Hey folks! I was talking about a rework of magic and here it is!
so lets just jump in
In the DragonScape there is Magic! I mean a post-apocalyptic fantasy where the Americas are draconified would be rather bullshit without magic! To fit with the theme magic in this setting is highly elemental and based off of draconic tropes, with one that is more built off of the premise of the lore. Buckle down this is gonna be a bit of a ramble

Before discussing the elements, I need to discuss how magic works in general.

Magic is powered by mana, a small amount of which is naturally produced in any dragon’s body, however for more powerful magic you need to consume an outside source, usually just drinking liquid mana. That said, too much mana in the body can result in the mana breaking down your body from the inside out, thus killing you! So you need to keep your mana intake either in careful moderations or vent magic out faster than your intaking it. The former is much easier

There are 3 things a mage can do with their elementized mana that are categorized into the following 4 types of magic
Breathrowing: the simplest and basically breathing the element out, think your stereotypical dragon breathing out a torrent of fire, acid, or frost
Scalemorphing: channeling the mana to elementized your body, lighting yourself on fire or turning yourself into a giant taser, things like that
Dreamcalling: Using your mana to reach into the 1st construction (the afterlife) and asking for a volunteer to resurrect as a Sta or Starir, a spirit that can basically work as a mute elemental familiar
Cantrips: These are spells that require basically no external mana intake to work and are generally just simple little utility spells, like turning your claw into a match or charging up an electronic device with lightening.

Now for the Elements!

The mana is elementized by concentrating it into different parts of your body, generally a drek mage can only really learn how to use a single element as each one is difficult to get into and knowledge of how to breathe fire doesn’t easily transfer to breathing lightening.

The 4 elements on the left depicted above are ones that are already part of the DragonScape lore, the 3 on the right are experimental, either keying into the more psychedelic influences of the Ȓaddir for more powerful yet dangerous elements or just ones that aren’t fleshed out yet.

Fire Dragon Mages

these are drekir who have learned how to channel mana into their heart, elementizing that mana into fire

fire is a popular discipline because of its utility in industry as well as combat. Most fire mages er fire dragons usually work in trades related to blacksmith, tealsmithing, or sometimes even cooking! It's just very convenient to just exude heat. and in combat it is quite dangerous too making fire dragons one of the most common types of mages in the DragonScape

Breathrowing, like with every other element can be very basic, like a flamethrower. But as a mage gains further and further understanding of the element, they can change how this comes out. Anything from fireballs and bolts to a gargle of lava

Scalemorphing tends to result in the drek mage lighting up ablaze. more skilled mages can also channel this in give themselves a more magmatic exterior

And in dreamcalling a mage can call a spirit into something akin to a fire like sta, usually constantly alight in dragonfire

Some common cantrips are lighting your fingers alight like a match, turning your snout and breath into a magical blowtorch, and giving yourself a case of the red-hot hand

Acid Dragon Mages

These are mages who have learned to channel mana into their stomach, its the easiest discipline to get into with a surprisingly high skill ceiling

However it is less popular generally because it lacks utility, melting through walls is cool but there aren't too many occasions in daily life where you need to melt something.

A mage using breathrowing can, with enough practice spew anything from a mortar like ball of acid to a caustic spray

this acid can be anything from burning to sticky to downright poisonous depending on the skill and whim of the mage

Scalemorphing tends to make the mage rather sweaty... i mean sweaty with acid, basically don't touch them

A Sta summoned by a mage in this case will be rather wet with acid that it can change on it's own whim

Some common cantrips here are things like giving your hands a sticky adhesive, breathing out a small pepper spray like cloud and concentrated acid sprays

Thunder Dragon Mages

These are mages that are focused on lightening, thunder and electricity. This is a discipline that requires the mage to channel mana into their nervous system

This is a popular one in armed conflict mostly because it only has one real utility application that I can think of and that is that drekir here can power small electronic devices just through their discipline alone and that is quite substantial in a world without a consistent electric grid.

For Breathrowing, the most common form of this magic is a bolt of lightning, basically a long-range magical snipe. But mages can also learn to chain lightning over shorter distances

Scalemorphing more or less involves the mage becoming a giant taser, being electrically charged

And Starir in this case tend to practically be walking tesla coils

Some cantrips may involve the aforementioned charging electronics as well as channeling a ball of electricity in your maw and turning your mouth into an improvised flashlight for your buddies, as well as giving someone an uncomfortable shock every now and again

Ice Dragon Mages

This is a discipline that’s all about ice, icicles, frost and snow that needs mana to be channeled into the bones themselves

This one has a good bit of utility, namely in regard to things like food preservation and just cooling down in general. although drekir are generally speaking really vulnerable to cold weather so be careful with that

in terms of Breathrowing there is a lot of versatility here, an ice dragon mage can breathe out something like a flurry of ice-cold frost, icicles and hail, or even snow or ice

Scalemorphing tends to freeze over parts of the body making someone rather sharp and pointy, though ice is not the best armor in the world it is perfectly fine for skewering your neighbor if you're into that kinda thing (don't be into that kinda thing)

and Starir risen from ice dragon mages tend to be more like ice constructs, freezing that they touch

These are elemental disciplines that may either not fit in or might break some rules that i have for the limitations of magic as you will see

but i figured it wouldn't hurt to put them up here, the above two are more taking queues from that psychedelic vibe i get whenever the Raddir are around and the bottom one is something that is more likely to be made a canon thing

but top to bottom

Called Dragons Are dragons that have learned the hardest of elements, the call of the voices, the Raddir, and the higher powers that be

This is theoretically done by channeling mana into your spirit, if you can tell me where that is you get a cookie

this is absurdly rare, and for good reason. you tend to almost die whilst using it, basically your spitting your spirit out of your own body to do something

and if something bad happens then you can say bye to your body and hello to the 1st construction

As to what it does

The magic done here can allow a drek to a very small degree break some of the external rules around them. not to an extreme extent but not a small feat either, basically you are wandering about as a spirit talking reality into a certain way on a small scale

For breathrowing you are basically spitting out your own spirit, you have just the time your internal mana supply has to do something (which is not much for this discipline, about 20 seconds)

The spirit has to go back through the mouth into the body or else its trapped outside and dissipates into the 1st construction

For Scalemorphing you essentially are able to force your spirit out through your body, you won't have nearly as much impact as breathrowing your spirit out. but it won't be as incapacitating (still will exhaust you really quickly) and won't be as powerful, you won't be able to fiddle with stuff as effectively. But it is safer, if not rather unpleasant to experience.

and for Starir calling you basically put yourself in a sta instead of asking for volunteers. Basically, having a second body that will last until the sta body itself runs dry on mana or it is destroyed. at which point your spirit will get launched back to the body

if the body is dead though you're stuck as a sta so try not to be gone so long as to not have your vacant body starve or dehydrate.

Smoke Dragons Are dragons that use smoke, which is channeled in the lungs (though i have had thoughts of wind, i dunno)

This is not very common as it isn't exactly a dangerous combative element and it's applications are very disparate

For breathrowing you essentially breath out smoke, now the effects of the smoke can be anything from a dense murmur fog to something more hallucinogenic in nature that disrupts everyones (But the mage's) perceptions

For scalemorphing you can very briefly (like 40 seconds on a body chock full of mana) lose your physical form and be smoke

you can be breathed by folks and give more intense effects, just keep in mind that when you reform try to not be half in someones lungs and half under a door crack, that’s a rather unfortunate death for everyone involved

Starir in this case are made of smoke, lacking physical impacts but can be near imperceptible, being little spies who can even spread hallucinations about

Stone Dragons Are dragons that actually technically spit out something akin to a quick drying mud. This is a discipline that needs mana to be channeled through the Scales

or the muscle not sure yet

this is a pretty useful discipline allowing someone to build a house in no time flat as long as they don't it's more "natural" look

Breathrowing tends to be either a short-range spray of quick hardening mud, or something more like sand or even stone spikes

Scalemorphing tends to cause the stone dragon mage to grow stone on themselves, weighing them down but making them very resilient

and a stone dragon sta is something akin to a magical builder that can hose out the stuff and aid in building things quickly

this is the most likely of the experimental elements to be implemented

But all in all thats what i got

What do you folks think? Any of the experimental ones that captivate you? do you have your own elements in mind? Or just any general thoughts, criticisms, or ideas?

Regardless, Shaggy out!