Magic courses through all living beings in Thadas. Some even believe it is the power that all beings life. Yet despite magic's ubiquity, only a rare few possess the ability to manipulate it. Mages aren't born with the ability to use magic. The talent usually surfaces around puberty, and never reveals itself in quite the same way. Signs may be as subtle as spontaneously changing eye color or extreme as accidentally starting a fire. Regardless, when a magical talent first presents itself, it is confusing time for a mage. Some keep their power hidden. Outside the Tevinter Imperium, unsanctioned magic use is often cause for alarm. It is not unusual for the discovery of a new mage to be meet with fear or even violence, and stories of a young "witch" killed because of recent crop failure prove far too common.
A mage may specialize in one or several kinds of magic. Some wield the elements. Others may tap into the Fade, dominate minds, and manipulate spirits. A skilled minority are healers, able to seal wounds and shield their allies from harm. The rebellious or evil few dabble in the dark art known as blood magic.
Regardless of how magic is used, it is undeniably powerful force in Thedas that touches nearly every aspect of life.
A mage draws upon a personal reservoir of mana to cast spells. As breath is to breathing, mana is to magic. When a mage's mana is depleted, the mage must recover it, much as a laborer must rest after physical exertion. Overextension may well lead to death for the untrained or overly ambitious. All who can dream are connected to the Fade, but only mages can draw upon its power. Mana is the measure of ones ability to draw upon the Fade, and this power is expended in magic.
Outside sources may bolster mana. Various potions and artifacts, as well as learned techniques, can speed up the process of mana recovery. The mineral lyrium is an especially potent mana booster, able to strengthen a mage's power beyond what anyone might naturally muster.
Only one nonliving thing is known to contain the essence of magic: the priceless blue-green crystal known as lyrium. This rare mineral is found beneath the ground and is highly sought after for its magical properties, but it is also notoriously dangerous. If living beings are exposed to lyrium in its raw form, it will slowly drive them mad. It can also cause physical calamities, such as deafness, memory loss, and nausea.
The more magically sensitive a being is, the more acute and dangerous their exposure to lyrium. Most mages would not dare come close to raw lyrium, due to the risk of death from internal hemorrhaging before madness even had a chance to take hold.
Dwarves, who are largely inured to magic, are able to mine lyrium safely, although doing so requires caution. Once refined, dissolved into a liquid, or heated until it crumbles into a fine powder- lyrium is safe for all to use.
Regardless of its state, lyrium is addictive. The more one uses lyrium, the more one wants to use it, and always in greater quantities. In its raw form, lyrium emits a strangely soothing sound that some call the voice of the Maker. The Chantry claims the mineral is a remnant from the birth of the world, when the Maker created land and skies. They believe lyrium is not so much the essence of magic as the essence of all creation.
Lyrium's appearance in the Fade suggests it somehow bridges the gap between the dreamer's world and the waking world of Thedas.
Supplying Mana for Magic: When used properly, the mana within lyrium can replenish a mage's power quicker than natural means. Lyrium can also aid in powerful spells and rituals. It is the only known way a typical mage can achieve power otherwise reserved for blood magic or dangerous pacts with demons.
Entering the Fade: Lyrium is is an integral part of a ritual that allows mages to separate spirit from body and enter the Fade voluntarily. This has traditionally been used to contact those asleep and far away, or as part of a quest to seek self-enlightenment.
Item Enchantment: Dwarves have long used lyrium to create enchanted items, most often weapons and armor. Without lyrium, enchantments placed on items are inevitably temporary. The Formari mages within the Circle of Magi also craft enchanted items using lyrium, though their methods differ. Dwarves enchant items to make them sharper and more durable, the Formari enchant items to hold magical power like ice or fire.
Light: Trace amounts of lyrium can be infused in stones to create glowstones, which are used to light passages. This practice is most common in Orlais.
Magical Immunity: The templar mage hunters of the Chantry engage in a ritual involving lyrium that grants them the ability to dispel and resist magic.
A more potent form of lyrium, red in color, was recently discovered in the Deep Roads. Its strength is such that possessors may be imbued with magic-like power, regardless of whether or not they are a mage. Contact comes at a cost however, as the greater power comes with greater danger. Red lyrium's potency is such that it corrupts all minds eventually, even normally resistance dwarves.
Red lyrium was first found during an expedition into a long abandoned thaig in 9:31 Dragon. The infamous Champion of Kirkwall, known as Hawke, led the expedition into the Deep Roads near Kirkwall, and discovered giants veins of the mineral pushing through cavern walls from some unknown source. An idol carved from the red lyrium was brought to the surface.
The discovery played an important role in the templar-mage crisis in Kirkwall six years later. Templar Knight-Commander Meredith Stannard, already hostile towards mage activity in the city-state, used red lyrium to gain the strength to take on a mage rebellion following a rouge mage's destruction of the local chantry. It appeared as though the power of the lyrium corrupted Stannard mind. She was killed in an ensuing battle with Hawke.
The dwarves, accustomed to documenting the smallest details for the sake of keeping history, had no prior record of red lyrium's existence. Many of its aspect, including its growth and color, remain a mystery.
Magic is not all powerful. There are limits not even the greatest of mages cannot overcome.
Age: The ability to use magic usually surface in adolescence. Children may grow up to become mages, but their abilities will not usually manifest until puberty.
Physically Entering the Fade: When a mind enters the Fade, the body remains behind. Physical objects cannot enter or exit the Fade. Only once has this barrier been broken- in ancient Tevinter. The spell the magisters used to enter the Fade physically required two-thirds of the lyrium in the Imperium, as well as the blood of several hundred slaves.
Mundane Tasks: Most mages are taught to use magic only when necessary. Just as one would not use a greatsword to chop vegetables, magic is not typically used to pick apples or tidy houses.
All-Powerful Artifacts: Like mages, enchanted items are unable to break the rules of common magic. Enchanted items cannot resurrect the dead or physically enter the Fade. Powerful enchanted items and artifacts are rare and difficult to produce.
Restoring Life: Life is finite. A truly great healer may bring someone back from the precipice of death, but cannot use magic to bring a dead person back to life. The only known way to keep someone alive someone who should be dead is through spirit possession, an occurrence that is both exceptionally rare and dangerous.
Traveling Great Distance: Mages cannot teleport or travel great distances using magic.
With the rise of the Chantry in Thedas, mages became targets of public persecution and fear. The religion's harsh distrust of magic use forced mages to hide their talents. Those who wished to practice magic openly retreated to isolation, often in organized settlements, those that did not risk death.
Despite the Chantry's ridged stance on magic, it does not forbid it completely. The commandment of the Maker states that magic should serve man rather than rule him. Emperor Kordillus Drakon, who founded the modern Chantry in Andraste's name, realized that magic had potential as a tool for public benefit. During the Emperor's reign the first Chantry sanctioned mages were ordained and placed under close supervision of the organization.
Although mages were permitted to serve the ruling classes under Drakon, two important limitations were imposed: blood magic was strictly forbidden, and mages could not unduly influence rulers or become rulers themselves. Because mages were prohibited from influencing those in power, they required to be politically neutral. Most mages restricted their use of magic to healing and other peaceful applications. However the Chantry still feared that playing with magic risked mages becoming abominations. To monitor proper magic use, they created the Templar Order. Templars were placed in chantries where mages served. From the beginning, the relationship between templars and sanctioned mages was strained at best.