mike.hussey: Ylcea's magic system

In a realm of magic, war rages. Will the continent be consumed by strife, or will the people unite against the greater danger?

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This topic is an Out Of Character part of the roleplay, ?Spelheim: The First Magewar?. Anything posted here will also show up there.

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On magic:While magicians as a collective play a significant role in Ylcea, the individual mage is much less impressive.

Magicians are a vast minority, even in the City. All magic is innate, there is no spellchanting unless it helps your character concentrate. Training will make you more efficient. Individual differences in both endurance and power exist. The Algam people grow up with magic permeating their bodies, and generally make more powerful mages than humans.

Magical power:
In Ylcea, magic is a birthright - only a select few possess it, and the majority of these people live their lives in ignorance. Magicians possess a replenishing pool of energy, also known as mana. This pool ordinarily lies dormant, sealed deep within the mage's soul. For a mana seal to break on its own is exceedingly rare. However, any mana seal within the City walls is automatically broken. This is how Spelheim has monopolized magic for centuries.

It is one of the Council's greatest desires to discover how the Apostate broke the mana seals of those living in Algam, and they fear she might provide the same service to Id-Heren.

Magicians can only go for so long without using magic. Mana will build up, initially causing a debilitating fever after around seven days, with death following some days after. This complicates hiding one?s magic, although it is still quite possible to do.

In the countryside, there are very little reasons for wanting to hide. Being allowed to move to the holy grounds of the capital is considered a great fortune. Tax reductions are given to villages or Towns that aid in bringing magicians to the City. In the City, hiding one?s magic is punished as a crime.

Schools:

Elemental magic:
Elemental magic is what humans and beastlings awaken if their broken mana seal forms normal magic circuits in the soul. Each magician is born to one Domain: Air, Water, Earth or Fire. In effect, magic controls states, not elements. Air mages control gases, Water mages control fluids, Earth mages control solids, and Fire mages control plasmas. This magic system considers even low-temperature fires proper plasmas.

Elemental magic functions under these three three basic rules: Mana is Life, Mana is Energy, and Mana Rejects Mana.

Mana is life.
Every living being possesses some measure of life-force, which is proportionately depleted as that organisms ages and sickens. Mana is not convertible into life-force: magicians live no longer or healthier. Life-force is convertible to mana, however, and a select few City mages are taught to cast from lifespan - their own as well as others'.

Mana is energy.
Magic is the practice of manifesting mana as worldly energy. All magicians can manifest kinetic energy - they may move the state of their Domain. Further specializations are determined by Talents.

Mana rejects mana.
As life is mana, and mana rejects itself, it is impossible to cast magic on a living being. Magic cannot pull a man's heart out, but a sufficiently skilled user may pull at lifeless body parts such as hair, and in theory, nails and skin. Mana does not reject magic, however - a magical fire is no longer any different than a real fire, and it can set a man aflame. (However, it would be nigh impossible to manifest a fire directly against skin, or inside someone's lungs or gastric tract.)

Elemental Talents:
Each domain has its own Talents, innate specializations that determine a magician's capabilities. Catagorizing them is one of the City's efforts, but it's a rather debated science. Most magicians possess two Talents, but plenty possess only a single, more powerful one. Three is not unheard of. Four has only appeared a few times in the history of the City, and when it did, each individual Talent was uselessly weak.

The Creation Talent allows magicians to not only move their Domain, but also create it. Fire magicians create fire. Earth magicians may create rocks or (precious) metals, but only miniscule quantities. Air and Water Creation exist, but unlike earth, the City sees little use for them. The magic system in this roleplay takes Einstein's mass?energy equivalence into account by outright ignoring it. Either that or Ylcean lightspeed is equal to the pace of a snail. (It isn't. Vision would be weird.)

The Long-Range Talent is self-explanatory. A Fire magician with both Long-Range and Creation can light a fire from miles away, given a clear line of sight. A Fire Magician with only a powerful Long-Range Talent, however, may direct the lightning in a thunderstorm, or quell a raging fire by pulling it from its fuel.

Enchanting is the Talent to create persistent magic - without a secondary Talent, it will limit itself to movement. The sewerage of the City is largely dependent on these Water enchantments. Long-Range Enchanting Air mages are in charge of manipulating the weather. More skilled mages may attach mobile enchantments to objects, rather than the more common enchantments locked into place. Enchanted merchandise is always in high demand.

Splitting is an Air and Water-exclusive Talent, capable of separating components within a mix. Air Splitting is a versatile talent. It can isolate oxygen to augment fires and ease breathing. With favorable air streams and sufficient time, it is possible to commit murder through nitrogen asphyxiation. Water Splitters may separate poisons from water, and enchantments in this group are highly valued.

Trapping is a Talent related to Enchanting. Trapper magicians are capable of casting enchantments that discharge all their mana on command, as opposed to gradually over time. Normal Air magicians do not have the output to blow a man off his feet, but Air Trappers may cast ten spells, discharge them simultaneously, and do just that. Due to the nature of this Talent, it is limited by the magician's mana pool and preparation time, not output capacity. Earth Trappers are often seen training with reinforced, sturdier weapons.

Multiple is a very common Talent, characterized by the capability of manifesting mana at more than one site at a time. To illustrate, a Creation Fire mage with this talent may create multiple fires. An Earth magician with this Talent may lift objects with stability, in the sense that a chair with three legs never wobbles. Practiced Earth mages with this Talent may retrieve small objects from across a room, and the truly skilled possess such control that they may manipulate a quill to write.

Dampening is one of the more important Talents in the war. It counteracts movement within a Domain. Fire stays in space, and is resistant to manipulation by other mages - Dampening is more mana-efficient than most other Talents, and only a Trap-burst can temporarily overcome the inhibition. Skilled Air mages this Talent can lock the air in space, muting any sounds within the affected area. Among students, it is considered a useful Talent for sneaking into the kitchen at midnight.

Sensor is a Talent that is widely debated. Some measure of this Talent is inherently present in both Splitting and Dampening, but it may also manifest on its own. It is a highly desired Talent with Long Range. A lot of military intelligence is derived from Sensor squads, as Air and Earth Sensors may detect enemy movement from miles away. It is terribly mana-inefficient however, and may only be used in bursts. I am limiting this Talent in player characters. "Simply knowing" things is bad writing, even if magic can explain it. You may not be a walking lie detector (Air mage, breathing rate) or someone who can feel movement from miles away. You may detect poisons in water, if you wish.
Note: Water Sensors that stray too far from the coast are driven insane by what their magic teaches them about the sea.

A number of unidentified Talents exist - humans may lack the magical output or creativity to use them. Players are free to think of their own Talents. We'll toss any original ones around a bit to make it fit the system.

Soul magic:
Soul magic is what happens when a magician's mana seal is incorrectly, or incompletely broken. Mana seeps out and carves magic circuits in an aberrant fashion. Though almost always fatal, exceptions exist. Generally, this group does not convert mana into energy (or matter) - it manipulates mana itself. The City has no experience with Soul magic, and thus no Talents are defined. Both the Apostate and the Red King possess Soul magic, and while I shan't delve too deeply into these two characters at this point, the Apostate is capable of moving around her own mana, and the Red King can convert his mana into excessive life-force. I realize this class provides the most personalized magic, but I'd rather not have an too many Soul mages - it would not match with the lore. Due to the complex nature of this group, the specifics would be discussed jointly.

Holy magic:
Both Spelheim's and Id-Heren's priests claim to some holy influence. While holy magic as a school does not truly exist, a number of magical artifacts exist within Ylcea. Some of these do rest in the hands of the Church. The Citian Church calls them their tools of the Maker. In truth, these artifacts were created by Enchanting-type Soul magicians in an ancient past. Several of these are still hidden through the land.

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