Magic
Magic is the lifeforce of all beings - what gives rise to sentience, intelligence, and awareness. All living beings have some quantity of magic, but only in vast numbers does it give rise to sentience - and thus is the world of Numbers, created not from neurons and gray matter, but Magninium.
Magic provides the fundamentals of the world, both in how it operates and why it exists. It is the blueprint on which the world was created, and is a powerful tool. It is expressed through Magninium.
Magninium is a chemical element, though its properties are foreign to earthlike compounds. It harbors the ability to transform itself and its surroundings instantly into any other element, allowing for a wide range of uses. A caster's magic imposes itself on the air around them and, with their will and intuition, alters the very oxygen and nitrogen around them to conjure something, pass telepathic messages, teleport themselves, and more.
There are functionally no limits, as magic is a facet of sentience and intelligently understands intuition and meaning. One does not have to understand the inner mechanisms of a car to magick one up - one must simply want a car. But, its properties are limited by quantity: the larger a change to be enacted upon the world, the more Magninium is required to do such - and it spikes exponentially very quickly.
Magic provides the fundamentals of the world, both in how it operates and why it exists. It is the blueprint on which the world was created, and is a powerful tool. It is expressed through Magninium.
Magninium is a chemical element, though its properties are foreign to earthlike compounds. It harbors the ability to transform itself and its surroundings instantly into any other element, allowing for a wide range of uses. A caster's magic imposes itself on the air around them and, with their will and intuition, alters the very oxygen and nitrogen around them to conjure something, pass telepathic messages, teleport themselves, and more.
There are functionally no limits, as magic is a facet of sentience and intelligently understands intuition and meaning. One does not have to understand the inner mechanisms of a car to magick one up - one must simply want a car. But, its properties are limited by quantity: the larger a change to be enacted upon the world, the more Magninium is required to do such - and it spikes exponentially very quickly.
Conceptual Wavelengths
What are conceptual wavelengths?
To explain as simply as I can: all things exist because in some fashion, there is an 'idea' defining them. Words and language can be used to articulate these ideas, but they exist even when they are not being spoken of. The concept of fire does not stop existing if no one in a room speaks of it, for example.
Magninium serves as the basis for these concepts. It 'resonates' its own wavelength, which translates into the material world as a certain concept. 'Fire' Magninium resonates with the very concept of fire - warmth, heat, pain, cooking, anything and everything related to fire. Because it resonates with that idea, something such as fire can exist in the real world - you can strike a match and tend a small flame.
Magninium does not stop resonating with its concepts if it is part of a sentient being. As people are made out of massive quantities of Magninium, they too have conceptual wavelengths. Someone whose majority of Magninium is made of fire will feel attached to fire; they might be a pyromaniac, a chef, an outdoorsman, or a firefighter. They will find it easier to do things with their magic related to fire, like cooking, warming someone up, or starting a campfire. They will have some trouble with the conceptual opposite of fire - water, to give an idea - but will not be totally restricted from that branch of magic.
Most people do not know what concepts they resonate with; they simply have a talent in one area or another. However, many people do resonate with a plethora of concepts, and their concepts can even change over time as their identity changes. Someone may be born resonating with fire, but when a house fire in their childhood traumatizes them, they may instead resonate with water or houses or what have you.
There are no "limits" on what a concept may be. It can be as broad and fundamental as steel, dirt, fire, wind, or as specific as westernly breezes, rain on tin rooftops, tiny gears inside of air conditioning units, etc. Neither are more common than the other.
To explain as simply as I can: all things exist because in some fashion, there is an 'idea' defining them. Words and language can be used to articulate these ideas, but they exist even when they are not being spoken of. The concept of fire does not stop existing if no one in a room speaks of it, for example.
Magninium serves as the basis for these concepts. It 'resonates' its own wavelength, which translates into the material world as a certain concept. 'Fire' Magninium resonates with the very concept of fire - warmth, heat, pain, cooking, anything and everything related to fire. Because it resonates with that idea, something such as fire can exist in the real world - you can strike a match and tend a small flame.
Magninium does not stop resonating with its concepts if it is part of a sentient being. As people are made out of massive quantities of Magninium, they too have conceptual wavelengths. Someone whose majority of Magninium is made of fire will feel attached to fire; they might be a pyromaniac, a chef, an outdoorsman, or a firefighter. They will find it easier to do things with their magic related to fire, like cooking, warming someone up, or starting a campfire. They will have some trouble with the conceptual opposite of fire - water, to give an idea - but will not be totally restricted from that branch of magic.
Most people do not know what concepts they resonate with; they simply have a talent in one area or another. However, many people do resonate with a plethora of concepts, and their concepts can even change over time as their identity changes. Someone may be born resonating with fire, but when a house fire in their childhood traumatizes them, they may instead resonate with water or houses or what have you.
There are no "limits" on what a concept may be. It can be as broad and fundamental as steel, dirt, fire, wind, or as specific as westernly breezes, rain on tin rooftops, tiny gears inside of air conditioning units, etc. Neither are more common than the other.
Casting
Magic must be casted through the body in some way, usually through parts of the body with the most nerve endings. This usually means that individuals are most likely to cast through their hands and fingers, though it's not impossible to learn how to cast through other limbs, body parts, or gestures.
In all living beings, the major pools of magic are stored in the skullcase and in the heart. It travels through the body's bloodstream, keeping them alive and moving. When casting, a rush of magic floods through the body towards the exit point - usually the fingers - and is expelled through the skin. It is not blocked by clothing or gloves.
It can, however, be blocked by certain metals: specifically gold, silver, and copper, in order of most to least dangerous. These metals consume magic in order to multiply, and will "eat" someone's magic used to cast if placed around the wrists. Copper is the most tolerable and easiest for people to smith into cuffs or daggers, while gold is so dangerous that it consumes magic out of the air and often "chokes out" areas around itself. Being sliced open with a gold dagger will result in a permanent scar that healing magic cannot fix.
These metals' dangerous properties can be reversed by storing them in talc, which chokes their magic-eating.
In all living beings, the major pools of magic are stored in the skullcase and in the heart. It travels through the body's bloodstream, keeping them alive and moving. When casting, a rush of magic floods through the body towards the exit point - usually the fingers - and is expelled through the skin. It is not blocked by clothing or gloves.
It can, however, be blocked by certain metals: specifically gold, silver, and copper, in order of most to least dangerous. These metals consume magic in order to multiply, and will "eat" someone's magic used to cast if placed around the wrists. Copper is the most tolerable and easiest for people to smith into cuffs or daggers, while gold is so dangerous that it consumes magic out of the air and often "chokes out" areas around itself. Being sliced open with a gold dagger will result in a permanent scar that healing magic cannot fix.
These metals' dangerous properties can be reversed by storing them in talc, which chokes their magic-eating.
Mages
A mage is an individual who has specialized in some form of magic as their primary career. Most individuals know basic telepathy, teleportation, and minor telekinesis, but mages are the ones hired to fight battles, to mass-enchant a clothing line, or draw enormous magic circles for emergency city protection.
Mages are notoriously hungry - using magic consumes vast amounts of energy, so they will eat everything and literally anything to keep their mana pools large.
They usually expend magic near-constantly - as if flexing a muscle to keep it in practice - and are stereotyped as being erratic, unpredictable loose cannons. As magic is literally imposing one's will on the world around them, it does usually take a certain personality type to willingly go into it as a regular career - shredding small parts of one's own sentience, soul, and lifeforce to force reality to bend to their decisions.
Below is an infographic further explaining mage careers and reviewing the rest of this article.
Mages are notoriously hungry - using magic consumes vast amounts of energy, so they will eat everything and literally anything to keep their mana pools large.
They usually expend magic near-constantly - as if flexing a muscle to keep it in practice - and are stereotyped as being erratic, unpredictable loose cannons. As magic is literally imposing one's will on the world around them, it does usually take a certain personality type to willingly go into it as a regular career - shredding small parts of one's own sentience, soul, and lifeforce to force reality to bend to their decisions.
Below is an infographic further explaining mage careers and reviewing the rest of this article.
Other Uses
Magic can be used in things like incense, potions, magic circles, and enchantment. Their uses are more niche than the standard self-casting, but are important for things like creating teleportation pads, healing potions, clothes that never tear, cups that never spill, glasses that never smudge, etc.
The specifics of this are slightly too complicated and not as common in use for an article like this to cover, unfortunately.
The specifics of this are slightly too complicated and not as common in use for an article like this to cover, unfortunately.
