How to Cast Magic on Vreathe
What is Magic on Vreathe?
Magic is simply referred to as modifying or creating anything using Mana and/or Aether, two mysterious forces in the universe.
1. Mana
Chryssa
"I need you to breathe and concentrate. It doesn't matter what you concentrate on. Do you feel that little tingling sensation in your chest when you inhale? That's raw magical power stored in your body!"Mana is a mystical force present inside every single thing in the universe. Mana is parallel to matter and energy and directly affects the creation, destruction, and manipulation of matter and energy. The matter and energy created and manipulated by mana are bound by physical laws unless aether is used. When Mana is used to createor destroy matter or energy, the mana itself is forever destroyed in an equal tradeoff. Mana exists everywhere in the universe in roughly equal levels, so the place where mana was destroyed will eventually restore itself to normal levels. This makes mana a seemingly infinite source of energy.
2. Channeling Mana
"Channeling mana isn't difficult. If you breathe in and concentrate a little you should feel a little tingling sensation in your chest. Now breath out and tense every muscle in your hands. You should feel this tingling sensation move from your lungs, through your arms, and to your hands. Easy!"
Mana is stored in a part of the body known as a Mana Lung, and will move along the same electrical pathways in the body as thoughts do and will look for a point to exit the body. If muscles are relaxed and there are no signals there, then there is no mana. When you do something like, tensing the muscles in your hand, you are sending an electrical signal to do so. Mana will move to these tensed muscles and start to build up.
At the moment you relax the muscles in your hand, the mana will immediately exit the body in the form of neutral mana. Mana in this form does nothing. It doesn't transform into anything. The mana will quickly disperse in the air
At the most basic level, this is how Channeling works. Mana can be channeled to any part of the body with some training and exercise, but the easiest location to channel mana are the hands.
3. Conjuring the Elements
"If you were expecting to just magically create fire now, heh, that isn't how magic works. Well, unless you have a lot of aether...but let's stick to mana for now!...Tell me, can you conjure a little hydrogen for me? Do you even know what that element is?"
A portion of mana can create, destroy, convert, or manipulate an equal portion of matter and/or energy. The exact mechanism for why it is able to do this is not understood and is the 'magic' part of casting magic. A portion of an element of matter can be created just by channeling mana and thinking about that element. Energy can be created just by channeling mana and thinking about the specific type of energy, like thermal energy for example. Energy can also be destroyed in an area by channeling mana and thinking of destroying that energy.
On Vreathe during the Iron Age, not many people know the nature of individual chemical elements. They don't know what Hydrogen is for example. In order to conjure this element, you must learn the nature of hydrogen and what it is. You have to know that it is the simplest building block of the universe. Many experienced mages have their own thought process for how they interpret the elements to make conjuring faster.
You aren't really going to know that you sucessfully conjured hydrogen at first. It is odorless, colorless, tasteless, and quickly disperses in the air. You may feel the slighest amount of air pressure around your hand when you conjure, but that is about it. You need to do something else to it first.
4. Conjuring Energy
"So, now that you are conjuring this stuff, I also want you to think of thermal energy before it disperses. Just think of something hot. Thinking of fire will always works. So just do that.
Any second now, there should be a--" -BOOM!!!-
Any second now, there should be a--" -BOOM!!!-
"There is is! A bit explosive, but you just created your first fire spell!"
The energy you create or destroy with mana often determines the effect of the spell you cast because it has a direct impact on the matter you conjured. It is also possible to cast a spell only by manipulating energy. In the example, conjuring thermal energy in the presence of hydrogen, along with the surrounding oxygen in the air, will create a small explosion of fire.
The most common energy type produced by mana is Thermal Energy, creating all manner of fire spells. Using mana to destroy thermal energy instead can create ice spells. Kinetic Energy is the second most common energy type produced by mana and gives motion to an object, creating projectiles. It is also possible to project a mana field over yourself that destroys kinetic energy, lessening or negating the impact of projectiles against yourself.
The various spells created will fall into several categories that are referred to as Elemental Magic and Esoteric Magic. This is a classification of magic used throughout the Iron Age to classify the most common types of magic, but if a mage knows that they are doing, they can easily cast magic that falls outside these magical elements and create truly unique spells.
5. Combining Elements to create Spells
Creating a flame by conjuring hydrogen and thinking of fire is neat, but if cast in an open area, the best you can do with that is singe clothing, maybe take an eyebrow. If you cast it in an enclosed area, then the resulting explosion will likely kill you as well as whatever you were targeting. In order to create an effective fire, you need to conjure more elements.
Sticking to fire, one of the more common ways to create a consistent and damaging flame is to conjure coal dust. This requires conjuring three different elements at the same time: Hydrogen, Carbon, and Oxygen. You can't just conjure all three at the same time to create coal dust. That won't do anything except just conjure little bits of each and nothing will happen. This is another aspect that isn't very well understood and is the 'magic' part of casting spells. In order to conjure coal dust, you need to know how many parts of this coal dust is carbon, how much is hydrogen, and how much is oxygen.
For an effective flame spell, using 7 parts carbon, 4 parts hydrogen, and 1 part oxygen is one of the best mixtures. In order to conjure this, you just need to channel mana and be thinking of every part of that mixture at the same time, as well as be thinking of creating thermal energy. Somehow (the 'magic' part), the appropriate mixture of molecules will be created and then set on fire, spreading out in a cone of intense fire for as long as the caster's concentration isn't broken.
It is actually even more complicated than this, because being a little off in your concentration can inadvertently cover your hands in coal dust instead of propelling it away from your body, or you might create an explosion instead of a flame. Not thinking of the right mixture of elements at the same time might just do nothing but create various parts of various elements.
6. Mixing in Aether to Break Physical Laws
"Now for the really fun part! You can use Aether to break all physical laws and make your magic do whatever the heck you want...if you have the Aether that it."
"A basic example is when I create this small intense fireball. Instead of it dispersing or following other physical laws, I can make it float in place until it burns out. This is a basic "Magelight" spell."
"I can even control it and make it follow me, I can take the light and imbue it in an object and make it glow, I can make it change colors when the light detects certain things, explode when it touches another object...the limit at this point is your imagination!"
"A basic example is when I create this small intense fireball. Instead of it dispersing or following other physical laws, I can make it float in place until it burns out. This is a basic "Magelight" spell."
"I can even control it and make it follow me, I can take the light and imbue it in an object and make it glow, I can make it change colors when the light detects certain things, explode when it touches another object...the limit at this point is your imagination!"
Aether is difficult to explain because everything thing about it breaks physical laws. It is required to make spells do impossible things, from the simplest things such as making a ball of fire or water float in place, to very complex transformations that can change a person's physical appearance into an entirely different person, to even more complex things like taking a person's mind and very essence and forcing it into a magic crystal. Aether is thought to be the "magic" in mana manipulation that creates and destroys matter and energy, but it can do so much more.
Unfortunately, Aether is a finite resource. It exists in miniscule amounts in living things, which allows mages to cast simple spells like a floating light. Mages can gather Aether within their bodies over very long periods of time to cast larger and more complex spells, or they carry a piece of Aethercite, which stores Aether naturally.
Aether is also destroyed in the process of casting magic. In the past, Aether used to exist in much greater quantities, but once the gods left Vreathe, the supply of Aether has gradually dwindle and disappeared. There are also beings that generate Aether just by existing (Gods, Dragons, Fairies, and Gold Race humans), but unless you are one of these beings or have a large stockpile of aethercite crystals, having a vast reserve of Aether is out of reach.
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