On Tiroeth: Magic

Traditional Magic

Originally, when making Tiroeth, I decided on going whole hog with the 5e D&D lore, and using the Weave as a basis for magic in my game. I have yet to decide if that particular bit of lore is true, but so far it has served its purposes. I have solidified Weave in the form of mined Elish Cloth. It'll come up for revision at some point or other. The idea is a little weak.

As for magic in general in Tiroeth, here is what I have got. I like the mystery of magic, and the rival schools sorta birthed themselves. 

The Royal University of Tarr

Location: The City of Tarr, in Athanull

This is the primary and oldest magicians university in the known world. It was not actually founded as much as grown organically from a council of hedge wizards and witches, in the county of Tarr, which is still represented in its ruling council. Tarr grew up around this strange educational system, where eventually it was declared as the capital of Athanull by the Sorcerer-King 300 years Pre-Charter.

The system is a set of arbitrary Houses with representatives, and their own faculty. Classicaly they call themselves the "Schools of Magic" but the lines are far too blurred to make any particular distinction between the Houses. University council members are chosen from the heads of each of these Houses.

Académie de Sorcellerie et de Thaumaturgie

Location: The Free City of Arrix

The Royal University of Tarr, and its colleges are by many standard insufferably stuffy and certain about their procedures. This cantrip must be cast this way, this ritual has to have this element because my Magi athro told me.

That was all well and good until Arrix started exploring the Eastern Isles, and the court wizards discovered bizarre and strange magics in the shattered tomb islands. Coming back to Arrix the lessons taught by wizened Magi became backward and filled with trivialities and tradition, and the first Wizard explorers went out to set up their own Academy of magic in the burgeoning trade hub of Arrix. The old Privateer houses were delighted and supported such an endeavour. Spurred purely by the attacks from Akarja, the Academie has grown in leaps and bounds. Even Tarr has had to update some of their methods, much to the consternation of their oldest magi.

Other Magics

Outside of so called 'proper' magics lies the studied, traditional, and unknown. These can be divided into approximately three types. That of purely divine, that of planar, and that of ancient tradition.

The Divine

All the various religions of Tiroeth have tapped into, what the Regency Colleges call, "Divine" magic. It is unexplained, and apparently needs a degree of faith to cast as rituals, or one needs to be 'chosen' (with no regard for any virtue of character) for more instant effects. These religious institutions can be said to be the classical gods of the Regency, and surrounding regions, that of the Hero worship of Uru, and the Orkish belief in the Sower. It is unclear whether Gods or a God exists. Studied extensively, it is noted that the concordence between spiritual and material elements elicits these effects, but the source of power is unknown.

The Planar

Until recently the Planar Magics where considered either glorified hedge-wizardry, mysticism or a subset of divine magics. Due to its relative rarity, it was oft not studied and then only by the truly eccentric. It became a rich field after the discoveries of the complexes in the isles by the Explorers of the Academy, and the magic within. Strange geometries and connections, calls to beings in a "planar" realm and impossible objects that project ones sight and reason beyond your body.

Intense study followed those initial discoveries, and it was found that many spells and cantrips known to any ordinary University acolyte or Academy student were in fact a distant ancestor to these geometries and thaumic objects.

The Druids of Cymer use Planar magics, but have successfully hidden their rituals and spells from the prying eyes of the Schools.

The Ancient Tradition

It is a subject of great debate among all those learned in arcana what exactly the rituals and magics the Naüdroi practice is. Scientifical experiments have found that the grand rituals, and nature magics are something wholly different. The current accepted thinking is that it is a careful mixture of planar and divine magics. Others are certain it is nothing of the sort, and claim absolute divinity, pure arcana, or something else entirely. The debate rages on.