of old, inspired and achieved by a handful of preimperial civilizations - and then improved and expanded upon by the Second Era Grand Empire. The martial artists are magic users who went through a rather special training during which they establish a network of magic nodes and flowlines scattered throughout their body, connecting their muscles, joints and tendons (plus organs and skin in some cases) into a single, massive network referred to commonly as mana pathways.
This allows them to selectively empower particular nodes when in battle, in order to amplify their respective bodyparts activity. Martial artist can for example empower their bones to strengthen them before taking a hit, or power up every tendon, joint and muscle that's needed to make an inhumanly powerful weapon swing that can shatter a rock apart. Alternatively reinforce their skin, amplify their liver function to fight off a poison, enhance eyes for better eyesight or - if they are really powerful - redirect the entire impact of a truly powerful attack through their body (without damaging it) and into the ground under their feet.
The martial arts have an extremely close ties to biology and anatomy - and, in fact, they tend to be born of cooperation between practitioners and alchemists with deep knowledge of the anatomy. As one can also imagine, the anatomical differences between species tend to get in the way, and as a result the techniques of a martial school created by humans and for humans will simply not work for elves. Every notable species in Karadia tend to have their own martial arts, typically tailored to enhance their biological strengths and offset their weaknesses.
The result is warriors who are capable of performing superhuman feats, and sometimes can reach the level of power that's simply ridiculous, and includes fighters capable of measuring up to demigods (even if typically with some support, but even then, merely surviving a hit from such an entity is a feat that few in Karadia achieved).
Non-martial artists warriors exist, but they tend to never rank up from being town watchmen and are capable of hunting only the most basic of the supernaturals. Today, the martial arts - at least the basic ones - are considered to be absolute necessity for anyone carrying around around a weapon. Because of that - and due to their awakening process being significantly longer but not carrying a risk of turning them into sorcerers - they are the most common form of thaumaturgists in the modern Grand Empire, outnumbering the mages and sorcerers 50:1.
However, overwhelming majority of them lacks ambitions to actually improve their power levels save for what they need for their job, with the number of 'ambitious' martial artists being only slightly higher than that of mages and sorcerers.

Subtypes

Human Martial Artists tend to be focused on strength and toughness. They are rarely very fast, though all schools have some footwork techniques for dashing close to an enemy who is in their relative proximity. They also tend to tie closely with their weapons (which can actually be connected to their mana network by more competent martial artists to enhance it greatly too) and tend to prefer usage of armors, sometimes very heavy. In the end, any human martial master will probably be an almost unstoppable juggernaut who can still use their weapons properly to deal a lot of damage.
Elven Martial Artists tend to be focused on speed and agility. They are quick, sometimes to a degree that seems impossible - for example high elven martial artists often reach the level when they seem to be teleporting around the battlefield, each teleport resulting in a few more severed heads flying around. They still pack enough of a punch to be a danger, although they appear to prefer using reach weapons (twohanded swords, spears etc.), since they are well aware that they simply cannot take hits like for example humans. Any elven martial master will be able to blink throughout the battlefield, identifying and striking weakspots at will, and will be have access to rather incredibly mobility techniques allowing them to stand on things that they normally shouldn't be able.
Beastkin Martial Artists tend to be a much more varied cousins to the human and elven martial arts. They have a lot of 'slow, but tough and can punch through a boulder' martial schools dedicated typically for more physically imposing species. On the other hand those who are less suited for such martial arts tend to go for mobility. What they all have in common (and what is a bit of a unique thing) is their tendency to be more outward. The tougher beastkin can use martial arts to project their anger and bloodlust (which is enough to give most of their enemies a pause), while those weaker ones tend to be capable of misdirecting enemy attacks and making themselves harder to notice.
Goblin Martial Artists are aware that they simply can't measure up to humans in toughness, nor to elves in speed. Instead they developed a martial art that allows them to achieve the same - if not more - by using numbers. Goblin warriors get progressively more dangerous in numbers, and while a single hobgoblin will be typically defeated by his human equivalent, ten of them will easily defeat ten humans. This is achieved by a form of outward projection martial art that created passive augmentation field attuned to the goblin martial arts.

Fallen Martial Artists

There are very, very few 'truly' fallen martial artists. The reason for this is the decentralized nature of their mana nodes. A martial artist can 'taint' 99% of his nodes, yet remain non-fallen for as long as they keep the node in their brain clean. There will be no corruption, because this node will keep their mind clean of the foreign influences. However the Grand Empire generally dislikes people meddling around potentially corruptive influences, and developing martial arts that require your nodes to be selectively corrupted is forbidden in the Empire.
There are many schools developed by the inhabitants of the Lost Lands (or that broke the imperial law and were banished there as a result), however even they often frown on altering your brain node due to it causing mental changes that can be sometimes harmful to the martial artist in the longer term. On the other hand, there are also martial schools that demand it from their practitioners, which is where truly fallen martial artists - and their often rather terrible combat techniques - come from.

Tools

Majority of the martial artists uses a variety of weapons and armors, with especially veteran human warriors excelling at employing them to their utmost capabilities (by expanding their mana nodes to them and making them almost a part of their body that they can control to incredible degree - and further enhance beyond their strength level and flexibility). There are also cases of martial artists who prefer to fight barehanded (and has reached the power level when they can cave in a plate armour with their punch), and those who prefer to improve their natural abilities while wielding ranged weaponry.