Though magic comes to the Natali just as it does to everyone else, the way in which Natali sorcerers are raised gives them access to abilities that many sorcerers don’t even know exist. Conversely, it limits the Natali to the fields of magic that their ancestors have practiced.
The first thing that one must learn about Natali sorcerers is that they are holy men and women; their primary focus is serving the gods. They preside over various spiritual ceremonies and rituals, perform blessing before battles and during funerals, and, most importantly, preside over births and determine the caste of the newborn. Outside of those things, they serve as healers, provide spiritual guidance to members of the tribe, and assist wherever necessary.
The most important rule for a Natali sorcerer is that they adhere to the natural world provided by their nameless gods. They are forbidden from using magic that alters that world, although this is rule is subject to differences in perception among the Natali. The more traditional would believe that something so simple as creating a fire without kindling it goes against the gods, but the more progressive Natali go so far as to believe that magic is a natural gift, and thus can not be limited in such a way.
The Natali people have a deeper connection with nature than any other culture, and this fact extends to their sorcerers as well. Ecological empathy is perhaps the most common magical talent available to the Natali; in the past, this talent was used to determine the behavior of the herds the Natali followed. Now that the Natali people have become mostly sedentary, it is used to predict crop yields, assist in caring for the horses, and many other things.
The biggest difference between Natali sorcerers and those trained by the Arcanum or another magical source in the use of magic in combat. Maegi are not warriors, battle is the responsibility of the Krieger, and the Krieger alone. While other Natali may spend time training to defend themselves, they will never march to war. The same rule is true of the Maegi; first and foremost, they are servants of the Natali’s nameless gods. As such, magic that is useful in combat is rarely taught among the Natali, and if a member of the Maegi does learn such techniques, they are rudimentary at best. In recent years, this rule has begun to be viewed as outdated, particularly by the more progressive Natali within Eastmarch... it has yet to fully take hold, but it is possible that there are Natali who have a reasonable understanding of offensive magic.
As it is with every other caste, the Maegi are selected from birth. Tensions with the Natali people have allowed little room for researching their connection with magic, but it is commonly believed that the Maegi’s ability to determine whether or not a newborn child will develop magical talent is due to an ancestral ability to detect magical energy. Such abilities are uncommon among other sorcerers, but far from unheard of, and considering the rarity of Natali with magical talents being placed in a caste outside of the Maegi, it is not a stretch to say that all Natali with magic possess the ability. Some theorists suggest it goes further than that, given the Maegi’s ability to place a newborn in a caste that they will grow to fit well within, and believe that the Natali possess a near prophetic ability. What Viridian and Eastern Sorcerer call a “Seer” seems to be much more common among the Natali people than among any other culture.
Wargs are fairly common among the Natali, the one magical ability that is not reserved entirely for the Maegi. They are common among the Reiter and even the Ublich, but some of the Krieger and Herrscher have been known to develop unique bonds with their mounts as well. Whether this is the same warg abilities possessed by Viridians is unknown, although it does appear to happen just as often for both cultures.
Shifters, Tierleute in the Natali tongue, are revered among the Natali, but also feared, and in some cases, even despised. The ability is far less common among the Natali, even compared to how uncommon it is in general, though it tends to happen almost exclusively among the Krieger. One Natali legend tells of two Tierleute brothers, the elder a wolf and the younger a fox. The younger betrays his brother before the even of a great battle, stealing the skin of his wolf form and assuming his powers. This tale has led to a general mistrust of shifters among the Natali people.
