In Pathfinder Second Edition, each magic-using class casts from one of four magical traditions that define the source of energy used to cast a spell: Arcane, Divine, Occult, and Primal. Some effects can be replicated by several traditions, hence a spell may have more than one tradition listed in its description.
This article clarifies the source of these energies within the World of Evindale.
Arcane
The origins of arcane magic are hotly debated in great disputes between theologians and secular scholars. Unlike the other three traditions which ultimately hail from the gods, arcane magic can be said to be the creation of mortals.
When an unnamed slindar plunged the world’s first forged weapon into the Great Consort thus killing him, the divine energy used to create Ævyn spilled out as a corrupted torrent of Sythlia’s own godly might. This, the First Murder, marked the end of the First Age of Evindale and created a new form of magic: the arcane.
This new magic washed across all physical worlds. Many of what were once of Sythlia’s own natural ever-living world were hideously transformed into beings of profane magical nature. Some of these new creatures rose to great heights in their new found power. These became known as the Italti. Their rise marked the beginning of the Second Age of Evindale.
Divine
Sythlia’s own origins is that as an Aldri’har, an infinitesimally small divine spark of the eternal dreams of the Ancient Masters, the Tirsar themselves. Carrying their might but constrained to the creation of matter and all things within it, Sythlia created the physical worlds which were bound by fixed laws of physics but fueled by her own energy of that of the other deities known to mortals who have also gained access to the realm of the physical.
Some classes, namely those of clerics and divine champions, pay homage to these ancient gods and are rewarded with the ability to cast spells from their divine font. Others have within their blood the essence of the divine such as in the case of sorcerers with celestial or fiendish ancestries.
Occult
Ævyn’s death and the manner in which it happened allowed other deities entrance to Sythlia’s material universe. Just as the action of the First Murder created a deity of death in Sythlia’s own realm, so too do the other actions of mortal empower other deities.
This mysterious connection between mortal exertion of will on reality and the deity that action fuels is the source of occult magic.
Bards, whose esoteric knowledge has created a basic understanding in the inner workings of the worlds, and occult sorcerers who find obscure energies deep within their own blood are the most well-known of occult spellcasters.
Primal
Sythlia’s creation of all things material came with a fixed system of physics powered by divine energies identified by and known to scholars as the Eight Elements. These Elements drive the physical universe and its tangential planes in all things from cycles of day and night to the process of gene mutation that leads to the evolution of species.
To some, this is simply called Nature. To those that seek the deeper meaning behind existence itself and what drives the natural world, it is called primal magic. For this reason, druids are often called “Sythlia’s Clerics” or “Sythlia’s Scholars” while those with primal energies in their bloodline may become sorcerers whose abilities rival wizards with terrifying results.