Disciplines are the generic term used for different Focus abilities. Some of these abilities cannot be taught, but seem to be innate abilities of the user. Others are, with enough training, able to be learned. The difference is poorly understood, and while there are many theories, it has proven very difficult to study.
These abilities are able to be learned by any Focus user. That does not mean they are always taught, or that all focus users can learn them; rather just that methods of teaching these skills have been discovered, or that there are more than a single instance of a Focus user learning these skills.
While that may seem a bit obtuse; there is a wide gap between the most skillful and least skillful Focus users. Humans, for example, are almost always able to use some Focus. But that does not mean any human could learn any of these skills. Simply that some humans could.
The user is able to conjure inanimate items. More advanced conjuration can create living beings, with the creation of sentient beings being the most difficult. One is required to keep every aspect and detail of the creation in your mind as you will it into existence. Additionally, there must be a sufficient amount of mater or energy nearby to create what your conjuring, or you will not be able to conjure it. It is possible (though not desirable for obvious reasons) to use part of the user's own body to fuel the creation.
The rule on having the required matter or energy is absolute, and cannot be broken. The rule on keeping the complexity in the user's mind can be bent, with the assistance of technology. With enough practice, one can keep only the most basic details in you conscious mind, while computer augmentations hold the rest of the details. In a similar manner, one can conjure familiar or commonly used items more easily than new items; this trick is often used to conjure a user's signature weapons.
Conjured items are indistinguishable from other items in the universe; indeed they are identical from a physical standpoint. This means that their existence takes no concentration or willpower from the conjurer. It also means they cannot be "dismissed" in a classical magic sense. Instead, the conjurer can, for example, conjure an equivalent amount of dust and use the original object as the material. Where this gets interesting is if you imagine "borrowing" some matter from something, and simply returning it when you wish to "dismiss" the weapon.
This technique has been employed by Sooni warriors for centuries as a way of always being armed. They will use heavy clothing or armor as the material for their weapon conjuration. This is often known as "the weight of one's weapon."
The Sooni art of creating a special weapon through conjuration is known as 'Velyki'. It is an advanced form of conjuration where the weapon's matter is stored in the person's body, at least partially. Because of the Sooni insistence on training with the weapon, learning it, and then destroying it, this forces the user to ingrain an understanding of the weapon such that the requirement to keep its complexity in their mind simply comes naturally.
However, the skill required to produce a Velyki weapon is intense, so lesser skilled individuals resort to the more traditional form of conjuration.
This is the ability to enhance the user's physical traits, such as agility, strength, mental acuity, ability to heal. It is a broad ranging discipline, and one of the easist to learn. Increasing one's reaction time and physical strength is considered a basic level of mastery. Sooni are born with some level of this, and most are able to achieve a conscious increase.
While it is possible (and common) to increase one's healing abilities with this discipline, that is only an increase in the user's natural healing abilities. Frequently this is only how fast their body heals, but some users can use this to restore or regrow limbs. However, this is not the same as the Healing discipline, which can be used to undo damage or disease.
The user is able to undo damage at a cellular level, and even eliminate diseases. (This includes genetic diseases in more advanced users.) Users can even -and often do, at least for themselves- reverse the effects of aging.
As with many disciplines, this requires energy or material to perform. Physical material, such as dust, plants or food are commonly used.
These are abilities that, as far as is known, are unable to be taught or learned. They are either something a Focus user can use, or they are not. These abilities are, in general, far more powerful than learned disciplines.
This discipline gets it's name from the ancient greek word for "creation". It is the ability to create items or creatures ex nihilo. This differs from Conjuration in several ways:
Because this discipline allows for the creation of sentient creatures as easily as it does simple objects, it is almost exclusively used for that purpose, leading to the creation of Idrysi Constructs.
The way in which Idrysi works is it's greatest blessing and it's greatest curse. Because the universe reorders itself, the simple act of using this discipline can have dire consequences. For example, if you create a key to a lock hidden in a convenient crevice, unless you're very careful in thinking through it's creation, it means that you are not the only one to know of that key, since someone had to have placed it there. And since this is a duplicate key (as there had to be an original), it now means that someone had to create a copy of the original key, and that may be known by the holder of the original. This could easily lead to the duplicate you created being trapped, or watched by the owner of the door you were trying to bypass.
More advanced users of this discipline are incredibly good at building the story of their creations, plotting out exactly how they came into existence, and sprinkling in the right details to make the outcome exactly what the user wants. This ability to think through an object's history is even more critical when creating sentient creature.
The universe is inherently resistant to change. The further from the current state of the universe, the greater the constant expenditure of willpower the user is required to create it.
The most difficult to understand (and to experience) part of using Idrysi is the fact that this discipline creates an inherent contradiction. The Focus user knows that they created this object with their discipline, but the universe has reordered such that the object had always existed, so the Focus user also remembers that history. This is even more complicated when the object is one the Focus user has a personal relationship with.
The most advanced form of Idrysi usage is the creation of Idrysi Constructs. These constructs are sentient (or semi-sentient) creatures who have been willed into existence by the Focus user. These constructs are, often, Focus Enhanced, or have some inherent ability to leverage other Focus Abilities. Not all constructs are legit Focus users, but with that much constant willpower, access to Focus ends up being easy for them.
Because a Construct exists by a constant exertion of will, they tend to be very difficult to kill or harm. Constructs will often find themselves returning to life after being killed, or healing spontaneously after injury.