Sailor and the Spy (Story)

Fantasy

A merchant's daughter rejects the path in life she is expected to take; years earlier, a boy walks away from home to live alone in the forest. Both do better than expected. Years later, they end up meeting, and in working together for their own goals, end up changing the world completely.

Normal physics, except when applied to magic. With the exception of knightmages, who have the same level of magic between them, the amount to which a magician can go against physics is directly proportional to the strength of their magic.

Basic laws of magic: 1) The extent to which you can affect reality is directly proportional to your imagination and skill with your magic. 2) All types of magic vary in ease of control, area of effect, and personal differences. 3) If you cannot control your magic, it will end up killing you. 4) No matter what type of magic you start out with, you can learn any other if you apply yourself to it hard enough. 5) Magic does not discriminate; neither should its users. 6) Magic itself is not to be controlled; only your expression of it.

There are six types of magic, some with subcategories. They are listed here.

SENSITIVES
Sensitives, simply put, have amplified senses. While it varies from user to user, most have a proportional increase, about equal across all five. Sensitives are often discovered quickly as young children because they will react to loud sounds across the village, or (in the Central Continent) feel earthquakes before they arrive, or see storms days or weeks before they hit. This is a good thing for sensitives, because they are in some ways most vulnerable to their magic. Their brains, as they go into puberty, cannot keep up with the sheer amount of input they receive, and nearly all fall into depression, anxiety, insanity, self-harm, or suicide if they do not learn how to tone down their abilities. In Komab'be, this rarely happens, as adult sensitives live in nearly every village and assist in the raising and teaching of sensitive children. In the Central Continent, sensitives are sadly often suicide cases, or are lucky enough to live in "white noise" areas like quiet shorelines or massive plains, where their abilities still function at full value but don't have as much to take in. A side effect of this may be the voluntary loss of the sense most assaulted (ex. a sensitive living on the Ksaedian coast might deliberately damage their hearing, to get some reprieve from the waves and wind), but these sensitives have the most chance of surviving.

FORMERS
Formers deal with states of being- aka, gas, liquid, solid, and energy. Each former is born with an innate ability to manipulate one or sometimes two forms (most often air, earth, water, and fire, given the current technological capabilities of the world) but can fairly easily learn all four, and should master all before moving onto other types of magic. Formers can "feel" out nearby states of things (i.e. telling how thick ice is, finding air pockets in sand dunes, knowing if a volcano is more solid or energy, etc.) and as such are very handy travel guides and explorers. Most are discovered at very young ages by causing mild chaos with their innate form (energy formers in particular have a reputation for burning a few buildings down in their discovery) but are also often very quick to learn control. Despite legends, formers cannot create matter/energy, nor can they transmute materials- however, very talented formers with all forms mastered may be able to, say, use a combination of energy and liquid to draw the water out of saltwater, leaving it drinkable. Also, despite legends, living things are not immune to a former's manipulation- however, they often include three or more states of matter in their makeup, all very delicately balanced, so only a genuine master of all four forms would be able to manipulate a living thing without killing it. Being a former is not without its drawbacks- formers are pulled towards their innate states, but are not immune to them (drowning, suffocation/burial, burning/electrocution, etc.), and may end up dying in the disasters they create if not trained properly.
In Komab'be, formers are very sought after despite being one of the most common expressions of magic, as the jobs they can be applied to are nearly limitless. In the Central Continent, results vary based on innate states and strength of magic. In general, weak gas formers find luck as storm wards on ships or good luck charms near windmills; weak liquid and solid formers may get attention for being bad or good luck depending on their doings; weak energy formers might either find luck as a performer or smith or some kind, or else be cast out for unnatural doings. Strong formers of any kind in the Central Continent tend to either kill themselves on accident, though, or else are killed by scared and prejudiced neighbors, or find themselves shackled into a lifelong role as a military asset or religious figure, depending.

SEERS
Seeing is perhaps the least precise magic. It defies quantification, and as thus is simply summarized as "an inherent knowledge of the future." Subcategories include dreams, intuition, possession, deja vu, having at least one sense simply "ahead" of the present, reporting (arguably the same as possession), and undoubtedly more. Seers are often known as children by the things they speak of or how they act; if a child can talk, they are able to reveal themselves as a seer. Seers don't receive much in the way of actual magical training, as most seers have a very unique way of interacting with their magic; instead, their training focuses on rooting themselves in everyone else's present, that they may warn people accurately and not lose themselves to the constantly changing future. Many seers also struggle with a sense of self, as none can see their own future, but rather that of the world around them. They can infer their situation from what they see, but are never certain; and as their magic pulls their attention into the future where they are "not," they often struggle with a sense of identity and remembrance. This can lead to a seer completely losing themself to the future and forgetting to take care of themself, leading to a slow death, or a total disconnect from reality, allowing them to, say, walk off the edge of a cliff or something along those lines because they forget the present has consequences.
In Komab'be, seers are treated well, and often pair themselves with empaths or sensitives to keep each other grounded (seers warn sensitives/empaths of incoming stimulation, while sensitives/empaths remind and ground the seer.) While rarer than most other kinds of magic, seers are not often in high demand, and are all but shunned from higher court politics and the like due to the inherent advantages they'd have. Most Komab seers wouldn't want to be there anyways; they're too distracted to be any good at it. Instead, they make their livings telling fortunes, helping prepare against disaster, or other such applications.
In the Central Continent, seers are treated with suspicious respect. Seeing is the only recognized type of magic (that "ordinary humans" can attain) in the Central Continent; however, according to their beliefs, the way it's obtained is through the touch of angelfire, which forever bans your soul from heaven. Whether or not seers are taken seriously varies from person to person, town to town; however, seers are least likely to die of unnatural causes, as it is believed that killing a seer will allow their soul to pass on the taint of angelfire to their killer (the definition of actively killing someone, again, varies.)

EMPATHS
Empaths are most similar in the workings of their magic to sensitives; however, while sensitives deal with physically observing their surroundings, empaths deal with the mental and emotional states of nearby life. Most empaths are able to both sense and affect emotional and mental health, to the point where classifying the two abilities as subcategories is pointless. Empaths sadly have the hardest life growing up and are the second most likely to be undiscovered; being able to feel everyone's emotions constantly, with no barrier, leaves them friendless (as they crave physical distance) and often traumatized (being able to sense massive anger nearby, but not knowing why or who it's directed at, can easily terrify a young child), all of which affects their own emotional and mental health. In an almost ironic twist, empaths are also immune to their own magic; a depressed empath cannot get empathetic help. This also means that empaths cannot sense other empaths, and as such they often flock to each others' company, which sometimes is one of the most foolproof ways of telling if a child is an empath or not. Once discovered, empaths are trained on controlling their relationship with the world around them, as to not be overwhelmed and worn down by the constant input and knowledge. Undiscovered empaths often end up burning themselves out or, sadly, killing themselves, due to feeling too much that's not their own and not being able to help others enough to feel happy in their world. They also might run away from society, living out among the simpler emotions of animals, which are also not as abrasive to sense to most empaths (Demetrius, for example, would be an exception to this, as he's spent eleven years living almost solely among animals.) However, trained empaths can grow to become incredibly healthy individuals, acting as negotiators, lawyers, interrogators, child workers and more social-specific skills. They also have the added ability to speak any language after hearing it for a few minutes; this also, in cases of stronger empaths, applies to understanding and imitating animal languages.
In Komab'be, empaths are both highly revered and shunned, due to the fact that their magic automatically tells them things that most people would prefer to keep private, as well as their being the only type of magic to prefer to live within its group. However, they are still highly sought for very specific matters, but not necessarily engaged with beyond that. In the Central Continent, empaths often end up going the hermit or suicide route; if they're lucky and able to self-train enough to survive the constant input, they often find themselves in a position of "problem-solver" or going into the medical field. They are sometimes confused with seers, though, as their ability to sense someone's true emotion can be conflated with seeing the future, depending on how religious/superstitious a group is.

KNIGHTMAGES
Knightmages have a very specific relationship with magic. Unlike all other types of magic, there is next to no variation in strength of magic in knightmages, and also no subcategories. Due to the fact that knightmages do not use magic so much as are strengthened by it, their differences from other magicians are referred to as abilities. Knightmage abilities include: superhuman survival skills (they've been recorded as going for two months without water before dropping in low-stress environments), high-level ability to strategize in any situation, ability to quickly learn all weapons and fighting styles and blend them, constant drive, accelerated healing, total resistance to magical attacks, heightened tolerance for sickness/toxins/poisons, and superhuman physical abilities. As always, though, there are downsides: knightmages have a constant need for a goal to satisfy their drive, lest they start to mentally and emotionally fray and throw themselves into increasingly perilous situations; in addition, knighmages feel emotions with far less severity than other people. The exact reason for this is unknown; many magical theorists believe it is because the magic perceives emotions as getting in the way of the ultimate goal of survival. However, this can be counteracted by empaths and proper therapy, and is in fact one of their main jobs. Knightmages are also unusual in that their magic is not active from birth. They require a catalyst of some sort, usually a dangerous event, for their abilities to actualize and save them. Once discovered, a knightmage will usually go reclaim their emotions (as they often sort of absently wish to have them back), work through the traumas associated with the event that actualized their abilities, and then go learn, train, and be useful. Going against this order can lead to isolation, as many people do not want to be around an "emotionless" knightmage; nightmares, as the dreaming state seems to lower the emotional barrier; and other side effects.
In Komab'be, due to the frankly very peaceful life the country leads, knightmages often go undiscovered, simply living long and healthy lives, the only prior indicator to actualization that a person might be a knightmage. Some magical theorists are of the notion that a good third of the non-using population are simply undiscovered, unactualized knightmages. Knightmages are the most sought-after group due to their unusual rarity, unfailing dedication should you be able to secure it (knightmages still have morals, y'all), and abilities. In the Central Continent, knightmages often to go become explorers or take up some sort of dangerous trade; a surprising number become artists of some kind, dedicating themselves to the repetitive task of something like weaving tapestries without having to worry about arthritis. Others become tourney fighters or bodyguards for high-ranking nobles; these ones, however, often end up frustrated and will leave their post in search of a more fulfilling life, or end up poisoned/otherwise killed due to their political opponents.

SORCERERS
Sorcerers have the most dangerous magic: the power to force their imagination on reality. While all sorcerers can affect all aspects of reality, some are better at warping (teleportation, scaling, etc.), construction (creating objects/energy or removing them), or the worldly powers (imagining themselves or others with great power, revising history, etc.) Sorcerers are hampered from total domination by a few things: other sorcerers, their strength, and the need to be able to totally imagine whatever it is they are doing. As always, there are loopholes; they can, for instance, localize their power to mitigate interference from other sorcerers, and they can imagine perfectly recreating something rather than wholly imagining that thing (i.e., "copy that table here" vs. mentally visualizing/smelling/touching the table and then projecting that onto reality but in this room instead of the real table's room.) Sorcerers are tricky to discover in some cases; child sorcerers may be seen as having simply very good luck, or may have their forcings/affectations written off as the doing of something else. Once discovered, sorcerers are taken to the Mage Isle, where they learn control and are strictly and thoroughly imbued with a code of ethics to ensure they don't go making havoc or upsetting the balance of the country, world, or universe. They often will attempt to learn other forms of magic while at the Isle, rather than returning for the test later. Sorcerers can also sense magic in concentrations; they are often drawn to the Mage Isle because of it. While instances of untrained sorcerers are rare, the consequences ring throughout history, as sorcerers failing and dying often has rather spectacular results (the creation of the Oasis, the Ritmyil Crater, etc.)
In Komab'be, sorcerers are often treated well; beyond the fact of their powers and that people want to be on their good side, they really do tend to be fun people, often going into science or art to fully use their powers. They are best at discovering young magic due to its concentrations in users, and some make a living of discovering and transporting children accordingly. Many sorcerers also choose to remain at the Mage Isle, becoming theorists, searching into the true nature of magic and deities, or becoming teachers of other sorcerers and mages themselves. In the Central Continents, sorcerers are almost exceedingly rare, and end up either in extreme power due to their worldly affectations, massively distort reality and create places/things where travelers dare not go due to their warping affectations, or are killed/cast out/sought after as preternatural beings due to their creation affectations (and, of course, depending on what reputation they build.)

Should a user become proficient enough in their born magic and its subcategories, they may attempt to become a mage (someone who can use all six types of magic.) This is very difficult; types of magic require very different types of focus and attitude, and most are stymied by knightmage abilities (and vice versa; having very little experience actually wielding magic, knightmages struggle to obtain the other forms of magic, although it can prove a healthy lifelong goal to have for them.) Mages are considered the most powerful and trained magic users, and are the top authority on magical matters.

Middle ages-ish. No guns or steam engines; everything relies on wind, water, and horse.