The Cat's Apocrypha.

The void that existed before the world that is known today did not disappear when the planets and stars was created, instead it was separated from it, forming another realm, different from the one that the mortals and all divines except The Shadow Mistress inhabit. When necromancers call forth spirits and the undead, they use the void as a gateway to the afterlife. After the separation, there is only a single permanent place of the void left in the mortal realm, but unstable "rifts" appear regularly.

These rifts spew forth huge amounts of void energy, a kind of magical energy native to the void, and allows sorcerers in a close vicinity to them to draw massive amounts of power. This played a part of the actions leading up to the charred incident. Even after the beasts fell, the monstrosities kept inhabiting the void, except the deepest part where The Shadow Mistress resides. These monsters are attracted to divine and mortal life, and seeks the rift in order to use them as gates to the mortal realm. Mankind dubbed these monsters "Demons", and whenever one is spotted they try to subdue it and slaughter it, but there are a few so called "Void Magicians" that seeks to master them.

Demonic blood contains trace amounts of void energy, and is sold to too high prices to mages and mhaga knights as a potion. The potion is made by mixing cleansed demonic blood with fruits of the everlasting trees of Alhant. Consuming these potions boosts a magicians power tremendously, but as a price. The void energy thaws away the consumers mind, and continuous use of it will create what is know as an "Voidwalker". These semi-demons sanity are long gone, and their bodies has transformed into grotesque monsters. The Void Mages seek to control this transformation, and eventually becoming what the consider being "The ultimate being, on par with the divines."

In modern day Enda, demons have worked they way into society. After the Endan government requested a in depth compilation of all demonic beings, it was shown that there was a kind of "civilized" demons. These new subspecies of demon is known as "Whesta", and has found a haven in the major cities of Enda. The are treated as second-class citizens. Their appearance are something akin to a human, but being very short and having thin bodies. Their skin is very pale, but shades differentiate between close to gray and white.Their eyes are either dark red or sickish purple, but always contain something that looks like moving sprites in them. They also have tiny sharp horns sprouting from their shoulders. Their voices sound like many normal people talking at the same time. After they integrated into society relationship between them and humans became more common. The offspring of these relationship differ depending on which is human or not. If the male is human, the child keeps the pale complexion and has a high chance of having a strong connection to the void, thus increasing the chance of being a powerful sorcerer. If the human is the female, the child keeps the red or purple eyes and having even smaller horns sprouting from their shoulder. These children have increased healing abilities, not quite as much as the sorcerers of the healing school, and is in many cases stronger then average, allowing them to be great warriors and mhaga knights. In both cases the child has a shortened life span and is shorter than average humans. "Whesta" started to appear a long time after human civilization had settled, laying ground for speculation about their actual origin.

Long before even the great beasts rose from the depth of the void, there was a primal beasts there, now called "fifth beast" or " The Primal Beast". As little is known of the beast too begin with, most of the knowledge being speculation or a technique of magic called "Void gazing". This beast had the form similar to the Voidwalkers, only massive in size and spreading an uneasy light all throughout the void. They few people knowledgeable enough about the beasts to know about this beast is struggling too understand what he is supposed to symbolize, but the strongest theory is that he is the symbol of the demonic monstrosities that roam the void. There is a growing theory on Whesta that theories that they rose from the Primal Beast and because of their connection to the void was drawn with it when it was separated from the mortal realm. The biggest problem with theorizing about the primal beast is that there is no knowledge on how he came into being, but scholars are trying to develop the magic of "Void gazing" in order to find out more.

Elemental phenomena are not actually creations of the divines nor the beasts. Of course, they are connected to the divines in some ways. The elemental phenomenon came about the same time humanity did. Because humanity itself seemed to be connected to elemental phenomenons a lot of study went into it. They discovered that these phenomena are something akin too anthropomorphic emotions or thoughts. This provides for a great variety of elemental phenomena, but some of these phenomena enlist themselves in service of the divines, because the influence of divines works in their favor. There is not a lot of elemental phenomenons because the way they are created is still not fully understood. During times of great emotional stress the amount of elemental phenomena increases because of their connection too mankind. Without having someone to direct them, most elementals live very chaotic lives, wandering the world.

The most famous and known kind of elemental phenomena is the "spark". Born from some peoples view of fire, these fire elementals are usually impatient and energetic. Serving Ghan by choice, they act as his messengers to mankind and as direct helpers for his Maidens. They have red tinted skin with fiery hair. There are other kinds of elemental phenomena, fire or otherwise, but this is one of the categories of them. Sparks usually have very childlike appearance, and acts similar to them, but are quite capable in combat and fights well with their fire spells.

More "species" of elementals are documented on a rate of about one each year. The life length of the different kinds of elementals is different, but generally it´s somewhere around 15 to 20 years. The elemental phenomena does not die in a traditional sense, instead fading diminishing away over a period of a few days. Different elemental phenomena is of different strength, and some is even on near the same levels as the divines. A great example of elementals gone wrong is the charred land, a place now closed of from the rest of the world that is plagued by malevolent elementals by all kinds, lead by a chaotic fire elemental phenomena of great proportions. The elementals there seems to never age, and in the center, where the incident occurred there seems to be some kind of anomaly affecting them, but all expeditions there has failed in some way or another.

Since the charred incident underground organizations have expressed an interest in these elemental phenomena, and has experimented on them in order too learn how to control them. Most countries has outlawed these practices, but it´s only The Island of Myth and Enda that has accepted them as actual mortal beings with their own personalities and feelings. These arts, called "Phenomena control", tries to bind the elementals to the magicians as familiars or minions, and the magician can in turn draw the element the phenomena is associated with in a purer form than most magical arts. They also try to command them, giving them orders and forcing them to do what their masters demands. So far experiments has been rarely successful, with most of the elemental phenomena dying before being bound to the magicians. In other cases they succeeded in making a mental bind, allowing them to channel trace amounts of their energy, but these lasts bounds rarely longer than a few days, and the connection to the elemental is then severed.

The fire art has of course existed from the beginning of human civilization, but as with most of the five classical schools it started to really develop when the Association of Magi started in Medelgrant. Fire is the most chaotic of all the arts, allowing skilled fire magician to channel huge firestorms. Fire incantations are a subset of fire magic, and works by charging stones with prepared "spells", and then unleashing them with chosen words. This technique is a favorite of fire Maidens, allowing them to prepare for any given circumstance without forcing them to take away focus from the battle.

The developed "spells" in the fire art usually focus on crowd control and chaotic fires. The most know of the spells is the infamous "Firestorm", an advanced spell that summons uncontrolled fire over an area determined by the magician himself. Being caught in this storm usually means near instant death for many normal soldiers. With enough knowledge a skilled magician can start to channel his fire through the ground itself, melting it and using the resulting magma to his advantage.

Being skilled with the fire arts does not automatically mean you are more resistant to fire, forcing the magicians to channel magic in order to not burn themselves to death.

The theory behind chaos magic was conceived after studying the fire elemental phenomena known as "Flashes". Flashes emits a fiery aura all the time, and are unable to control it. Chaos magic is another, more broad subset of fire magic. Not being fire magic in itself, it uses the chaotic nature of fire. A very skilled chaos magician is able to bypass the usage of fire and directly control chaos. This is the point where chaos arts directly split from the fire arts. The magicians most skilled in the chaos arts are able to summon minor earthquakes and manipulate minds of mortal and demon both to create mass confusion. Not much development has gone into into the chaos arts because users have big chance to succumb to chaos and go crazy, endangering the safety of others.

Shadow magic does not actually use "shadow" per se, rather it´s more something akin to "darkness". The shadow magicians do not have many means to directly damage opponents, preferring to use crowd control and then strike directly at opponents. Because of that many of the most skilled assassins and stealth archers are somewhat skilled in the shadow arts. The most iconic of the many techniques is called "Shadow Tendrils". It works by materializing "Darkness", giving it a tangible form and allows the magician to damage, restrain, or outright confuse their enemies. The shadow magicians are also able to channel "shadows" around their weapon, obscuring it, allowing for a more surprise attack

Skilled shadow magicians are able to take on a shadow form with similar build to the Shadow Mistress herself, making them near invincible, but usually limits their abilities to damage their enemies.

"Necromancy" is the art of the dead, channeling spirits and reanimating bodies. Magicians adept in the arts of necromancy are called "necromancers", and are usually shunned by civilization as a whole, because the general mindset is that the spirits of the dead should be left alone. When a necromancer is summoning spirits, whether he is going to use it to imbue a weapon or for aid in battle directly, he uses the void as a gateway to the afterlife. The only thing necromancers actually do is strike a contract with a spirit (or multiple if skilled enough) and then commands the spirit, they do not permanently reanimate beings. A spirit summoned and then "falling" in battle do not disappear forever, instead returning unharmed to the afterlife. The shadow Maiden is usually very skilled in both necromancy and the shadow arts, records telling of summoning whole armies of spirits.

Water magic is the one that is most horrifying to look at, as the magic itself reflect it´s patron divine. There are "normal" spells, like the now famous "ice spear", nothing more then a sharp icicle. Because water has many shapes so do the magic that controls it. There are 3 branches of water magic, steam, flowing and ice, ice spear is of course in the ice branch, but skilled water magicians can cast spells with elements of all branches, for example casting a shroud of steam around himself and then making it solidify onto whoever goes to near. The most symbolic of all the water spells is called "Flowing Control". This spell takes water and allows the magician to move it around freely, but takes a big toll on the magicians body, making it very dangerous to overuse.

Most of the spells are not grotesque, but the face of water magic was changed forever when one of the water Maidens developed a technique that allows skilled water magicians to "control" the trace amount of pure water in a living beings blood stream. This causes internal damage all throughout the victims body, but the most skilled of them all can force their victims to do their bidding for a short time. Because of all this the "blood" branch of water magic has been classified as taboo.

"Mhaga", also known as melee magic, is very unique in that instead of channeling spells they infuse their weapons and enhance themselves. Mhaga casters are not called magicians or mages, and is instead called "knights". The most famous Mhaga knight is the divine "Leeroy", and he is now considered the patron died of Mhaga style of magic. The most famous technique is called "Shroud of the Crystal God", and encases the knight in a shroud of magical light, mitigating any damage and enhances his abilities. Mhaga casters are trained to withstand other kinds of magic, so skilled Mhaga knights are very feared on a battle field. The country where Mhaga is most developed in is Enda.

Crystal magic "magic" is solidified magic in it´s purest form, and the crystal are created by channeling the magic that lies innate in most things, including humans. Most magicians are able to use these crystals in order to fuel their spells, making them stronger, but it´s Mhaga knights that are trained to create them, so they are the most common users. If these crystals are crafted into armor they provide excellent protection against the other kinds of magic. Similar to the incantations of fire spells, crystals can be imbued with spells and released later, but these are not as easy to make and requires no incantations.

Mysticism is often called "Thunder magic" as most of their iconic spells looks similar to thunderbolts. It is however not thunder, and it´s more similar to "Pure magic". This is the broadest and most studied field of magic, and has most of the mundane appliances. The most know mysticism spell is called "Unseen Force", and is easy to learn and use. This spell allows the user to move minor objects with their mind, making it very useful for multitasking. Mysticism is the most tiring of all the schools, forcing magicians to be ingenious and utilize the simpler of the spells. The school is also the most directly devastating one with techniques such as the infamous "Reality Tear". The spell literally tears reality apart, destroying everything in the area where it is cast, forcing reality to pull itself together, often with effects that lasts forever.

"Portals" are also part of the mysticism and works by connecting to parts of the world with each other. There are one way portals, two way portals and so forth. Studies go into researching "Phasing", but there is very little success as of yet. Phasing is a hypothetical technique that would allow mysticism magicians to make themselves intangible and able to walk through things, similar to the techniques utilized by shadow magicians. There is a difference though, this hypothetical technique would allow them to materialize their spells and surprise their enemies.

"Void Gazing" is an art of mysticism that works by separating time and reality, unraveling things unseen by mortal life. This technique is the most infamous of all, because it requires a great amount of focus, and even then the results may vary drastically.

There are some that want Crystal magics to be classified as Mysticism, but the connection to Mhaga has grown to strong and most consider it useless to try to change it.

Before humans had adapted themselves to this hostile world, they were fragile beings. Not knowing about the dangers of the world and how to prevent them,they quickly succumbed to normal fevers and colds. They first tried to heal these ailment with herbs and other, and eventually the magic of Olood. Civilizations arose and fell, and eventually only the Divines, more specifically Olood, know when these healing arts were created. The only healing spell that is common is called "Soothing hands", and closes small wounds. The symbol of healing magic is a technique called "Healing Aura". This technique is makes the caster emit a healing aura, restoring everyone near the caster, foe or friend alike.

The healing arts are unique in that many gifted in the art of magic itself can not learn it, and only a few people born with specific traits are able to be really gifted in it, usually Whesta crossbreeds or children, especially female, of a family with a history in the healing arts. If a child is born with green eyes and brown hair it is usually a sign that the child will become a powerful healer, but scholars today do not know why this is and long time studies are trying to understand why. These gifted people are mostly found near the Everlasting Forest of The Kingdom of Alhant. All people are able to know a little about the healing arts, but their knowledge are often limited in comparison the these individuals.

All magical arts can be used for good, as for evil, and the school of healing is not different. The most feared magic there is, "Disease magic, the same thing that healing was supposed to prevent. All skilled healers can create diseases they know enough about, and if skilled enough, create their own. Nations have fallen to both malicious and careless magicians, and the disease arts are right to be feared. This has caused disease magic to be feared, and in most modern nations illegal to study without supervision from a skilled magician.

Many elemental phenomena has been found for all magical arts except this, as only a single one has been found. The so called "Forest Nymph", why this is is not known, but scholars are searching for answers, but the strongest theory is that the continued growth of nature is a unique elemental phenomena in itself.

Void magic is the art of drawing energy directly from the void, opening up for magic techniques that are unheard of. In most countries these art are not even considered magical arts, and practitioners of these taboo arts are often imprisoned or even executed. There are no known recorder spells or techniques, but there are stories on how void magicians changes their bodies partially into demonic shapes, distort visions of their opponents and commanding demons to cause destruction. The general consensus between scholars and politicians is that they are endangering human civilization as a whole, and that their goal is to achieve divinity. Void magicians work closely with demons, and the most successful of all them are Whesta crossbreeds.

Phenomena Control is near the line between taboo art and a subject of study. Phenomena control is closely linked to the phenomena themselves, and is the taboo art most scholars know most about. The magicians try to utilize the high amount of magical energy that the phenomenons emit, and use them to fuel their magic. There is also attempts to bind the elemental phenomena to their will.

There are other minor taboo arts, for example the infamous blood magic, a branch water magic that works by controlling the trace amount of water in blood and basically twist and turns an individual, making way for one of the most painful death known to man. As most that study more advanced arts of magic do so by themselves or by studying as an apprentice, there are new techniques invented every year. Most that study magic in a collage connected to the association or independent. All schools have some techniques considered taboo, but they are still practiced by magicians that are not connected with the association.

Magic is the collective word for the energy that all things emit. Magic in the beginning where very simple, but as knowledge of the world marched on so did knowledge about magic. Magic has been developed alongside technology for all time. All humans are linked to magic, and can therefore use it, but some have easier for it than other. Scholars do not know why this is. A good example of this is the people in the healing school of magic, showing that not only is magic itself hard for some people, but more than one school is. The most prominent theory is that there are different energies relating to different schools. A skilled magician can easily craft new spells. They do so by making a new pattern in their mind and control the magical energy differently

Catalysts are items that magicians use to focus their spell, making them easier to cast. Catalysts are not needed, but they are usually the key to cast more advanced spells. The creation of catalysts are common knowledge, as it´s only the creator of a catalyst that can use it. The most common items for catalysts are staves and wands, but any item can be made into a catalyst. They are created by channeling a small amount of magical energy into it, making a direct link to the magician. The process of making a catalyst requires a very small amount of focus and is not very tiring, allowing most people to make one. To draw the energy out from a catalyst the magician utilizes crystals and redirects the energy there, reversing the item back to normal.

There are two know ways of preparing spells. One is called "Incantation" and is unique to the fire school. Incantations are made by channeling spells into the stones, and then etching words into them. The words are what causes the energy to unleash into a spell, but different magicians use different words to symbolize different spells. To use the incantation a magician needs to clasp their hand tightly around the stone, and then say the words.

The other way are called "crystallized spells". All magicians can use it, and they work by recording "memories" of the spell into the crystal. Scholars do not know how it works exactly, but the process that is used to record the spell is channeling magic into it while focusing on what pattern the energy will be released in. To release the recorded spell they just crush crystal the in the direction the want to release the spell.

The divines are not benevolent nor malevolent, rather they follow their own incomprehensible plans. The Maiden Wars are the machinations of the divines, the culmination of a game that they play. The planet is destined to be reborn at the hands of the winning divines, sometimes completely, sometimes to fit the whims of the winner. Between the wars the divines plot and plan, carefully choosing who they want to lead them to victory. These champions are mere pawns in a game. The champions are called the "Maidens". These maidens are blessed individuals, and after they are chosen they are reborn as avatars of the divines, being blessed with tremendous power and influence. The divines usually follow a pattern when they choose a Maiden. The events leading up to the wars are something akin to test, and vary much from time to time. These test can affect whole populations or a single individual. The divines look for different thing in their chosen champion.

The tests are events that vary from time to time, but it´s the divine that chooses how they will act, if they act at all. The events are at the whim of the divines. There are many examples on how the divines act during preparation for a war, one of the most infamous is during the sixth maiden war, where Nihila the Shadow Mistress chose a four year old girl, on the basis that she "looked cute". The most famous of all the maiden wars is the fourth one. It is famous because this is the only recorded time where all divines stopped battling over conquest of the planet, instead focusing on battling a fellow divine.

Mankind does not know why the divines stage the wars instead of a more conventional way of deciding who will lead the world in the next era. Currently, to world is in it´s ninth era, "The era of brimstone", also known as "The age of the new fire". The time gap between the wars differ, but is usually somewhere around 200 to 300 years, but it was a mere 50 years between the sixth and the seventh war. The time leading up to the wars is plagued by battles, trials of the gods and general distress.

Humanity at large dislikes being just pieces in a game of the divines, and there are always groups engaged in trying to break their connection to the divines. The most prominent of these group is known as "Gesceap, the created". This group dedicates themselves with training in secret, researching way to separate themselves from the gods. Under direct guidance of the Medelgrant government, they are backed with powerful sorcerers and warriors. Their first and foremost goal is to find way to separate mankind from the divines. Their second, and most prominent goal is to end the Maiden Wars as soon as possible, doing so by eliminating the Maidens quickly, forcing the wars to a premature end. This has only been successful once, during the fifth maiden war. They know that they do not stand a match against the maidens in battle, instead employing skilled assassins to eliminate them.

In the end there is no knowledge on the link between the divines and mankind, dooming them to be pawns at the whim of the divines.

Science is a broad term defining many things, such as architecture, psychology and weapon development. In the beginning of time man did not build as sturdy structures, did not know the mind and still fought with sticks, but since humanity has evolved towards a better future so has their knowledge of the world, dramatically increasing the availability of technological advancement and magic. As opposed to magic, you can not discover new things by looking at the past, instead forcing the need for experiments and observation.

Technological advancement is the byproduct of science, as when new discoveries is done fields of study, they open up for new ideas and usages. A big innovation was done in the end of the eight Maiden War, so called "Bio-mechanic hybridization". This is a method that allows for arms, legs or even parts of the brain to be replaced by enhancing mechanical replacements, improving the person's

"Sorcerer". A person that utilizes magic.

"Magician". A person that uses catalysts to focus their magic. Is often used interchangeably with "Sorcerer"

"Mage". A person that casts magic without a catalyst.

"Mhaga Knight". A person that utilizes Mhaga spells and techniques, fighting with melee weapons.

"Spell". A basic guideline and form on how to channel magic. Casting a "Fireball" is not the same every time, usually differentiating a lot between different Sorcerers.

"Technique". Similar to a spell, a technique is more advanced and usually requires reagents or stored magical energy to cast more than once.

"Crystals". Magical energy solidified, can be used in many ways.

"Taboo". Ways of magic that the association of Magi deem too "Dangerous and damaging to society and human life"

"Kinesi". A blessing from the divines themselves, this is a rare ability that allows the user to control their magic without the energy trade-off.