Magic

After the final battle, casters found that arcane magic no longer flowed as easily as it once had. With no gods to guide the flows of energy, and no other planes for this energy to flow from in the first place, mages had to turn elsewhere: Magic now takes a toll on the user directly.

This change is viewed with mixed (admittedly mostly negative) feelings by the spell casting community, but the Biomancer lauded it as an evolultion in magic use. Mortals would no longer need to look outside themselves for their arcane energies, and could not even been stopped by the gradual disappearnce of magic that would be the result of the gods' departure.

Game Mechanics:
When casting a spell, magic users receive (spell level * 3) in non-lethal damage.

Also, two points of essence may be spent to emulate a known metamagic feat. However, this requires two consecutive rounds to be taken focusing the casters energies, as only one point of essence may be spent a round.