Spell Magic - Book

Book magic – written spells which are intended to be spoken aloud, sometimes but not always with hand-waving or a simple component added. They are widely used by any culture capable of it, though not everyone has the knack needed to get the words out right.

Where Ritual magic involves certain setup time, book magic rarely does. A quick read-through of a short spell is usually enough to get it done. Slow readers, people with speech impediments, and those who are missing fingers or limbs are generally at a loss when it comes to book spells.

The word “book” is a bit of a misleading term. While there are hundreds if not thousands of volumes containing spells in any given good magic library, spells can be written on almost anything, and used on the fly by clever mages even without the words in front of them.

Scrolls, single pages of parchment, stone tablets, even small beads with intricate lettering on them, can all be used to store the information needed for a spell. As these are often written by their user, transcribed from a main tome or scroll onto their own for further study. Thus there may be slight differences in a similar spell from generation to generation. A hand-gesture here, a word lost there, many quick spells happen because the caster requires it, rather than because they’ve waved their arms around. There are some spell-mages who are so well used to certain things that they don’t need to even vocalize the spell any longer, let alone move their fingers into shapes.

Lighting candles, for instance, is hardly ever an effort for a spell-mage out of their first year of school. Putting them out with magic on the other hand, may require more effort! On that note, there are no cultures save perhaps the Necromancers that are so dependant upon their magic to survive, that they have forgotten how to do things like “blow out a candle”. Even the Necromancers know how to do that.

Spells may vary from a standard ‘say this, do this, something happens’ format – delayed reactions and enchanting take the form of more ritualized efforts though they are on a scale which true Ritual magic does not require. The more complicated the idea behind a spell, it’s likely to need more and more different components or aspects to function. That’s how Ritual magic started, anyway.

Each mage’s spell book is something unique to them. Where one might require a lot of research and scrying spells, to locate information and keep numbers for a business in order, another may have glamours and illusions or protective wards handy. Or if you’re a White Bear named Bruno, you have scrying spells and protective wards handy for when you want to spy on the neighbor’s beautiful daughter and not get caught…

Almost anything that can be imagined, can be made into a spell. Bruno’s scrying spell for instance involves a short incantation with a muttered tone, and the opening of any blank facing pages in a book. This opens a sort of visual portal to wherever he intends, be it the guard house to make sure the recruits aren’t gambling again, or the neighbor’s rooms to check up on her bubble bath. Only Bruno would truly know how to use that specific set of spell components – thus many Mages have such unique spells that they simply cannot be taught.

Those spells which are more or less generic are the ones that every budding mage learns. Lighting candles, dampening sounds or listening in on things distant, setting triggers for other spells to go off, learning how to see auras and discern specifics from them, and the ever-popular ‘flying lessons’ are all first-year stuff. Not all first-year students excel at all those things. It becomes quickly apparent which they are best at.

Elemental manipulation, short rituals, healing and protective wards, and unsummoning things are slightly more advanced, but still well within the purview of young students. Further years or experiences may include full summoning, transportation and translocation spells, enchanting, and complex information gathering.

Enchanting objects is a very difficult process, though is not considered ritual magic. Rituals generally are intended to have an immediate response at the end of the event or a very powerful end result, where as enchantments will permanently alter the item or person in question, usually in ‘minor’ ways. There are few enchanters in any community, the talent is both rare and expensive. Some items refuse enchantment – and it’s a process for each individual to determine which they can and cannot enchant.

Enchanted items can often – but not always – be used by anyone who picks them up or can wield them. Clearly one good way to ensure that your enemies don’t wind up with your precious Ring of Monstrous Crop Circle Creation is to have it tuned to only your body signature, or your voice. And, the down side of course is, sometimes people forget their trigger word. Sometimes, you forget how to turn the ring off.

Rings or amulets which provide a small amount of protection against the elements, mud-flaps placed on a vehicle to prevent a trail from being followed, door knockers which speak to people as they try to open the doors, fully animated statues that come to ‘life’ when an event triggers them – all of those are varying degrees of ‘enchanted objects’. Most enchanted items can be detected via either other spells or by Psionics. Of course, there are spells which prevent detection as well… For the most part, enchanting things and detecting them or counteracting spells is an ever-growing arms race.

Obviously, the diadems which the Jewel Witches wear may be called enchanted, however they bear little or no actual purpose other than holding their gems in place close to their skin. Their diadems and those pieces of equipment used by the Lumin are effectively an exception to the enchantment rules.

Those who do wear normally enchanted items too long, or having picked them up from someone else’s hoard, may occasionally suffer backlash or unintended side effects when they use it. As most Summoners will attest: it’s never really a good idea to bind any other creature – even a willing one – into an object or item for you to use. Eventually, that welcome may wear thin; eventually that protective sigil will have taken one too many hits.

Enchanted items are one step away from Foci, and there is a lot of crossover between the two types.