Why does magic exist? Why can it manipulate the world in the way that it does? Why do the gods have it? Back when the old gods were a thing, did they have magic? Was it the same sort of magic as modern-day magic, or did it work different in any way? What did they do with it? What magical force decided to make Erit a habitable planet in the first place? (I ask myself one question and then this happens. I’d say sorry, but I heard you like tough questions, so... nah.)
Oh, I love this question! It’s so well-studied and researched that there are so many theories! But... unfortunately the best I can give you is that there’s no clear answer!
Um... don’t think that means we don’t know anything. There’s just so many theories and parts of them all have substantive segments to them with really good ideas! But unlike our fossil record, there’s just not a lot of proof? I guess? The Defeated (also called the old gods) didn’t just write stuff down for us to see!
But I can tell you that before The Defeated were destroyed, there was no magic in the world at all that could be used by the mortal races. Elves, humans (although at that time, humans were in their infancy as a species) fauns, gnolls... No one could use it. Elves keep very good records, and they were one of the most dominant species next to fauns all those thousands of years ago. The elves say they destroyed the Old Gods because the Old Gods were planning to wipe out life on Erit, but most other species just think that the elves were jealous of their magic and wanted it for themselves. Speaking as a former elf, the latter is almost certainly true.
As to how elves first harvested magic for use, my favorite theory is that magic itself is a permeable, chaotic force. At that point, it would be like sticking a sponge in a bucket of water. Only... Pretend you’re an elf, and you stick yourself in a bucket of... magic--you know what, it’s not a perfect analogy.
It’s also theorized that magic itself was an infection that started to destroy those who were exposed to it.
Or that the Old Gods weren’t gods at all, but wells or “storage tanks” where magic stored itself? I don’t think that one’s true, but it has its proponents, and it makes some good points.
See? like I told you, there’s no clear answer for why the gods had it, or where it came from, or what it even is. I’m sure this has an answer (author note: it does, but it’s a major spoiler :D), but we just can’t find the threads of history to follow.
We’re also not completely sure about how the New Gods rose. There’s no account of this at all. Most people believe that the free magic formed itself into gods, since magic can and does operate on its own sometimes. Which is why if you’re inventing a spell, you really need to take it slowly and make sure you’re covering every possible outcome.
At least these gods didn’t hoard the magic for themselves. I guess at that point it would have been impossible, though? It’s already saturated the planet. We were able to record a scoped picture of it from one of our moons, and it runs through Erit like tiny rivers. We call them ley lines and they look like fractures, just under the surface. We build our cities and energy siphons on them, and convert the wild magic to a usable form.
Ah... to be fair it’s REALLY easy to build something on a ley line. There’s some major ones, right? Those are hundreds of miles wide. But these all split off into little... ley-line tributaries I guess.
I don’t know if that answered all your questions, but it’s as good as I can do. Sorry!
