Abyssal

Abyssal magic is our version of void magic. It doesn’t corrupt like eldritch (fel) magic does, but it’s overpowering and can wear down or outright uncreate a lot of magical things. Abyssal magic /can/ be used by sorcerers, but it’s so enormous, vast, inexorable, that it’s extremely difficult to wield with any kind of precision or deftness. If combined with arcane magic, it will erode the edges and metaphorical topography of arcane magic into something duller and lesser.   Eldritch can still convert abyssal magic into more eldritch, but it does so very slowly. Abyssal magic is seen as the most potent counter to eldritch, but some people fear abyssal even more than eldritch - with eldritch, you can keep your soul imprint even if you go from anima to eldritch; with abyssal, that imprint will be erased with time, no matter what energy it’s “made” out of. Eldritch is seen as the faster threat, while abyssal is seen as the deeper threat.  

Interactions with Other Energies

  Abyssal wears down arcana very evenly, like waves against sandstone. Given enough time (or enough abyssal), arcana can be completely unshaped and scattered (evaporated, if you will) as though it had never been condensed and engineered. There is nothing arcana can do about this erosion ability of abyssal energy, though a higher quantity of arcana will maintain its shape/pattern longer against the slow tide of abyssal. Vice versa is also true, though - a large amount of abyssal will overwhelm and break down arcana with speed, like a wrecking ball.   Abyssal also erodes anima, though anima is slower to wear down than arcana is. Because anima is somewhat self-repairing, the process of erosion is slower, though brute force still works - a large amount of abyssal can do swifter and deeper damage to anima. Unlike arcana, anima will not be scattered in the way of abyssal energy - it’ll lose its shape/pattern, but not its collectiveness. (A spell can be shattered by abyssal into radiative arcana; a spirit can be wiped blank but not dissolved.)   Abyssal is largely ineffective against eldritch, though eldritch isn’t particularly strong against abyssal either. Abyssal’s erosion does nothing against eldritch’s rapidly self-replicating nature, because if some corner of eldritch is ground down, the pattern of eldritch energy remains whole and repeated over a much larger sum of energy. (Think of it this way - amputating a hand is not going to cure the flu in a person.)