Zuthruhk

The system of magic employed by the Dark God, his creations, and his human subjects. The Zuthruhk’s most distinguishing feature is it’s emphasis on using the individual practitioner’s will to forcibly distort their surrounding environment in accordance with their desires. This can be manifested in a wide variety of ways, from Saklugz’ ability to control the natural landscape of regions like the inner Khavasak and the Ordagh Desert, to the illusion magic of the Nektana. Owing to the Dark God and his Arkuloch’s need to channel the sacrifices of people within their empire, the Zuthruhk has a much more prominent ritual component than many other schools of magic. Additionally, the school specializes in the manipulation of physical objects, to the extent that it is not uncommon for hated enemies of the Dark God to use his own Zuthruhk enchanted weapons against him.

Xunju

The system of magic used by the people of Nezhu. In contrast to the isolating, self-seeking character of the Zuthruhk, the Xunjin subsume their individual egos within their broader surroundings, allowing them to guide their environment in a way that is often compared to a speaker in an assembly of equals rather than as a despot. Practitioners of the Xunju are particularly renowned for their ability to manipulate natural forces such as water and wind, and the heightened awareness of their surroundings which arises from this knowledge. While the Xunju is in many ways diametrically opposed to the Zuthruhk, the political realities of the centuries of strife between Nezhu and the Dark God have led Xunjin mages to make use of Zuthruhk enchanted artifacts, often further modifying them to suit the needs of their homeland.

Minair

The system of magic used in Naviras. Practitioners of the Minair seek to mentally ascend beyond the world of appearances and physical manifestations into the underlying forms and structures of reality, rising up in stages until one has penetrated the highest, most inexpressible truths. At a more practical level, the actual use of the Minair typically involves the examination of the physical characteristics of one’s surroundings, pulling out the unchanging principals from their transient manifestations, and, through a lifetime of study, reconfiguring the substance into one of its other manifestations. For example, where a normal person would not look twice at an ordinary stone tile, to a Minairoi that tile is but one expression of the substance “stone”: a substance that also manifests itself as mountains, stalagmites, boulders, and city walls. By seeing past the individual expression to the deeper principles that govern this substance, the Minairoi can reconfigure the stone into any of the other forms with which it expresses itself. A skilled Minairoi, however, can take this even further, looking past the many varieties of expression that stones take on to focus upon the physical structures that allow them to manifest themselves in one fashion and not others, granting them access to an extraordinary ability to transmute their surroundings.

Yolkhav

The system of magic used by the Sheniv. Believing that all living beings carry an innate spark of untainted purity within them, the Yolkhav is a system of magic that is designed to cultivate this essence, purifying one’s surroundings to facilitate the expression of this untainted spark. There are many techniques used by the Sheniv Safids to achieve this, from elaborate ritual practices to the severing of the conscious mind from it’s physical supports, but the most recognizable feature of the Yolkhav is the Balkat: a physical manifestation of this inner purity that can interact with the surrounding world.

Fantok

The system of magic employed by the members of the Vigdril tribes. The Fantok originates from the Lithir, the spirits of the Adranta Forest, and it can be understood as a means of granting humans access to a broader range of the forest’s expressive capacity than they could achieve on their own. This expression is limited by the realities of human nature, so that, being a mammal, it is easier for a Fantok practitioner to channel the fearsome howl of a wolf than the equally terrifying sound of an avalanche, but a trained Fankuon will nevertheless be able to channel modes of expression that are otherwise alien to mankind. Humans, being mammals, tend to express the Fantok through the use of their vocal cords, particularly by way of chants that can sway the hearts of any being who hears them.

Vijnav

The system of magic employed by the Shugatyad order. Owing to the cryptic, ineffable nature of both the magic and its practitioners, attempts by scholars to develop a systematic understanding of the Vijnav have proven largely fruitless. Like the Xunju, and decidedly unlike the Zuthruhk, the Vijnav places a great emphasis on the practitioner’s ability to subsume themselves within their environment, guiding their surroundings in such a way that they naturally behave in concordance with the practitioner rather than warping the environment in an act of will. However, unlike the Xunjin or the Minairoi, who are largely confined to using the underlying nature of phenomena to manifest their magic, the practitioners of the Vijnav regard even the most fundamental of properties as fabrications of the human mind. This view manifests itself in the Shugatyad’s ability to, to all appearances, employ their surroundings in whatever fashion they please: from wielding sticks as swords in battle to raising living beings from inanimate matter. While there remains a robust and contentious discussion about the precise way the Shugatyads manage to achieve this, there is a consensus that that it is connected to the order’s radical reliance on intuition and non-conceptual thought.

Upajra

A system of magic originating in Vyadalam, the practice of the Upajra has been largely confined to the kingdom of Datyavam in southeastern Ilroin since the Ukni conquest of the Vyadalese subcontinent. Upajrana mages are renowned for their use of ascetic discipline to break free from any attachment or reliance upon their physical bodies. This training allows them sieve out pure consciousness from the material sediment of our world (which is seen as incurably tainted by the Upajrana) to break from the physical limitations of their bodies. The most skilled practitioners can even transfer their consciousness to non-living material and manipulate it in the manner of a physical body.

Ghazra

Note: Ghazra magic has not been fully fleshed out.

The system of magic used in Azrajid. The Ghazradin, believing, in stark contrast to schools like the Minair, that the rational mind can never grasp the highest and most ineffable of truths, prefer instead to cultivate trance states that allow the mind of the practitioner to ascend beyond the limitations of their own minds.