Anwansi society focuses on the craft and art of magic. Every anwansi community is led by a council of the most powerful mages (usually users of spellcasting and sealcasting). Body mages are looked down upon in anwansi communities. Anwansi mages must prove their power every ten years in a series of tests called the onwunwa, including written, oral, and practical exams.

Children are taken from their parents as soon as they can read, usually around the age of four. Before this, they are carefully taught the skills they will need in school. Anwansi schools are cloistered where only the community council or the teachers can attend them and see the students. Students are allowed out of the school only if they are sick, injured, or deemed disruptive. In the case of the latter, they are given a year to improve their behavior. If they are forced to leave three times, they are expelled. They must then learn magic privately from their parents or from tutors. Students in schools must pass exams every year. If they fail three times, they are also expelled and must find private support as well. Any student who is expelled for any reason must pass the same exams at the end of every year, and if they fail three more times in private education, they are jailed or banished. Those who graduate from their childhood schools (usually around the age of 20) go on to specialized schools or to be workers.

Those who are deemed unfit to be mages still use magic, especially in their day to day lives, but they cannot participate in running the communities. They are not allowed voting or space on a council. They become workers in the council-owned mines, quarries, water systems, etc. Those who become mages go on to specialized schools to learn their chosen spheres of magic. If they fail out of the specialized school, they are still mages, though lower ranked. The more schools they attend, the more magic they can use, the more respected they are. Those on the council usually are masters of about a third of all magic spheres. Archmages (okachamara kachasis) are very rare, and without an archmage, anwansi communities will never be fully united. Instead, they divide by schools and spheres, along pantheonic lines.

Marriage and courtship among mages is rare. Sex is considered secondary to magic. Among workers it is common, however. Courtship rituals usually involve magical displays and artistic presents.

Mages who find themselves in conflict with one another, whether personally, professionally, because of business or coming from rival communities, can engage in dueling called agha. Agha is an ancient dueling art that involves eleven days of preparation and eleven hours of meditation before the duel takes place. The goal is to incapacitate the other mage, but sometimes someone is killed. The dispute is considered settled after the duel, but grudges may persist.