Types of Magic

Magic

Introductory Note

Magic is a thing most diverse. For the almost twenty thousand years that has passed since the Separation, numerous ways of altering the world in a supernatural way (called 'magic' by modern scholars of the Grand Empire) were created. Thousands vanished in the past as their practitioners died out, but thousands remain to this day. Each magic has different ways of learning it and different ways of growing in power. They have different limits, different fields on which they excel. They have different sources - but sometimes these are left forever unknown. Their practitioners are called differently.
To try to sum them all up is a folly, for there are entire civilizations out there that were never visited by any citizen of the Grand Empire. And there are many more known in the Grand Empire only as myths and legends. Even the types of magic existing in the Grand Empire alone are a legion. However some of them are enjoying a truly dominant position, and some that has managed to become a notable and well-known cultural elements. Their number is low enough to mention them all.
Unfortunately, many creators of various types of magic were awfully unimaginative in their naming sense. Many of them weren't even aware that what they made was supernatural - all they did was just become very good in something, and then taught others how to become good just like them. Even today, the Grand Empire considers 'magic' to be an umbrella term for numerous types of powers hailing from various sources. Rather than trying to describe various 'types' of magic, it is much better to sum up various type of magic users, describing how exactly they use their powers. The only difference will be the holy magic, which works slightly differently as a whole.

The Qinumvirate

Introduction

"The Quinumvirate" is a common nickname for the four dominant types of magic users within the Grand Empire. While there are many more types out there, its these five that tend to stand in the spotlight. It's mostly due to them being closest to what can be described as 'imperial' magic, as they are not only common in the Grand Empire but also form the bulk of magic users in the ranks of various imperial organizations and the Grand Empire's armed forces.
However the fact that they are the most common doesn't necessarily mean that they are the most powerful ones or the most versatile ones. In fact, they all have their drawbacks and their strengths.

Mages

Mages of the Grand Empire are magic users who granted access to the powers of the World Engine (the source of all Creation in the imperial cosmology) through a contact with a spirit (typically of the daemonic kind), rarely a lesser divine. Said spirits share a part of themselves with the mage, which becomes a mana core - a raging ball of pure magical energy that can be then used to power up various acts of magic (known typically as 'spells').
The spells are executed with proper mana circulation and correct spell template. Mana circulation means moving carefully measured ammount of mana from the core to the appropriate part of the body - for example to fire a simple fireball spell one has to move proper ammount of mana to the point of fireball origin, for example a fingertip. The spell template is proper formation, frequency and intensity of the mana deployed, which define the exact result of magic used. The templates used to be learned from archmagicians, though during the Second Era a technique for anchoring spells in certain materials (typically various types of jewels and crystals) was found. This allowed to 'save' various spells in crystals, allowing others to learn the magic from it. Though if they spell is too powerful for their mana core and ability to control mana, the result might be dangerous.
Creating new spell templates is incredibly dangerous. A small error in template creation can change a long range fireball into a bomb spell rigged to detonate the second its launched. Because of that, new spell templates are typically created by archmages - the select few magicians that reached the peak of their profession. It is believed that even the archmages aren't fully sure of how exactly the template creation works - it is after all a spirit magic, one that mortals merely borrow from them. As a result, mortals typically aren't 'built' and 'optimized' for this type magic, resulting in certain hardcoded limitations.
Mages are capable of precise mana manipulation, making them good choice for various rituals, and both support and defensive magic. They also form the basis of enchanters and techmaturgists in charge of machinery. On the other hand, their mana core (even trained for decades) will never be capable of storing a lot of mana. Even with their relatively fast mana regeneration, they tend to lose in pure contests of power with many other types of magic users. As a result, they aren't particularly well suited for offensive magic. On the other hand, they are rather diverse, and can use most school of magic - though they are
The most powerful and ambitious magicians go through a complicated and extremely dangerous magical ritual (finding out how to do it is a part of a journey, so you can't learn it in school) during which their soul is bound to their mana core. The result is a creation of an archmage, a divergent form of a daemon spirit anchored to a flesh bodysuit made of their old body. Archmages are incredibly powerful. They are de facto immortal (and capable for amassing knowledge and artifacts for centuries), and incredibly resistant towards physical damage - an archmage can continue fighting even with his vocal cords squashed, arms ripped off, spine broken and the skull caved in. They are typically slain by a truly overwhelming magic, or by being sliced into pieces and then dissolved in acid or burned.

Sorcerers

Sorcerers attain their power by being exposed to mana - it might be a presence of an overwhelmingly powerful spirit or a divine being, or being near a place of repeated casting of powerful magic or spending too much time in place where the fabric of reality is distorted by magic. Most sorcerers, however, are created by drinking or even bathing in aether, the liquid form of mana. It's much faster method, though one that requires caution. Too much exposure might cause a body to explore or warp violently, though it happens only when the overdose is a massive one. Even slight overdose can be very painful, however.
The result is a growing inferno of mana power coursing through one's body. It's an overwhelming ammount of power, overwhelming enough for the precise manipulation (such as the ones that the mages excel in) to be impossible. Sorcerers are weak in terms of supporting or weakening magic - instead they are living engines of war, unleashing torrents of devastating magic upon their enemies. Sorcerers have much more mana available than their typical rivals (the mages), but instead their mana regeneration tends to be horrible - in prolonged engagements they are forced to rely to external sources of it, be it mana restoring alchemies, drinking aether or their own mana stored in various crystals.
Their spells have little to do with delicate and controlled casting of the mages. Sorcerers unleash barely formed discharges of magic defined by their thoughts and emotions. A sorcerer thinking of fire will unleash terrifying firestorms and powerful fireballs, while a sorcerer thinking of ice will freeze everything in the vicinity. What's more, the focus on a single element attunes the raging currents of mana within sorcerer's body to that particular element, further empowering the successive casting of spells of that nature - this allows sorcerers to unleash some truly terrifying chain attacks. As a negative side effect of that, too much focus on a singular element causes an emotional feedback, both short and long term. A short term feedback might result in a fire sorcerer losing himself to the flames and begining to burn everything in the vicinity in a state similar to a berserk fury. A long term feedback typically results in sorcerers using too much fire magic to be short-tempered and emotional, with especial fondness for rage.
Sorcerers grow by further exposure to magic, typically fighting and killing many daemons, drinking a lot of aether - though the further a sorcerer goes, the less useful the latter method is. Some extremely powerful sorcerers risk making an attempt to become a high sorcerer. Unlike archmages, here the recipe for ascension is well known. Soak yourself in aether bath for several days (only the most powerful of sorcerers can survive that), and then defeat a powerful spirit. The result is the sorcerer's body failing to withstand the influx of energy, as the aether that it was soaked in reacting violently to the spirit's mana. Many go insane in the process and are warped beyond recognition, changing into dangerous beast that has to be put down. Others simply die, by frozen, burned or exploded to death. Only these with most stalwart of willpowers will survive the process and retain their sanity.
The result is a mortal soul and mind reigning over a body of daemon. The result is typically a mesh of the moral's body, his preferred school of magic and the spirit that was slain during the ascension ritual - for example a human fire sorcerer who achieved ascension by slaying a powerful fae might end up a hybrid between a human, and a fae - with its plant-like parts being permanently on fire, together with the human' hair. High sorcerers are incredibly dangerous, their magic firepower, their mana regen and their mana storages all growing exponentially.

Theurgists

Theurgists' status as magic users is up to debate. They aren't capable of using spells in traditional sense of the word, instead they are merely channeling powers of Divines they serve. The theurgists themselves serve merely as conduits through which the power flows (though they also decide when and where it should flow through). Theurgists attain their power by entering into a covenant with a deity of their chosing, which is typically done through special rituals (not a magical ones) in local temples. However, the entry conditions and details of granted powers vary between the Gods.
Majority of them, for example, expects their theurgists to be exclusively 'theirs' - turning the practitioners of other types of magic away right at the start (there are also cases of people giving up their skills in other types of magic, and being properly 'reimbursed' in potent theurgies for their sacrifice). However for example gods of war will typically be completely ok with aura users, and gods of magic will see no issue with other types of magic (though the theurgies received from them will typically be tailored to compliment the non-theurgist skills and powers, while the exclusive theurgists will receive all sorts of powers). The gods typically will only pick theurgists that suit their outlook on the world, mortals and morality.
Theurgists lack 'mana'. Instead, they all cary an item blessed by their patron. It might be a small symbol of their deity, or something large (like a sword, shield or a staff, though they will need to be slightly remodelled to include at least some religious symbols). This item is used to store the power of the divine patron (as channeling it 'literally' through the theurgists' body would be most likely fatal), which is typically called 'favour'. The power is gained by theurgists acting as their god(s) dictate, so through making proper moral choices, working proper occupation, and in some cases destroying right people and defeating correct spirits. Acting against the god's commandments will drain the favour, and in some extreme cases might result in theurgist losing all his supernatural abilities, though there are ways of atoning for such sins. Also the definition of 'extreme' case varies between gods.
These powers can be used to unleash incredibly powerful theurgies. What a passes for a moderately powerful theurgists can dish out damage equalling a truly powerful sorcerer (and buff/debuff like a truly powerful mage). However due to the way their 'mana' works, they are incredibly limited on that field. It might take days of fasting, self-flagellation, hard work, running charity or whatever else their deity expects from its worshippers to gather favour for a theurgy of this magnitude. As as a reason, theurgists are typically rather scarce is using the divine powers, instead preferring to rely on other means of fighting. An example might the divine protection that all the theurgists receive (it can be summed up as an omnidirectional all-purpose magic shield with its maximum resistance capped according to the ammount of favour possessed), or benedictions (number of weak powers granted to theurgists typically as means of self-defense, that cost favour only when learned as they can be used freely).
This also means that there is no greater terror upon the battlefield than a theurgist straight from some hidden religious community (for example a closed monastery) who could have spend decades amassing favour. Such mortals are capable of laying waste to armies, especially if they are cornered enough to spend their entire favour in a single battle (though they are thankfully rather rare - though not rare enough for few cases of battles between such theurgists to have occured in the past).
But the true terror are the celestials - the most successful of the theurgists who 'ascend' into a half-daemon state by partially merging with their divine symbol. The result is an incredibly powerful (and pretty much immortal) theurgists recognizable by an immaterial halo floating above their head, its colour and texture serving as a way of recognizing their patron deity. Their very existence is a hymn venerating the gods, resulting in every celestial recharging their favour passively. Their divine protection is much stronger and so are their benedictions. Their number is limited only by the fact that many of them consider being a celestial only a middle-step between mortality and ascension into a status of a lesser divine or a daemon spirit serving their god.

Aura Users

Aura is the fourth part of the Quinumvirate, which uses an ambient background mana, that the entire multiverse is infused with ever since its inception. Aura users are capable of drawing that power into their body (or, in case of really competent ones, to other objects) and using it to strengthen themselves beyond level normally possible. It is a foundation for various martial arts existing within the Grand Empire, and approximately 98% of warriors capable of facing spirits, beasts and monsters in combat. It is a power that is so easy to learn (at least the basics of it) that many people use it unconsciously - for example many miners learn some basic strengthening methods by accident or by following the tips from the older miners.
However it takes years to learn the ways of aura properly. Even excluding the techniques (the aura' spell-equivalents), each body has a set limit on how much aura it can store. It can be raised by spending hours daily on drawing and circulating aura through your body, slowly improving its aura conductivity. Second Era Grand Empire found a way of measuring it on a 1-100 scale, with 1 being the lowest possible conductivity (typically seen on infants or people on the verge of dying from old age) to 100 (being the highest possible conductivity for a being of flesh and blood). Reaching highest level make take decades of hard work. In fact, it's rare for more than one level 100 to arise from a million aura users. Level 100 is essentially ten times the level 10 (which is highest level available for mortals in peak condition without training aura), meaning that the aura user of this level can strengthen his every blow to a level ten times stronger than the strongest unaugmented mortal in existence.
Aura techniques can be used for both straightforward strenghtening but also to manifest some relatively 'weak' reality-bending type of magic (for example multiplying the hits, having the enemy receive two, five or ten blows per one attack). They are also movement techniques, allowing aura users to move around and dodge attacks faster than it should be possible. Higher level of aura skills also allows one to strengthen themselves and their strikes by borrowing powers from defeated spirits and beasts, and to reinforce weaponry to an impossible level of sharpness, resistance or blunt strength. Although weapon and spirit techniques are typically something that's a very sight on the battlefield.
There are numerous schools teaching martial arts in the Grand Empire (and some beyond it, especially on Telya and in Visenia), each with slightly different work ethics and different set of movement, strengthening, weapon and/or spirit techniques (plus some rarer things, such as domain techniques). There are typically differentiated between the white schools (who attempt to teach their students some general ethics, if not outright 'noble knight' mentality), black schools (for whom power is something to be used and desired, no matter the cost - and screw ethics), and grey schools (who are simply training everyone that applies, and are often in contract with various countries or organizations for whom they are providing 'cheap' and competent fighting force. Naturally, the conflicts between the schools of the Three Colours is often fierce.
Those that reach highest level of aura can, in fact, go further. Reaching the apex of conventional aura power allows one to achieve de facto immortality by constant alterations of their body natural processes'. This can be used to enter the special, often centuries-long meditation that results in aura user breaching the wall separating mortals from immortals, changing their body into something much more than it used to be. The result is an aura master, immortal masters of combat that can face demigods or titan in pure contest of physical power.

Mentalists

Mentalists are fifth most common (and accepted in popular use) category of magic, which unlike the preceding four does have a wide number of limitations due to its potential for abuse. Mentalists are severely restricted, with numerous powers of their trade considered to be forbidden under the pain of death - or worse. Grand Empire tends to be lax on many fields, but ability for mind control isn't one of them.
Mentalists are born by being 'awakened' by an active mentalist - the process can be summed up as a mentalist pushing the mind of the recruit out of the body. Those with potent natural mental power will fail to return to consciousness on their own, requiring the mentalist in charge of the procedure to pull them back (the rest awakes quickly, the less gifted they are on the field the faster - though it has to be mentioned that those who are awakened immediately tend to be extremely resistant to mental powers). The result is a new mentalist of incredibly weak power, that needs to be continuously improved by practice.
Mentalists main power is their ability to alter one's mind. Of course, it's at best a temporary debuff on the battlefield - competent mentalist can sow confusion and friendly fire, though with each manipulation tiring them mentally and being able to maintain their tricks for few seconds at best before minds of the opponent repel the obvious falsehoods in front of them. Hallucinations and illusions are their trade. However those that achieve masteryof this trade can be extremely dangerous - their illusions can be much more subtle and harder to discern from truth, and there are even talks of some mentalists capable of creating illusions so complex that they can even fool touch.
The only problem that the Grand Empire has with mentalists is that their ability for a fairly successful brainwashing. It's not something that can 'charm' an enemy during the battle to side with you, it takes days of hard work for the smallest of changes. But with few months, the victim's emotion, thoughts, beliefs and so on can be shaped into whatever form the mentalist desires (the speed greatly relies on power and experience of the mentalist). This makes them incredibly popular with various underground organizations - especially those that train slaves in a way that wouldn't gain popular acceptance if it was done openly. If mentalist is sufficiently competent and the changes aren't outlandish, there's no way of finding out if a mentalist was involved in the changes. They are also useful for implementation of suicide triggers (resulting in a member of criminal organization committing suicide unconsciously on capture) and so on.
Rarely, a mentalist grows to the level of power where his psyche can exist without direct connection to the body. This allows an Unbound mentalist to jump between bodies, invading beings of weaker minds to take their bodies over. Unbound are tolerated when the bodies seized by them belong to criminals who were commit crimes sufficiently heinous to warrant execution (occasionally an Unbound will lay claim to such a body, which is considered an execution (just slightly different). Those that move between bodies of unsuspecting civilians will be hunted down and executed by the Grand Empire.

The Ten Forbidden Disciplines

Introduction

The following ten disciplines are considered taboo (to a varying degree) in the Grand Empire, resulting in their practitioners being either discriminated against or actively prosecuted (which might reach all the way to kill-on-sight status). It's never without a reason, as the Empire is determined to get as much as possible from its every inhabitant - killing is always seen as waste of precious material.
The most common reason for being forbidden is due to disciplines in question being incredibly dangerous for their user and everyone in the vicinity alike, some to the point where they get actively prosecuted by the Imperial Gods themselves.

Warlocks

Warlocks are magic users who serve the Breathless Tide, undead legions hellbent on ending the existence of life throughout the multiverse. This alone would normally be enough to warrant their entire magic a taboo, but in case it wasn't enough for someone, its also powered by killing things. The result of that and desecration of graves and dead bodies that warlocks seem so interested in is enough to make the very knowledge about their magic a crime punished by forceful memory alteration and erasure of said knowledge. To use such a magic willingly, however, is enough to get executed unless one had a very good reason to do that. And that's when one gets captured by imperial authorities. The Gravewatch, the personal death squads of Mors, the Exarch of Passage, are allowed to killed all warlocks on sight.
The magic used by warlocks is based on the theurgies of Calamitas (the Hierarch of Disaster) and Nex (the Hierarch of Undeath), which greatly compliment the warlock' powers (though one can be a warlock without bending their knees to the two gods of the Breathless Tide). Warlock's magicks can drain or damage the Vigor - the primal life force existing in all that lives. If a warlock drains it, he can corrupt it into 'black mana' - the magic power tainted with death that is then used to power up warlock's spells (known as hexes). If he damages it, he can deal direct damage, destroying his opponents vital strength until their bodies fail to continue living.
Warlocks act as a living black holes for the Vigor, as the very magic they use makes them slowly die. This process is extremely slow for adept warlocks, but the strongest of them are quite literally walking wastelands, killing everything around them with their sheer presence. The oldest and most powerful warlocks aren't undead, but they are pretty close to becoming them. Plants wilt, small animals drop dead, and mortals feel diseased and if they spend too much time in warlock's presence, they might fall into sleep they will never wake up from.
And it's not even the most scary part of warlock's power. They are all necromancers, capable of using black mana to give false life to bodies of mortals, animals, beasts and monsters alike. Some of them can even reanimate physically manifested spirits (though only those resembling in built the creatures mentioned ealier). They can sacrifice their black mana to summon reinforcements from the Black Tomb, the Inner World acting as a home realm of the Breathless Tide - either as physical servants or as immaterial spirits to possess prepared bodies. They can call upon the powers of Calamitas, invoking powerful curses.
The strongest of them all can become liches, fully abandoning all pretenses of mortality and converting all of their vigor into black mana, changing themselves into an undead. That is a dangerous thing to do, as they can easily lose their sanity during the process, erasing their own personality in the process. Liches no longer need to bother maintaining some semblances of life, which means that they process greater percentage of drained vigor into black mana, making them much more powerful. And immortal - few centuries to learn more and more powerful hexes helps you raise in power greatly.

Occultists

Occultism is, in a way, similar to theurgy - but with all safety measures off, and much less nice entities serving as a power source. Occultists channel raw powers of enigmatics, the evil counterpart of conceptuals and energetics that are typically worshipped in civilized societies. These 'magic' warps them internally, changing them into something decidedly supernatural that still wears the pretense of their old body.
Unlike all typical magical professions, the occultism is learned entirely through strange studies and forbidden rituals. Each bit of eldritch knowledge they intake, each ritual they finish - it also slowly but inevitably makes them less and less mortal. Many lose their grip on reality and become rampaging beasts. Other - those with potent enough willpower - will persevere, maintaining the ability to discern reality from unreality, and will not lose themselves to the influence of their deranged gods (not entirely, at least). That's the road that brings an occultist to an even greater power.
The least 'normal' the occultist is, the greater its power. Occultist powers do not require mana, instead they are closer in form to a deranged reality warping, destroying sanity of observers, manifesting things that shouldn't be and warping everything into a terrible shapes. Unlike the more versatile types of magic, majority of occultists have merely few powers at their disposal - but each of them will be terrifyingly powerful.
The most powerful of the occultists can go through a magical ritual known as 'Gate of Abandonment'. It is believed that this is no 'real' gate - and instead it is an act of ultimate blasphemy in the eyes of the Gods. Occultist going through that ritual allows the eldritch corruption to spread to their soul, which is pulled into its corporeal body and merged together into one, hideous form. The result is an ascension into an Aberrant form and saying goodbye to all remnants of normalcy.
As a result, the occultists are generally persecuted and killed on sight (which is accompanied by burning of all books concerning occultism plus destruction of all of their tools of trade. Only occultists serving few enigmatics are spared from that treatment, and even that doesn't mean that their excused from execution - it's just that they are deemed as mostly harmless (due to their 'masters' being alien rather than malevolent) and receive a very low priority on the proscription lists. Resulting with their cults either ignored or being shoved away when the death squads are coming, as they are considered nuisance not worth the time.

Druids

Druids are magic users who gain their power through the blood ritual performed with a mortal and a sapient Fae of one of the many Wild Courts. The result is a mortal touched by the wild power of the Fae, capable of sensing its metaphorical heartbeat and channel raw energies of life. Druids are masters - and servants - of nature. They can command, alter and warp nature at will, though with their power having a number of side-effects and weaknesses, typically depending on the environment.
Druids' power is severely dependent on the presence and variety of natural life in the vicinity. Druids in the city are almost powerless, but get dangerous in the forests and downright terrifying in the Wild Lands. The repertoire of supernatural abilities they can field is mostly based on the nature around them, with the same druid being able to field completely different set of 'spells' within a jungle and within a temperate forest (and that's without talking about a really weird Wild Lands).
The druids can manipulate local plantlife and force its explosive and direct growth. The results are sharp needles used as projectiles, mind-controlling, toxic or hallucinogenic gas clouds, and vines or roots used to entangle or bury enemies. They can forcefully 'manifest' these powers from any plantlife, however such a large scale change is very taxing to the fae blood in their vines (its intensity - which grows over time - decides how powerful they are). It is much easier to use rootstalks or seeds of foreign plants of capable of executing the desire action.
Forcing plant to grow 'explosively' is also extremely taxing to the soil. Places where druids battle are typically changed into a barren wasteland in the aftermath. Unless it's done in the Wild Lands, the druids will typically prefer to talk or use their other ability - the one that allows them to command animals. In Wild Lands the destroyed ground will rebuilt quickly, outside of it however the druids will typically feel a moral obligation to end up restoring the ground, though this depends on whether doing so would endanger them personally.
The eldest druids sometimes decides to undergo a painful and dangerous ascension ritual in order to become hierophants. To achieve that their blood needs to be thick with natural energies of the Fae - which means that only the oldest of them can hope to achieve that. Prospecting hierophant finds a place of completely natural purity (so typically deep in the Wild Lands) and physically merges themselves with nature. Many lose themselves and become part of it. Others keep their sapience despite being rooted in the grounds for decades, blooming and producing fruits like a tree wood. At some point they uproot themselves and force themselves back into a roughly humanoid form, ready to tread the woods again.
Druids and hierophants are typically unwelcome in civilized society. They are servants of the Wild Courts, as wild and dangerous as nature typically is - and just as much uncaring for lives of normal humans. And that's without mentioning the druids that fall to madness when their Court is devoured by beasts of Occasa - or those serving the Fae that consider civilization to be enemies of the nature. Some of their Circles sometimes manages to struck some sort of arrangements with local communities, but treaties like that are often a ticking bomb waiting to blow up when the local Court changes their mind about existence of civilization. As a result, druids are often persecuted, though without the fervour of the purges of occultists, warlocks and witches.

Witches

Witches are feared and loathed in the Grand Empire - and rightly so. They serve the forces of the Rampant Bloom, and their gods - Occasa (the Hierarch of Desolation) and Pestilentia (the Hierarch of Pus). Their powers are those of death, destruction - and worse. Together with warlocks and occultists they are considered a kill-on-sight target for every imperial organization, but due to their religious sources they are typically targeted by various religious orders of the Imperial Cult.
Witches are created 'naturally' by exposure (and survival) of either a potent plague attributed directly to Vomica or a parasite infestation brought by monsters of Occasa. Majority of them are females (it's believed to be tied to the gender of the gods in charge of the Bloom), however there are some male ones. Only a minuscule ammount of survivors ends that way, and typically those that were sufficiently malevolent in character even before. Most of them enjoy their new status. And some are simply broken by what they went through during their transformation. What's common is that the other magical powers are either completely gone after the transformation or vastly reduced in power (only the theurgies of Occasa and Pestilentia are untouched).
Their magic is one of self-mutilation. Witches gain new powers with every plague they go through, every parasite that infests them and every monster they ate a chunk of their flesh (the histories about them lying with said monsters is generally believed to be false, if only due to it being anatomically impossible in case of most monsters). Every plague they assimilated they can unleash upon their enemies. Every parasite they can replicate and spread. Every monster they bonded with they can control, see through its eyes or even shapeshift into.
The side effect of the exposure to numerous harmful influences is progressing wasting of the bodies of the witches (who grow more and more disfigured as the time passes and the stronger they grow). Typically the more disgusting and terrifying a witch is, the higher the danger posed. This trend is basically reversed by the Great Witches - to become one of them, one has to be a witch in peak power that goes through a special ritual during which she or he is exposed to a dreadful plague of hypervirulent parasite directly from the domain of their goddesses, and survives the resulting transfiguration with mind intact. Great Witches are outwardly unblemished and perfect, but under their skin there is nothing but rotting flesh and swarms of parasites.
There are occasional cases of witches who are 'born' by accident and refuse to use their powers. Imperial Cult knows of at least several rituals dedicated to different Gods that can 'purify' such individual, making them no longer a witch. When a witch gives him/herself up, these treatment is employed. This is one and only exception to the 'kill-on-sight' rule, maybe save for extremely rare cases of someone who isn't even aware that they are a witch. There are cases of warlocks and occultists tolerated or even doing some small-scale good deeds, but witches are a danger of giant magnitude due to simply existing.

Soul Warpers

Soul Warpers are a type of magic users that go beyond the conventional meaning of the term 'prohibited'. Each usage of soul warping requires intense ammount of preparations and camouflage, as otherwise the very reality would reject that. Each usage of these powers carries a risk of spirits serving Exarchs bursting into the world in an attempt to butcher the caster, for it's one of the few things that the Gods do not stand.
Soul warpers are capable of manipulating souls and their connection to their body, drawing incredible ammounts of pure energy from them. Soul warpers can strengthen themselves, manipulate emotions and minds (on a much deeper than mentalists, with not even the strongest willpower allowing one to withstand such an attack) of people in the vicinity, or even bind souls of animals, beasts, mortals and spirits to objects or themselves - ensuring their complete and mindless obedience in the latter case, or have them spend potentially eternity in madness-inducing sensory deprivation (though spirits will do fine, more or less). Bounding mortal souls to an object is one of the things that guarantee powerful divine response.
Soul warpers are incredibly powerful and can do things that no other magic can defend against or revert the results. In exchange, they are universally hated, reviled and persecuted, and each casting of their power can bring upon the divine wrath. As a result, this is the type of magic that is practically extinct from the Grand Empire after centuries of relentless purges (and application of proper rituals allowing a soul warper to stop being a soul warper forever if so they wish).
The soul warpers are almost gone as the profession, as even for the powers and worshippers of evil this is a magic that is slightly too spicy. Today they are only encountered (extremely rarely) in the ranks of the Divine Wisdom (an aggresive magician group dedicated to unlocking the secrets of the Divines in hopes of ascension - regardless of how much they need to pay for that) and among the worshippers of Odius, the Hierarch of Hatred. With both groups being considered a kill-on-sight target for the imperial organizations, the soul warping is slowly going extinct completely.
It is currently unknown if there is any 'stronger' variant of the soul warpers, due to their rarity and how much of their past knowledge was lost. Ascension rituals of most of the other magical professions have connection to the soul, however it is a connection that's extremely limited and still mostly discouraged as extremely dangerous - this suggests that there might have been some form of proto-Ascension based solely on the Soul Warping. If it's true, then this knowledge is lost to the world.

Chronomists

Chronomists is a popular term for people capable of manipulating and altering time. It is the highest of taboos in the Grand Empire, one of the two of them (together with soul warping) that will actually warrant direct reaction of the Gods. That's because chronomists are an incredible danger to quite literally everyone and everything. Sufficiently powerful chronomists are theoretically capable (with extreme preparations) of moving back in time.
However quite literally every large scale attempt of changing past resulted in the world being messed up by Unexpected Consequences and Cascade Effect, resulting in the world changing for much worse. Great example is the Xylian Dominion successfully eliminating its main competitor via time magic, only to grow too strong, gain an attention of someone even more powerful and get exterminated thousands of years prior to the point where they attempted to change the past. As a result, time magic is incredibly dangerous and almost always ends up with the whole thing misfiring badly.
The weaker chronomist powers can be used relatively safely, but they tend to be of limited use. Slowing time down and making an enemy age rapidly sound great in theory, but in fact it's extremely rare for a chronomist powerful enough to be able to employ these powers with enough strength to be combat useful. Purges and persecutions wiped out 99% of truly powerful chronomists during the Dawn War and the 2nd Era, resulting in majority of chronomy being tricks rather than true powers. Mostly because Gods do not pursue tricks.
How the chronomists are 'born' is a mystery, but it is believed that there is some sort of power inheritance system in which preexisting chronomists can 'share' their power with prospecting users. These powers are powered by stolen time - the 'rapidly aging power' mentioned earlier is caused by chronomists tapping into someone's time, stealing it to power their other powers. The power level of a chronomists depends on how much stolen time can they hold in without the time breaking their body.
There is a form of Ascension associated with the chronomy, however it's a barely researched field, with even the few active chronomists in the Empire not knowing what's the trigger to it. Some of the ancient chronomists escaped the destruction wrought on them by the Gods by erasing themselves from the timeline. They are the Timeless, a collective (some say - a hivemind) of godlike entities that sometimes bring destruction to various parts of the world, picked through some unconceivable patterns. Learning how they are created is pointless - for those that learn this knowledge join the timeless by erasing their past, present and future from the history.

Infusers

Infusers are a relatively rare and mostly undeveloped branch of magic, mildly persecuted by association with two large groups of its users (namely the dragonbrides of the mountain elven tribes and the snow elves of the Ice Kingdoms). There are distinct differences between the rites of the groups, suggesting that both of them were created separately, by two different groups of elves backed into a corner. Both types are actively suppressed, but to a limited degree. The worst thing that the Grand Empire does to practitioners of infusing is to not give them work (which, together with many other organizations and groups following suit, seriously limits their ability to find honest work). Snow elves themselves are (with some exceptions) a kill-on-sight target, and the dragonbrides are commonly targeted too.
Infusers gain a vast array of supernatural powers by bathing in blood of various types of powerful beasts (there are unconfirmed and rather yucky tales that other types of bodily fluids can work too). Only one type of beast can work per person, as from certain level of infusion onward any incompatible bloodbath will result in weakening of the first infusion rather than strengthening of the latter. However, 'vast array of supernatural powers' is 'vast' due to the number of available beasts. Every person infused with a blood of the same type of creature will develop the same powers, though with a varrying intensity (depending on some personal aptitude and ammount of blood that they were exposed too). The creature in question cannot be a spirit (this is left to druids and some sorcerers).
The most common type of infusers in the popular culture are the dragonbrides, the ruling caste of the dragonworshipping mountain elven tribes. They all bathe in blood of old and dying dragons (there are recurrent talks of other types of bath, but it's considered rather malicious slander and a serious misinterpretation of the term 'bride'). The result is them being capable of breathing fire, their skin becoming incredibly strong, their reflexes improving and in some cases wings and tails growing off them. Dragonbrides are a good example of the results of the infusing as a whole. While much more constrained when it comes to the number of possible applications than common magic, infusing wins in the fact that it can be used continuously until physical fatigue kicks in. There is no mana involved - like occultism, it works by warping one's body on the inside.
Some of the most powerful and oldest of infusers are said to achieve the peak of their profession - the full abandonment of their mortal bodies. They become like beasts, but beasts fully rational and with the same mind as they used to have before the transformation. There is no official term for people who ended up that way, as every tribe who practices infusing has their own term for those 'ascended'.

Dominators

Dominators are a relatively rare category of magic users who gained a power not dissimilar to the mentalists. It is a magic believed to be derived from power of the Tyrannus, the Hierarch of Chains. Not all the dominators serve the Chained Legion, but overwhelming majority of them does. The dominators as a whole are a kill-on-sight targets within the Grand Empire, though with so many other problems to deal with the Empire will mostly focus on dominators in thrall to the Legion. Meaning that the independent dominators are mostly ignored unless they present themselves to a group of imperial personnel or start breaking other laws en masse.
Dominators are created similarly to the mentalists, by being awakened by someone who is already a dominator. However rather than being pulled out of their body, they become a target of mental assault. If their willpower turns out potent enough, they will hold their ground and gain the ability to project their own willpower. Of course, it's extremely rare for a dominator to be born by resisting a full-blown mental assault - there is an element of consent in that, as dominators seeking to create more of their kind will limit themselves to a high but not lethally high strength. What follows is a long training that is focused in increasing their mental power, willpower and general strength (which tends to be useful).
Dominators are to mentalists what warriors are to rogues. Mentalists work by tricks and illusion, while dominators brute force the issue. They can issue orders to enemies, which are enforced upon those of lesser willpower (for example a simple order to STOP might paralyze enemies, especially the weaker ones, but even the stronger ones will be slowed down). They can even target one enemy and force him or her to obey them for a while or empower their allies by driving them into almost mindless (but powerful) obedience.
That's not why dominators are so feared and persecuted. The real reason for that is the mindcracking. In the span of few hours a relatively novice dominator can completely and irreversibly shatter will of their mortal victim, changing him or her into an empty shell that retains all their knowledge and skills but is terminally dependent on the dominator. Such a shell will die of starvation in the middle of a bakery if not ordered to eat. What's more, the shell's latent mental power can be sapped by the dominator to further empower their abilities, or even be converted into mana and aura. Sufficiently cautious dominator can easily pretend to be a leader of an unusually well-organized adventurous party filled with nothing but him and his victims.
If that wasn't bad enough, powerful and experienced dominators can break an average's person will within seconds or minutes. They can also create thralls, a middle-step between normal servant and a mindcracked shell - thralls retain creativity and some degree of sapience, however are mindcracked just enough to be completely incapable of denying the dominator anything. It's no wonder that the dominators are killed when encountered (though the Grand Empire will look through the fingers on dominators focusing themselves on attacking its enemies, for as long as they only mindcrack people that would be executed by the Grand Empire on capture either way).
Extremely rarely a dominator goes through their own form of Ascendence and becomes the Archdominator (the name greatly portrays how superior these folks tend to feel). The ritual to achieve that is complicated and bloody - it is believed that it requires the dominator to simultaneously (or almost simultaneously) mindcrack a hundred person, devouring their minds one after another. This sudden growth of mental power will shatter the minds of majority of prospecting archdominators, but the survivors will become something else - beings of such an incredible willpower and mental power that even the Reality itself will be forced to obey their orders (though to a limited degree). Archdominators are all reality warpers, which naturally become a prime target of attention of the Grand Empire.

Shadowbloods

Shadowbloods are a special type of magic users serving the Shadowlight Covenant and its four deities. They are cases of shadowbloods not serving the Covenant, though it rarely changes the public approach to such a magic users. On the other hand, they are treated a bit like sensalists and infusers - while the ban on shadowblood arts is in effect permanently, it's rarely enforced for real unless some cabal of shadowbloods has just tried to lead a violent revolution. Keeping evil groups in balance and using them against one another is a common imperial tactic.
Shadowbloods achieve their trade by blood sacrifices. They spill blood on the ground within their on shadow, and as time passess more and more of the blood will vanish mysteriously and the greater the control of the shadowblood over their art. The shadow of the practitioner becomes darker and darker even regardless of circumstances (though it can be concealed). The shadow's density is akin to the remaining ammount of mana - when its depleted, the shadowblood is rendered mostly harmless. However actually depleting shadow is extremely problematic, since every light source lighting the user (and thus projecting shadow) acts like quite fast mana regeneration. Shadowbloods are vulnerable only when light comes from every direction at once (meaning no shadows) or when it's pitchblack or almost so (since there is no shadow without light). Of course, their 'shadow mana' can be cha
This magic is divided between Shadow Arts (dedicated mostly to Luna, Hierarch of Night, and Dolositas, Hierarch of Deceit) and Blood Arts (for those serving Saevius, the Hierarch of Conquest, and Laenimentus, the Hierarch of Progress). The former category focuses on manipulation of shadows, capable of making them become physically existing objects - and more. Practitioners of these arts can vanish within shadows, have them devour their enemies, use shadowy creatures as bodyguards or scouts, and so on. The later focuses on the blood - there are still blood sacrifices done in a relatively similar way, however the results is either wrathful intoxication and physical reinforcement (for the servants of Saevius) or cold rationality, precision of movements, bouts of inspiration and attention to details for the servants of Laenimentus. Both arts can also be used to summon reinforcements from the Higher Worlds of the Shadowlight Covenant.
There's no actual form of 'ascendence' for the shadowbloods, though the most powerful of them typically become vampires at some point, and finally become a daemon spirits in service of their gods. However, it is rare. And shadowbloods as a whole are typically seen as a powerful source of 'secondary' powers - for aura users (in case of Saevius), techmaturgy (Laenimentus), or any other type of primary magic for Luna and Dolositas.

Sensalists

Sensalists are to Rapturous Ecstasy what warlocks are for the Breathless Tide, the witches for the Rampant Bloom and the dominators for the Chained Legion. They are its chosen type of magic users, operating under entirely different precepts than the normal types of magic (and further reinforced by a 'proper' theurgy). In this case, sensalists are special type of magic users that draw their magical energy from various sensations. Sensalists are generally disliked and supressed, however this is not getting anyway as serious as the persecution of warlocks or occultists. They are a problem that is mostly self-containable.
These sensations range from benign (like the feeling of being happy about yourself after doing a good deed) through controversial (ecstasy brought by sex) and self-destructive (the feeling of high after taking drugs) to downright malevolent (the feeling of power felt after killing someone). The stronger the feeling, the more power gained by the sensalist (which, on itself, often leads to sensalists overdozing and getting addicted to even the most benign of sensations). This power can then be used to cast a variety of powers, with each sensalist typically having access to an array of skills aligned with his or her 'preferred' sensations. Magic of the sensalists can confuse the enemies, subject them to a set of symptoms identical to a variety of drugs, enflame lust or perhaps even draw some creatures from the Higher Realms controlled by the Rapturous Ecstasy. Or it can be converted into mana to be used to cast spells of magicians or sorcerers.
Replenishing of their mana is a problem in combat situation - they can restore it by simply reminiscing about their prefered sensations, but fantasizing about something on the battlefield tends to be a risky behaviour. They can also sap power of 'their' sensation from people in the vicinity, which is a rather useful trait. The reason for it is simple: sensalists are an inherently self-destructive profession. While powerful, majority of them falls victim to their own source of power (only those of truly incredibly willpower can avoid losing themselves). The good example of how useful the emotion drain is, is the fact that some of the most powerful sensalists dedicated to the act of carnal pleasures in Empire's history were eunuchs, relying entirely on this method.
There is no known ascension for sensalists, however some of them are believed to engorge themselves on such an incredibly amount of their primary sensation that they end up daemonified, becoming immortal (yet supernatural) servants of the Rapturious Ecstasy.

Creators

Introduction

The three 'Creator' profession serve as the foundation of the industry within the Grand Empire (with various degree of important throughout the Telyan continent and countries neighbouring the Grand Empire). While they typically lack ability to engage in combat, they have other uses - that sometimes make them much more influential and useful to society at large as the supposedly combat-oriented magic types.

Techmaturgists

Techmaturgists are a creator branch of common magicians. This profession starts through a similar way as magicians do - by a contract with a spirit that lets to a creation of a mana core. Magicians can be techmaturgists, and techmaturgists are all magicians - but the two profession have different focuses. Magicians need control and power, but techmaturgists only require control (although an impeccable one) and a lot of engineering knowledge.
The basis of all techmaturgy is enchanting - an art of infusing mana crystals with magic that results in a creation of various passive and (rarely) active effects of very narrow adaptability (unless the user is a magician and consciously manipulates the magic in a mana crystal, the effects are going to be exactly as programmed). However the 'true' techmaturgy is about creation of complicated mechanisms, entire arrays of such enchantments.
Techmaturgy is, in short, a magic-based technology. It allows creation of a complicated machinery capable of many miraculous effects. However the overwhelming majority of the techmaturgic might was lost together with the Second Era. With the knowledge on how to create a self-regulating machinery lost, all truly powerful techmaturgies are impossible to be recreated as the magic inside them will tear them apart rather quickly without its flow being regulated.
As a result, techmaturgy - that was once considered to be the queen of all magicks - is one merely an addition to the magician's trade, typically taken by those seeking not a great power but instead a stable income. In the past the techmaturgic might of the Empire was so high that many powerful techmaturgists abandoned their bodies of flesh and moved over to a perfect recreation of their bodies but from metal and crystal. Today this type of ascension is all but lost, the warmachines need a techmaturgists to operate them remotely (and not from a large distance), and the remaining factories capable of churning out goods in endless numbers are all priceless relics of the Second Era.
Only the enchanting is ever in demand.

Alchemists

Alchemists are a creator profession that can be (roughly) described as an equivalent of biology and chemistry made in a magic world. It's a 'science' of creating a variety of chemicals (more or less magical) with properties that are often miraculous, or at the very least supernatural. From mushrooms, leaves, roots, blood and internal organs, minerals, crystals and even some decidedly eldritch materials - all of that can be changed into a number of potent drugs that serve as the basis for healthcare and welcome sight among the adventurers and soldiers.
There are three main layers of alchemy - the alchemy itself, the alkachemy and the azochemy. Alkachemy and azochemy operate on a completely different level - they work by mixing concepts and ideas behind physical ingredients rather than ingredients themselves. All of that is organized under a rather complicated philosophy that has all aspiring alchemists attempt to work they way up, all the way into completing the magnum opus - the local equivalent of an ascendence.
Alkachemists aren't potent enough to be considered equivalents of other ascended professions, but are capable of many incredible feats. Azochemists, in the meantime, are an almost mythical group capable of truly miraculous feats - they are actually believed to be rendered immortal at the conclusion of the magnum opus. They tend to live in hiding, though it's typically an incredibly opulent hiding.

Shapers

'Shapers' is a general imperial term for craftsmen that are creating magical items - the term that, to a degree, has almost eclipsed the term 'craftsman'. Shapers are divided into a large array of trades, each of them worshipping their own demigod (all of which are serving Artifex, the Exarch of Industry). While not 'magical' in traditional way (as the shapers do not use any form of 'mana', nor modify their bodies in any way), the art of shaping is by no mean purely mundane.
Modern shaping is an art filled with various ritualistic elements that actually work. There are alloys that can only be smelted with proper rituals - and mixing their components in an identical way without the ritualistic component will fail. There are rituals to shape weapons and other items into an outwardly impossible shape that remain perfectly balanced regardless - that will work only with the rituals.
The art of shaping has spread from the Grand Empire. Rehalian Union, Visenian Commonwealth, even the Kasytian Empire and the Tyranny of Amner - it is an aftermath of the peak of this profession that was achieved during the Second Era. Each of this countries (but also religious 'regions') attribute the power of shaping to different sources within their religious cosmology. The result are slight (or large) internal differences. Visenian shapers have some metals or weaponry forms that are unique to them, and so do the other regions.
Most of the countries in question have some sort of an internal ranking system for members of the various professions - typically some sort of a 'Master' rank [for example a Master Smith]. There are some sort of exams (for example a recreation of some of the sufficiently complicated and taxing 'recipe' for an item or smelting of a metal). Of course, Masters of the same trade are rarely equal in their skills.

Holy Magic

Introduction

Holy magic is magic connected to one of the few monotheist deities existing throughout the world. Each of it can potentially be widely different in terms of their inner workings, and as a whole tend to go for quality instead of quantity. Users of holy magic tend to be relatively few in numbers, but overwhelmingly powerful in terms of pure strength. Good example might be the rehalians - they have 20x less 'magic users' per one million inhabitants than the Grand Empire, however it's not uncommon for a single of their 'magician' to hold ground against ten imperial magicians of similar standing.
By its very definition, holy magic is foreign to the Grand Empire (which is a decidedly polytheistic state). As a result, these magic is relatively rare within its borders, though not entirely unheard of. It's also not forbidden - as forbidding such magic would without a doubt spark a war.

Rehalian Holy Magic

Rehalian holy magic is a magic hailing from the Rehalian faith, a dominant (and de facto state one) religion of the Rehalian Union. It's an incredibly powerful magic granted to mortals through a number of Living Saints - saints that didn't fully pass into the afterlife, and instead remained behind. They are no more 'material' than High Gods of the Imperial Cult, and cannot be prayed to for an intercission in front of the God. However each of them offers an array of magical powers to those who follow in their footsteps.
Each Living Saint offers a completely differently 'themed' magic powers, each of which works in a way similar to occultism. Learning more and more about the lore surrounding the Living Saints, making proper penances and pilgrimages - all of that is slowly changing the practitioner into something greater than a mortal (though the results differ between the Living Saints). The effects, unlike in occultism, aren't sanity rending, more like strongly aloof and often appearing too good for this world [sometimes to the level of complete black and white morality, sometimes to what appears like a blue and orange morality].
These magic is incredibly powerful, causes increased damage to people who are bearing a lot of sins (and does nothing or almost nothing to people with clear conscience), and doesn't depend on any form of mana - the weaker magic can be caused every few seconds, the stronger one tends to have limits of a predetermined number of casts per week or month (or in case of some truly absurdly powerful miracles there's a limit of cast number per life).
The weakness of this magic is that it can't be used for something considered bad - in fact, when one tries to use this magic willingly in an evil cause, they might lose their powers entirely until sufficient penance is done (or if they are powerful casters, they might simply die). Also good-natured enemies from outside of the Rehalian Union (such as knights of Honor, the Exarch of Authority) will be subjected to a fraction of the combat prayer' overwhelming firepower.

Khardic Holy Magic

A holy magic hailing from the khardism and its monotheistic deity - the Overtyrant. As Overtyrant is essentially the most powerful of all enigmatics, its magic are rather similar in theme to occultism - in both aesthetics and the way they are cast. However they work as 'reverse occultism' of sort. The eldritch 'corruption' of Overtyrant imposes a mental changes to a caster, making him generally more moral, calm, kind and so on (though zealotry in face of evil tends to also be added), while also being a deadly poison to other enigmatics (in a way, its breaking THEIR sanity). While restoring sanity of mortals who were broken by other enigmatics and their servants. It even tends to alleviate symptoms of 'mundane' mental disorders.
Khardic magic is often enhanced with normal occultism. The influence of Overtyrant is limited to minds, this allows its worshippers to alter their bodies with occultism while remaining perfectly sane and rational through Overtyrant's influence. This is believed to be an almost holy act, especially when power of enigmatics is subsequently used against their very own worshippers. Overtyrant, it seems, enjoys this type of irony.
However this holy magic has also a wide array of spells on its own, most of them either causing variety of negative effects on nearby people with numerous sins on their conscience or empowering (sometimes to a ridiculous degree) the strength of the caster/everyone nearby with clear conscience. There are no miracles of Overtyrant that cause direct physical changes, nor any that cause direct physical damage to anyone. Which is its only notable weakness. On the other hand, who needs direct physical attacks when a stacked rage-chant can make a supposedly mundane and powerless soldier punch through an imperial knight in full plate armor?

Visenian Holy Magic

Visenian magic is granted by coming into a contract with one of the numerous lesser deities of the Visenian religion. Such lesser deities are either former mortals, shards of power of the Goddess (the local monotheistic deity) or remnants of the Lost Gods of Visenia, that were eclipsed and shattered by the Goddess when her religion overtook the plains and forests of modern Visenia. Some of them, regretfully, went renegade over the centuries.
Such deities have their power massively limited while within this world (as many if not most of them in their full strength equal demigods or lesser gods of the Imperial Cult - which means that some of them would break Reality simply by existing). Instead of smiting their enemies on their own, they tend to pick mortals as their champions, granting them various passive and active powers. Every single one of the few hundred thousand users of this magic in Visenian Commonwealth is contracted to one of the few hundreds (possibly up to a thousand and some, though the numbers change regularly) visenian deities.
Powers of such champions tends to be themed after elements (Visenian Commonwealth shares those with the Grand Empire), and vary in their power level (each deity has a limited number of powers to grant, though it depends greatly on their standing and influence). They are powerful (even if typically in more physical than mental way, and with subtlety rarely being a virtue they can boast about). Champions are also typically more or less equal in power to the magicians and aura users of the Grand Empire, though things change when they operate in groups. Champions of the same deities empower each other when in proximity, resulting in cavalry banners (typically led personally by visenian war gods) decimating every legion that had the distinct misfortune of standing in their way.

Remnant Magic

Introduction

Remnant magics are magics who are past their prime. They were created before the modern forms of magic rose to power - and simply lost in the struggle (or never tried to take part in it). They are still perfectly valid types of magic on their own, with many combat or non-combat uses - however they lack popularity to become a common-sight throughout the Grand Empire. This occasionally becomes their strong point, however - any prospecting sorcerous overlord takes precautions against common threats, but those much more sublime and unexpected might be missed.

Bards

Bards are a special type of magic warriors hailing from Niflheim. They are both musicians (and singers) and warriors, using their instruments and voice to spread tales of their epic exploits. The more fame a bard amasses, the more powerful he or she becomes. The whole system offers a reinforcing loop, where the epic feat produces an ever greater power surge resulting in an even more epic feats. With said power surges soon driving a bard into the realm of truly superhuman power.
The real problem is that bards tend to fall victims to their own ambition. The more epic the feat, the greater the power surge - but eventually one of their gambles fails and they die in face of the overwhelming odds. This common outcome for bards severaly limits how useful they are. What's worse, if they do not achieve anything of note for a while, they will start losing power as the popular belief in their power wanes (it's never a complete loss of power, as the tale still lives throughout the population even if it no longer is popular, but it's a significant drain). And whenever the number of bards surges in an area, the awe provoked by their tales gets more and more divided due to simple rivalry between them.
Bards magic tends to limit itself to body reinforcement and strengthening, though in some cases it also proved to expand its boons to comrades of a bard, becoming a support magic. There are no active, nor directly offensive powers granted through mastery of this power.

Symbolics

An art on an edge of extinction, symbolism was first created by an unnamed mystic and scholar from lands of Hellana. He had many achievements on the fields of mathematic - which has become a public knowledge. However his other discovery was much better hidden. Numerous symbolic cabals following the philosophical and societal doctrine of the mystic were responsible for untold number of riots, coups and civil wars throughout pre-imperial Hellana.
It's unknown how did symbolics survived the Dawn War where so many of their contemporary magic powers were destroyed alongside their gods. Perhaps symbolics sided with the ascendant powers of the Imperial Gods, or perhaps they maintained neutrality in the conflict. However it was, their power was weakened during the Dawn War. What's more, the power flowing from the cosmological center of the imperial universe empowered magicians of the post-Dawn War era beyond the symbolics' ability. However there are still cabals surviving, waiting for the time to be right so that they can rise again.
Symbolics use symbols (each of them combination of geometric formations and mathematical equations that make no sense to non-symbolics) to generate a wide array of powerful effects. They can produce equivalents of most basic elemental magics, but their true power lies in their ability to warp the fabric of reality and produce potent wards. There are recurrent talks of the Grand Empire occasionally employing symbolics when they need something supernatural (but not of their own cosmology) sealed for good.

Rune Sculpters

Rune sculpters are a type of magic users that's unique to the dwarfs. Everyone can learn it, of course - however dwarves are incredibly xenophobic on that field and will not budge an inch. The number of outsiders who learned how to carve even the simplest of runes can be counted on one hand within the history of the Grand Empire, on every occasion due to the outsider being incredibly gifted (and with each and every of them turned out to be famous in the end).
Runes are a variety of symbols that have to be carved on a surface in order to provide a vast array of supernatural benefits. They work similarly to basic techmaturgic enchantments, but are much more stable, do not need their mana replenished and if their carver was proficient they can offer incredible power. They are, by all means and purposes, superior to modern techmaturgy. However nobody outside of the mountain fortressess of the dwarves knows how they are exactly created, as merely carving an identical symbol will not create the desired result.
Runes can also be carved on one's body. This is the primary method of strengthening used by the dwarves of the Grand Empire. Some of their eldest warriors have rune-shaped scars even on their eyelids. Such carvings offer less potent empowerment to the ones carved in weapons and armors - together however the synergy effect leads to some incredibly powerful warriors being born. It is unknown why the symbols aren't simply tattoed, suggesting that there is some mystical meaning to the very act of carving.

Akhaerivh

Akhaerivh is an old elven term for their sorcerers, which is complicated to translate - akhaerivhs were magicians, priests and nobles in the same time. The magic was even older than the elves however, being originally created to serve the Xylian Dominion. When it perished, so did 75% of spells and abilities available through this road. Only the severely weakened version that was available to elven slaves of the Dominion. This magic collapsed further when the elven states fell under beastman, dracon and human onslaught. But despite the decimation, there are still practitioners of this magic.
Akherivhs conjure magical effects by sacrificing a variety of offerings to the remaining elven deities. The type of sacrifice and the way the sacrifice is taken varies between the gods (for example a god of fire might demand something flammable that will burst into flames and turn to ash in seconds when offered). When the sacrifice is concluded, the caster receives a flood of power (its ammount proportional to the size of the offering) that can be then used to cast a variety of spells derived from the domain of the deity that received the offering.
The art of the akherivhs carries a number of similarities to modern theurgies. The difference is that the elven deities care not for your moral standing and decisions. Powers of Honour, the Exarch of Authority, will refuse to obey you when you are doing something dishonorable. But elven deities (save for few pantheons that 'modernized' and no longer answers to the sacrificial rites as they used to) do not care. On the other hand, their power is significantly weaker than that of theurgy.