Magic & Ysse

"This thesis will demonstrate that the Abyss' power does not come from the Gods - Rather, it comes from the natural phenonenon known as Ysse: the particles of life whose movement governs our magic, physics, and biology."

- Heiderlone's Study of the Abyss

Once you can see magic, it is easy to weave it but you must give up one of your eyes to do it.

Magic is often associated with snow, crystals, and ice -- particularly the Yuletide.

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In order to become a magician, you must be born without an eye or drop one of your eyes into the Ysse. Ysse Springs can be found throughout the world and crop up in wintertime and vanish in the summer -- except for the largest ones. Ysse Springs are holes in the world that lead into a dark, endless abyss below. The dead are dropped into the Abyss -- especially the eyes are considered to be the containers of the soul. According to the Saegen, Asarlai is the God of Death and Magic and he rules the Endless Ysse of the underworld. In the south, Eris is the embodiment of the Abyss. Dropping your eye down there allows you to see the underlying magic of the world.

Initiation

While many different things have been tried throughout history -- from stabbing out eyes to stabbing eyes with ice to stabbing eyes or crystales -- there is now a relatively well-known ritual for creating mages that is used cross-culturally. While it is more or less ceremonial or elaborate in some places than others, the basic premise remains the same:

Go to an Ysse Spring and acquire of chunk of the ice or crystal there.
Carve out your eye with it.
Drop your eye into the chasm below.
Everything will now be blindingly white, like snow, as well as very cold.

When your eye begins to heal, you will be able to see magic.There have been many attempts to find alternatives to removing one's eye. Magical lenses, magic potions, and ice sprinkled into eyes are all common, but none of them work reliably or manage to avoid having horrid consequences.

Spellcasting

Before casting a spell, locate the magic you want to affect. It will likely appear as thousands of tiny little glowing dust particles of white, but it'll also reflect the color of whatever is the source of it.

Certain movements, gestures, and symbols can generate butterfly-effects that will create the results you desire. With the ability to see magic, it is much more likely that you will be able to create the butterfly effect you desire.

A spell requires two things to work:

The "Perfect Storm": The ability to make dust collide in a very precise manner to create the intended effect.
Equivalent Energy: The law of conservation of energy is still in effect. In order to create a big effect, you will need a lot of energy (though, when implemented effectively, it will not be THAT much energy in comparison to the total output of energy in the system).

A normal person can still accidentally trigger these effects but usually magic requires a precision and energy that a normal person couldn't possibly muster without specific.

Magical items with pathways for magic to flow through are generally more reliable than a mage just casting a spell, but items are ridiculously difficult to craft and therefore are pricier.

No one has figured out how to create something else that will craft a magic item reliably, so magic item creation generally remains an artisan's work -- even as automation and assembly lines begin to industrialize the rest of the world.

There is, indeed, a bit of a cultural rift between those who craft magic items (artificers/menders) and those who just cast spells (magi/mages/sages). Most languages have words to differentiate between the two.

Mages who expend too much of their own magic in casting a spell will begin to overheat and potentially even die of fevers. Staying cool is to a mage's advantage, but there is a risk in "overgiving" -- Excessive magic use can kill you or drive you insane.