Not all humans got along with the vyrmm. There was a small group of humans that broke off from the rest of the established cities long ago and decided to learn magic on their own, away from the influence of the vyrmm. They had made small steps towards discovering powerful energies prior to the vyrmm deciding to teach humans magic, and did not want to be distracted with anything else that was being taught at the time.
In these times before Nox, illuminite was treated as a curiosity, but nothing more. However, these early magicians found its ability to store energy to be absolutely vital to their cause. They moved into the mountains, where illuminite was most plentiful, and began their work, isolated from the rest of the population. They called themselves "adepts", as they felt they had natural skill with magic without being taught by the vyrmm.
After a few decades of study, the early magicians found ways to store energies other than sunlight in illuminite- incredibly vast amounts of energy. Training their bodies to channel this energy properly resulted in many casualties, but eventually gave the adepts a power unlike any human could have ever imagined.
The adepts were proud of what they had accomplished, but pride fell into elitism, and the adepts kept the secrets to their magic close, never sharing it with outsiders. The adepts are a rather hostile and xenophobic group. Few have seen exactly what their magic is capable of, even fewer have survived to tell the tale. A traveling raycaster once returned home with a horrific story of how he saw a mountain shattered into sand by a single adept- many hope it is but a myth.
