So i just realized that since I take so long to get chapters out for Our Future Fantasy, but have the characters up on places like Artfight (and doodle them in my spare time) that some lore stuff might be overlooked and confusing- SO! I'm going to go down a kind of exhaustive lore rant below!
THE BASICS
The world of Elsyanne is similar enough to ours, it's just that around their "Middle Ages" when war was rampant and countries were rising and falling rapidly the Fey stepped in. Fey in the world of Elsyanne (and the lore of Our Future Fantasy as a whole) are "outerplanar" beings, basically meaning they are literally formed from magic and come from a realm of magic that holds realities together. They didn't intend to step in to stop the wars in Elsyanne wholly, rather Elsyanne's "veil" between the realm of magic and itself was very thin. This thinning put the Fey in danger, so they stepped in to try and fix THAT- but instead the Fey got pulled into the wars of Elsyanne as Fey were kidnapped, killed, and studied by humans.
Some spoiler-esque lore things occur and the Four step up, the Four are the first humans to wield magic, the first humans who the Fey Queen taught to split the soul from the body in order to harness its natural power. The Four ended up overthrowing the largest (and dangerous) kingdom in power, and ended up becoming the new leaders instead. The Four aren't necessarily in power at the time of Our Future Fantasy (though they are still alive as they have become effectively immortal due to spoiler-lore reasons)
The Four also created the Covens...
THE COVENS
Covens are not like The Owl House, or regular witchcraft. They instead act as how an Arcane channels their magic (and there are four main covens. More have cropped up over the centuries since the Four introduced magic to humanity, but only four are recognized as "official")
Wizards; Mila Hecate created the Wizards coven. Wizards are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic simply through their body. They don't really use anything extra, if an Arcane doesn't join any of the other three covens they are normally placed into the Wizard coven because of its broadness. (Alira and Peach are Wizards)
Witches: Alfred Hestia created the Witches coven. Witches are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic through potions, salves, and brews. Some Witches also channel their magic through food, but that is a rarer case. (Mother Morgana and Imani are Witches)
Knights; Ares Hawthorne created the Knights coven. Knights are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic through their fighting style & weapons. Similar to Bards, a Knight's fighting style is personal, but it's also not as hard to teach others. (Ambrose is a Knight)
Bards; Guenevere Euterpe created the Bardic coven. Bards are noted as being Arcane who channel their magic in a multitude of ways. Some through dance and music, some through writing or painting or public speaking. Each Bard's preferred art makes their magic personal, meaning it's a bit harder to teach than the others, so Bards are a rarer coven out of the four. (Fable and Keres are Bards)
Unofficial, but notable covens (aka popular) are the Oracle and Wild covens.
Magic Basics
These images are up on my Bluesky as well, but I'm putting them up here so I can explain a few things in a bit more depth.
The runes are the Fey language, there are linguists dedicated to the study of the Fey language, but since the Fey are extinct and the realm they came from inaccessible by humans, progress in the field is slow.
Wands can be a crystal inlaid into ANYTHING, but at the end of the day is still a crystal. Jewelry is simply the most common form wands are crafted into. Ambrose's wand has been crafted into a sword for example. The reason wands must be crystals is because crystals are natural conduit and reservoirs for magic. Metal is also a natural conduit for magic, hence why jewelry is so common. Metal just can't hold magic as well as crystals can, and when you're putting your soul into a wand you want it to be able to contain your soul.
Speaking of the soul, because one is ripping the soul from the body to inlay into a wand it comes with some hiccups....
MAGIC CONSEQUENCES
When the soul is split from the body it immediately attempts to "recombine", but because it's split via magic that's nearly impossible.
The body is left hollow, the person that was slowly dies and withers into a husk. They aren't dead, but they are zombie-like. This happens more often than not, wands break and aren't replaced, a person attempts the ritual to split their soul to harness their magic without help, there's many ways it can happen. None are pretty. These husks of once-humans are called many names, but are generally referred to as "Hollows"
The soul however? What happens to the soul is worse, once it leaves the body it's a ticking time bomb. These so-named Blights mutate with overactive magic as they attempt to find their bodies to recombine. They are highly dangerous, so much so that an entire profession has popped up to deal with them.
But even worse than a Blight, is if it finds its old body. The Hollow and the Blight cannot truly recombine, so instead what occurs is a Wraith. The mutated soul re-enters the Hollow and mutates it, creating a far more powerful creature. Wraiths oftentimes retain intelligence and memories of their previous lives, but are overcome with the madness of their overactive magic. There are rumors of Wraiths who have consumed the souls of others to keep the madness at bay, but those rumors have been investigated by Hunters and seem to be unfounded.
A more in-depth magic explanation The nations of Elsyanne
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