Monsterpedia Supplemental : Magic
Magic is a powerful force that seems to ignore several other physical laws. It fills the known world, though it's far more concentrated in labyrinths and certain unique places. Labyrinths on average have five times as much magic as the surface areas above them. When passive it is almost unnoticeable, but when active it has properties similar to electricity. In fact electricity, magnetism, and active magic all interact, which is why spellcasters avoid excess metal and strong magnets.
While there are rumors of magic, monsters, and hidden places of wonder pre Fall, the current theory is that the Fall corresponds to when magic became prevalent on Earth and labyrinths started to form all across the world. All modern magic research that we use today starts at that time.
The difference in magic levels has huge effects on the way humans and monsters interact. While most monsters seek to kill humans, they are dependent on magic to live. This means most can't survive outside of labyrinths for more than a week. This limitation is one of the reasons humanity hasn't been completely overwhelmed by monster hordes. It's also why the oceans are much more dangerous. Without control over labyrinth entrances intelligent monsters can recharge their magical energy much easier.
While anyone can use magic, it's not easy. You have to have a lot of willpower and training to pull magic from your surroundings, and then you need to spend even more concentration and focus to get the magic to do what you want instead of just fizzling out. Mages and priests use complicated tools that channel the energy in the right directions making it easier to guide the magic into spells. These are called spell systems, and they're each unique for every spell.
The most common way of making a spell system is to build a spell core with the 'common' pathways most spells will need, and then use a specific spell chip that uses the core and its own design to finish the spell. Mythril, gold, and platinum are the most common materials for cores and chips, as they can hold and control magic better than anything else. Metals like copper and silver can be used, but the power that flows through the system tends to damage the metals leaving them useless after a few casts.
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Contrary to popular belief priest and mage chip designs are based in the same pre Fall language, but due to having such different needs, they've diverged enough to become unintelligible to each other.
If magic needs such tight control, how do monsters and merges use it so easily? Simply put, those control pathways are already inside their bodies and souls. That's why the abilities are fixed. A magma drake will never be able to throw around ice. But they don't need any help to use heat spells.
What's still unknown is how spellcasting variants of monsters gain the ability to use 'normal' magic without special equipment. Is it a variant of the merge? Something to do with the extra magic in the labyrinth? Or something else entirely? Monster researchers are studying that right now.
(Demonic magic is still not understood under any magical theory. But as you can imagine, that's much harder to study.
