The table got very quiet very quickly. When father was speaking, no one was to make a sound and listen to his every word as if it were the words of the holy light himself.
"You are now of age to learn about the method of categorizing magi, known as the Crystal Status. This is a system that is only taught to children on their Magi Day as to not build unworthy expectations."
Although this was supposed to be their first time hearing it, both Orpham and Ojero had seen some of these rankings in books and had some idea of how it works.
"As you know," their father continued, "not all elements are equal. Some are stronger, some are weaker. Some are common, some are rare. It is even possible to not have an element, however your parents do play a role in this. Since both your mother and I are powerful magi, the odds of you being non-magical is almost 0."
"The Crystal Status has multiple levels. The first refers to rarity, and this list has weight albeit less than the power level. The rarity levels are as follows: Common, magic such as spark, minor wind, minor earth, minor fire, and minor sight are all in this category. These are the most common abilities and are mostly used by the peasantry to better their lives.
"The next category is Uncommon, and has crystals like minor shock, earth, fire, water, wind, plant, glass, cloud, and even minor healing. This category is still mostly used by peasants, although some nobles have been born unlucky enough to be rated here."
"Following Uncommon is Rare, and this is where most lesser nobles are found. These abilities are basic lightning, water mastery, fire mastery, earth mastery, wind mastery, healing, minor summoning, plant mastery, ice manipulation, and wood mastery. This tier, although not too strong, can start to be an annoyance for us higher nobles."
"After Rare is Ultra Rare, and is a smaller category than most. Although all categories have dozens if not hundreds of powers, Ultra Rare has few due to it being more of an awkward middle. In here we have superior healing, super strength, super hearing, super sight, and other mostly physical boosts. Some wish to swap the Rare and Ultra Rare tabs due to their strength, but it has failed every time suggested due to this being simply a rating of rarity, not power."
"The next category is where real power is. Legendary has powers that can destroy small towns and villages, and so the ones with these powers are very sought after. I have no doubt both of you will at least be in this category. Here we have firestorm, tidal wave, electro shock, wind storm, earthquake, minor teleport, major healing, minor gravity, minor light, minor dark, summoning minor destruction, and minor creation."
"After legendary, these powers are almost never seen. We have the Ethereal category. Here we find teleportation, fire lord, earth lord, wind lord, lightning lord, water lord, light, dark, which is sometimes called shadow, destruction, creation, healing lord, summoning lord, and the emotional magics. The emotional magics grant someone the power to control people who often feel specific emotions, and much debate goes down about whether emotional magics should be dubbed illegal. Those who have Ethereal magics are only ever found in the top brackets of society."
"After Ethereal is only one more category in the ranking, and few users are ever born in this space. I have only met 2 from this, and one was the king. The other was an old friend who is most likely now long dead. This is known as the Mythic category, and has the lowest number of known magics in the world. Time, space, master teleport, light lord, and shadow lord are some of the few known."
"Now, while Mythic is the last and rarest category, there is technically one that stands outside the ranks. The Illegal Category. People who have magics in this category are to be killed on sight, no matter if it was the king himself. They are extremely dangerous, and almost always immoral powers. There has only needed to be one user for each of these powers to declare them illegal, and they are as follows. Necromancy, otherwise known as death magic, godly light, godly dark, puppet master, and souls void."
After father finished the illegal category, he grew very quiet and his face turned solemn, as if he was remembering a memory he would rather forget. Realizing both his sons were staring at him questioningly, he snapped back up and continued.
"Sorry about that, where was I? Ah yes, now while I mentioned many magic powers here these are not all of them. There are hundreds of powers in the world, and new ones are discovered every decade."
At this, Orpham chimed up.
"Father, what powers do you have?"
Everyone turned to look at him, knowing that interrupting father was not what anyone wanted to do.
"Quiet, boy, when I am speaking. However, your question is valid. I have both the wind lord and lightning lord powers. If you are curious as to why I have 2, I will inform you now it is indeed possible to have multiple powers, however only 4 people in history were known to have 3 and we have never found someone with 4."
At this, Orpham seemed to be deflated, which Ojero happened to not notice. He was too curious as to what powers he himself may have, and what strength it would give him. Due to being the second son, while he was indeed loved by his parents, he was not the heir. This meant he had to fight for real power in this world, son of a duke or not.
As they continued to eat their dinner, Orpham had another question on his mind.
"Dad, what powers do you think I will have?"
Father replied quickly, as if he had been expecting and preparing for this question.
"At the very least electro shock, windstorm, and minor light. However, the odds are in your favor to gain a legendary variant of one of these instead. I do not expect either of you to gain an ethereal or a mythic level power, the holy lord knows my luck isn't that good, but both of you should at least get our families power."
"You know, we have a long history of lightning and air magi. My father and his father before him were both also lightning and wind lords, making the odds of you gaining my strength very high. Now, while it is always possible to be born with any power, by us being your parents the odds of you inheriting our powers are quite high!"
As father finished, Orpham seemed to be happy with this answer and put his full focus on food, wondering away at what power is in store for him.
Once they finished, Ojero asked a question. "Father, what about the other levels of the Crystal Status?"
"Ah yes, good ear son. I will now go over the second level of the Crystal Status, and what some determine as the most important: The Strength Status"