Lightning Magic

Mysterious and associated with immense destructive power, the elemental magic of lightning has long been the most elusive kind. Though many have sought to master the element throughout the ages, the quest for the ultimate power to annihilate their opponents with the might of a thunderstorm itself has rarely yielded the intended results, for lightning magic is much more than its most violent display. Under its umbrella fall forces of attraction and repulsion as well as the creation of powerful potentials. Though less explored by the arcanists of the world, magnetism is a major facet of lightning magic.

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Magus Academies

The Grand Academy of Fulgrath

The Grand Academy of Fulgrath is, first and foremost, a University, and a surprising number of students never learn to perform any magic at all. Instead, many are content with studying the sciences, such as mathematics, gyrometrics, modern alchemy, biology, and engineering.   However, both classic alchemy, and the coveted arts of lightning magic are well-established fields at the Grand Academy, and the most renowned lightning mages of Aqualon often hail from this place. Though spirituality and esoteric practice have been cut to a minimum in the GAoF curriculum, leading to limited levels of attunement among students, the arts of magic taught here are incredibly versatile and flexible, and well-suited for those who aim to work with complex magic engines or, even better, assist in technamagic research.   The city of Fulgrath is powered by an array of Molotov Towers and Cloud Stacks, which use small sparks provided by lightning mages as well as their guiding hands to provoke artificial lightning strikes and store their energy for the electricity requirements of the city, which is why students of lightning magic at the GAoF often spend their mandatory internships with Siebenzaal Incorporated, or more specifically their subsidiary Siebenzaal Electric.

Ka Hale Akamai

Ka Hale Akamai is a recognized magus academy, though they've always been looked down on by the academic world for their laid-back attitude. In its halls on the pristine island of Ainan, students learn to attune themselves deeply to the ur-souls of water, wind, and sometimes lightning. Of course, they can only maintain an attunement to one ur-soul at a time, but with only weeks of re-attunement meditation required to switch, they are second only to the Monastery of Five Paths in this.   Their incredibly deep connection with their own souls and by extension the Great Clockwork allows them to exert great influence on their attuned element and weave magic creatively.   They do little by the way of standardized spells and applications of elemental magic, but rather evoke their magic by way of "the Wave Dance", a form of dance that acts as their totemic focus for producing magical effects. Depending on rhythm and expression, they can manipulate their element rather freely but often need more wind-up time to use magic effectively in combat situations. Of course, they are generally incredibly peaceful in their teachings and few will pursue the warrior's path. Still, some follow the call and use their magic to combat the pirates that infest the Corsic Ocean especially in the waters around the Ainan Island Group.  

Monastery of Five Paths

The Monastery of Five Paths is not only renowned as a spiritual mecca for those who seek enlightenment in the elements such as ur-soulists, but also a well-respected magus academy even in the eyes of the elitist Middlish mages. This is due to the incredible ability of trained Monastery of Five Paths monks to change their elemental attunement within the span of one day, enabling them to manipulate any element of their choice given a 24 hour preparation period.   The downside to this unique feat is that the attunement itself does not reach as deep as it does in other schools, and while a large portion of their magic is sealed away with the other four elements at any given time, they have a versatile repertoire of spells for each element as well as a commendable modicum of flexibility in their application. Those monks who leave the monastery are highly valued as teachers in other academies and can easily find work wherever magic is in demand.  

HJT Ferry Schools

Not officially recognized as a magus academy by Middlish scholars, the Ferry division of the Hank & Jordan & Tenzer Corporation is a group of ships mages that are trained and deployed all across the Corsic Ocean to provide magical services to ships of all kinds.   Because the Corsic can prove treacherous to traverse due to storms and frequent pirate attacks, the hand of a trained magus is often the best way to keep a ship safe. Seeing an opportunity in this niche demand, HJT, a powerful shipping and ship-wright company, created their Ferry division, building schools for mages on various islands across the Corsic Ocean.   Their curriculum encompasses a smorgasbord of styles, combining the words of power from Middlish schools of magic and simplified motions of the Ka Hale Akamai Wave Dance. Though their lack of spiritual guidance makes their elemental magic rather inefficient, they have a solid range of applied spells suited for their trade and a penchant for improvisation. Low entry requirements and a popularization of the Ferry trade via a series of books and magazine serials propagandizing them have made the Ferries icons of Corsic culture and an attractive career choice for many.

Traditionalists

Lightning Fang Iai

Raiga Iai 雷牙居合い

The Tenshin clan, which currently rules the Yamato Kingdom, is still a relatively young clan, which arose out of the union of the Raizoku and the Tanimoto. From this union, ancient magic was passed along from the iemoto of the Raizoku clan, who mastered a unique style of sword fighting, which involves melding briefly into the ur-soul of lightning to travel at unfathomable speeds and perform swift and deadly strikes.   They also perform very limited but powerful techniques that involve localized lightning strikes. This incredible art has allowed the Raizoku to fight back against the violent Kumamoto Clan since the late Age of the Iron Divide, and once they joined forces with the Tanimoto, the newly formed Tenshin Clan became a force to be reckoned with.   Today, practitioners of the Raiga Iai are the top brass of the Imperial Moth Hunters, who travel across the Yamato Mountain Range to hunt down dangerous Yarenma moths.  

The Forges of House Donar

The master smith Oras of Eighty-Three Hammer Strokes was the first of house Donar, an Angel Saxian house said to be directly related to Odin's son Thor, who unlocked the secrets of lightning magic. He developed a unique style of smithing, sometimes called "the Cold Flame", which utilizes no fire but only electricity to mold metal and crystals into shape.   From this school of magic, many wondrous items were forged, and even those without magical attributes where highly sought-after for their flexibility, durability, and uncanny edge. Whether items forged with lightning are truly superior to those forged in the bowels of a great flame is debatable, but the thought of thunder strikes and lightning molding metal into shape has a powerful hold on the minds of those who clad themselves in metal.  

Brammy Molocnicy

The Thrushes of Bramma

In the year 340 GE, the blighted Outsider Lorelei Seven-Branches succumbed to the Curse of Manastranza, turning into a kind of wraith. It happened during a thunderstorm at the edge of the Brammenwoods, and when lightning struck her, her mangled soul was entwined with the Ur-Soul of Lightning.   It is said that all monsters of the Old Country belong to the Czar, and indeed, Antonin Sokolow took possession of what Lorelei had become, turning her into a tool for murder, utilizing her gift for lightning magic.   In 421 GE, she was released into the Brammenwoods by a defiant servant of the Czar, and she saved two children, a boy and a girl, who had become lost in the woods, caring for them as best as she could, deformed and strange though she was. From Lorelei the two children, Katja and Cerro became the inheritors of Lorelei's lightning magic, and they began rescuing other children who had been lured into the woods by the various monsters of the Old Country, calling themselves the Thrushes ("Molocnicy").   In the centuries that followed, they and their descendants developed their own school of lightning magic, focusing on creating lighting strikes and charging the the air to an extent that allowed them to move about the battlefield in strange and incredibly fast ways, gifts they turned towards the art of assassination, taking on assignments from all over the Great Land at first, but more and more from the Black Czar, who is currently considered the main employer of the Thrushes of Bramma.   The current head of the organization, Letlania Vechnaya Dane, is the daughter of the most famous, or infamous, thrush, Svetlaya, who was also the prior head of the house. Svetlaya was said to have over one hundred confirmed kills, and her mastery of lightning magic was legendary. Called "the Thrush with a Thousand Beaks", Svetlaya was known for making large areas crackle with electricity and moving across them at instantaneous speeds with impunity. Letlania, her daughter, has inherited her title and is rumored to match her mother in prowess.