They say magic is gone from the world.
They are wrong.
Magic never left. It simply learned to hide.
Long ago, when the sky was still fractured from the God Wars and the land hadn't yet healed, magic surged through every living thing. It bent trees into serpents, raised mountains with a whisper, and shattered time when spoken aloud. Mortals feared it. Worshipped it. Killed for it.
But the gods died, and with their deaths, magic should have disappeared.
Instead, it passed to bloodlines—families who could still command the hidden forces of the world. These bloodlines became clans, and the clans shaped the future.
They did not share magic.
They ruled with it.
The Five Pillars of Magic
All clan magic is rooted in one of the five fundamental forces, each born from a different aspect of the world's shattered soul. Those who awaken to magic will find themselves aligned with only one:
1. Elemental Magic – The oldest and most common form. Fire, wind, water, and earth manipulated through emotion and will. Dominant in the ruling Mi Clan, whose mastery of wind grants them the throne.
2. Summoning Magic – Rare and difficult. Summoners forge pacts with beasts or spirits, anchoring them through blood and pain. The Naku Clan are one of the last still capable of dual-bonds—two beasts at once.
3. Seal Magic – Users inscribe runes into reality itself, binding or negating other forms of magic. Masters of seal magic often serve as jailers, judges, or assassins.
4. Illusion Magic – Bending perception, memory, and even belief. Illusionists can turn truth into myth and myth into madness. Used primarily in espionage and infiltration.
5. Soul Magic – Forbidden. It manipulates life, death, and consciousness itself. Any known practitioner is hunted and executed. The only known Soul Clan was wiped out two centuries ago.
The Clan System
Clans form the bones of the magical world. Each one is a bloodline bound by ancient oaths and awakened power. Clans are ranked by strength, territory, and political alliances, forming a rigid hierarchy:
• High Clans – The ruling elite, usually Elemental or Seal types. They govern provinces and sit on the Council of Five.
• Mid Clans – Respected but subordinate. Often military leaders, healers, or scholars.
• Lesser Clans – Servant clans, like the Naku. They are bound in blood contracts to serve High Clans, often as guards or expendable pawns.
• Fallen Clans – Once powerful, now disgraced. Some live in hiding; others sell their magic on the black market.
Loyalty defines survival. A clan that resists the order of things is erased—no magic, no memory, no mercy.
Subspaces: The Hidden Battlegrounds
When mages fight, the world does not shake.
Not because it couldn't—but because of subspaces. Subspaces are temporary dimensional pockets that form during high-tier battles. The moment two awakened clash with lethal intent, a tear opens around them, invisible to normal humans. To those outside, time barely moves. Inside, hours can pass. Cities can crumble. Beasts can be summoned. Blood can paint the skies. Once the battle ends, the subspace collapses—and all evidence vanishes. Only awakened bloodlines can even remember it happened. This is how the clans maintain peace on the surface. This is how war is waged without breaking the world.
This is how power moves—unseen, silent, absolute. Ren learned all this at the Academy. He learned it between duels and lectures. Between bloodletting rituals and whispered threats from sons of High Clans who thought him lowborn. He learned what every top student learns eventually:
That power is real.
But freedom is not.
Unless you take it.
And now, as the wind carried him toward his new fate—the Fourth Prince's call echoing in his ears—Ren opened his eyes for the first time in weeks.
His beasts stirred in his soul.
The storm was coming.
And he was no longer willing to obey the calm.