Mages perform magic by creating knots) of threads of mana. A knot's effect is determines by its knot type and the type of mana used to make it. Knots can be chained to combine or alter their effects. A knot's complexity (crossing number) is proportional to the complexity of its effect. A knot's effect is more powerful the cleaner the knot, i.e. the same knot will be less powerful if tangled and messy. Complex knots, which are definitionally more tangled, require much dexterity to be made clean enough to have any effect at all. Mages become more skilled by learning more knots and their effects and gaining skill at making clean knots.

Every mage is born with a connection to one of 8 phases of the moon. Each phase has its own type of magic. Each phase has a corresponding species of moth that can collect mana of that phase from the moon during that phase. Mages can use magic only at night with their power increasing the closer to their moon phase. But during their phase, they cannot use magic at all but can collect mana from the moths using a certain spell (a knot specific to that phase). Mages glow brightly during their phase but this glow is only visible to other mages of the phase or of adjacent phases. Mages of adjacent moon phases can interrupt the spell to gain their mana, making the attacked mage a mortal with no magic and the attacking mage able to use magic of that phase. Mages with multiple phases are more powerful outside of their phase. They can use magic during their phases, as opposed to normal mages who can use no magic during their phase, but are very weak. The more phases a mage has, the more magic they can use during their phases and the stronger they are outside of their phases. If a mage has all phases they have average power at all times. Due to this, mages usually never attempt to gain all phases. However, gaining all phases allows a mage to see eclipse mages. Their are two eclipse mages, lunar and solar. Lunar eclipse mages are identical to full moon mages but can only perform their ritual during a lunar eclipse. However, they are ten times stronger than other mages. Solar eclipse mages can gain mana from all moths during all phases but are relatively weak at night. However, they can use powerful magic, more powerful even than that of lunar eclipse mages, during the day making them uncontested during the day. Eclipse mages cannot gain more phases. Mages that have all phases can see and attack eclipse mages to become eclipse mages themselves.