Magic is the unseen current that flows between all planes. It is drawn from the spark of the gods in Eryndralis, from the roots of creation in Voryndral, and from the shadows of Draethor where corruption dwells. To wield it is not to own it, but to bend what is already present.
It does not begin with the mage nor end with the spell. It courses through stone and flame, leaf and star, spirit and blood. All who live are touched by it; yet only those who listen may command it.
The first lesson is this: magic is not chaos. Though it appears wild, it moves by order and law, as fire burns and water flows. Those laws are not of crown nor academy, but of the very fabric of existence. The wise mage learns these laws and abides them; the fool who defies them finds only ruin.
As King Reyumi decreed: “To study magic is to study the world itself.”
Every flame consumes, every shield strains, every summoning leaves a void behind. The world remembers what has been wrought, and the Weave of Reality answers in kind. Thus must all who practice the Art learn humility, for every spell is a bargain with creation.
Magic unbounded is tyranny. Magic unmeasured is disaster. To use it rightly is to walk the narrow path between destruction and renewal.
Magic was not gifted for the sake of dominion, but for the stewardship of the realms. It may heal or harm, protect or rend, deceive or reveal — yet in all things, it reflects the hand that shapes it.
So it is written: “As the mage, so the magic. As the heart, so the spell.”
Through long study and trial, the sages of the First Court discerned that magic’s endless river flows into nine tributaries, each a discipline of its own: Abjuration, Alchemy, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy, and Transmutation.
Each path is but a shard of the whole, incomplete without the others. The one who studies only one path is like a man who knows only the mountain but not the sea; he may climb high, but he does not yet know the world.
Thus begins the Codex Aeternum:
That magic is eternal, that it is ordered, that it is balanced, and that it reflects the will of those who wield it. All further laws, schools, and decrees are but the unfolding of these truths.
