Trinity of Power: An Essay on Magic, Its Origins, and Its Effective Use by Adelessa Reglay

Arguably one of the most important assets in any mix of units, mages are useful in virtually any situation. Due to their flexibility and wide array of spells, a skilled tactician can turn the tide of a battle simply by cunning application of magic. This is why it is vitally important to study magic and have a comprehensive understanding of its limitations. In this article, the types of magic, their origins, and their proper and unorthodox uses will be discussed.

Easily the most well-known magic is anima magic. At least half of the mages in practice are anima mages, whether they be simple charm-weavers to storm-callers. Anima magic is best spotted by its connections to nature and natural phenomena. There is not a central school from which one learns this branch of magic: knowledge is passed from tutor to student and between peers in a cooperative network. As such, it is constantly evolving and is the most versatile of the three branches of magic.

When casting a spell, an anima mage calls upon the powers of the spirits that dwell throughout Elibe. Contrary to popular belief, this does not mean that the mage controls the spirit. Instead, the spirit grants what power it believe proper to the mage. This amount of power is based off of the control and will of the mage who called upon the spirit and the word of power that was used. As a mage increases his knowledge, he will be able to properly use increasingly more impressive abilities.

The most common spell for anima mages to know is one within the Fire family. This can be anything from lighting a candle to warming a metal object to throwing a fireball at an enemy in combat. This increases the heat of an object or creates flame depending on the intent of the mage. In a battle, fire is used for offensive purposes, though it can be used to alter the battlefield or create signals. It is worth noting that very few mages can choose the color of fire they create; do not count on having different colors of fire for signaling purposes.

The next family is that of Thunder. It is something of a misnomer perpetuated to prevent confusion between this family of spells and a common spell found in light magic. It mimics a natural lightning strike, albeit with less raw power and far more precise. It has more destructive potential than the Fire family, often a greater reach as evidenced by the spell "Bolt", and is used almost exclusively by combat mages. While the light, heat, and sound given off by a strike from a Thunder spell are bad enough, its true power lies in its ability to utterly incapacitate a person. While a Fire spell will cause burns, a Thunder spell may cause any combination of burns, temporary paralysis, and complications in the rhythms of the body. It's common for victims to fall unconscious when they find themselves with their breath stolen away; less common, but still with precedence, are cases where victims have died when their hearts were stopped.

Finally, the last significant family is the Tempest family. This covers what are colloquially known as the "Storm Spells": wind or ice spells that have a vast area of effect and incredible amounts of power. Very few mages come to master these without a natural affinity to the storm elements and decades of practice. Since these were designed to originally be spells that would repel a siege or assault castles, the single-target variants are absolutely devastating to anyone who is unfortunate enough to become a target. Whirling cyclones, hail, and freezing sheets of slush are all trademarks of this family. While they can be used to shape a battlefield, it's hardly advised to waste their power in such a manner.

The next most common branch of magic is that which has been developed and is practiced by the Church of Saint Elimine: light magic. Only the clergy of the Church can use its power. While often wielded by those who also possess abilities to use a staff, the two should not be confused. They are entirely separate skills and plenty of staff users are not sworn to the serve the Church. Clerics, priests, and bishops all wield this form of magic. Because of this, the Cathedral of Light in Etruria is recognized as its center of learning.

Very few people outside of the church know exactly how light magic works. Most agree that it has to do with one's faith in the spell and oneself: the calm, self-confident air of members of the clergy is explained by this. After that, however, it becomes less clear: no incantations are used, though often a tome is used to channel and focus one's abilities, and the source of the power for the spell is highly disputed. Some scholars believe it to be a case similar to dark magic in execution only portrayed differently by the perceptions of those using it; others decry this, claiming that Saint Elimine herself is powering these spells from beyond. Theories abound.

Whatever the case, light magic is a good asset to possess. It's known for being accurate and tending toward dealing massive amounts of damage in tight situations. While both dark and anima magic possess more raw power, light magic tends to have a faster reaction time due to the lack of spoken incantations. This also allows for willing users to be valuable in the cases of ambushes. The visual aspect of light magic is also worth note: true to its name, any spell will throw off a great deal of luminescence. Even combat-based spells will light up the surrounding area while active. Using light mages for visibility purposes is generally frowned upon: wasting one when a torch could achieve the same effect is wasteful. In a pinch, however, one has to use what is at one's disposal.

There are no families of light magic like there are in anima magic. Instead, spells are taught on a scale of increasing difficulty as one proceeds upward in the ranks of the Church. Most start with simple spells to call and control balls of light. The first combat spell, Lightning, is taught fairly early. From there, a light mage will learn more advanced spells such as Shine, Divine, and Purge. It is worth letting any clergy delay travel by a few hours to learn new techniques at a church present in a city.

The last branch of magic is by far the most rare. Named "dark magic" for its use of archaic languages and forgotten forces, it is widely known to be the hardest to learn and also the most powerful. It is left well alone by most thanks mostly to the fact that the shamans and druids who practice it either go mad or are corrupted to base deeds by the power they possess. The spells for dark magic have not changed in centuries: creating new spells in this discipline often ends in death for the inventor. Dark mages rarely interact with one another. When they do, it often ends in at least one of them dead.

Dark magic pulls its power from the Old Ones, called dark gods, and the forces that formed Elibe. The nature of space, time, and gravity all seem to be at the beck and call of dark mages, used for one purpose: to cause as much destruction as possible. In line with this, a vast majority of their magic is devoted to devastating combat spells: they have the most raw power of any discipline of magic. There are very few instances of dark magic being used outside of combat. The last was the Great Blight in 476 A.S., as cast by Silvan the Mad, in which the entirety of Ilia's crops rotted on the vine.

The main weakness of dark mages is their incantations. They are long and cannot be stopped once started. Because of this, they are significantly slower in combat situations than a user of any other branch of magic.

Despite this rather large flaw, they are coveted by those in command. A single shaman can decimate entire squads if he puts his mind to it. The more magic one casts, the stronger and more effective further spells become. With spells such as Flux, which warps space around a target, Luna, which tears at a target with gravitic forces, and Nosferatu, which drains life from a target and grants it to the caster, it is easy to see how dark magic earns its reputation of being terrifying and nigh impossible to fight.

It is known even to the most uneducated of laymen that there is a delicate balance of power between the three disciplines. Light magic trumps dark; dark reigns over anima; and anima beats light. Light magic is based off of faith: it surpasses the boundaries the rules and dogma of dark magic. Dark magic deals with the old powers of the world; these ancient forces spawned the spirits and still hold sway over them. Because of this, dark magic controls the force that spawns anima magic; obviously it has a large advantage. Anima is more flexible and volatile than light. It can outperform light magic simply by being more destructive: an anima spell will dissipate a light spell every time.

Each of these three disciplines is useful in its own right. A skilled tactician doesn't treat all mages equally, instead making allowances and pushing for different duties from each branch. While it may take time and effort to learn how best to use them beyond the brief summaries given in this article, mages are an indispensable part of one's forces and are well worth that effort.