Mana

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The lines -- or streams -- of mana flow through everything in/on Elanthia, even through the planet itself. Spells manipulate these lines of mana away from their natural state to form spell patterns. The body of every animate being naturally resists the manipulation of the mana lines passing through it, causing Magic Resistance.

The Spectrum

Mana is a spectrum of energies with different frequencies. From highest to lowest:

Divinity, Gravity and Time are considered the "basic building blocks of reality", and cannot be manipulated by mortals. Attempts to do so usually end with disastrous results.

Holy Mana

Holy Mana results from the past, present and future presence of the Immortals. Because of its short wavelength, Holy mana requires something extra from the caster. The purity of a Cleric's devotion and a Paladin's soul state allows them to tap into the latent Holy mana. May be slightly influenced during holidays of religious importance.

Appearance: Golden. By default it has almost no substance, like a shadow of a real mana stream. Clerics perceive it getting more "real" as their Devotion increases. Paladins see it as "real" all the time, but its appearance reflects their soul. Diseased blotches appear around the Paladin in proportion to the amount of sin and hubris in his soul. Even with a pristine soul, they never go away entirely. (GM Armifer)

Holy mana ebbs and flows with the holy days.

Life Mana

Life mana is the result of continuing struggle between order and chaos, the antithesis of entropy. May oscillate slightly between solstices.

Appearance: Empaths tend to perceive it as something very light and airy, brightly colored and generally pleasant to look at. Rangers perceive it in darker, earthen tones. It ebbs and flows regularly, much like a heart, and tends to shift this way and that when not under the hold of a magician. (GM Armifer)

Life mana ebbs and flows with the seasons.

Elemental Mana

Elemental mana derives from the actions and reactions of the elements of Elanthia, as well as trickling rawly from the Elemental Planes. Elemental mana best resonates with the physical reality rather than the abstract. May be slightly influenced by strong weather conditions.

Appearance: Bards perceive it aurally rather than visually. Warrior Mages see something that has an amalgamation of elemental traits, and could in general be described as harsh to handle and "fiery," slow to move naturally but libel to jerk out of his mental hold if he's not careful. In both cases, Elemental mana is not the magician's buddy or some target of hippy communion; it is a wild, mindless thing to be mastered. (GM Armifer)

Elemental mana is empowered during inclement weather. Hurricanes count. Warrior Mages who enjoy Fire spells are encouraged to indulge in pyromania indoors.

Lunar Mana

Lunar mana derives from large kinetic forces at work; interactions between heavenly bodies -- moons, planets, stars. Its long wavelength allows spells like Moongate to border on Gravity. Fluctuates slightly between day and night.

Appearance: Cold and white, very much like clear starlight. In opposition to Holy, Lunar mana is always seems very much "real" and with a sense of gravity to it. It seems almost static on the level of individual streams, but moves regularly in great, inexorable tides across the planet. Lunar mana has a creepy ability to sometimes form runes, symbols, and other expressions of meaning in the nominally random flux of this tide. (GM Armifer)

Lunar mana derives some of its bonus based on the weather (they want the opposite of Warrior Mages), and some on the time of day.

Arcane Mana

Fuels certain necromantic magics. Not much is known about it.

Appearance: A string of dark stains, like a vein of coagulated and discolored fat and grease, hanging in the air like limp ropes. It's never seen moving naturally, though if an area is left untended the streams might be in some radically different configuration when the Necromancer returns. The volume and intensity does not change in these shifts, only its appearance. (GM Armifer)

Mixing Mana

As an evolution of magic, mixing different types of mana produces inherently unstable and volatile magics, known as sorceries and necromancies. Sorcery is defined as the mixture of non-Life mana types; while Necromancy is defined as the mixture of Life mana with others. Holy and Life mana cannot be mixed together because of their high frequencies. Note that there can exist different sorceries with the same mana combination in varying ratios. Known books of such magics are:


Notes

  • Mana cannot be carried with you.
  • Cambrinth holds the energy generated when manipulating mana, not the mana itself.
  • All mana streams fluctuate with time. In all cases, this is pure bonus: the mana flux will never bring the mana any lower than what your skills would allow you to access.
  • See the Harness Ability article for information on the utilization of mana.
  • Mana Levels
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