Glass and Magic Lenses

Table of Contents

Classroom Help—Magic lenses

Magic lenses are essential to the modern practice of complex magic. Born in the Empire of Elante, even after its fall we, their heirs in the City of the Hundred Fiefs, continue to be a pioneer in the domain

Reminder: what is magic

Magic is a form of energy that behaves as a particle and as a wavelength, just like light. All over the planet, naturally-occurring magic flows in currents hidden to the naked eye and gathers in specific hotspot. Magic is also produced inside the body of all living beings and can then be exteriorised in spells.

How lenses work

Visualisation
Magnifying salience glasses were first invented by the Emperors of Elante as tools to visualise the magic currents under the city and to better understand their working and how to make use of them.

Focus
The second generation of were prisms and lenses aiming to divert or filter specific magic wavelengths and to focus others, thus muting or enhancing specific properties of the magic currents.

Transformation
The third generation were lenses that distorted existing wavelengths to transform them into different ones, thus giving the magic currents entirely new properties.

The invention of magic lenses is what allowed the Emperors of Elante to take avantage of the magic hotspot below our city to increase their own magic power and accomplish bigger feats of magic, thus conquering the continent and establishing their empire.
Their experiments ended with the death of their lines and the complete dysregulation of the magic currents, but this just means that nobody powerful enough to bind to these new currents and control them has been born yet...

How lenses are made

Composition

• Silica (from sand, quartz pebbles or volcanic ash): Forms glass when melted and cool rapidly.

• An alkali (soda ash or pot ash): Reduce the melting point of the silica.

• Lime: Stabilise the mixture of silica and alkali.

• Different additives: Colour the glass and gives it its magic properties.

Main types of glass

• Fused silica: Glass made with >99% silica fused at very high temperature. Very clear, allows all magic wavelengths through. It can be magicked to block just one short wavelength window.

• Crystal / Flint-glass: Glass made with lead oxide additive. Highly refractive, reflects almost all magic wavelengths. It can be magicked to allow only one short wavelength window through.

Colour	Additives
Red	Manganese dioxide MnO2 (purple), gold Au (ruby), silver Ag (orange-red to yellow), pure copper Cu (red) selenium Se (red), selenium and cadmium sulfide Se+CdS (ruby)
Blue	Nickel Ni (blue violet) Copper oxide CuO (turquoise), Cobalt oxyde CoO (deep blue), boron and sulfur B+S (blue)
Green	Iron oxide FeO (green or brown), chormium Cr or chromium(III) oxide Cr2O3 (dark green), chromium and tin Cr+Sn (emerald)
Yellow	Boron and iron B+Fe (amber), boron and calcium B+Ca (yellow), cadmium Cd (yellow), titanium Ti (yellow, brown)

Layers
The glass can be laminated into several very thin layers, each containing different additives, with their properties getting added to each other. The resulting glass is called multichroic.
This allows for the refraction or transmission of several wavelength windows at the same time.

The magic
During the making of the glass, magic is transferred:

• Indirectly, via vibrations with chants.

• Indirectly, via tools engraved with runes (crucible, shaping tools).

• Directly, via inscribing its surface with runes (by scraping with a diamond, burning with acid, inlaying with enamel or gold).

Shape
The shape of the glass is also essential it its function. Once the desired glass has been created and magicked and has been allowed to cool down, it still need to be carefully ground, polished, or molded to the shape required.
Depending on it, it can focus or disperse the magic rays and so influence their working.

Glass making might seems pretty simple, but only professional glassworkers like in our fief are able to make ones of high enough quality that they are able to withstand the corrosive effects of the magical currents of the city.
For an example of a recipe used by our glassmakers, see our poster about runes. It shows the making of a lens that allows people to transform the matter of an object by making your magic go through the lens before hitting the object.

Lenses in Action: Magicometry

Magnifying salience glasses allows for the study of magic currents and of the types of magic making up an objet: this is the science of magicometry.

Colour
Magicometry first measures the wavelengths present in a magic current or in the magic present in an object or at a location.

Energy
Then it measures the amount of energy present at that wavelength which determines the "dominent" properties of the magic.

Here is an example of a basic magicometre made with a series of magnifying salience glasses that are control by dials. Points the magicometre at the magic you want to study, adjust the dials to focus on specifc properties, and read the results on the observation lens: magic wavelength on the external graduation, intensity on the ruler pointing towards the center of the lens.

Magicometry Translation Code

Magicometry allows for the visualisation of magic in the form of a light specter, with different colours corresponding to different fields of magic, and specific shades further revealing specific properties.

Colour	Wavelength (nm)	Magic fields
IR	>750	Out of control magic such as floods
Red	625-750	Flow, strength
Orange	590-625	Transformation
Yellow	565-590	Incarnation / physical manifestation
Green	500-565	Extrinsic "spell" properties (the magic affects the world outside of the object it is attached to—e.g., a ring that protects its bearer)
Cyan	485-500	Intrinsic "spell" properties (the magic affects the object itself it is attached to—e.g., a ring that is made resistant against damage)
Blue	450-485	Control, metaphysical links
Violet	380-450	Fixation / immobility
UV	<380	Eternity / immortality

Magic wavelengths might resemble light or paints, but they do not behave in the same way:

Non-adjacent wavelengths can coexist together.

Different wavelengths do not combine to create a new colour.

Magicometry in Practice

The Draconic magic manifestations of the Emperors were made of yellow magic to make them physical, red magic to give them the strength to destroy enemies, blue to allow the emperor to control them, and a limited quantity of ultraviolet to make them longer-lasting without immobilising the flow of red magic.
To achieve this, a base layer of yellow glass was used thanks to a cadmium additive. Then, it was transformed into a multichroic lens by adding on top of it a combination of ultrathin glass layers: 1) glass with selenium and cadmium sulfide to focus a ruby magic wavelength, 2) glass with nickel to make purple magic, 3) glass with boron and sulfure to make blue magic.

Many fiefs prefer to make their own lower-quality lenses rather than become dependant on anyone for supply, but we in the Fief of Glass are considered to make the highest-quality lenses in the entire city and so of course in the world!
Be proud of your accomplishments in supporting our wonderful industry!

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The Fief of Glass

Territories The City of the Hundred Fiefs · The Fief of Glass · The Lady's Tower Politics Politicians (Lady Olénie, Dame Louise of Glass) · Political system (Lords and Ladies of the Fiefs, Lady Olénie's government, The Police of the Fief of Glass) · Problems (The ongoing Elantian civil war, Previous inhabitants of the Fief of Perfumes, Water sickness) Magic Dangers (Seasonal magic flood, Magical corrosion, Basement kraken) · Technologies (Tower wards, Ward pins, Tasty Treat) · Industry (Glass and Magic Lenses, Glassworkers, Runes) Culture Farming (Soulmates' wine, Painted magpie, Fungus for Plant Warfare) · Travellers (Trading caravans, Travelling healers) · Others (The Worship of the Imperial Family, Election of a Tower Leader, Spying Devices)