Overview

Lightning magic is an elemental school for creating and controlling lightning, electricity, stormclouds, charged air, and lightning-driven movement. Mages use it to fire bolts, call strikes from thunderclouds, electrify rain and air, form lightning shields and weapons, charge their bodies for speed, and combine storms with air, fire, ice, divine, or plasma magic.

Lesser lightning mages throw bolts that scorch ground and batter shields. Mages strong enough to summon true lightning pull it from the heavens, fill the sky with thunderclouds, and electrify rain and open air.

Storms and Area Effects

Lightning mages can darken skies, shape thunderclouds, intensify rain, and call repeated strikes over water, ships, armies, and terrain. Jin and Tianlei create storms that foam nearby waters, electrify rain, and web lightning from ocean to sky. Jin later commands thunderclouds over Maraveth; his bolts strike ships, crack shields, and shake the battlefield with thunder shockwaves.

Tianlei descends through Jin's storm as a human-shaped mass of clouds and lightning. His blast cuts a mountain, raises a huge wave, and destroys nearby terrain.

Combat Uses

In combat, mages launch bolts from their hands or from the sky, force enemies behind shields, burn or scorch targets, and strike ships from the air. Sephara fires a flashing blitz of lightning from her hands, pierces a skyship's barriers, electrifies the sky, and knocks nearby mages down with sparks from their bodies. During Nerissa's Invasion of Xalmyrra, Kalyx floats above the battlefield, calls down ceaseless thunderstorms and bolts from the heavens, dodges Tazarin's cosmic beams, and cracks Tazarin's starfield barriers. Zhang wraps plasma and lightning around his body and smashes Raphael's ice shield with arcing blue lightning.

Mages shape lightning into weapons and shields. Jin shapes frozen lightning swords that burn away rain, freeze or burn the air in their wake, and explode into electric remnants. Thorik's lightning-wreathed axe carves through Rimvold defenders, sends lightning arcs outward that electrify and scorch enemies, and releases massive bolts for Virel to redirect. Thalion uses golden lightning through divine fusion, firing bolts from his hands, raising lightning shields, and reinforcing his body in duels.

Movement and Training

Mages combine lightning with air magic for flight and fast travel. Jin uses air and lightning to fly, cross oceans, scout from above, climb mountains, and move fast enough to blur. Simon disappears and reappears in flashes of lightning after casting meteors in Thundermarch. Thalion uses lightning magic to slow a fall, propel himself during combat, and charge his body during close combat.

Cloudrift Temple teaches lightning as part of the dragon arts in Thundermarch. Master Han trains Jin with lightning control strong enough to make Jin's returning arcs fizzle or veer away. Zhang mixes lightning with fire. Sephara and Thalion summon rain over drought-stricken Thundermarch villages, and Sephara later remains in Stormbrook to teach Zhenyu Leiyun and the village.

Civic Uses

Uriandel uses lightning magic in early Maraveth to create electrical fields that kill pests and insects without harming humans. He also creates rapid travel by electric currents and shares that method with Michael. In Varnhallow, air and lightning mages use cleansing spells that leave ozone in the air. Brontes uses lightning magic to sketch a map in dirt.

Golden lightning combines lightning and divine magic. Thalion develops golden lightning while he carries Tianlei's shard. The lightning shard marks Tianlei's pact and carries his power. Nerissa gives Gabriel's thundercloud crystal to Kalyx, and static arcs across the skyship windows when he takes it. Thorik's lightning-wreathed axe channels lightning through a weapon.