Ars Magica

Ars Magica is the formalized body of arcane understanding and practice taught throughout Bastonia and much the rest of Wisteria, which places a focus on understanding arcane magic through the lens of eight essential elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Space, and Time. These essentia are said to be the result of planar confluences, ebbing and flowing with the movement of The Eight Essential Planes in their metaphysical orbits around Ahren. In many ways, this is the primary point of agreement between scholars in Bastonia and The Atarlie Empire

It is known that there are three other competing schools of thought: the Secrets of Nature taught by the Confederacy of Sages, Orcish Shamanism (which blurs the line between arcane and divine magic significantly), and the Way of the Elements of the Shimmering Shores. The different lenses these competing magical systems offer their practitioners have wide impact on the beliefs of arcane spellcasters, especially wizards, who adhere to each.

Core Concepts

Ars Magica concerns itself with the matter of manipulating concurrency to create desired manifestations - by imparting force upon Ahren, The Ethereal Plane, and the Bardo, detectable phenomena can occur. This process is known colloquially as "magic". The process of doing this is strongly influenced by the "eight essential planes", which conveniently line up with the Ars Magica teaching of eight fundamental essentia, or elements: Air, Earth, Fire, Water, Light, Dark, Space, and Time, each of which happens to be fully represented by one of the essential planes.

Those who study magic closely through the lens of Ars Magica further acknowledge a concept known as Source. Interpretations of Source vary across the individual schools teaching the Ars Magica' see "internal divisions", below. The one fully agreed upon aspect of Source is that all magic relies on the same fundamental forces.

Classification of Magic

Among the principal concerns of Ars Magica practitioners is the classification and understanding of forms of magic; this being thought to better understand the process of specializing in one form or another, allowing individuals to advance the state of the art of magical theory in their special field without necessarily requiring them to gain a deep level of mastery over every from and style of magical application.

To this end, the Ars makes two major categories of classifications, which are referred to as ways and means.

Means of Magical Enactment

Under Ars Magica, the means of a spellcaster is a categorization of the way in which that spellcaster influences the universe to produce visible magical effects - in laymans terms, this is often expressed as the "source" of a spellcaster's abilities. This is different from the concept of Source as discussed above.

While any taxonomic system can become infinitely finely grained, speaking very broadly, Ars Magica defines three chief categories of means:

• Modo Arcanus (lit "Secret Means"), the primary spellcasting method of arcane spellcasters (thus the name) and practitioners of Ars Magicka. This is magic wrought by understanding, either of the Ars Magica or of similar systems of magic, and thereby manipulating the latent magical energies of Ahren or other planes. The distinction between Modo Arcanus and Modo Potestas (described below) is entirely around that key point of understanding. Many spellcasters blur the line between these two sets of means, leading to the occasional development of subclassifications to distinguish them. In the common parlance, "modo arcanus" is synonymous with wizardry.
• Modo Potestas (lit. "Means of Authority"), common to varying degrees in the region where Ars Magica is practiced, is magic wrought by the inborn ability to do magic (see "Peculiar Aptitudes", as described below). This is a category in which magic practiced by the imposition of will against the normal natural order is the instigating force, and applies both to the pratice of sorcery and the magical capabilities native many non-Human creatures. A common shorthand name for Modo Potestas is willwork. While capable of great feats in the right hands, most Ars Magica practicioners caution against relying too heavily on Modo Potestas as the skill is not considered to be infinitely advancable (limited by a natural upper bound of the caster's potential) in the same way that Modo Arcanus is.
• Modo Gratia (lit "Means of Grace"), is the least studied of all the means available, but is nonetheless documented by Ars Magica schools as the impact of divine inspiration on the warp and weft of magic within Ahren and the wider Cosmology cannot be denied by any but the most obstinately godless, and such attitudes are not common in either Bastonia or the Atarlie Empire, where the schools originate. The Modo Gratia categorizes all magic performed by the means of divine intervention in this same way, whether the source is good or evil. Since the modo gratia is not a "learnable" skill it isn't really directly studied by Ars Magica spellcasters, and most of the school's knowledge of it comes from the rare individuals who have knowledge of both Modo Gratia and one of the other schools - not entirely unheard of, given that Camus Inakas and San Sylvester are the originators of the school, and clerics of their respective religious traditions are often both Modo Gratia and Modo Arcanus practicioners.

Role of Peculiar Aptitudes

In part because of the extensive study of Modo Potestas, the school has come to further categorize amongst varieties of what are known properly as peculiar aptitudes, or sources of potential. Like any other kind of taxonomy these divisions can often become further subdivided:

• Potens sanguine, which is peculiar aptitude born in the bloodline. This could apply equally to the sorcerous bloodlines of various kinds found throughout all Wisteria and the innate magical aptitudes of certain races and creatures.
• Potens tempus, a rare and peculiar category similar to potens sanguine (and which may apply to the descendants of a person with potens tempus), which applies to individuals who are, without obvious divine intervention or connection to any locatable bloodline, naturally gifted with magical abilities.
• Potens mens, described best as peculiar mental fortitude. This categorization can apply as equally to Deadspells as it does to telepaths and charismatics. The existence of Deadspells is often disputed, with many asserting this to be a category of convenience used to sweep exotic cases of modo gratia spellcasters under the rug.

Ways of Magical Enactment

If the means is the method by which an actor imparts magic on the world, ways are the magic in which they specialize. Like any established system of academic study, you can, of course, infinitely subdivide any field of study into smaller and smaller fragments. However, in general, the Ars Magica headschools focus specifically on the following 9 Ways. The Nine Ways are sometimes known as the Ruberics owing to the fact a general grounding in all of them is expected of all of the school's students. These specific ways are also known as the "9 Ways Walked By The Archmages", as the title of archmage is only conferred upon those who can demonstrate mastery of all of the nine, to some degree or another. Even those who choose to specialise in any one field of study need a fundamental understanding of the other eight major ways and none but abject novices or the foolhardy ever specialize solely in just one Way.

• Via Tutela - The way of protection and school of abjurations, wards, enjoinments, and counter-spells.
• Via Vocatio - The way of the summons, a school concerned with planar disciplines as well as conjuration, summoning, and binding rituals.
• Via Scientia - The way of knowledge, the path of lore, a school concerned with studying divination and prophesy.
• Via Lepos - The way of charm and cunning, a school that concerns itself with manipulating minds and attitudes both individually and at scale. Were it not for the much flashier hazards of Via Lemurae and Via Mandatum, this would probably be the most feared school of the lot.
• Via Mandatum - The way of command, of bending and evocing the essentia themselves with varying forms of purity toward direct effects. This is the school that gives us that childhood favourite of all magical effects - the fireball.
• Via Illusio - The way of illusions, legerdemain, and prestidigitation. Creating the appearance of a spell is often more important than creating its actual effects.
• Via Mutatio - The way of change, of transformations and cunning craft. Among the first or second things taught to most new students due to its extreme protective potential, oftentimes useful in ways Via Tutela falls short. Inversely, this is also the butt of many lay fears. Everyone has some cousin three counties over that got turned into a newt by a Via Mutatio practicioner.
• Via Lemurae - The way of the shades. This is a maligned school, but fundamental for a number of reasons. While history is rife with examples of rogue necromancers twisting the more negative ends of the knowledge contained in this way to dominate and harm, the via Lemurae is also the path of those who seek to sustain the gravely injured, turn aside the natural undead, or preserve the departed until their last rites can be performed. For this reason, it should be remembered that not all of this schools arts are necromancy as defined under most laws, but almost all who walk the via lemurae are viewed with extreme suspicion in most places they go.
• Via Artificia - Undervalued, perhaps, by adventuring mages, at least until its results are found in their travels. The Via Artificia is the way of magical artifice. It is as concerned with the conjuration-ex-nihilo of useful objects as it is with disciplines like Alchemy, enchanting, and the production of scrolls, tomes, and other magical records.

Role of Planar Influences

The role of the planes in the use of magic is central to Ars Magica's understanding of magic, for two reasons:

• "manipulating concurrency" is a reference to the actual art of spellcasting, which is in influencing the 'harmonic' between the three concurrent planes (Ahren, The Etheral Plane, and Bardo) by tugging on the flow of magical energies that harmonic itself creates. This is thought of as why magic works on all three of the planes and why these three planes are easily transited by comparison to others.
• The Eight Essential Planes are thought to be the "spring" of their respective essences, and the movement of those planes through the Astral Plane relevant to the movement of the Ahren Coterminals through that same plane is thought to influence both the natural and magical properties of those essences.

In especially the later case, great effort is expended to chart, predict, and account for the movements of the Eight Essential Planes, both for major and minor causes. This is the cause of the Ars Magica's understanding of the Great Rift, and a root influence on Planar Astronomy.

Contrasts with Other Systems of Magic

Many other cultures and systems of magic have been developed on Wisteria and throughout greater Ahren. While Ars Magica is seen by many as the "default" understanding given its widespread adoption by Bastonia and the Atarlie Empire, it nevertheless remains that the other schools are seen as equally, if not more valid, by those who adhere to them.

In contrast to the Secrets of Nature school practiced by the Confederacy of Sages, Ars Magica is at once more complex and less clear. Both schools place a corresponding emphasis on the "one-ness" of Source, but neither would acknowledge that agreement. Ars Magica practicioners tend to view the Secrets of Nature school as a sort of "primitive modo arcanus", and while Ars Magica and the Sages have quite a bit of overlap in the departments of astronomy and related topics, these more negative attitudes (and geopolitical tensions) prevent an effective working together of the schools.

Similarly, Orcish Shamanism is equally derided by the Ars Magica as scarcely a school of magic at all, with a few remarking that with rare exceptions, the Orc Shamans are "impressive in spite of themselves", and the prevailing attitudes being that Orcish Shamanism chiefly works because of a few good early practicioners passing down, accidentally or otherwise, useful information, while much the rest was lost. Due to the emnity between the Orcish Nation and both the Atarlie Empire and Bastonia, there has been extremely limited interplay between practicioners of both schools that could be described as collegial. The learned among Ars Magica practicioners, however, having familiarity with the Baghar Testiments of Gul Spell-Speaker, an orcish wizard-god, would dispute this. Where it can be gotten away with, such experts often attempt to cull fresh secrets from the Testiments as some of the arcane understanding within the text eclipse the similar understandings in Ars Magica's more conventional bodies of work.

The Way of the Elements, of the Shimmering Shore, is often cited as the one other established and scholarly school of magical thought outside the Ars Magica sphere of influence. (This disregarding the state of affairs in Baghar, as communication between Baghar and nearly everywhere else is notoriously limited). However, the two schools are radically different in their fundamentals and each considers the other heretical for its own reasons. From the perspective of the Ars Magica school, the inward focus of the Way of the Elements on the "godhood of awareness" is seen as a literal heresy in Bastonia and by the Atarlie Empire as, at best, a misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of Source.

Internal Divisions

The Ars Magica school is not without its own internal divisions, unsurprisingly ebbing and fading as the attitudes and dispositions of the people that make up the school change over time. It is the only magical system in Wisteria not fully contained by a single polity, but indeed can be thought of as having Eastern and Western schools, those of the Atarlie Empire and Bastonia specifically. Because these schools are segregated culturally by the simple nature of geography, they've tended to involve some important conceptual differences.

Among the elves in the Eastern School, headquartered in Heroka, the relatively lax elven attitude toward religion (which comes closer to ancestor veneration than full-on worship in many cases) has lead to something of a renaissance in radical thinking about the more esoteric portions of their field; this is compounded by the elves' considerably easier access to the Astral Plane and their well-known racial aptitudes for magic. A full disclosure of all the esoterica involved would be prohitbitively long - and a course of study in its own right. The principal difference is the interpretation of Source by the elves as something akin to "being". The elven master Magister Idiodox once summarized this concept as "that which existed when the primordials were born", a statement that would be deeply heretical in Bastonia.

By contrast, the Western School, headquartered at the schools of Sylvestri Point, is more staid. Planar exploration has varied in Bastonia between culturally discouraged to downright illegal, and attitudes toward magic not obviously modo gracia have always been negative. Given the short lives of humans compared to elves, it can take a generation or more for the school west of the Atlas Mountains to shift local attitudes enough to openly discuss the latest ideas. Additionally, many faithful Bastonians including pracitioners of Ars Magica consider the source-as-being understanding as promulgated in Heroka to be entirely Hereteical, as it undermines both the narrative and primacy of the Almighty. Instead, the thinking tends to be dominated by the source-as-force theory, implying that there is a "means beyond means" or a "way of all ways" which underpins all of magic, be it the magic of mere mortals or divine actions itself. Amusingly, if mis-stated, the church of the almighty might still consider even this position to be heretical.