NOVEL FROG Chapter 2: Magic (optional)
Information flooded my brain and I felt myself changing. My character did have some skills, like arcane knowledge. Now this knowledge came flooding in. The world I was going to did not have levels, or a system, or video game features. Nevertheless I could use the levels from my game to roughly describe the strength that people had.
The world was filled with magic. During their lives people were able to draw this magic into their bodies, strengthening it. This happened naturally. How much magic a body could absorb depended on the person. You could say that everyone had a different maximum level in game terms. In theory this could be raised by alchemically, or magically, altering the body. Most people would never be more than a regular earth human. How the magic affected your body was determined by your actions. If you fought with a sword a lot you would get stronger and faster. Although one thing was universal, the more magic you absorbed the harder you were to kill.
Let’s have a look at humans. Now while there are no real levels I am going to use them here for a comparison. In the end the lvls mentioned here are simply an approximation of someone's abilities compared to a game character.
Most people would never be more than a level 3.
In the army you would consider normal soldiers 1-3.
4-6 would be specialists, people excelling at a certain role in combat.
7-9 would be elites. Maybe a chapter of royal knights.
10-12 would be champions, like commander of an elite unit.
13-16 would be notable individuals. At this level people were often dragged into politics. A lot of famous adventures were offered noble titles.
17-20 were walking armies. Those people had a lot of influence in their nations and were vital in any war. You could almost see them as nuclear bombs.
Of course there were even more scary things. Like one of the ancient dragons, or the demon lords in the abyss. Aside from humans the world had a large number of species. Elves, dwarves, orcs, beastkin and many more. Generally, longer lived races had more high level people. And a lvl 1 orc would simply be stronger than a lvl 1 human.
And what about classes? There were none in that sense. You got stronger in what you trained. Somebody fighting in melee combat would generally grow more proficient in their weapon. You could call somebody like that a fighter. The mana would strengthen their muscles to make them more efficient. A high level fighter could also learn special techniques. Like using the mana in their body to further empower their strikes. A max level fighter might even be able to throw an elephant! Ok maybe not throw, but at least lift them. Aside from getting better at your craft, the infusion of mana led to more durable bodies. Their skin, muscles and bones were a lot tougher. Further, the body became a lot more resistant to poison and disease. If you wanted to kill a high level fighter in their sleep you were in for a rough surprise. A normal knife would not be enough to slit their throat. If you had enough time you could saw through it. But people tend to wake up if you try that. While mages were less durable, even their bodies were no joke.
So I mentioned mages. Let's talk about how magic works in this world. In order to become a mage you needed training. Either from a personal tutor or by visiting an academy. The first step was to get a feel for the magic in your body, visualise it in your head and mould it into the desired shape. This usually took about 1-2 years of studying. After that you were able to cast simple spells. Those could be used to chill a beverage or start a fire. Simple spells could be deadly against a normal human, but their damage potential was rather limited. Casting simple spells would tire a mage, but other than that there was no limit on their use.
True magic was divided in spell circles. After a mage learned simple spells they had to construct the first spell circle in their head. This took a lot of studying and concentration. They used the mana of the world to strengthen their mind while tracing the runes over and over until they settled. Once that was completed they formed spell slots.
Every spell circle had a number of spell slots. Once they unlocked them all they started tracing the next spell circle in their mind. The highest was the 9th spell circle which would make a mage about lvl 17. At the maximum level a mage's spell slots would look like this:
Spell Circle
Spell Slots
1
6
2
6
3
6
4
5
5
5
6
5
7
4
8
4
9
4
Now how do spell slots work?
After a at least somewhat restful sleep all spell slots were restored. Humans usually needed between 6-8h to regain all their slots. Sleeping less, or having a restless sleep, would only partially restore the slots. Instead of sleeping one could enter a deep meditation for the same time. That ability was rather rare for humans but more common for elves. A mage could fill those slots with a spell that they learned. All learned spells were stored in the mage's spell book. This was a magical item, bound to the mage and created by a ritual. A spell book was expensive but needed in order to become a mage. It could also be resummoned with a ritual if it was lost.
Spells were learned either through intensive study, or with a magical one time use scroll. In order to cast a spell it had to be in a spell slot. After a spell was put into a slot, it took about 15 min to settle before it could be used. So a mage could always keep a spell slot open and fill it later during the day. But it would be impractical to fill a slot during battle.
To cast a spell a mage needed to concentrate on the slot for about 5 seconds. Spells usually did not need incantations or special gestures, though a lot of spells were called forth from one's hand. If the concentration was interrupted during those 5 seconds the caster had to start over.
There was also ritual magic. In a ritual, a spell circle was drawn on the ground, certain material components were placed in the centre and multiple casters (optional) combined their power. The runes in the spell circle determined the effect. Everyone participating used some of their spell slots (no matter which or if a spell was prepared). Rituals could also be performed by a single person, if they had the required amount of slots. More powerful rituals would need more and higher spell slots as fuel. Rituals were also used for crafting. While spells had a fixed effect, rituals could be modified easily, assuming you had sufficient knowledge of the runes. The biggest downside of ritual magic was the preparation time and the material cost. It also required vast amounts of knowledge.
But how powerful was magic? Well a popular 3rd circle spell was a fireball. It was comparable to a modern hand grenade. While all fireballs were kind of the same, the overall power of the caster influenced the temperature. Meaning a high lvl mage would also have more impressive lower circle spells. At the top… magic was truly frightening. A 9th circle spell could call meteors from the sky, laying waste to a castle. They could drown cities and summon earthquakes. Thankfully there were also defensive spells to protect against such might. But it would be safe to say that a high level magic user was more powerful than a high level fighter.
That said, mages had to sleep and were somewhat vulnerable when caught unprepared. An important task of a warrior was often to protect a mage.
But becoming a mage capable of such wonders was hard. Most people lacked the talent, or the money to afford a magical tutor/school. And you still needed a body capable of absorbing enough magic.
You might remember that I was a sorceress, not a mage. So what is the difference? Sorcerers drew power from their blood. Magic was part of them. They did not learn spells. As they grew in power, mostly by just using their magic a lot, their mind unlocked further spells and circles. They had no control over what spells they had. It was all tied to their bloodline. Someone with the blood of a red dragon would have mostly fire based spells. Additionally, they might grow scales and eventually even become immune against fire. There was also no need to prepare a spell. They could use a spell slot for any spell they knew at that tier. Sorcerers had two more spell slots per circle than a mage. Personally, I had 3 more slots than a normal sorcerer, because I cheated. That meant 9 slots for the 9th circle.
Also, sorcerers could modify their spells with enough training. Making a fireball bigger or smaller, adjusting the heat, or even casting instantaneously was possible. Depending on the modifications a spell would need a higher circle slot. It was not possible to use a lower tier one, even if you reduced the effect of a spell. For a mage to adjust a fireball they would have to create a new spell. Most mage spells were actually copied from sorcerers. By studying what they did naturally and recreate it, mages were born. One should also add that sorcerers could use ritual magic.
Sorcerer was not a profession you could choose. Either you were born as one, or not. How powerful you became was determined by the strength of your bloodline. Most sorcerers never reached the 9th circle.
There was something similar though, called a warlock. A warlock forged a contract with a powerful being, something like the lords of the fey, and gained power. They permanently changed their bodies and gained magic like a sorcerer. They had 2 spell slots less than a mage, per circle. A warlock's body became a lot more magical and they gained traits from their patron. This could lead to a change in appearance, like growing horns, claws or even the ability to change shape.
The real downside was the contract. A powerful being could only bestow their power about once a year. The process required a part of their soul. This part needed to regenerate before they could do it again. So the power of a warlock came with a price.
A demon lord might ask for your soul after death, a queen of the fey might demand a lifetime of service. A warlock contract could not be broken. Once forged, not even the gods could break it. So it was really important to read the fine print.
Speaking of the gods, there was also divine magic. A priest did not need to study. If they were accepted by their god, they got access to divine power. Through prayer and the use of their gods' magic, they gained access to additional spell circles. They had the same number of spells as a mage, but there was no need to learn a spell. They prayed to access their spellbook, which contained all the spells offered by their deity. If they displeased their god they lost access to their spells.