Ah, magic. The limitless potential of bending reality itself to your whim through raw thought and will. Yet, no matter how far we delve into the depths of its secrets there seems to only ever be more questions. Even the fabled Firstborn never managed to crack all of its secrets, an infinite puzzle granted to us by The Creator, if you will. I never tire of its riddles and mysteries.
— Archmage Zeldric Romun
Aura Pathways
A term used in many areas of the world is "Aura" or "Jing" pathways depending on the culture one resides in. This term refers to the flow of one's natural energy inside their body. This energy then traverses through the body based on your physical habits, forming a pathway that follows what muscles and nerves are used for each action as a form of muscle memory.
The soldier who swings his blade in the same motions a hundred times a day will develop aura pathways through their arms and shoulders. The mail carrier in town will develop aura pathways through their back and legs as they run the same route every day. Almost everyone in the world has aura pathways that have developed on some level, but simply developing them isn’t enough to do more than perform slightly better than an average humanoid.
When one begins to push their physical body to the limit repeatedly through harsh physical training, pushing as many areas of the body as possible through awkward exercises that strain normally unused muscles, aura pathways begin to expand, reinforce, and more importantly: intersect.
As these pathways intersect inside the body the amount of energy built up is increased, and individuals begin to perform superhuman feats. Their health, focus, balance, reactions, strength, and more all increase as their pathways more efficiently transfer this energy through the body. Eventually, if enough of these pathways intersect, it will form a "Cluster Point" in the lower abdomen where all the pathways of a humanoid body meet. This is the point where even the most trained soldiers and experienced mercenaries tend to reach their inner limits.
Mana Core
If a person reaches the “Cluster Point” and is placed in a situation of extreme duress, they will experience what is known as an “Aura Surge”. This surge damages their internals, flooding the body with more energy than they can withstand in something akin to an energy-based adrenaline rush. About 50% of these individuals die instantly, with another 30% surviving but suffering permanent internal damage to their Aura Pathways. However, the remaining 20% survive, and gain a temporary increase in power before then collapsing from exhaustion and pain.
Once they have recovered, they have managed to form what is colloquially referred to as a “Mana Core”, a compressed vague orb of energy connected to all the pathways akin to veins to a heart. This breakthrough multiplies their aura pathways strength and energy as the mana core acts as a literal “heart” pumping one's energy more efficiently through the body, while acting as an extra storage for the same aura as well.
A Mana Core can be further improved as can one's Aura Pathways from this point, the sudden Aura Surge that created it will cause the core to be filled with impurities, internal toxins of the body, scar tissue on muscle, nerve, and organs. Careful meditation is required to control the internal flow of one's aura, expelling these impurities and mending internal damage over many years. The stages of a core are measured based on its color when seen in the Aether.
Dark red is considered the weakest and most unstable, and as the color lightens and shifts its state improves. Red into pinks and oranges, before shifting into greys, then off-whites and silvers, before reaching the pinnacle state known as “Pure Core” holding absolute white energy and hue. The purer ones Mana Core and the stronger ones Aura Pathways, the longer and more healthily the user will live, with some legendary heroes of humanity defying their genetics to live over six-thousand years on record.
Born into Power
In some rare cases within those holding the genetics of the legendary races such as Fae and their kin, an individual may be born with a Mana Core acting as a second heart from birth. These individuals will experience explosive physical growth, Aura Pathways will develop quickly and efficiently for them, and magic is sure to follow. The amount of individuals worldwide that have such phenomena is well under one in billions.
Rapid Manifestation
For some individuals, the time, effort, and dedication required to naturally form a Mana Core is too much effort, or going to take them too long to manage safely. For others, they have reached their physical limit and no matter what situation they are put in, are unable to cause an Aura Surge to occur. This has led to many throughout history to attempt to force the issue instead.
Through many methods using alchemy, forced mana injections, rare magical and toxic reagents being eaten, blood arts, and other forbidden methods to trigger this Aura Surge manually. Such actions are excruciating and have been described as the sensation of having acid, or lava, injected into the body. The further along one's aura pathways have developed, the less painful it is, and the greater chance one has of surviving the experience.
Most that choose this route die painfully, and slowly, midway through the forced manifestation. The rare few that manage to survive the experience will find purifying their Mana Cores incredibly difficult in comparison to one naturally formed.
Shattering
When a Core Holder pushes their aura pathways too far, or when some powerful spells or abilities internally strike them to directly damage one's Aura Pathways, a Core can theoretically be cracked or damaged. This is an excruciating sensation akin to a ruptured organ and holds the side effects comparable to internal bleeding as one's aura begins to forcibly leak out of their body. Despite this traumatic event, such can still be healed with time and rest.
The shattering of one's Mana Core, however, is an incredibly traumatic event that generally leads to instant death, but the few that manage to survive the experience will find their ability to use aura and mana forever hampered. Those that have recovered from such an event back to full function are in the lowest percentile, let alone the fewer still that managed to slowly heal, and re-build their broken cores, less than a percentile of the even fewer survivors have managed such a feat.
Natural Magic
Though Aura can be found in practically any living creature in the world, and a Mana Core can theoretically be developed in any Aura user, Natural Magic is something that requires more than either of these. In order to awaken one's innate ability to cast, they must hold unusual genetics tracing back to a legendary race, a freak magical accident, being guided by another Natural Magic user as they inject their mana into you, the ingestion of potent magical reagents, or perhaps survive the deadly side effects of the taint. One in millions are born innately with the ability to utilize Natural Magic without external assistance or interference.
Natural Magic is the most instinctual form of mystic art in Xardia. A form of magic that is controlled through nothing but mental focus, willpower, and imagination. At its root, Natural Magic is the art of transferring aura from within the body, and expelling it outside of the body. This causes an instant reaction, akin to a chemical reaction but magical in nature. As the aura interacts with the Material Plane and multiplies the energy in magnitudes. Natural Magic is then managing to tame this explosive energy in that split second, and form it utilizing the imagery of your mind, and focus of your thoughts.
Its fuel is one's own internal physical stamina drained from their aura pathways, and as such using it requires extensive physical conditioning in order to not simply pass out from utilizing a single spell. For instance, if a user wished to cast a spell that would cause a nearby boulder to lift up and throw it at someone, it would likely cause an amateur mage to pass out on their feet from the sudden loss of energy.
This can be trained as with all things, the greater one's control over their internal aura the less energy they will expend casting a spell. As one's physical conditioning and aura pathways improve, their energy acting as that fuel will as well. Finally, the more one turns their aura into mana and controls that energy outside their body, the more refined and powerful their spellcasting can become as they learn to augment the clash of aura and reality’s magical reaction.
Dark Flash
A dark flash is a term coined for the moment when an individual enters a state of absolute focus or Zen in the midst of their energy manipulation, it is a rare phenomenon that effectively allows an individual to temporarily weaken the planar bounds separating the Material Plane, from the Ethereal Plane. This results in a flash of pitch-black energy around them as the Aether manifests. Their mana suddenly magnifies for a single instant, often doubling, or tripling in power for a few split seconds, for better or worse.
After an individual has experienced this effect, they suffer an intense headache and severe fatigue for the next day as their bodies have been forced to absorb the pure energy of the Aether. This results in their own abilities greatly increasing. Usually increasing the raw size of, or manifesting a Mana Core, while permanently enhancing their Natural Magic and Aura with energy from the Aether, effectively adding the power of Primordial Magic to their physical feats.