Familiars

Familiars are spirits who have agreed to bond with the user's soul. By bonding with the soul, and becoming an extension of it, the Familiar can directly help improve and intensify magic.
Familiars can manifest as almost anything, based on the Familiar's personality and desires. Some can be snakes, some can be dragons. Their size is based on how much power they have. When a Familiar manifests into the material world, it can interact with objects and help with physical tasks, if it cares to.
Due to the requirements of the Ritual, some poor Valians, or Animaions with no connection to the colleges, may never get a Familiar.

Bonding

It is traditional to get a Familiar on a user's 12th birthday. The user's Elder Mages preform a ritual, which projects the User's soul into the Astral Plane, where the dead reside. While their soul is within the Astral Plane, the User can wonder and connect with the spirits to try and find a Familiar.
By asking a spirit to become their Familiar, the Familiar can create a contract, asking for whatever it wants in return of serving the User. If the User agrees, the contract is sealed and the Familiar is bonded to the User's soul, and taken back to the material world.

Familiar's agreements

The Familiar will request something from the User before becoming their Familiar, which is usually a sort of fuel or food. Certain Familiars, to maintain their power, need to fuel themselves on things like blood, light, dreams, or even days off your lifespan. Others might ask for sacrifices so they can feed on the bodies of the dead, while less malicious ones might offer to eat your nightmares.
The type of fuel and how much it gets can empower Familiars, making them bigger and stronger, but their required intake increases as well.

Unbonding

Once the User dies, both the User and Familiar entire the Astral plane, unless the User is corrupted, then only the Familiar goes to the Astral plane. When in the Astral plane, the Familiar's contract is over, and it can wait until another User decides to make a contract with it. The deceased User can also accept contracts to become a Familiar themselves.

Effect

Owning a Familiar will allow it to harness its power into your spell casting, depending on the type of Familiar and its power, it can strengthen your spells, or change the spell's element entirely.
Users would want Familiars who benefit their type of spell casting most, if they're not compatible, the user might need to learn new spells.

Side/Secondary Effects

Based off what the Familiar desires in return of its service, it may leech off the User's blood, dreams, or even lifespan.

Manifestation

The Familiars can manifest as almost anything, going from animals like bunnies, foxes, whales, all the way to humanoid beings like attractive women/succubi, chimeras, and etc.
Certain Familiars will simply appear like blue holographic creatures, while others can manifest to appear solid and colored.

Discovery

The discovery of Familiars was done by a group of Necromancers who studied souls and the Manastream. When trying to retrieve spirits even long after the body died, they discovered the ritual needed to project into the Astral Realm, but found out that you can only take back a spirit as a Familiar, and not as a reanimated body as they hoped.

Material Components

The Ritual itself requires encircling the user with white candles, mana powder, a conjuring circle, and a ringlet of blue mana-imbued leaves.

Gestures & Ritual

To preform the Ritual, 2-4 experienced mages need to surround the user and hold their hands onto its body while the ritual is occurring, all while the user stands within a conjuring circle. If the Mages let go of the user, their soul can disconnect from their body and the user will die.

Related Discipline

The Mages College

Applied Restriction

Due to the requirements needed to preform the ritual, and the time it takes to complete, the Ritual is only allowed to be done once per User, on their 12th birthday.
The Ritual itself cannot be cast in Grimdark or the Void.