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SO. MAGIC. I HERD YOU LEIK IT.

So I'm going to show you my blatantly ripped off of FE magic system.

FIRST! The divisions.

Magic is divided in Anima, Light, and Dark magic, depending on the source.

Anima is derived from the surrouding world. Most spells of this type are what one thinks of with magic: fireballs, lightning, freezing someone, drowning in them in their own bodily fluids...

Users: Anyone can use this type, and it only requires study and the ability to control the amount of magical energy you absorb from your surroundings. Not much to it; the other types are more interesting.

Light magic is derived from the gods. It is not "good" magic, as most gods are willing to lend their power to their most devoted followers, including "evil" gods. It's just called light magic because it's sparkly. The only exceptions are Asp/Jotun, who is reluctant to give anyone an advantage over him, and The Destroyer, who has different requirements for energy control, and anyone who expects those requirements to be the same as other gods turns into a lightbulb filament before turning into an ash pile. S/he has problems with not spontaneously combusting hirself, what did you expect would happen to you?!

Users: Priests, usually. Some gods are more generous, and anyone willing to fight to the death for them gets a power boost at the very least, but most aren't willing to risk death by being drained of all power.

Dark magic is derived from the self. Very few are able to use it, as it is an inborn ability, and those that have it tend to go insane from being severe flucuations in personal energy. It is further divided into subcatagories:

Summoning and Channeling both involve calling on the power of other beings. Summoning brings other creatures under your control if you have the willpower to control them, and channeling calls spirits and gods into your body. They tend to have longer potential lifespans then non-dark magic users of the same species, but they tend to die younger, usually due to going mad or getting killed by what they called on. Sometimes they are simply so drained they die of exhaustion, but this is rare, and they are usually devoured or left an empty shell. They have a lower madness rate then other dark magic users.

Prophecy is, obviously, telling the future. They have a very, very high insanity rate, due to rarely having a "stability focus" (elaborated n later) and coming into contact with the Destroyer constantly--without that contact, however, they wouldn't be prophets, and the Destroyer does this unconsiously.

Necromancy is raising the dead. Purposes vary, but it is usually for solving murder cases and things like that. For the mad, it tends to involve zombie armies and trying to revive their stability focus, as they tend to have living ones. They can create both revenants (undead with wills of their own, and minor nerve damage due to being, yanno, dead.) and zombies (self explanitory).

True Dark Magic is rare. Most Dark magic users peak before the age of ten, after which they decline or die from something they did. THey tend to be the result of breeding programs, whether ongoing or stopped due to the maker's boredom, Destroyer. Their powers tend to involves shiny instant runes appearing around them, although the effects of the spell tend to resemble anima magic, except for the most powerful spells, which tend to effect the target's life force directly.

A Stability Focus is anything a dark magic user is completely obsessed with. Anything. Gathering knowledge, playing video games, reading, mad science, their friends, family, and mates... Anything. They use this to maintain their sanity and mental stability, hence the term. This is what makes them so notoriously unstable--many focus on living creatures, and when that creature dies, they snap. Usually in an extremely destructive manner.

Users: Tori-Ryuu for true dark magic, due to both their multiple severe population bottlenecks and an extensive breeding program very early in the species's history. Other then that, any species is fair game--the genes involved are all recessive, and may not appear in the right combination for generations, even with breeding programs.

Well, hir primary symbol is the pheonix... rofl But really, more gods need to spontaneously combust. You get amusing situations when the ashes are blown into oceans. "OH DEAR GOD DEEP WATER AAAAAHHHH I CAN'T SWIM HEEEEELLLLP MEEEEEEEE!!! gonk *flail*" ...Yeah, the Destroyer is fail-tastic. sweatdrop S/he does do a good job killing things, though, even excluding the "FOR SCIENCE!" tendencies. I love hir, s/he's fun to write. xd