The Veil
The Fabric of Magic
Imagine there is a piece of fabric laid upon everything, everywhere. This fabric is invisible and undetectable by most, but has incredible implications upon the world. This sheet over everything can have peaks and troughs where magic is more or less potent, but the entire blanket is interwoven and connected to all its other ends. What happens in one instance must impact all others. This is The Veil. This blanket upon all of reality is the manifestation of Mana, and is the way it is colloquially understood. The highest points of this veil, the most magically potent, are places where great magical feats have been accomplished historically, and are where things like mythral deposits form. Indeed, magic that would travel great distances often must account for how far it is attracted to such occurances. These places are known as vaults, and it is debated why they form, and many attempts at their direct creation have been made, though to no avail. The Veil also has a current, or a wind pattern. It flows in a particular direction at any given time, typically incongruous and away from vaults in the veil, and this effect is known as the Spellwind, or the Arcazal in Dwarvish. Sometimes known as arcane torrents, these winds can be quite violent, disrupting and bending spells in ways that their casters could not prepare for, as in most circumstances, the veil is unseen until the spell is created.Highs and Lows
The "fabric" of the Veil has folds, divots, and wrinkles. These features of its surface produce differences in effects when magic is created. Points that are disproportionately high compared to what is nearby are called "Insallir", while low points are called "Ansallir". Together, the dwarvish word used to describe for the idea of peaks and troughs is "Visollir". This word also captures their middleground, where most standardized ideas of spells are considered, and where the Veil is largely unwrinkled, and most regular. To say it's as simple as insallir produce more potent magic while ansallir produce less potent magic is objectively wrong, though a common misconception, and even a misperception, and for understandable reason. Within Insallir, spells are considered by arcanists to be "faster" or "condensed", and the inverse is true for Ansallir. This is understood as a result of the Veil's impact on the passage of time, as when a spell manifests, it can be seen as having been done more or less violently, but often, the effect is identical. The only difference is that a spell happened over more or less time. In the case of destructive spells, for example, this generally means that damage is happening in less time, ergo more destructive. Ansalliric illusions, however, would be a much more effective illusion due to the spell having more time to manifest intricate details, and having its duration extended.
Type
Metaphysical, Arcane
