I'm going under the assumption that everything "magic" still works on the existing "Aether manipulation makes things happen".  Which means the wiggle room you have is how you get magic to fuck around under your command. Â
With that in mind, the School of Practice I have worked up for a later thing. Â It's close to Bardic, but it's a lot more primitive and a lot less 'pretty'.
- What are the factors in learning magic?Â
Heart and soul and a good memory. Â Can't sing a song if you don't know the words or don't believe the words.
- Does it require study?
A good amount, since you have to know the words and how to sing along, but all of that's for nothing if you can't hold a tune and scream the right word.  Some people just aren't cut out for it.  Some people are nothing BUT one giant song waiting to be sung and they're pretty well fit for it.
You either 'get' it or you don't, after study. Â Bad students of it tend to say the wrong word at the wrong time for the wrong reason with the wrong emotion and end up dead in very unique ways.
- Does it require a sort of "attunement" with the magic of the world?
Yes and no. Â Everything's got a word behind it. Â Trick is knowing it. Â Trick is finding them. Â Trick is knowing how to use them. Â It's barely even magic, it's more putting a lever into things and forcing them to move a certain way under the force of whatever you put into the word, using your force of emotion as the lever. Â It's one part Word, one part Emotional investment driving it and if you have both of them, it's enough to cause some change.
- What kind of components are involved? IE, Vocal, Somatic, Material, Focus, etc.
It's somatic. Â It's song and word and curse and shout and scream and lul and lilt and poetic joy. Â It's word and voice and heart. Â You don't need components to do it, but you can only manipulate existant things so it doesn't work in a vacuum. Â It's also doesn't have a lot of words for catastrophic, unnatural things, so the song can't drop a moon or teleport someone, or raise the dead.
It CAN coax all the heat out of the front of your skull and give you a brain freeze from hell. Â It -can- pull all the flame and heat in a room into one point and then release it in one quick, ugly, violent flash-bang blast. Â If you're feeling really adventurous you could try calling lightning, assuming you knew the right name for the right kind in the right place, but lightning's kind of notorious for being indiscriminate once it's unleashed. Â You could pull chunks of shrapnel out of something, you could draw poison out assuming you knew the "word" for the poison.
Thing is: All of this takes the Words. Â Not a lot of them are known, they're kept secret by practitioners, and used as a kind of currency between people who do this kind of thing. Â Secrets kept are powerful, even if they're small. Â Assuming you can match the kind of emotion the word wants to function, you can do a lot with it, but doing it right means knowing the words and how to use them. That's so intense most practitioners only work in a certain 'facet' of the language.
- Does magic draw energy of some kind from the user?
It's using their emotion as the leverage to "shape" aether, and the word they're speaking specify where that lever gets applied. Â How they speak, how intense they feel, and how purely, dictates how it works. Â If you're missing the heart, the song, or the word, the entire thing collapses and tends to target a part of you with it, by force,Â
Needless to say people who know this sort of school don't use it just for 'kicks'. Â No one wants their brain getting catapulted out of their ear at mach 2. Â No one wants to have their bones turn to liquid or their eyes into rocks.
Don't say the wrong words. Â Don't say them if you don't mean it.
- Does it vary depending on the kind of magic? If yes, how so?
I think there's a billion different ways to shape aether, shape the effect, and to what degree of power, so definitely.
With that in mind, the School of Practice I have worked up for a later thing. Â It's close to Bardic, but it's a lot more primitive and a lot less 'pretty'.
- What are the factors in learning magic?Â
Heart and soul and a good memory. Â Can't sing a song if you don't know the words or don't believe the words.
- Does it require study?
A good amount, since you have to know the words and how to sing along, but all of that's for nothing if you can't hold a tune and scream the right word.  Some people just aren't cut out for it.  Some people are nothing BUT one giant song waiting to be sung and they're pretty well fit for it.
You either 'get' it or you don't, after study. Â Bad students of it tend to say the wrong word at the wrong time for the wrong reason with the wrong emotion and end up dead in very unique ways.
- Does it require a sort of "attunement" with the magic of the world?
Yes and no. Â Everything's got a word behind it. Â Trick is knowing it. Â Trick is finding them. Â Trick is knowing how to use them. Â It's barely even magic, it's more putting a lever into things and forcing them to move a certain way under the force of whatever you put into the word, using your force of emotion as the lever. Â It's one part Word, one part Emotional investment driving it and if you have both of them, it's enough to cause some change.
- What kind of components are involved? IE, Vocal, Somatic, Material, Focus, etc.
It's somatic. Â It's song and word and curse and shout and scream and lul and lilt and poetic joy. Â It's word and voice and heart. Â You don't need components to do it, but you can only manipulate existant things so it doesn't work in a vacuum. Â It's also doesn't have a lot of words for catastrophic, unnatural things, so the song can't drop a moon or teleport someone, or raise the dead.
It CAN coax all the heat out of the front of your skull and give you a brain freeze from hell. Â It -can- pull all the flame and heat in a room into one point and then release it in one quick, ugly, violent flash-bang blast. Â If you're feeling really adventurous you could try calling lightning, assuming you knew the right name for the right kind in the right place, but lightning's kind of notorious for being indiscriminate once it's unleashed. Â You could pull chunks of shrapnel out of something, you could draw poison out assuming you knew the "word" for the poison.
Thing is: All of this takes the Words. Â Not a lot of them are known, they're kept secret by practitioners, and used as a kind of currency between people who do this kind of thing. Â Secrets kept are powerful, even if they're small. Â Assuming you can match the kind of emotion the word wants to function, you can do a lot with it, but doing it right means knowing the words and how to use them. That's so intense most practitioners only work in a certain 'facet' of the language.
- Does magic draw energy of some kind from the user?
It's using their emotion as the leverage to "shape" aether, and the word they're speaking specify where that lever gets applied. Â How they speak, how intense they feel, and how purely, dictates how it works. Â If you're missing the heart, the song, or the word, the entire thing collapses and tends to target a part of you with it, by force,Â
Needless to say people who know this sort of school don't use it just for 'kicks'. Â No one wants their brain getting catapulted out of their ear at mach 2. Â No one wants to have their bones turn to liquid or their eyes into rocks.
Don't say the wrong words. Â Don't say them if you don't mean it.
- Does it vary depending on the kind of magic? If yes, how so?
I think there's a billion different ways to shape aether, shape the effect, and to what degree of power, so definitely.