The School of Destruction is more than it seems.

Author: Archon Elantri

All around Tamriel, Mages and Sorcerers of all kind uses the art of destruction to bring woe to their enemies. This is common knowlege for the average citien's of the Empire. When most people think of the school of destruction, they think of chaos and death, BUT that is not all that its about.
Something the common man in the street dont know is that the school of destruction can and is often split into three subschools. These subschools are Cryomancy, Pyromancy And Electromancy.

Cryomancy is the sub-school that uses Cold, Frost and Ice

Many a Spellcaster have used outside of battle. When many hear about a Spellcaster using Cryomancy, it is often used in battle sling around ice spikes and blizzards. Its true that its quite effective in battle as it can at higher levels even freeze hostile forces into statues of ice. Its quite effective against warriors and archers as it makes them tire faster. Anybody who have been outside in a cold winters day, and is not a Nord. Have probaly felt how the cold winter winds makes everything harder to do, your hands working slower, with less graze than normal. Where things take more energy to do because of it. Even a weak Cryomantic-spell have this Ability and some of the stronger ones can make even the strongest Nord freeze to death in a matter of seconds. But despite Cryomantic being quite fearsome in battle, it are also quite important outside of battle in peace times. Most towns uses Cryomanser's to keep their food from rotting, by freezing it down (The higher classes most likely uses it to keep their wine cold.). This practise started in High Rock, and was one of the services offered by the Mages Guild through out the Empire in the Third Era. But after The Mages Guild split into two. After the split, that practise have become more rare. Cryomancers are now something that Most towns cant aford, as they are in high demand the bigger the town the more work a cryomancer can get. Cryomancers is sought after not only because they can preserve food, but also because they exell at fighting fires.

Pyromancy is the sub-school that uses Heat and Fire.

Fire is a dangerous thing, and so a Pyromancer is something that is something every sane Man and Mer fear. They can start a fire with a wave of their hand. Even a Novice Pyromancer can burn down a town. But what most people dont know, is that one of the first lessons a Pyromancer lears from his mentor is the consept of Unburning Flames. The consept of Unburning Flames is that a Pyromancer's flames feeds from the Pyromancer's own stored Magica instead of anything else. The result of this is that a Pyromancer can cast his Spells without fear of burning down the forest or town he's in. There often comes reports about a victim of rouge Pyromancer whos remains are just charred remains. Its true that this sometimes happens but law abiding Pyromancers uses the unburning flames. As a result of the Unburning Flaes the victim of a true Pyromancer is often more cooked than burnt. A traveling spellcaster's best friend is Pyromancy. If one know even a basic Pyromantic spell, starting a campfire is easy (this is one of the FEW times its aceptable to not use Unburning Flames). If a traveler knows one of the more advanced pyromantic spells, a traveler can dry himself and his clothes as fast as he gets wet.

Electromancy is the sub-school that uses Lightning and Electricity.

Out of all the elements in a Mages arsenal, the worst might be Electromancy. But only against fellow mages. A Cryomancer might freeze you so your skin cracks and your hands grow black from the cold. A Pyromancer might burn you so your skin blister and your hands get chared. But that kind of damage you can heal with a propper Restoration Spell, so be sure to learn a bit of Restoration, or have somebody nearby who do. But If you get attacked by an Electromancer then you are in trouble... The attacks by Electromancer dont just damage your body but also damages your stored Magica. If you watch closly at somebody that is being hit by a spell like "Sparks". The Spell a Novice Elecromancer learns, as it is the weakest and most harmless. You will see almost invisible steam, leaving the victims body, that is Magica leaving. A Mage is like a Barrel that is allways collecting water and refilling itself, only with Magica instead. What an Electromancer's spells do, is that they punches a hole in the mage's "Barrel" that stores Magica. The stronger the spell the bigger the hole and the bigger loss of Magica. The damage is not permanent and will promtly fix itself, but the stored Magica will be lost. This is why an hostile Electromancer means real trouble, so never go up against one alone. And if you do be prepared that you might loose all of your stored Magica.

There have been known Rouge Electromancers that has been rumored to experiment on a way to permanently destroy a persons ability to store Magica. More than a few people through the ages have been hit with Electromantic spells that have been stronger than average. Some of the surivors have reported that their ability to store Magica have been diminished, and the speed of whitch they store it have slowed. But they all recovered from that within a month, even if their body took a lot longer to heal from the severe damage it took from the spell. Knowing this we can say it is a distinct possible that Electromantic spells can destroy a person ability to store any kind of Magica. But the damage the victim's body would take from doing so, would most likely kill it before anybody would know anything was wrong with their storing ability.

The best way to surrive an encounter with an Electromancer is pretty simple. DONT GET HIT by his or her's spells. The trick is to conserve Magica as mutch as possible, use Ward spells as a last option, try instead to get behind cover. The reason behind this is simple, a ward spell takes a bit of time before it reaches full strenght. If you get attacked before full strenght of the ward is reached the ward will break and you will lose the invested Magica. Use your suroundings to your advantage, hide and get the element of suprise.