Magic - where does it come from?

Alright, I know this is a really nerdly question, but where does magic in Guild Wars come from? More specifically, I was wondering how it's related to the gods. I know there are patron gods for different elemental types of magic, and I know that every class has particular gods they worship. Does magic exist without the gods? Do gods merely help mortals use magic? The specific reason I ask is because a concept class of mine reveres magic over any god in general. Does that make sense in the Guild Wars universe?

Magic was a gift to the races from the 6 gods we know - Balthazar,Dwayna,Melandru,Lyssa,Grenth(or possibly Dhuum) and Abaddon. It was combined and this proved a foolish mistake after Abaddon gave out the Magic to the races of Tyria only for the the races to begin abusing this magic agaisnt each other.

King Doric the present king of Ascalon at that time travelled to Arah,city of the Gods and pleaded with them to take back the gift. The gods then split the Magic into four schools - Preservation, Destruction, Aggression and Denial. These were put into magical stones so that they could never be used as one type - the Bloodstones. As you can see the Gods hold magic from these schools.

Actualy, Doric was the king of the unified kingdoms before they split into Ascalon, Kryta, and Orr

gods gave it to us..............its in the time line

One does question, however: Does magic actually come directly from the gods, or do they just have a limited control over the source (the creation of the Bloodstones shows they have some power over magic, but they don't seem to have the ability to selectively deny it's use from their enemies)? When they 'gave' magic to the races, was this a case of 'for all intents and purposes, magic didn't exist beforehand' - or were they simply teaching mortals to use something that was there the whole time? And if the latter, were there specific races or individuals that had magic beforehand - either through finding it themselves, or being taught early due to being well trusted by the gods?

My thinking lines up with draxynnic's. My concept (still working on it) is a class that worships magic before it worships gods. Free Runner is says that the races were able to abuse magic in the past. That makes me suspect that it is a force over which the gods don't have complete control.

If that's the case, it would make sense that the races could conceivably study magic on their own, without the gods' help. I think of magic as a spectrum:

1) Prayer is on one end (like monks). This is basically a mortal asking a god to do him a favor in return for his worship. The god grants his follower's request.

2) Magic, as we have now in Guild Wars, lies in the center. Mortals commune with their god, who in turn teaches them how to master magic on their own.

3) Magic, as my class concept would have it, learns to access magic through other means.

Thoughts?

I'm not even sure you need to have the 'prayers' angle. I'd say that the 'prayers' are simply that spells from that line are spoken like prayers... but they don't actually need to be 'granted' by a deity to work.

After all, the White Mantle monks can still use their magic, and it's made pretty clear in the storyline that they hold contempt for the gods. So if the gods had complete control over magic (even specifically "prayers" magic), one would think that the White Mantle wouldn't have it. (I'm leaving the Mursaat out because we really don't know what the Mursaat's attitude towards the gods really is... one supposes it IS possible, however, that they have some spark of the divine that does allow them to grant powers to their worshippers, but still...)