Prime Energy Classes
The ten classes of magical energy, one for each Prime, that underlie all magic; scholars hold that a spell which cannot be traced to one or more of them does not belong to this world's magic. See How Magic Works.
The Ten Fundamental Classes
The following energy classes form the metaphysical basis of magic.
| Prime | Energy Class | Core Nature | Common Magical Expression |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aion | Temporal Energy | duration, sequence, rate, persistence | slowing, hastening, preservation, decay control |
| Aqua | Vital-Fluid Energy | flow, circulation, adaptation, transfer | waterworking, cleansing, healing flow, diffusion |
| Ignis | Transformative Energy | heat, excitation, combustion, release | fire, ignition, thermal reshaping, destructive conversion |
| Imago | Morphic Energy | form, identity, adaptation, metamorphosis | shapeshifting, bodily restructuring, restoration of form |
| Lux | Revelatory Energy | illumination, clarity, perception, possibility | light, unveiling, guidance, truth-seeing |
| Memoria | Imprint Energy | retention, continuity, patterned recall | preservation, restoration, mnemonic workings, inherited structure |
| Terra | Structural Energy | mass, stability, endurance, boundary | stone, reinforcement, containment, anchoring |
| Umbra | Attenuative Energy | fading, obscuration, remnant, release | concealment, dampening, trace-working, softening endings |
| Verba | Definitional Energy | naming, syntax, law, formal order | runes, bindings, oaths, command structures |
| Zephyr | Kinetic Energy | motion, pressure, spread, momentum | windworking, propulsion, redirection, acceleration |
Pure and Compound Use
In theory, a spell may draw mostly from a single Prime energy class.
In practice, many real magical workings are compound. A stable effect often requires:
- one dominant energy,
- one or more supporting energies,
- and a method appropriate to the kind of transformation being attempted.
Because of this, the Prime energy classes are the deepest level of theory, not the everyday speech of a hedge-witch or a war-mage.
Conversion Efficiency
When a compound spell draws from two or more Prime classes, each class is evaluated independently against the caster's affinity for it. A caster with strong Ignis affinity but weak Aqua affinity working a fire-healing combination handles the Ignis component cleanly while losing significant energy in the Aqua component. Both losses are real and both count towards the spell's total cost.
The weakest individual affinity in a compound casting sets a practical ceiling on the working's overall stability. A single low-affinity component can destabilize an otherwise well-controlled spell, because the caster cannot govern what they do not feel. Village tales of the fire-healer who closed a wound and left a burn in its place are tales of exactly this.
The Conversion Ladder
Turning one class of energy into the expression of another always costs something in the crossing. Teachers in many traditions picture that cost as a ladder of five rungs, set by how the two classes stand to each other:
| Rung | Relationship | What the Crossing Costs |
|---|---|---|
| Same-class | shaping within one class, as when a flame is made hotter or narrower | very little, though never nothing |
| Harmonious | the harmonious pairs (Aqua+Imago, Memoria+Verba, Terra+Umbra) | little; each energy carries the other |
| Compatible | pairs that are neither harmonious, resistant, nor opposed | a moderate share bleeds away |
| Resistant | the resistant pairs, such as Ignis+Memoria | much of the energy is wasted |
| Opposed | the three resonant oppositions (Aion+Ignis, Lux+Umbra, Terra+Zephyr) | almost everything, and what survives is unstable |
The rung is only where a working starts. A method suited to both the source and the intended expression carries energy across more cleanly; an ill-suited one spills it, and a damaged or hostile channel turns the spill into failure. Structures laid down in advance (cut runes, drawn ritual geometry, a focus tuned beforehand) lose less than a conversion improvised under stress. Schools that share a lineage, or an energetic grammar, cross into one another's work more easily than distant ones.
Unstable Combinations
A pairing becomes inherently unstable when the core natures of its component classes directly contradict each other. Contradiction arises from opposed directionality: one class drives a process while the other resists, reverses, or erases it in a way the energies cannot reconcile.
Unstable combinations do not fail cleanly. They work, but the unresolved tension produces involuntary side effects, and the working scales unpredictably. A small casting may barely register the instability; the same pairing at greater power may spiral well beyond the caster's ability to govern.
Three pairings are canonically recognized as resonant oppositions. They follow the tensions set out in Overview: Primes and the oppositional pairs in Overview: Harmonics:
- Aion + Ignis (persistence vs. combustion): temporal endurance resists the demand for rapid, irreversible release.
- Lux + Umbra (revelation vs. obscuration): one class dismantles what the other produces. Combined workings require exceptional dual affinity to avoid one component simply overpowering and wasting the other.
- Terra + Zephyr (structure vs. motion): stability holds what momentum drives apart.
Harmonious and Resistant Pairings
Separate from the resonant oppositions, certain pairs are recognized in established theory as either naturally harmonious or naturally resistant. This is a matter of energetic compatibility, not moral judgement.
Harmonious pairs have complementary core natures. In practice this produces lower energy loss per component even at moderate affinity, greater combined stability than either energy would achieve alone, and a tendency for the working to consolidate itself under strain rather than fragment.
Resistant pairs produce waste rather than instability. Their natures do not oppose violently but fail to reinforce each other: energy from one component that neither class can stabilize simply dissipates, increasing cost without proportionally increasing power.
Canonically harmonious pairs (well-established in received theory; not exhaustive):
| Pair | Why Harmonious | Common Expression |
|---|---|---|
| Aqua + Imago | Adaptive flow supports biological form-change and repair; neither class resists the other's motion. | Healing-shift traditions |
| Memoria + Verba | Shaped retention reinforces formal definition; named things hold; remembered things persist. | Oath-binding, rune-carved memory |
| Terra + Umbra | Structural endurance and attenuative fading sustain each other in slow processes; decay is governed rather than catastrophic. | Long-term fortification, decay-warding |
| Pair | Why Resistant | Practical Consequence |
|---|---|---|
| Ignis + Memoria | Combustion's core impulse is release; retention's is holding. Each component partially undoes the other's effect. | Heavy energy waste; preserved structures hold poorly |
Established Compound Traditions
Several compound pairings are recognized widely enough that they have accumulated common names and teaching lineages. These are not formal schools — cultures may classify them differently — but a practitioner who names one will be understood in most contexts.
| Pairing | Common Name | Tradition Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Ignis + Zephyr | Storm-Forge | Fire and wind in mutual support: combustion-driven propulsion, heat sculpting, elemental forge work. Common in smithing cultures and weather-working traditions; warbands pay well for a Storm-Forge smith. |
| Memoria + Verba | Oath-Inscription | Retention and formal naming combined to fix a commitment into lasting Record. |
| Aqua + Imago | Healing-Shift | Adaptive flow guided by morphic intent: wound closure, organ repair, form-restoration. The most widespread compound tradition in the healing arts. |
| Terra + Aion | Stonelocking | Structural stability reinforced by temporal persistence: walls that resist ageing, anchors that hold across generations. |
Why These Classes Matter
This classification is important because it:
- ties the magic system directly to the cosmology,
- explains why affinities differ between species and individuals,
- clarifies why some schools overlap while others remain distinct,
- and gives every spell, technique, and magical tradition the same consistent ground.
If a spell cannot be explained in terms of one or more Prime energy classes, it likely does not belong cleanly to the current system.
In the Writers’ Guide
- Glossary Foundations