Earth

Portfolio
Earth is an Arcana of solidity and stability. It is a fairly common Talent and is often instinctive. It governs earth, sand, rock and dirt. It also governs weight and attraction, allowing magic that makes dirt or stone repel or attract creatures and objects.

Common Uses
Plebeians use Earth to shape sand and dirt from a distance, to make sand and dirt compact and able to keep a shape, to sense ores and gems at a short distance, to lift heavier weights than they usually can, to make the dirt in a pot more fertile, to make small changes of shape to rock, to climb stone surfaces barehanded as if with handholds, pothole, to open a pothole.

Civem use Earth to dig trenches in sand and dirt, to remove tracks from lose soil and mud, to make lose soil or mud resume the shape it had in the recent past allowing it to bring up older tracks, to make the soil in a small field more fertile, to move stone from a distance, to lift weights much heavier than they usually can, to conjure a few hundred kilograms of sand or dirt, to conjure a few kilograms of stone, to conjure a few grams of gems, to lift a mound of dirt from the ground, to lift a pillar of rock from the ground, to make stone crumble to dirt, to make stone harder than natural, to sense ore and gems from a few dozen meters away, to sense pockets of liquids or gases within the ground a few meters deep, to make a stone fly like a projectile, to change the shape of stone, to make dirt turn into a mud bog, to trap the feet of a creature standing on dirt or stone into loose dirt, to close a to change earth's attraction and leap very high, to change earth's attraction and run for a short while along a wall as if it was the ground, to create stone spikes on the ground to difficult movement along it, to close a pit, to open a pit, to create small avalanches.

Patricians use Earth to see through dirt or stone, to trap a creature on dirt or stone into loose stone, to make the earth shake to topple creatures standing near oneself, to close a trench, to open a trench, to conjure a wall of stone, to change earth's attraction to be able to cling to a wall or ceiling as if it was the ground, to lift a target briefly into the air, to create a stone platform that levitates off the ground, to sense any movement on the ground several meters away (sensing footsteps, wheels rolling along the ground and the like), to create stone spears on the ground, to create a pit lined with stone spears, to make a target's weight increase.

Vilicus use Earth to walk through dirt or stone, to cover a person in stone, to create earthquakes that may topple a house or crack a fortress wall, to very slowly wake a volcano, to reshape terrain over several dozen meter radius (moves mounds of earth, trails, vegetation and even small lakes), to close a chasm, to open a chasm, to conjure a stone tower, to calm a volcano.

Enchanters use Earth to create floating stone platforms, to create boats that sail through soil, to create pocket anchors (objects whose weight increases a hundred fold with a command), to create secret pockets in stone walls that open and close at a command, to create secret passages on stone walls that open and close at a command.

Notable Mixed Spells
Body of Stone

Flesh to Stone

Civilian Careers
Almost no masons exist in the confines of the Empire that do not employ Earth magic to lift walls and properly fix them in the soil. Likewise, most people wanting to demolish a structure will employ Earth magic to do so and a talented user is the best suited to do that kind of thing.

Miners usually have an Earth talented member in any crew to help with prospection and the evaluation of the stability of passages. More skilled users of this Arcanum may use magic to open tunnels and make them stable or even to bring ore directly from the entrails of the earth to the surface without opening a passage for it.

Large cities usually employ a couple of Earth talented individuals to help in rescues in the case of collapsing buildings. They are usually housed with Fire talented rescuers.

Trackers with Earth talent can find even the faintest trace of a target or traces long fallen to weather as if they were fresh and clear. They can also lay effective traps for all sorts of game or capture an animal by anchoring their feet into the ground.

Artistically inclined people with a talent for Earth can bring up sculptures straight from the ground, polish marble with a touch and shape granite with bare hands.

Military Careers
Military engineers with a talent for Earth lift palisades from the ground and dig trenches in a few minutes. They can increase the resiliency of a castle walls and easily repair or even reshape parts of a wall or just any other stone structure.

Sappers are the offensive counterpart to engineers. They dig tunnels under enemy lines and enemy castle walls, they crack walls, fill moats with packed dirt and entomb soldiers inside trenches.

Armies with strong enough Earth talented officers may use floating platforms for observation, transportation and even assault. Walls may be erected instantly to reshape a battlefield and to protect key personel.

No sane commander uses Earth magic to awaken volcanoes. The destructive force of those are just too great to safely control.