Introduction and Workings of Magic

For spellcasting, mammals rely on the basic principle of redirected mana energy: their nerves. Because so many nerves are found parallel inside the arms and legs, wrists and ankles and by extension hands and feet are the place where all the action happens. The spine and the brain are also viable targets, but because of their internal location risk damaging organs if used as an output and is practiced only be advanced mages.

Casting magic requires a lot of experience to develop a feel for how to manipulate mana energy. There's very little theory linked to the first steps of spellcasting, and it all comes down to having a good teacher who knows what to focus on when bridging the gap between a completely new caster and a caster who can actually cast magic. It's like learning how to use a muscle you've never used before, and because it relies on discovering its workings at random with very little indication of whether you're going in the right direction, the pace at which a new caster develops their feel for mana varies wildly.

Once the mage has a decent grasp on how to cast magic, it relies on their thoughts. Magic is a response to a stimulus, just like the contraction of a muscle is, and the mage can consciously use it as they please.

To use mana energy is one thing. To cast it in a useful way is so radically different, it can take many years to go from mastering the one to mastering the other.

The manipulation of mana is still a tool, no other than flint and steel are to make a fire. Like there are endless ways to hold a rock, examine it, feel it, rotate it, drop it, throw it, and bash something with it, there are endless ways to direct mana energy. What decides how strong a mage is depends entirely on how well they understand the material they are manipulating, how fine their touch for mana energy developed, which patterns they send their mana energy into, and how creative they are.

As a result, there aren't spells that are set in stone. If a mage wants to create a fire storm around them, there's plenty of techniques to do so and they'll need to understand which steps they have to take to actually make a fire storm happen. Magic favours those who are creative and understanding enough in their school to find specific uses no one else thought of that put them ahead of the curve.