The Principles of Arcana operate fundamentally similar to the planes themselves. Displayed are the 21 cosmic rules that must be taken into account in order to understand the nature of magic itself. The rings are tightly wound together in a pattern in the following manor.
Soul: At the core of magic is the truth of arcana itself. The spark that makes it tic.
Divinity: The Source school is the most basic of the rings. The determination of the elemental chaos that commands the arcana. In addition Abjuration school, and Wrath stop at this point as they are the easiest of their brand to draw upon by external means being made of simple raw arcana.
Aligned Arcana: The remaining Sins, and Evocation exist on the next series of orbitals. They represent the aspects of imperfect untapped arcana. This circle typically displays a natural users capabilities without training. This also creates a moral landmark for spell casters granting some magics the ability to interpret things numerically such as good and evil.
Full Arcana: Used to control through tedious study, the more complex schools make up the Full Arcana ring. These are seen most often in Wizardry, and Artistry. It is more complex, and tame than the previous layers.
Day to day every one has the ability to use magic. For your average person however casting a spell will drain your life force rapidly. For example casting a common spell like
Magic Missile will drain a year of your life force, while a stronger spell like
Wish will wipe 9 years. Many spell casters have however learned ways of bypassing this limitation, being either gifted with abnormally long life spans, or cheating the system. It is this reason you are more likely to see an elf using magic vs a human.
Some ways used to bypass the tax involve borrowing life force come in the from of powerful items, and deals with immortal beings.
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