Arcane mysteries, glowing orbs, mystical powers, creatures from other planes and other worlds, demons, celestial beings, fey pranksters, magical fires... the Ten Queendoms are a world in which the mysterious is to be expected, and yet somehow never becomes totally ordinary.
Magic is many things to many people:
To some it is little more than wishful thinking, and the hope that somehow, sometime, someone is going to answer a prayer.
To some magic is superstition: the small rituals that invite good luck and ward off ill fortune.
To others magic is as natural as breathing, a perfectly ordinary aspect of everyday life -- no more surprising than seeing color or hearing music.
To scholars of the form, magic is a deeply mathematical science, and one that bends even the most brilliant minds towards madness sometimes.
And then there are those for whom magic is the troubling result of a soul bargain with some terrifying power.
Magic is part of everyday life in every corner of every queendom. But whether it is delicately laced into the chord progressions of the local bard, or the wondrous displays of a streetcorner performance, or the special edge of a rare weapon, or the deadly fires and forces of the field of combat... Magic is in the very blood of the Ten Queendoms.
And yet, it remains the purview of the few.
Ordinary folk get by with little or no magical help in their eveyday work.
When a young person shows ability, inclination, or aptitude for magic, this will be a cause for rejoicing in some families, and shame in others.
Although each Queendom has its own ways of recognizing and honoring those with arcane power, the wizards of greatest reknown emerge from the greate Universities of Mataga.