Overview
Water magic is one of the basic elemental schools. Mages use it to shape, move, gather, and sense water across civic, naval, survival, and combat work. The basic elemental schools include water magic, fire magic, ice magic, earth magic, air magic, and lightning magic.
Applications
Water mages reroute river channels, draw moisture from dry ground, maintain reservoirs and wells, clean streets and travelers, keep shelters and tunnels from flooding, and control runoff after storms and floods. Water mages perform this work in places such as Maraveth, Irrathis, Kaldaryn, Morozkaya, Therendros, and Zarephon.
At sea, water magic propels boats, creates currents under ships, checks depth, stabilizes vessels, rights overturned ships, keeps fishing boats moving, and keeps crews moving when sails or air mages are unreliable. Ships rely on these techniques around Thalmyris, the Palace of Water, the Thalassai Navy, Ereshval's Plains of Eternity voyages, and Maric and Renneth's northern voyage with Spin.
In combat and defense, water mages can swell rivers and channels into torrents, carve channels, reinforce barriers with earth mages, prepare flood traps, deny underground positions, and exploit deep-water pressure. At Raindawn, rivers, channels, walls, and water-mage traps make the city difficult to take.
Users
Naryon is Thalassai's archon of water and teaches Jin Leiyun in the Palace of Water. Pontarius, a former archon of water and later admiral, uses water and ice-like mapping in strategic councils. Maric begins as a water mage, then grows through the lava shard into fire, earth, and ice magic. Spin uses water magic naturally enough to command swamp water, propel boats, and teach Renneth.
Water users also include water mages such as Liana, Thamrielle, Deylin, and Vashir, plus Nero as Nerissa's wave-shard wielder and Nerissa as the goddess behind the wave shard. Liana trains water mages in Morozkaya, Deylin combines earth and water magic for wells and deep-sea work, and Nero wields Nerissa's wave shard, which amplifies his water-and-earth magic.
Boundaries and Overlap
Water magic combines with earth in wells, walls, reservoirs, construction, and terraforming; with fire to boil and purify; and with air in storm cleanup and ship propulsion. Ice magic remains close enough that Maric's shard-enhanced water magic branches into ice.
Skill level changes what the school can do. Water mages handle civic, transport, and survival work. At higher levels, water mages redirect rivers, protect ships in storms, map terrain through water, survive deep-water pressure, and fight at sea; Nerissa and Nero wield the wave shard at ocean and battlefield scale.