Wild Magic

Various plants and creatures in the world have natural access to magic. It is believed that they draw in ambient thaumic energy, and then utilize it with their unique biologies. This often takes the form of specific body parts, many of which are turned into thaumic essences.

Thaumic reservoirs are another form of wild magic. Reservoirs are hyperthaumic, areas with strong thaumic energy present within. It is believed that they are either home to powerful thaumic essences residing within their materials, or that ambient thaumic energy is somehow filtered and trapped within. Thaumic reservoirs affect spellcasting and other magic relevant to their domains. Visually, they create weak magical effects within their area. Such places include the healing oasis of Lefferington.

Thaumic deserts are the opposite of thaumic reservoirs. Deserts are hypothaumic, areas with very little ambient thaumic energy within. It is believed that they possess a heightened amount of ambient thaumic energy as reservoirs do, but instead are constantly expending the ambient energy of one domain. Any magic cast of the same domain is weakened. Though visually similar, their effects are stronger than in a reservoir. Artificial thaumic deserts can be created by having too many runes of the same domain in a single area.

Thaumic geodes are essentially tiny thaumic reservoirs, small areas of unknown minerals which emit one variety of magic. These geodes are often essential for local ecosystems, most notable light geodes in the Below. At the core of these hollow geodes are small crystals that are common thaumic essences, and the outer crust is an increasingly powerful uncommon essence. Thaumic geodes appear to be constantly growing and appearing, most often within the Below.

The current prevailing theory is that thaumic reservoirs begin as geodes which grew to enormous size. However, there is much debate on the formation of thaumic deserts. Some believe they are an eventual later stage of a thaumic reservoir, when it becomes unstable and goes from producing to consuming its energy. Others believe they originate from geodes as well, which simply went a different route and were not reservoirs at all.

Thaumic shards are any shard from the center of a thaumic geode, though the term usually excludes sunshards. The outer crust can be broken up into thaumic crystals. Thaumic shards are emissive, constantly releasing thaumic energy of their domain. Thaumic crystals on the other hand are thaumirefractive. Thaumic crystals are often powdered, to be used as crystalline essences.

A crystalline essence is a thaumic essence which sparkles, and has no other unique effects or additional properties. Thaumic shards on the other hand, can be powdered into enriched essences. An enriched essence constantly emits thaumic energy, and will usually run out within a year of being powdered. Unlike other essences, enriched essences are not affected by thaumic deserts and reservoirs.

Some thaumic geodes are neutral, their inner crystals and crusts being the sources of sunshards and moon crystals respectively. Sunshards are the most common powersource in gemforging, and moon crystalline essences have a wide variety of uses. These neutral geodes have been referred to as Firmament Geodes, Sky Geodes, Celestial Geodes, and Divine Geodes, as well as other less common names.

Sunshard: Small, iridescent, golden crystals, said to be feathers shed by the Great Phoenix. They are usually found in the same size and shape, and contain neutral thaumic energy. A normal sunshard emits 15Θ, is 107 mm long, 16 mm wide, and has a volume of 15,400 mm3. They contain roughly 1 Θ/cm3.
Moon Crystal: Medium sized, iridescent, crystalline fragments, ranging from amber to highly translucent white. Their change in color corresponds to their thaumic energy level.

• Golden: ~ 1.5 Θ/cm3
• Yellow: ~ 2 Θ/cm3
• Cream: ~ 3 Θ/cm3
• White: ~ 4 Θ/cm3
• Quartz: ~ 5 Θ/cm3

Heartstone (AKA Desert Pearl): Large, near-spherical objects rarely found in thaumic deserts. They are completely transparent, and are extremely powerful neutral thaumic essences. A single pearl is usually 2000Θ or more.

Thaumic Shards by Robotics5