#learning you some knowledge

[npcguardsmen-archive-blog]

Teach me, Ms. Nihla!

“Since you apparently retained what I told you about mana, it’s time we learned about an important distinction- Dark and Elder magic.”

“Most people tend to assume it’s a tomatoh tomahtoe situation, but the truth is actually a lot more complicated than that.  To understand the difference, we’ll learn about elder magic- true elder magic.  This is going to be a doozy, so listen up.”

“First of all, Elder Magic can’t be used under normal conditions.  Period.  The greatest mage in the world could pick up an elder tome, but wouldn’t be able to so much as make sparks with it.  This is because most free-floating mana is incompatible with Elder arrays.  To utilize it, you need...help.”

“And I suppose this is as good of a time as any to introduce you to the help I get with Elder Magic.  Come on out, Tantris.”

“Hello, Students.”

“Tantris is a spirit of Justice who I have made a pact with in order to safely wield the elder magics.  The duty of a spirit to an elder magic user is to convert the mana around them so it can be used with Elder Arrays.  Through this, the Pact-Maker is able to use the power they bestow as they see fit, so long as it does not violate the rules of the pact.  My pact with Tantris states that I cannot use my powers to knowingly harm innocent non-combatants, and that I am to stop injustice wherever I see it.”

“Now that you know Elder Magic, you need to know about Dark Magic.  With Dark Magic, it’s practitioners willingly allow their bodies to be transformed by a singular spirit of malevolence into a factory for dark energy.  This allows these people to freely use dark magic.  This is actually very dangerous, as dark energy can eat away at your very being and body.  Remember Validar?  Yeah, there’s a reason he looks like his father was a giraffe.”

“Elder magic is by far the safest route, long story short.  Lesson over.”

[npcguardsmen-archive-blog]

Teach me, Ms. Nihla!

“All right, screwheads, let’s learn about magic.”

“To understand magic, you have to start at the beginning, and that beginning is mana.  Mana is ambient, free-floating energy that is the life force of all living things on this planet.  And when I say that, it’s no exaggeration:  Mana is more important than water if you want to live.”

“The term ‘magic’ comes into play when this free-floating energy is converted from one form into another, usually by filtering and passing it through an array, which condenses the mana, and converts it into the form the array dictates.  You can see this in magic tomes, which have arrays printed on every page.”

“As for the form the spell takes, there are three different options.  The array can convert them into the four classic elements- Air, Fire, Water, and Energy, as well as the Primal forces of Light and Darkness.”

“You’ll notice healing magic wasn’t included in those categories, because it doesn’t fit the strict definition of magic.  The gems and stones at the end of a magic staff simply store and release large quantities of Mana.  This condensed mana has several benefits on the human body, including accelerated healing.”

“If we look at these reactions closely, they’re just like any other reaction in science- they give off light and heat during the reaction process.  In the case of magical tomes, this burns the pages the arrays used are printed on, each spell’s array printed on multiple pages, depending on the spell.  For an idea of how this works, think of running sandy and salty water through a few filters.  That’s the basic principle.  To get an idea of the level of ‘filtration’ needed, a fire tome’s spell takes up about five pages, and a Bolganone tome uses about twenty.  As for staves, holding Mana in large quantities is severely damaging to the crystal, and it breaks after a bit.”

“Of course, despite that, mages do deserve all of the credit for the spell, as their main task is guiding the mana to the array.  Control over free-floating mana is a gift that very few people have, and those that show it are often ivited to hone it at academies.  Man, they were all over Plegia before the Grimleal took hold...”

“...Ahem.  Well, that’s the lesson.  Any questions?  Because if you don’t have questions, scram.  I have work to do.”