Via Illusio

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The Via Illusio is one of the nine vias, or "ways", of mages in the Ars Magica - a subset of the school's formalized magical theories. The "Way of Illusion" is sometimes thought of as charlatan's magic, but has plenty of legitimate uses - including, as with the other Vias, undermining the use of the school against you or your patron. While the Via Lepos creates favourable or unfavourable impressions in the minds of others, Illusio concerns itself with creating visual illusions, often to the same ends of manipulation and subterfuge. A good understanding of the school will help you avoid falling victim to its use. The utility of this school in subterfuge is limited by the well-understood threat it poses; most senior wizards, and their wealthy patrons, are very familiar with detecting and revealing such illusions and are very hard to hoodwink with them.

However, profound specialty in the school combined with knowledge in Via Mandatum can allow the spellcaster to use the illusion to spread the effect of the evocation, potentially dramatically amplifying the harm they're capable of.