Schools of Magic

The all-encompassingly vast nature of magic has proved a task for scholars, mages, and the like to fully characterize the phenomenon. However, practitioners and formal colleges of learning have established a formal system of categorization for magic, known as the schools of magic. Regardless of the type, whether arcane or divine, the manifestation of magic can be classified into one or more of the eight schools.

Manifestation

Abjuration

Abjuration magic fulfills generally defensive purposes though also has niche offensive uses. Magical barriers, shields, wards, and protective effects number among the most common forms of abjuration. However, it also covers any sort of anti-magical properties or spells, making it the most general answer to countering, if not utterly dissipating, magic in general. In its more offensive form, the school of abjuration can be used to impose harmful effects on beings that cross affected areas as well as cast creatures out into extraplanar locations.

Divination

Divination magic focuses on the unearthing of knowledge and information. One of the most utility focused schools, divination has been used to peek into lost histories, gain insight into the future, and otherwise learn more about other creatures, objects, and places. Divination also provides another counter to magic from the school of illusion. It can also be used to discern the locations of creatures and objects, and even allow communication between people and creatures otherwise unable to understand one another. However, one of its more frowned upon applications involves its usage in violating the sanctity of living creatures' minds and their general privacy through magical surveillance.

Evocation

The school of evocation focuses on converting magic into specific effects. Evocation's produced effects are generally tangible but not inherently physical. For example, the production of elemental energies like bolts of lighting or flaming rays are among its more offensive examples, but also extend to other types of energies capable of harming creatures and objects. However, evocation can also be utilized for more benign uses, such as generating harmless light or creating messages capable of traversing planes. Healing magics also fall under the category of evocation.

Necromancy

Necromancy magic involves the manipulation of life and death. Usage of this school allows mages to preserve life forces, bestow them through transference, and even restore life to the dead. Often considered the work of the divinely chosen, these types of resurrections can actually restore a creature at, or near, its previous state of living with full agency and the ability to persist in life as before their death.

Conversely, necromantic magic can also be used to deteriorate or sap the life forces of other creatures, often unwillingly. However, the necromancy school hosts by far one of the most controversial and infamous applications of magic in general: the animation of the dead and the manipulation of departed creatures as undead. Generally, arcane practitioners who utilize necromancy are more often observed and persecuted than the divinely inclined.

Conjuration

The school of conjuration creates or transports objects and creatures. When using conjuration spells, magical energy may provide the medium from which to spawn physical creations in the form of objects or creatures. However, conjuration may also be used to summon or move targets from one location to another. This usage also allows conjurers to summon creatures, often from other planes, and also exert varying degrees of control over them. At its greatest magnitude, conjuration magic allows the absolute creation of anything from nothing. This implies the possibility of altering reality itself by extension and has been a long since watched facet over the school of magic.

Enchantment

Enchantment magic targets the minds of creatures, with the intelligence of said creatures possibly factoring into the effects. Spells of this school may influence how their targets regard the world around them. More powerful uses may force creatures to act in a specific manner, often according to the will of the caster. The most potent effects involve modification of memories and allowing users to exert the finest control over another creature's thoughts and actions. The school of enchantment is often viewed and supervised with caution, though mainly in civilized areas.

Illusion

The school of illusion alters the perceptions of others regarding reality. At its most basic usage, illusion magic may conjure sights and sounds that are not actually there. With refinement, these illusions may come to contain smell and, through the most skilled users, actual physical composition, albeit temporary. The accumulation of these applications may even create an experience for those affected that, ultimately, did not occur. Illusion magic may also be manipulated to target only specific creatures' senses, as opposed to creating an illusion that can be perceived by any one.

Transmutation

The magic of the transmutation school manipulates the properties of physical objects present in reality, such as creatures and items. Effects which structurally change the appearance and form of a creature; this alteration may also enhance its physical capabilities count as transmutation magic. Transmutation may also allow a user to manipulate inanimate objects into other forms or to move and manipulate them without any visible exertion of force. The most potent weaving of transmutation magic may very well allow a user to manipulate the essence of reality itself, which includes time and space.