Medaevum

How does arcane magic work?

There are only four schools of magic. Your character has been initiated - "sparked" - into one or more of these schools. Having been sparked, they are able to manipulate the substance of their school by channeling magical potential through their bodies. This magical potential is called Essentia, which you can think of as being essentially mana, or pure magic.

How do I learn magic?

Characters that are adept, master, or the Magus can spark other characters into their school of magic. Sparking is a dangerous process, and it doesn't matter how powerful or skilled the person doing the sparking is, it involves channeling pure magic through the essence of the character being sparked. This channeling can go awry - resulting in permanent injury, inability to ever cast magic, or even death. Each school will have an example sparking below.

What do the ranks mean?

There are six ranks: sparked, apprentice, journeyman, adept, master, and one Magus. If your characters get in a fight on equal footing with another mage of a higher rank, they lose. Unless there is an advantage outside of their magical acumen (greater numbers, superior tactics, the element of surprise, being a better combatant), a lower level mage cannot hold a candle to a mage of a higher rank.

How do I advance in rank?

Goodwill.

Sparked -> Apprentice costs 4 Goodwill.
Apprentice -> Journeyman costs 6 Goodwill.
Journeyman -> Adept costs 12 Goodwill.
Adept -> Master costs 16 Goodwill.

Magus is unique in that only one character can be magus within a school. If a Magus is usurped, their rank drops down to master. This the procedure:

You must be a master within the school of the Magus you are attempting to usurp.

If the Magus is available, then the first preference would be defeating the Magus in a contest. Typically a duel, but if both players agree on an alternative then that's cool. If the Magus wins or draws, they stay magus; if the challenger wins, they become the new Magus.

If the Magus isn't available after being given ample notice, then the prospective Magus must defeat more masters of their school than the previous Magus did to attain their rank, or over half of all masters of the school - whichever is higher.

If it is not possible to defeat as many masters as the previous Magus had to attain their rank, then defeating as many masters as are available is also fine.

We're a freeform system, what are spells for?

When you're just roleplaying normally, you can basically do whatever you want that makes sense for your character's power level and the school of magic they're using. Spells, however, are particular techniques you can either learn through Goodwill or from other players that outline exactly what they're capable of and how.

Even if a spell breaks the established rules for their school or for the power level that it's supposed to be at for its level, the spell supercedes the base rules.

There are Magus-rank spells and the like, but note that masters of a given school can cast them too. The Magus ranking is meant to indicate an increase in power over regular master level things, but it doesn't mean only the Magus can cast them - masters can too.

Eviscism

Traditionally considered an unsophisticated school of magic focused around combat. In point of fact, its quick and flashy spells do make it especially deadly in a fight, but it has more to it than just fireballs.

Boon: An Evist is considered one rank higher than their opponent when determining whether or not they could beat something in a straight fight. so for example, in a fight between an apprentice Evist and a journeyman Cogimens, they are considered on equal footing instead of the Cogimens having an inherent advantage.

Bane: It is impossible for an Evist to work their magic without channeling it through a focus. A focus is an enchanted gem with a corresponding rank and some kind of emitter - like the blade of a sword or shaft of a wand. An apprentice or journeyman level focus can be made by an adept evist with access to basic materials like glass. Master and Magus level focuses require an event to procure the reagents for, like flawless gems and the like. An Evist can only cast spells up to the rank of the focus they have with them; even the Magus only cast spells at the level of a journeyman if that is the level of their focus.

Can I blow up my focus?

Yeah!

An evist can overload a focus of their rank or lower, if they are holding it. To do so, they must channel every ounce of energy they can into it, over the course of one round per level of the focus. This process isn't necessarily loud, more like a bassy hum. It is, however, incredibly bright - like a spotlight in all directions, or even brighter for Master and Magus level focuses. Each round spent doing so reduces their effective level by one for "the next while" - a few days or weeks as their energy recharges, at the discretion of the player.

If they're interrupted during this process (such as by someone taking the focus away from them), then their effort was wasted. If they succeed however, the following happens based on the level of the focus in question:

Apprentice and Journeyman: The focus just breaks. The gem visibly cracks and hisses out energy, but there is no explosion.

Adept: An explosion powerful enough to partially obliterate anyone within arm's reach of the focus, and injure those within the same room. Assuming we're talking, you know, like a normal room. A bedroom or an office room. Not a throneroom or a cathedral.

Master: Everyone within the same room is dead or partially disintegrated. There is enough structural damage to the building itself that it might collapse outright. Even if it doesn't, there's a crater's worth missing from it now.

Magus: The building is gone. An entire wing of the castle is missing. The shockwave breaks every pane of glass in the city, and rattles windows for a hundred miles around.

What can an Evist do at each level?

Eviscism is the magic of energy. They move energy from where it's at, and put it somewhere else. That can mean taking the kinetic impact of a fall and converting it into a punch, it can mean drawing on the ambient heat in the environment to light a torch, and it can mean freezing someone solid by drawing all out of the heat out of the surface of their skin.

At apprentice level... an Evist can light candles and freeze thimbles of water. They can make a kinetic impact equivalent to an ungentle caress.

At journeyman level... an Evist can light torches and freeze cups. They can punch someone from across the room. They can divest a fire of its heat in order to slow down its spread.

At adept level... an Evist can lash with fire like a whip, or hurl it like a javelin. They can fall from great distances and use the power from their own fall as a powerful bludgeon. They can freeze patches of wet ground to make it slippery and treacherous.

At master level... fireballs hurled across battlefields, hot enough to melt lead. Kinetic impacts to stop a charging horse. Ice frozen from the humidity in the air into a thousand tiny knives.

Formistry

The magic of matter, living and unliving. Formistry has been the domain of healers, botanists, and architects of all stripes.

Boon: Formists are very slow to age, and very hard to kill. Their body naturally tries to revert back to the state it was in when they were first sparked, whatever form that was. Even if they lose a limb, all they need to do is hold it to the stump for it to reattach over the course of minutes. Formists age at half the rate of their given species: an elven Formist can live for up to 600 years, a human for well over a century, etc.

Bane: Formists must be directly touching the thing which they are attempting to affect, be that a body or a wall.

What can a Formist do at each level?

At apprentice level... they may encourage the growth of plants in interesting and novel ways. They can hear minor scrapes and the like in moments.

At journeyman level... they can heal even substantial cuts or broken bones at a touch.

At adept level... they can restore limbs or digits - over time, such as the course of days. They can also shape blood into dangerous whips, weaken stone, or cause their very touch to draw blood.

At master level... they can break bones at a touch. They can turn granite into dust. If it is possible for a mortal to restore a wound, they can do it with sufficient time and resources.

Cogimency

The magic of the mind and perception, including all of the body senses. Famed for their illusions, the lies of what it is said a Cogimens can do are almost as wild as the truth of their actual abilities.

Boon: Cogimency magic is largely invisible and hard to detect.

Bane: The Trance, a state of mind somewhere between waking and dreaming, is required for all Cogimency spells. That the Cogimens is within the Trance be be noticed with a perceptive eye. If the Cogimens' meditative focus is broken, their spells are broken with it. As well, since their magic deals entirely in perception, they can never actually do direct harm with a spell (beyond the psychological trauma of it all anyway).

What can a Cogimens do at each level?

At apprentice level... they can convey words telepathically to others within the same room, if they share a language.

At journeyman level... they can convey words telepathically across the same building, including concepts, images, and ideas in a way that might help breaking a language barrier. They can create small, easily disbelieved illusions. They may pick up on the vaguest of thoughts of those in their vicinity.

At adept level... they can convey words telepathically at any distance, as long as they are on the same plane, no matter the language barrier. Their illusions are tricksy and complex, but cannot be larger than a few feet across at best. They can read the thoughts of specific individuals in their field of view, if they concentrate on nothing else.

At master level... no facet of the mind or perception is beyond them. Memories can be falsified, dreams infiltrated, and whole consciousnesses stolen away into artificial mind palaces. Illusions can fill entire rooms and are incredibly difficult to spot any flaw in.

Animancy

The soul. Emotions. Primal instincts. Animancy is a deadly and elusive magic.

Boon: By binding lesser spirits of the Planar Infinity to their will, including the souls of dead mages, Animancers are able to replicate the effects of other magics as if they were a mage of that school minus one rank (so an adept Animancer could cast Eviscism spells as if they were an Evist of journeyman rank).

Bane: Animancers are feared, reviled, and hated. The soul is perhaps the most intimate of all things, and Animancers use their power over the soul to bind lesser creatures to their will. If their control over any given spirit used in the casting of their magic is broken, the spirit is likely to lash out violently against them.

What can an Animancer do at each level?

At apprentice level... they can impose very faint emotional impulses onto others. They can innately sense the presence of the planar and planar entities, increasing in range and sensitivity as their experience grows.

At journeyman level... they can sense the strongest emotion of individuals they focus on.

At adept level... they can impose strong emotional impulses onto others. 

At master level... directly cause others to act in spasmodic, irrational ways that are as fleeting as they are disconcerting.