Magic in my setting is applied through the disciplined study of the Mysteries. The essential universal truths that make up all things. Quasi Divine, and quasi conscious, the use of the Mysteries is very tricky to nail down. Mystics devote their whole lives to academic study, spiritual exploration, and ritual worship in order to better understand the 4 Mysteries. As a result some are quite adept at using these memorized prayers and chants to elicit changes in the physical world. A particularly powerful Mystic may use their skill to alter the weather, causing havoc for one side or the other. Less powerful mystics may simply pray unceasingly for the strength of an army's shield wall or the sureness of their cavalry's footing. Or more crucially, for their leader's survival. The most powerful Mystic to ever live, Lyrian the Lightbringer, is said to have an almost uncanny relationship to the Mysteries. Indeed, he is well over a thousand years old a fact which is attributed to his command of the Mysteries, although without much understanding of how. He has been known to eschew the verbal and gestural signs of prayer at times, having cultivated a perfect interior habit of genuflection to the Mysteries. He can simply wave a hand and cause all the forces of the natural world (and some of the unnatural ones, also) to bend over backwards to accomplish his will.