a document on the mechanics of casting spells
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An Explanation of Mana

Your soul is your mana pool. By default it is filled with 'life-force' Mana which serves as personalized anima for your own body and mind. The majority of this Mana remains adjacent to reality within your soul, while a significant minority flows through your physical veins, saturating your blood, your sexual fluids, and in some circumstances other fluids, with magical energy. Your body depends on this magical energy to continue functioning, and completely draining your soul of Mana is very dangerous and in most circumstances often fatal.

Mana can have no elemental alignment, or it can have one elemental alignment.

While 'life-force' Mana can have magical effects beyond merely sustaining your body, performing magic and casting spells requires an entirely different form of Mana called 'free' Mana. Mana that is 'free' to act, to channel intent into effects in the world. By itself, non-elemental 'free' Mana doesn't do anything useful because its conceptual domain is too broad, though large concentrations of it can sometimes spontaneously generate tentacles.

This duality is orthogonal to elemental alignment.

 

The Nature of Runes

'Free' Mana serves as a conduit for psychic energy. By shaping specific conduits in specific ways, one can direct and transform psychic charge much like circuits direct and transform electric charge or redstone components direct and transform redstone charge

Enchantments are rune-machines temporarily Bound or permanently Etched into physical objects.

Runenodes are specially shaped and low-level-optimal rune-machines permanently installed into metaphysical objects; specifically, the bottom of your mana pool.

 

On Being A Spellcaster

Though nearly useless by itself, to qualify as a "Spellcaster" one only needs a source of 'free' Mana. Some specific beings, such as Fairies, have esoteric souls that allow them to possess 'free' Mana as their natural anima, lacking 'life-force' Mana entirely and able to cast directly from the Mana within them. However, for most, the only way to be a Spellcaster is to have a "Runenode Core" installed at the bottom of your mana pool.

Name Meaning Function
Chirr ConvertMana The 'core' runenode that transforms 'life-force' Mana into 'free' Mana.

 

Runenode Installation and Operation

If the mana pool is a literal pool of liquid, then Runenodes are machines physically mounted to the 'floor' of the pool, directly upon the drain.

The installation process requires that the soul in which it is being installed be completely empty of Mana. Safe procedures for Runenode installation are known, but it is a delicate and expensive process akin to major surgery. However, the installation of the [ConvertMana] Core has been refined to the point that in cosmopolitan places one who is wealthy can purchase a "Scroll of Chirr" which is a single-use enchanted item that automates most of the safe procedure for Runenode installation.

Once installed, a Runenode may be activated via one of two methods:
* Spoken Incantation - Speaking the Name of a Runenode aloud will cause that Runenode to activate itself.
* Direct Mana Control - You can manually activate a Runenode using control over your own mana.

 

Controlling Your Mana and the Ranks of Spellcaster

Control over your Mana is a motor skill of dexterous nature. It requires practice and yields to that practice like any other motor skill. Control over your Mana is experientially similar to controlling tentacle-like limbs, but limbs which lack a consistent size, length, or location, spontaneously generated anew each time. For this reason, some schools of thought use "tentacles" as a unit for measuring mana control.

"One Tentacle" (1T) of control allows you to manually activate one Runenode OR manually alter one variable property of an active spell.

The "Advanced" Rank - Requires that you have at least 6T of reliable control.

The "Master" Rank - Requires that you have at least 20T of reliable control.

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Elemental Filters

Some specific beings, such as Entites or Alraunes, have esoteric souls that contain elementally-aligned Mana as their natural anima. However, for everyone else, casting elemental magic requires the installation of an Elemental Filter. Elemental Filters are similar to Runenodes in that they are rune-machines installed within the soul that can be activated by incantation or by direct mana control.

Unlike Runenodes, Elemental Filters must be constructed out of elementally-aligned Mana and require an outside source of that Mana during installation. Also unlike Runenodes, Elemental Filters are less dangerous to install since they do not require your mana pool to be empty first.

An Elemental Filter is installed 'on top' of your Runenodes and therefore to cast elemental magic, your Elemental Filter must be activated prior to the activation of your [ConvertMana] Core.

Unlike unaligned 'free' Mana, 'free' Mana that is elementally-aligned can have useful effects as that element expresses itself.

 

Name Meaning Function / Expression
rax Fire Heat, ignite, burn, and manipulate flame.
fii Air Manipulate wind, air pressure, and buoyancy.
kaz Lightning Generate electric energy and be physically enhanced by electric energy.
lur Water Cooling, purifying, and conjuration of water.
ban Earth Simulate the toughness and heaviness of rock. Conjure rock.
tik Metal Simulate the toughness and heaviness of metal. Conjure metal.
thel Holy Healing, illumination, and sensing souls.
sor Dark Decay, obscuring shadows, and emotion sensing.
vol Blood Manipulation of magically-saturated bodily fluids, use of same to power spells, and healing by consuming same.
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"Base" Runenodes

In the process of casting a spell, after activating one's Core or otherwise providing 'free' Mana, the next step is to activate a Base Runenode.

Base Runenodes narrow the conceptual domain of the Mana that passes through them, focusing in on a specific domain tightly enough to bring useful effects within the realm of possibility for mana control in the two-to-three-digit ranges.

 

Name Meaning Function / Domain
vin Utility Understanding and interpretation of magical information.
tal Attack Force, damage, and destruction.
gam Protect Barriers, separation, and preservation.
pret Construct Simulation of solid matter.
sush Sex Arousal and genitals.
vet Project Rune The first half of "Rune Magic". Write runes physically on environment.
fal Parse Rune The second half of "Rune Magic". Channel any active spell through runes previously written by Project.
holth Necromancy Things that got they way they are by dying.
flun Portal Spacetime topology.
lem Flesh Biological systems. Requires Blood-aligned Mana to function.
ru Illusion Sensory content.
dar Mind A crude, brute-force imitation of Telepathy.
nuth Scrying Visualization and communication.
lis Fixate Rune The "Floating Runes" companion to Rune Magic. Allows runes to be Projected on empty space.
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"Mode" Runenodes and the Spellchain

Once an active spell has been manifested using a Base Runenode, a caster may additionally activate any of their Mode Runenodes in any order. Each activated Mode Runenode then modifies, constrains, and focuses the active spell. This is called the "spellchain". Spellchains allow Spellcasters to achieve useful effects even with mana control in the single-digits.

Mode Runenodes are smaller and simpler than Base Runenodes, and do not need to be installed separately. Mode Runenodes are standardly incorporated into Base Runenodes during installation.

Name Meaning Includer(s) Function
ront Anchor Protect Ties an active spell firmly to its position within the environment.
gord Bore Portal Inflates and holds open a topology violation / wormhole.
lo Channel Attack, Protect, Construct Creates a mana-link to preceding spellchain that endures after spell is no longer being actively cast.
va Charge Attack, Protect Increases the power of an active spell over time.
tem Entangle Scrying, Mind Forms a reflective connection between two compatible things.
mel Glow / Emit Utility Causes an active spell to radiate, usually light, sometimes other energy, sometimes particulates.
hin Grow Sex, Flesh Increases, amplifies, or makes more of something.
bos Hide Utility Dampens or insulates.
trith Mend Utility Basic physical reassembly.
ken Seek Utility, Construct, Scrying, Mind Read information about the environment from the environment.
soth Skim Portal, Scrying Creates and allows the free-movement of a point of mana control conforming to solid surfaces over arbitrary distances.
parn Warp Portal Generates a topology violation, IE a wormhole, at a point.
pes Wither Sex, Flesh Decreases, impedes, or makes less of something.

"Terminus" Runenodes

This is a sub-classification for Mode Runenodes which have an effect that disallows further Mode Runenodes to be added to the spellchain.

Name Meaning Includers Function
zud Discharge Attack, Sex Explodes immediately the full effect of the active spell in all directions.
kot Projectile Attack Launches immediately the spell to travel rapidly along a vector.
plip Render Scrying, Mind Crystalizes magical information into a non-magical format.

Note: The above tables are not complete.

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