Learn more about sorcery

Sorcery is the act of channeling a mystical energy called the Pneuma, or Breath of Life - the invisible motile **** behind existence itself.

In theory, anyone can work magic, but in practice, only those whose souls sport a mystical structure called a Loom are any good with it.

You are born with a Loom - which enables you to weave Pneuma threads into Patterns - or spells. Weaving theoretically entails nothing more than an effort of sheer will, but doing so is so straining and dangerous that you have trained your Loom to respond to certain universal Synthematae, that is to say 'signifying symbols', like gestures, incantations, runes, etc. In practice they are essential to safe and efficient spellcasting.

Sorcery comprises several 'schools', or fields of study.

[Between brackets are indications regarding your current level of proficiency.]

Evocation creates energy and matter from nothing. It is the choice offensive magic, capable of calling down fireballs, lightning bolts and hailstorms as well as poisonous or corrosive, entropic energies. Creating true matter is beyond the skill of most sorcerers.

[With the help of your staff, you are quite capable of slaying a man within bow range. You did not bother training much with this vulgar field of study, and are unable to summon raw, stable matter.]

Illusion bends a being's perceptions, even going as far as to control emotions and impose servitude or rework memories or lock one's mind into a phantasmal world. It can also conjure real stimuli, manipulating light, sounds and odors into quasi-real (but insubstantial) illusions or make one invisible or disguised.

[This is your prime field of study, though you never dared use it on the Manor's handmaids, nevermind Mistress Leana herself.]

Alteration does not create or destroy matter, but it changes its properties. From waterbreathing to flying to shapeshifting to creating shields that harmlessly convert onslaughts into caresses, it is an exceedingly vast field.

[And it can be used to shapeshift only part of a person...]

Restoration manipulates a being's life ****, whether to reinforce (white magic) or impair it (black magic). Debilitating curses, fortifying blessings, fertility magic, healing spells, eternal youth, you name it. It is a difficult school to master, and it is easier to destroy or curse than to bless or heal.

[Very useful if one wants to ensure than a young lady gets or doesn't get knocked up - or if one wants to increase stamina.]

Conjuration deals with calling and binding outsiders to do your bidding, or sealing them into objects or sending them back. Demons, elementals, ghosts, there are myriad creatures to call to do your bidding.

[Mistress Leana was not too keen on teaching you this school, though she taught you banishments quite thoroughly, and you glimpsed a few simple summoning rituals. It wouldn't be fun if you could just summon a succubus to answer your every whim, now would it?]

Mysticism is an ill-defined school focused on the powers of the mind. From directly affecting others' magic and shielding from it to divination (scrying or mind reading or seeing through walls), from telekinesis to world-scale teleportation, from soul-trapping to bridging Restoration and Conjuration in order to resurrect the dead, it is difficult but rewarding.

[You were taught to defend yourself against spells, and put the scrying lessons to good use with some maiden... Telekinesis helped lifting some skirts too.]

Enchanting enables you to create magical items, which go from extremely sharp autonomous swords to invisibility rings. They require a source of power, whether a magic user wielding it, a bound outsider or the soul of a sentient being (the latter being considered black magic and illegal), and are quite expensive to make.

[You could create cheap single-use magical items if need be, or analyze most items you could find.]

Alchemy, beyond mere potion-brewing, enables you to store magical effects of other schools into edible substances to affect the imbiber. Less demanding than Enchanting, but not as potentially powerful.

[You are quite proficient in this field, and you can make a wide variety of draughts, if you can find the ingredients. Love (or rather lust) philters, potions of sleep, you name it.]