Magic

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

The goddess Mystra controls the Weave which is what powers the magical energies of Abeir-Toril. The goddess Shar has control of the Shadow Weave which flows in-between the normal weave and enables the use of Shadow Magic.

The History
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 - Selune 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, but Shar opposed this vehemently. The consequent war between the sisters created new deities – war, murder, and destruction being among them. When Selune lit one of the nearby heavenly bodies on fire to provide the light and warmth needed, Shar became enraged, trying to extinguish light everywhere. Selune 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 Selune 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 is a like a fabric, consisting of many threads, all woven together to create an intricate design. Spellcasting and the use of magic items pulls individual threads and reweaves them, creating a new design. Now both mortals and deities could use magic through this fabric that was both the embodiment of Mystryl and a conduit to raw magic.

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 godess 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.

The Art
Any magic that doesn't originate from a deity is defined as arcane magic. (Note, while all magic is accessed through the Weave, which is maintained by a deity, this does not make all magic divine magic.). The use of arcane magic is referred to as the Art, in day to day speech, and a wide variety of people (and character classes) are able to practice the Art, to a smaller or larger extent, though the way in which the access the Weave can differ dramatically. Most wizards spend long years researching their art, gathering spells to their personal book, and each day they can only memorise a small fraction of these, the memory of the spell being wiped from their mind as it is cast. The wizard has 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) are not required to research spells, they tap the Weave in a more direct manner, but because of this the selection of spells available is all the more limited to a sorcerer than a wizard. Bards, assassins and many other prestige classes access the Weave in some way as well to use certain magical abilities, practitioners of the Art all, whether or not they would acknowledge such kinship with each other.

The Power
Magic that originates from a spell-granting deity, usually through prayer, is divine in nature and is called the Power by the common folk. Clerics, druids, paladins, rangers and many prestige classes all derive their spell and spell-like abilities from a deity. A practitioner of the Power has no affinity with the Art, as their spells are planted in their minds directly by their patron deity, and they do not tap the Weave. Casting divine spells is more like an exclamation of faith that brings about a sensation appropriate to the patron deity who the faith was devoted.

Schools
Schools of magic are categories of spells that aid in organizing them by what they do. Spells are created by wizards with these schools in mind, though they have also placed divine spells within their preset categories as well. Still, there are also plenty of spells that defy categorization within a school. Some spellcasters (especially wizards) decide to specialize in spells from a certain school. They focus more effort into these spells than any other at the expense of not bothering with ANY spells from either one or two other schools. These schools of magic have been in existance for longer than anyone cares to remember and noone seems to know who originally came up with them but they also show no signs of being abandoned. Perhaps the schools are even an integral part of the Weave itself.

Most schools of magic also have subschools that help define the spells with even more accuracy.

The Schools of magic are as follows:


 * Abjuration - Spells that protect the caster.
 * Conjuration - Spells that create or transport people, energy or objects.
 * Divination - Spells that allow the caster to see things that they normally wouldn't be able to.
 * Enchantment - Spells that affect the minds of other creatures.
 * Evocation - Spells that create energy out of the raw power of the Weave.
 * Illusion - Spells to fool the senses.
 * Necromancy - Spells that deal with negative energy.
 * Transmutation - Spells to enhance or change creatures and things.

Casting

 * Verbal component
 * Many spells require 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 a gag, or effects that remove sounds, such as certain magical effects, makes it impossible for a caster to cast such a spell. A deafened caster may fail when casting a spell, by misspeaking, which causes the spell to be lost.


 * Somatic component
 * Many spells require the caster to make a motion to cast the spell. If the caster is unable to make the correct motion, the spell cannot be cast. Wearing armor or using a shield interferes with the somatic components of arcane spells, creating a risk of spell failure.  Bards and some other arcane classes can cast spells in light armor without this risk.


 * Material components
 * Casting a spell often requires that the caster sacrifice some sort of material component. Often, these components are virtually worthless, but some spells, such as spells to reanimate the dead, require 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.


 * Magical focus
 * Alternatively, casting a spell may require that the caster have access to a holy symbol or other special object, to focus on when casting the spell. This is mostly true for divine spells.