School Overview
The main schools of magic are Fire, Water, Air, Creation, Divine, and Displacement. The 7th school, Death Magic (or rather, Time Magic), has only ever been successfully used by 2 people in recorded history: The reaper mage Sirene Ignitis, and the Clockwork Dragon, Narin.
Only 1 in 4 people are capable of using magic of any kind, and of that, the majority are mere hedge wizards, capable of a few spells. Approximately 1 in 100 can master a single school, but only one which they have an affinity for. Of those, less than 1 in 2500 can master an additional school of magic. In all of recorded history, there have only been 6 verified instances of 3 or more school mastery, the greatest being the famed Quintuple Mage, Silas Malliot.
Fire Magic
A rather simplistic school of magic, but one still of great utility. It will come as no surprise to most that Fire Magic is the most common affinity there is among mortals. Even hedge mages are most commonly fire mages, something that has befuddled scholars. Theoretically, there should be a more even distribution of the schools among all casters, but it has weighted very heavily to fire. Due to this, defence against fire magic classes are mandatory for all students, even those with no ability to cast fire spells. Beyond the more showy spells such as fireballs and meteor swarms, a fire mage can start a campfire with the snap of his fingers, calm a raging forest fire by simply redirecting it, or simply cook a meal to perfection. Don’t be fooled into thinking this is an entirely offensive school, despite its reputation.
The Head of the Fire Magic Department is His Lordship Xilro the Flamemaster, a Draconic Mage who has graciously been teaching at this university for many centuries.
Water Magic
Air Magic
Creation Magic
Creation Magic is the art of creating something from nothing. Food, objects, animals, plants, if it can be touched it can be made. While it seems like being able to create food means one would never need to buy it again, this school of magic is exceedingly draining on the soul of a mage, no matter how powerful they are. Our resident Draconic mage has advised us that overexertion of Creation Magic can happen very quickly, and will typically burn-out the source of a mage for months if not years in worst case scenarios. When asked about a worst case scenario, he relayed that one dragon was left unable to use even basic magic for nearly 400 years after a massive overexertion in this school. Suffice to say, consider yourself warned.
The Head of this department can be found in the gardens and forests outside of the city, as she claims the university grounds are far too stuffy for her soul. Look for the elf that looks entirely lost in thought.
Divine Magic
Divine Magic’s name is a bit of a misnomer, as it has nothing to do with divinity, but rather feats attributed to divine intervention. The practitioners of this school are almost always Priests of some kind, with the school of magic being a kind of conduit to let them commune with their patron God. Numerous studies have come up empty handed as to what divine magic actually does, with some scholars being convinced it’s just one big joke by the Gods. The reputation of all dragons being natural double affinity mages, with one school always being Divine Magic other further complicates matters.
The current Head of the Divine Magic Department is High Priestess Neptis of the Vordean Temple, and she can be found at the Temple in the city.
Displacement Magic
Displacement Magic is rather straightforward, but relatively rare to have as a mastery, with most of its practitioners being people who needed it most at the darkest hour of their lives. It’s safe to say that Displacement Mages are tragic souls and should be treated with respect, as it’s impossible to know what gave the impetus for them to obtain their mastery.
As for the magic itself, as a utility it’s better known as teleportation, the act of instantaneous movement of a person or object from one location to another, with there being seemingly no limit on the distance travelled, with rumours of mages managing to teleport themselves all the way to our moon, Luna. As an offensive school, what can be done with Displacement is too horrific to be put into print in this overview. Please speak with the Head of Displacement Magic if you wish to know more. The Displacement Department is found in the upper level of the inner ring.
Death/Time Magic
How this school of magic works remains a bit of a mystery, as prolonged usage quickly kills its user, with the only exceptions being Sirene Ignitis and Narin. Based on careful study among hundreds of mages over thousands of years, it seems the magic can rapidly age targets, rewind a person’s time (effectively making them immortal as long as it can be cast every few decades), cause targets to decay and die within seconds, and other even more mysterious effects no mortal has ever uncovered. Asking Eigengrau herself is of course pointless, as she is famously reticent. Sirene Ignitis refuses to reveal its secrets, and the Clockwork Dragon Narin is orthogonal to time itself, so merely finding him requires great luck.
Any experiments on this school of magic must be first cleared by all 6 ethics boards and requires administrative approval from the Dean and the local authorities, in addition to a Last Will & Testament. To report time based anomalies and accidental paradoxes, simply think about visiting the Graveyard at dawn on the 5th Tuesday of the month, and it will resolve itself momentarily. We highly advise against thinking about why this works.