I just spent some time vectorizing these spell circles from Tales of Symphonia, that show up when the spell is released. It was fun! I quite like this kind of work.
A lot more work would be trying to recreate the circles that show up on the floor for the bigger spells. Cause those are harder to see with the characters standing on top of them. Also, the perspective doesn't help.
I wonder if those designs are retrievable from the game files. Probably not, right? But the design has got to be somewhere! I just love those kinds of details and wish there was an archive or gallery with them.
Anyway, if anyone want to use them, go for it!
(How do I turn vectorizing graphics into paid work? I'd love to know)
heres a portion of the curriculum for the school of magic because yes
SO. Let's talk magic. You know it, you love it, you study it(if you're a wizard. Lmao.) and it surrounds us in every aspect of life. But what is it, and where does it come from? Magic is an invisible energy that powers all of existence. It has the unique property of being able to become any form of matter - something that science and modern day research would consider impossible. After all, you can't create something from nothing, right? For every force there must be a pushback? Magic and ley lines prove this to be true, but not in the way you might expect. Rather, the flow of magic absorbs and displaces other molecules, taking on their form like a molecular ditto or doppelganger. The difference between the original molecule and it's magical doppelganger is incredibly subtle- it is now capable of transmogrifying into whichever molecule a spell calls upon. Magical particles, however, do have a limit. After a certain period of time, they lose their ability transmogrify, permanently turning into the molecule that they were replicating. That leads us into our second question - where does magic come from? How is it still so overwhelmingly present when it's always decaying? The answer is simpler than you think. Now, I'm sure you've all heard this term before - in Magic 101, probably - the World Nexus. The Origin of All Magic. The Great Heart. It uh... Has a lot of names. Probably because it's the thing that keeps all magic alive! Lots of myths and legends say it's a tree, or a giant mountain, but in reality, it's simply the central point all the ley lines originate from. Ley lines, by definition, are the streams of magic that flow throughout our world. They expand from the World Nexus in the shape of a web, and during the witching hour the World Nexus pulses, sending a new wave of magic coursing through the Web. This is why the Witching Hour is different times in different areas - because it takes longer for that pulse of magic to reach that area. Sorcerers can see and weave these strands of magic because of their magic affinity. However, wild magic users cannot control the form it takes. They can give it direction and element, but they're basically just throwing elements around. A wild sorcerer's fire spell could range from a spark to a firework to a bolt of lightning. ANYWAYS, while we're still on the topic of ley lines, we might as well cover ✨teleportation spells!!✨ (my personal favorite)Or, at least, how they're made. Spells are made(at least for wizards) via the use of Spell Circles. Spell Circles look a bit like this:
This is a shield spell. I'll break it down for you - the outer ring determines the target location(since nothing is specified, it is centered around the target/subject), the middle ring is the form it takes(in this case a shield - tick marks determine how far from the subject it is, in whichever direction that line is pointing, and the width determines the size/width.) and the subject is the thing that is affected by the spell. This subject can be a variety of things, ranging from soul marks(which are unique to the soul of the creature with that soul mark, and can only be seen by rangers and druids), elements(if you wanted to contain a fire, you would use the rune for flame), Classification Marks (species or categories of living creatures. Essentially, it targets anything that fits a specific criteria/species)
this is the rune for flame. ^
this is the Soul Mark for an Ogre ^ to specify a specific ogre, you would need to include the special script that would be written inside the black lines shown.
Now, as we know, the outer ring can be filled with script to specify more intricate details of the spell. These can include limitations, criteria, aaand LOCATION. Location is specified in script via coordinates - which are generated within a Ley Line Web Pocket, depending on how far the target point is from each of the ley line borders. It looks like this:
the Purple lines are the ley lines, the Orange lines are the point/target location (with the arrows showing it's distance each of the borders) and the Teal is the land formation/map. Coordinates can have the same values, so in a teleportation spell, the web pocket MUST be specified using it's distance from the World Nexus and each of the dimensional borders. This part is what causes the most confusion in wizards, as they can input the same coordinates and end up in entirely different places.
Back to spell circles.
Classification marks come in two forms. Angel/Whole/Living, and Devil/Incomplete/Dead. The Angel mark targets living creatures, in other words, it targets both the soul and the body. The Devil mark targets the soul only. Magic on the soul is forbidden. Necromancy is also forbidden because of this. Necromancy is the magic of the soul, or a fragmented body. Necromancy is considered evil because in order to cast a spell on a living being, it's soul must be separated from its body - and in order to do this without causing the body to decay, the soul must be trapped. Many necromancers enslave soul cages, because phylacteries are too expensive to make. This is cruel to the soul cages, because they are being essentially starved. Soul cages digest souls in a way that releases that soul to go to the afterlife afterwards - Necromancers stop them from digesting the souls. It's extremely cruel and I could go on a whole rant about it, but all you need to know basically is that devil marks used to just be the mark for the soul, and then religious people came in and were like "FUCK THAT ALL SOUL MAGIC IS EVIL AND HORRIBLE AND UM - wait what's a scary word we could use to emphasize this, AH YES. DEMONIC. SOUL MAGIC IS DEMONIC." And then it went from there. Interestingly enough, Druids actually have found a way to cast spells on themselves. Druids shape shift by grafting an animal's soul mark onto their body(usually in the form of a tattoo) and then manually separating their soul from their body temporarily, while simultaneously casting a polymorph spell on themselves. The soul mark tattoo helps bind their human soul to the animal body. Hop skip jumping back to the topic of religious propaganda, it's a little funny, cuz devils don't actually exist. God is dead. Angels just keep the afterlife running because it's kinda their only purpose in life and if heaven is gone then what's the point of living forevanywAYS point is god is dead angels are having an immortal life crisis and devils don't exist. 'Hell' is actually just the Domain of Justice. When a soul dies, it's energy is measured for to see how close it is to the maximum potential good that it could achieve in life. Lemme break it down for you. Souls are the core of a living being. Magic can't affect something with a soul - which is why it has to be removed for necromancy via soul targeting spells. In essence, they are everything that makes you you - personality wise anyways. Each soul has seven energies, which can be positive or negative(or somewhere in between) These seven values (greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, and sloth) determine a souls affinity to certain aspects and desires of living beings. For instance, a person with negative wrath energy would likely have anger issues. And someone with negative envy energy would have likely get jealous more easily, and have problems with possessiveness. After measuring these, it is determined how close that soul is to their maximum potential growth/good. If they are 2/3rds or higher, they are allowed to be either reborn, or choose to stay and work as an angel for as long as they choose. If they are below 2/3rds, they go to what mortals would call 'hell'. It looks different to each person, but it exists to help you grow and learn from the mistakes you made in life. Individuals who complete this are immediately reincarnated. The "9 planes of hell" actually DO exist - they separate people into categories based on how corrupted they are. When a person learns whatever lesson they need to learn from the plane, then they move up to the next one.
I was thinking about spell circles and how they tend to match either the character, the magic they use or the track/coven they're in
And I got curious about Golden Guards spell circle, and it turns out he doesn't have one. Or at the very least not one we've seen
Every time he uses any magic, from bringing himself up from the Boiling Sea to just flying away at the end, not once does he use a spell circle. It's always his weird doesn't-have-a-palisman staff
Maybe he can't perform magic, or maybe it's not very powerful, or maybe he just likes using his staff or has more control with it
It could be nothing but I think it's probably going to be very plot relevant
Can’t tell if this accelerated production is caused by stress or excitement or both but I’m ROLLIN’ WITH IT
After seeing the dope ass spell circles used in She-Ra (finally caught up on the newest season lol) I was itching to make some for Starglass Zodiac. I’ve done symbols before but this is actually my first time attempting full-on arcane circles, and I LOVE IT. *v* Such a beautiful combo of my love for symbol/graphic design and magical fantasy stuff.
It occurred to me that I should probably give actual names to these spirits, as they are effectively the gods of this universe and I totally forgot to until now. xD Admittedly the text makes this look a lot more finished than it actually is, lol. There’s a vector art program on the iPad that I want to try for making clean versions of these, and hopefully my other logo stuff in the future. I can do it in Photoshop too, but it’s a bit finicky at times.
