Magic

Overview
Magic is the mysterious power which allows people to do extraordinary things. From flying, to forming fireballs to transforming other beings. Ultimately, the origin of magic can be thought of as a magnification of the self, temporarily overriding the laws and logic of the world with one's own logic and laws. The actual scope of magic is dramatic, ranging from the power to make a light, or set a match aflame to the titanic might of the gods that can shatter countries and rain fire down from the skies. However, magic is not without its intrinsic limitations. In particular three laws describe the limitations of magic.

The First Law
Firstly, magic must manifest in the parlance of the world. Or rather, magic must have a channel between its origination and its target. One can create a fireball that transforms things into ash, but one cannot spontaneously make people transform into ash from a distance.

As a note, not all vectors for magic need be immediately visible. Ergo, magic that transforms someone into wind, transports them across a vast distance, and transforms them into a human shape again may be possible. Magic that simply teleports someone to another place is assuredly not.

The vectors of magic that move people from one world to another are quite difficult to understand for even the greatest minds of the current era, making the recreation of such magic beyond existent gates extraordinarily difficult. Straight teleportation does not exist as such.

The Second Law:
Secondly, magic may not be countered. Magic is the power to overwrite one's nature onto the logic of the world, not the logic of another person. It is a conflict with the world where a magic user uses their will to make the world accept impossible phenomenon. Direct conflict between the wills of two magicians doesn't exist as such. Consequently a type of magic which specifically negates other magic does not exist.

This is not to say that magic is unstoppable. If one mage casts a spell to create a ball of fire, another mage could destroy that with a spell that conjures a wall of water. In such a case, the magic was to create something and hold it in shape. No part of the magics invoked altered the outcome of a conflict between fire and water, ergo the world resolved those conflicts naturally.

The Third Law
Lastly, magic may not be undone. Magic evokes a change upon the world, which the world then accepts as natural. Much as that change cannot be stopped, it cannot be undone. Other magic can evoke a change back to a similar state, but they cannot deny that the first change happened. If a wound is created, or someone is inflicted with a terrible disease, another mage might use a new spell to heal the wound or cure the disease, but they could not simply negate the infliction in the first place.

In general, this rule most often applies to magic which transforms either mentally or physically. If a necromancer were to be transformed into a baker, he might make use of some magic to transform back into a necromancer, but generally this would not undo the power that made him a baker in the first place. Rather it would be magic to become a new necromancer. Identity tokens are often used to escape this clause. By creating a record of the original form, it is possible to create a spell which 'coincidentally' transforms someone into an exact duplicate of their prior state.

In truth, most modern theorists contend that the third and second laws are really a single principle, and should be understood as extensions of such.

Basic Magic
The majority of all sapient beings have what is generally referred to as basic magic. Its a mix of rituals and innate aptitude that makes the ordinary tasks one generally engages in slightly easier.

Adept Magic
Magic at its base becomes apparent at the adept level. Ultimately it is a magnification of some aspect of the self. A great swordsman might learn to cut anything. A great baker to make magical breads, a doctor to heal even death itself, such can be the extent of their power.

Generally there are two types of Adept those with formal training and those without. Those with formal training are found in the various schools through out the lands. These generally have a specialized regimented system with rivalries against other adept schools(sometimes of the same sort of profession).

Generally speaking those without formal training are often brought into the fold when they can be, so often they are of a particularly rare profession or one banned in the region(however there may be secret schools that still practice).

Adept Schools can generally be broken down into three groups. Profession Based, Race Based, and Hobby based.

Profession based ones are simply extending a profession via magical skills, these include what might more commonly be seen as magician types, but those are actually extensions of base skills. An alchemist is for example an adept extension of chemistry. Necromancy an adept extension of mortuary practices, even wizards are just an extension of the study of the science of magic.

Racial schools are harnessing the innate power of a race. Examples such as the powers accredited to vampires or the Kitsune school for Sage Foxes.

Hobby schools are based on something one could in no possible way make money off of. They are often quite destructive to the practitioner among others. The most common schools of this involve alcohol.

Hobby and Profession schools have trappings, physical and mental conditioning that are often interfered with via proper transformative effects, sometimes this may backfire as particularly brilliant adepts quickly adapt gaining new powers in their new form, other times they maintain their abilities even when hindered. This is why such effects often come with significant mental conditioning. If one's magic depends on being "a swordsman" then that magic would naturally become inaccessible if the swordsman in question was transformed into a priest. Using an identity token to turn back would allow the problem to be overcome, as could simply getting transformed into a new form which duplicated the key aspects of the original shape. In the latter case there would almost always be some loss of power, as magic is fundamentally an extension of the self. Any change to that self can be expected to create some qualitative change to the magic that emanates from it.

Race based schools are much more difficult to break as the races that have access to them generally are not alterable from them. The solution used is mental conditioning along with inanimate setups.

Related Topics
Magic Items