Rivers suffuse the landscape. They flow from the mountains into the hills, from the hills into the plains. They pool into lakes - great and small - and flow from them towards the coasts. Across the rivers there lies baronies, homesteads, keeps, outposts and wilderness. Everywhere there is people and everywhere there is people there is strife. Monsters and beasts lurk in the wilderness, treasure glimmers in the hidden corners of the world. There is fortune to be won. Glory and gold... or death.
Rivers of glorious fortune is intended as a setting for fantasy roleplaying. However currently it only features an initial draft of a magic system.
Magic is the craft of forming mana - the force of creation - into patterns that affects the world. It is a meld of the theoretical and the practical, vast bodies of knowledge realized trough the application of carefully practiced skills, powered by the casters spirit or by mana infused into the stuff of the world around them.
Each reflects some fundamental aspect of reality. Each pillar is composed of a large body of theoretical and practical knowledge, including knowledge of mundane fields related to that pillar.
The pillar of elemental and cosmic forces.
One of the three foundational building blocks of reality - that of energy, thought of as the 'behavior of things'. Students of the pillar learn how to conjure, control, and manipulate these forces. Often the abscensce of a force is treated similar to its presence. Thus both heat and cold can be handled according to similar principles and spells. Some argue that every force must have an anti-thetical form, even those where no such form is known. A small yet persistent minority argue that the cosmic force of Motion should be renamed as Time. They commonly elucidate on theory, while their opponents arguments run in more practical lines regarding the effects of the spells manipulating this force. The most common forces include; Heat and it's anti-thesis Cold, Lightning, Motion, Attraction and it's anti-thesis Rejection.
The pillar of what is.
One of the three foundational building blocks of reality - that of matter, thought of as the 'existence of things' or 'the thing in itself'. Students of this pillar learn how to conjure, transmute, and shape matter.
The pillar of the ordered patterns.
One of the three foundational building blocks of reality - that of information, thought of as 'the ordered pattern of things' or 'the patterns that are not random' Students of this pillar learn how to percieve, shape and affect concepts and meanings.
The pillar of life.
Unlike the three foundational pillars, Viteris is a hybridized subject, pulling theories and principles from the other pillars, mostly Primaris and Materis. From these it builds up its own principles in regards to the living. It has been popularized trough its healing effects which has saved many lives and brought succor to the wounded and weakened. However many schools of Viteris are also despised for the damage and corruption they may cause on the form of mortals.
The pillar of spirit.
Spirits help maintain reality, but are fundamentally beyond and outside of the mundane material world. The pillar of Immateris codifies percieving and affecting spirits, as well as percieving and interacting with spiritual realms. Like Viteris it is a hybridized subject, draving mostly from the pillars of Metares and Primaris to build up its foundations.
For each pillar there are several branches, specializations that focus on a more narrow subset of a pillar. Some schools draws from multiple pillars to make up their ideas and theories.
Elementalism - Each of these schools focuses on a specific Force, or its abscensce.
Spellworks are divided into various practicioners defined by the source of their magic - the mechanisms by which they are able to draw on and form mana. Practicioners includes the following:
Mages derive their powers from their knowledge, learning vast amounts of rituals, esoteric languages, formulas, and ways of asserting their will on the world. They cast their magic trough chants, writing, rituals and motions. Champions derive their powers from their service to spirits and deities. They comitt to various codes of conduct, ceremonies, and ways of living, strengthening their bond with their chosen patron. Artificers specialize in semi-permanent effects fashioning a wide variety of items with spellwork etched, stamped, sewn and carved into the material itself. Artificers also often bind magic into locations. Adepts derive their power from their mastery of their own self. They comitt to rigorous exercize and a heavily disciplined life turning their own bodies into a vessel for their spells.
Some schools presupposes a specific practioner, such as the Path of the Shapeshifter being composed of Adepts or Rune Magic being an early form of an artific. Other schools - such as the Path of Death - can be composed of any kind of practicioner.