Game Mechanics: Inborn Magic

Wizards study for years and channel arcane energies through incantations. Clerics pray for miracles and their requests are often heard. There's a third category of spellcaster, though, and that's the inborn magic user. Pathfinder calls them sorcerers so that's the term I will also be using. Sorcerers have the Spark, just like wizards do, but it works differently in them. They still select spells from the Wizard list but they can't learn anything more than their selections each level (wizards are technically capable of learning every spell in the game, although they can only cast a certain number of spells per day). They can't specialize in a school of magic like wizards can. They can't craft spells or potions or magic items either. In exchange for these flaws and disabilities (in game mechanic terms) sorcerers get a couple of benefits. First, the casting time for any sorcerous ability is 1 (Wizards have different casting times depending on the spell their using). Second, they don't need to use gestures or words to fire off their spell(s). Third, they have a 1 in 4 chance of being able to use any magic item, regardless of whether or not it's one that an arcane spellcaster can use. Fourth, they can wear armor to protect themselves while Wizards generally cannot.

In game terms, this makes a sorcerer closer to a superhero character than a wizard, albeit one with a limited number of times they can use their powers in a given day. In the 1899 world, sorcerers were traditionally viewed with suspicion by the common people (it's not really witchcraft, but that doesn't stop sorcerers from being accused of being witches). The politically and economically powerful have been known to prize having a sorcerer or two in their employ, since they are rare and unpredictable. In the USA sorcerers with useful talents are guaranteed an officer's rank in the Army, Navy and Ether Navy; in the CSA the same is true. In the theocracy of Deseret a sorcerer is considered to have the favor of the true God and sorcerers tend to be given considerable license and latitude while indulging their particular vices. The sorcerers of the 500 Nations are respected as wonder-workers and medicine men and in Peachtree they're considered particularly blessed. The Bronze Brigade is a group of fifty sorcerers in the Peachtree armed forces, all of whom train and drill together to maximize the effectiveness of their abilities in combat. The first Confederate attack against Peachtree was foiled almost exclusively by the Bronze Brigade, whose existence was revealed to the world at large at the time. Since then the mere threat of their deployment has kept the CSA from rattling their sabers too loudly on occasion.

Sorcerers have been observed in the Red and Green Lizardmen, the Jaguar Men of Venus, Tripod Martians and Skaven at roughly the same rates that they are in humans (roughly one in 5000 people). Especially in the case of the agrarian and contemplative Tripod Martians, sorcerers tend to live a life of adventure and travel. It's as if the Spark inside them compels them to go out and find situations that require their talents, because by using them out in the world their skills and abilities grow.