Earth Magic

To wield the power of Earth is to wield the sands of time; patience is a virtue when dealing with its power, as it is not wont to act brashly. Should you be able to adjust to that, however, Earth magic stands as one of Aldrin's most potent forms of magic; hard to blunt or redirect, incredibly potent and extremely versatile.
— A proverb from Torana's Student Curriculum

Prevalent mostly on Aldrin due to its general suite of powers, Earth Magic is a powerful form of magic devoted to wielding the earth - be that the ground or an asteroid. It's seen rather... divisively across the cluster, but is very popular on Aldrin.

History of Earth Magic

Before the Gates

It's reasonably common knowledge that Earth Magic has been in use since time immemorial, appearing in the earliest records of Hysilens ruins; in those ages it was used by the fox-folk to shape worlds in a way that suited them, as well as a potent force multiplication magic for combat - as earthen golems and earthworks were a vital multiplier to combat in history. It's believed that both earthen golems and magical earthworks were used in the early history of the sector, as well, but the knowledge of these techniques vanished over time.

Early History

The early modern period was set out by a regression in knowledge generally; as societies took to space, once-vital parts of earth magic - such as the earthworks - faded from active use. Others, like the magic of golem crafting, all but vanished around the time of the AURA War, for unknown reasons. The Shard Ritual had mixed results for earth magic; earth mages become ever more plentiful, but their evolving art meant that yet more of their knowledge was lost to time, including their planetary senses for handling the search for minerals and metals, replaced by technological mediums and otherwise rendered obsolete.

Modern History

Nowadays, there's something of an... earthen renaissance underway, with active attempts to recover the long-forgotten knowledge of the magic, for posterity and archival if nothing else. Progress on this front has been glacially slow, as leads on ancient earth magic are... hard to find, to put it mildly.

Aldrin History

Contrasted to the rest of the cluster, Aldrin's earthen magic never faded from planetside relevance, golem magic, magical earthworks and metal manipulation remain a potent set of abilities used by Aldrin Terramancers to this day, especially with it being a very popular form of magic.

Geo Shards

In the cluster, Geo Shards are generally located deep within asteroids or deep underground in planets housing crysium shards, which makes these shards extremely tricky to find, despite their lack of regional exclusivity - they can be found the cluster over. On Aldrin, however, Geo Shards are more... complicated. Generally the Geo Shards are most concentrated in Subterra - the vast underground depths of the old world - where they're heavily venerated and guarded by the locals, while the Dwarves of the Dragonspine Mountains retain a significant number of them. Outside of those two regions, Aelnar is also believed to possess some.

Crysium Shards

Material | Apr 9, 2025

Crysium Shards are magically-infused crystals known to exist in space on asteroids and meteors, as well as on a precious rare few planets, such as Aldrin. Many tales are spun with regards to the origin of the shards.

Uses of Earth Magic

Dwarf Earth Mage by Raphael Madureira

Earth Control

The core facet of earth magic is the ability to manipulate the earth itself. Unlike all other forms of magic, earth control is slower to enact, but causes sudden spurts of many changes at once after a Geomancer has spent the time laying the groundwork for everything they want to change. In this facet, earth magic has a variety of uses in both civil and military applications, being able to accurately shape the earth and sense both its strongest points and its weakest. More advanced earth casters can wield it far more directly in an offensive manner, bringing forth masses of earth to launch at enemies. The nature of this element of magic necessitates that even a powerful caster learns to wield earth control on conjured earth to begin with, before being able to pull javelins and spears of earth from the ground itself.

Geosense & Tremor Creation

Two facets of the same coin, geosense is the earth caster's ability to sense the state of the land itself, feeling its composition, stability and general movements. This is an extremely broad ability, and generally allows for a Geomancer to track geological events and disturbances, but its nature also allows for it to be a vector through which earth magic can be applied more directly to fault lines to spur the artificial creation of tremors.

Earthen Protection

Earth Magic is also one of the premiere protective magics in the cluster, its power allowing for a Geomancer to ward their body in defensive stone, harden their skin, create ablative rock shields and a whole lot more. In a lot of ways, earthen protection is very complementary to Shielding Magic when it comes to the defensive aspects of magic casters.

Elemental Summoning

While Summoning Magic is the core magical overseer of the summoning process, elemental casters like those with earth magic can establish a link to the elemental plane of earth to conjure forth limited summons. These typically range from binding small earth familiars to summoning larger earth elementals.

Earth Magic on Aldrin

Aldrin is a quite special case among the cluster in regards to Earth Magic, - referred to on the world as Terramancy - with the presence of its unique Subterra region - a continent-spanning underground world existing deep below even the Dragonspine Mountains' vast tunnels - promoting intensive investment in earthen magic, far beyond that of any other world, with its eponymous Terramancers being a specialty of the world, both above, and below ground.

Golem Magic

Focused primarily on animating the earth itself into a construct, golem magic is a trademark of Aldrin's Terramancers, allowing them to create grand golems for offensive, defensive and utilitarian needs. These golems are immensely durable, being resistant to many forms of damage and magical blasts, and act as one of the most notable wardens of Dwarven Holds and Subterra.

Metal Manipulation

On Aldrin, most skilled Terramancers are able to control and sense minerals and metals, whether or not they're in the ground. Many beginning casters can sense the location of certain materials - such as iron or gold - could be; they can't pinpoint it, but they can get close. This is of immense, and obvious benefit to miners, and is a big reason why Terramancy is a major focus of the Dwarves and the peoples of Subterra. Beyond that, though, the best Terramancers can move these materials even when they're in a processed form, allowing these casters to bend metal swords or armor, or hurl metal at foes as they would with rocks.

Subterra Terramancer by Alexis Pflaum

Combining Elements

The four elemental magics can generally by combined by highly experienced characters to create truly destructive things. To date, even on Aldrin there have only been successful combinations of two elements at a time, with three-and-four element combinations proving invariably fatal due to the sheer difficulty in controlling it.

Earth and Air

The elemental combination of Air Magic and Earth Magic allows for the creation of extremely potent storms. In the case of earth magic, this is done to create grand sandstorms with untold destructive might, but it can just as easily form floating clumps of earth that can be launched at an enemy. Similarly, air magic has great utility for launching grand spikes of earth at a foe.

Earth and Fire

The combination of Fire Magic and Earth Magic is a combination that has a surprising amount of versatility and power, with the ability to superheat the earth magically, to create areas of searing heat or even - at high levels of skill - to create searing hot lava. While this lacks the destructive elegance of the plasma created with Air Magic, it can still be extremely problematic when allowed to be used on a planet. That said, this combination is infamously difficult to pull off properly; it's not impossible by any means, but requires experience in both types of magic.

Earth and Water

The combination of Water Magic and Earth Magic has generally more utilitarian purposes than many of the other options using either magic type; generally, it's used to infuse the ground with water or ice, which allows the ground to trap enemies in deep mud, or off-balance them with an icy slippiness. Beyond that, the other major known use is to create large streams of mud to damage settlements and structures from a distance.