4.1.4 Magical skills

There are fourteen different magical skills:

Magical skill	Used for	Opposed to
Magic - Air	Casting magical spells and rituals based on the element of air	Magic - Earth
Magic - Countering	Casting magical spells and rituals to counter or nullify other magic	Magic - Enhancement
Magic - Darkness	Casting magical spells and rituals based on the element of darkness	Magic - Light
Magic - Death	Casting magical spells and rituals based on death (e.g. curses, black magic)	Magic - Life
Magic - Earth	Casting magical spells and rituals based on the element of earth	Magic - Air
Magic - Enhancement	Casting magical spells and rituals to enhance or boost other magic	Magic - Countering
Magic - Fire	Casting magical spells and rituals based on the element of fire	Magic - Water
Magic - Illusion	Casting magical spells and rituals based on illusion and deception	Magic - Truth
Magic - Life	Casting magical spells and rituals based on life (e.g. healing, blessing, white magic)	Magic - Death
Magic - Light	Casting magical spells and rituals based on the element of light	Magic - Darkness
Magic - Projection	Casting magical spells and rituals based on projecting own will to directly control what is taking place elsewhere (e.g. telepathy, telekinesis)	Magic - Stasis
Magic - Stasis	Casting magical spells and rituals based on self-control and resistance to external influences	Magic - Projection
Magic - Truth	Casting magical spells and rituals based on truth (e.g. detection)	Magic - Illusion
Magic - Water	Casting magical spells and rituals based on the element of water	Magic - Fire

Each magical skill is idealogically opposed to one other magical skill, hence there are seven pairs of mutually opposing magical skills. A magical skill is said to be opposed to another if it works its magic by using concepts, techniques and special effects totally at odds with those of the other skill. There are three impacts of opposed magic skills:

It is more unlikely that a character to have a skill score in two opposing magic skills than in two unopposed magic skills (e.g. a character who is both a necromancer and a healer is unusual);
Certain societies have a bias towards one form of magic or another - in those societies it will be relatively rare to find a magician that practices the opposing magical skill (e.g. worshippers of a fire god tend to dislike water magicians);
To suppress a magical enchantment, a character can use one of three possible magic skills: the magical skill that was used to create the enchantment (i.e. by taking control of the enchantment), the magical skill that opposes the one used to create the enchantment (i.e. by conjuring an opposing enchantment that reduces its effect), or Magic - Countering (which can be used to suppress any enchantment).

Certain magical skills are better than others at achieving particular effects (e.g. Truth magic skill is the best skill for casting detection magic) and so there may be limitations in what can be achieved using a particular magical skill (e.g. Death magical skill cannot be used to heal, etc.), see summary in section 4.1.4.1.