User blog:Njalm2/Nanja's Grimoire: Evocation

It appears that Nanja's Grimoire won out by a slight margin when I asked you a all a little while ago. So with that in mind I've decided to get started on the Eight Schools of Magic. Each of these articles will include a hopefully enlightening explanation of what exactly constitutes a spell within each school. As well as going into depth exactly what that kind of school is all about, I'll also provide canon examples of such spells and noteworthy onsite practitioners.

This first School of Magic I'll be introducing is the most well known of them all, Evocation. Although not that well known by it's actual name, most of the wonders we visualize upon thinking about a "spellcaster" belongs to the School of Evocation. Fireballs, lightning bolts summoned from your fingertips, waves of ice and sleet conjured with an elegant flourish, all of these are Evocations.

Consequently, this means that the vast majority of spells from the Way of Destruction are Evocations as well.

School Information
The School of Evocation is primarily associated with manipulation of all forms of energy, such as heat, cold or lightning. But that's not an exhaustive list by any means, and in truth, such spells can call upon any form of energy, provided that it does indeed exist as such in the first place.

As an example, an evocation spell might manifest a ball of flame, an icy wind or a lance of lightning. But it could not generate acid, poison or water - because those are substances and liquids, not forms of energy. This is the primary reason why there are so few (read none) destructive spells dealing with water or earth in canon, because evocation is simply put unable to produce spells of that nature.

Conjuration could, but it might only produce a slab of stone or a splash of water. As a general rule, Conjuration has much more limited offensive tools at a low level. Such a spell in the thirties might end up dousing the target without doing damage at all, not exactly awe-inspiring or scary, just annoying. Likewise a low-level earth spell might wind up creating harmless mud. Meanwhile, Evocation provides even weaker Shinigami with a powerful offensive spell in Byakurai.

With this in mind, spells dealing with water or earth are quite impractical in comparison to those dealing with raw energy. If we follow what has been established in the Fanon Canon, the Kidō Corps likely didn't see much point in releasing such spells to the public as it would most likely serve little purpose.

How to Recognize Evocation
Most of you have probably noticed how I've mentioned the school of Conjuration several times in this article, despite how this is tied to Evocation. The reason for that i quite simple, it's because both these schools deals with very similar concepts, and some might argue that there's only seven Schools of Magic, with Evocation being a subschool of Conjuration. So, since I intend to include both schools, here's some general guidelines to determine a spell as being an Evocation.

Evocation Spells are Transient: This is a big point, Evocation spells are evoked, meaning that they manifest a specific (usually spectacular) effect and then they vanish in the same instant. If a spell lasts longer than a second, then it's most likely not an Evocation.

The Rule of Touch: Evocation spells deal with insubstantial forms of energy like lightning, cold or fire. Because of that, a good rule of thumb is that if you could conceivably touch the spell after it's formed, it's not a spell of Evocation.

Evokers
Most of the premier battlemages on this site specialize within the field of Evocation, it's after all the school of magic most closely entwined with the perception of magic itself. They're practically without equal when it comes to raw destructive power. My very own Hiroya Ginkarei is an Evocation Specialist, and so is my contribution to the Fanon Canon Kazuya Kuchiki.

Evokers are best recognized by how spectacular their spells are, the more advanced ones typically have their magic assume various forms, such as Hiroya commonly manifesting his spells in the form of doves and other birds. This is to make up for the general limitations of Evocation spells, which commonly only manifest in predictable uncomplicated ways.

Evocation in Bleach
As briefly touched upon before, Evocation is rather widely represented in Bleach in the Way of Destruction branch of Kidō, in fact, pretty much every Hadou spell found in canon with the exception of Kurohitsugi and Daichi Tenyou are Evocation spells.

When it comes fanon spells, most of them tend to be Evocations as well. Varying in scope, but largely always intended to cause great harm through some manipulation of energy.

Conclusion
This concludes the very first issue of Nanja's Grimoire, I hope this information is useful to some of you. Since I've mentioned Conjuration extensively in this article for the sake of contrasting and explanation, it's only fitting that the next issue of Nanja's Grimoire be about that particular school of magic, til then, adiu!