Elementalism

Many a combat mage would love to have the powers elementalists took for granted, but it seems now one must be born with such abilities.

— On the History of Magic, page 362

Elementalism is an archaic system of classifying magic under one of the four alchemical elements: aurico (air magic), aquico (water magic), terrico (earth magic) and ignico (fire magic), rather than the modern eight schools of magic. While this seems like it should be a matter of semantics, there are powers that were considered common to elemental magi that are now very rare, often only manifested by those with a natural gift for magic rather than being learned through intensive study. This paradigm was gradually supplanted roughly 800 years ago, with magic now being classified by its effects (such as protection or direct manipulation of energy) rather than which elemental force it taps into.

Specializations

Magi typically specialized in only one of the four elements, gaining certain abilities. For example, Auricors were often called upon to cast spells at a distance, hurling lightning into enemy armies as they formed up. Aquicors were noted for their finesse, allowing them to effect the body and mind with ease, even providing arcane healing that is now considered almost exclusively a manifestation of divine power. Terricors were known for their raw power, permanently changing the landscape wherever they fought. Ignicors could channel fire in specific directions with remarkable precision, able to lay waste to a group surrounding a lone warrior but leaving the warrior unharmed. Ignicors are also particularly noted for their work with Flashpowder, conducting grand displays of fireworks across the night sky.

Classification of Magic

All four elements had forms of evocation - raw manifestations of elemental power - wind or lightning for air, shifting earth and thrown rocks for earth, and so on. Illusory images conjured of smoke were ignico, but illusory visions were aquico, as were most magics effecting the mind and body. Many transmutation effects were aurico, but those effecting nature were terrico, as were protective magics.

The seeds of the shift in tradition were sewn in the aftermath of the fall of the Asurian Empire, as many northern regions opted to reject traditions associated with the empire and the dark magics that led to its destruction. This allowed arcanists room to re-examine their fundamental assumptions about the nature of magic, and while many of the simpler forms of magic fit neatly into the elemental system, they realized that many of the more complex magics developed by more recent magi didn't really fit the paradigm neatly: is an illusory vision that causes disorientation ignico because it's an illusory vision, or aquico because it effects the mind?

Debates over this eventually led to the 8 modern schools of magic based on their effects: Evocation for manipulation of magical energy, Enchantment for spells that effect the mind, Illusion for spells that decieve the target, Abjuration for protection magic, Transmutation for spells that alter the targets state of being, Conjuration for spells of summoning, Divination for spells of magical knowledge, and Necromancy for spells that alter the body. At first, this included magics that healed and transformed the body as well as death magic, but over time, spells that transform the living body were shifted to transmutation, and healing came to be seen as a direct manifestation of divine magic and thus now being considered evocation, leaving only death magic considered necromancy.