Wizardry
Wizardry is by far the oldest magic according to the excavations we are doing. There are equations and circles that date back to the Aeon of Guidance. Personally I think this fact will annoy Nona and Arlo the next time the three of us get together. This does bring up some more questions though: Why couldn't we cast during the Uncertian Era? Where did the leylines come from? What were Sorcerers drawing on to create their magic? All in all, I think the three of us should start working together on decoding magic as clearly we aren't making much progress by ourselves.
Wizards cast their magic by employing aether, an extra planar gas. Aether is controlled by use of the forgotten language, both in runic and spoken form, gestures and tools called focuses. The language will form an equation that defines what the magic is to do. With the use of a wand, staff, crystal or other enchanted tool, the wizard connects with the aether and imparts the equation into it while pulling it into reality. This poses risks for the wizard as aether is toxic and if a wizard pulls to much aether though they can be poisoned by it.
Aether
Aether is a gas that exists beyond the material plane. It is accessible from anywhere on the planet. The amount that is within easy reach varies from place to place. To complicate this even more, aether has currents that work to even out the distribution of aether across the planet. This comes into play when wizards either use or extract a large chunk of aether from an aether rich area the surrounding areas will fairly quickly drain to remove the differential that was created.
Spells
Spells are the core of wizardry. With the ancient words and the correct movements a wizard can get the aether to do their bidding. When the spell is starting to be cast a small amount of aether will be drawn to give the words substance and to guide the aether the spell will use. Then the wizard will draw out the aether needed to power the spell and then the spell will be cast. Wizards will vary their speed on casting on familiarity and experience with the selected spell. This is what helps differentiate wizards as it is rare to see two wizards with the same set of spells practiced. Some spells require extra components such as gemstones, stone figures, metal pots and wooden bowls. These components are often used as a piece of the equation that creates the spell. Sometimes the spell will consume the materials to get the desired outcome.
Rituals
Rituals are spells that are slowed down and expanded so that the caster can perform them in a way to minimize aether exposure. The techniques were learned from witches and adjusted to work with wizardry. The main benefit wizards gain by ritual casting is the lack of exposure to aether and the ability to work cooperatively on a single casting. Due to rituals being safer for the wizards involved, rituals have expanded what wizardry can do by much more than spells ever could. This is accomplished by first creating a ritual to achieve the desired outcome than simplifying it into a spell. However, due to the temporary nature of aether on our plane there are many things that simply cannot be done though a ritual, as by the time the aether would be completing the task it has returned to its plane. This is the largest downside to rituals in wizardry. With that said there are somethings that have to be done though rituals such as enchanting objects and creating the tools needed for wizards to interact with aether.
Enchantment
Enchantments created by wizards are just spells inscribed into an object. The wizard only needs to draw in the aether needed to start the spell for it to cast. This has the advantage of not exposing the wizard directly to aether. Wizardry can create some of the most permanent enchantments as aether is accessible anywhere however they are also risky due to the toxic nature of aether. To help prevent aether poisoning in those using the enchanted items, wizards build in limits to mitigate the risks for non-wizards when they use them. It is important to note that these limits are not foolproof, thus mishandling of wizard enchanted items can have disastrous effects.
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