Excerpts from Arcanum: The Study of Magic 5th Edition
Magic exists in everything. All things living, inert, or otherwise in existence can all be traced back to the Weave, the original source of magical power. Yet magic follows no uniform rules, and it varies in form, schools, Drawing Source, and application. This book was written to give a brief understanding of basic magical concepts, and should be seen as a primer, not final word, on magic and our knowledge of it.
I: Drawing Sources
There are three main "Drawing Sources" of magic that we know of. Though all are fundamentally based in the Weave, they differ on how lifeforms can interact with and manipulate them. They are presented in no particular order.
The first to be discussed is Hermeticist magic. This Drawing Source of magic is the most scientific and quantified. It is based in a fundamental understanding of the academics of magic, such as alchemy, chemistry, biology, physics, and mathematics. Hermeticist magic is generally not applied outside of lab or academic settings, seeing as it draws less on loose, residual magics like Thaumaturgy and is reliant more on an understanding of theory and abstracts. However, talented Hermeticists often carry great spell tomes on their persons, allowing the casting of laboratory and combat spells outside of a lab setting. It could be argued that the greatest use of a student of Hermeticism is not their raw magical power, but their huge range of useful skills acquired in academic settings. Hermeticists tend to be colloquially known as Wizards, Alchemists, or Professors.
The second to be discussed is Thaumaturgical magic. This magical source is based not in academic study or science, but instead through the manipulation of an "ambient" magic that exists in everything, a result of the original creation of Vaelia and the Divine Rebellion. Long before there was ever an Imperial Academy at Altford, or even an Altford, the peoples of Calradia knew of this magic. Shamans and Druids would perform rituals and miracles, healing wounds or shooting fire from their hands. This is an ancient magic, used by nearly every magic user not formally taught at an academy. The user must feel the ambient magic around them, focus it, and maintain the connection. While most Calradians cannot "feel" or at least harmonize with this Drawing Source, it is by far the most common, with many who can harmonize becoming clergy, Paladins, and other talented individuals.
The third Drawing Source to be discussed is also the least understood, as of this edition. This is the magic known as Sorcery. It involves directly interacting with the Weave itself. This magic was unheard of until the onset of the Great War, for it seems Sorcery is the primary magical source for the Direnni Elves. While it has been rumored that native Calradian Wood Elves can practice Sorcery, this is unconfirmed, and may actually be rooted in racial animosity, which equates Wood to Direnni Elf. Nonetheless, it is hypothesized that the Weave is more literal than first realized, with "strands" of the Weave able to be "pulled" by those with magical talent and great strengths of personal will. This results in a very powerful, unrefined magic, being able to unleash far greater devastation, as well as manipulating forces thought to be unreachable by magic users, such as the manipulation of souls, the creation of undead constructs, and other, yet undiscovered properties. Calradian Sorcerers are almost entirely unknown, with laboratory replications of Sorcery being either ineffectual or disastrous. The study of Sorcery is also a concept of great controversy, with many denouncing it as "the work of the enemy". It has been hypothesized that Half-Elven folk may have an inherent Sorcerous talent, but we are unlikely to know, due to the mix of extremely high rates of suicide, racially motivated murders, and poverty keeping the Half-Elves a thoroughly alienated population. Practitioners of Sorcery are simply called Sorcerers by most, though some less educated sorts may refer to them as "demons" or simply "Elven Sympathizers".
II: The Soul
The soul is more than a mere metaphysical concept. The soul is the animating force behind a living organism. It is its personality, will to live, and natural instinct given intangible form. Until the Great War, the manipulation, visualization and otherwise study of souls was almost completely abstract, yet with the new field of Sorcery being opened, we are learning that is in fact something that can be manipulated, though not necessarily created or destroyed. It has been hypothesized that a soul is at first raw magical energy, being based in the Weave. With the Divine Rebellion, great concentrations of magical residue leaked into Vaelia, setting the stage for life to begin, and accelerating the Divines' own pet projects. A soul is created when this residue binds to a form, becoming its life force, as well as the personality of more intelligent beings. A soul cannot be manually condensed, thus an artificial soul is impossible to produce. Instead, the residue continues to form new souls, and these souls go back to the Weave upon their lifeform's death. As the Weave accumulates more lost energy, the more that said accumulated energy will leak back into Vaelia, like a bowl overflowing with water. Not all souls have equal power, with the souls of more intelligent lifeforms having greater magical energy than lower life forms such as shrubs or rabbits. It has also been hypothesized that the Divines, if they truly walked the world, were likely beings of nearly limitless magical energy, being some of the first living creatures born of the Weave.
While Sorcery has confirmed a number of these theories, it has also raised disturbing questions about the nature of the soul and the consequences of Sorcery as a magic. According to Sorcerers, all living things are directly linked with the Weave by a "thread", or a force that connects the material body and world to the Weave, the source of magical energy. It has been determined that Sorcerers can literally see these threads, and they are open to manipulation. These manipulations manifest in forms such as psionic domination and distortion, leaving all at the mercy of powerful Psionic Sorcerers. Beyond the practical danger of psionic manipulation, lurks the issue of necromancy and the very nature of Sorcery as a magical Drawing Source. The use of the undead as self-sustaining environmental garrisons has confirmed that it is indeed possible to retrieve souls from the Weave, for Direnni Necromancers forcibly tear souls from the Weave and implant them into cadavers, binding them to their will. However, it is the method of retrieval that should raise the greatest concern. The Sorcerer finds a loose "thread" to pull, bringing with it a soul to condense into a control stone, which acts as an anchor and fuel source for an undead. If one tears away at the individual threads of a tapestry, what happens to the tapestry? It slowly unravels, coming undone and destroying the original work. While such an assertion is still a theory, it has produced a great degree of concern within the halls of the Imperial Academy.