Arcane Magic

Power of the Soul

Arcane casting is any number of magical techniques that all focus on drawing forth one's own internal mana and transforming into spells that match one of your affinities.
Arcane magic is the most common form of magic to find people utilizing throughout the world. Even with only a novice amount of practice, one can perform magic spectacles like the healing of cuts and bruises, the lighting of a fire with a snap of the fingers, or the ability to glide through the air on conjured wind. It requires dedication and understanding of one's body just like an athlete would hone, yet it also requires a certain mental astuteness as well, typical of anyone trying to master a skill. One must understand their body and train their mind in order to grasp arcane magic. This process can be a tough one to initiate without either a mentor or a lot of dedicated effort. There is no way to accidentally become an arcane caster, intent and mechanisms personal to each caster have to both come together to unlock magical powers. And the pool of mana there is to draw from within needs to be cultivated before that as well. Because of the distinctness of the various denizens of the realm, their cultures, the methods of their teachers, and several other factors, there are hundreds of different unique techniques for spell-casting with affinities. It is not uncommon for more standardized methods to be adapted by learning mages and then customized further by experimentation. On the other hand, some people are left to learn what methods work best for them from the ground up, meticulousy trying out and readjusting their training until they produce the desired effects. The amount of mana someone has at their disposal for magic casting varies person to person, but practice channeling and conserving mana stores will help arcane mages make the most of their available energy.

Special Sub-Affinities

Some arcane casters focus on only a specific facet of a larger affinity, creating hard-to-master but very unique forms of affinity use.
Whilst people who passionately study magic tend to have a good grasp of the affinities in which they embody, some don't stop at encompassing the whole of what said affinities have to offer. For various reasons and through various methods, people throughout the world have found new ways to employ elemental energy in the use of spell casting. By making slight changes in the techniques and properties of their spells, people have created essentially sub-affinities, or more accurately, specialized techniques that focus on a specific facet of their larger affinity, trading power for nuance. There is an unknown number of possibilities when it comes to the use of affinities. It therein goes to reason there's next to no limit on how people can personalize these powers with enough work and a bit of luck. These techniques do not bar casters from using the rest of their affinity or developing new spells in the future.

Fire affinity wielding assassins who are part of the Azmith Assassin's Guild's inner circle developed a special kind of fire magic that utilizes smoke more than open flames. By maintaining fine control over the amount of heat they produce and how they produce said heat, they can create huge amounts of particulate when they bring forth flames, sending red hot embers at their foes, debilitating targets with choking smog and blindness, and creating escape paths for themselves by traversing through their own obscuring smoke clouds.

Warrior Monks of the Order of the Tranquil Fist hone their endurance and focus to maximize their ability to focus on prolonged spells without losing concentration in the midst of battle. They believe the natural extension of mana from within out into the external world can be not only used to craft spells, but to extend the reach of one's one physical form. They create elemental appendages or after images and body doubles that can be utilized during fights, meticulously dividing their focus between their true selves and these astral projections even during the heat of combat.

As Lindin's technological boom continues to grow in scale, practitioners of arcane magic try to find more ways to utilize magic for both engineering and personal use. Many new experimental implements and spells are specifically being designed to work alongside technological creations. Fringe inventors and daredevils create boots that allow for incredible feats of acrobatics thanks to air jets powered by electricity. Others still circumvent the weight of worn armor and heavy weapons by modifying the gravitational or polarized nature of their equipment by holding an electric charge of certain strengths through particular materials.

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Magic Backlash

A suite of ailments or conditions that can effect beings, especially those who utilize spell-casting or are exposed to strong magic.
Magic Backlash is a catch-all term the derives from a suite of different afflictions that can effect the body of people, especially those whom are capable of spellcasting. Due to the intertwined nature of both the body and the mana pool inside it, fluctuations to the condition of one's own mana no matter spirit or mortal can have detrimental effects on your overall physical well being. Example of the specific kinds of Magic backlash people can suffer include:

Mana Poisoning

This is caused when the body is flooded with an excess amount of mana making the user sick. This is to be considered a severe Magical Backlash, as mana should naturally flow in equilibrium, not fully absent but not overfilled. Overflow of mana forced into a living being is dangerous as their delicate body balance is popped and thrown into discord, leading to some adverse effects.
- Symptoms: Being afflicted with Mana Poisoning as a mortal will run the risk of enduring its painful and potentially immobilizing experience, as it is common to feel pain and tightness throughout the body, accompanied by a dizzy feeling once the excess mana flow reaches the brain, and is often intense enough to require the afflicted to remain seated. Throbbing headaches are often reported as well. Being afflicted with Mana Poisoning causes a spirit on the other hand to feel uncomfortable and bloated. Extreme mana poisoning runs the risk of enduring painful and potentially immobilizing experiences, as it is common to feel pain and tightness throughout the body. It can be intense enough to require the afflicted to remain still or seated. Throbbing headaches, dizziness and impaired thinking have been reported as well.
- Treatment: Mana Poisoning is a rather difficult backlash to treat for all beings, as the means to do so requires the afflicted to spend the next few days allowing their body to expel the excess mana overtime naturally, and depending on their constitution they may spend those days either staggering or bedridden. Expending mana in spells or sucking the mana out doesn't shorten this period of suffering, as the body has to still take time achieving equilibrium and "patching" it's bursted state.

Mana Exhaustion

The most common form of Magical Backlash. This is caused when one has nearly or completely expelled all the mana within their mana pool. For both mortals and spirits, without sufficient mana, spells will immediately fail, and any continued attempts to do so will run the risk of making the symptoms worse.
- Symptoms: Like the name suggests, the most recognizable symptom for beings when afflicted with Mana Exhaustion is an overwhelming feeling of fatigue and shortness of breath. This could cause a state of hyperventilation as the body tries to compensate for the lack of air in the lungs, and if it continues, this could potentially cause someone to faint.
- Treatment: Mana Exhaustion is fairly easy to treat, as simply taking it easy for the day and refraining from spellcasting to not interrupt the body’s natural mana recovery should remedy the symptoms. Consumption of anything that would grant aid in mana recovery should also work wonders for those who are undergoing Mana Exhaustion.

Elemental Imbalance

This is to be considered one of the most severe and rare cases of Magical Backlash that one can experience. With magic being so personally tied to one’s own emotions, anything that could cause a severe shift in important parts of their mental faculties will effectively cause someone to lose access to their element(s) entirely. There is no one way for mana imbalance to take hold, and the causes are typically of a particularly dramatic and hard to replicate nature. Trauma induced brain injuries, exposure to rare esoteric forces, and other rare happenings.

- Symptoms: The most obvious, yet alarming, symptom one will experience during the process of Elemental Imbalance is a gradually weakening of their element(s). Before completely diminishing from their control, they will experience the feeling of being lightheaded with blurry vision before ultimately collapsing, allowing the Elemental Imbalance to finally set in.
- Treatment: There is next to nothing that could be done for the afflicted, as this condition has no clear origins or mechanisms for how it works. Many attempt to come to terms with themselves and these changes, and may find practices like making changes in their life or meditation may help slow or stop the imbalance from proceeding. This is no easy task, as the initial reason for this imbalance historically have been paramount and substantial.

There are multiple standardized methods for teaching the basics of arcane magic. These tend to be proprietary techniques taught by specific institutions throughout the world. The Drekayan Academy of Magical Arts is an academy entirely devoted to the study of magic and guidance in spellcasting for students.

Some arcane spells and techniques aren't developed in an institutional setting and are unique to their inheritors. It's not unheard of for families, clans, or even specific individuals to pass down their arcane knowledge to perspective family members or those under their tutelage.