Worldbuilding Wednesday #2: Witches and the Three Braches of Magic (Patreon)

Since the beginning, all creatures that descended from the Trees of Life had the ability to manipulate magic, but for a long time, they only knew how to do so unconsciously. It was a silent force, shaping the world around them in subtle ways, and those who were blessed with overt power by their Lucky Stars were considered blessed by the lost gods. In time, centuries of science and research shed light on the true nature of magic, but even then, there were only theories on how to properly harness its potential.

It would not be until the birth of the three Mothers of Magic, Madamas Mystana, Silvana, and Laphoda, that there would be any meaningful breakthroughs.  Born under an especially powerful set of twin Lucky Stars, Mystana and Silvana had the abilities to manipulate Time and Space, respectively. Laphoda had no such power, but compensated easily with sheer intellect and a limitless curiousity.

Young Silvana could travel the world in the blink of an eye, becoming a polyglot and freely exchanging information between various schools of thought like never before, and Mystana used her ability to slow time to a crawl to observe and illustrate magical phenomena in new levels of detail. Laphoda was obsessed with magic's effects on the natural world, collecting materials of all sorts and experimenting with their reactions on one another. 

In time, they would all make their own major discoveries that would lead to the creation of the three branches. The more they used their powers, the more Silvana and Mystana became attuned to their own magic, which they discovered they could infuse into external concepts.

Silvana used her extensive knowledge of language to create abstract codes of spoken words that would become the branch of Spells, while Mystana would condense years of her cognizance into seconds in order to calculate and design highly intricate symbols that would become the branch of Charms.

Laphoda had already become a pioneer in the fields of chemistry and alchemy by this point, but studying the biological changes in her sisters opened a new path up to her. Over the course of several years, she would develop the Witch's Brew, a substance that could induce the same magical attunement they had experienced, and in turn, she too became able to infuse magic into her concoctions, creating the branch of Potions.

Witches

 Magic could now be intricately controlled through the added use of spoken word, detailed sigil, or chemical compound, widely known as "The Three Branches Of Magic". 

The Three Branches revolutionized the world, creating the Golden Era of magical discovery and development. The profession of "witch" was born, an individual who, though years of training and incremental exposure to Witch's Brew, could develop direct control over magic. The path to becoming a witch is a dangerous one, though, as improper use of magic can easily have fatal consequences. 

Even just the act of attuning oneself to magic through the Brew could cause one to lose their physical stability without the necessary preparation, in the same way that opening a floodgate too carelessly can cause disaster. In extreme failures, the body is consumed entirely by magic and evaporates in a burst of energy, a death that is fortunately no longer common, thanks to strict guidelines and supervision.

The more attuned to magic, though, the more directly a witch can control magic. At the standard baseline level of 5% attunement, an individual has to go through specially designed devices with particular magical batteries or pre-made charms to produce specific effects. At 15% attunement, they can subtly manipulate their own magic's wavelengths and infuse it directly into such devices, and at 30% attunement, they can use the Three Branches. 

At 40%, they can cast spells with fewer words, create charms with less specific designs, and develop more potent potions using smaller pools of materials.  There are many theories about the potential possibilities of witches at higher levels, but strict regulations prevent them from going above 45% attunement, for safety reasons. Many upstart witches claim to "know a guy" who got to 50-60%, with wild stories attached, but always suspiciously have no proof when further pressed.

Next week will be the History of the Ovis Kingdom, now currently known as the Fenneclands.