Magic



Magic was the ability possessed by some individuals to manipulate the ambient energies of the world to produce desired results. In the Realms, arcane magic was commonly referred to as "the Art", while divine magic was referred to as "the Power".

The goddess Mystra controlled the Weave which was the main medium for channeling the arcane energies of Toril. The goddess Shar controlled the Shadow Weave, a dark and distorted imitation of the Weave which flowed in-between its empty space.

Divine magic was drawn from specific deities and is not influenced by either Mystra or Shar as evidenced by the fact it continued to work when arcane magic ceased to function. Historically this made it the most reliable form of magic.

Creation of the Weave
Lord Ao created the universe. At first it was nothing but energy, with neither light nor dark, heat nor cold. Eventually the energy created two deities – Selûne and Shar. Together they created heavens and Chauntea, the embodiment of the world of Toril. Chauntea begged for light and warmth so that she could create life on the new world, Selûne supported this endeavor and Shar opposed it vehemently.

The subsequent war between the sisters created new deities – war, murder, and destruction among them. When Selûne lit one of the nearby heavenly bodies on fire to provide the light and warmth needed for Chauntea, Shar became enraged and tried to extinguish light everywhere. Selûne tore the energy from her own body and flung it at Shar, where it joined with Shar's energy and passed from both of them, thus creating the goddess of magic, Mystryl. The birth of Mystryl not only brought a truce to Selûne and Shar, but created the Weave. In the newly created Toril, magic abounded in everything, but in its raw state it was too dangerous for mortals to use. The Weave was a like a fabric, consisting of many threads, all woven together to create an intricate design. Spellcasting and the use of magic items pulled individual threads and reweaved them, creating new designs. After this, both mortals and deities could use magic through this fabric that was both the embodiment of Mystryl and a conduit to raw magic.

Karsus' folly
When the Phaerimm, a race dwelling under the surface of the earth, began to cast spells draining the empire of Netheril of its magic, a powerful mage named Karsus created a link to Mystryl in an attempt to steal her power, become a god and save his empire. This caused a great rift in the Weave, and Mystryl was so weakened that she sacrificed herself to save the world. Since she was the Weave, magic immediately ceased all across Toril. A new goddess of magic named Mystra was born, and she was able to repair the weave in a way that such powerful spells could never be used against it again.

Divine magic
Magic that originated from a spell-granting deity, usually through prayer, was considered divine in nature and called the Power by the common folk. Clerics, druids, paladins, rangers and others all derived their spells and spell-like-abilities from their deity. A practitioner of the Power had no affinity with the Art, as their spells were planted in their minds directly by their patron deity, and they did not tap the Weave. Casting divine spells was more like an exclamation of faith that brought about a sensation appropriate to the patron deity to whom the faith was devoted.

Subtypes

 * Faith magic: A small subcategory of divine spells could make use of the "devotional energy" that came from many worshipers congregated in a specific location dedicated or sacred to a deity. Once a focus was created to harness this energy, it could be used for protecting people, improving harvests, controlling weather, aiding communication between diverse peoples, and improving public health.


 * Candle magic: The mystics of Faerûn took herbalism to greater heights and could create candles that had the same or similar effects as some spells.

Arcane magic
Any magic that didn't originate from a deity was defined as arcane magic. The use of arcane magic was referred to in day-to-day speech as the Art, and a wide variety of people were able to practice it, to a small or larger extent, though the way in which they accessed the Weave differed dramatically.

Most wizards spent long years researching their art, gathering spells to their personal book, and each day they could only memorize a small fraction of these. The memory of the spell is wiped from his or her mind as it was cast. The wizard had to re-study the spell before he or she can cast it again, unless more than one casting of the spell in question was prepared.

Sorcerers, also known as innanoths, for their innate mastery of the Weave, were not required to research spells. They tapped into the Weave in a more direct manner, but because of this, the selection of spells available to a sorcerer was more limited than those available to a wizard. Bards, assassins and many others in the Realms had access the Weave to use certain magical abilities.

Schools
Schools of magic were categories into which spells were organized by general function. Spells were created by wizards with these schools in mind, though divine spells fell within these preset categories as well. Still, there were also some spells that defied categorization within a school.

Wizards chose to specialize in spells from a certain school; they focused more effort into these spells than any other, but at the expense of all spells from one or more other schools. These schools of magic had been in existence for ages and their origins were mostly unknown. They were not yet used by the arcanists of Netheril, however, who only distinguished three schools or Fields of Mythal: Inventive, mentalism and variation.

The major schools of magic were:
 * Abjuration : A collection of spells of a protective nature.
 * Alteration : Formerly also known as trasmutation, these spells could transform the nature of the physical world or objects in it.
 * Conjuration : This group of spells created or transported people, energy or objects.
 * Divination : This school had fewer spells than others, but allowed the caster to see things that they normally would not be able to.
 * Enchantment : An area of arcane study that specialized in manipulating the minds of others.
 * Evocation/Invocation : Although spells of this school seemingly created effects out of nothing, they drew raw power from out of the Weave.
 * Illusion : This school was almost a secret society prior to the Time of Troubles, even possessing their own language. Their spells were those that fooled the senses.
 * Necromancy : A dichotomous school that wielded positive energy into healing spells, and negative energy to effect both the dead and undead.
 * Universal : A small number of spells were not associated with any school but universally available, even to specialists.

Other schools
The rarely studied schools of chronomancy and wild magic were special cases, as they contained many spells that can be used only by those specializing in them. The latter was a school of magic in the discipline called thaumaturgy.


 * Chronomancy : Spells that used and manipulated time and included time travel.

Some schools of magic were unique to certain cultures. These spellcasters of Maztica each used their own selection of exclusive spells, which was somewhat of a cross between a school of magic and a priestly sphere.
 * Hishna : Talonmagic shaped the dangerous aspects of nature with the help of talismans to dominate and help in warfare.


 * Pluma : Feathermagic used the benevolent aspects of nature, in what were often bird-related spells, for the benefit of communities.

Similarly, the mages of Zakhara distributed their spells into the elemental provinces of wind, sand, flame, and sea, as well as the universal province, open to all wizards.

Alternative systems of magic
Some casters organize arcane spells not into the traditional schools of philosophy, but, based on what they produce or affect, into schools of effect:


 * Dimensional: Mages known as dimensionalists employed space, time and the planes for their purposes.


 * Elemental: Spellcasters that worked in this school, known as elementalists, specialized in spells of one of the four elemental schools of air, earth, fire, and water.


 * Incantation: This magic specialized in spells that affected magic itself. A practitioner of this school was known as Incantatrix.

Followers of path magic do not recognize schools of magic, but specialize in paths of power, much smaller selections of spells of increasing power unified by one topic.

Raw magic
Raw magic was a powerful force, locked within all matter, that was difficult and dangerous for even the most patient of mortals to wield.


 * Spellfire: This rare, supernatural ability was refined and controlled raw magic. It could appear as a healing radiance of silver light or white-hot jet of consuming energy. It was believed to uniquely manifest in a single person once per generation, granting the wielder magnificent feats capable of great magical transference or absolute mass destruction.


 * Wild Magic: Areas where the weave had been badly damaged during the Time of Troubles, which produced wild magic effects, were scattered sporadically throughout Toril, similarly to dead-magic zones. They caused spells and spell-like abilities cast within their borders to exhibit random complications like spell failure, effects rebounding back to the caster, or random creatures being assigned as a spell's target, among others.

Study of these effects inspired the development of a thaumaturgical school of magic.

Thaumaturgy
Schools of thaumaturgy did not only put spells into categories different from the traditional schools, but used alternative ways to access magical energy:


 * Artifice uses substances, technology and magical items to channel magic.


 * School of song employs music and the power of the voice.


 * Wild magic : Spells that tapped into raw magic, with powerful but often chaotic results.

Shadow magic

 * Shadow magics: Practitioners of this school, which was also known as talfirian magic, used twilight, darkness and forces from the Plane of Shadow. The

Casting
The casting of both arcane and divine spells required certain components. Some spells only needed one or two, while others required all three:

Verbal component: Many spells required the caster to speak certain words, or, in the case of a bard, create music, to cast a spell. Being prevented from speaking, such as being gagged or magically silenced, made it impossible for a caster to cast such a spell. A deafened caster could fail when casting a spell, by misspeaking, which caused the spell to be lost.

Somatic component: Many spells required the caster to make a motion to cast the spell. If the caster was immobilized or otherwise unable to move their hands or body, the spell could not be cast. Wearing armor or using a shield interfered with the somatic components of arcane spells, creating a risk of spell failure. Some casters, like bards, could cast spells in light armor without this risk.

Material components: Casting a spell often requires that the caster sacrifice some sort of material component. While often these were virtually worthless, some spells, such as spells to raise the dead, required material components costing thousands of gold pieces. If a caster is unable to access or use the correct spell component, the spell cannot be cast. As the spell was cast, the material components were destroyed and were not reusable in any way.

Magical focus: Alternatively, casting a spell could require that the caster have access to a holy symbol or other special object, to focus on when casting the spell; after which they were not damaged and could be reused. This was required more often in the casting of divine spells.

Spellpools
A spellpool was a magical reservoir of spells, typically created by an arcane guild or other such group, from which members could mentally call on, focus upon and within moments, cast. They however could not be memorized from this manner. Calling spells from a spellpool required payment of the wizard's own memorized repertoire.