Chapter 1: The Laws of Spellcraft
While spellcrafting is relatively limitless in its scope and applications, there are a few fundamental laws of our world that may limit the capacity of certain tasks. You would do well to remember these laws, unless you are really interested in seeing what happens to someone who tries to break the fundamental laws of reality.
Law 1: A spell can only be activated by someone who understands the contents of the spell.
This law's a straightforward one; this means that in order to activate a spell, you must understand its components. This means that you can only activate a spell if you can understand the spellwriting commands used in the spell as well as read the language it is written in. This means that although you can write effective spells with simple commands and in common languages, if you wish to keep your spells protected you should either write in cyphers or a dead language. It is not unheard of for especially secretive mages to invent their own languages that die along with them. But wait, you may ask, then how do our magic items work? I know that not everyone that owns a magic lamp or a
Boltcaster knows how they work. The devil is in the details: to
activate a spell you must understand it. As long as a spell is supplied with
Mana, it has the potential to remain functioning. With a constant supply of mana, like from a
Convergence Core, a spell can remain active and usable. This is why most magic items are hardwired with ingrained backup
cores to supply a spell with energy until the main core can be replaced.
Law 2: Spells are unable to create any more energy then what is used to activate and sustain them.
This simply means that you can't make a spell that outputs more energy than what you put into it. Though it may seem miraculous that you are able to give energy to a system without any visible input, you must remember that mana is an energy source directly connected to your own body. Your personal
Manapool replenishes just like how you regenerate muscle tissue: through time and your body's natural metabolic process. Though this means you theoretically have an infinite supply of it, that doesn't mean you have an infinite supply at all times. A spell that requires more energy than what you can give simply won't activate, but that doesn't mean that a spell won't activate despite the result draining you to the point where you can't remain conscious. This law also explains why creating materials out of nothing requires more energy than altering preexisting materials. A creation spell would require the energy equivalent of several fusion reactions, while alteration simply requires you to compress or stretch out the makeup of the material.
Law 3: A spell cannot activate without designated inputs or outputs
This law is simple enough. It means that in order for a spell to function, it must be able to be activated via at least one input and must be able to give at least one output. This makes sense, as a spell is defined by how it is activated and what it does upon activation...
Chapter 2: Introduction to Spellwriting
It is important to know that spellwriting is a form of grammar and syntax, not language. This, to reiterate, allows one to write in any language as long as the words used in the spell hold the proper meaning in relation to the spell.
There are three central components to any spell:
Variables, Inputs and Outputs
Variables
are essential to making any spell work. They are used to give words used in spells physical meaning. For example, if you were to try and use the word "move" in a spell to move an object without first defining what "move" means in a variable, best case scenario nothing happens; worst case and you get a spell casting failure that causes the deaths of you and anyone around you. When writing variables, spellwriting is able to understand physical concepts such as heat, position, distance and velocity, and is able to use measurements like meters and degrees as long as you understand those concepts. You can use these concepts in tandem with mathematics and other defined variables in order to make a variable hold the meaning you wish it to. Going back to our move example, you might define "move" as changing position by x meters relative to you, allowing "move" to become an active variable. Generally, the more you detail your variable, the more control you will have over the resulting spell. Variables are used in both inputs and outputs.
Inputs
are what a written spell looks for in order to activate. These can relate to any senses you have in your body, such as sight, touch and taste, as well as the potential change of any object used in your spell like, for example, the movement of a trigger or the proximity of a box. Examples of inputs could include touching two points of your body together (like two fingers), tasting a poison, smelling a gas, hearing a loud noise or speech, or seeing an object.
Outputs
are what a spell does once activated. As long as the defined output follows the laws of spellcraft laid out in chapter 1, the output should be realized. Outputs can define a variety of effects, like moving an object through space, converting mana into another energy like thermal or electrical, altering an objects physical makeup or transferring heat between objects to warm something up or cool something down.
Chapter 3: Writing and Storing Spells
While you now know how to write spells, you may be interested in learning some of the most common ways of writing spells down for later use. Since it's impractical and sometimes dangerous to think up spells on the fly, most mages spend time thinking up and writing down a variety of spells for everyday and common use. As this is common practice, there have been several inventive ways of storing useful spells, all with their benefits and caveats. While some listed in here may be common sense, there may be a few techniques you have not thought of. Allow me to open your mind to some new concepts.
Method 1: Spellbooks
The most practical and commonplace method for writing down multiple complex spells, most mages carry one around. In its most basic form, a spellbook is simply a notebook with
Spellwriting inside. The benefits to this method is that spellbooks have lots of space to write on and can be neatly arranged into multiple sections, allowing you to organize your spells easily given enough time. However, a spellbook is only practical for storing lengthy and extremely complex spells, unless you like filing through your notebook every time you want to use your coffee warming spell. Spellbooks also tend to be rather fragile in comparison to other methods, so carrying one onto an open battlefield might end up compromising months of spellwriting if you're not careful and don't have backups. These words of wisdom will end up saving months of your lifespan:
always have backup spellbooks!
Method 2:Tattooing
What better place to store your most vital spells than where it will always be with you? Mages have a tendency to write their best work on their own skin. Besides looking cool, there are plenty of benefits to this; for one, that spell will always be on hand (literally in some cases), so for frequently used spells this is an optimal solution. Casting time for these spells is faster than most other solutions as well, because you won't be flipping through notes or skimming through pouches to get to them. However, there are some major caveats to this method. For one, once you ink on a permanent tattoo, its rather hard to get rid of or change that work, so make sure you thoroughly test the spell you want to use before inking it to your body. Additionally, unlike spellbooks, space is in short supply, so you can only have so many spells inked on; this is why you wouldn't write your coffee heating spell here either. Also, for a little lesson in cause and effect for those aspiring battlemages out there, if you ever end up caught just realize that the only way for your capturers to disarm you might actually end up being to
disarm you. If these problems seem like too much bother to you it's probably best to stick to a more temporary solution, like writing with an ink quill.
Method 3:Spellstones
So the aforementioned options are good for writing spells for personal use and for sharing with academy peers over a cup of tea, but what if you wish to devise a spell you can quickly share and pass between others. To my knowledge, this method was first devised by a student of mine when he was trying to impress a girl by writing a spell on a smooth stone that would allow it to skip across an entire lake. The idea is simple: etch a spell that's relatively easy to understand in a common language on a palm sized stone. This way you and anyone else able to understand spellwriting is able to use the spell, and sharing the spell is as easy as tossing the stone to them. This is useful for simple spells like lighting, simple attacks and, finally, your coffee heating spell. Of course, this method isn't useful for more complex spells or ones you wish to keep private, and carrying to many of them can really start to weigh you down.
Method 4:Mindsearing
Now this isn't so much of a long-term technique as it is a technique to be used in absolute emergencies. This is a rather recent discovery, so adverse side effects are not yet well documented, so I would only use this technique for last resort emergency situations. Lets say that you find yourself locked up in a cell, hands and feet chained against a wall. Luckily, you had a unlocking spell written on your skin for such an occasion. You say the activation words, "bobby pin", but nothing happens. You then become amply aware of an intense pain across your body. It seems your captors have flayed your skin to the point where all your tattooed spells have been destroyed. With nothing else to do, you decide to remember every facet of your unlocking spell: every last word, every last string of information. When you feel you have successfully reproduced a mental image, you bring that image to the forefront of your mind: you seer it all in bold letters across your stream of consciousness. You start to feel a splitting headache, but you don't falter; you are able to squeak out the words "bobby pin". You feel your shackles unhinge as you fall to the ground.
Mind searing is only practical for very basic spells; anything more than a little heat transfer is a big ask. Additionally, it requires a great amount of mental focus, so you won't be able to pull it off in the middle of a chaotic battlefield, and while continuing side effects are yet to be well documented, headaches, dehydration, grogginess and hunger are common aftereffects. To reiterate, I don't advise you ever use this method in any situation except one of grave emergency, and I hope that no such situation ever arises in your lifespan.
Chapter 4: How to Write an Effective Spell
While you are now armed with the knowledge to make spells of your own, there are a few tips and guidelines I can yet share with you to make sure your first fire-starting spell doesn't end with the loss of limbs.
Multiple required inputs
Let's say you are trying to make a spell that causes a blast of fire from the snap of your fingers. If you snap, you realize that the sound comes from the middle finger hitting the palm of your thumb. Noting this, you decide to make two variables: one for the tip of your middle finger and one for the palm of your thumb. You then write the input for your spell: in order for your spell to activate, your finger must come into contact with your palm. Happy with your input, you then go onto make the output for your spell. After some work, you put it to the test; at the snap of your fingers, flame bursts up in a stream of orange heat. Satisfied, you walk back to the library you were writing in to collect your things. After walking in, you close your hands into a fist, not noticing this puts your middle finger on your palm. You set a shelf of books ablaze, and you are officially banned from the academy library, if not expelled.
While law 3 requires only one input, a wise spellcrafter will have at least three required inputs for a spell to work. This casting the spell more specified, which decreases the likelihood of unexpected misfires to occur.
More specified variables
Lets go back to the "move" variable from chapter 2. There the solution I gave was to make "move" mean changing position by x meters relative to you. Now, this sounds good on paper, but in practice this would be impractical. This only allows you to change the distance relative to where you are standing. However, what if you wanted it to be facing a certain direction, change the distance at a certain velocity or accelerate to that velocity at a certain pace? The more specified you make your variable, the more control you will have over the spell.
Iterate and build on your spells
Alright, you've finally crafted your first spell. It's nothing much, it simply allows you to warm up your coffee. It warms really slowly, doesn't quite reach the temperature you wish it to be, and is inefficient in terms of the amount of mana you use to the coffee you warm, but it works, so you decide to call it at that and turn it in to your professor. That sounds like a C grade project to me, as well as a spell you will never use again. So why are you calling it there? The purpose of spellcrafting is to make spells that are useful to you and the people around you. Find out what doesn't work as well as you want, alter it until the spell is better than it was, then find something else about your spell you want to change. Magic isn't about make something that gets a passing grade; its about making something you would use,
want to use, something wonderful. This is one of the most creative and inventive crafts there is; don't settle for passable...
Well, it's been a long journey up to this point, and I don't wish to keep you longer than I have to, so I'll keep this brief. You are now armed with the knowledge to change the world around you, so use it. Always find something new to make, a new problem to solve, a new idea to pursue. That is the path to becoming a master spellcrafter.
The article is great, it gives the reader a basic yet detail understanding of how your magic system work. There is some technique issues in your article, chapter two isn’t using the main heading for example. But I got a question, what happens if you two similar spells that do the same thing, but you do and say different things to make it work. Does the original one work or do they both work? If they both work that means dead spells can be recreated by just knowing what the spells do?
You are absolutely correct with the recreation of dead spells, and both spells will work. I set it up sort of like how computer programming works (at least to my limited knowledge) in that there would be multiple ways to come to the same desired result.
If magic is set up like computer programing does that mean it would have two different types of failure? A failure that the spell is correct but you died, and a failure that a spell is correct but it does something else.
That's a definite possibility, should the spell be set up incorrectly.