Some History of Magic for the Home Game

I don't post much about my home game, but here is some stuff I wrote in an email to a player whose character is doing magical history research. I made some mistakes in coming up with the initial setting, and things have been hard and a little stifled. Time to get fucking weird.

-It is said the Wizard-King Carcos of the East created the eternal storms of the Bay of Fury with magical rituals and curses to stifle trade between the Ruby Kingdom and the great Kingdom of Abulafia (which once occupied the northern part of the northern desert)

-The Kingdom of Abulafia is said to have had many wonders, including magical public transit and intelligent automatons; in general, The Ruby Kingdom used magic for military purposes, and Abulafia used it more as day-to-day "technology" for civic development and the creation of opulent wonders)

-Abulafia also had a class of magic-user who bonded to spirits that would fetch their "spells" for them

-Battle-wizards were once an integral part of military strategy in the Ruby Kingdom during the Age of Wonders. There are many war histories with accounts of entangling vines, fireballs, tar pits, summoned spirits, etc created by battle wizards

-There are several accounts of Elves using magic mainly for the distortion of time and space and personal protection. Elves don't seem to have had access to many magics that could damage other beings directly, despite their one-time military dominance. There is theory that it has something to do with their link to Faerie, or it's severing.

-Faeries are recounted as having magical abilities to affect the mind, reality, appearance, and probability.

-diminutive humanoids called "Knockers" or "Gremps" are described as being able to create sounds from afar and to alter their own appearance, (but different from elves, not that of others.)

-The bird-like Corven and other beast-men of the savage southern part of the Northern Desert are said to have had their own magics and rituals, quite different from that of men or elves. Little of it has been preserved.

-To the extreme south, many creatures with innate magics that were not spells or rituals lived. There is a lot of fishy sounding stuff and dissection diagrams that don't make sense. We're talking Frost Giants, Ice Goblins, something called "The Altered", some octopoids, and other such things (many of which are said to eat men)

-Deals can be made with Devils and Demons for nearly any magical boon, and it is said magic items can only be made through great deeds or these deals, which do not end up well for the deal-maker.