Magic System

The Source

Magic, the power, channeling, whatever each culture will end up calling it, all magic in this world comes from the same source. It comes from an actual physical place in the world. On the rough world map it is the tower with the swirl around it in the center.

Nobody knows what the source is, but all cultures have their theories and legends about it. What they do know is this is where their magic comes from.

Instead of using the magnetic field of the Earth to orient to the north pole, people in this world have a built in compass, because they can always tell the exact direction of the source. As a result of this, polar coordinate systems are more frequently used than rectilinear coordinate systems.

The Power

The power falls off inverse square as it radiates out from the source. Thus the farther away from the source you are the less powerful it will be.

The power travels in waves much like light or sound, but the medium they travel through is probability.

The people of this world have evolved to tap into those waves and focus them in such a way that they can make the improbable happen. Everyone has some ability to use the power, but for most it is very small things, lighting a candle, pulling something to them that is out of reach, a gust of wind to clear the air.

While some may be more gifted naturally, mastery of the power takes discipline and study over many years.

The Twisted Lands

There is a border around the source where it gets too intense for living things to survive. Any who go seeking the source become mutated and go mad long before they get to that point though. The lands immediately around that border are called The Twisted Lands because everything alive there is horribly mutated.

Dead Spots and Hot Spots

Since the power travels as a wave there can be situations where it will interfere with itself. Where a wave peak meets a trough, they interfere destructively canceling each other out and creating a dead spot. Where the peaks line up with the peaks, they interfere constructively, amplifying each other, and create a hot spot.

Batteries

Twenty feet of rock can dampen the power to the point it is so small as to be undetectable and useless. Magical batteries have been developed for use in situations where the power is dampened to the point of not being usable, underground mines, dead spots.

Traditions of Study

There are a wide array of different traditions that teach the student to master magic.

The East – The Institute for Advanced Arcana, usually just known as The Institute. The Institute is not only the education system in the East, it is also the main government body. There are three campuses, one in each of the border cities. The typical program of study is three years. One year spent at each campus. The institute was formed as an alliance of the three border cities to train their soldiers to fight the Muts across the river about 100 years ago. The success lead to opening The Institute to any who can pass their entrance exams about 20 years ago. The education here isn’t just about the power, it is very much like a state university system, and so many people attend who aren’t planning to be battlemages or do theoretical magic research, but want to pursue any number of other careers from mining to music.

The South – Magic here is taught similar to the way we teach martial arts. There are 23 different styles. The different styles can be combined. Learning to use the power in the south is about finding what styles you connect with the most to make your own personal mix of styles. Some styles are very different from each other, and so learning one may make it much harder to learn another. Some will naturally build upon each other making them easy to combine.

The West – The monks in the citadel believe that the source is the center of the universe where the creator is still working at his forge to make the universe. The power is his gift to us to help finish his creation. Their tradition is very dogmatic, very ritualized, very rigid.

Artifice – Magic Items

Magic items are treated as a technology, not a mystery. The rules on how they are built takes inspiration from the way electric circuits work in real life.

Crystals: There are a few different types of crystals employed in magical devices.

Battery – Releases a slow drip of power. It takes a while to charge up, but will recharge naturally if the device it is attached to is not being used.
Resistor – used to reduce the flow of magic power in a device. Say you want to hook up a very powerful battery, but only want to draw a small amount of power at one time.
Capacitor – can be charged up to a max value and then released all at once.
Inductor – allows the user to channel more power than they usually can.
Focus – maximizes the effect of your spell.

Resistors and Capacitors add in serial and parallel configurations exactly as they do in electric circuits.

The difference between a focus and an inductor is that the focus makes the spell more powerful, the inductor makes caster more powerful. A fireball cast through a focus does max damage. With an inductor, instead of a fireball, they could cast a firestorm.

Runes: The various component crystals need to be connected to each other via Runes. Typically they are created by inlaying materials in various patterns.

Metals that are commonly used are: silver, gold, electrum (mix of gold and silver) platinum, copper. Glass can also be used and is popular in the south and west. There are also rare woods that can be used, but this tends to be in more cottage industry type devices made in the northeast.

There are a variety of different styles of runes that are used in different traditions, but they ultimately serve similar functions. It is common for artificers to know a variety of styles of runes, but typically they will employ a uniform style for a single piece. Sometimes runes are combined from different styles to produce exotic or more powerful effects but this must be done with caution as this can also create unintended side effects.

Cost of Magic

As with any exertion there is a price to using the power. Part of ones strength is how much you can handle without rest. This can be improved with training. Overdoing it with the power can make you exhausted for days, so it is important to learn your limits.

If you use too much of the power too often you will go mad, mutate, and become a Feral. (see The Twisted Lands – Creatures section)

It is also possible to kill yourself by overdosing with the power, but that is more from exhaustion and shock to your system than the power itself.

Daily use by the average person just makes you a bit tired. On the other extreme Battlemages must rotate shifts in battle to prevent becoming exhausted or going mad.