Magic

Nothing is impossible my students, those that claim otherwise simple have not looked deep enough.
-Archmage Brown

Magic

Magic is the name that the Neathians give to the phenomena of warping, changing, manipulating, and editing reality. The location of space that Neath is located is host to an anomaly in the very fabric of the multiverse. At this point on this planet all worlds into infinity seem to "overlap" like trillions of strings all crossing at the same point. This Anomaly has had no small effect on the planet and its inhabitants.

The Maelstrom

The Maelstrom is the name given to this Anomaly and refers to the infinite possibilities that magic users can access to affect the world around them. In General, when a spell is prepared/memorized for the day; what the practitioner is doing is casting their mind into the Maelstrom for something that satisfies their requirements and memorizing this metaphysical location or locations with a form of autohypnosis. When a spell is cast the caster goes into a trance and pulls these possibilities into the world and alters it to create the desired effect. This is not done without risk however, those untrained or without the talent that attempt to gaze into infinity at best find their ability to do so burned out, and at worst are reduced to a vegetative state from the sheer volume of information.

Spell components

Verbal and somatic components for most casters are aids to help trigger their trance to bring a spell into being. Material components are aids to help guide a mind to an appropriate spell. All physical items serve as a focus point and "shortcut" when gazing into infinity. For example, bat guano and sulfur when concentrated on leads to a "place" of pressurized fire that most mages draw from to create a fireball spell. Sometimes all that is needed to make a spell is picking up an item and seeing where it leads you.

Difficulty

The more fantastical a Spell is the farther and deeper one must look into the Maelstrom to find their desired outcome. For example a Gust spell is fairly easy to cast because all that is required is finding a strong wind in the desired direction. Finding a version of a person that has been dead for 200 years perfectly fine and healthy that has lived the exact same life as said person up to this point is significantly harder.

Class Specific

Each casting class has their own variation or deviation from the above general preparation and casting of magic, here are a few differences. Most Intelligent based classes learn their spells themselves through experimentation, practice, and pattern recognition. Those with spell books have their pages filled with patterns and "pathways" through the Maelstrom to different effects. Most charisma based classes navigate this infinite sea instinctually and most of the time can just pull desired effects out without even realising what they are doing or how they are doing it. Wisdom based casters are usually those that have help with finding their spells. Divine based casters have their god to actively guide them to select spells and nature based casters report following a natural flow of the environment around them for theirs.

TL;DR

There is this metaphysical place magic people cast their mind into and look around for useful stuff they can bring back to the real world.

Type

Metaphysical, Arcane