Mana battery

Mana batteries are integral to most artifacts, as they have the ability to absorb and store mana, much like a person's core. Any awakened individual can charge a mana battery by channeling mana into it, usually by touching it and outputting unshaped, wild magic into the battery. It is possible to charge batteries from a distance, though the further the distance, the more mana will be lost as magical residue. This method also requires a fair amount of concentration in order to keep the mana from casting.
Mana batteries can hold any aspect of mana (though some lower-grade batteries can only hold primary aspects), and will glow with the corresponding color; the vibrancy of the light produced is dependent on how much mana is being held. The more advanced the battery, the more mana it can hold, and the quicker it can be charged or discharged. The standard unit for measuring quantities of mana is 'mana point,' or 'mp,' and the measure of mana points/second is known as a 'thaum,' or 'xm.' Thus, you might have a 100mp, 20xm output battery, which would hold 100 mana points and could be discharged in a minimum of 5 seconds.
It is common that spellcasters using artifacts will subconsciously charge any batteries inlaid in their gear. In this case, the batteries will fill over time with the caster's natural aspect at the same rate as the caster takes in mana from the environment. Sometimes, casters will use this to artificially inflate their mana capacities.
However, mana batteries have one serious drawback: while a caster can fill a battery with their mana, they cannot draw that mana back into their core. Fortunately, artificers found a solution. Using thuamic wiring, outputs, and triggers, an artifact can draw mana from a battery and output it into the world. You can even get outputs with specific shapes, allowing artifacts to cast specific spells; this even allows for non-magic users to access magic easily. For example, a low-output battery hooked up to an output shaped with a simple light spell can make a magic lamp, and all a consumer needs to do is buy more mana batteries every so often. In a battle setting, however, this does mean that a caster must plan ahead in order to use batteries; you can't just stock up on a whole bunch and pull from them to keep casting however you want.

Access & Availability

Mana batteries aren't as cheap as regular batteries, but they aren't super expensive either -- except for the high grade ones. If you want a battery capable of storing and casting

Discovery

By studying the properties of managlass, the newly-existent artificers were able to create a synthetic replica also capable of channeling mana. From there, the technology only improved.

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