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The Orders of High Sorcery.
Rarer than folk magic but far more powerful is the method of manipulating magical energies known as High Sorcery. Eons ago, so the practitioners of this art claim, three gods taught mankind how to understand and control the magical energies that form the world. These gods were Lunitari, Nuitari and Solinari. The people that they taught created a formal system whereby those with magical talent could be sought out and taught how to control it, and where knowledge of magic could be shared.
These High Sorcerers claim that the gods originally taught them in a place known as The Citadel, which has long since left the world. In its place they built replicas - the five Towers of Sorcery. These magical places existed partly in the material world, and partly elsewhere, and were centres of learning, study and experimentation for the orders of High Sorcery.
The Orders
Practitioners of the arts divided themselves into three philosophies or, formally, Orders. Those of the Order of Solinari (Idealists) felt that the gift of magic was one that should be used carefully, in the service of others. Such a great power was not to be squandered or used selfishly. The Order of Nuitari (Realists) felt that magic was power, and so it was the right of the user to exercise that power. Personal gain, no matter the cost to others, was acceptable since the High Sorcerers were obviously superior to mundanes. The Order of Lunitari (Pragmatists) struck a middle ground. They argued that it is up to the conscience of the individual sorcerer to decide how best to use his magic. The outright power-mongering of the Order of Nuitari was frowned upon, more because of the bad name that it would give magic rather than for moral reasons. Similarly, the pacifism of the Order of Solinari was considered to be foolish in a world where sorcerers were feared and hated. The line that the Order of Lunitari took with mundanes was "you don't bother us, we won't bother you".
Each of these orders can be identified by the colour robes they wear; White for the Order of Solinari, Red for the Order of Lunitari and Black for the Order of Nuitari. These are only really reserved for meetings in the Towers of High Sorcery, since it is often unwise to walk abroad marked out as a sorcerer. Some still do so as a mark of pride or intimidation.
High Sorcery claims to take its power from the three moons of Krynn. White Solinari is the largest moon and has a cycle of 28 days. Red Lunitari is slightly smaller and has a fast cycle of 8 days. Nuitari is small and black, and unknown to many cultures. It can only be seen when it blots out celestial phenomena behind it. It has a cycle of 36 days.
Towers of High Sorcery.
In ancient times, five towers were built. However, at the time of Istar the High Sorcerers fell into disfavour with the authorities. The Kingpriest distrusted their secrecy, and considered those of the Black Robes to be practitioners of evil. Attempts were made to close the Towers of High Sorcery, but the sorcerers destroyed the towers rather than let their secrets fall into the hands of others. The cataclysm did the rest.
Today, two towers remain intact. One in Palanthas was cursed and no-one can now enter. The last tower was moved into its own parallel dimension. It is now the largest repository of magical knowledge left on Krynn. The Tower exists at many places at once, and can only be found if the inhabitants wish it. A person might wander through a particular forest, or open a door in a city and find the Tower. Where a place has rumours of strange disappearances, chances are it is a nexus for the Tower of Sorcery, such as the Forest of Wayreth in Qualinesti.
Organisation of the Orders.
The wizards of High Sorcery are governed by a Conclave, consisting of seven wizards from each Order, and a twenty-second presiding as nominal head (Currently Par-Salian of the Order of Lunitari). Although the three Orders may disagree, even fight each other, outside the Tower inside is neutral ground. The sorcerers know that they are more the same than different when it comes to the world at large.
To enter the ranks of the Orders, a young mage is usually "found" by the Conclave and directed to the Tower of High Sorcery. Here they are trained for many years until deemed worthy to take the Test, a harsh and sometimes fatal examination of the student's worth and ability. If they pass, they are formally inducted into one of the Orders. Which Order they join depends on their behaviour during the Test and throughout their apprenticeship (needless to say each Order tries to influence the young student with their philosophies).
Once a member of an Order, the young mage is obligated to share any knowledge they have, or any magical discoveries that they make, with the Orders. They must return to the Tower if summoned and obey the rulers of their Orders. Certain things are forbidden by all Orders - the dealing with demonic forces is considered dangerous to the fabric of existence. All members of High Sorcery have an obligation to turn in any rogue mages that they find. No outsider must learn of the secrets of the Orders. No mundane may enter the Tower. A sorcerer must always declare his Order to another sorcerer.
The Houses of Sorcery.
Within the philosophically divided structure of the Orders, there are a number of more vocationally orientated Houses. The Houses cross Order boundaries (thus within each House there may be Mages from each of the three Orders) and are loosely based on astrological ties to the planets of Krynn (given here withe their Istarin name).
Rogue mages.
Some people manifest magical talent and are either missed by the Conclave or choose not to join. These are known as Rogue or Wild mages. They are considered more of a nuisance than a danger by the Conclave, since without formal training their powers are usually weak, but unpredictable.
There are three attributes and a bunch of skills that determine a sorcerer's ability. The attributes record three different sources of magical potential that a sorcerer has.
Magical Skills
There are 15 magical skills, which can be divided into 5 "arts" and 10 "forms". The arts can be thought of as verbs, and they are Creo (Create), Perdo (Destroy), Rego (Control), Intellego (Sense) and Muto (Alter). The names are from Ars Magica and are in Latin, although they can be thought of being in Solamnic for the purposes of Dragonlance. You can use whichever term you find easier - Latin or English.
The Forms can be thought of as nouns, and they are Aurum (Air), Aquam (Water), Ignem (Fire), Terram (Earth), Corpus (Body), Mentem (Mind), Herbam (Plant), Animal (Animal), Imagem (Image) and Vim (Magic).
Each Art can be combined with each Form to form a sentence construct eg. Create Air, Sense Animal, Destroy Fire, Alter Earth, Control Body etc.
Spontaneous Spellcasting.
A sorcerer can use these combinations to give them great flexibility in creating magical effects. In order to do this, they must first decide what effect they wish to achieve and which combination of Art and Form are appropriate. For example, if a sorcerer wants to extinguish a fire, Destroy Fire (Perdo Ignem) makes the most sense, although they could cause water to appear and douse it using Create Water (Creo Aquam). The choice might depend on their skills, since to make the spell work they must succeed in the lowest of the two skills used. In the case of the above example the sorcerer would roll against the lowest of Destroy or Fire.
Spellcasting this way uses magic points, and the greater the effect, the more points used. In the above example, putting out a campfire would cost more MPs than putting out a torch. Some effects (eg. Trying to put out a forest fire) would be beyond the power of mortal sorcerers, unless they had a very large store of MPs in matrices.
If a spellcaster casts an effect requiring more MPs than they have, the excess MPs will be transferred as physical damage, so it is possible for a sorcerer to kill themself trying to achieve a particularly powerful spell.
Formulaic Spells.
Over centuries of magical experimentation, the wizards of High Sorcery have come up with more efficient ways to achieve magical effects, using a specific set of commands, movements, material items etc. Many of these have become disseminated throughout the Orders and are well known. This formulaic magic works in a similar way to AD&D magic, and uses the spellcaster's Vessel rather than MPs.
Each formulaic spell has a "level", which is a rough guide to how much it degrades the Vessel upon casting. A sorcerer may cast as many levels of formulaic spells as he has points of Vessel, but may not cast higher level spells. E.g. A sorcerer with Vessel 3 can cast three Level 1 spells, one Level 3 spell or one Level 1 and one Level 2. He cannot cast a Level 4 spell.
Formulaic spells are still tied to a particular Art/Form combination, and the spellcaster must still pass a check in his lowest skill to make it work, but no magic points are lost upon casting.
A spellcaster may know any number of formulaic spells, but can only learn them from scrolls, spell-books and the like.
Definitions of Arts and Forms.
As for the Forms, it is important to remember that the divisions are based upon magical theory, rather than physics. Thus it is impossible to freeze the water in a persons body using the Water Form, because according to magical theory, the body is one thing - Corpus. Some of the categories include other sub-groups based upon these assumptions. Aurum/Air for example also includes weather.
Limitations of Magic.
There are certain things that magic cannot achieve - only the gods are able to produce such effects, but now they are gone.
Magic cannot alter another's soul or true nature.
Magic cannot affect the moons or sun.
Magic cannot affect time.
Magic cannot create more magic.
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The Moons