Abilities
"Maybe there's a devil, or something like it, inside.
They don't know I burn. This is how I burn."

Animagi (Skill)
The ability to turn into an animal form at will. Any wizard skilled enough to learn the ability can do this, but very few actually seem to spend the time to perfect the technique. Basically, years of study pay off into being able to shift into an animal while keeping your human mind, instead of losing it like most people do. The downside, though? You can't chose your form. Similar to a patronus, the form it takes chooses you; it may or may not end up being the same animal.

Its usefulness really depends on the form, now doesn't it?

Dragon Tamer (Skill)
This isn't so much a special ability as it is a very advantageous partnership. Dragons, for the most part, do their own thing. Powerful, vicious, and usually uncontrollable. That is, unless they are one of the more cooperative stock that can be mentally bound to a wizard- or more commonly known as a 'rider.' I hear they have a telepathic connection, and in most cases even get along like friends. Nothing like a couple tons of scales and claws as a partner for life.

Me, though? I'll leave riding huge, talking lizards to the people at the Dragon Sanctuaries, thanks.

Elemental (Talent)
This one is a bit...complicated. It happened in the fall of 2019- four unsuspecting people stumbled into something huge, and changed the world forever. Ancient magic from the Eterna was released, and so was the power of the elements. Those four people? They became the Avatars. One for Earth, Fire, Wind, and Water.

They weren't the only ones, though. Fragments of that elemental magic was scattered everywhere, imbuing random people with the lesser elements: energy, flame, flora, geo, wind, lightning, ice, and aqua. It gives them wandless, potent control of their realm. They're powerful...but the Avatars are worse. They literally are the human containers to the spirits of the four elements of nature.

The price? Your sanity, more or less. Elements gain their power from emotion- or, more accurately, the loss of control. They know nothing of reservation or reason, and the less human you let them make you, the more powerful you can be.

Tell me, is it worth it?

Empath (Talent)
A double-edged sword. These people are 'gifted' with the natural ability to feel the emotions and pain of nearby people first hand. They can use that insight to help them, or their finely tuned abilities to show you their own, but it can also hurt. In crowds they can be overwhelmed and confused, and without enough control they could be forced to feel every bit of your sorrow and pain like it was their own. It's not something you can just turn off. I almost feel sorry for them.

Enchanter (Talent/Skill)
They are manipulators of the human psyche- or, less affectionately known as 'mind rapists.' People don't tend to like wizards with this ability. Would you? With a glance they can control your thoughts, and with a snap of the fingers they can twist love into hate. With more personal attention they tear you apart and reshape every part of what makes you you. 

There must be some way out there for this ability to be used for good, but I've never seen it. Watch out for these ones.

Healer (Talent/Skill)
Alright, so, just about any competent magic user can do basic healing spells. The important difference between them and real healers is a natural talent, or a particular determination. The rare few with the 'gift.' They're the ones that will use their abilities to pull you back from the brink of death. They're the ones that can heal injuries in minutes that would take months to fix otherwise. Not just anyone can do that.

It's not easy, though- on the healer or your body. Like Muggle doctors, it can take years of training to perfect the necessary chants and techniques. For you body, it can take a while to pick up the slack after serious injuries. Magic can't do everything, and some things are beyond even its reach.

Legilimens (Skill)
Typical mind-readers. A good one will naturally be able to pick out truths and lies- even better one can pick through your mind to find out just what they need to know, as well as skim your surface thoughts. The real talent is in keeping it subtle, though. If a Legilimens isn't careful, it will be all to obvious to a victim that they're messing around with things they shouldn't be.

Metamorphagus (Talent)
People that take transfiguration to the next level, they can change their appearance at will into just about anything humanoid. Want to be a ginger-knob? Bam, there you go. Change your gender? That's cool, too. Not much to say about these.

Necromancer (Talent/Skill)
In short? Creepy fuckers. I don't know the exact details, but basically they do 'things' to dead bodies and it somehow gives them information about the person's life. Playing with innards, ritual cannibalism...it isn't surprising that these people are both rare and shy away from the public eye. In their circles, though, I hear they can actually be very effective- but just how much they can find out is limited by how much of the corpse is left.

Just another reason to get cremated, I guess.

Occlumens (Skill)
Legilimency's less invasive cousin. Instead of mental intrusion, this is mental fortitude and defence, for anything from resisting mind control to concealing lies from the eyes of a mind reader. This is a hard one to learn, but is reasonably common due to being very practical. Order members are required to learn this, since it keeps the Oath from exploding their brains when people infiltrate.

Parselmouth (Talent)
People who talk to snakes. It's usually thought to be genetic, but its also known to pop up fairly randomly. It sounds like a bunch of guttural hisses and breaths. It should be noted, though, that just because you can talk to snakes doesn't mean they'll listen to you...or that they have anything particularly useful to say.

Seer (Talent)
Oracles, fortune tellers, and general seers of the future. While some places will try to teach just anyone divination, that can be considered a joke. Only naturally gifted seers will receive visions and prophecies, and many suspect that even more mundane divination techniques are useless in the hands of normal wizards.

Shaman (Skill)
These guys are kind of odd. You know the image of a witchdoctor? These are wizards that seem to have taken that to heart, and have actually made something of it. They use nature orientated magic, and general live in spiritual tribes in the middle of nowhere. Big into herbs and using material components to spells, they tend towards things involving their animals guides, and small acts of persuasion they call 'Wild Craft.'

They also use staffs instead of wands, which could be considered stupid or awesome depending on how romantic you are.

Parselmouth (Talent)
People who talk to snakes. It's usually thought to be genetic, but its also known to pop up fairly randomly. It sounds like a bunch of guttural hisses and breaths. It should be noted, though, that just because you can talk to snakes doesn't mean they'll listen to you...or that they have anything particularly useful to say.

Mouths (Talent)
Parselmouths speak to snakes, but that isn't the only type of animal communication. There are other types of 'Mouths', usually to do with larger species groups, such as birds, canines, felines or whatever. They're just as rare as their snake-loving parts, but haven't received the same amount of infamy thanks to Voldemort. I haven't heard most of the languages, but they are probably a cornucopia of weird.

Wandless Magic (Skill)
People with enough magical mojo to be able to do things without the channelling effect of a wand. Theoretically anyone can do it, but it takes an amount of effort and skill that most can't muster. Even those that excel at it tend to be limited- there's only so much they can manage without help.

To think that all wizards used to do it this way.