“Or world is permeated by magic. It effects the lives of almost every man, woman and child on the plane, be it in the form of dangerous spirit beasts, benevolent clerical magic, or from purchased magical items. Its is my humble opinion that the advances of physical sciences shall never overshadow on this world the importance of the metaphysical.”

~ Sultanus Agni, addressing the Assembly of Mages annual Gather, 4575CA

The World of Ere is an extremely high magic setting, where most people within have at least access to someone capable of using some rudimentary form of magic. Minor clerics and intuitives tend to most temples and churches. Hedge-wizards, bards and sorcerers make modest livings providing minor magical aides to their communities and inborns can quickly become the core of their home village.

Its is also a world where the dangers of dabbling in magic is understood. Spirit beasts tap into innate magic to fuel their awesome strength and ability, emergent inborns run the risk of causing calamity in their ignorance and spellcasters in the employ of brigands make life dangerous for travelers.

This section takes a closer look at how magic is treated in the World of Ere, from the mundane to the awe inspiring, as well is the logical basis behind it.

Magic as Science
Since Saint’s Landing, demi-humanity has strived to understand the forces that govern their universe. Some have sought truth in spirituality, following the example of that which they believe is divine and divining its will. Some have turned to the physical laws that bind the world; gravity, inertia, among others.

And then there are those who walk the line between the physical and the divine. They study the intricacies of the metaphysical and seek to find truth through manipulating it. They are called Wizards.

Studying magic and the means to harness it, wizards on Ere gather in societies and academies to share what they have learned and to ensure that this power is being both properly controlled and properly exploited.

Aside from the magic that stems from the gods, wizardly magic is the oldest and the most institutionalized. The societies control the means of learning magic and the components needed to use it. They view themselves as keepers of the gates of the eldritch and for a very long time, withheld its benefits to the ‘stupid’ common man.

Once magic became less controllable, however, it was the wizards and their knowledge of Spellcraft that would capitalize on it and make it commonplace. Today, wizards are the foremost providers of magical services across the continent, though most still continue to simple study and develop new spells and techniques.

Magic of the Self
Born during Draconic Control from bloodlines of dragons, fey and outsiders, sorcerers were born with an innate sense of how to manipulate magic in the same way wizards study to do the same. After draconic control, wizards took a proactive approach to attempt to exterminate the ‘wild’ spellcasters and thus keep magic ‘pure’.

By The height of the Vishnari Empire, sorcerers were thriving, despite attempts on their lives, finding sanctuary in the service of Vishnari nobles. They even formed their own groups; coveys and circles, where they taught one another how to focus their gifts. During this same time, sorcerers discovered spell crafting and began to make magic items and aides on their own.
Unfortunately, the Hailene war provided perfect cover for groups of wizards to interfere in the practices of the circles and to sell them out to the hailene. Betrayals and murder nearly destroyed the magic of the Self by the time the hailene threat turned its eye on the wizards themselves.

Sorcerers in the present day are a much more subdued group, still living under the threat of shadowy groups of wizards. They ply their abilities in civil defense as combat mages or as personal spellcasters for the wealthy.

Inborn Power
Inborns are the result of divinity sparks effecting very young children. The magic is usually enough to grant a few minor powers and/or gross deformities. These powers, if any, manifest during puberty and have a reputation of making a child potentially destructive, though only less than 1% of inborns manifest any form of dangerous powers to lose control of. Disasters involving latent inborns more often involves wide spread prestidigitation or randomly occurring flares.

Occasionally, an inborn will learn to focus their powers to greater effect, becoming inborn casters. These special spellcasters are detailed elsewhere, but it should be noted that inborn casters differ from sorcerers in that while sorcerers are born with the power to manipulate magic, inborns are born with an internal well of power that they control with a whim instead of manipulating it.

Inborns have existed on Ere since Saint’s Landing, but it was not until after the Ashing of the Green that inborn casters became a recognized group of spellcasters. They represent yet another threat to organized spellcasting and as such have become a target of slander campaigns orchestrated by a number of wizard’s academies.

Even as they do what they can to be an asset to their communities, inborns are frequently the target of harassment and superstition as the more ignorant peasantry have grown up hearing overblown stories of villages burned to the ground by out of control inborns. Because of this, inborns, especially inborn casters often become drifters, moving from town to town trying to find a place that accepts them and has use for their gifts.

Bardic Magic
It is said that there is a secret tongue whose syllables comprise the rawest, most primal form of magic. That if these words are uttered, they can create magic all by themselves. It is this magic, the magic of Words and Sound that the bards tap into.

Like wizardly magic, bardic magic is attained through study and observation, but unlike the mages, bards observe the world and the people within it to glean the underlying patterns that they may find the correct threads to pull. A bard puts his conviction and his belief in the power of the Word and the Sound into everything he speaks or sings and is rewarded with the power to manipulate perception for it.

Their habits of learning by observing people has the side effect of granting them the vast fonts of miscellaneous knowledge for which they are most famous. Bards on Ere are valued and respected as advisors and diplomats as well as entertainers to the point that many people are completely unaware of the bard’s connections to the supernatural.

The bards, for their part encourage this belief, fielding normal performers as well as true bards as part of their organizations. Lesser bards, those who have no true magical ability are well looked after, but the greatest honor goes to those who can captivate and even command with their performances via mystic might.

These bards, given the title Loreman, are among the most influential people on the continent, if not the plane.

Spirit Magic
Existing in the same space, but in a different plane from Ere is the Afterlife, an ethereal plane called the Well of Souls. This plane is detailed elsewhere, but it is mentioned here because it and the spirits within are the source of the magic wielded by the intuitive; spirit magic.

Intuitives were first discovered among the people of Minde Forme during the Hailene War. It is probable that there were people with spirit companions long before this time, but the violence of the hailene made the need to manifest the trademark protective powers of the intuitive necessary.

Almost over night, hundreds of individuals capable of communing with the spirits tapped into the power of the Well of Souls to protect their loved ones and villages. While most were still no match for the eldritch might wielded by the hailene, their powers were enough to allow these first intuitives to survive the war to pass their knowledge down to the next generation.

Over the years, two schools of thought have developed among the intuitives. First, there are those who believe that their powers to influence spirits come from the gods themselves and thus devote themselves to churches. These inborns often rise quite high in the ranks of most churches, even those of small gods.

The second group believe that the Well of Souls itself is the sole source of their power and a thing to be protected and revered. Some go as far as to make the Well of Souls their religion, but as they already have powers stemming from it, clerics of the Well do not yet exist.

Divinity and Magic
Even in the same year as Saint’s Landing, there were clerics to the Greater Pantheon (minus Dey). There have always been those on Ere who channel power from their overwhelming belief.

It should be noted that one Ere, deities, while they are understood to exist and have been known o grant outright miracles, seldom mettle in day to day life anymore. It is rumored that Pandemos and Dey walk the world in human guise, but even their temples dismiss this.

The meat of this fact, however, is that the gods of Ere do not personally grant spells. Clerical or Druidic spells (for those dedicated to Sylph) are formed by the pure devotion of the caster, regardless of the wishes or intentions of their chosen deity. Most clerics do not know this, but it is accepted fact in many scholarly circles.

The implication being that not all who claim to draw power from a god are doing their god’s will. This is especially true for clerics of Kayda, who often perform necessary function for their people, ignorant of their deity’s loathing of all demi-humanity.

Magic as an Industry
During the rebuilding that took place during the Age of Tragedies, many civil minded groups of wizards donated to the people magical aides to help them farm more efficiently, tend their animals better, and generally lead happier lives.

As time wore on and society righted itself, the charitable acts became fewer and farther between, but the value of these aides only grew. Soon, wizards were inundated with pleas for more such devices and offer of exorbitant sums of money for them as some already offered for one time castings of spells.

Thus was born the trade of magic items on Ere. Until very recently, magic item creation was a draining and less than profitable business, however booming. Items simply couldn’t be made on any form of mass scale without seriously damaging the crafter through mental strain (xp loss)

Then, a mage named Trestrolm Norry entered the spellcrafting industry. His first invention, the Spellcraft Siphon, made it possible for a spellcrafter to have his clients take the strain of creation instead of the crafter himself, vastly extending the number of items a single crafter could make before succumbing to strain. Subsequent innovations and practices involved charging clients extra strain and storing it in Essence Prisons for later use and later, converting the energy stored in Essence Prisons into usable crafting material, thus reducing the cost of components.

Today, the industry behind magic item crafting is thriving, thanks to Norry’s innovations. Minor enchanted weaponry are common among professional guardsmen and magical aides are sold in bulk in small towns.