Magic Users

All groups operate under the same magic system. The world prefers lower-energy states and will reshape itself to avoid costly corrections. What separates the groups is how they engage with that principle.

Wizards

Wizards negotiate directly with reality. They credibly threaten to cause more discontinuity than the world wants to deal with, and the world yields to avoid the expense.

This requires real stockpiles. A wizard’s threat is only credible if they genuinely possess enough magic to follow through. A wizard who cannot back their demands gets nothing. Hoarding magic is therefore the central strategic concern: the more a wizard holds, the larger the demands they can make, and the less they actually need to spend because the world recognizes the threat as genuine.

Wizards are rare, mostly solitary or in small groups, and broadly uninterested in the affairs of ordinary people outside of commerce.

Religious People

Religious magic is the world maintaining something because it always has. A practice or rite has been done a certain way for generations; for it to stop working would be shocking — shock causes change, and change is expensive. So the world keeps the status quo. Religious acts of magic do not inherently require a relic. Relics are nevertheless useful: they focus the rite, making miracles easier to achieve than rites performed without one.

Tradition and adherence matter. The teachings stress adherence to rules, the dangers of morally suspect exploration, the temptation to reach beyond what the rites permit. Deviate from the established rites and the miracle may not come about. The practitioners believe the constraints are sacred; in practice, it is strong belief among the masses that keeps the pattern stable enough for the world to maintain it.

Multiple religions exist with mildly different teachings. All non-insignificant faiths have true relics and perform miracles — visible, undeniable acts that draw in followers and hold them. Religious people across different faiths have more in common with each other than any of them have with sorcerers. They see their differences, learn from each other within the limits their teachings allow.

Most priests are intelligent, warm, and welcoming — also stubborn in their ways and keen on sharing them. They carry high social standing: counsellors, authority figures, healers.

Sorcerers

Sorcerers use replica relics — copies of true relics that carry no inherent magic. A replica works because a wizard once established a standing agreement with the world for that relic, and the world continues to honour it. The sorcerer does not negotiate with the world or have magic of their own. Casting is a physical act: codified motions performed with the replica, paid for in muscular effort rather than magic. For the full mechanics — resistance, failure, technique — see sorcerer casting.

A replica is inert in a stranger’s hands. It only functions when held by someone the world recognizes as a sorcerer. That recognition comes from training — years of drilling form and accumulating personal history until the world’s pattern-matching treats the individual as genuine. Recognition is not tied to one relic, but each must be learned separately.

Spiritual People

Spiritual practitioners draw on old and obscure relics that carry genuine stored magic — most commonly artifacts from the Olden World or otherwise filled with magic. Their power comes from the magic within the objects themselves, not from tradition or organizational backing or direct confrontation with the world. They also rely on rituals, though to a lesser extent than religious practitioners.

This makes them distinct from religious practitioners: a spiritual figure’s relic doesn’t need believers or institutions to function. It works because there is real magic inside it. But such relics are rare, finite, and not replenishable by any means the spiritual practitioners command. The relics themselves and the actions required to wield them may be obtuse — unlike replica relics, they were not designed for clear, human use, and their purposes and triggers are often obscure.

Wizards in Religious Circles

A priest who becomes a wizard — through whatever circumstance — learns that the teachings are completely false. The reasons the teachings give — divine mandate, sacred law — are wrong. The sacred laws are patterns the world maintains out of habit, nothing more. Yet the end product remains correct. The miracles work. The rites deliver. The teachings are wrong about why, but right about what.

Their belief does not disappear; it shifts. They no longer believe in the dogma itself, but they believe in the dogma’s function — and that conviction drives them to uphold it. They enforce strict adherence to rites because the collective belief of the faithful is what makes the miracles free. If belief falters, the world stops maintaining the pattern. A wizard-priest becomes the strictest enforcer of dogma not out of piety, but because the pattern only works while the masses hold it.

Meanwhile their personal stockpile goes untouched. They never spend their own magic on anything the rites can accomplish. More often than not, wizard-priests hold smaller pools of magic than dedicated wizards who live where magic is more easily accessible. When they do need to draw on personal power, they may turn to true relics or artifacts rather than a deep stockpile — and they are keenly aware of the dangers of breaking an artifact the congregation expects to work.

Revealing their nature as a wizard would invite accusation and exile. They would see their priest doesn’t practice what they preech.