So, this will be a longer answer, but you did ask!
So, before we start, I wanna note that all of these are not just weapons. They're tools, as well. Like how a wrench can be used to bludgeon someone, or a pen stabbed.
Now, let's go over the different styles of casting. Wands and staves are the most common, for wholly different reasons. Ritual stones and blood magic are a lot more volatile, but do have the benefit of being much more powerful. Alchemical ink results in either casting with painting or creating scrolls, both done on special paper and often stored for later.
The common thing that all of these different styles share are the shapes and sigils and circles and such used. The alphabets (Common, Arcane, and Ancient) used result in quicker but weaker to stronger but slower spells. (Thus, the Arcane Alphabet is the most common, as it is in the middle.) For example, a letter in the Arcane Alphabet is... 3 to 5 strokes, usually. The Ancient Alphabet? It's, at minimum, 15 strokes per character (often around 30 on average). So yeah it's MUCH slower, but so much more powerful.
The other common thing used in these casting styles is visualization. Going off of the last ask, you might think that Imagination or Visualization would be one of the Core Mental Elements, but they're not. This is because those change per person. One person might see it like code, while another would see it as painting, and another might see it as just lines done in order. These are all completely valid ways of seeing how to make a spell circle!
Speaking of spell circles, let's go on to our first pair of casting styles: wands and staves!
Wands and staves are your most basic (and most efficient) casting styles. So, let's start with wands.
A wand is a small rod made of enchanted material (typically wood or bone around the length of a forearm--about a foot). Think of them like magical pens/pencils. Wands are typically for the common folk who don't go deep into magical studies. (Note: magic is taught in all schools on Arcanis! Especially the early grades and younger ages. Spells like ''Compass'', ''Spark'', and ''Gust'' are taught to all folk, as these are key spells that can lead to many more powerful spells!) Typically they're enchanted with Force magic affinity, often having a secondary (like Heat or Cold) affinity enchantment. Now, the benefits and drawbacks are balanced here. Because they're made for one or two elements, it's much easier to cast those elements! But it's also a lot harder to cast the other elements with a wand. I'd say... Around a 50% efficiency modifier for both for a normal wand, and up to 200% for a specialized wand.
Now, that was a lot for wands, so let's go on to... staves! This is gonna be A LOT more.
Staves are your go-to for a dedicated mage. The good ol' branch of wood, sometimes with a gemstone in it. And this is because of the staff-binding ritual. Basically, when you first become a mage, you're given a staff to bind yourself to. In exchange for a small but constant flow of your mana, the staff grows with you and becomes stronger. This results in you being much more efficient with your staff, as well it growing more and more powerful as you do, even increasing your maximum mana capacity as well as acting as an extra mana battery that you can draw from! You can also store spell circles within the staff's focus. Round foci tend to work better for this, with a higher capacity, but all staves can store a good number of spells for quick use!
But that's not all, because staves have several different styles to grow into, as well! The Full-Moon (or Ring-Foci) and Star (or Solid-Foci) staves. (AKA Lunar and Solar). Each has two main subcategories, as well. For Full-Moon, it's Crescent Moon and Faerie Circle. And for Star, it's Binary and Cluster.
Like the sun rising, we'll start with Solar Staves. These are simple and effective. You have a huge branch and you stick a big gemstone into the top, thus letting the branch grow around it. Congrats! You have the most basic and all-rounder staff. You might also put an orb at the top instead, and that'll work, too! These staves are good for storing mana and spending it. You've seen 'em before.
Binary Star Staves are a result of the focus crystal splitting into two, be it by a break or natural happening. These staves are amazing for combat. They're slower at channeling mana, but can hold a lot more and can even cast several of the same spell at once! (Triple fireball, anyone?)
Lastly for the Star Staves is the Cluster Staff. If a Binary Staff splits even more, it becomes this. They're horrible at casting, being slow and having many different focal points, but are amazing at storing mana. They tend to be good as shotgun-like staves. Many small spells constantly thrown out.
Now on to the Full-Moon staves. These staves are much more ''graceful'', one might say. While a Star staff thrusts and chops and blasts, a Full-Moon staff swings and twirls and sways to channel and unleash magic. Solar is direct, Lunar is indirect. (You could use a sword or shield with a Solar staff, but not a Lunar staff.)
These staves are amazing at channeling and holding mana, but there's one big issue compared to Solar staves. You have to pull the spell circle out of the staff's ring and cast it directly. While a Solar staff can just sling spells, a Lunar staff can not. Thus they are often used by shrine maidens, priests, druids, and the like.
The base Full-Moon comes in many different varieties. A ring atop a staff, be it antler-shaped, a enclosed ring, or an open ring; often with a gem set at the bottom of the ring or floating in the center. These staves channel mana by swinging them around and twirling with them, akin to a cleansing ritual.
The Faerie Circle style of Full-Moon staves differs in one huge way: instead of being a vertical ring, it is a horizontal ring. These staves are the most defensive-capable staves out of them all, able to be placed in the ground and channeled through to spread spells out in areas around it, or in powerful domes.
Lastly is the Crescent Moon Staff. This is actually a dedicated warmage staff, and is very hard to produce due to focus needing to be floating in the center of the staff. One could compare them to, say, a Witcher in how they fight, except with a bigger focus on magic. Sweeps and swings combine to make a devastating combination.
Hoo boy, that was a lot about staves, huh? Well, we aren't done yet! YOU ASKED, SO YOU'RE GONNA GET THIS LECTURE! I'll try to be quicker with the rest.
Ritual stones and blood magic come from using natural leylines and flows of magic to create spell circles on the ground or at dedicated ritual sites. These spells are often the best for summoning, scrying, or blessings. The type of spells that last for a while and stick around. Of course, these are dangerous casting methods, requiring a specialized understanding of how mana flows to use them. And if it goes wrong? Well, the common person is full of blood that is also full of mana... Leylines can channel through a person, too.
Alright, last ones. We're almost done. Here's a question for you, the reader. I wanna make sure you're paying attention. Do you enjoy these lectures? Do you like learning about magic? Because I genuinely love teaching. I just struggle to start a topic, so I love being asked questions.
Now, on to the Alchemical Styles. You've heard of magical scrolls before, right? Special parchment with spell circles inscribed onto them with magical ink, requiring a special word or phrase to be activated? Well, there's really not much else! Most mages use the Alchemical Styles in one way or another, be it transcribing spells for the commonfolk to use (since the mana is directly in the ink, you only need to use a small bit of mana to activate it), or to store spells for later that they can't store in their staff due to it being full (or other reasons).
Now, these are just the most common types of spellcasting. There's many more, like the forbidden kinds (Not gonna tell you about those! They can very easily kill you and everyone in the surrounding area!) and the small variations of each that just show up from time to time (such as split staves or dual staves).
I do hope you enjoyed this lecture!
I'm gonna go rest my hands and paws. Brai brai brai...