Aspects of Personal Magic

The average person contains enough energy within themselves to create an explosion twice that of the average hand grenade. This may sound impressive, but that same power, without other assistance, could not light a 100W Incandescent bulb for a full day. Adding physical limitations associated with how much energy a person can release at once, how efficient they are, and numerous other factors, few people could do either task particularly effectively.   A person is limited by a collection of skills relating to spellcraft, but like most acts in this world, it is a learnable skill. Magic is something anyone can train to be able to handle. In general, there are seven accepted core skills to spellcraft that can help an individual learn their limits with magic: Knowledge, Skill/Accuracy, Power, Endurance, Potential, Rejuvination, and Reach.   In addition to these skills, there are methods to help learn common spells, tools to aid spellcraft, and natural traits and talents that can be leveraged to one's advantage.  

A Person's Element

  Old world lore and knowledge taught that each person had an inborn element that ruled what type of spells they could craft. This is actually true, but not the way the ancients thought. As described in in a previous article, there are several elements to magic, and each have their own impact on spells in subtle to dramatic ways.   Individuals naturally have slight imbalance in their personal bodies. This will allow a slight ease at casting spells more dependent on that particular element. This isn't a strict boon however, as spells that specifically require a minimum amount of that specific element will require the individual to suppress their natural element. In addition, for those whose element has an opposite, such as a Positive Crandis, will find that their opposing element is somewhat more difficult to draw from internally.   Most people are born with one particular element more abundant than others. When that abundance is 20% stronger than others, they are considered a "Mancer", and may experience difficulty casting spells with any efficiency (with exceptions of Patternmancers and Makavmancers) due to this imbalance. It is estimated that nearly a quarter of all people in the world are some form of Mancer.   While not common, it is possible for people to be born with multiple elements as part of themselves. In some cases, this can actually be beneficial. A dual elemental person who is an Inidu- and Velmancer (Positive and Negative Crandis energy) will have their energy effectively balanced, being able to merge them in order to cancel their polarity, or use them individually. Triple elemental individuals are also possible, though rare, and some vegetians can even experience four elements as a part of themselves.   Another rare phenomenon is a person with no particular elemental leaning. These individuals, omnimancers, are elementally balanced and experience all the elements in equilibrium.  

Skills Associated with Spellcraft

  Seven core skills determine how effective at spellcraft an individual is. Each of these skills can be trained in various ways to be able to craft more complex spells. In general, there is a natural limit for people, and going beyond these limits will require tools.   A brief description of the skills associated with magic:  

• Knowledge: At the core of spellcraft is one's understanding of it. While simple patterns can be created without much thought, anything beyond consumer-interface spells tends to need at least a little understanding to properly form the desire spell. Most people understand a little through schooling, but expanding your knowledge can compensate heavily for a lack of the other skills associated with spellcraft.
• Skill/Accuracy: Knowing a pattern is one thing, but coaxing the Pattern element from the ambient arcane to form the pattern is, in itself, a skill. Generally, this becomes a reflex for most, but it becomes such through repetition and practice.
• Power: This is a reference to how much energy you can push through your body at once. While most energy-intense spells are fueled by batteries or conduits, being able to function without them can prove to be useful for many people. More important, having high power will prevent MAR (see below) related injuries.
• Endurance: While sudden releases of energy results in MAR, soMAR is usually associated with sustained release of energy. While having naturally higher power will help determine just how much energy you can release over long time before experiencing soMAR, your endurance will eventually catch up. Power and Endurance can be considered the difference between a sprinter and a marathon runner in terms of their relation.
• Potential: One's potential is the amount of energy held within themselves at any given point. Potential is a difficult and dangerous skill to strengthen, requiring an individual to try and consciously absorb more energy than their body can hold in order to "stretch" their potential. While their is a natural baseline that is genetic, one's potential takes a significant amount of time to go back down, requiring only minimal upkeep to maintain high potential.
• Rejuvenation: The natural recharge rate of an individual. While performed without any forethought, one can naturally increase or decrease the rate by conscious effort, much how one would control their breathing. Developing a high rejuvenation rate could allow perpetual release of low-power to fuel small enchantments.
• Reach: A roughly spherical area around yourself is the extent in which you can influence and cast within. This does not mean that your spells fizzle when expanding beyond this range, but merely that you cannot craft a spell beyond this reach. This reach also affects your Rejuvenation, as you cannot pull from beyond this range. Much like with your rejuvenation, you can influence beyond this range through conscious effort, but expanding your natural capability beyond this is difficult. While it differs quite dramatically from each person, the general rule is fifteen feet for most people, thirty for vegetians.

 

Shell of Will

  All living things have a natural, biological resistance to outward arcane influence. Even minute bacteria exert an minuscule, though existent Shell of Will.   The Shell of Will is the impulsive resistance and sense of arcane energy. If you were to walk into the middle of a Magic Well, that sensation similar to the hairs on your neck standing is your Shell responding to the sudden high arcane energy around you. If you suddenly get the sensation while sitting in a room, you would know that something is attempting to interact with you through arcane means.   The Shell of Will, like most of magic, is elusive. It doesn't have a physical feature we can see. Current understanding doesn't even yield an answer as to what the Shell is made of. It is not a natural enchantment, and cannot be seen directly by any known means, arcane or otherwise. It is still possible to measure the Shell however. A person's Shell can be given a rating, and that rating will give you a rough idea of how resistant to forces they are. The unit of measure, a Bar, starts at the Shell of Will for a Lab Mouse, of 1. The average human male has a Shell of Will rated at approximately 55 Bars. This puts a human at having a Shell of Will 55x stronger than a Lab Mouse. For further reference, most vegetians have a Shell rated at 70 bars, the domestic dog is often rated at 20 bars, and women are usually 3 bars higher than their male counterparts for most sentient species.   The Shell of Will is also not a strict barrier that, once broken through, allows full access to a person. Instead, it it is more of a thick layer with the bar rating representing the minimum effort needed to achieve this any interaction or control. To have a larger impact on a living system, you need to push further through their Shell to manipulate them or have them be open to the interaction.   A person's can interact with their own Shell in a limited way. They can lower their Shell, a necessity for nearly all arcane-consumer interactions, or reinforce it through conscious willpower. Most people can weaken their own Shell by as much as 80% and strengthen it upwards to 50%, with the effort needed to strengthen it being more difficult. With practice, it is even possible to harden your shell, raising your resting Bar rate and learning how to enforce it.   Despite being referenced as "Will", the Shell of Will is not actually a product of willpower but a byproduct of the spark of life. While it is a a byproduct of life, it continues to lingers on a dead body for a time after, with the wholeness of the body playing a large impact on how long this lasts. On death, a body will lose roughly half of their Bar rating, with a preserved body losing about 10% a year. This is a major factor in the Necromantic arts, as the effort required to push through a corpses Shell of Will, then fully animate the body for whatever purpose the user intends, requires substantial effort without shattering the Shell of Will, social ramifications not included.   Shattered Shell of Will By various methods, it is possible to "shatter" a beings Shell of Will. While it's not apparent that a Shell of Will is shattered without testing for it, the results are detrimental to an individual in some circumstances.   When a Shell of Will becomes shattered, it becomes unable to effectively resist arcane influence. The results in a being who will has a lower than normal bar rating that spontaneously drops to 0 for a limited amount of time. In living beings, the shattered Shell of Will does eventually recover, within an unknowable amount of time. While susceptible to magical influences this way, they are still fully functional individuals. When the Shell of Will is shattered in a dead body, it quickly dissolves in the course of minutes to days, depending on the initial strength.   Void of Will  

Consequences of Using Magic

  While spell casting is natural, like any other activity, it requires energy, and not just Arcane. The act of creating, utilizing, and maintaining spells is both mentally and physically exhausting. Given enough use, your body and mind will simply run out of energy, and you will feel burned out and exhausted. This is true even if only using external devices that avoid using your internal arcane energy.   Exhaustion from magic, often referred to as caster's fatigue, is benign and somewhat common. Simply eating a hearty meal to replenish lost calories and resting will recover a person in no time. If pushed particularly hard, caster's strain is possible, where you temporarily stunt your ability to cast or rejuvenate. This too is somewhat benign, with rest and mindfulness enough to cure these ailments.   As you approach more dangerous territories of self-inflicted spellcasting harm, you begin to see more permanent damage. Common among those pressing the boundaries of their natural skills are runic burns. These burns are simply burn damage caused to the body as a result of over-use of your arcane abilities. Normally, these burns appear outward and work in, with light burning on the skin, trailing in often aesthetically pleasing patterns, not too unlike the scarring left from lightning strikes. If a caster continues after their body begins to burn, these runic burns will often trail deeper into the body, hitting muscle, bone, and the organs.   Runic burns are treated as normal burns, but with the added treatment of dampening their spell casting to prevent further burn. Many people who have made spellcasting a part of their careers will have runic scar burns on their bodies as they accidentally over-do it.   To those who push their limits beyond even what scars will experience MAR. Originally known as Maximum Arcane Release, thus the acronym MAR, this outcome was first noticed with casters who would release too much internal arcane energy in a single moment. When a person does this, their bodies will kick into an arcane overdrive and begin rejuvenating energy at unnatural levels and immediately releasing it. With traditional MAR, this process occurs in seconds before the body stops, but permanent damage is sustained. In addition to runic scars across their body, both internal and external, internal bleeding, muscle and organ tears, and other serious bodily damage occurs. Virtually all casters who experience MAR will fall into a coma.   If a person recovers from MAR and wakes from their coma, they'll experience a list of side effects. In addition to whatever physical damage is done, they will find their bodies spell casting to be stunted in often odd ways. Some may find their reach oddly shaped, their potential diminished below useful levels, a permanently shattered Shell of Will, as well as many other possible outcomes. For many, MAR will end in death, the body unable to live through the amount of energy rushing through it.   MAR isn't always caused by large releases of energy. Sustained, constant flows above a trickle can result in soMAR (slow onset MAR). soMAR is identical to MAR, except the constant pull of energy through the body begins slower and will steadily ramp up. Often, the first identifiable symptom will be setting off alarms scanning for enchantments, triggered by a body simply leaking energy, or when the person begins feeling itches and rashes across their bodies, the start of runic burns. soMAR is treatable and easily preventable. The rule of 10 will prevent any soMAR from occurring. No more than 10% of your assumed maximum for no more than 10 hours at a time. Pushing beyond these levels risks soMAR.