Shard-casting

You can feel the power within a shard, with or without magic in it - a prickle of the hairs on the back of your neck ,a high pitched whine at the edge of your hearing, but mostly its the sense of raw barely tamed power just beyond the cool surface of the Berrecite.

— Magister Johan Kranz

Shard-casting is the release of stored spell from a shard of the mineral Nornskarn that has been specifically carved with known magical forms of the Old Runes. Formerly only within the ability of the most studious scholar or magister to create, now Shards are relatively common across Svalskogenheim, and the ability to carry reliable magic across the lands especially those changed by the intrusions of The Fracture has altered how many people, and nations, use magic daily.

Utility

Theoretically any magic can be cast into a shard, however in practice most shards act as either emergency reserves for their user, or to allow more mundane utility magic to be cast when needed by a non-practitioner. A cleric for example might gift a local healer a restorative shard for moments when his own skills may not save a person, or a wealthy mercenary company might issue all its sergeants-at-arms with some mobile artillery in the form of a fireball shard.

Manufacturing

To create a usable shard, first a quality appropriate piece of nornskarn must be cut by a gemcutter - most often into a rounded rectangular shape, or a teardrop (this has no bearing the shard's use however and is purely aesthetic.). Then, a runecutter must assess the cut mineral, (looking for variations in the surface, the relative areas of strength in the vein etc) before cutting the correct runes and configuration into the stone. Once done, and only then can magic be reliably cast and stored within.

Access & Availability

Though known by most of the populous, Shards are really only available to those that can afford them, or that can craft them.

Complexity

The more powerful the magic that is intended to be cast into the Nornskarn, the higher in quality the vein within it must be and the more complex the runes carved onto it to contain the magic.