Magic System

[Mercredi]

Magic System

What is Magic?

Note: Keep in mind magic is very limited right now. You will be required to have a history that explains why you have even a moderate level of magic.

Magic is generally defined as "That which brings forth impossibilities", despite the fact that some of the more powerful spells simulate normal phenomena around us. It is cast through the use of "Mana", a mysterious energy which all living organisms have, in varying amounts.

There are many, many categories of magic. Because of this, magic was considered something one person could never fully master; the problem lied not in the time it took to master one category, but the fact that there were far too many to begin with.

These categories have been simplified into three "systems" for you, known as the "Magic Trinity".

Mana

Mana is a mysterious energy which, as mentioned before, exists in every living organism in every realm. However, many non-living things in the demon realm and magic realm contain mana, or the capability to store them (these are mostly crystals/gems). For more info, see <magic items thread>

Even if mana exists in all three realms, they have slightly different properties. A demon's divinity can be traced in their mana, which is called Yoki. The human realm's mana has ethereal properties, giving birth to chi. The magic realm has the base form, mana.

The amount of mana a magically inept person has is very little. Those born of spirits or of the Magic/Demon realms naturally have a lot more mana than a human does (with magic realm races having the most).

As spells are cast, mana will naturally be used up. To restore mana, one must generally rest: sleeping and eating helps to do so. Those within the Magic and Demon realms can restore mana even faster. Mana from an external source can be used for spells as well.

To increase the maximum mana capacity an individual has is very simple: constantly use it, then restore it. Consistency is key to building up one's mana capacity. Items with mana storage abilities are rare, but, if obtained, are an easy way to accomplish this.

Small traces of mana also flow freely through the terrain in every realm; this is called "The mana of the World". In the magic realm, even the air is infused with a small amount of mana. It is said that master practicioners of magic were able to use this mana to power some of their spells. It requires heavy mental training to become "attuned to the land", allowing the environment around the magician to feed him/her/it mana as it is needed. The amount gained by this feeding process is small and takes a long time to gather a lot, but can boost output greatly when mixed with a large amount of the magician's own mana as he/she/it powers a spell.

Spellcasting

Spells are, in short, the application of mana. Every use of mana is a spell, and every spell is varied.

To cast even the most basic spell, at least three factors are needed:

• Mana, the basic energy. This can come from the caster's own body, or from an external source. The more mana used, the more power the spell would generally have.
  
  
• Formula. The formula is comprised of several variables, which include it's element (if applicable), effects and general appearance. Most of the time, formulae are just recalled from memory. Spell books, scrolls and even chants are just visual/audio forms of self-hypnosis to load formulae into the brain. Formulae can also be embedded into items to help with casting, although it will generally only be limited to one spell.
  
  
• Drawing. There are many things a formula does not cover. This is where the user's mental capacity comes in. The caster themselves determine the direction/radius, location, relative size (limited by amount of mana used). In some cases, even the spell's shape and color can be determined by the caster. This process of forming a spell out of a formula is called "drawing". There are many items which can aid or restrict the "drawing" process. The "drawing" of spells can be fully automated by some items, but anything beyond an E-rank spell is already difficult. Only the most modern technology in the Magic Realm can barely automate an A-rank spell.

This is spellcasting in short. Certain spells may require more than just the above three factors, but those cover the majority of spells.

Magic Trinity

Here are the 3 systems of magic:

• [M1]Anatomy, which affects the body of oneself (and sometimes others).
  
  
• [M2]Elemental, which involves the use of elemental forces.
  
  
• [M3]Divine, which calls the force of deities/spirits (or oneself if the person in question is a deity/spirit)
  

(For fast access, hit control+F then type M_ with the number replacing _ to skip to the corresponding section)

Mechanics

[M1]Anatomy

Anatomical magic is, simply put, magic which manipulates the physical body of one or others. The two most common uses are to increase one's speed and/or one's physical strength.

However, Anatomical magic covers a much wider spectrum; other than increasing one's physical or mental attributes, one may perform many more feats, which includes, but is not limited to:

• Change one's appearance (or the appearance of others with OOC permission)
  
• Teleport (but cannot form portals nor move across dimensions)
  
• Form telepathic links* (like teleportation, it doesn't work cross-dimension)
  
• Shift into an element*
  
• Form temporary images of oneself*
  
• Heal physical damage*
  
• Contort the body of/force the movement of oneself or the body of a target*
  
• Force movement of a target's body*
  
• Magical girl transformations
  
• Gravity manipulation on oneself and a target*
  

*Notable mechanics:

• People may learn spells that temporarily increase their physical development rank. This is usually to + or ++, but, with great enough output it can temporarily be raised an entire rank.
  
  
• Telepathic links work by creating a magical link between the brains of the user and targets, a form of advanced magic. As long as the link is formed, the user and target can exchange mental messages over long distances, even if the target does not know how to use magic. The target or the user can sever the link at any time, but a master can force a message through to the target.
  
  
• Elemental shift spells are an advanced form of magic which combines both elemental and anatomical systems to allow the user to "shapeshift" the body into an element. Naturally, this requires the user to learn to use an element beforehand.
  
  
• Forming images of oneself is an advanced form of anatomical magic. The images can either be magical (classified as "mirages") or physical (classified as "cloning"). While mirages can be projected extremely far by an advanced magician, the same magician would have troubles getting a clone to move any further than 1km from himself. Generally, mirages cannot be projected cross-dimension, but some extremely powerful observation devices in the Magical Realm are known to be able to generate holograms of a target from any dimension given data.
  
  
• If the user has sufficient knowledge of the target's body, the user can restore a target's physical body back to the condition the user last saw the target unwounded. However, such healing methods are extremely slow and would take hours to heal a big gash (Divine magic is generally faster). When used in tandem with a telepathic link, the user can restore the target's condition back to the target's last memory of his own condition before being wounded. The link will also provide the required knowledge to use this concept.
  
  
• Forcing the movement of/Contorting the body of an opponent is a special form of anatomical magic attack that creates a link between the user's brain and the target's body. Then, the user sends commands to the victim's body that overrides the victim's control using mana. This is an extremely advanced version of a telepathic link, but there are two big drawbacks:
  First, the amount of mana required to control the target's limb is several times more than the amount of mana required to counter the effect or even sever the link (even the greatest masters had to use at least three times the amount).
  Second, the link can be exploited by the victim (should the victim be knowledgable enough/has sufficient mastery), allowing the victim to send a directed attack through the link straight to the brain of the user with pure mana, potentially causing irreparable damage should the link not be severed before the counter-attack is complete.
  
  
• Gravity-related spells work by anchoring the target's (may include the user's) body to the earth with a magic force, and requires basic knowledge of the earth element before attempting. See Divine magic for the divine version of gravity manipulation"
  

[M2]Elemental

Elemental magic is the manipulation or summoning of elements. It is widely considered the broadest magic type because of the sheer number of categories, although just one basic element can already be manipulated into any form or summoned in any amount (though there will be a hard cap on this, judged by a case-by-case basis)

As mentioned before, there are a few "main" elements, which combine in various manners to form (sub)categories of the elements. You can invent an element/subcategory by combining any element/type of element, with the exception of Ethereal and Arcane (aka "The Blank Element").

Players may create their own elements by combining any of the elements save Ethereal and Arcane. Also, having an element at any mastery allows for the most basic manifestation and manipulation of that element without having to create a spell for it.

Here are the main elements and a few sub elements/category examples, accompanied by descriptions:

• Fire, a main element. Has a tendency to inflict burns or ignite things, but can be designed for other purposes.
  - Scorch, a category that mixes the earth and fire elements with fire as the dominant element. Summons red-hot metal that sears the target like an iron does. Can be mixed with Anatomical magic to make the user's body sear the target upon contact.
  
  
• Water, a main element. Known to be a gentle element that can soften the impact of a great force while being able to lash out with a counter-attack on a whim. Almost always deals blunt damage.
  - Ice, a well-known category that mixes the water and earth element, even though the amount of earth element is so little most do not consider it present. It is special in that the user can convert between the Ice category and pure Water element by simply extracting or injecting the Earth element, allowing the user to "freeze" the water. Does not neccessarily have to be cold, although it tends to be. It can also inflict cuts with ease as it is solid.
  - Plasma, a category that mixes the water and lightning elements with equal output. It can create glowing bolts of plasma that has the effect of burning and electrocuting the enemy at the same time, despite the fire element not being involved.
  
  
• Wind, a main element. It's power lies in being able to accumulate in large amounts and compress much easier than other elements.
  - Steam, a category that mixes the wind, water and fire elements with wind as the dominant element. Like the Scorch category, it sears the victim, although on a lesser scale. It's strength lies in the fact it is hard to block, as steam mixes with air easily.
  
  
• Earth, a main element. Earth is an element known for it's great physical strength. Like water, it tends to deal blunt damage, but it does a lot more of it. It can also inflict cuts.
  - Metal, a category that mixes the earth and fire elements with earth as the dominant element. While the earth element inflicts the biggest bruises, metal is known for inflicting the deepest cuts. It can be sturdy without taking large amounts of space.
  - Nature, perhaps the broadest category of elemental magic. Mixing fire, water, wind, earth and lightning elements in various amounts appropriate to the spell, it can create or manipulate nature. It's strength lies in it's variation: while it can spout a flower from the ground or spawn a tentacle-like vine, it can also make earthquakes or cause a volcanic eruption and direct it.
  
  
• Lightning, a main element. Well known for striking with the fastest speed of all main elements. Paralysis effects are common, but are sometimes discarded for pure speed and power. Because of this, it also has a long maximum range.
  - Storm, an element that combines lightning and wind elements with lightning as the dominant element. It uses the wind element's ability to accumulate and compress on a lightning bolt, allowing the user to charge and fire thunderbolts with greater speed, power and precision over a longer distance than lightning magic is known to reach.
  
  
• Ethereal, a category under which light and dark magics fall under. Unlike other elements, light and dark generally do not mix. This differs from divine magic in that it does not have the power of a spirit or deity behind it. Examples of this category include: flashes of light, using darkness to create a big shadow to cover the user and summoning spears of light. They do not have any side-effects like Divine magic tends to do (e.g a lance of light using the power of angels would burn the target, balls of darkness with the power of an evil spirit that temporarily corrupts sight)
  
  
• Arcane, also known as "The Blank Element". Arcane is essentially leaving out an element in a elemental spell formula. While it is the easiest "element" to use, and almost all who use magic have manifested this "element" at least once, it is difficult to control without external aid. Any attack more refined than a simple shield dome, a flying ball or a beam of mana is extremely hard to perform. Those who can do better are considered an advanced or master mage, with the exception of specialists who devote their sole attention on this category of magic to master it. Most magical items are able to employ basic-rank arcane spells without the control problem a caster has. This is because almost everything in the Magical Realm is partly composed of this element (or so people believe).
  

*Notable mechanics:

Lol haven't decided on weaknesses but generally the contest is between spell/mage ranks and the design of the spell, because an ice sword should slice a mud hammer/wall.


[M3]Divine

Divine magic calls upon the power of a deity or spirit. Both "Holy" and "Unholy" magics are considered divine magic. Magic derived from the cosmos also falls under this.

Despite what most magicians think, Divine magic is the broadest category of magic simply because there are more spirits, deities and constellations combined than there is elements, even if some deities/spirits are extremely similar.

Divine magic is unique from Anatomy and Elemental because it uses one's mana to manifest, fuel and control the ability of another spirit/constellation/deity (unless the user is a spirit/deity).

Some examples of what Divine magic can do:

• "Call" elements (Most commonly, the Divine versions of Ethereal attacks e.g Holy Fire)
  
• Heal (like Anatomy, but without the requirements and a lot faster)
  
• (If the spirit lives within the Human/Magical/Demon realm) Summon the spirit (CAN cross dimensions)
  
• Place/Lift magical curses
  
• Preserve a soul to buy time for healing the physical body (assuming the target is near-death and not actually dead)
  
• Summon an image of the spirit/deity to use their powers/spells (however it is fueled by the user's mana)
  
• (If the spirit is alive and resides in Human/Magical/Demon realm) Teleport to the spirit (ONLY for cross-dimension, e.g user in Human Realm and spirit in Demon Realm)
  
• Gravity manipulation in an area of effect*
  
• Create cross-dimension portals/teleport across dimensions*
  

*Notable mechanics:

• The divine version of gravity manipulation, unlike the anatomical version, anchors everything in a set area to the core of the planet. The strength and area is determined by the user's control (area), mana output (strength & area) and connection with the spirit/deity/constellation (strength).
  
  
• Cross-dimension portal/teleportation spells use the caster's connection to the realm they are teleporting/creating a portal to. Generally, all intermediate magic users can teleport (only masters can create portals) back to the realms they originate from. When teleporting, they will generally appear at the location they have the deepest connection to (e.g a demon teleporting from the human realm back to it's home in the demon realm). A master is able to set marks that he can teleport to, although if not cross-dimensional it will be considered an Anatomical spell. Even if an intermediate mage can perform this kind of spell, the preparation time is very long, and would take at least a week before the spell can be cast again. Masters can shorten the time for portal preparation and decrease cooldown. There are also magical items which create portals across dimensions, which, as long as they are powered by sufficient mana, have none of the aforementioned drawbacks. However, the portal, when created by an item, may not be moved from where it was first created.
  
  
• Gods can't be summoned, but images of them may manifest on some spells.
  
  
• Constellation summons don't exactly work, they appear in the sky when a divine spell of high enough power is used.