Ornate Cowfish or Ornate Boxfish (Aracana ornata), male, family Aracanidae, order Tetraodontiformes, off the Southern coast of Australia

"Oh and there he stood in the door of that shack

His beard and his hair was long and black

And he was the biggest man I'd ever seen"

A3 paper,black ink

I’ve been thinking quite a bit on the different schools of magic and my particular interest in conjuration. It’s interesting to me that I seem to possess a certain aptitude for fire and evocation in general, and yet chose a school that might take a bit more practice. I guess I’ve never been afraid of homework!  I’ve had the ability to produce flame for as long as I can remember, and I started copying my father’s spells as soon as I started to recognize symbols and words. When it came time to hone in on certain spells, I was given a choice to specialize in one of the many schools of wizardry that exist. It’s taken years of study to understand that this is necessary - each school is so vast it would be much less efficient to try to specialize in multiple schools at once.

Abjuration “Always wear protection.” My father has drilled the verbal and somatic components of the Mage Armor spell in my head so many times I could probably literally do it in my sleep. When encountering brand new creatures and observing their capabilities, any kind of abjuration spell is of the utmost importance. But I wasn’t particularly interested in this being my specialty. I’ve learned many abjuration spells in anticipation of dangerous encounters, but as for perusing an expertise, there seemed to be more interesting options.  

Divination Seeing into the future and eventually gaining a powerful third eye with which you can see through darkness, see into the Ethereal Plane, or read any language? I might’ve actually picked this school if it weren’t for the band of caravan travelers who set up in Axbright for a tenday. They were all so cool. And beautiful. My dad brought me to one of their shows, and I was totally enraptured. I dragged dad to the front row to see the performers up close, and a woman with golden skin like mine took my breath away. She had wild curly dark hair, colorful necklaces and bracelets made of gemstones and seashells, and danced on bare feet. At one point during the show, she bent down and locked eyes with me. Her light seafoam green eyes seemed to pierce through me and see everything, sending a jolt of electricity from my temple to my toes. Dad told me the travelers were known Diviners and can feel a bit supernatural to small-town folk. I’ve always felt like a bit of a fraud attempting divination magic when I know someone like her and her companions are out there, laying out glittering cards and animal bones, reading the future. It sounds a bit stupid writing it out now, years later, but it’s true.

Enchantment I’ve always been greatly amused by enchantment, but something about delving into one’s mind and seeing what’s there has always made me very uncomfortable. I don’t like the feeling of someone rooting around my head. I feel like it’s not quite playing fair. I know it can be used to stop violence and it’s necessary to beat foes whose mind might be their only weakness, but if no one possessed the ability to force someone to do something against their will, I think the world would be a better place for it. I think Lily is just about the only person I would ever fully trust with Enchantment mastery. Evocation Evocation is what comes to me most naturally. Elemental spells make the most sense to me, and what comes the most easily to me is fire. But what’s interesting to me is that I was born with the ability to conjure fire. I’m still figuring out the difference between conjuring a flaming sphere and evoking a fireball. What is the real difference? Why is my flaming sphere a creation of energy, and my fireball not? Does my fireball come from existing energy that I’m able to harness and wrap up into a weapon? Why is it not the same for a flaming sphere? In the end, evocation calls to me, but focusing my energy on learning how to control my fire spells with more accuracy is less important to me than learning how to conjure that elemental fire in the first place. I’ll have to revisit this thought later when I’ve learned more about arcana. Illusion The ability to create a non-harmful spell effect to provoke or subdue a creature has always of been great fascination to me. And of course, Invisibility is an imperative common spell for anyone who dares tread in dangerous territory. For me, the school of illusion has always been more entertaining than pragmatic. Minor illusion can be useful because my conjured objects always emit an arcane glow (still workshopping that), but ultimately the idea of creating a real tangible object is more enticing to me. I’ve always thought the ability to disguise oneself without transmutation is incredibly exciting, but sadly I lack the... ahem... charisma to complete that spell’s transformation.  Necromancy Necromancy is the school of magic I know least about because my dad found it to be the least useful. Manipulating life force went against his primary goal of preserving and observing life. “What happens to a body once its life force has left is not a mystery,” he said. “It begins to rot and is no longer a home to the creature’s spirit. The body is not sacred and should be used to further our understanding of the scientific uses of its various parts. Inhibiting or draining one’s life force is supremely unfair to the natural cycle of a creature’s existence.” I’ve always wondered what could be observed from a creature if it were to be raised from the dead, but never had the opportunity. I don’t get squeamish, but I have to agree with my father that it’s a very macabre school of study. Using blood and corpse bits is entirely unappetizing. But, I suppose this might be one area in which I could surpass my father’s knowledge... 

Transmutation Ah, transmutation might be my second favorite school of magic. Perhaps tied with Evocation? The usage of transmutation magic is endless! I can weld things together, instantly snuff out a candle or turn it into fireworks, clean spilled ink upon a page; change the physical properties of myself so I fall less quickly, see in the dark, fight like a dinosaur; I can even change the weather! The combination of conjuration and transmutation is intoxicating and I hope to put it to great use!