Lost magic
And you oh magic! You have shattered stars and created life anew, you've brought great distruction and sorrow on this land but in you is the milestone of our people, for the glory of Be Chuille!
According to the legends and, in some way, supported by historical evidence, the continent of Phaldorya has been shaped as it is known after the events of the Great war of the Mages, especially the conflagration. In the centuries followed to these cataclysmic events most of the notions and knowledge about magic were lost nearly to everyone, to be kept only by covenant and brotherhoods devoted to the study of magic; however even those group has lost a great deal of the knowledge of the past.
The diffuse mistrust toward magicians, strengthened by several hystorical episodes scattered in the centuries, has been a restraint to a deep research of magic. Therefore, the ridiscovery of old magic has been in the century squeezed between the curiosity of mages and the controls and impositions from the Conclave first and Be Chuille's Inquisition as well later on.
Book of magic and Spellbooks
There's a strong and significant difference between a book of magic and a spellbook. The first one is a book that approaches with theories and questioning the metaphysics of magic to give an explanation of it, the second is a book of formulas and practical explanation on how to perform one or more specific spells. The first type is relatively common, although some book of magic has little to no foundations. Spellbooks are instead extremelly rare to come by, unless you search them in the libraries of the Inquisition or of a school of magic, for both you will have to be authorized. Now and then, some spellbook appears from the depth of some long lost dungeon or building, but as soon as it becomes reknown the authorities will come forward to buy it or confiscate it.
Other source of magic knowledge
It is commonly believed that some people has tapped into magic knowledge through different means from those consented by the authorities. Evocating creature from another plain of existence can grant you the services and access to knowledge from that creature, if you manage to sign a pact. Those pacts are often dangerous and devious and commonly will have a significant cost for the subscriber. Useless to say that such pacts are illegal and people that is believed to practice them will be wanted dead or alive by the Inquisition.
Between the most important duties of an Inquisitor there's the quest to find those who offend Be Chuille bending the rules of magic knowledge and taking the short path of getting instructed by celestials, fairies or, worse, fomorn. May Dagda forgive their souls once they are purged with the sacred flame of Be Chuille!
Lost circles of magic
It is commonly believed that more circles of magic knowledge are present and that their knowledge is lost to mages of this time. According to old manuscripts, in the far past, mages could attain to twelve circles of magic and it isn't excluded that more could possibly exist. The control of the enormous power need to tap in those level of magic requires a strong self-control and concentration, losing control when trying to tie those forces may cause disasters. At the present time, it is believed that only the most talented mages are able to control magic of the seventh circle.
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