On the Continent, every living being possesses a soul. Souls can be understood as forms of energy required for an organism to live, think, and function. The quantity of soul energy a being possesses is generally proportional to its size and its capacity for cognition and activity. Additionally, the appearance and behavior of the soul are influenced by genetic factors.
Most living beings have souls that are just large and complex enough to support their normal biological functions. However, humans exhibit genetic mutations that affect the properties of the soul, allowing their souls to grow larger and develop more specific shapes and behaviors. This additional soul energy and the resulting adaptations can enable the use of special abilities or powers, commonly referred to as “magic”, but only if the individual possesses the necessary genetic traits to use their soul energy that way.
Therefore, an individual’s ability to use magic and the type of magic they can perform are solely determined by their genetics. The proficiency and effectiveness of one’s magic are also influenced by their skill and talent rather than solely relying on their genetic background.
Currently, there are three recognized categories of magic, with nine magic types existent.
Elemental magic involves the manipulation of energy via soul energy. Elemental souls retain their excess energy in a dynamic, transitional state, enabling quick conversion into other forms. The four known elemental types are:
Physical magic enables the manipulation of matter using soul energy. In these individuals, the soul’s excess energy is structured in a more stable fashion, akin to an auxiliary muscular system. This category includes:
Spiritual magic pertains to the manipulation of souls themselves. These individuals have pliable souls with no distinction between base and excess energy. This allows them to endure and recover from extensive soul alterations. The two spiritual types are:
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Elemental magic can be separated into offensive powers (pyromancy) and defensive powers (cryomancy), with the former more common in men and the latter more common in women. This is simply based on magical biology, but most societies of the Continent have interpreted it in very gendered, ideological ways. In truth, it is possible for both men and women to be born either as pyromancers or cryomancers. Elecromancy and alchemy are incredibly rare and tend to be equally common in both genders.
Pyromancers, colloquialy known as fire-benders, are capable of generating fire and heat — often drawn from nearby flammable materials or generated from soul-energy friction. More experienced pyromancers can control heat levels without visible flame, such as warming rooms or boiling water. At higher levels, they are capable of compressing heat and flame into explosive bursts like fireballs.
Due to its explosive and often dangerous nature, pyromancy is closely tied to strong emotions, especially anger, passion, and fear. Many pyromancers struggle with mood swings or impulsivity when their powers begin to manifest. Their innate instinct is defense, and pyromancers often act on instinct when protecting themselves or others, especially in emotionally tense moments.
Young boys who show signs of pyromancy are often fast-tracked into military service, especially by nations where magic is deeply instituionalized and weaponized. On the other hand, women pyromancers — if born — are viewed with suspicion; their fire is seen as chaotic and emotionally driven, unstable, dangerous, unlike the controlled fire wielded by their male counterparts. As such, female pyromancers are urged to take up “healing flame” roles, kept away from warfare and told their fire must be gentle, lest they wish to be put under society's harsh judgment.
The elemental source of cryomancers — also known as ice-benders — are water and cold, either ambient moisture in the air or condensed vapor drawn from the environment or living bodies. Their most common ability is their so-called frostbite touch, wherein they draw warmth directly from the target, causing hypothermic effects, paralysis, or unconsciousness. More advanced cryomancers are capable of cryostasis — placing living or non-living things in suspended animation, “freezing” them in time in order to preserve them — or more defensive abilities, such as launching razor-thin shards of ice with incredible precision, silent and invisible in flight.
As a whole, cryomancy is often vievew as a sacred feminine discipline, associated with chastity, silence, and preservation. In eyes of society, it is seen as elegant, restrained, and mysterious. Girls who show signs of cryomancy are often sent to quiet, remote monasteries where they further hone their powers and work as archivists.
Male cryomancers do exist but are highly stigmatized, often accused of being emotionally unstable or unnatural. Many hide their powers or become reclusive scholars, much like their female counterparts.
Electromancers, at first glance, are capable of conjuring up and manipulating lighting and storm. All across the Continent, lighting is seen as divine interruption, a sudden voice of the gods — unpredictable, dangerous, and awe-inspiring. Thus, this power is often viewed as unruly and difficult to control, but due to its rarity, very little is done to regulate it.
However, among the few electromancers that do exist, even fewer are capable of sending bolts of lightning from target to target, or drawing from actual storms to supercharge their abilities. Most common abilities include a defensive pulse of electricity that stunts or knocks back nearby attackers, or neuroshocks — directing electricity into a foe's nervous system to momentarily paralyze or incapacitate.
Unlike pyromancy or cryomancy, electromancy doesn't tie directly into gendered emotion, and as such, it appears in both genders equally. However, society treats it as a “masculine force” due to its aggression, speed, and violence.
Alchemy is the power of manipulating matter through chemical reactions, using soul energy as a trigger and guide. An alchemist does not conjure matter from thin air — they transform what's already present by controlling how atoms and molecules react and restructure. Unlike most magic that manifests directly through instinct, alchemy demands method, study, and craft.
Alchemists have souls that act like reaction engines, designed to interface with the atomic structure of matter. Their excess soul energy targets specific reactions — rearranging molecules, breaking bonds, calatyzing new ones where chemically possible
Alchemy doesn’t create something from nothing. A starting substance is needed to change — a good example would be an alchemist touching dirty water and sensing its composition (H2O, dissolved minerals, bacteria) and pushing energy in to kill microbes and cleanse impurities, thus making it safe to drink.
Common uses of alchemy include creation of instant healing salves, explosives or acids, or purification (removal of toxins). In society, alchemists are mostly healers, scholars, or court advisors. Their value skyrockets during war, for the creation of weaponized potions, reinforced armor, and explosives.
Physical shifters (colloqually known as simply shifters) are individuals whose magic allows them to alter their bodies into beast-like or monstrous forms, either partially or fully. This ability awakens during puberty or moments of extreme emotional or physical stress; once awakened, it becomes a lifelong part of the person's identity.
There are two major modes of shifting:
Another important aspect of this power is shifting pressure — the longer a person remains in either of their forms, the harder it will be for them to shift back into the other. This is why it is important for shifters to regularly switch between their forms.
Physical shifting is a heavily male-dominated power, tied to ideas of masculinity, strength, control, and duty. Women with this power exist, and are quite common, but they are stigmatized and seen as “unwomanly” unless extremely controlled. Female shifters who go feral are especially feared and often demonized in folklore.
Dragon shifters are a mysterious, incredibly rare branch of Physical shifters. They are not a distinct magical class, but rather a mythic anomaly within the Physical shifter lineage — a mutation, or perhaps a relic of a purer, older magic.
The “Dragon gene” (more myth than science) doesn't follow any recognizable pattern of magical inheritance. As such, Dragons are known to have very high libido and instinct to reproduce — the more offspring they create, the higher the chances of producing another Dragon and thus passing on their genes.
Dragons are highly feared and revered across the Continent. In folklore, there are five known Dragons, each tied to their respective Tarot motif:
Mistwalkers — as they are most commonly called — are shifters who can dissolve their physical bodies into vapor. Unlike elementalists who manipulate smoke or fog from the outside, mistwalkers become the mist — a state of semi-being between material and immaterial. This power allows them to pass through cracks, locked doors, or evade physical strikes. As the mist is tied to their soul form, they cannot be physically harmed in this state, but they remain vulnerable to soul-affecting magic, such as necromancy or dendromancy.
The movement and reach of a mistwalker's mist form depends solely on their level of expertise. Experienced mistwalkers can spread their mist very vastly, but never over a certain radius. The wider they spread, the thinner and more vulnerable they become. Their biggest weakness are environmental hazards, as strong winds or fire can scatter them dangerously, making it difficult to rematerialize again. The time spent in their mist shape is also limited, as prolonged use of said shape leads to exhaustion and can cause destabilization of the mistwalker's body-soul alignment.
Most cannot make themselves invisible. They appear as pale fog, often with a faint glow or shimmer that betrays their presence. When in this shape, they cannot cause any direct harm as they are unable to interact with physical objects or people, but some can suffocate by entering lungs or blind enemies by clouding vision.
Mistwalking is sex-linked and female-dominant, as well as very rare. Most societies know very little about the power itself, giving it an almost folkloric reputation. It is seen as dangerous, untrustworty, yet alluring all the same; stories of seductresses entering bedrooms unseen, or “fog maidens” and men who fall for them, only to be dragged into grim fates.
Deceivers (sometimes also called mimics, changelings, or skin-thieves) are people who can take on the appearance, voice, and mannerisms of others. Deceivers are capable of physically altering themselves — their flesh, bone, and even scent shifting to embody their new form. They are the ultimate infiltrators, blurring the line between identity and falsehood.
Their mimicry mainly includes copying the physical look of any human they have observed long enough, which is why people watching is such a common instinct among deceivers. Advanced deceivers can even replicate scars, hair texture, and minor mannerisms. Most can copy voice pitch, though speech patterns and mannerisms require practice. The most advanced of all can even replicate the magical powers of the person they are impersonating, though this drains a lot of energy.
Shifts last as long as stamina allows. The longer and more detailed the disguise, the more draining it is.
Other than full shifts/mimicry, deceivers are capable of selectively altering their features, such as changing their hair/eye color, growing taller or shorter, or thickening body mass. This ability is commonly used for temporary disguises without copying a specific person.
All deceivers can return to their base form, but prolonged mimicry can blur their sense of self, with some even losing track of what they originally looked like.
Mimicry tends to be female-dominated, which is why it regarded as very dangerous — a woman who can take the shape of another threatens both lineage and marriage security. Some stories cast them as tragic lovers, constantly changing to please or to hide, never feeling “enough” in their own skin. Others portray them as seductresses, manipulating attraction by becoming the “perfect” partner.
Deceivers are rare but not as rare as mistwalkers or Dragons; they pop up sporadically in bloodlines.
Necromancy as a power comes down to manipulating souls, binding them to different forms or vessels, and using them to enhance the necromancer’s own power. It is not merely about raising the dead, but also about stretching one’s own soul to interact with, control, or reinforce other souls – either living or dead.
The key trait of necromancy is the ability to stretch one’s own soul over a broader area, allowing it to interact with multiple other souls simultaneously. Necromancer souls are incredibly elastic, allowing the necromancer to stretch their soul over a broader area or range, making simultaneous interactions with other souls possible. This ability enables the creation of undead creatures, familiars, and golems – essentially, it is the manipulation of life force itself.
Necromancers often live for centuries due to their unique ability to distribute their soul energy into other vessels, known as familiars. By splitting parts of their soul off into familiars, necromancers can bypass physical deterioration of their own bodies, essentially becoming a parasitic, long-lived entity living through their creations, a “puppet master”.
Necromancers are often seen as inherently dangerous, not just for their powers, but for what they represent. They often operate through familiars and undeads, meaning they don’t have to be physically present in order to enact violence. Their souls are durable, stretchy and parasitic, which in a patriarchal society has been warped into ideas such as women who live by stealing from others, leeching off of men, or bending life to their will rather than nurturing it. Women who cannot be controlled in life, nor even in death.
This has opened the door to deep-rooted societal misogyny, where necromancers are feared, slandered, and, in some cases (such as in Niamedia) even prosecuted. Most families might hide or abandon their necromancer daughters out of shame, fear, or religious pressure, resulting in many necromancers living in secrecy as hermits, hiding their abilities or fleeting to borderless zones.
Dendromancy is, as its core, the protection of life by amplifying it. This is most commonly seen in healing, wherein dendromancers facilitate healing by providing cells with additional energy to promote repair and division. As a result, physical injuries such as cuts or broken bones are typically the easiest to treat. Treating fevers and other illnesses requires a more advanced application of their magic, where the dendromancer aids affected cells in counteracting the disease and supporting the production of immune cells. Internal bleeding and similar conditions are more complex, as they often require manual removal of excess blood.
Dendromancers themselves are a little more resilient than the common folk; denser bones, resilient skin, slower aging. In society, they are both revered and burdened. Their power to heal and endure is used as justification for why men must go to war, why they must remain strong, and why they are discouraged from emotional vulnerability. Their powers of soul regeneration, healing others, and transferring life force often makes them indispensable in warfare, where they’re often sent to the front lines – not because they are strong, but because they can survive being broken.
All of this considered, dendromancers are often being cast as the “ideal man” – protective, calm, and enduring, which further reinforces traditional masculine norms and patriarchy in most parts of the Continent. Many are taught to endure, pressured to embody patience and control.
However, people often tend to forget that, much like necromancy, dendromancy is the manipulation of life energy – the other side of the same coin, which sometimes comes with ill intent. Other than healing themselves or others, dendromancers who have reached higher masteries of their powers are capable of doing horrific things, such as (but not limited to):