The Nature of Magic

All existence is suffused with power. Potential energy lies untapped in every rock, stream, living creature, and even in the air itself. Raw Magic is the force of creation; the mute and mindless will of existence, permeating every bit of matter and present in every manifestation of energy throughout the multiverse. The energy of Magic is called Mana. All other kinds of energy can be converted into Mana and Mana can be converted into all other kinds of energy. Magic is the force that converts Mana into other forms of energy. While Magic is still the force that converts other energies into Mana, most Casters do not call it this. Most call the conversion of other energies into Mana the River. It is given a separate name because it is a passive process that cannot be manipulated by Casters. Thus, this other flow of energy is inaccessible to the Caster and cannot be part of their art.   The force of Magic and the energy of Mana are present in both the Shadow Realm and the Mundane World. Extra Mana frequently enters the Mundane World via Shadow Rifts due to the Mana moving down the concentration gradient. The Mana leaves the Shadow Realm where the concentration of Mana is high and moves through the Shadow Rifts into the Mundane World where the concentration of Mana is much lower.    The universe seeks equilibrium in all things. This is also true with Mana. When the other energies are in greater abundance than Mana, the River will covert those other types of energies into Mana until the equilibrium is restored. When there is more Mana then other types of energies, Magic will convert the Mana into the type of energy that is lacking. This is often times the source of unexplained events in the Mundane world such as strange lights or spontaneous combustion.    Mana is a form of potential energy that is converted into other energies via Magic to do work. This process of conversion is called casting a spell when it is done by a Caster manipulating the force of Magic. Knowing how to cast that spell is knowing how to manipulate the force of Magic. Because of this, Magic is seen as a creative process. It is seen as the making of things despite it actually being the conversion of energies.    The histories of our worlds is largely hidden by the veil of time. But there are those Fey that are as old as the worlds themselves and they tell of how the Mundane World and the Shadow Realm are neighboring universes that spiral together through existence. As they move, there are times that these two worlds over lap. This is called a Convergence. These are the times that the Rifts open between the two worlds in the location where they are over lapping. There are other worlds that on occasion over lap with either the Shadow Realm or the Mundane World, but these two universes have been traveling closely together since the beginning. The Convergences between the Shadow Realm and the Mundane World are frequent and regular as far as the ancient Fey are concerned.   There was a time that the Shadow Realm and the Mundane World completely merged into a single realm. This is called a Complete Convergence. When the two realms divided again, the Shadow Realm drew with it all the Mana. Thus, the Mundane World was left with essentially no Mana and it has taken thousands of years for the River to convert the other types of energies into enough Mana for there to be measurable Mana in the Mundane World. The recovery of the Mundane World's Mana has been accelerated by the geysers of Mana bursting through the Shadow Rifts when they open, but the process has still been slow.   When these two worlds split apart, all the Mana attuned beings were drawn into the Shadow Realm, including those humans who inherently understood how to manipulate Magic. All that was left behind were the Mundane creatures that had no instinctual knowledge of how to use the force of Magic and it left them without any Mana with which to study. Thus, those who held the knowledge of manipulating the force of Magic through learning abandoned it over time since that knowledge no longer yielded fruitful results. Thus, the knowledge of Magic passed into the realm of myths, stories and legends that no longer seemed possible or real.   With the opening of the Shadow Rifts, there has been a return of those who are Mana attuned to the Mundane World. A few of these have even been human. With them, they have reintroduced the potential to instinctually know how to manipulate the force of Magic. Because of this, there are a few human sorcerers now born within the Mundane World. These genes have also resulted in those humans who are capable of seeing past the veil and can recognize the Shadow Kind for what they really are. But much more often, there are the wizards. These are the magic users who learn to manipulate the force of Magic in the same fashion that they have learned science: through study and experimentation. They have come into their knowledge through the ancient texts, the old lore and the legends that spoke of Magic and Casters.    Because Mana is an energy, casting a spell or using a magic item is a means of catalyzing the conversion of Mana into mundane energies via the force of Magic. This is why Mana is converted into things like fire or sound very quickly, when casting a spell. But Mana regeneration is slow due to Casters lacking a known means of catalysis. The process of a Caster manipulating the force of magic to generate a spell effect is not unlike an enzyme catalyzing a chemical reaction. Likewise, the processes of the force of Magic acting on other energies to convert them into Mana does happen naturally, but usually very slowly (again, like chemical reactions).   Like chemical reactions, things can go favorably or unfavorably. Thus some reactions are very fast and naturally spontaneous while others will never happen on their own. Thus some spell effects may randomly occur while other spell effects will never been seen naturally due to the energy barrier. But, a Caster acting as a catalyst or providing a catalyst can cause the energetically unfavorable spell effect to occur. Thus, there are some spell effects that are easier to produce and require little effort from the Caster. These are called Cantrips and can generally be used without having any determent to the Caster or in any way diminishing their spell casting potential. However, there are other spells that require a great deal of energy and are quite demanding upon the Caster. These are generally only cast by the most proficient Casters.    Casters have done much research into the storing of Mana. From this, the Ring of Spell Storing and the Pearl of Power have been developed. They seem to be the same, but there is an important difference between them. The Ring of Spell storing is actually storing the energy after it has been converted from Mana and thus is locked into being that single spell as cast upon the ring. The Pearl of Power on the other hand actually stores Mana itself. It functions much like a battery. And like a battery, it is limited in how much energy  it can hold. Currently, Casters have not been able to develop Mana batteries that can hold more then a very limited quantity of Mana. This had made them useful for only less powerful spells and only for a single spell.