Arcanums of the Soul, Condensed Arcana Given Function

The soul's ability to transmute mana and available meta-knowledge can be expanded by the use of auric meditation. Expanding one's aura upon a given area to gain insight from physical or metaphysical phenomenon is called divination - the word divination is not used in any official capacity in contemporary magical study and theory since the founding of the Mage's Order. Instead, the term used is "mancy" in casual settings and "scopia" in literature. The word mancy still has religious roots coming from the Akaens but does not have divine in its name - in the common tongue, that is. The recent efforts to change mancy to scopia have succeeded in only the highly diplomatic and literary realms. Scopia comes from "to observe," and is less mystical than mancy. The term pyroscope would be used instead of pyromancer in this case. Scopia is to be used in official documents, manuals, and literature, but mancy is more popular among those with magical aptitude. As mancer rolls off the tongue easier, it's more commonly used.

The art of mancy is to meditate and study phenomena to achieve magical insight. To understand a physical or metaphysical concept and replicate it by way of magic.

Mancers are magical scholars devoted to learning the subtle and profound principles behind specific aspects of the universe. In a way, all mages are mancers themselves, needing to draw insight from the universe to perform magic. Pyromancers, the scholars of the flame, study flames of all types and colors. They change the fuel burned, add in reagents and accelerants to better understand the changes that fire produces and is. Fire is the wind set alight. It is the power gained by burning material in exchange for superheated gas. Gas so hot it needs to release heat and does so in the form of light and flame. It is both substance and chemical reaction, creating the amalgam known as flame.

Aura meditation or divination works by using aetheric mana. The mage must first expand their aura upon a given area and then observe via their spiritual sense and magical sight. Aetheric mana present in the defined plane comes from the aura of every living being in it. The aura is the natural dissipation of mana to protect a spiritual body from being taken over by another. The aura ends up dissipating a small amount of mana itself, either decaying or becoming aetheric mana. The process of mana becoming aetheric mana is called magical reversion. Two forces largely influence mana's presence in the Defined. Magical decay and reversion. Magical decay happens when there is an overload of meta-knowledge. The mana will reject the increased strain and specificity brought upon it. Magical reversion is the opposite of magical decay. If there is not enough meta-knowledge, mana reverts into aetheric mana, present in the magical plane and the atmosphere.

Aetheric mana is the life-force of the world. It nurtures and maintains the ideal conditions for life. Terra has strong gravity, but most of the organisms that inhabit our world don't have the necessary biological muscles to survive such gravity. Aetheric mana is ever-present throughout the air and creates a stronger air resistance - without it, many falls that would leave only a scratch would instead leave a mangled corpse.

Aetheric mana replicates and sustains what is closest to it, transmuting when needed. Heartstones are greater spirit crystals that control the flow of aetheric mana and its functions. They sense the changes in environments and dictate the necessary conditions for maintaining life - not species. So as long as there is a diverse ecosystem, Heartstones don't care about what happens to an individual species. The flow of mana beneath the earth or above in the sky is called a Ley Line. The word ley comes from "leuk" which means "to shine". Aetheric mana has the same tendency as grey mana to shine white when in large concentrations.

Divination works by observing how aetheric mana sustains life and affects the world. Small amounts of aetheric mana support fire's signature shape and even add a little to the flames themselves. Simply flooding a flame with aetheric mana and then directing it with a simple command is enough to augment the flame. That's why the first elementalists "bent" the elements. It was simple and effective to bend already existing elements than to use large amounts of raw grey mana to create them.

Arcanums are the whole. They are the indexes of meta-knowledge, the knowledge that mana can be subjected to change and become something else. Where singular meta-knowledge may be used to fine-tune mana's physical aspects, Arcanums make mana function similar if not exactly like a physical or metaphysical phenomenon. The Arcanum of Fire makes mana act exactly like fire. Arcanums are seen as indexes of meta-knowledge found in the Deep Waters. They are near the soul and are built up as a soulcerer practices magic. Arcanums occupy regions of the Deep Waters that can be accessed by the soul to perform magic.

Mages can be classified in many forms, and all of them have some type of Mancy. May they be fire soulcerers that study the Arcanum of Fire being also pyromancers, or water soulcerers that are hydromancers themselves.

Arcanums are the culminations of arcana; arcana is the archaic name for meta-knowledge.

Aetheric or foreign mana is processed by the aura, being funneled into the ethereal stomach or Center. Though the aura can absorb small amounts of foreign mana, the Center can handle large quantities without backlash or reprieve.

Mancy is not the only means of condensing arcana into an arcanum. The delving into one's very soul can be a means of acquiring arcana. Where mancy is the meditation upon the world, eldritch delving is the meditation upon the other. The soul is a vessel for experience across not only life-times but worlds. The Imprints left behind in the shell hold otherworldly knowledge waiting to be discovered. Legacy arcanums are only considered eldritch arcanums if their arcana was condensed in another world. Otherwise, the condensing and reappropriation of their arcana is considered introspective mancy or simply manceric delving.

A mage should be cautious when delving into the depths of their soul.

The core of the soul is black, and those that peer upon it must hold onto their sanity with claw and fetter, for they will surely be sucked into the Maelstrom.

Their soul's marrow will be sucked dry, and the very essence of their existence will be devoured. Be warned and heed to your caution.