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 information contained in this article comes largely from GM Armifer, from discussions in the DragonRealms forums.

Casting Spells

When you successfully CAST a spell, the mana leaves the picture. You have successfully twisted the mana in the right way to produce the spell energy you need, and have released the mana to go back to its natural state. What you're left with is spell energy that is in a spell pattern, and the spell will endure for as long as that pattern is coherent. The spell pattern is still there, can be detected and possibly even dispelled with the right magic, but is made out of spell energy instead of mana.

Defining "spell energy" and "mana" differently in this way may seem obtuse, and...well, it kind of is. But it's used to define two important ramifications in the magic system.

1: Mana is never created or destroyed, only temporarily manipulated. You do not rip mana to shreds, or dispel mana, or exhaust your supply of mana; mana is effectively eternal for mortals. Good thing, too. Otherwise after thousands of years of magic use, Elanthia would be barren of the stuff.

2: Magic resistance, defined as resistance to mana manipulation, does not impact a spell once it is being contested. A Barbarian's BMR might weaken the pattern, but if it still goes off he doesn't get any benefit to dodging a magical lightning bolt any more than he gets a benefit to dodging actual lightning bolts.

The Spectrum

Mana is a spectrum of energies with different frequencies, which is "a metaphor to describe that higher mana resonates with increasingly ephemeral ('small and quick') forces while lower mana resonates with increasingly physical ('big and slow') forces"[1]. From highest to lowest:

Divinity and Gravity 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 or a Paladin's soul state allows them to tap into the latent Holy mana.

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.

Holy mana ebbs and flows with the holy days. It steadily increases as a holiday approaches, peaks, and then slowly drains away -- a gradual slope rather than a sudden spike. It cycles much quicker than Life mana.

Life Mana

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

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.

Life mana ebbs and flows with the seasons, most likely around the solstices.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

Mixing Life + Holy

What would happen if someone theoretically tried to force Life and Holy mana together?

Nothing exceptionally interesting, outside the normal necromantic backlash.

The inability to mix Holy and Life has the very noticeable side effect of not allowing a "holy necromancy" to exist, yet it doesn't seem directly related to this end. The gods do not show up and smack you for doing it, it just...doesn't work. It appears that a divine edict has found an accomplice in natural law.

Perhaps the gods have meddled with the laws of the universe to prohibit it. Perhaps this proof there is some innate, cosmic evilness about necromantic mixtures, to the point where the very mechanism is repelled by the emanations of the gods. Or perhaps this is just one very interesting coincidence.

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.

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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