Hexian Magic

Magic varies from universe to universe. Sometimes it's very simple, just wave your hands and something happens. Other times, it's very complicated and nuanced, possibly even dangerous. I tend to operate somewhere in the middle of the spectrum.

The Basics

In general, in my writing magic tends to work on some fairly straightforward rules- you channel magical energy to produce unusual effects. You only have so much magical energy, and if you run out, you have to wait for it to recharge. For the most part anyone can learn any kind of magic, but some forms are harder than others, and some people are better at certain types than others. Pretty much everyone is capable of magic on some level, given the right training, but some are more capable than others.

That's how it works broadly. But, of course, like with many things, it gets more nuanced if you get into the details.

Magic in Potentia & Channeling

Let's start by touching on how magical energy works- every living being has an intangible reservoir of magical energy linked to them. This reservoir is typically referred to as 'Magic in Potentia', or just 'Potentia' for short, and a creature can draw from theirs, channeling and transmuting the energy to cast magic. This energy travels from one's core, moving through the body, frequently along blood vessels, until it reaches a point where it leaves the body, frequently the hands. Notably, though it's not uncommon to just cast magic with no special equipment, energy for casting a spell can be channeled into objects, allowing them to be used as foci; this can be useful for a multitude of things, particularly directing or enhancing the magic being cast.

Pretty much any object can be used as a focus, assuming it's sufficiently conductive to magical energy, and in some contexts different foci might produce different results; a spell that generates a plume of fire from your hands may instead generate a wave of fire when channeled through a swinging sword, for example.

When using magic, a being's Potentia is gradually depleted, and takes time to refill. How fast it refills varies wildly from creature to creature; for some, it may refill in the span of an hour, and for some it may take a few days. This, of course, also depends on a being's overall capacity for Potentia, which can also vary considerably. That said, it is certainly possible to change both; using magic regularly, with appropriate rest periods, tends to promote growth in one's Potentia, increasing its capacity and allowing it to recharge faster.

One's natural recharging can also be supplemented in a number of ways; the most common way is by consuming substances rich in magical energy. There are, of course, potions designed to do this, but there are also a myriad of plants and animals that naturally contain high volumes of Potentia, most famously Arcaberries, a species of berry found in the Runic Archipelago. Magical energy can also be drawn from the air, particularly in highly-magical areas, or from other substances containing high volumes of it, particularly crystals.

Of course, we'd be remiss to talk about all of this without addressing a... notable caveat.

Magic Overload

If you've paid close attention, you might've noticed me using the term 'conductive' earlier, in reference to the movement of magical energy. Those of you acquainted with the mechanics of electricity may already know where this is going, but allow me to explain.

When moving through matter, magical energy generally doesn't interact with it much, but it does interact. In most cases, this is pretty much harmless; the occasional bit of energy lost as heat here and there. So long as the flow doesn't get too great for the material, nothing much will happen that isn't supposed to. When it does, however, either magical energy will try avoiding the material altogether... or bad things will happen. What those bad things entail varies based on the material, and often also on what's being done with the magic; in living beings, these 'bad things' are referred to broadly as 'magic overload'.

Magic overload isn't exactly the most well-known subject matter outside of the sphere of mages by trade; it's fairly rare that any normal person ever encounters it. A living being's body typically has good magic conduction, after all, so it tends to take a lot to get magica overload to happen. But it does happen.

How does it happen, and what actually happens? Well, put simply, magic overload happens when a creature channels more magical energy than their body can handle. In most creatures, this requires an expenditure of energy that typically entails emptying most or all of their Potentia in the span of only a couple seconds, though with dedicated mages with significantly expanded capacities, that fraction can be significantly smaller. What happens varies a bit based on a number of factors, including severity, body composition, and the nature of the magic being cast, but the most common effects from especially severe overload include internal hemorrhaging, lesions of multiple varieties, and even effects similar to second- or third-degree burns, among other things.

In most cases, the effects are relatively mild, and can be recovered from with no permanent damage. In some cases, however, the effects can be severe, and even life-threatening. People can and have died from casting way harder than they can handle. Those that do survive tend to be worse off in the long run, though the exact extent to which they're affected long-term does of course vary based on the nature of their overload; at bare minimum, many wind up with significant scarring, usually in the form of lightning-like scars forming along the path the energy took at the time. Some may be permanently crippled, while others may be left with nerve issues.

Notably, though this is highly inadvisable, research suggests that most creatures can build up their body's resistance to the effects of magic overload, by way of repeatedly causing it in themselves on a low level. It goes without saying that this is incredibly dangerous to actually attempt, but hypothetically someone crazy enough to repeatedly expose themselves to that, or with little to no self-preservation, may find themself able to handle intensive casting better than they could before.

Seriously though, don't. Don't do that. That's a terrible idea.

Spells & Casting

Now that we've gone over the basics and risks, we can start talking about the specifics- in other words, actually using magic. As mentioned above, one casts magic by channeling magical energy, but the process is quite a bit more nuanced than one would think. Focuses were also mentioned earlier- we'll touch on that in a bit.

To start with, one has to channel Potentia; from there, there's essentially two options: manually manipulating the energy to produce the effects you want, or channeling that energy into something that can do it for you. The former is, of course, vastly more flexible, but requires active effort, and will have different results for different people, while the latter is generally very consistent, but inflexible. To understand why, we need to talk about parallel universes catalysts.

Catalysts

If you're familiar with the mechanics of chemical reactions, you already know where this is going; catalysts in a magic sense facilitate the transmutation of magic to produce different effects. Most prominently, this is in the form of introducing elemental effects, but there's a multitude of other things they can be used for as well.

Anyone can produce nearly any magical effect with enough energy and patience, with no catalyst required, necessarily, but the presence of a catalyst can assist the process considerably. In a nutshell, the presence of a catalyst when manipulating magical energy can drastically reduce- or in some cases even eliminate- the "cost", so to speak, of doing so, so long as that catalyst supports that kind of manipulation. When talking cost in this case, we mean two separate, related things- the time involved in the process, and the additional magic overhead required to actually do what you're trying to do. With a powerful enough catalyst, or enough of it, one can throw fireballs quite easily as compared to not having a catalyst at all.

Pretty much everyone has a mix of catalytic reagents in them naturally- mostly elemental- and the balance of them can vary significantly. This is the primary deciding factor in the magic a given person excels at, and is influenced both by environment and genetics. However, one does not have to rely solely on what they have innately- external catalysts, while marginally less efficient, can supplement one's capabilities quite effectively. These most often come in the form of accessories made with elemental crystals, usually derived from shards and orbs, however an assortment of other things can provide similar effects, and while it's not necessarily recommended, implanting a catalyst directly into one's body does work. Depending on the catalyst, though, this can have... side effects, hence it not being recommended.

Catalysts are also typically heavily used in devices that utilize magic, or in items that cast spells for you, for a couple of reasons; for one, though these items can manipulate energy the way they want in a very repeatable way, much more easily than an individual can, it still comes with a non-insubstantial magic overhead. For two, using catalysts is just vastly simpler, and not only can they be purpose-designed for the specific use-case, integrating them allows a degree of modularity in devices in particular, allowing the user to swap out the catalyst(s) used to get different effects.

Burnout

Burnout is a phenomenon not too dissimilar to magic overload, specifically related to using magic through catalysts. At the end of the day, catalytic reagents are materials like any other, which means there are limits to how much energy they can handle being pushed through them. Passing this limit can result in the reagents "burning off", gradually being destroyed or otherwise rendered ineffective. Pushing too hard in magic that relies on a catalyst can even deplete it entirely.

The effects of this vary from context to context, but generally catalyst burnout results in magic that relies on a particular catalyst becoming harder and harder to cast, as the amount of usable catalytic reagent decreases, and thus either more energy has to be channeled through what's left, or energy has to be channeled differently to achieve the same effects without a catalyst, if the user knows how. Particularly in the former case, this can quite easily result in a burnout cascade in some cases, with all of a particular catalyst quickly becoming unusable, which can drastically impact one's ability to use magic. This is especially relevant with magic that is otherwise very difficult without a catalyst, such as time magic, wherein one's ability to use it can potentially be lost completely.

Burnout, generally, is not permanent; a typical individual will gradually replenish their own internal supplies of catalytic reagents over time, both from their environment and from food they consume. Some individuals- particularly those connected with the divine or the Titans- will even naturally generate their own catalytic reagents over time. However, others might use catalytic reagents that are hard or impossible to re-obtain, and in those cases, the effects of burnout will typically be permanent without intervention.

Experienced mages are known to counteract the effects of burnout typically through the use of potions and the like; special formulation can allow one to replenish their internal catalytic reagents in relatively short order. However, doing so tends to be expensive, and tends to have side effects, so common wisdom on how to deal with burnout is to just try to avoid it entirely, much like with magic overload.

Notably, this entire time we've been specifically talking about burnout in the context of a person using magic with the assistance of catalytic reagents within their own body; burnout is much less common in catalysts used in fixed-equipment casting (such as with an Arcane Array) or prefabricated casting equipment. There's two reasons for this- one, the catalysts involved are typically larger pieces, which are more readily able to deal with an influx of energy beyond their typical limits, and two, they're much more readily able to take measures to mitigate or even entirely prevent burnout, such as with cooling systems and limiters. Even in the limited cases where burnout does occur in these contexts, the catalyst can typically be replaced quite easily, making it largely a non-issue.

Focuses

Next on the docket is focuses, also commonly referred to as foci, not to be confused with the Arcane Array, formerly known confusingly as a "spell focus".

At the end of the day, in order to actually cast magic, you need an endpoint- something to direct the energy you've now transformed, in order to do what you want. Focuses are quite possibly the single most important part of using magic, as they can drastically affect how a given spell behaves; fortunately, you can use basically anything as a focus, including your own body.

In terms of discreet focuses for magic, there are essentially two categories- things that also serve as focuses, and things that are purpose-built as focuses. The former category can include basically anything you can hold in your hand (or, in fact, anything you're making contact with at all), while the latter category includes specialized tools for casting magic, many of which will also include one or more supplementary catalysts. The latter category also includes items that have built-in spells, as they use themselves as focuses, generally. The main distinction, essentially, is whether the ability to serve as a focus for magic is a bonus, or the primary functionality.

Now, why would you want a discreet focus at all, if you can just use, say, a finger? There's a few reasons:

1. Using your own body as a focus can inherently result in a distinct lack of precision. Sometimes, this is a feature, rather than a bug, but in most cases, you're not going to be able to direct spells as precisely as you might want relying only your own body.
2. There are certain effects that can be much harder to do correctly without a discreet focus, or, in other words: repeatability. A person can typically reliably produce a slashing magic effect with a blade much moreso than with their own hand, even if they're very disciplined.
3. There's also a factor of throughput- as discussed above, magic overload is a very real thing, and can happen even on a small scale. Channeling too much energy through one part of your body can have potentially severe adverse effects, and if you're trying to pump a lot of power through one finger... well, it's probably going to suck. A discreet focus can help a lot with this, allowing you to channel energy through a larger part of your body, into a more magically-conductive material that can then better handle what you're trying to do.

There are, of course, situations where you don't want or need a discreet focus- this can include self-enhancement magic, of course, but as mentioned above, sometimes a lack of precision is what you want in the first place. This is particularly notable with respect to some forms of generalized healing magic, whose effects can typically be distributed more effectively without a discreet focus. Additionally, it's interesting to note that another person can effectively be used as a "focus", usually in contexts where you're applying magic directly to them, and thus once again a discreet focus isn't necessarily ideal.

Finally, as for the actual effects different focuses can have, I've alluded to some of them already, but we'll break things down a bit more- bear in mind, though, that this is very much not comprehensive, as the possibilities here are vast.

Possibly the best point of reference is to use weapons as an example, with a fairly basic "flamethrower" spell- focused through just your hand, it would produce a straightforward gout of flame directly where you're pointing. However, focusing the same spell through a sword and swinging it will produce a wave of fire, or you can just use to sword as a glorified wand to direct the spell in the same way you would with a hand, albeit more precisely- there's a bit of versatility. In contrast, focusing the spell through a ranged weapon can confer its effects at a longer range, albeit usually at a cost to the effective duration; with a bow and arrow, it'd make for very potent flaming arrows, and with a gun, very potent incendiary or explosive shots, assuming you don't explode the gun in the process. (Some guns are specifically designed to prevent this from happening when using them as a focus.)

Spells

Last thing to discuss for now: spells. Magic is quite freeform, but the concept of spells does exist; they're best thought of less as hardline ways to use magic, and more as "presets" of sorts- a specific way someone figured out to do something, that can then be worked from to adapt for one's own use. This person's fireball spell is far from the only way to throw a fireball, and it's not set in stone, being easily modifiable.

Notably, however, objects that cast magic are very inflexible- what they can do is metaphorically and sometimes literally set in stone, and modifying them tends to be a very involved process; generally the best one can do is, as mentioned above, swap out catalysts. Some items with less-complex spells built into them can be used to augment your own magic, but generally a spell attached to an item is fixed, and only does one very specific thing. This can sometimes be mitigated via building the spells into a replaceable part, but only sometimes.