Introduction and Workings of Magic

Fire and frost magic manipulate the world based on the heat of its components. Fire magic centers heat in a selected area, frost pushes it away from the area. They have an intrinsic connection to objects aligned with their school, so fire mages can move warm objects through heat and frost mages cold objects through lack of heat. Fire mages thrive in warm environments that already have a lot of heat, but they can also create their own heat. Same for frost mages and cold environments. This is unrelated to the matter-based schools, as the state of matter doesn't limit them, but gases are easier to move than liquids, which are again easier to move than solids.

The schools were named after their most visible effect, but some components are still necessary to create literal fire or ice. Many fire mages carry on them something to ignite so that they can create flames, and frost mages may use a liquid to create ice. Learning to cast it for a large part requires the mage to learn not to burn themselves and to discover the various ways of transferring heat (convection, conduction, radiation) and moving objects. Over time, they develop a resistance to their own heat class they produce, but they'll always be susceptible to injuries if not careful.

One of the largest unexpected dangers is that the mage draws upon their own body's heat for casting. Fire mages are at risk of pulling all heat out of their body when channeling it to their wrists, thus risking dying from hypothermia while charring their hands to a crisp. On the contrary, frost mages need a place to push all the heat away to when creating cold areas and risk overheating or even incinerating their own body if they're not careful enough about allocation. For this reason, many fire mages are well dressed while frost mages show a lot of skin.

Wind, water, and earth mages move the most densely compacted type of energy, namely matter. They do so based on the state of matter; wind mages move gas particles, water mages liquids, and earth mages solids. There is a large overlap between the three schools, as objects can be in between states or be part one and part the other. This also means that there's a small overlap with fire and frost mages: wind mages have a better time in warm environments where gases flows more freely, while water mages prefer an intermediate environment and earth mages a colder one. Unlike frost mages, earth mages' materials can't be too cold, or they're hard to pull apart and use in casting.

Pushback is a limiting factor for matter-based mages. Pushing forward air, the air pushes back just as hard on the body, but not nearly as much as water or earth will. Using mana as driving force behind the movement makes the pushback much smaller than it would be were the body to manually move the matter, but it's still one of the biggest hindrances. Wind mages will want to be more agile to mitigate the soft push or air, yet possess enough strength to withstand the pushback of air This pushback is often used to glide, fly, or shoot up in the air and land safely. Water mages are an intermediate form, making for good swimmers and fairly athletic casters. Earth's resilience requires the strongest casters, often drawing highly athletic powerhouses to withstand its magnificent push.

Light and darkness magic focus on the core of magic: mana energy itself, untransformed and inactivated. Instead of changing mana energy from its primal form to another form of energy, they manipulate it raw and use its natural dichotomy as a source of power. Light mages tap into highly charged mana energy and transform their own body's mana into the charge they desire. Darkness mages do the same with lowly charged mana energy.

Every creature has a natural mana charge to their body, coming down to light or dark based on how high its total charge is. Mana-based casters draw upon that charge, so a caster's species largely determines which of these two they will become. A dark creature doesn't have to change their natural mana's charge to cast darkness magic, but has to take a great risk for their body trying to transform a dark charge into a light one. It is possible, but it isn't very safe and risks damage.

The goal for a mana-based mage is to learn how to transform their charge into a wide spectrum, without changing dark mana energy from light and vice versa. By changing their charge, their own body becomes the negative of that change. For example, if a dark creature wants to cast 100% charged darkness from their 50% charged body, their body will become higher in light charge than before. The charge deposits its positive components into the body to become more negative. Bringing a body out of its natural charge is comparable to making it more acidic, and if taken too far this can create injury, even death. It should be noted that mana energy of the opposite charge, for example 50% light and 50% darkness, will dissipate when combined in equal quantities.

Many cultures tie a morality to these two schools. Demon societies tend to think darkness is the purest form of energy, human and angel societies revere light. It should be noted that despite these cultural notions, there is no absolute morality tied to either of these schools. It's just a state of matter and magic, nothing more.