The Magic Races
There are many typical magic races in Itrea, though occasionally someone manifests a different power than officially recognized. There are also several magic powers back in the Kinship Thrones that did not appear in Itrea. These are discussed on a separate page.
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The magic races of Itrea are split between regular magic races and forbidden races. The line between the two is a bit fuzzy, but basically, forbidden races are not allowed in the city of Baylore due to the potential dangers of their powers.
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Magic powers appear sporadically, so they can manifest in someone who has no idea they have magic ancestry, or skip a generation even if both parents have the power. The exception is Weavers, who tend to intermarry and almost always have Weaver children.
The Standard Magic Races
Weavers
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Weavers are one of the most highly regarded and prominent magic races. They are born with silver hair, and once they are old enough, they apprentice with other Weavers in the Weavers' Guild. They weave one silver hair through an object during the process of creation to enchant that object, and once a hair has been plucked, it grows back an ordinary color.
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The enchantment is stronger if the Weaver made the object they are enchanting, so most specialize in a particular type of craftsmanship--for instance, woodworking, weaving, knitting, metalsmithing, or embroidery. Textile crafts are very common among Weavers since it is easiest to enchant an object made with another hair-like material.
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Weaver-made crafts are the most common items exported overseas, so Weavers are generally very prosperous and highly regarded.
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Flamespinners
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Flamespinners have the power to shape and manipulate fire within a certain range. Some are far more powerful than others, but most do not have the ability to stop a fire once it has started. They commonly use their power for entertainment, creating scenes in the air with their flames.
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Some have red hair, but this is uncommon. It was a myth in Whitland that all red-haired people had Flamespinner blood, but this is wrong more often than not.
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Cloudmages
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Cloudmages have a range of abilities depending on the strength of their gift. The least gifted can simply sense the approach of certain weather and provide accurate forecasts. The more gifted can manipulate weather to a slight extent, though usually in terms of moving existing weather systems around, not creating weather from scratch. Groups of Cloudmages working together can occasionally work large-scale weather changes.
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Minstrels
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Minstrels have the ability to tell stories so immersive listeners feel as though they are living them. Any listeners named by the Minstrel fall into a trance and enter the story. The Minstrel creates the scene and background characters and usually appears in the story themselves to guide participants in a particular direction, but those involved speak and act for themselves.
The settings of these stories can be either real-world places or invented landscapes, though the accuracy of a real-world place depends on the Minstrel's knowledge of that place. Listeners are not released from the trance until the Minstrel ends the story.
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It takes great practice for Minstrels to both tell an effective story and work their magic at the same time, so the best Minstrels are in high demand at establishments around the country and frequently travel to perform to new audiences.
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There is a risk of creating a dependency, as anyone who spends too much time in a Minstrel's world can begin to believe that world is more real than their own. Minstrels can create invented love interests and turn meek people into heroes, so some people start living just for that fantasy.
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Riders
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Riders bond with an animal from a young age. The animal then shares thoughts and emotions with its Rider, grows to an unnaturally large size, and lives for the same amount of time as its Rider. If a Rider or their bonded animal dies, the other dies soon after.
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Most Riders live fairly reclusive lives so they can spend time with their bonded animals. None live in Baylore, as the capital is not accommodating to large animals.
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Potioneers
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Potioneers have the ability to create enchanted concoctions through mixing ordinary ingredients. Their creations are another common type of magic traded with the Kinship Thrones.
The Forbidden Races
Extractors
Extractors draw energy from those around them at all times. The range of their power varies, but none are able to control it. If they spend an hour around someone, that person falls asleep. After two hours, the person dies.
There is no marking to distinguish Extractors at birth, so most are only discovered when they inadvertently kill someone within hours or days of their birth. The majority of Extractors are put to death at that point, as it is too great a risk to keep them alive. General consensus agrees that parents are not cruel to kill an Extractor child.
Braiders
Braiders are marked by a dark root-like pattern across their faces. They have the ability to predetermine the time and cause of a person's death. To do this, they create a braid containing a person's hair and fasten it around their neck. The braid becomes a dark tattoo-like marking around that person's neck and cannot be undone.
Braiders are rare, and knowledge of them is very scattered.
Curse-weavers
Born with ridged protrusions like the vestiges of bat wing down their backs and arms, Curse-weavers have the ability to lay curses on others. They can do this accidentally by saying the wrong thing, and nothing they ever cause with their magic turns out well, even if they try to curse someone in a positive way.
Curse-weavers can be stripped of their power if the ridged protrusions are cut out. However, people are still afraid of them, so they are not allowed in Baylore even if this operation is done.
Dark Potioneers
Very similar to Potioneers, Dark Potioneers have the ability to create more powerful enchanted potions using less acceptable ingredients--blood, flesh, bone, and other bodily fluids. They are also able to create standard potions, so they often pass as regular Potioneers.
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Snake-bloods
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Snake-bloods can turn into snakes. Whenever a Snake-blood has transformed within the past forty days, their palms have a green splotch in the middle that identifies them. Many Snake-bloods live secretly within Baylore, as there is no sign of their ability as long as they have not transformed in a long time, so most refrain from transforming.
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However, the transformation provides a powerful dopamine rush, so some Snake-bloods become addicted to it even though it jeopardizes their ability to remain in Baylore. If Snake-bloods spend too long in their snake form, they begin to forget how to transform and could get trapped as snakes.
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Other forbidden powers
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From time to time, new mutations or uncommon powers show up that worry people, and these are classified among the forbidden races. Some of these include the ability to cause pain with a touch and the ability to plant thoughts in others' minds. A child born of a Weaver and a Braider, known as the "forbidden union," is said to have an excess of uncontrollable power that doesn't obey usual rules. The only known child of a forbidden union is Morvain, a famous historical figure.