Lightning magic was usually magic energy transformed into electricity that was then fired straight at the enemy like it was a projectile.
That was not how lightning worked in nature. That was why lightning magic was not as powerful as its natural equivalent unless the mage casting it used an exorbitant amount of magical energy.
However, recreating the lightning found in naturally occurring thunderstorms was difficult to do, even if one understood how it worked. If one didn't understand it, recreation became impossible.
But Mandra was a mage who made the impossible possible. What others found difficult to the point of giving up, she found worth doing.
Her eyes, which gave her no choice but to see the truth of the world, unveiled the mysteries of lightning a long time ago, but it was only recently, after creating a rainstorm with Oria Villesand, that she started devising a spell to make use of that knowledge.
