Void Magic

Before the Gates

There's no record of Void Magic being wielded from the time of the Hysilens, though the fox-folk did make mention of the Void itself, which informs the modern understanding of the craft; the Void isn't space, which can confusingly sometimes be called the void. Instead, the Void in this circumstance refers to a plane of near-infinite negative space existing outside of reality, bound by none and consisting of limitless potential, and danger.   The Hysilens discovered the Void in a very real and tangible way; from observing Black Holes, they observed that unlike what they had expected, the singularities were laden with Void energies, a fact that cost many of the fox-folk their lives to uncover.  

Early History

The early history of Terran expansion across the gate network eventually led them into the sector that would come to be called Avarice, which was located near a black hole - albeit at a safe distance. Terran investigations of the Avarice Black Hole with significant scientific expeditions noted the same things that the Hysilens' had observed; the black hole was a tear in reality laden with void energy.   It was theorized as a result, that when a black hole formed, a tear into the Void would form simultaneously, which is where the matter consumed by the black hole would ultimately go, exchanged with void energy to conserve its mass.  

Modern History

Void Magic is a very recent development, despite understanding of the Void itself being far older; it has only ever appeared in very rare Void Magic Bloodlines, the members of whom were only ever able to learn Shielding Magic in addition to their Voidal art, unless they forsook Void Magic to learn another form of magic with the Shard Ritual.

Void Lightning

While most facets of void magic take a long time to master, void lightning is one of the most elementary forms of void magic learned by a void mage, and functions not unlike Air Magic's lightning manipulation. The key difference is that void lightning is laced with void magic, making its impacts far more destructive and dangerous than even standard lightning.  

Shadow Magic

Shadow Magic is a facet of void magic that few actually tie directly to it, but it exploits the nature of the void to manipulate the shadows and darkness itself, not unlike how Psionic Magic works with its illusions.   Shadow Magic is a very destructive and blunt version of the Psionic techniques, however; it's not comprised of illusions at all but is the actual shadows being animated and manipulated by the power of the Void, making it capable of truly lethal combat techniques, and being a big reason for the infamous reputation of the magic for those that correctly tie the shadows back to Void Magic itself.

Voidal Distortion

When someone thinks of void magic in the cluster, voidal distortion is generally what actually comes to mind; the form of void magic concerned with the disruption and destruction of physical objects, voidal distortion functions by turning the Void Mage's Void Gate into something not too dissimilar from an actual black hole, albeit much more selective.   The void gate can be encoded to different patterns, directing it to affect specific things, and this is exactly as potent and destructive an ability as it sounds, being able to atomize and dissassemble items, objects and at the most powerful, people. Voidal Distortion is incredibly powerful, but is easily the most intensive ability for a Void Mage to adequately sustain, taking all their focus to not have the void gate turn on them too, and also blocking them from using any other abilities, as the void gate is a bit busy being a miniature black hole.   For non-violent uses, voidal distortion's techniques are also used in Quantum Singularity Cores, the void gates forming miniature black holes which can be harvested for energy exchanged from the Void. Curiously, this is a usage of the Void Gates that functions with gates that aren't a Void Mage's primary source of power, making them a practical large-scale power solution.  

Voidal Physics

At its most grand, void magic possesses the ability to disobey the laws of physics, allowing its magical powers to ignore all manner of things that would render them weaker or null; gravity is a big one, allowing void magic to effectively freeze objects in place, but laws like friction are also easily broken by void magic's most powerful form.   The only downside to this grand power is that it places a significant strain on the Void Mages Void Gate, often requiring them to construct a far larger gate than normal to sustain such powerful magic.