Water Magic

Like all kinds of elemental magic, water magic taps into Keeper Magic by way of an ur-soul: The ur-soul of water.   Present throughout Aqualon's history, Old World and New World, water magic was especially well-understood by the Maoloaiya and the followers of Efalla. Those who ventured across the Ocean Belt learned quickly to understand and harmonize with the water.   The art began to gather momentum in the Great Land with the advent of ur-soulism when elemental shrines started to appear all across the The Yamato Kingdom and beyond.

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Magus Academies

The Spire of Rahn

The Spire of Rahn is a tall, spiraling spire of never-melting ice at the center of Lake Rahn in Aquaris. At its heart lies the ancient Hall of Lake Rahn where the first Middlish water mages perfected their craft long ago.   Today, this magus academy is the mecca of water magic for all those looking to get an advanced education. The art of water magic taught here uses "words of power" to evoke its spells, which are often narrowly defined and require the rigorous study of accompanying theory. In a way, the facts and figures and symbols studied for Rahnish water magic are rather made-up and what is perceived as the fruit of empirical study is better described as the result of gradually invented tradition, a common source of magic.   Though the study of magic at the Spire of Rahn is very in-depth, the spiritual aspect is often relegated to the side-lines and independent study, which is why the school falls short of more spiritually in-tune schools like Ka Hale Akamai when it comes to Attunement. The versatility of this school, however, is incredible, as students learn a great plethora of practical applications. While this curriculum makes them formidable mages, it limits the creative application of their magic, which is reflected in their mediocre flexibility when it comes to manipulating water.  

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

The Arcanists of Yoshitsune

Yoshitsune no Mahôtsukai 良経の魔法使い

Yamato families with a magic tradition usually use so-called dairihô maki² to create magical effects. This method requires extensive preparation and has severe limitations in both versatility and flexibility. In general, Yamato magic is not as sophisticated as Middlish magic, but they have a powerful tradition, which can lead to surprisingly severe effects despite the limitations.   Yoshitsune water magic is rooted both in the arts of water shrine maidens dating back to the Age of Awakening and in Rahnish water magic, which was brought back to the Yoshitsune by those who became influential in Aquaris.   Dairihô maki of the Yoshitsune predominantly feature Ur-soulism sutras from the Scroll of Water in addition to seals of the Yamato characters representing certain specific water shrines of note. Being in possession of an authentic stamper of this kind can significantly power-up one's scrolls or tags.  

Maoloaiyan Tohunga Moana

Wavemasters of Maoloaiya

The Maoloaiya are closely related to the Ainansi, and since they are both children of Efalla's race, there are many similarities between their respective magic.   As Maoloaiyans grow up, they are expected to pass two trials of adulthood. The first marks their induction into the Maoloaiya art of starfinding, Whetu Mohio, the second inducts them into makutu, witchcraft, with which they became able to exert influence on the waves or the wind. Incredibly in-tune with the ur-soul to which they attune themselves, they can unleash great bursts of magic without blighting. However, there is no formal school to their application of magic and no spells passed down across the ages. Their manipulation of water and wind are highly instinctive and require imagination and focus.  

The Glacier Breakers

The Hearthersfǫr, or "Winterlight Angels" are a special order of mages of the Angel Saxon people. Each year when winter befalls the Lands of the Nordmen, the Snowzone begins to expand southward, threatening to bury many villages of the Kaltani, Skôts, and Gallians.  

The Hearthersfǫr or "Days of Winterlight Angels" is an ancient Nordic tradition still practiced to this day. As the defeat during the Reshaping of the World had relegated the tribes of the Nordmen to the hostile regions below the Snowzone, winters would hit many Kaltani, Gallian, and Skôtish tribes especially harshly. The Angel Saxons, children of the Albenmannen, were of course rather well off in their lofty halls of stone, warmed by forge fires and magic. But such is not the way of the Angel Saxons to tower high above their kinsmen and ignore their plight, and with their magic and the Kaltani druids, they formed a special procession in those early winters, one that would recur every year without fail for thousands of years: the Hearthersfǫr, the Journey of the Hearth, or - as it would later become known - the "Days of Winterlight Angels".   While the larger towns, castles, and of course the lands of High Saxia were stocked up and protected well enough to withstand the extreme cold and encroaching glaciers that began their deadly march in the late months of the year, smaller villages and settlements were not as well equipped to survive the onslaught of deep winter. Most of those relied on aging local druids to thwart approaching glaciers and swell waning fires with their ancient magic, but such druids did not live forever, and when one died, a settlement did not always have a suitable replacement. Each winter could have been their last in those early days.

— From Old Tim's One Hundred Facts about Aqualon vol. 3

  To protect their kindred of yore, the Angel Saxons come down from their stony halls and travel the North during the Hearthersfǫr, pushing back glaciers and keeping villages warm in those trying times. Among these mighty mages, the Glacier Breakers are those who use water magic to battle the ice. Their magic is well-balanced and refined as is to be expected of the Angel Saxons, who have the longest magic tradition on Aqualon.