How can I build a school around a particular form of magic?

Question

Orgone is the measure of a person's connection with the cosmos. It is the conduit through which the power of the cosmos flows, focused through a sorcerer's will. Ritual practicioners must draw on this reserve of power in their souls to make a magic spell work. Spells require a constant infusion of Orgone through rituals that are performed inside a transmutation circle. These rituals require a number of ingredients and can last anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours depending on the spell. There are five schools of magic that spells revolve around and are taught at universities:

Enchantment Spells – These are spells designed to capture cosmic power within a crafted item, so that its power can be called upon in times of need.

Protection Spells – These are spells designed to ward a user, object, or location against a variety of possible harms

Transmogrifcation Spells – These are spells designed to fundamentally alter or control another living being or creature.

Transmutation Spells - Changing the makeup of different materials or combining them with others to make new forms of matter.

Scrying Spells – These are spells designed to allow a user to perceive in ways that go beyond his five senses.

The idea is to turn these schools of magic into fields, which in turn are broken down into sub-fields, creating many different branches around these forms of magic. I am looking for at least 12 sub-branches from the five schools that I just mentioned. The problem is I am having difficulty ascribing what kind of magic fits into these parameters, as well as how to break them down into various practices.

Examples

1. The school of Transmogrification: the biomancy discipline (focuses on how to mentally control living things).

2. The school of Transmutation: the alchemy discipline (focuses on how to transmute one mineral into another and the creation of metallurgically impossible alloys).

3. The school of Scrying: the divination discipline (focuses on seeing into the future).

Question: What nine other specializations or sub-fields could be derived from the five listed fields of magical study?

Answer 1

I think that having clear lines between these five schools of magic is useful, if only to decide where a particular kind of spell falls into. However, with that said, just how knowing about physics can help you in chemistry, and so on, interdisciplinary magic is very possible (even if limited to using one to assist another, for example using an enchanted item to do a protection spell).

So, let us see...

• Enchantment controls※ magic of objects.
• Transmutation manipulate the substance.
• Transmogrifcation manipulate the living
• Scrying hmm...
• Protection spells hmm...

※: "control" meaning "give", "take" or "change".

Alright, the beyond his five senses thing is problematic. I will assume that Scrying is not about creating items (magic mirrors, crystal balls, or similar), because that would be Enchantment. Thus, I will assume it acts on living beings, granting this senses. However that sounds a bit like Transmogrifcation.

However, if we follow the example of Enchantment and Transmutation, we could make school all about giving magical properties to living things. Then Scrying is actually a sub-field.

Then we have protection spells... ern... same problem. If we are talking about lucky charms et.al. that is Enchantment. Thus, this must be on the living. That would be another sub-field sibling to Scrying.

This shcool that covers Scrying and Protection needs a name... looking for names for it, "charm", "potentikinesis" and "binding" seems to come close. Those names could be misunderstood... for example one could think that "potentikinesis" covers enchantment. And of course, "charm" and "binding" has other meanings. I'll go with charm here.

Thus, we have only four schools:

• Enchantment controls magic of objects
• Charm controls magic of the living.
• Transmutation manipulate the substance.
• Transmogrifcation manipulate the living.

Do you want a fifth school? Because I have one candidate for you: Animancy/necromancy (I wish I had a good term for the combination of both). Why? Because we have cut along animate and inanimate things. That sounds like something magicians would be interested in solving. And yes, that could make it overpowered... thus, it could be forbidden. If a school is to be forbidden, necromancy is likely to be it.

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Now that we have clean cuts between the school, we can either go thinking about every possible form of magic (see what is out there in other media) and see where it falls, or we can try to think of clever ways to use the schools we have. Another thing you want to think about is what would be the opposite of a given kind of magic, those are likely to be lump together.

With that said, I am ready to suggest sub-fields. I lack some fancy names for these, in fact, consider if the names of the schools are ok with the fields you choose, I'll just go with what you have. This are my suggestions:

• Enchantment
  • Amulate creation: give a passive magic property to objects
  • Weapon enchantment: infuse magic into weapons to make them stronger
  • Orgone storage: creates batteries of orgone to be used later.
  • Creating of divination objects
• "Charm":
  • Scrying
  • Protection
  • Curse/blessing: give a passive magic property to the living
  • Magic interference: use orgone to mess the spells of others
• Transmutation:
  • Alchemy
  • Telekinesis
  • Weather modification
• Transmogrifcation:
  • Shapeshifting
  • Bioaugmentation
  • Healing
  • Biokinesis

For my proposed replacement fifth school:

• Animancy:
  • Golem creation
  • Reanimation (bring back the dead)
  • Death negation (prevent dead, however not by keeping the body healthy, that would be Transmogrifcation instead)
  • Spirtual projection, posession and exorcism
  • Mediumship (talk to the dead)

The following I do not know if they could be fields on their own:

• Using magic to create an object should be in Transmutation.
• Using magic to reverse age should be in Transmogrifcation.
• Using magic to create illusions should - probably - be in Transmogrifcation.
• Using magic to create a field force would either be charm or enchantment depending if it is on an object/place or a living being.
• Using magic to cause things to burst into flames or to make electric currents flow would be in Transmutation.
• Using magic to make a person beautiful and creating sexual attraction are Transmogrifcation.
• Using magic to create drinks with special effects would be in Enchantment.
• Summoning supernatural creatures is - probably - animancy.
• Commanding animals or plants is clearly Transmogrifcation.
• Distinguish if a person is telling the truth... hmm... I guess there are plenty of ways to go about it. It is probably not Transmutation.

Addendum: - Teleportation could be possible with items via Enchantment. Or perhaps it could be possible to make portals with very, very, very, very advanced alchemy. If it is possible at all depends on the setting.

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Well, that is more than 12. You don't have to do with what I said. In the best case you can remove what you don't like, after all, perhaps not all forms of magic are viable in your setting. And perhaps there are some that they do not teach, or have not been developed at the time your narration takes place (which is also a way to nerf a school, make it underdeveloped).

For example, in a modern setting people could develop technokinesis as a branch of Transmutation... however, in a setting where people are use magic for complex tasks instead of engineering, there probably aren't many machines on with which it is worth do that kind of thing, and thus that field of magic might not have been developed.

Another thing that could happen is a new branch emerging that is dedicated to the mind (read minds, search memories, create hallucinations, communicate thoughts, etc...), it would develop from Transmogrifcation, but combine the use of the others in ways that defy the schools classification, making it a new school.

In fact, You might want to look at the history of engineering. Sure, there is a fixed number of "schools of engineering", however as technology develops new emerge. For example, electric engineering predates software engineering, and mechanical engineering predates electric engineering.

If my sub-field suggestions are not useful at all, hopefully I gave you some idea of how to go about this.

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Addendum on the motivation of removing Protection spells as a school

I am information security specialist, and I bring that up firstly to say that I understand the concept of specializing in protecting things. Thus, if the idea of defense against dark arts appeals to you and you want to keep your protection school you go right ahead.

... And secondly to say that I also did learn how to perform plenty of attacks. So, yeah, my specialization is in defending things, yet I need to understand - and even be able to perform (for testing) - the attacks. Because of this, it makes sense to me to put together defensive and offensive magic in the same school.

Dichotomies have a tendency to not be fact. Instead we often find dualities, or rather I should say, symmetries. For example electrics motors and electric generators are basically the same thing (and thus arguebly a ventilator is a wind turbine). Similarly, LEDs are solarpanels. However, they are tweaked in such way that they are more efficient being used one way than the other. Their design has a bias, yet they come from the same essence.

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Addendum on how magicians fit into economy

Ville Niemi's answer exposes a very good point on how magic fits your setting. You should think about how these school relate to the rest of society.

If magicians belong to a society (they are not hermits), that reveals another aspect to consider: do magicians find it worthy to offer their services to the public?

Four notable cases (all valid, it is your world):

• There could be magicians that offer their services to the public. Although they probably can transmute things into valuables and food. I will assume doing so is generally too costly compared to providing a service for good payment. Universities could be interested in teaching them, similar to engineering. However, you probably would have to be very wealthy to hire them.
• There could be magicians that work for the military. They are powerful, thus could be a great form of power projection. The goverment could have special schools for them. However, it would be hard to ensure they obey.
• There could be magicians that are criminals. Why bother transmuting rocks to bread when you can steal it, or better yet, enslave people to produce food for you. Probably forming these is not a goal of universities, regardless, I can imagine they might have their own training camps. However, people are not going to do it better than magic.
• There could be magicians that live in an isolated communities. They probably do not barter with strangers. Modeling the schools of magic around engineering makes sense here, because they have to do every task necesary to sustain their community (or use golems, if they are a thing in your setting). Yet, I think this is the situation that could lead to more abstract schools, because they might have their own, isolated from the world.

Besides all that, there could be some fields of magic study that are inherent of the world. In which case you can take science as a model (after all, magicians will need research and development or not-orgone-based technology will eventually catch up to them).

Answer 2

I think that D&D has somewhat mislead everyone in this sense. We are used to thinking that magic is divided based on the effects it achieves and that magic comes in different flavors that limit its use. In reality, this is simply a convenience for balanced RPG design of specialized mages.

How would this really work then?

Magic does not have specializations. People do.

We should not let "magic" mislead us into thinking its existence fundamentally changes the rules. It doesn't. The computer I am using to write this runs on eletricity. The generators in hydroelectric or nuclear power plant produce electricity. Does this mean that using a computer makes me qualified to maintain a nuclear power plant in a densely populated are? Or that a person who knows how to design a microprocessor can design a nuclear power plant?

Obviously not. Even if things run on electricity or magic you still need specialized skills for the specific practical applications. People who design microprocessors and people who design generators for nuclear plants both rely on the same electricity and need a solid understanding of electricity but the work they do and the skills they need are quite different.

And even their understanding of electricity is different. A generator does not really need semiconductors and quantum effects. Processors have very little use for induction. If our society collapsed and people started working based on rote application of mystical formula, people very well might think that there is more than one form of electricity with different nature and rules.

And as is obvious that is how magic is treated in fantasy. They use it but they have no real understanding of it. Just lots and lots of rote formulae developed for various purposes. And those formulae would follow different traditions based on which parts of how magic actually works are relevant and which can be ignored. The end result would be "schools of magic" with their own rules and vocabulary of magic optimized for their field. But not really working at all for some other field that requires things its rules do not cover and working very badly for fields that do not need things its rules say are a must.

At this point the two people who read this far must be thinking: How is this related to the actual question? (And yes, I am an optimist.)

Well, the way the larger schools evolved determines how the smaller specializations evolve. Once you understand why the schools exist and what they actually are, you can easily develop more specific schools as needed based on the actual setting.

In short, what you need to do is to think about magical professions. What kinds of magical professions exist in your setting and how they fit in your general framework of magic? What kinds of magicians exist outside that framework? Tribal shamans and foreigners are common examples of that.

The typical evolution is that originally the professions of magician matched your larger schools. Then when people started relying on magic more magicians started specilizing more. Enchanter might specialize on making rings and other jewellery or weapons and armor. Then over time these became their own professions. Magical goldsmith, magical blacksmith and so on. This can go on. Magical blacksmiths could specialize on being magical swordsmiths or magical armorers based on sustained demand.

What transforms such individual specializations (and professions) into schools is established traditions and practices. A good question is: Could my setting have an established guild for this profession? If the answer is yes, it will only take time for the guild(s) have its own traditions of magic different enough to qualify as a sub-school. If not, you might have a master and his students with really cool specialized skill and trade secrets but they would not really qualify as a school.

Answer 3

You're probably looking for a codified system that would be appropriate for the rules of an RPG. This ain't it. Or, it would be a pain to write into the rules of an RPG. It was fun to develop, nonetheless.

Orgone, like electricity, is a neutral power

There are a great many things one can do with electricity. Motors and generators, radio transmission, semiconducting gates, power transmission, and many others. Pretty much nobody has the ability to master all these disciplines, though all graduating electrical/electronic engineers must have insight into all of them.

Orgone can (and should) be treated the same way. Those who have access to it can access it for any purpose, but there's only so much time in the world and so many rituals to learn! Worst of all, utilizing Orgone is like speaking a language. In fact, it's like speaking a great many languages. Practitioners must actually train themselves to specifically think in a desired manner to bring about a desired outcome. Oh, you may need lizard toenails for one ritual, powdered sulfur for another, and the quality of those ingredients certainly matters — but if you can't put yourself into the correct "frame of mind," then you might as well be singing a polka for all the magic you'll perform.

So, for your first assignment in General Magical Studies 101, "An Introduction to the Accommodation of Orgone," you are required to memorize...

• The Five Magics and their Perspectives
• The Twelve Disciplines and Their Accommodations
• The Forty-Seven Principle Ingredients and their General Characterizations
• and The Seventeen Attitudes

This should be completed with all haste as an in-class essay concerning this material will be required Friday. Those who submit incomplete essays will not be permitted to attend the Intraspecial Rally between the Humans and the Nagat.

The Five Magics and Their Perspectives

Enchantment

The binding of Orgone within animate and inanimate objects for a purpose, ongoing or drawn upon in times of need. The student must learn to balance liberty and compulsion, focusing the mind toward the perspective of The Other, for it is only by understanding The Other and its nature can liberty and compulsion be imbued within it.

Protection

Orgone can be drawn upon to thwart and reflect the undesired intent of others. Where Enchantment would be used to bind closed a chest or a lock, Protection would be used to thwart magical attempts to open the chest or unlock the lock. Orgone can be used to shield a combatant from physical harm, secure an item or creature from theft, or align a tool to the purposes of the caster and none else. The student must learn to balance selflessness and selfishness, focusing the mind toward the perspective of Intent and the many languages of greed, lust, and jealousy to properly enjoin selflessness and selfishness in equal amounts.

Transmogrification

Orgone can alter and control the living creature be it plant or reasoning being. The student must learn to balance the True Name with the Great Lie, focusing the mind toward the perspective of Accountability to properly retain the Name while expressing the Lie.

Transmutation

Transmutation is to the inorganic rock what Transmogrification is to the delicate petal — it is the capacity to wield Orgone to change the nature of minerals, fluids, and gases, to bind and divide, to empower and to expel. The student must learn to balance reality and fantasy, to see within and without! focusing the mind toward the ponderous perspective of Persistence such that the will within can drive the desire without.

Scrying

Orgone's most subtle use is perception, the capacity to comprehend, to see beyond the limits of the moment. The student must learn to balance hope and despair, for the knowledge of things as they were, as they are, or as they may yet be can betoken fortune and poverty alike. The mind must focus toward the perspective of Time, both its logic and illogic, lest truth become illusion.

The Twelve Disciplines and Their Accommodations

A Disciple is one who devotes their time and talent to the challenge of mastering a specific aspect of Orgone. Interdisciplinary mastery is permissible, but only after the student has achieved mastery in their first discipline and then undergone the Rite of Mustiiken, which will ascertain the suitability of the applicant for interdisciplinary mastery. The consequences of attempting interdisciplinary mastery without the endowment of the Rite of Mustiiken and the inevitable madness that follows will be introduced in General Magical Studies 205, "Orgonic Physiognomy and an Introduction to the Medicines of Magic."

The First Five Disciplines you already know, for they are the Magics themselves.

Mastery of Enchantment

The Accommodation for this Discipline is music in its many forms and functions, for the mind's adaptation to music is perfectly suited for interweaving the power of Orgone with the base nature of the object, plant, or creature to be enchanted. A simple example of this Accommodation is the mind's comprehension of the melody of a harp that permits the enchantment of a base material (The Other) such as wood or metal with fragrance.

Mastery of Protection

The Accommodation for this Discipline is austerity and rigidity in one's life: from a lack of personal possessions to sleeping on hard, flat surfaces and otherwise surrounding oneself with the immutable and the weighty. When the mind becomes focused like the body, Orgone can be used to surround person, place, or thing with that magic that will forbid against the caster's desire. The most obvious example is the focused remembrance of sleeping upon a cut slab of granite with its solid, immovable intent that permits the caster to implode Orgone in the form of a simple, physical shield.

Mastery of Transmogrification

The Accommodation for this Discipline is the language of life in all its forms and majesty. What better way to bring a falcon to light upon one's arm than to call out its true name in its own language! Whether the murmur of the susurration of leaves or the expression of odor of a fine stew, Orgone will bend the will and nature of the living object to the caster's will, even allowing the caster to take that form! It is not uncommon for claimants to the Master's Robes to demonstrate this feat by speaking the languages of many things (for only in this way can the caster be accountable for his or her goal) to make life become something never seen before. Such was how the Chimera was born!

Mastery of Transmutation

The Accommodation for this Discipline is to live apart from life and death, to eschew the ways of men and the charms of animals. It is not uncommon for disciples wearing the Ocher Robes of this mastery to be found living deep within the earth, or among the desolate deserts and lonely islands of the world. For only by setting one's self apart from their base nature can the true authority of Orgone be expressed in the earth itself. No candidate for mastery would debase him- or herself by merely transmuting lead into gold. Such tinkering is childish to the master! But by comprehending the ominous heartbeat of the earth itself, by persistently encompassing the absolute reality of what all of life must stand upon, can the master craft, shape, change, and control the essence of the world.

Mastery of Scrying

The Accommodation for this Discipline is the control of all emotion, both the emotion of one's self and the emotion of those surrounding one, ensuring all things are in the control of the moment. The comprehension and control of emotion is mandatory for the clarity of vision necessary to truly see past, present, and future. The adept capable of understanding hate, envy, joy, and serenity can see the past without remorse or confusion. The journeyman capable of understanding surprise, anger, panic, and laughter can view the present without doubt or certainty. The master capable of understanding hope, despair, disdain, and anxiety can look upon the fabric of the future without contempt or cowardice and advise the course of kings. But only after learning to control one's self, and those around one.

Of the remaining seven Disciplines and their Accommodations, it should be mentioned that all are a combination of the Magics. It should be noted that some combinations, though attempted, have never produced great gifts and are therefore deemed unfathomable. For example, none have brought Transmogrification and Transmutation together as their Accommodations are mutually exclusive: the one embracing the language of life while rejecting the languageless natue of the earth, while the other eschews life to encompass the very reality of the earth beneath. Life, said the Master Laedyth, is the fantasy the reality of earth permits, and so never the two may meet. Students should not be tempted to try and extrude new or alternative Disciplines before completing (with a passing grade!) General Magical Studies 410: "Paradox and Paradigm: The Essential Nature of Orgone."

Mastery of Destiny

Encompassing aspects of Enchantment and Transmogrification, the Accommodation of this Discipline is song. The purpose of this Discipline is to redirect the destiny of a human soul, to change a person's interests, desires, and goals such that their fate is substantially altered (beyond what could be believed through luck or circumstance). Adepts often find themselves teasing one another (and unsuspecting strangers, despite clear rules to the contrary!) with simple emotional potions such as the ubiquitous love potion or the more practical Heroic Dust. But true masters can use Orgone to change the fate of an individual such that their descendants for generations become bound to the caster's woven destiny! Songs that bring such nation-changing alterations to pass can be weeks in the singing and often necessitate the help of fellow masters.

Mastery of the Seer

Encompassing aspects of Protection and Scrying, the Accommodation of this Discipline is concentration in every aspect of the disciple's life. The purpose of this Discipline is to see the One True Thread, or perhaps more literally, to Declare the One True Thread in the fabric of the future. Masters of this Discipline are able to enforce the choices of the living and the entropy of the earth to ensure one and only one specific future comes to pass. It is little wonder that this Discipline graduates the fewest masters and rare it is to see the brilliant white linings of the black mastery robes in the courts of the powerful. Disciples have been known to die when vying to enforce their one of the two or more competing futures several masters may be trying to bring to pass. He or she with the greater concentration wins the day (in the most literal sense), necessitating great endurance. And only the most powerful of masters are able to weave the fabric of time to ensure their desired future while not disrupting the fulfillment of some master from long ago. Only one, Master Vadnek, has ever had the fortitude, the endurance, and the sheer concentration, to rewrite the enforced future mandated by a previous master. It is said that it cost him his life, but they never found his body....

Students who are successful in their application to the Seership Discipline are required to complete with a passing grade General Magical Studies 555, "The Ethics of Magic and Time." Due to past troubles with students from wealthy families, the final exam will be administered by a tribunal of graduated masters led by famed Master Huclaere, whose integrity is beyond repute and whose judgement will be final. You've been warned.

Mastery of Blacksmithing

Encompassing elements of Enchantment and Transmutation, the Accommodation for this Discipline is (not surprisingly) blacksmithing. It is the one, dedicated trade the disciple may ever have. While the most common result of this Discipline is enchanted weapons, the most talented masters produce talismans capable of focusing Orgone in ways that generate elemental conditions. This Discipline and Mastery of Protection are the most common Disciplines to be brought together in interdisciplinary mastery.

Mastery of Promise¹

Encompassing elements of Transmogrification, Protection, and Scrying, the Accommodation for this Discipline is fidelity — complete, untarnished fidelity. The purpose of this Discipline is to bind a living creature to a purpose. Sometimes misunderstood as an unbreakable vow or a perfect covenant, (and never to be confused with the Discipline of the Seer or the Discipline of Destiny! Both of which can literally coerce an individual or the world to the caster's will.) the art of binding creatures to a purpose does not abrogate their freedom of choice nor interfere with their destiny. Instead, it conditions their choices such that when one choice favors the binding, that choice is easier to make than the other. Further, the Discipline has a metaphysical "area of affect" in that others who may choose to act in such a way as to compromise the binding with, themselves, favor choices that protect that binding. This Discipline is one of the most complex, demanding not simply a perfect recitation of ritual, but perfect timing, measure of ingredients, and an unyielding frame of mind. Masters of great experience have been discovered utterly insane — a consequence of failing to meet the absolute fidelity demanded by this Discipline.

Mastery of the Dead

This most feared of Disciplines encompasses Enchantment, Transmogrification, and Scrying. The Accommodation for this Discipline is Love (a curious byproduct of The Other, Accountability, and Time). The purpose of this Discipline is to comprehend, speak with, even reanimate the dead and is nothing short of the power to reach through the Veil to bring mind, soul, or body of the deceased to the present. Mastery of this Discipline is so feared due to the moral fortitude demanded of the caster — for the dead know great mysteries the living were never intended to know.

Master Ueklid has developed a new class made available only to successful applicants to this Discipline. Magical Psychology 522, "The Riddle of Kerhorum-Lat." Students receiving a passing grade will intern at the Bahqduer medical facility. Students that do not receive a passing grade will intern at the Oorood medical facility on the island of D'urt. Students will learn about both facilities on the first day of class.²

Mastery of Clairvoyance

Encompassing elements of "Transmogrification" and "Scrying," the Accommodation for this Discipline is silence. The purpose of this discipline is to gain knowledge about ideas and intents. It is greatly sought after by kings and nations and though highly valuable for research into the natural world and its wonders, it has an obvious practical application for espionage.

Admission requirements for this Discipline are very specific and require regular evaluation and justification for continuance during the applicant's early years of study. Students with a romantic notion of manipulating world politics will be screened early and quickly from the program. It is known that some students especially ill-suited for the program enter Master Ghellictks' study for evaluation and never exit.

Mastery of Life

The last of the Twelve Disciplines and their Accommodations encompasses elements of "Enchantment" and "Protection," but curiously, not "Transmogrification." The Accommodation for this Discipline is cleanliness: both purity of the body and purity of the spirit. The purpose of this Discipline is to bring health, or the essence of life, to the disciple's focus. With this Discipline the master may animate the inanimate (and it was the interdisciplinary combination of the Discipline of Life and the Discipline of Scrying that master Moammathul was able to create the Kazzari Homunculus, whose prophesies lead to the Peace of Comsant and whose interference brought about the Illun civil war). Lush gardens and bountiful harvests are the basic hallmark of this Discipline's masters, but so, too, are great works of healing such as the Lifting of the Fourth Battalion on the eve of defeat to Emperor Malden II — 500 healed and saved from death only an hour before nightfall, turning the tide of the Inland Ivy War.

The Forty-Seven Principle Ingredients and their General Characterizations

Although nearly every element of earth and life may be used to manipulate Orgone, these forty-seven....

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_{¹ Promise and Destiny look an awful lot alike, but they are applied very differently. Destiny can change generations and focuses on what the individual will become. It completely disrupts the laws of random chance to guarantee that evolution. Promise is far more practical (and harder to control) in that it focuses on a job that needs doing — a result that needs to come about, but the consequences or path taken may not be at all what the caster expected or intended. Random chance is still very much in play with the Discipline of Promise.}

_{² Students who reach this class know too much about the Discipline to be allowed to fail without "proper safeguards." The Island of D'urt has proven a convenient place to... help students ill-suited for this Discipline to... continue their "journey" without additional risk to the world or the dead. Um... yeah. Something along the lines of Route R2-45, but with a wand.}

Answer 4

To open, I will agree with the parts of answers provided by Ville Niemi and Theraot in that the following points that they have brought up will guide my answer here:

1. People specialize in magic. The system might lead to certain places, but someone will find a way to specialize in what they want to.
2. Economy and Supply/Demand will determine which sub-disciplines see widespread use and which ones are more academic curiosities.
3. Any Sub-Discipline will be derived from one or more of the primary disciplines

Orgone Understanding

Based on what I get from the question, this Orgone energy is a neutral force that is drawn upon to cast the spells. Making the peoples fall down seems to be optional here.

What I also read is that there are five spheres of magic, each with their own domain of things that they do. There's a game that does something like that in concept: Magic the Gathering. Now these schools of magic do not necessarily line up with the five colours in the game, but it is my guide for how I would think about this problem.

Overall, I would expect that what I have listed as the subschools are in fact the broad categorizations of such as used by scholars and aspiring casters. Single families or guilds might call their craft by a different name, one more specific to the particular task that they are doing.

The other thing I would guess is that there would not be a lot of spells/subschools that are purely of one school and that true mastery of one school of magic will involve at least understanding concepts of the others, even if you can't actually cast from them. As an example in Avatar, Iroh created a technique to redirect lightning based on waterbending teachings. By understanding Water, Iroh enhanced his knowledge of Fire.

The Specializations

Enchantment

Capturing cosmic power into a crafted item is the general. It follows that the majority of this school consists of either craftsmen that practically enchant items, or theoretical mages that work on improving the process. While the obvious start are enchanters that are based on what they are enchanting (jewelry, weapons, clothing, etc.), I would posit that the aspects to the process of a whole are the main source of your subschools.

• The discipline of Capacitance is around focusing on how Orgone interacts with the crafted object and how to maximize this relationship. It eschews the aspect of making the stored energy do something in favour of just storing more energy. Rin's Jewelcraft from Fate is the inspiration for this -- storing excess personal power into gems for later use (and bigger booms). D&D also has psionic capacitance crysils that hold a certain number of PP.

• Counter to this, the discipline of Imbuement is all about the interaction between the item and the effects that are imbued into it. While some of the effects will be actually from other schools, the spellcraft in putting that effect into an items is what is being studied. How to make it more efficient, or the binding require less Orgone than it would otherwise. A master of Imbuement could enchant a ring to do a half dozen things while an apprentice might barely manage a single thing.

• Lastly are the people that would decide to not bother adding new things to stuff and instead enhance what an item already does to its limit, leading to the Enhancement subschool. By not only mastering the interactions of Orgone with an object but with its properties, one can enhance what something does without fundamentally changing it. You aren't actually changing the enchanted object, which to me differentiates it from your definition of Transmutation.

Protection

The warding and defensive school, it is likely that the specialties will be based on what is being warded and/or what the target is being protected from. I would expect a not insignificant number of people using Enchanting to make protective amulets and items based on these spells as well as to make power sources for these wards.

• Warding is the obvious first specialty of the Protection School, consisting of defining an physical area and stating what cannot enter the area or what to protect the area from. Many subsections of Warding will exist as warding a house will be different than a town or a patch of land such as a farm or grove.

• Eventually somebody will have the brainstorm to invert the spells of Protection. Instead of keeping something out, they will invert the spells to keep something in, and this is born the Binding subschool. Keeping things within a specific area has a lot of uses.

• Applying an Orgone-based protection to a living thing that has its own connection to Orgone is a study in itself, leading to the Blessing subschool. This focuses on anchoring a protection to a living thing. While there are likely aspects of Transmogrification and/or Enchanting in this, the core of this subschool is the protection/blessing itself hence it being here.

Transmogrification

Control over the living is a scary, scary thing if used improperly. And likely its biggest use will be in being used improperly. Druids would be a large component of this school as they deal with living nature and is likely the most benevolent lot along with healers. I also would expect either a lot of theoretical research here (For Science!) or some real crazies delving into things man was not meant to know.

• You have mentioned Biomancy, to mentally control living things. Personally, I would call it the Domination discipline, as its point is to dominate the will over living things.

• In the note of improper use of Transmogrification, we get to what I will define as Biomancy, where one rituals together two or more (parts of) living beings to create something that should in theory be better than the sum of their parts. For a more successful example, see the Simic Combine from Magic the Gathering. For a less successful example, Full Metal Alchemist. I would expect a lot of theoretic study and few practical results unless there is a desperate call for this. That or this is how there be dragons.

• While some like their people puppets and sharktocrabs, not everyone is so into that kind of thing. The Lifeweaver discipline would be controlling the body and the Orgone energy in/around it in order to affect it. The benevolent would use it to heal, restore, and enhance while the lessons could be inverted to curse and debilitate. I would have just called it Healing, but realized that it can harm just as easily. Expect many to call it by more positive terms like Healing, or Restoration and conveniently forget that you can use this to curse your enemies. This differs from Domination in that you are casting a one time spell on a living thing and not tying it to your will.

Transmutation

Changing the fundamental nature of matter is likewise equally as powerful, and arguably just as easy to misuse in the pursuit of power. I foresee many looking for a quick GP looking to this to transmute base materials into something more valuable. Restrictions as to the use of this school are going to be your friend.

I would expect smiths to be favoured here for material creation and crafters or tradesmen for the fabrication aspects. Mercenaries or inventors might have use here for the more theoretical aspects of the school.

• You mentioned Alchemy, the discipline to transmute one mineral into another. It's pretty straightforward. Make sure you have your restriction on the more exotic things transmuted.

• War and strife will give birth to the school of Evocation, to conjure effects seemingly from nothing to devastating effect. While your conditions for spellcasting make it suitable for artillery at best, a smaller scale of this could be use to transmute fuel for a forge or to create water. A desert town may rely on this discipline to survive in dry times.

• For the simpler people that don't car about exotic materials and Unobtanium, there is the school of Fabrication. Take a magic circle and a pile of raw goods, metaphorically light it on fire with a quantity of Orgone and Ominous Latin Chanting, and poof! New items. This could be the single most valuable discipline if only because crafting things by hand can be hard and time consuming. Plan restrictions appropriately. I think this would be the first practical school of the three here.

Scrying

To see the unseen and beyond the five senses is perhaps going to be the second most useful ability that your Orgone-based magic will possess if left to a master of it. Based on your casting style, tapping into the Orgone-infused cosmos to learn information about anything seems like a possibility here. Most of these I see being used with a certain tool or focus depending on the person.

• Divination as you mentioned would likely be a forever goal. To read the currents of the cosmos and interpret the swirls in the flows Orgone to divine the future would take a lifetime to master.

• Prescience turns an eye to the present as opposed to the past. Connecting to the cosmos connects you to everywhere, meaning that you can, in theory, see everywhere. Seeing and hearing what your enemy is up to is a gold mine of information … just make sure that it is an actual gold mine and not one Transmuted to look like one.

• Necromancy would be the spooky side of the school. Unlike the undead raising that we normally associate with the word, in this case we use the dictionary definition of communication with the dead as our guide to this. Perceiving the dead would require senses beyond the conventional five and thus the basis of this subschool falls here. Spirits of the deceased would be a trove of information about the past, and may be talked into spying for applications in the present. Also good for solving crimes.

Combining Schools

Combining schools will be largely a matter of taking a concept from two (or more) schools and mixing them together. When combining effects, it is important to note not only what a combination of schools would be capable of, but what they are incapable of doing together.

• Combining Transmutation and Transmogrification could result in the Animation subschool, which revolves around giving a living property to something unliving.

• Enchantment and Protection would be a more common combination and would be responsible for most of the protective jewelry out there. Mastery in both would allow one person to do more with less.

• Scrying and Transmogrification could combine into the Familiar Discipline. While not one a lot of people specialize in, the ability to perceive through the animals of the world can be useful. Most would likely restrict themselves to a single animal or type of animal.

• I would expect a Metamagic subschool for theorists if you have any form of organized academy of magical learning. Tied to no one school in particular, they are the ones that study Orgone itself, trying to comprehend the relations between Orgone energy, and the components for spellcrafting. While they might not advance magic in the sense of creating a new spell, it may be that their research is what spawns a spike in new magics.

Answer 5

This might be poorly formatted/answered, I'm new here. I had a few suggestions for each school and fleshed them out a bit to show their distinctions and their possible uses as occupations.

Enchantment:

Practical Enchantment: Finery and Adornments

A school of enchantment focused on wearable enchantments that wouldn't be seen in a duel or on a battlefield, mainly focused on simple things that make life easier outside of battle. Example: Necklaces that improve eyesight, a shirt that makes you more appealing to look at, gems that turn you briefly invisible.

Practical Enchantment: Munitions and Armament

A warlike focus. Enchanters in this school go on to join armies or work as private contractors to rich families who need cosmic enhancements to their weapons and armor. This only pertains to inanimate objects.

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Protection:

Corporeal Orgonic Protection

Protection rituals that defend against physical threats. This spans from typhoid to an axe being swung at your head. These are rituals that affect a living being, they cannot be used to protect inanimate objects. Note: Although you may be able to prevent disease and infection, you cannot cure it with this school of magic.

Metaphysical Orgonic Protection

Protection against threats of Orgonic origin. The rituals of this school are able to block magic or reduce its effect, based on how strong the ritual and cosmic flow is for the individual doing the protection. This school is only useful against magic and Orgone itself.

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Transmogrification:

Biomancy

Mental control of living beings. Teaching Biomancy that works intelligent life is banned due to ethical concerns, but the study of non-intelligent Biomancy is allowed. The rituals between intelligent and non-intelligent life have a minor overlap possibly, maybe leading to an underground Biomancer fraternity.

Theoretical Orgonics

The theory of how Orgone is used, what it is, how it can be harnessed and how the magic of orgonics can be pushed forward. While other schools research the past, the Theory of Orgonics students think of the future and how magic will change. It's mainly theoretical due to the energy being cosmic and they have no access to it's source, possibly?

Biological Supplementation: Living

The magic school of Biologocial augmentation, healing and physiological discovery. This school gains knowledge of the living, catalogues it, magically augments it, etc. The subtitle of "Living" could be a holdover from the past when there was a school of "Biological Supplementation: Dead". That would have been the necromancy school, but due to their gravedigging ways the school of magic got banned from the University.

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Transmutation:

Alchemy

Metallurgy with no limits, the alchemists have rituals that combine metals or minerals into combinations not achievable by physical smelts. Alchemists generally go on to become famous jewelers, known for their precious and unique gems, or high-class metallurgists possibly? Note: These alloys require a magician, who studied in the school of Practical Transmutation, to smith. Non-magical smiths will find the alloy impossible to shape or sharpen.

Practical Transmutation: Smithing

Thought of as the blue-collar magician, transmutational smiths are required for the smithing of Alchemical alloys. The rituals learned in this school are required to shape any alloys or cut any gems produced by the Alchemists, it's a codependent relationship between the two schools of Transmutation.

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Scrying:

Ethereal Augury and Divination

The study of reading the future through Orgonic rituals, but also through Orgone's effect on the living world. The school studies how the future can be predicted through the patterns that Orgone's connection to the physical world creates. Anything from cow formations in a field to the gender of a regent could determine the future. These students could go on to become political advisors or cult leaders, depending.

Practical Geographic Detection

This is also considered a blue collar school, it relies on patterns of weather and the celestial bodies to determine locations. This could be used to descry your lover, or a vein of gold. Students from this school could also go off to be bounty hunters, or assistants to bounty hunters if the GPS life ever got boring.

Practical Telepathy and Clairvoyance

Students learn the rituals of Orgonic communication and "blind sight". The students learn to read the ebbs and flows of the cosmos to be able to sense what isn't there, or what can't be seen. They use the knowledge of the Orgonic flow to communicate, or more frequently observe the minds of anyone connected to the energy in the cosmos. This should be the most prestigious school due to how tough it is to grasp the practical components, however many telepaths are essentially pay phones for regents and nobles to communicate with eachother.

Answer 6

Scrying school 1. Divination of bowls, nature works, tea reading, birds flight and droppings, and smoke
2. Ritualistic offerings and sacrifice – for church, kingly reign securing, ect c.Cooking – this sub group prepares concoctions for rituals, readings, and communing services 3. Summoning, communing, and channeling with spirits of mankinds souls, planet listening, beastly souls, and spiritual energy of the
otherworld 4. Death speak – you don’t raise the dead you sit with and listen to them 5. Death care – a subgroup that takes care of dead dressing them, feeding them their spiritual food, ect could be an intake facility to prepare the dead to speak as they may need time to
gather the slow energy that was their former back so the living can also prepare to speak with them both parties are fairly drained after the event for different ways and the speaker givers some of their own energy for the food to maintain the dead. 6. Astral projection and cosmic walking – this allows for people to experience more from the desired reading some one sick? Well leave yourself and speak directly to their aching soul to learn more about it. Having issues with a curse? See if you can go to space and see if an asteroid is passing by that is harming the person in question via changing the harmonics of this person or the planet.

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Transmutations

1. Metal transformation – specializing in only metal
2. Wood transformation – specializing in wood only
3. Dirt, sand, ash configuration – this while working with these things can see overlap from the metal workers wanting a dual skill for smithing purposes.
4. Inanimate objects glass, wood, ect e.Water and liquid only

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Transmorgrification

1. Animal only – as working with human is a bit more complicated
2. Human bending and ritualistic studies – a group that learns how to morph the human body for good and ill via prisoner live practice at somepoint you just need living people
3. Necromancy human only – again a bit complicated as ones got to get something useful into them a human soul, a dead soul, or rig one up to make a barely functional puppet maybe by implanting animal souls?
4. Necromancy animals only – dealing only with animals but this doesn’t mean they can necro a pet back healthy more like pet cemetery they’re grouchy but controllable to the summoner.
5. Mind bending, mind mapping, and psychology of beast and man – a good and ill practice and probably a subject taken across the board by all students
6. Bone bending – a thing that teaches how to manipulate the bones of animals and humnans for both good and ill.
7. Ritualistic and practical binding and servitude – a way to stop people or animals from harming or putting them to temporary use doing something they may not.
8. The art of speech, cohesion, flattery, and word power – teaching how the written and spoken words can be used to morph others into spells as well.
9. Enthralling – teaching how to insert connections into the brains of humans or animals and nurture that to make suggestions that people will want to follow over time.

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Protection school

1. Architecture, pillar stones, blessings and cursings – this has students understand not just what makes a building work and how to form it (so part construction knowledge here) they also learn how to make pillar stones using charms or entombing people or animals into a main support beam that will keep the building up by its sacrifice (old rituals) and they also learn how to help or harm buldings with spells, charms, or through utilizing specific tools and construction methods that harm the building on an atomic level rotting or reinforcing it over time w/o more spells and rituals needed to be done.
2. Political armament – this allows for common spells, wardings, and safety measures when it comes to rulers and elite people your kind of like a magical secret service agent here.
3. Repelling and attracting ghosts, blessings, and curses – to understand how to repeal one has to learn how to attract so both are known to this grouping
4. Ward of the home and hearth – this deals with common buildings not grand scale buildings like A it allows for one to be more familiar with what ales a normal home and how to keep and bless or curse those areas as the materials are a bit different.
5. Charm, rune, and potion making – they can have this too but its to prevent, help, or harm people in the context of their overall class type.

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Enchantment

1. Charms, rune, salves, advanced – expanding beyond protection spells they cover more here then one thing
2. Infusing metals
3. Infusing woods
4. Infusing the body and soul of man – difficult
5. Infusing the body and soul of beasts
6. Capturing ghosts and how to retool them – its like soul gemming them
7. Harnessing natures power – taking energies within nature and soul gemming them
8. Psychology of beast and men – if one is taking things involving these two things this is probably a must take.
9. Ritual tapping – how to take some but not all energies from things and soul gem them via ritual.