Magic is real…
It had been for a long time, since what people called ‘The Great Revelation’, when magic use became public knowledge.
The secret was now revealed and could not be contained. A secret aspect of the world where people- Wizards and Witches had been working through the ages, tending or influencing the world with arcane abilities. Secret organisations that were long thought to be rumour had become an actual fact of life for the ‘normal’ population.
There was initial outrage, uproar, suspicion and even revolution in various countries following this realisation and how much influence they actually had though this quickly died down. Most countries welcomed the opportunities that knowledge of magic could bring to them.
It appeared that Humans were able to use this power for varying effects influencing the way technology grew. Magical clothes and accessories became somewhat more common for a small group keen on accessing their abilities. (The M-phone being quite popular.)
Naturally humans experimented to try and access this power.
Regrettably there was a biological aspect to magic. Certain families apparently had more power than others just by virtue of inherited ability. Perhaps one of the reasons magic was kept a secret. There was a ‘slight’ biased towards females having more innate magical power, though males tended to find ways to catch up by learning on ‘focusing’ abilities, much like a magnifying glass with their mana abilities like a lens. As a result, girls tended to do better with ‘general effect’ magics, while males tended to focus on more contained spells in the early phase of their training. After several years though the differences would even out.
There were certain limits, for mage and non-mage alike.
Magic with limits seemed to be a contradiction however so people tried to go past them and quickly found ways to do so. The limit ‘could’ be broken by various means such as using magical items, or at the worst using ones own life force or even the life of others. (Life force augmentation quickly became illegal and high powered magical items treated as firearms.) Those who had the natural gift lost neither life nor needed a magical focus and were quickly enrolled into schools of magic.
The accredited schools of magic trained magic users on how to use their powers responsibly. It was a nuanced approach, to provide a license to use their abilities now that magic was known in close liaison with various governing bodies. Mostly the school would teach how to use magic but also evaluate students psychologically, to make sure they were not likely to abuse the knowledge given. It also gave a very strong emphasis on using magic to help improve the world, often by the lightest touch possible. Bullying or harassment was practically unheard of, as any student doing such a thing would lose out on one of the greatest roles they could have.
Everyone wanted to be in such magical schools… to live out their fantasy, their dream… Everyone wanted to be a mage. Not everyone could though, usually through no fault of their own. They simply didn’t have the gift.
Though people of ambition rarely gave up. New ideas were made… new schools that had nothing to do with the original mages. Made by people that sought power and knowledge. Twisted mirror reflections of fantasies born of a simple wish to be what they could not be.
They were ‘Un-affiliated’ ‘un-credited’ schools… officially considered ‘research’ institutions if asked legally or even simple clubs within a normal school, often working in secret. They took in people who wanted to learn magic but lacked the natural ability. Such places were not in the strictest sense ‘legal’ as a place of learning and there would not be any magical license at the end... worse if they were caught ‘using’ magic they faced potential prosecution if not by their own people by the Court of Mages themselves.
Such people with raw ambition could become very dangerous to those around them and themselves and allowing them to continue would set a dangerous precedent.
Such institutions when caught were often shut down quickly but some survive in the underground, taking books or research items from the accredited schools and learning all they could without an expert or approval. Accidents were frequent and often considered a ‘side effect’ of research… of course nobody could admit to going to such a place, so cover-ups were frequent.
Still the desire to learn magic persisted… even in those who had no natural skill…
