Developing Mana

[Valarium]

I'm designing a magic system, and have been working on what "mana" is. Recently I've settled on this: There are three states of mana (reflecting the three states of matter), the gaseous state is "Etherium" (Which is completely invisible and almost completely intangible), the liquid state is blood (As in the literal blood in your veins), and solid state is gold.

I'd like to hear some input, comments, or some questions on this.

 

[skip.knox]

It's fine as far as it goes; does it go further? For example, how is mana used in an actual spell, in each of its three states? What causes transformation from one state to another, or are they unrelated?

 

[Valarium]

It's fine as far as it goes; does it go further? For example, how is mana used in an actual spell, in each of its three states? What causes transformation from one state to another, or are they unrelated?

It does go further than just the surface layer "blood is magic", however i'm still thinking about the specifics. For the question of how much mana is used for a spell, its dependent on the spell and users ability. For example, a simple D&D esq fireball would probably be a low cost spell compared to something like creating a thunderstorm or something of the like. Though it doesn't mean that it costs the same across magicians. A magician more experienced with fire magics would naturally be more attuned/skilled with fire spells, and would have a lower cost than a non-fire magician. Above that is a someone who has mastered "mana manipulation", whose skill with controlling their own mana is to such a degree that large scale spells can be spammed as if nothing more than a "basic" spell. But stuff like "How many ounces of blood is required for a spell like fireball" is still a unknown, though i've thought about the ratio of blood to gold, and im thinking like a pound of gold to five liters of blood.

For which of the three states of casting is used, usually only blood or gold. Blood would probably be the "go-to", seeing as most magicians would probably have access to blood. Gold would probably be reserved for "recharging" ones mana, or directly using it for large scale spells. Access to Etherium is not viable for most mages. Even though its everywhere, its almost completely intangible and undetectable.

Transition comes from alchemical practice, and is one of if not the most basic process in alchemy. It can both be forced, and natural. Natural change comes from natural processes. Knots and beads of Etherium collecting and condensing underground to form gold veins, or the natural processes of life absorbing mana from other beings and actually drawing Etherium into itself (Which now that I think about it, could lend itself to a "magic food chain"). For forced change, it would probably be more along condensing and stretching mana. "Compressing" blood gets gold, "stretching" gold gets blood (Though not physically compressing or stretching the substances, just magically).

 

[enoch driscoll]

its a nice system. does all gold no matter the purity count as equal? does the blood have to be your own? how was etherium discovered if it is completely intangible? does the density affect the power of the manna that can be used from it(like gold has most, because it is heaviest, or has the most atoms)? can anyone use gold and blood, if they only knew how? what happens to the material after it has been used? does it disappear? become 'dead?'

just some questions to get your brain churning.

 

[Valarium]

its a nice system. does all gold no matter the purity count as equal? does the blood have to be your own? how was etherium discovered if it is completely intangible? does the density affect the power of the manna that can be used from it(like gold has most, because it is heaviest, or has the most atoms)? can anyone use gold and blood, if they only knew how? what happens to the material after it has been used? does it disappear? become 'dead?'

just some questions to get your brain churning.

Density is the core reason why gold has more mana than blood. For what happens to mana after used to cast a spell, one of two things happens. It is either transformed into some kind of physical force, particle, etc, or reverts back to Etherium. For what happens if some uses all of their gold or blood, it is simply used up and disappears.

For the blood being your own, no, but i've been thinking about looking into blood types and maybe doing something along the lines of "using the appropriate blood type is safer or more effective than a non-compatible blood type". Also i'm not sure about gold purity, i'm going have to do some research on the topic. Finally, just because Etherium is almost completely intangible doesn't mean undetectable. If someone were to have some kind of object that slowly absorbed Etherium from the air from over the course of a year, it would become apparent that it does exist.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

I'm designing a magic system, and have been working on what "mana" is. Recently I've settled on this: There are three states of mana (reflecting the three states of matter), the gaseous state is "Etherium" (Which is completely invisible and almost completely intangible), the liquid state is blood (As in the literal blood in your veins), and solid state is gold.

I'd like to hear some input, comments, or some questions on this.

Who is able to use magic? Do they have to be human to use magic? Are humans unable to use magic?

 

[Valarium]

Who is able to use magic? Do they have to be human to use magic? Are humans unable to use magic?

As long as you have the proper knowledge to cast a spell (be it vocally, through runes, through handsigns, or any other way magic can be conducted), you can cast a spell (given you have access to a source of mana). For whether certain fantasy races are barred from using magic, no.

 

[S.T. Ockenner]

As long as you have the proper knowledge to cast a spell (be it vocally, through runes, through handsigns, or any other way magic can be conducted), you can cast a spell (given you have access to a source of mana). For whether certain fantasy races are barred from using magic, no.

I see, what are its limitations?

 

[Valarium]

I see, what are its limitations?

The most basic limitation of magic is how much "mana" you have. Can't really cast a spell if you don't have the amount of mana needed to cast it. There are additional limitations, but they all vary depending on magic "form". For example, basic spell casting requires the knowledge of a order of handsigns, vocal cues, etc. along with the time to cast. A basic fireball would only take a few seconds to cast due to how many cues it has, though something with greater complexity like creating a forest (granted you have the needed mana) would take way longer due to the amount of cues (Which could take hours of casting, and thats not even tackling the problem of memorizing the needed cues). Though runic magic wouldn't have the problem of time, but rather what material the rune is etched on or created with, the knowledge of the actual "runes" you are creating, and the amount of mana it has access to. A runic mage could memorize all the highest calibers of runes, but they'd likely be useless as they don't have the required materials to allow them to work.