Cartomancy

While technically an offshoot of spellcasting through runes, cartomancy is a method of elemental manipulation that has become so widespread and nuanced that it has earned its own classification.

Form

As the name would suggest, cartomancy is performed through the usage of cards, most commonly made from paper, inscribed with runes through the use of ink or some other elementally conductive liquid. All cartomancers carry their own deck of spells, with the average size of a collection generally landing in the range of 30 to 60 cards.

Each card is inscribed with a single spell, usually kept simple in nature to allow more versatility via "chaining" casts. However, some choose to imbue select cards within their deck with complex or signature spells, having come to be known colloquially as a cartomancer's trump cards.

Technique

There are many ways that a cartomancer can choose to channel magic through their cards, usually dependent on the nature of the deck's spells and purpose. The three most common ways are through card throwing, common in combative decks, channeling, a versatile method similar to casting through a focus, and drawing, a more unpredictable, yet the most efficient method of casting.

Card throwing is executed exactly as it sounds, involving the propulsion of a card by the user's hand, sometimes aided by the usage of elemental energy. Throwing cards has the risk of losing the card as if it were ammunition, however it is the most reliable way of casting a spell from a range.

Card channeling

Nuance

One of the complications that cartomancy presents at a surface level is the general inability to determine what spells are about to be cast without first examining the card. However, many cartomancers have found that each card has its own elemental "signature" that determines its strength and spell. Any experienced cartomancer is generally able to tell what spell is about to be cast before even drawing the card from their deck by its magical presence alone. This same capability is what generally limits deck sizes, as a card's magical signature becomes muddled and indistinguishable when many are overlapping in the same space. There are ways to address this in larger decks, such as marks on the back of each card or double-faced cards, although it is simply easier to just keep one's deck size down.

Variance

Really the only thing that defines cartomancy is the usage of magical runes inscribed upon a flat substrate in the shape of a card. Everything else, from modifications to the very material that the cards are made from, is up to the cartomancer's preference. In the most common case of paper-based cards, the ink used to write runes can be elementally charged by means such as powdered metal or the inclusion of other magical materials. However, ink is not always applicable. It is not unheard of for ferrous or earthen cartomancers to make their cards straight from steel or stone, and engrave the runes directly into the surface of the "card." Spectral cartomancers have found a rather peculiar method of producing runes by cutting a "stencil" out of the card in the shape of the rune, allowing their magic to flow more freely through their cards.

As for the means of modification, a very common method is through the use of a simple wax seal. Seals are most commonly imbued with pure elemental energy without an active rune in order to prevent interference with the card's spell, although some runed seals have been known to cause unique effects that enhance the spell, rather than dampen it.