Overview
Illusion magic is a sub-school of temporal magic used for disguise, concealment, decoys, false terrain, and combat misdirection. It bends sight, steers perception, and alters the mind's grasp of what is real. Skilled users can give people, clothing, ships, terrain, spells, and strikes false appearances, and paired essence suppression lets illusions hide signatures as well as appearances.
Users and Uses
Kaelion Saeryth is publicly announced in Xalmyrra as the Voice of the Veil and a level eight illusionist, and he is the master illusionist of Soltheris. His illusion magic can hide a group behind the appearance of barren land, misdirect enemy perception of where a strike is coming from, create false images of himself, and remove himself from an opponent's awareness. He studies illusion from his youth in Zeydrith as a rarely studied submagic of temporal magic.
Eliona uses illusion magic for concealment and infiltration. She conceals herself, Azarion, skyships, terrain, and essence signatures, making Azarion's air-and-divine blasts much harder to track. Alistair uses illusion spells to operate as Alice, move invisibly, impersonate others, and conceal his movement, refining the technique after observing Eliona. Marcellus uses field disguises during infiltration, altering his apparent hair, height, and the color of clothing around his group.
Silas gains veil-and-illusion power through Zal'therak, the god of veils and illusions. Zal'therak's shard lets him maintain a human disguise, hide movement, create false obstacles and replicas, combine illusions with cosmic force, and travel along the edge of the void.
Limits and Counters
Precise illusions cost essence, especially when they must mimic the surrounding world in detail. In the Land of Darkness, Kaelion uses essence cores to keep his concealment active; if he drops the illusion even briefly, the darkness creatures can find the group.
Illusions can be disrupted or pierced. Isrynn disrupts Eliona's skyship concealment, Thalena exposes false terrain by erupting the ground beneath it, and the runic carvings of Skarnheim can interfere with illusions or tampering. Eira's unusual senses pierce Silas's human disguise. Dense darkness can also stifle Kaelion's tricks, and darkness and lightning mages are poor matchups for Eliona.
Boundaries
Public ranks include level eight illusionist. Kaelion studies illusion as a temporal submagic.
Zal'therak's veil-and-illusion power is divine and shard-born. It produces illusions, concealment, and edge-of-void movement.