Magic

General

• Magic is everywhere, and everyone has access to it (excluding people with magic-based developmental disorders, people that get isekai'd, etc.)
• Life is magic and magic is life. To mess with one is to mess with the other.
• Most occupations use magic in some way, shape, or form, even tech-heavy jobs.

Affinities

• It used to be thought that every magic talent could map perfectly to one of the classical elements — air, water, earth, and fire (and maybe light / shadow and/or sun / moon / stars, depending on the set of theories one subscribed to)
• But this didn't account for transformations, psychic powers, charms, etc.
• And when the Grand Rewrite happened, way more people started getting non-classical-based powers.
• So! New theory: everyone has affinities now
• An affinity is any thing, substance, concept, or idea a person and their magic is drawn to or tries to emulate.
• Examples:
  • If someone has a knowledge affinity, their magic lets them read quicker and will make it easier to absorb information.
  • If someone has a disgust affinity, their magic takes on the qualities of stuff that's disgusting or otherwise unpleasant — bad smells, unpleasant texture, weird aftertastes, etc.
• Rules for affinities:
  • All affinities are one word long and only one word. If a concept can not be distilled into one word in a person's native tongue, it won't work, even if that is the simplest way to describe that concept. Find something related to it that is one word.
    • Not affinities: Particle accelerator, ice cream
    • Can be affinities: energy, radiation, food, dessert
  • All affinities are nouns. Any verbs or adjectives must be noun-ified or be replaced.
    • Not affinities: running, happy
    • Can be affinities: Speed, exercise, happiness, emotion
  • Everyone gets at least one, maybe two, no more than three affinities.
    
    • Three is a hard limit — you cannot get more than three without an outside force. Examples of outside forces:
      
      • Living in Port Gourmet for a year has the chance of giving you a food-based affinity: food, dessert, dinner, condiment, etc
      • All members of the Astral Vanguard get the dream affinity when they join.
      • Walking the Path of the Prism gives you either light, unity, or travel as an affinity.
      • Receiving a Favor from a powerful entity gives you a lesser version of whatever affinity they have.
• Other details:
  • Certain species have species-wide affinities, as-in, certain affinities members of that species are certain to get. These count toward the affinity limit.
    • Example: All bahiyrim get the light affinity no matter what. A young bahiyr hoping to be a great mage one day will only have to worry about cultivating two affinities instead of all three.
  • Dragons (and some dragonborn) can only have one affinity, but they have near-complete mastery of that affinity in exchange.
• Exceptions to the rules:
  • Beings that live ~500 years have been known to gain more affinities. The Sevenfold record is six.
  • Minor gods can have one or two stanzas of poems as their affinity instead of a list of words.
  • Major gods can have entire poems as affinities.

Talents

• If affinities are what your magic latches onto, then talents are how the person expresses that attachment.
• A talent is an outward, deliberate expression of one or more affinities.
• Unlike affinities, where a person has limited control on what their magic attaches to, talents are 100% in the person's hands. You can cultivate any talent you want within the bounds of your affinities.
• Examples of talents:
  • With a knowledge affinity, a potential talent could be absorbing all information within a book or a webpage instantly, and recall everything within it with perfect clarity.
  • With a disgust affinity, a person could refine whatever nasty qualities their magic has taken on and weaken or amplify them at will, letting the foulness act as a ward or a distraction.
  • With both knowledge and disgust as affinities, a person could collect info about the foulest substances in existence, refine them, and reproduce them at will, either by simply conjuring them or secreting them from their own body.
• Talents can be used / cast instantly, without the need for any extra preparations or materials. With enough practice, using talents can become instinctual.
• The theoretical limit for how many talents an individual (non-divine) person can hold at once is 2ⁿ-1, where n is the number of affinities a person has, but most people tap out at about half that.
• Exceptions to the rules:
  • Species talents take up an talent "slot", but everything that species can do is in the same one slot.
    • Example: A therian can transform into an animal, regenerate from injuries quickly, and maintain their inherent connection to the Astral Realm. Since these are things all therians can do, all three of these talents count as one big talent

Spells

• A spell is any expression of magic that does not come from one's talents or affinities.
• Unlike affinities and talents that can be used almost instinctually, spells need to be prepared beforehand.
  • Example: The person with knowledge and disgust affinities wants to make a fire. Unless their third affinity is fire, they cannot do this instantly. This person must craft their own spell to set something on fire, or use an item enchanted to do so.
• Spells have three components to them: mental, linguistic, and objective
  
  • Mental — the image in your head of what you want to happen; to set something on fire you must first imagine it on fire
  • Linguistic — "instructions" for the magic; you need to tell it you want it to set something on fire
    • Older texts will label this as a "vocal" component, as speaking the spell is usually the quickest way of getting it going. But any expression of language will work — speaking, writing it down, signing it out, etc.
  • Objective — the "target" of the spell, what to apply the magic to; what to actually set on fire
    • The objective of the spell can be either something physical (a campfire, logs in a fireplace, a car) or another spell
• Reagents and foci can be used to enhance or act as a replacement for spells, respectively
  • A reagent is a natural item or substance with magical properties.
    • Common reagents: salt, certain flowers, gemstones, blood
    • Reagents are usually there to strengthen spells, but they can be used to any effect as long as it doesn't interfere with any of the components
    • Spells can not be stored in reagents, nor replace one of the components
    • Alchemy is a branch of magic dedicated to making spells almost solely out of reagents
  • A focus is an enchanted, sentient-made item made to store at least one component of a spell
    
    • Common foci: spellbooks, jewelry, household items, smartphones
    • Simply-made foci usually just hold the linguistic component (see: writing in spellbooks, engraving inside of a ring), but more refined / powerful foci can hold enough magic to replace all three
    • Foci cannot be used to enhance spells they weren't strictly made for (e.g. you can't make a water-based spell stronger with a fire-based focus)
    • Whether a Favored's transformation trinket counts as a focus is a matter of vigorous debate