Lore
The Magic of Imarel - by T.A. Saunders ©2009, revision v2.9, 12.16.14
There is little dispute that magic is the single most powerful force on Imarel and the Shar'Vaire and Quar'Vess are the undisputed masters of controlling it. Magic (and its abuse) have also led to the destruction of two civilizations and has almost destroyed the Shar'Vaire themselves as a people. The lessons learned from the Imperial Era and the War of the Eternals has taught the Shar'Vaire that their power cannot be squandered or allowed to freely wander into the hands of those who would not use their potent methods for evoking it without care.
All magic originated with the Old Gods and their first children, the Asyndi. They were entrusted with the knowledge of how to gather Mana from the world around them, draw it within themselves and use the gathered energy to fuel the force of their will into reality. An Asyndi does not evoke a fireball or a stroke of lightning into existence by drawing on power elsewhere, they will it into existence. Because of this the Asyndi do not need to use verbal, somatic and material components to create spell effects. Magic for them is as fast as thought.
This means of spell- casting is not how all races of Imarel cast spells, the actual knowledge to utilize magic in this fashion must be taught by a Quar'Vess or a Shar'Vaire; it cannot be learned on one's own. Those methods are detailed out in the Casting Method article