Most conventional scholars of the Continent examines magic from a materialist viewpoint: magic is a form out of prisma, the substance that makes up everything else in the world. However, for the scholars to arrive at this point, philosophy has gone a long way.
Theist views on the origin and nature of magic, although popular during the first and second milennia, are now considered superstition, and are banned in many countries. While it varies for each culture, the general theory is that magic was a gift from deities for various causes. In Ruporzh, Old Mother created the world out of magic, and gave the leftover to its people when she was done. This view was very popular during the archaic times, however, became increasingly outdated and then finally gotten rid of in academic landscapes around the First Academic Boom.
Due to the dangerous superstitions they prompt, theist views on magic is banned in Vyas and Koinos.
In contemporary times, traces of theist views could be found in religious and folk beliefs, but are not researched in the context of magic studies.
Monist views on magic appeared quite early (around the second milennium), but scholars struggled to agree on the same point of view for a very long time. When it comes to which “thing” that magic — or the rest of the world — is made up, there were a lot of opinions.
This line thinks that everything is an idea, or an illusion. There is no way to prove this idea as false, but it’s just useless from a research perspective.
This line thinks that everything is made of a very physical material, but they tend to disagree on which material.
Essentially a dualist view, this suffers from the logic issue of whether a rock is sentient or is capable of having ideas, since there are quite a lot of unconscious things that have magic.
This functionalist idea is further developed from the materialist idea that sees magic as a seperating entity from material beings. It argues that magic is a property of beings that serves a certain purpose for that being. Magic cannot exist in vacuum to the functionalists.