Magic in The Meidlands offers rich variety and atmosphere lacking in most TTRPGs. Each has its own flavor and provide different mechanics and play styles across 6 spellcasting player classes.
Divine magic is divided into rites and wonders. Rites are made available by level, class (cleric, cultist or paladin) and patron deity. The character gets X number of casts per day, only having to make checks for higher level divine spells. Fairly typical in terms of overall gameplay and utility to classic TTRPGs. These are prayers calling on the divine’s power to intercede through magical effects.
Wonders, however, are different. Using an alternate specialty, the caster mystically embodies the god’s essence for a brief moment. These can be the classic driving away undead or healing on touch or smiting with godlike fury, but also carry abilities like having people forget their interactions with you for a period, summoning great masses of sea creatures, projecting an otherworldly aura that stops people in their tracks, or drive yourself and others into contagious temporary madness. Mechanically, the character gets X attempts per day, with clerics having a fixed choice of 3 of the 5 wonders available from their god, a paladin a fixed choice of 2, and the cultist only one choice per day that can be swapped each morning. The caster picks the difficulty: low powered versions doing useful but weak effects, high powered ones doing epic effects that alter the situation in dramatic ways. But if you fail the attempt, that chance is lost and regardless, the character gains fatigue, making all subsequent actions slightly harder until fully rested.
Arcane magic comes in three varieties: the academic magic of Collegia wizards and battlemages, folk magic practiced by witches, and bardsong, which mysteriously flows from performance with that particular supernatural talent.
Academic magic is structured, mathematical and Pythagorean in nature. The caster manipulates and directs etheric flow by means of complex 3D visualizations of sigils, geometric structures and patterns that the caster manipulates and reconfigures in their mind’s eye, aided by corresponding gesture and intonation. The Collegia portfolio consists of 5 schools of magic (Energia, Materia, Mens, Extensio, and Entropia) each with 4 subschools, providing hundreds of spells and considerable built variation for characters.
Witches have a similar art, but theirs is based on picturing scenes or tableaus from symbolic or mythic traditions. Their words aren’t tonal gibberish, engineered to aid in etheric containment and redirection, but wisdom and rhyme, passed from mother to daughter for millennia. Theirs is vital, visceral, real. They too have 5 paths (Elements, Charms, Enchantments, Wyrding, and Curses) with 4 subpaths each, but with some family resemblance depart greatly in function and tone.
Mostly, witches tend to do less on the spot casting with rotes and more often perform their spellcasting with the aid of crafted trinkets, amulets and brews, allowing a witch to prepare ahead with disposable magical tchotchkes, instead of leaving things up to chance (and dice rolls) in dangerous or discrete situations.
Lastly, although the Collegia has never been able to satisfactorily explain the subtle magic of the bards as more than some form of “natural magic,” this special talent exists in those who “hear the song.” Singing and/or playing, the bard can weave subtle but often tide-turning magical effects. They can be slower to onset, and, with the proximity nature of their brand of magic, sometimes requires playing from within the thick of things, the power of bardsong is in its area of effect and stacking nature.
Although more of an informal brotherhood, the songs themselves are divided into 5 chantries (Heroics, Mysteries, Affections, Journeys, and Lamentations), each with different favors of magic and optimal instruments for maximizing effect.
And the spells in The Meidlands book is only the tip of the iceberg, as there are rules for spell improvisation for all arcane casters based on their selected training, spell engineering, enchanting, and on-the-fly counterspelling.