From the shattered warpgates at the poles of the world raw energies of Chaos flow into the world, powering works of sorcery and sustaining Daemonic entities. This is magic in a pure but unstable form. Thanks to the wise counsel of Teclis, greatest of the High Elf Mages, Human wizards have learned to draw upon a single facet to work with a form of sorcery which is relatively safe, but still capable of feats of vast power. These isolated strands of raw magical energy are known as the Winds of Magic.
Winds of Magic is a comprehensive guide to the practices and traditions taught by the eight Colleges of Magic. As well as providing background to the development of magic in the Empire it includes details of a multitude of magic practices, creatures, and places.
- Each of the eight lores of magic taught by the colleges is provided with a revised and expanded roster of spells and a separate career for each sort of wizard.
- Rules are provided for rituals, complicated spells that can be used to empower magical sites, create magical creatures, or summon powerful but wild entities.
- Details on the summoning of Incarnate Elementals, the creation of Magical Constructs and how to develop a familiar as either an NPC or a Player Character.
- Details on the properties of magical sites, such as the lines of waystones that drain magic towards the Great Vortex in Ulthuan, and several sites associated with a particular wind.
- Characters can tell the future, read the past, or brew magical potions thanks to rules for the practices of Augury, Psychometry and Alchemy (both magical and mundane).
- A set of new careers allowing Characters to specialize as a Scryer, Mundane Alchemist, Beadle, or Magister Vigilant.
- Eight of the Empire's pre-eminent wizards, from Balthazar Gelt to Elspeth von Draken, are detailed as potential patrons for Characters.
Several nemeses are described, such as the Blue Scribes who seek catalogue every spell in existence for the glory of Tzeentch; Egrimm van Horstmann, the greatest Chaos Sorcerer alive; and Mòna Mimn, who wishes to turn all the Old World into a vast fenland.