Animancy

One of the great marvels of Taermidra is the discovery of a means for non-magical mortals to gain access to the world's natural magic. Centuries before the start of the Era of Monsters, mortals discovered that they could imbibe raw magic into their bodies, flooding their veins with extraordinary power. Raw magic manifests as glowing rocks beneath ancient trees and massive mountains, forming into Aurichalis and Sylvonis respectively. It is said that raw magic emits a hum reminiscent of a harp chord. The ancient discoverers of raw magic gave it a name befitting its awe-inspiring power: myrdichan, or "Singing Magic."   The first animancers developed infusions of myrdichan to grant themselves a connection to the world's magic. Through constant experimentation, they ascertained that their magic-infused blood served as a channel for them to focus their will and affect the world around them. Wounds they received clotted and sealed faster than normal - a lucky effect, given the need to spill their own blood to perform animancy.  

The Price of Power

Unfortunately, there are side effects to having raw magic imbued inside your body when it is not designed to leads to severe complications. Myrdichan immediately attacks the host body and mutates it in irreversible ways. While not every animancer experiences effects, the animancers developed an overall name for their affliction: ishdimacht, or "polluted power." Typical symptoms of ishdimact include some or all of the general effects:

Anemia: With less red blood cells in the body, oxygen transference is more limited, causing tiredness, weakness, and shortness of breath.

Cardiomyopathy: A weakened heart muscles prevents blood flow from reaching peak efficiency. This often leads to shortness of breath, fatigue, swollen legs, and possibly heart failure later on.

Graves Disease: An autoimune disease that causes hyperthyroidism, resulting in weakened muscles, sleeping issues, rapid heartbeat, difficulty tolerating heat, weight loss, heart palpitations, constant fatigue, bulging eyes, and a constant slight hand tremor.

Dermatomyositis: An immune system affliction that is often identified by an unusually colored rash develops, most often on the chest and spreading outward over time to encompass the extremities. Where the rash appears, muscles often become weaker in response.

Animancy Disciplines

Over the centuries, animancers have developed curricula around their art and focused their abilities around several schools of thought. Each academy has different primary focuses, although each student is expected to learn the basics of each discipline.  

Major Disciplines

Alchemancy

Gavedrol Academy (Ostamil)
The practice of creating infusions and concoctions that can be used for medical or alteration purposes.  

Astromancy

Rongartur College (Twelve Spires)
A study into dreams and discerning the future. While many animancers are skeptical of this discipline, it has some merit regarding protection from dreams and other such dangers.  

Elemancy

Gavedrol Academy (Ostamil)
Mastery over the natural four elements: air, fire, water, earth. Animancers can conjure effects from these different aspects of life and manipulate the world around them this way.  

Kinetimancy

Korthans (Alcaroth)
A study of time and energy, with a primary focus for animancers seeking to manipulate kinetic energy to adjust time around objects or people.  

Vornimancy

Rongartur College (Twelve Spires)
The enchantment of materials to create imbued magic in objects. The lasting enchantments resulted in some of the marvelous remnants from before the Era of Ruin.  

Minor Disciplines

In addition to the major disciplines,

Archaeology

Botany

History

Mathematics

Zoology