Although I am not entirely finished with details surrounding this world, I am trying to update this website more than what I have been. Below will be everything I have so far decided will be in the book related to how the world works. I do not plan to change any of the details listed below, but if I have a good enough reason to, anything can be changed. Anything that is still a work in progress will be notated as such.
The world of Maruva is much bigger than the setting of this book. This book focuses solely on one island which has four different races on it.
The first race, and arguably the strongest, are the Assara. They are physically stronger than any other race and have strong ties to the underlying magic of the world. Their intellect is roughly the same as the average human, allowing them to adequately use magic in a variety of ways, however they are not as proficient at it as the Oluvan.
The second race are the Oluvan who are the strongest in terms of magic, however they lack physical strength. Their size and wings allow them to maneuver quickly both on land and in the air, however they avoid physical combat whenever possible. They have the highest intelligence of the four races which gives them abilities with magic unlike anything the other races are capable of.
The third race are the Makara, simple minded with average intelligence, they are capable of using simple magic but are generally unable to comprehend what it takes to perform complex magic. They live their lives mostly in peace, fighting only when necessary, and have become the police force across the island. Their physical strength is close to that of the Assara but their magical ability is the weakest of magic-able races.
The last race are the Furmuth, otherwise known as the humans in our story. The humans in our story really are no different than in our reality; they have plenty of free will and can be very chaotic, which is precisely why they were created. They can ignore basic needs until their biology forces it, can have an amazing moral compass or lack any sense or morality, they can even be the most empathetic or apathetic race imaginable; it all depends on the individual. Due to these facts, Furmuth do not have access to the underlying magic of the world. For more information on this, check the histories page
Magic on Maruva
Magic in this world is part of everyday life and touches many aspects of the world. Although magic is not part of everything in the world, it still touches everything living or not. Magic travels through the earth being pulled to where it’s needed or being used more, so high populations of magic-able races lead to denser levels of magic in the surrounding earth.
Generally, for a person to use magic they must have a connection to the underlying magic of the world. Without that connection, use of magic is nearly impossible, and even if it is possible, it will be limited and nonrenewable. Use of magic without a connection to the underlying magic of the world is unheard of in the history of Maruva.
The higher a persons intelligence as well as the clarity of their thoughts determines how adept someone is at using magic. Their intelligence simply affects how they are able to conceive of uses for magic and is often times also limited by their creativity. The clarity of their thoughts however, matters most when using magic. Without a clear mental image or line of thought, magic will do its best to interpret what a person wants to do. This can lead to some interesting, and sometimes awful, end results of magic use. This is precisely why the Makara typically refrain from using magic in situations they are not familiar with.
Magic is essentially a living entity without a conscious mind all its own. It is not able to “think” on its own, it must have input from somewhere first. Once given input, say someone wants to produce and propel a ball of fire towards someone or something, it will react and do what it is told to do, in a very literal sense. Depending on the person and how they choose to use magic, this is typically done with either a mental image or a string of instructions. If someone wants to create a fireball in their hand, but tries to use magic and their first thought is a mental image of someone shooting a fireball from their hand towards something, magic will respond by propelling a fireball from this persons hand instead of just creating one in their hand.
Whatever someone wants magic to do has to be possible within the laws of the universe, but not necessarily possible in the mind of the user. To elaborate, magic is literally able to create matter, but only if the magic user understands what they are creating on a fundamental level. There is a difference however between knowing what something is made of and creating it yourself, and using magic to duplicate what you already have in your possession in a new way.