Originally thought to be just a mental exercise to aid in visualisation, this practice is integral to the utilisation of magical energy in practical ways. There exists many hundreds of thousands of different schema throughout the world, although many of these are more than likely just variations of the same application. I would wager that the majority of Magic users do not realise what they are actually doing to cast their spells. Only true university taught mages have this mastery and therefore the ability to go beyond their current limits.
-Principles of Magic by Abelard Cirester
According to the Laws of Magic
, once the source of magic has been decided, the only thing left to do is to harness and shape that energy to the intended purpose. This shaping is via the use of something that is called a Schema or a Forma. Schema is the term used by magic users taught in the grand Magical University Obrok
. Forma is the term used by imperial magic users from the Atralum Empire
The user of magic pictures in their mind the energy as line of energy. They shape this energy in different ways that influence the outcome. There are schema to create heat, light, water, fire, to leech heat from something, to move something through space. The possibilities are endless, only restricted by the magic users’ knowledge and ability to figure them out.
Different Magical Traditions
People from a magical tradition with a less centralised pool of knowledge, such as the islanders of The Itani
, view what they do in a much less advanced way. They will still use words and hand gestures to control the magical energy, for they have not realised that they can just use mental visualisations for the same outcome. However, their traditions go back hundreds of years and are highly focused, specialising on their environment and what they need to survive. Many smart university mages will try to go and learn from these sorts of traditions to enhance their own understanding.
Interesting concept! Thanks for entering the WE 2021 Spell Category! Best of luck in all the categories you entered!