Mists/Magic/Learning Magic

While residents of the Isle of Mists have the capacity for magic at birth, their power is so weak and undirected as to be harmless. Some parents choose to train their very young children in some basics of magic, but this is typically limited to controlling, rather than causing, magical events. The process of harnessing the potential within them is one which is not learned in months but over a lifetime through regimented practices handed down by mages and regimented into distinct academic curricula for over five hundred years.

Between the ages of four and five, children journey en masse to the source of the Breath, a large cave near the center if the Isle. There, they remain near the entrance to the cave and breathe the Breath of Imperius for three days, simultaneously receiving their initial formal training and enhancing their skills through ceremonies. After returning to their homes, they begin their formal primary education, learning novice abilities in all of the spheres and developing their own preferences and learning their strengths.

Children return to the Breath shortly following adolescence, typically as a chaperon for their younger siblings or cousins on their first trip. During their three-day visit, they proceed further into the caves, participating in further ceremonial rituals. It is at this point they choose how they will specialize, and the ceremonies are conducted as a means to further empower them in their chosen specialty.

Once a mage is devoted to training, which begins between the ages of four and five when they are taken to the cave from where the Breath of Imperius billows forth from and then placed under the tutelage of a mentor or in the more general studies at the Academy. Many children do not begin their studies at the Academy until much later but some rare combinations of family values and magical talent means that occasionally, children actually begins active training at an early age.

As soon as the mage begins formal training, she starts the novice years. These years are there to provide the mage with the basic knowledge about the different spheres of magic, the Great Schools and the arcane practices. She is often taught the basics of the occult language which is used in spellcasting or the physical gestures accompanying many spells. She is also taught the very basic use of components to strengthen and focus her magical power.

After eight years, a mage has generally reached the level of expertise that he or she might start their specialization. Many mages have already found that they are more inclined to one path or another and this is where they begin their studies in the application of magic, instead of simply the theory, for real. As soon as they have chosen a Sphere, they start their studies within that School and Sphere. These upcoming years are called the beginner years, and a mage is said to be of 'Beginner Rank' while he studies at this level.

The mage can choose, after he completes his first five years of study in his primary sphere, to either go on to Journeyman in his Primary or start studying a Secondary through the beginner years. If he decides to study another sphere, reaching the point where he can pass over into Journeyman in that sphere will take another three years. This means that a mage who starts studying at the age of 5 becomes a Beginner in one of his spheres at the age of 13, then studies as a Beginner for 5 years until he can go on to either become a Journeyman in one or a Beginner of a second. If he chooses the second sphere, he will study that until he is 21 when he is ready to go on to his first journeyman studies.

Learning magic is far from simple and it involves long hours of study, devoted time from teachers and the presence of expensive components that must be provided for the mage. This is the main reason why not every Mistian is a powerful mage: the island could not afford to educate all its citizens in magic when powerful magics cost enormous sums when still being learned.

The other reason, which is more speculative than the first, is the dilution or concentration of bloodlines. Two mages of powerful blood will have a powerful child, but once every third generation blood from outside the island is needed that the magic in the veins and the blood of Mists does not twist and change its people into deformity and magical sterility. Thus, the bloodlines must be carefully tended to for them to keep on producing the most powerful of mages.