Magic

Magic is a fundamental force that permeates all the Planes of Existence. Raw magical energy is known as ether. In Exandria, magic flows through invisible rivers of energy across the planet known as ley lines.

Magic can be manipulated by creatures in order to spontaneously produce desired effects. This is called a spell, and creatures able to so, whether innately, through learning, or by being granted so by a higher being, are called spellcasters.

Types of magic
Magic is broadly split into two categories based on how it is channeled, called divine magic and arcane magic.
 * Arcane magic: Arcane magic is manipulated directly by a spellcaster, whether through study, innate ability, or knowledge granted by a greater power. Arcane magic is practiced by artificers, bards, sorcerers, warlocks, and wizards.
 * Divine magic: Divine magic is channeled by a spellcaster through a deity, one's own faith, or a connection to nature. Divine magic is practiced by druids, clerics, paladins, and rangers.

Schools of magic
Spells and magical effects are often grouped into these eight categories based on their similar effects.


 * Abjuration: Magic that is protective in nature, such as creating or reinforcing barriers, negating or ending other spells, and banishing creatures to other planes.
 * Conjuration: Magic that transports creatures and objects from one place to another. Some spells summon creatures to aid their summoner, others create portals or teleport the spellcaster from one place to another.
 * Divination: Magic that reveals information, such as psychometry, learning the location of a creature or object, recalling the past and predicting the future, and uncovering illusions.
 * Enchantment: Magic that affects other creatures' minds to influence their behavior. Includes spells that can cause an enemy to act as a friend, or to directly control the actions of another creature.
 * Evocation: Magic that manipulates energy, such as the creation of fireballs and bolts of lightning, or channeling positive energy to heal wounds.
 * Illusion: Magic that deceives the senses, such as by creating false images or sounds, or by implanting a phantasmal image in the mind of others.
 * Necromancy: Magic that manipulates the energy of life and death. Includes spells that drain the life energy form others or transfers it to another creature, the creation of undead creatures, and resurrecting dead creatures back to life.
 * Transmutation: Magic that changes the properties of creatures and objects. Includes spells that polymorphs a creature into another, moving objects at a distance, or changing the size or speed of a creature.

Other categories
Magic is sometimes placed into other categories besides the schools of magic. These categories can overlap with the schools of magic, or exist outside of them.


 * Artifice: The act of infusing magic into an object, through the use of tools. Includes the creation of magic items and potions.
 * Dunamancy: Magic that draws upon the power of potential, including the manipulation of gravity and time. Sometimes considered to be a ninth school of magic.
 * Hemocraft: Magic that manipulates blood, often by sacrificing it in exchange for power. Considered to be similar to necromancy.
 * Psionics: Magic that is manipulated by the power of one's own mind. Often includes abilities such as telepathy and telekinesis.

Gift from the gods
The Prime Deities had granted the knowledge of arcane magic to mortals so that they could protect themselves and defeat these threats. During the Age of Arcanum, the people of Exandria developed this new knowledge. This era has also been called "the Age of Wanton Necromancy," as there were no laws against it at the time.

The mages of this era ceaselessly pursued knowledge and innovation, creating new creatures and constructs. Many people believed that their arcane abilities served as proof that they were no longer beholden to the gods. Mages such as Vecna, and Halas Lutagran pursued immortality, and necromancers such as Siff Duthar and Opash were common. Some, like Clemain Astural, made otherworldly pacts in pursuit of their knowledge. Other arcane practitioners, particularly the Aeorians, experimented with changing or altering the flow of time itself, and succeeded.

Decline of the arcane
The Age of Arcanum completed with the end of the Calamity, the most destructive known to Exandria. The knowledge was lost in ruins of the previous epoch or banished into oblivion and in the present world only known as relics of the past:


 * Vespin Chloras described himself as a malconvoker, or an infernalist. Archaic mage specialist focused on summoning and tricking fiends to fight evil to supplement the forces of good. However, the Vital Pact, the treatise written in Celestial comprising the core of malconvoker philosophy, is feared by some to be itself a trick aiming to tempt and corrupt good-aligned spellcasters.
 * There is collection of ancient spells only described in connection to the individuals of the Age of Arcanum:
 * Mage's Disjunction
 * Magic Jar
 * Trap the Soul

Trivia
Spellcaster's personality or the source of magic is often reflected in the appearance and color of their magic. The spiritual weapon summoned by Shakäste takes form of a powerful women figure from history, Caleb Widogast's Bigby's Hand appears as a cat' ire. As a follower of Sarenrae, Pike's resurrection ritual is followed by a bright glow of warmth, the ritual completee by Kashaw, an acolyte of Vesh, the sigils placed around the about-to-be-resurrected-body darken into "the deepest shadow".