Understanding Mana and the 6 elements

[Arin]

Understanding Mana and the Six Elements

The power of the arcane

Magic, in its most basic form, comes from the environment. Rocks, trees, even precious gems and metals in the form of a magical essence known as "mana". This base magical force is used for many various methods of spell casting; from simple parlor tricks such as levitation and conjuration, to tactical and offensive spells such as invisibility veils and arcane blasts. Each spell needs a certain amount of mana to be cast, but can be casted quickly for less mana, at the cost of the spell's potency or power, and be treated as one class lower than its original spell class.

Arcane magic is an even balance of all elements on the magic scale (see the Mana Scale diagram), and therefore has an aura that lacks any visual description other than a distortion in the space around the user. The more powerful the spell or aura, the greater the distortion.

The 6 elements of magic

Just with the evolution of life, so does magic have its evolution in uses. Magic users have discovered that some spell-casters have the ability to convert mana into one of the 6 evenly balanced elemental types pooled within its arcane base form. While it's normally common for a mage or sorcerer to have a single affinity for one of these elements, there are those who can train under multiple elements, but casting magic not natural to one's elemental affinity requires more focus to cast. To better understand mana and the 6 underlying elements within, please see the spell-casting section, found in the link provided.

The elements can be combined to make unique spells, but only two elements can be combined for a single spell before spell-casting becomes hazardous, possibly even lethal if the spell were to backfire if a multi-element spell was forced. The elements that can be combined depends on both the level of skill of the mage, and how likely someone with an elemental affinity can learn other elemental magic styles before even attempting to combine them.

Each elemental magic page will show how likely it will be for any given mage to learn different elements. Note that if you choose an arcane (no element) mage, you are a "jack of all trades" so any spell that character casts won't be as potent, compared to a mage combining their primary element with another type.

Exhausting the mana in an environment

Magic users draw mana from the environment to cast spells, a finite amount of power if not left to replenish. Extensive casting in an environment can eventually exhaust that mana, rendering magic in that specific area useless. The mana in the land will eventually return, but it will take a few days to have that mana return to nature. Signs of low or zero mana left in the environment are a dull color in the nearby plants, or the earth or stones becoming brittle.

The devastation of black magic

Once the surrounding environment is drained of its mana, those without mana stones are without any means to cast sells safely (for information on mana stones, see this article). Foolish mages that cast magic despite this deficiency in mana are now tapping into the very life-force of the surrounding environment, causing vegetation to rot, rocks to crumble into dust, and precious gems and minerals to lose their luster and fall apart.

Those desperate enough to cast this forbidden magic are often victorious, but at a cost. While black magic is more powerful than regular forms of magic, it destroys the mind, and corrupts the body and soul of the caster, leaving those who have tapped into its power to be scarred by the experience. These scars are magically caused, and cannot be removed by magic. Some scars and corruption can be black lines or complete engulfing of a limb that casted the spell (typically the hand and forearm) with a more demonic looking claw replacing their hand, one or both of the caster's eyes could be black where the white sclera would be.

The use of black magic will also leave mental damage after its use. Often times black magic users are more hostile, paranoid, and easy to anger at the smallest things (this mental damage can be overcome with excessive mental training and discipline). Black magic is as black as the soul that is desperate to cast it, and therefore possesses a jet black aura that distorts around the body like an event horizon.

Because of the information provided above, the use of black magic is strictly forbidden, and those who have used the magic are dealt with according to the laws of the land that a black magic mage is apprehended.