The Laws of Magic

An authentic and believable fantasy world has to follow consistent rules. It must seem as if magic (mancery, the Secret Art) really exists, and both author and readers have to know what can and can’t happen in this world. Here are the rules I follow in my Three Worlds epic fantasy series, my other fantasy novels and my children’s books, http://www.ian-irvine.com

Basics of Magic

Magic is a rare natural ability (the gift) in humans, and a few other sentient creatures, that enables them draw on power (either inner or external) to do things that defy normal explanation. However, without study, training and self-discipline the gift is unlikely to develop usefully. Those who have mastered the use of magic are called mancers, wizards or adepts. These terms apply to both sexes.
Magic always has a cost to the adept, and it is often high. Using magic frequently causes aftersickness, also called the mal – pain, nausea, migraines, exhaustion etc – and sometimes it can be so debilitating that the adept cannot move, or defend herself, for hours.
- Aftersickness is worst for novices, but can also badly affect experienced adepts, especially if using a powerful or unfamiliar spell.
- Aftersickness can be postponed with spells, potions or balms, but in the end the cost must be paid.
- All sources of power (see Sources of Power, below) can cause aftersickness, though generally it is worst when drawing power from the adept’s own mind or body, or the adept’s familiar if he/she has one.
The gift is mostly inherited, though it can skip one or a number of generations. Sometimes it arises spontaneously.
- Rarely it manifests for the first time soon after birth, more often in childhood, occasionally in adolescence, almost never in adulthood.
- Normally it appears gradually. Occasionally, however, the gift, if triggered by exposure to magic or a magical trauma, can manifest strongly the first time. This may be wonderful, or terrifying.
- In gifted people who never have magical training (e.g. because magic is frowned upon or banned in their society, or from fear that they will be used by the unscrupulous), the gift may never amount to anything. Such people may even hate or fear their gift, and/or suppress it (see below).
The gift is usually limited to one or a few kinds of magic (see Kinds of Magic, below). No adept has ever been a master of all, or even most, forms of magic.
The gift can be blocked or destroyed. Where someone’s magical gift is blocked, that person will be traumatised or tormented. If the gift is destroyed (severing), that person will suffer from feelings of unbearable loss and is liable to break down, become insane or catatonic, or lose the will to live.
An adept’s inner power can be used up. Novices may exhaust their inner power after casting one or two simple spells, and not even the greatest adepts can cast powerful spells for a long time (e.g. in battle) without running out of power. Once an adept’s inner power has been exhausted, if he/she cannot draw on some readily available external source, no more magic can be done without resting or sleeping to replenish power.
Magic wants to express itself. Someone with an untaught, blocked or repressed gift is liable to become a danger to themselves and others, because uncontrolled magic may burst out of them.
A truly great adept may be able to transfer part of his or her gift to another gifted person (though not to anyone who lacks the gift for magic).
- Only one kind of magic (see Kinds of Magic, below) can be transferred to another gifted person at a time, and this comes at great cost in pain and aftersickness to both parties.
- Gift transfer isn’t always successful and, whether successful or not, can never be reversed. If it fails, that particular kind of magic is lost to both parties.
- Gift transfer is rarely successful when the recipient is an adult, and his or her ability to use the kind of magic transferred will be both limited and painful.
A few creatures are intrinsically magic (e.g. salamanders, unicorns), though not being sentient they cannot cast spells. Some sentient magical creatures (e.g. dragons) may be able to do magic intuitively. Other sentient species, if they have the gift, can learn to cast spells, and may be stronger or weaker than human adepts, but are subject to the same general limitations.
How magic (and any individual spell, potion, scent potion etc) actually works, and why it works, are secrets known only to a select few. Most adepts who learn and use a spell can’t explain how or why how it works.

What it Feels Like to Work Magic

(not readily explicable to those who lack the Gift)

Locating a Source of Power or Connecting to a Known Source. The Source is sensed out with the inner eye or, sometimes, with another inner sense. This is normally a kind of clairvoyance or far-seeing, and for the majority of gifted people requires considerable training.
Drawing Power. A connection is made between the Source and the adept’s gift. Some sources are more difficult and dangerous than others. The adept may feel a throbbing behind the eyes, a hot or prickling sensation, a sharp pain, dizziness or nausea – or nothing at all. Then the adept strains, mentally, and, if successful, power begins to flow into him or her. This may be accompanied by a cool or hot flooding sensation, or feelings of joy or fulfilment. Generally speaking, the more power that is drawn, the greater the magic that can be done, but also the greater the risk to the user.
Casting a Spell. The adept recalls the words of the spell (if it’s a verbal spell), and the hand and arm movements of the staff/wand (or other magical focus) previously rehearsed, and sees, in his/her magical inner eye, the spell to be cast. The words and movements must be exactly as rehearsed or the spell is liable to go wrong. The adept now draws power, speaks the words and makes the movements, and these trigger and power the spell.
Immediately afterwards, if the spell worked properly, the adept may experience a sense of elevation, euphoria, giddiness, hysteria, or have an uncontrollable fit of giggling or a variety of other reactions. Aftersickness generally begins a few minutes later and can last for half an hour or more in extreme cases. Sometimes it may be delayed by an hour or two.

Sources of Power

All magic requires power (sometimes called quintessence or etherin) though it is not known precisely what the invisible force that enables magic is. Magical theory states that the power needed to cast a spell can be drawn from one or more of six kinds of sources. The first two can sometimes be used instinctively. The other four are complex and difficult, may require a lifetime of study, and are rarely used.
- Animantic – the power inherent in living things. All gifted people have some ability for animancy, since the first source of power most adepts tap is themselves.
  - From within the adept’s mind or body, which is limiting and exhausting, and can be traumatic. Sometimes it may require a heighted bodily state, e.g. after sleep, exercise, sex etc;
  - From an enchanted device or object in which power has previously been stored (e.g., a wand, staff, crystal etc), if the adept has one (note: drawing power from an enchanted device that belongs to someone else can be dangerous);
  - By stealing part or all of the life force of another person (even more dangerous), AKA life-drinking.
    - From another human being – generally considered a serious crime;
    - From another intelligent creature, Gifted or not – often considered a crime.
    - From another Gifted person – a capital crime, punishable by severing the perpetrator from their magical gift.
  - From the life force of a familiar (the adept’s spirit companion, often having an animal form), another living thing, animal or plant, or even from an ecosystem. Rarely, from a whole society (anthropomancy).
- Geomantic – the latent power in parts of the physical world. This is one of the broadest sources and can provide subtle amounts of power, or enormous amounts;
  - From certain rare crystals, minerals, rocks and fossils, or more commonly, by enchanting such items.
  - Using the earth as a power source, e.g. magical fields that occur around geological or geographic features such as some fault lines, meteor craters, volcanoes, ore bodies etc, or even around the world itself.
  - Drawing on the power inherent in natural phenomena such as storms, earthquakes, forest fires, floods etc.
  - Using miasmancy, by drawing on the power in toxic magical waste (which may accumulate when a large amount of magical power is used in a small area, such as at a manufactory for magical devices, or the site of a great magical battle). Miasmancy is very dangerous and hard to control, and liable to result in insanity or death. Only used by people who are either reckless, desperate or insane.
- Necromantic – drawing power from or animating and controlling the dead. Also extremely dangerous.
- Astromantic – the power of the heavenly bodies. Poorly understood and a difficult source to use, and due to distance can only provide small amounts of power. May be facilitated and power (possibly) tapped via armillaries and orreries.
- Numinomantic – drawing power from, or making use of the power of, supernatural beings, including sprits and demons.Deadly dangerous to the user, since such beings are incredibly powerful, incomprehensible, easily insulted and angered, and unpredictable.
- Altomantic – power inherent in planes of existence other than the normal, material plane (e.g., ethereal plane, astral plane, Upper and Lower planes etc). Extremely complicated and difficult, and can be very dangerous since different planes contain different kinds of power and not all are compatible with the human body.

There may be other sources of power, but such matters are kept secret and may be known only to an individual or a select few.

Magical Devices

Magic use is often facilitated by a focus – an enchanted device such as a staff, wand, ring, amulet, crystal, jewel, book, cup, cauldron, helm, bell, key etc. which helps the adept to draw power, and target and control spells. Most adepts require such a device to work magic, though great adepts may be able to cast spells with a hand gesture, or a word or words. People without the gift for magic can’t use a focus, and gifted people without training can only use them poorly. In many cases, the adept must also win the allegiance of the enchanted device’s persona or spirit, if it has one, before using it effectively.
Specific spells may also be cast via magical objects such as a spell scroll or inscribed rune, an elixir, potion or scent potion, a magical weapon, armour or tool, or enchanted jewellery, bones etc. Occasionally, ungifted people may be able to trigger the contained spell in a magical object (e.g. by using the weapon, wearing the armour or giving someone the potion or cursed item). In most cases, however, the magical gift, plus knowledge, training and willpower are all required to trigger the spell. Additionally, the adept may be required to win the allegiance of the enchanted object’s persona, if it has one, before using it effectively.
Enchanted devices and objects can be drained of power. Once all the power in an adept’s focus or enchanted object has been used, he/she can do no more magic with it until it has been recharged. Some magical objects cannot be recharged; others will be destroyed when all the contained power has been used. Even if the adept has an unlimited supply of enchanted devices, she/he cannot keep casting spells for hours because channelling such a great flow of power will eventually bring on crippling aftersickness.
Enchanted devices and objects can be corrupted by misuse or use for very dark magic, and in some cases by passage through a portal between worlds. A corrupted magical device is unpredictable, and may be treacherous, and using it will be perilous for all but the greatest adepts.
Some magical devices have a memory of how they were used in the past. This may either limit or enhance what the device can do in future.

Finding, Storing and Using Power

To wield magic safely and effectively, an adept must master three very difficult skills:

The Use of Magical Power (see The Main Kinds of Magic, below). This involves:
- Finding sources of power (internal or external, see above) that the adept has the skill and knowledge, and in some cases the courage or the reckless folly, to use;
- Drawing on power safely;
- Using power to work different kinds of spells, each of which will have different requirements, pitfalls and limitations;
- Blocking or diverting sources of power used by other adepts;
- Destroying sources of power (very dangerous); and
- Seeking out, identifying and locating the traces left when magical power has been used by others (very difficult and sometimes ambiguous).
Enchantment of Devices and Objects. This greatly increases the power available to do magic, and the adept’s control of it, but also increases the danger.
- Almost any object can be enchanted if the adept is sufficiently skilled, though in most cases the enchantment will be feeble and will not last long. Few materials can be enchanted strongly, and great and powerful devices can only be made from rare or precious materials;
- The creation of a magical device (such as a staff, wand or ring) to serve as a wizard’s focus is exceedingly difficult. It requires careful selection and rigorous preparation of materials (e.g. for a staff or wand, the right kind of wood, bone, ivory, horn, tusk or other material, plus in most cases the right kind of magical core). Staffs and wands are almost always made from organic materials. Rarely, an adept may make a staff or wand from iron, silver or other inorganic substance, though these are exceedingly difficult to prepare and require great physical strength and mental dominance to use.
- There are two kinds of magical cores:
  - Organic cores derived from part of a magical animal (e.g. unicorn horn, basilisk fang, troll kidney stone, salamander skin) or plant (bloodwort, devil’s dung, dragon wort, ebony, yew wood, rowan wood, eucalyptus, carnivorous plants etc.). It is forbidden to use any body part of a human adept for a magical core, though sorcerers and dark wizards have been known to do this;
  - Inorganic cores derived either from rocks with magical properties (e.g. haematite, bloodstone, lapis lazuli, moonstone, Tiger’s Eye, meteorite, fulgurite (a ‘petrified’ lightning strike), or magical crystals (e.g. opal, jade, emerald, amethyst) or fossils (trilobites, insects in amber, dinosaur parts, coprolites (i.e. fossilised dung) etc.).
- Ideally the device’s core will be chosen to complement the adept’s abilities and nature. An antagonistic core can only be used by an adept with great mental strength.
- The core must be compatible with the material of the staff, wand or other device.
- The core will often influence the type of magic that can be worked, e.g.:
  - A core derived from a unicorn cannot reliably be used for dark magic;
  - A core based on a troll body part will be unsuited for clever or subtle magic;
  - A core that comes from a were-beast may display very different characteristics according to the phase of the moon and the nature of the beast.
- Enchantment of a device or object can sometimes install a persona (inner spirit) in it. It is not known where the persona comes from, however staffs and wands whose core comes from a magical creature are more likely to have a persona.
- If the core comes from a sentient magical creature (e.g. dragon bone, hag hair, werewolf fang, goblin toenail), its persona will be more powerful but more difficult to work with, and is likely to have some of the characteristics of the creature it came from. This applies doubly to cores based on relics or body parts from human adepts; the persona may be full of rage, or plot revenge at being used for forbidden purposes.
Working with the Persona of an Enchanted Device (if it has one).
- A persona has a life and will of its own and may be able to communicate with the owner of the device, and others. A personamakes the device more powerful, assuming the adept can win its allegiance. If not, the device will be a great danger to its user.
- The persona may resent being trapped in the magical object, and resentment will build if the persona feels unappreciated or ill-used. It may go to sleep, withdraw its support or make the adept’s spells backfire on him or her. If the persona feels particularly ill-used, it may betray its user, even to death.
- Although the persona can be dominated by a sufficiently powerful adept, it will resent this and may hold back power, or attempt to make spells go wrong. It is far more effective to win the persona’s allegiance via a meeting of minds (or through charm, flattery or sucking up). Where a device has not been used for a long time, the persona may have to be coaxed out of a comatose state.

Effectiveness of Magic

Rare places, natural or built, can enhance magic (or certain kinds of magic) done there.
- For instance, some places may be particularly suited to the working of dark magic; other places may facilitate the creation of gates (AKA portals). The converse is also true: some places may weaken magic done there, or increase the risk of a spell going badly wrong.
- To work a particular spell, the adept may need to tailor the setting with structures, symbols, geometric markings, colours, scents or specific props (magical, or with a beneficial or malign history according to the nature of the spell to be cast).
- Time (season, moon phase, time of day, alignment of planets, stars or other heavenly bodies) and weather may also matter.
The effectiveness of a spell depends on the person using it. People have different abilities, attitudes, passions, beliefs and prejudices, strengths and weaknesses and taboos, all of which will influence the kinds of magic they are drawn to, and how effectively they can use it. Just as in our world some people can’t do maths, and others can’t sing in tune, some adepts can only work certain kinds of spells. Some adepts (not necessarily bad people) are attracted to the dark side, others repulsed by it.
Magic is shaped by the person using it. Every individual will work a spell differently and some spells will actually look different (e.g., a shapeshifters’).
History matters. The present-day world has been shaped by people’s choices in the past. A magical device, object, spell or place may work differently today because of how it was used or misused in the past.

Limitations of Magic

All magic has consequences and limitations, and all spells have weak points.
- The Law of Restrictions. The greater the magic, the more difficult it is to use, the greater the chance of it going wrong, and the greater the cost to the user even when it works properly. If great magic was easy to use, and came at little cost, it would change the world for the worse. Nature is always trying to restore the balance.
- If too much power is drawn, or the adept overreaches his abilities and loses control working a powerful spell, the result can be injury, madness, a heart attack or stroke, or even a gruesome death (e.g., by anthracism (burning from the inside out), or bodily explosion).
- All but the most subtle magic leaves traces. Great adepts may be able to read these traces and use them to identify – and possibly locate and attack – the user.
- Every spell can be blocked, if the defender has the knowledge, experience and power. Many spells can be reversed, though some cannot (e.g., a spell that has killed the victim).
- Magic is an art, not a science, and contains an element of randomness. Sometimes spells cast perfectly will fail, rebound on the adept, or go wrong – sometimes comically, but sometimes with disastrous effects.
- Spells cast imperfectly, or by adepts who lack the knowledge or control, are likely to go disastrously wrong (see below).
- The physical range of magic is always limited. Some spells may require the adept to touch the target (the object or person to be bespelled); many spells will only work if the target is within sight; few spells will have a range of more than half a mile, and those that do require great power and control otherwise they’re liable to go astray. Spells required to work across great distances (such as for the creation of portals) are immensely difficult and may have a crippling cost to the user.
- Large-scale magic (e.g. to hide or disguise something as large as a town, castle or army) is extremely difficult and draining, and will rarely last longer than a few hours. It isn’t possible to permanently hide something large in a populated area; it may be possible in a wilderness area where few people will ever see it.
- Collaborative magic (magic involving a large number of adepts working together) is extremely difficult. Simple tasks (e.g. creating widespread fog or confusion) will often succeed, however complex tasks (such as repairing buildings destroyed in a battle) are rarely successful, and not worth the cost.
- The duration of magic is generally limited. For instance, attack spells such as stunning, transformations, invisibility, illusions etc may only work for a few minutes. Where such a spell is required to act for a long time, it will normally drain the adept’s power all the time it is in force. Some spells are permanent, for instance petrifaction (turning someone or something to stone) however these require immense amounts of power and are liable to cause great pain or aftersickness.
- Most spells are limited in the materials they will work on. For instance, metal is impervious to many spells; enchanting a ring, sword or other metal device requires powerful magic and rare skill. Some spells may badly affect people with the magical gift (trained or untrained) but have no effect on people who lack the gift.
Magic can’t violate the fundamental laws of nature.
- Conservation of matter – you can’t turn an elephant into a mouse (without shedding most of its mass) or vice versa (without a source of the right kinds of material). Metamorphosis of people and animals, and transformation of objects of very different sizes, requires staggering amounts of power and only the greatest adepts can do it successfully.
- Conservation of energy – magical power can’t be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. This also results in the release of magical pollution, though generally this is insignificant.
- However, if a Great Spell goes wrong, a mighty magical object is corrupted, or a large amount of powerful magic is used in a small area (such as in a magical training ground or battle, or at a manufactory for magical devices) the magical pollution may contaminate the area with long-lasting, toxic magical waste, or it may be dumped in a Pit of Impossibilities (AKA a chaos chasm).
  - Power flows wildly and uncontrollably in such wastelands, perverting everything it touches, and plants, animals, water and air, and even stone and earth can take on strange and dangerous forms.
  - Even non-gifted people can sense the peril in magical wastelands, which may cause an inner prickling or mental itching, or manifest in other ways. Gifted people are in greater danger and may be burned inside by the wildly fluctuating corrupt power, or be driven insane, or even killed.
- Due to fundamental differences between one place and another, portals cannot be disguised. They are accompanied by rushing wind, booms or pops, bright flares or electrical discharges, and often mist or fog. This is fortunate as an unobtrusive portal would allow villains to commit any kind of crime or atrocity without fear of discovery. To a lesser extent, teleportation and summoning of objects have similar limitations.
Not all actions are reversible, and where they are, this can be exceedingly difficult.
- It’s easy to break things but very difficult to put them back together, and the greater the damage the less likely that it can be repaired by magic. E.g., a broken cup can normally be repaired, but a cup that has been smashed to bits may be irreparable. A spilled potion might be magicked back into its container but, due to contamination by dirt or dust, may no longer work.
- A wound inflicted in seconds may take days or weeks to heal via magic. The greater the injury, the more difficult it will be to heal, and some injuries may be impossible to heal.
- Death means death. Although great sorcerers may be able to raise a dead person with necromancy, the raised person will never have true life and will long to return to death.
- Time only runs forward. It’s possible to jump forward in time, but not backwards.
Instantaneous transportation (either via a portal, or by teleportation or summoning) is incredibly dangerous.
- Creating a gate or portal between one place and another requires an immense amount of power and control. Few adepts can safely draw or wield such power, and even fewer can control it – but absolute control is needed, both in opening the portal, holding it in place while one or more people pass through, and in safely closing it afterwards.
- The portal’s creator must visualise the destination with perfect, three-dimensional clarity and fix its location with pinpoint accuracy. This requires great skill at far-seeing, a gift few adepts can master.
- Portals can go wrong, which is generally fatal to the users. If the portal, or the teleportation or summoning spell fails, or the adept loses control of the portal, or loses sight of the destination, the person or object being transported may end up nowhere, with no way back, or may simply cease to exist.
- An uncontrolled portal is very dangerous and no one can predict what will happen to it.
- Portals must only be opened in air. A portal can sometimes be opened under water but it’s highly unlikely anyone using it will survive it.
- Two solid objects can’t occupy the same space. If a portal could be opened into a solid object, or an object or person transported into the space occupied by something else (normally impossible) the ensuing explosion would destroy everything for hundreds of yards around it.
- Two portals can’t occupy the same space. If a portal is opened inside another portal, everything in both portals will be annihilated, and space in the area will be warped in unfathomable and dangerous ways. Opening two portals close together is also fraught.
- Some magical objects must not be carried through a portal. This includes objects that are used to visualise or create a portal, and Sources of magical power.
- If a significant part of the person being transported is left behind, he/she will probably die instantly or bleed to death.
You can’t make something out of nothing. Objects (e.g. money, food, clothing, weapons) created solely by magic will neither sustain or last long. Normally it’s far easier to summon what is needed from elsewhere, if that is possible.
Magic has no morality. It’s neither good nor evil, though some kinds of magic are mainly used for dark purposes by bad people.
Social acceptability. The acceptability of magic varies from place to place and time to time. In some societies it is accepted, even cherished. More often it and its users are seen as a threat, particularly those kinds of magic that are used for control or domination, or to gain personal power or wealth, particularly when its use is not effectively constrained by other forces in society. Selfless magic, such as healing magic, is generally though not always acceptable to society. Occasionally, magic is utterly proscribed and all those with the gift, whether they use it or not, are hunted down and imprisoned, killed, or have their gift for magic destroyed.

The Main Kinds of Magic

(considerable overlap in these categories) and their limitations. No adept, no matter how great, can truly master all forms of magic, because each takes a lifetime of study and practice. Some great adepts, especially if long-lived, may master two or even three forms of magic, and they will have some skill in many of the other forms.

Magic Related to Sources of Power (See Sources of Power, above)
- Animancy – drawing upon the power inherent in living things. All Gifted people have some ability for animancy, since the first source of power they tap is themselves, though this is a limited source. Tapping it is usually painful, and sometimes traumatic, and one of the first skills an adept develops is drawing power from a Source and storing it in their magical focus or another suitable object. Key animantic Sources:
  - The self (or from a familiar, if the adept has one, though if the power is not paid back the familiar is liable to become uncooperative);
  - From another living thing, such as a dumb animal or a plant. Such sources rarely offer great power.
  - From another intelligent creature, gifted or not – may provide considerable power but taking it is often considered a crime.
  - From another human being (power obtained can be small or large, but it is a serious crime) or another Gifted person (considerable power can be drawn but it is a capital crime).
- Geomancy – drawing on the latent power of the physical world, e.g. fields developed around geological or geographic features such as fault lines, meteor craters, volcanoes, ore bodies etc, or even the world itself. Also includes drawing on the power inherent in natural phenomena such as storms, earthquakes, forest fires, floods etc.
  - Using the latent power in certain rare crystals, minerals, rocks and fossils, or more commonly, enchanting such items.
  - Miasmancy – the power inherent in toxic magical waste which may have formed magical wastelands or have been dumped in a chaos chasm. Power flows wildly and unpredictably in such places, perverting every plant or creature that enters or grows there, and even changing the nature of water, earth and rock. Attempting to use such power is liable to drive a gifted person insane
- Astromancy – drawing power from, and studying the power and influence of, the heavenly bodies. May be facilitated and power (possibly) tapped via armillaries and orreries. Related to Augury.
- Numinomancy – drawing power from, or making use of the power of, supernatural beings. Needless to say, this is deadly dangerous to the user, since such beings are both powerful, incomprehensible, easily insulted and angered, and unpredictable. Also summoning, controlling and exorcising spirits or demons.
- Altomancy – planes of existence other than the normal, material plane (e.g., ethereal plane, astral plane, Upper and Lower planes etc).
- Necromancy – talking to, raising, animating and controlling the dead.
Psychic Magic
- Mental attack and defence: mind damage, mind control and (to a very limited degree) mind reading, changing or deleting memories; blocking mental attacks and the reading of feelings, thoughts and memories; rarely taking over another adept’s Gift; very rarely, robbing another adept of their magic, or even their gift for it.
- Spells of Empathy.
- Clair-sensing magics – such as far-seeing, far-hearing, sendings, mind-speech and mind-linking, used for communication or spying;
- Read the history, nature, power or purpose of an object;
- Telekinesis – moving small, nearby objects.
- Sensing or visualising sources and flows of magical power, and traces left by the use of magic.
- Illusion – creation of realistic images, settings or scenes that fool the eye; also mesmerism (of individuals and groups); bewitchment and charming; and invisibility and revelation.
- Control of Animals – control and use of magical animals (may also use Charm and Illusion).
Healing, Strength and Longevity Magic – in increasing order of difficulty.
- Healing potions and balms, and healing spells;
- Spells or potions/scent potions that confer greater strength or other physical attributes;
- Spells or potions for increased longevity;
- Rejuvenation (making a person younger) – incredibly difficult and painful;
- Renewal of one’s life or the life of another – but causes the most agonising pain anyone can experience and is frequently fatal.
Transformative Magic – changing objects from one form to another. Unless the two objects are similar in size and weight, transformation is very difficult. Transformation of living things is even more difficult, often fatal to the organism that is being transformed, and very painful to the adept casting the transformation spell.
- Metamorphosis – the transformation of living things (people, animals or plants) into another living form. When an adept transforms himself or herself it is called shapeshifting. Metamorphosis is extremely difficult and subject to similar size/weight limitations as Shapeshifting and Transformation.
- Shapeshifting – were-creatures who can’t control their changes, and shapeshifters who can (mostly). Shapeshifting is extremely difficult and subject to similar size/weight limitations as Metamorphosis and Transformation.
- Transformation – changing objects from one form to another. The greater the change in size, shape or nature, the greater the difficulty.
Enchantment – putting a spell on an object (or a person or animal) to make it do something it wouldn’t normally do, e.g., make a broom fly, create an enchanted device, put a curse on an object. Also confusion charms, memory charms on people etc.
- Mason-craft, Artificing and Smithcraft – magically working with metal, stone and other materials to make, build or repair non-magical or magical weapons, buildings, mechanisms and other items.
- Blasts of light, fire, water etc, and disintegration of objects.
Transportation, and Conjuration or Summoning of Objects.
- Normal transportation: human flight; creating or enchanting objects (brooms, carpets etc) to move and fly.
- Instantaneous transportation (requires high-level mastery and great power). As noted above, all these are very dangerous:
  - Creating portals between one place and another in the same dimension, e.g. from one place on Earth to another;
  - Cutting a hole or forming a passage between dimensions (exceedingly difficult and hazardous);
  - Teleportation of objects and people;
  - Conjuring or summoning objects from a distance.
Chymical Magic
- Alchemy (transmutation or transformation of matter and/or self; creation of panaceas and elixirs);
- Formulation of incenses, potions or scent potions designed to affect people for good or ill;
- Explosions
Elemental Magic – controlling earth, air, fire, water and ether (the latter also known as quintessence). Weather magic & weather-casting.
Herbalism – the cultivation and use of magical plants. Also related to Animancy, Alchemy, Healing, potions and scent potions.
Mathemancy – laws of numbers, magical patterns (magic squares, circles, fractals, spirals, symmetries etc.), geometry and topology (e.g. Mobius strips, Klein bottles, trefoil knots etc.).
Symbology – the magic and power of secret words and names, symbols, runes, alphabets, syllabaries or glyphs.
Augury or soothsaying – seeing the future, reading the past. Gaining insight to a problem or question via signs, symbols, the stars, omens, crystal balls, reading cards, pools and mirrors etc.
Dark Magic – may include any of the above when used for bad purposes (or sometimes for self-defence), e.g.:
- Hexes, curses and jinxes (forms of Enchantment);
- Magic designed to rob, damage, oppress or cause pain, suffering, illness or madness, or ruin beauty or kill;
- Magic that draws power from pain, suffering, illness or death;
- Stealing the life force of another human, or other intelligent creature;
- Necromancy (see above);
- Use of human body parts, or materials derived from humans (such as corpse candles made from the fat of the dead) for dark purposes;
- Dark potions and scent potions, and destructive or corrupting spells.

The Laws of Magic

Basics of Magic

What it Feels Like to Work Magic

Sources of Power

Magical Devices

Finding, Storing and Using Power

Effectiveness of Magic

Limitations of Magic

The Main Kinds of Magic

Further Reading

Fantasy

Thrillers

Kids' Books

More

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The Laws of Magic

Basics of Magic

What it Feels Like to Work Magic

Sources of Power

Magical Devices

Finding, Storing and Using Power

Effectiveness of Magic

Limitations of Magic

The Main Kinds of Magic

Further Reading

Fantasy

Thrillers

Kids' Books

More