Magic

In Aarderra, magic is not an esoteric, mystical secret hidden away in dusty ancient tombs, it is a completely ordinary part of daily life that everyone knows, uses, and takes for granted.

It operates as a commercialised utility woven into the modern world, meaning if you can dream up a household convenience, the guilds have likely mass-produced it, stamped it with a guild sigil, and taxed it.

Because spellwork is treated as a strictly regulated trade, practising arcana requires an official corporate or church licence. University-trained wizards and artificiers operate as prestigious, sanctioned professionals with copyrighted spellbooks and patents, while anyone caught casting magic without a licence is branded an "Arcane Infringer" and prosecuted as a corporate felon. Still, necessity breeds defiance; unlicensed casting continues right under the guilds' noses, and out on the frontiers, it becomes practically impossible to police.