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Spheres
Types of Spells
Using Magic
About Magic
Magic is the art that purports to control or forecast natural events, effects or forces by invoking the supernatural or the unnatural. In many ways, gravity, light and the other "forces" we take for granted quantify in one way or another as magic. In the world of Thrael, magic is the power that literally drives our reality.
The set of rules that makes up the Magic of Thrael is known as the "Weave," and it is ever changing. Based on what is known as "consensual reality," the basic laws of the "Weave" state that such rudiments of nature such as "What goes up, must come down" literally exist because the inhabitants of the world believe in them, forcing them to be. Therefore even the law of gravity is a component of the Weave, since magic does not accept the scientific reason for gravity, but rather the consensual reason. Therefore the forces around us are magical insofar as they are expected to work, not because of the reasons they do work.
At the same time, localized changes to our reality, be they spells, prayers, or other effects, are also known as magic. By harnessing the power of essence, which is the essential energy that permeates life, temporary changes can be made in the Weave, creating magical effects. By the very nature of the Weave and, therefore, of consensual reality, no magical effect is permanent; some are just imbued with a significant amount of essence to forestall changes for many, many years.
Magic is divided into three spheres: Arcane, Astral, and Vedic. These spheres are furthermore divided up into a series of circles or lists of magical spells and effects. The Mage, Dael the young, devised this method of codifying magic from the writings of the weave-touched Lady Pendre, the author of the definitive magic books of the realms, and penned in Kenzian the Syllables of Magic by which these spells may be invoked. Two spheres of magic may also be combined to produce hybrid spells.
Of the classes of professions, those that practice Arcane magic are known as Mages, professions that utilize Astral magic are known as Spiritualists, and Vedic magic users are known simply as Vedics. Various professions exist under these class headings, and some Spiritualist or Warrior class professions do make use of Arcane or Vedic magic. But the class points to the focus of the profession.
Spheres
Arcane
Arcane magic is otherwise known as rational magic, a form of magic that works within the weave itself, bending the rules of our reality and exploiting arcane rules to create magical effects. The ancient wizards referred to these types of spells as "magick" because they relied on codified theorems and principles that would always cause the same result. These "early-day scientists" exploited the purest example of Arcane magic: direct manipulation of the weave using the rules of the weave itself.
Astral
Astral magic is divine magic, relying upon the essence or raw energy of greater sources through channeling, ritual and prayer. Any magic that draws upon a greater source (typically sentient and spiritual) is classified in this category, making it the most powerful, yet unpredictable of the three spheres. The most typical example of Astral magic is the exchange of power from a deity to his priest.
Vedic
Vedic magic is personal magic, drawing upon individual's reserves of essence and willpower to affect smaller changes in their local environment. Vedic magic allows the caster to effectively change local consensual reality using himself as the focus. This magic more than any other relies on consensual reality or what the caster believes to be true and forces the rest of nature to agree with his tenets.
Hybrid
Hybrid magic draws on the principles of both spheres in which the spells are founded, allowing the caster to create effects that are not possible to achieve using one sphere alone. Mechanically, by default, these types of spells will choose the better of the skills in question (channeling, focus or sorcery) for purposes of "sphere of magic," durations and scaling effects. You may also specify which skill you wish to favor via the settings command.
Types of Spells
Buff Spells
A buff spell is a spell that is cast on a target that provides a benefit to the target. All spells classified as buff spells may be cast on a group by using cast group
. Buff spell durations tend to increase with the associated casting skill and statistic based on the sphere.
Healing Spells
A healing spell is a spell that is cast on a target that provides a healing effect. All spells classified as healing spells may be cast on a group by using cast group
.
Warding Spells
A warding spell is an offensive spell that is cast directly on its target. The spell can only be resisted, not dodged. A warding spell uses a direct contest of the caster's casting skill and associated casting statistic based on the sphere against the target's gnosis skill and the associated casting statistic based on the sphere.
Area Warding Spells
An area warding spell is a warding spell that targets every living thing in a room that is not in your group, instead of a single target.
Bolt Spells
A bolt spell is a spell that has a physical manifestation and thus may be blocked or avoided by physical means. Bolt spells may target specific limbs, but also can be avoided by more prevalent physical means, balancing out their advantage. Bolt spells always use the caster's kinesis skill and dexterity stat against the target's physical defense. Though bolt spells may be dodged or parried with shields, parrying a bolt spell with a weapon is normally impossible.
Burst Spells
A burst spell is a spell that has a physical manifestation and thus may be blocked or avoided by physical means, but affects an area. Burst spells target anything living in the room that is not in your group and may be avoided by more prevalent physical means, balancing out their advantage. Burst spells always use the caster's kinesis skill and dexterity stat against the target's physical defense. Though bolt spells may be dodged or parried with shields, parrying a burst spell with a weapon is normally impossible.
Using Magic
In order to cast a spell, you must first know what spells you have. You can accomplish this by using the spells
command. This will list all spell circles available to you. You may then type the number of the circle to see all the spells available in that circle.
You must at least be the level of the spell in order to cast it. Thus ap01, Essence Twist, could be cast by a level 1 character, but ap07, Arcane Mastery, would need to be cast a level 7 or higher character.
Spells are taught by different means. Some are taught by lecturers at the Lyceum in Kaezar and in Koje, some in treehouses, some in temples, some in what appears to be a deserted building, some are learned just listening to nature. The player must seek out the way to learn his/her spells.
To use your spells, you must first prepare the spell by typing prep <spell shortname>
. Thus to prepare ap01, you would type prep ap01
. You are now prepping a spell.
Prepping a spell takes time, and the game will inform you how long until your spell is ready and when your spell is ready. While prepping a spell, getting stunned, unconscious, or in roundtime will break it. Using most verbs will also break it, contents
and look
are notable exceptions.
When your spell is ready, it is time to cast
it. Note that if the spell is a bard song, you will need to sing it. Simply casting a spell will always attempt to cast the spell on yourself. However, some spells can be cast on other players or mobiles. Other spells may only be cast on other players or mobiles, and some may only be cast on objects.
In order to cast a spell on a target, type cast <target>
. For instance, to cast ap07 on Bob, you would type cast bob
.
A spell does not have to be cast or lost to distraction. To lose a lesser amount of essence without casting a prepped spell, release
it.