Abilities, or Arts, in The Ironwood Staff

If you're interested in some background to the magical system of The Ironwood Staff world, please see my blog post, Magical Systems and the Problem of Evil,

Artistic:

Musical imaging

Lifelike images

Musical dance

Magical light

Oration

Arcane writing

Hidden calligraphy

Combat arts
Craft Augmentation

 

Healing

Inanimate lift

Inanimate reflex

Space-folding

Divination (water/metals)

 

Animal sympathy

Plant sympathy

Augmentation of life

 

Prophecy

Discernment

 

All eladi have at least one ability, at worst incompletely developed. Araneladi are proportionally less likely to have them. Full-blooded men have only a 1 in 7 chance of being born with any Ability, but their dissatisfaction and restlessness leads them to desire more once they have it, leading them into dark paths. For this reason, human magi trained by eladi are not permitted to have students of their own - the weakness of human nature is too risky. All training in these art forms is done by eladon masters. Natural Abilities are all heritable, with the children of two magi getting gifts from both parents.

Discernment (first stage) – less than a month, where you find what you’re capable of under a master who can draw it out of you.

Disciple (second stage) – ideally, 40 months. The candidate becomes the servant of a master chosen for him by the one who found him. Ideally, someone related or at least of the same ethnic or linguistic background. They are given books to read, essays to write, and consultations with masters of the arts they are to train in. The candidate gets New Moons (three nights on either side of a new moon) off, where they are released to their families or set at large. 

Initiate (third stage) – as long as necessary. The candidate goes to live with the Master of an art they are to learn. They have regular meditation, daily practice, and weekly tutorials or consultations with the Master to ask any questions that come up. If the candidate is gifted in multiple arts, they stay with the master of their chosen discipline, but take a month at a time with the master of any others they may be studying.

Once the Initiate shows sufficient mastery of self and of their art, they are tested in it by a group of three masters. No-one takes the test without having a good chance of passing, and nearly all who take it, do. They are then granted the rank of Magus, and entitled to carry an ironwood staff as a badge of office (which also doubles as a weapon).