Three major forms of magic exist, from which the rest fall:
- Elemental magic, or the bonding to and manipulation of an element,
- Enhancive Magic, which focusses on the enchantment of other people or things,
- and Individual Magic, which is magic performed upon oneself.
Though Enhancive and Individual types of magic both have their own details, for the sake of this overview, they will be placed in mutual comparison to Elemental magic, as their features are more similar to each other than to Elemental magics.
Firstly, the girth of abilities that can be learned by one person differs greatly between Elemental magic and the others. Within one Element, a given user may select only one highly refined ability; comparatively, the hyper-specialized types of magic within Enhancive and Individual practices often lend to learning multiple subsets of magic of a similar nature. While many forms of both Enhancive and Individual magics take years of study, their versatility after learning sometimes makes them more alluring than elemental tracks.
Secondly, Enhancive and Individual magics are in the general notion unconfined to a certain group or class, unlike near all forms of elemental magic. Though certain types of magic, such as
Transformative Magic or
Soul Magic, require highly specialized training
1, others may be learned with a couple years of intense practice, or half a dozen with just self-teaching. Many of the citizens of
the four nations, especially those enlisted in the various militias, pass time with casual study, if just to use it to enhance their daily lives.
From there, details vary with branch and category.
While Elemental magic has some hyper-specific applications, notably abilities that are enhanced by the
Crowns, most of them fall into the genres specified on the general page.
Within the branch of Enhancive magic, there are two categories:
Within the branch of Individual magic, there are three categories:
1 "highly specialized training": some, like soul magic, is rarely learned outside of the careful tutelage of Life or Death; in other cases, it may require a partner by definition with which to practice. In both cases, study is usually spanned over a decade at the minimum, requiring rigorous one-on-one training.
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