True Magic

Energies follow patterns and levels...
~The Earth energies-
are the very energies that supply the Earth with life. These are very primitive, but sometimes primitive magics are the strongest and hardest to control.
~Magic "flows" in river-like sequences known as Leylines.
~Wherever one or more leylines meet and/or cross are the places known as nodes. These resemble "buldges" among the lines and can hold much more magic energy than the lines themselves can.
~The Tayledras were granted, by their Goddess, a way to store tremendous amounts of energy so that they can cleanse the lands and supply energy to their Vales. These are known as HeartStones. These are basically really big nodes; But unlike nodes, which have leylines feeding and leaving it, HeartStones only have leylines feeding into it. The only way for power to get out is if a Mage were to take it out.

1. First source of power is from within the Mage himself. ~You have to have the Talent to use that source. That means that they have to use their minds to find the power within; The people who have mastered this are the Heralds with their mind magics.
2. The Second power is created by living things. ~One has to have the Talent to sense the power, but you don't have to have the Talent to use it just so long as you know it's there. Many Sorcerers who do not have the Talent to use it turn to the dark blood-path magics so that they can gain access to the powers they would normally not be able to. Death releases alot of energy in one burst. So the blood-path mage will know the power will be there when he kills someone.
3. The Third power comes from creatures who are not of this world, or this Plane. These powerful creatures belong to what mages call the Other PLanes:

Planes 1-4
The first Four planes are home to the Four Elemental powers; Earth, Air, Fire and Water. These four planes are known as the Ethereal Planes

Plane 5
The Fifth Plane is known as the Abyssal Plane. This plane holds the evil, power-hungry creatures that humans call demons.

Plane 6
This Plane is known as the Empyreal Plane. This is home to the powerful creatures that aren't quite Gods, but do seem kindly inclined towards humans. ~ Some say this Plane houses the Gods but according to page 26 of OathBound, Kethry states that these creatures aren't quite Gods.

The Nether Planes
Also called the Void. This is the Plane where all of the natural magical energies end up; Here, everything is chaos and energy. It is from this Plane that the flow of energy repeats its cycle by channeling back into the World Plane to be used by living things. This is also the place where Ma'ar (and his many incarnations) hid throughout the centuries to await their next victim and potential body. This is also the place between the Gates used by Mages. By using personal energies, a mage can cross vast distances to their objective locations by simply stepping across a threshold or a doorway. Like two far away points on a map, the mage "folds" the map by sending energies out into the void to reach the other point, and steps across to it...weird huh?

The World Plane
This is the Plane we, humans, live in. This is where the choas and energies from the Nether Planes gets regenerated into magical energies to be used by living things.

~There are probably many more Planes and Planar creatures than this, but the humans of Velgarth have yet to descover them.

~The Elements of the Ethereal Planes can be bargained with or you can promise them something in return for their services. You can also build up credit with them so they'll feel obliged to help you. They can be coerced or magically binded into this world and then forced to serve you, but that's mean. There are advantages and disadvantages to not coercing these creatures; advantage: The sorcerer need not guard himself from the anger and treacheries these creatures would have if they were coerced; disadvantage: It takes awhile,and a lot of power, to summon and attract these creatures if you are not forcing them, this costs the mage dearly in personal energies.

~ The Abyssal Demons can be bought to your services with pain-energy and death-energy. This is the course for the blood-path mage. These can also be coerced but the will of the mage MUST be stronger than the will of the demon, for these creatures are cunning and deceptive. One mistake and they will kill you...slowly. The only way a mage could bind them magically is to hold the demons into this world against their will.

~The Empyreal Powers can not be coerced or forced in any way. They'll only respond to your call of help if they feel like it.

Hedge-Wizard & Weather Witches
These sense the energies of the earth around them. They can predict the Weather and can even use their own energies to change it if need be.

JourneyMan
These are Mages that can only tap ino their own personal energies for power. Unless they are BloodPath Mages...evil.

Master
These Mages can tap into the leylines to help supply themselves with power so they don't have to use up their own strength.

Adept
These are the hightest-ranking Mages, for only these can control the wild node powers. These are very powerful mages.

Healing Adept These mages can Heal the environment and tend to be the most powerful among the rest, though very rare. They are still considered a class of Adept, however.

Blood-Path Mages
These are evil Mages who hunger for Power. They take the energies from other people while they slowly kill them. The more painful the death, the more power that mage has to control. I believe that JourneMan Mages can do this but I'm not sure.

~Heralds have mastered the MindMagic abilities, though they each only have their own special Gifts. Heralds are also not the only ones to have such Gifts, they're just the most experienced with them.

~Animal MindSpeech
This Gift enables the person to talk to animals.
Though many (but not all) Heralds can "speak" with their Companions.

~Empathy
This Gift enables the person to sense other people emotions. If the Gift is powerful enough it can make the other person feel these emotions, though that is against the other's free will. This Gift is common amongst Healers and rare among Heralds. Herald Talia has a very strong Empathy Gift...she could kill someone or make them crazed in seconds.

~FarSight
This Gift is very useful. The person with this Gift can use their mind to "see" great distances. These people work well with Fetchers.

~Fetching
If this person can concentrate enough, and if they have a mental image of the object in their minds, they can make that object come to them. One second it's in one place, the next, it's in their hands.

~FireStarting
This Gift is also very rare. Most FireStarting capabilities come in the form of True Magic that Mages use. This person can make things start on Fire, very dangerous to control.

~ForeSight
This is a strange Gift that enables the person to "predict" the future. They cannot see exact futures because the future is always changing. They sometimes only get feelings that something is coming.

~MindSpeech
This enables the person to communicate with others mind-to-mind. Very useful. If you are a Herald you can also use this to "talk" with your Companion. There are also Two other aspects of this Gift. One is Thought-Sensing the other is Projecting. Thought-Sensing can enable the person to sense what another is thinking. They cannot read minds but they can delve into memories if the person is willing. Projecting is the ability to make people sense what you want them to.

Healers
can use True Magic as well as Mind Magic to Heal. These People cannot Heal the mind, only the body. They use Mage Sight and othertalents to "see" an injury, then they urge the injured person's body into healing itself faster than it normally can. They cannot heal scar-tissue but can, if caught right away, prevent that from happening. People with the Healing Gift are not normally Chosen because they are needed elsewhere.

Mind Healers
This is a special type of Healing that cannot heal the physical body, only the mind. I do not know exactly how it works.

Bardic
These are people with an extraordinary talent with music. They are said to be able to change a person's emotions by playing and weaving their songs. People with the Bardic Gift are not normally Chosen by Companions.

The Truth Spell
All Heralds can conjure the Truth Spell, which is said to be True Magic even though the Heralds did not have True Magic for a very long time. They may have been able to acheive this due to Vanyel's (the last Herald-Mage) tampering with the vrondi, Air Elemental creatures that resemble clouds with eyes when evoked. Even Heralds without MindSpeech Gifts can acheive the first part of the spell, that is because every Herald has an unnamed Gift that makes the herald-companion bond possible.

~The first level
enables everyone watching to see if the person under the spell is telling the truth. If they are not, the blue "cloud" (vrondi) goes away
~The Second Level
Can only be achieved by Heralds with a strong Gift. The appearance of the cloud does not change but this spell forces the person to tell the truth, no matter how hard he/she tries not to.

~How to set the Truth Spell
1.Relax and concentrate
2.Close eyes
3.say a chant- exactly nine times
4. Open eyes and stare at target
5.Imagine a cloud with lots of little eyes around the target
~Then physically, this blue fog will appear around the head of the person under the spell, anyone can see it.
~To disperse the Spell
1. Imagine the cloud closing its eyes
2. Picture the cloud slowly dissipating