Luxomancy

Luxotheurgy, the practice of the magical art of Luxomancy is one of the newest of the magical arts to be taught amongst the worlds of the Planar Council. Luxomancy is the arcane manipulation of magic to achieve effects based around light, color and illusions. Though the magic focuses on light, there are also spells used to alter and manipulate shadows and darkness as the counterpoint to light.

Luxomancy has a long history despite only really being developed recently. There have always been spells dealing with light and dark, and even some dealing with the creation of illusions, but it wasn't until the Third Age that the Planar Council engaged with cultures that had a mastery of magical illusions, which lead to the creation of Luxomancy.

With spells of light and darkness, Luxomancers find themselves with spells useful for observation and concealment. Their mastery over their domain gives them a wide toolset in which to use for spells, and their art was the first to develop spells of pure invisibility or illusion. With their additional control over darkness, they can also play into the fears of certain beings as well.

The art of Luxomancy is the more popular of the newer magical arts, with the spells of illusion being favorites. Luxomancers generally deal with two types of illusion: Their illusory spells are actual illusions, creating any object that seems real to the eye but is generally no more than a optical illusion brought to life. Though they are quite complex, an illusory wall is just that: an illusion. The second type of illusion are the phantasmal spells, which create a complex construct of light that has an actual, physical form but in doing so becomes mainly transparent. While an illusory wall will fool the eyes, a phantasmal wall will be able to be looked through, but not crossed. By combining the two, however, the possibility of a true illusion exists.