Okay, so how does magic work in Eternal Regalia? I will try not to confuse you guys too much with what I have come up with.
First I think it would be best to cover what the Order ranks mean as well as how the different orders work.
To begin it is best to state that while dragons are the only real second order beings that I have touched on so far there is only one other race called the Haldrathin. These two races make up the second order for most of the early part of the story.
Now, what do I mean by second order? Well as noted very early on in the story mana enters through the skin. As the mana begins to enter the body it flows through extremely fine tendrils that reside in all living things. Traveling slowly through an individual's body eventually entering the stomach. It is these tendrils that everything starts to get interesting.
Being the means by which mana is purified over time slowly the number of tendrils will increase slowly increasing the thickness as they braid together. Through training and time, the tendrils become so compact and so thick that it becomes impossible for them to remain inside the body. At that point, the tendrils are painfully shed from the body. After this process, the body begins to rebuild the tendril network that it once had, however, do to the amount of purified mana require to shed said tendrils instead of starting all over again the purity of mana is equal to that before the point of shedding. Meaning one had entered the second order after each shedding the tendrils are shed away and one enters the next preceding order.
So if that is the case why not only have no human witches been able to become a second order being? The answer in the story's lore goes back to before the third breaking of the world. At that time, many different races lived in the world. A race known as the Toulryn a human haldrathin hybrid having become very powerful in their time decided that allowing the races they thought were inferior to themselves should be sealed to prevent those others from ascending up the Orders.
So that I hope that I have given a good enough explanation of how the different Orders work. It is mostly just an increase in the purity of mana, however, the increase is thousands of time greater. So when a first order being performs a spell the amount of purified mana required for that spell is predetermined. That being the case each order has different spells that they use.
Okay so earlier in the story there was the mentioning of ranks. These work simply as a means to know how powerful a witch is based on first the purity of her mana. Second the number of spells she can execute within a certain amount of time. These two dictate rank between witches.
Finally, I will move on to Lanthim and where he sits in all this. At present, we find lanthim currently master of a large following of personal student that follow and obey him. I will not state actual numbers at this time. The system that we see deployed by Lanthim separates his students by order as follows.
*First to Fifth Order (Apprentice)
*Sixth to Twentieth Order(Templar)
*Thirteenth to Sixtieth Order(High Templar)
*Seventy to One hundred fiftieth Order (Master)
*One hundred sixty to four hundredth Order (Grand Master)
Lanthim's power is within the grand master range making him the most powerful being in the world at the present time. From what we know so far, there are at least one high templar and the mention of a master class barrier used at one point.
The idea that both Mynrea and Leinea have concerning the exact order of individuals. That they have interacted with is not entirely correct. As they have no idea the power that has been released. By Lanthim entering the library and disseminating the knowledge within.
So on to abilities, due to his ten years in which no one currently knows what he learned the only real ability he has actively used is an advanced long range teleportation spell called Melfryn Soelfe. Allowing him to travel almost instantly from where ever he is to the outreaches of his sensing range. That range being over six hundred miles means he could basically be anywhere. After he learned how to create familiars his range increased even further. At the current time, he uses a gate transportation spell that can open a portal and allow him to enter any space he wishes with a much smaller cost to the amount of mana he uses. Even though he has a lot of mana at hand that he can use it is always better to not to over exert one's self.
Finally, in ending, I will talk about Lanthim's fighting style which is interesting to say the least. Having been born, from the time of his seal Lanthim realized that the only way he would ever overcome an opponent. Was to be faster and strike harder. With insight into how mana flows in the body, he was able to develop a fighting style that while requiring little of his own mana would require massive amounts from his regalia.
So what is a regalia some would likely ask? In this story, I have changed the meaning slightly. In short a regalia is a series of magical circles that are linked to its own mana core. When a large group of magical circles is condensed into one will have a magical sequence. A regalia is made up of these and creates its own mana. The only downside is in order to activate they require a small amount of mana from the host core.
It was in creating four regalia made specifically for melee combat that Lanthim placed his foundation for this fighting style.