Magic is complex and varied and as such the common understanding of it is greatly simplified and there are just as many exceptions as there are rules.
The common understanding of magic is that a source of energy (most commonly called mana) permeates the world and exists in some form in all living things. It is known that plants and animals with magical properties seem to naturally produce a high amount of this magical energy.
Different magical practices allow people to access this source of energy in a variety of ways but they can be broadly grouped into innate, granted and learnt.
- Innate: Some rare individuals naturally produce a higher level of magical energy than others; they are able to use that energy to power magical effects.
- Sorcerers are not fully understood but possess some natural ability to produce arcane effects similar to, albeit significantly less refined than, those that a wizard can produce.
- Granted: Worshippers of higher powers don't typically tap into the energy of the world around them, instead the being that they worship grants them the ability to channel a tiny fraction of it's power.
- Most obvious here are those priests that have devoted themselves in such a way that they can act as a conduit for their deity's power.
- Though not all of them are considered deities, many other powerful spirits can also bestow blessings and powers upon their followers.
- Learnt: With time, effort and a little talent, an individual can learn to access and control magical energy through intense study.
- Wizards learn to meditate and focus their will to draw in ambient energy and then channel it into spells through the use of complex gestures, words and rituals.
- Alchemists rely on the fact that different things contain magical essence and combine them in different ways to enhance and imbue specific properties into potions and elixirs.
No two are the same but hedge witches/wizards tend to utilise a hodgepodge variety of different learnt magics; drawing in ambient magic for some effects while combining material components to produce energy for other effects.
Other traditions (mostly types of "learnt" magic)...
- Elven Lattice Weavers learn to manipulate crystals in such a way that they can channel magical energies through them as a form of spell casting.
- Dwarven Rune Priests tap into magical effects by carving magical runes into objects and imbuing them with energy.
- There is an order of monks that is known to use complex tribal tattoos in order to bestow abilities upon people.