A useful reference chapter so you don't have to re-read random chapters to remember some high level basic information about the magic system, Mana, etc.
Will not contain all the specific information about the magic system in particular but just general and high level details. Specific information about Kai's magic will be mentioned once it's explained in the story. There will be spoiler tags with the chapter number with the information for some information.
Always check back here in case you need a quick refresher on the basic workings of magic or you forgot what something meant.
I'll edit this chapter as needed
Mana General
(Mostly Chapter 3. Some Chapter 10)
1. All living organisms have Mana.
2. Slowly recover Mana through breathing.
3. The Mana in the air is inactive so it can't be seen. It is bound to oxygen which is absorbed in the lungs.
4. Every person has a maximum capacity, or storage limit for each Mana type - Scrap, Unrefined, and Rich.
5. Scrap Mana regenerates the fastest, Unrefined Mana regenerates slower than Scrap Mana, and Rich Mana regenerates slower than Unrefined Mana. Scrap Mana is the lowest quality. Rich Mana is the highest quality. Higher quality Mana are harder to control compared to lower grades of Mana.
6. If the maximum capacity for a Mana type is reached, excess Mana regenerated exit through the skin.
7. Mana must be activated to utilize. Mana inside the body remains inactive until activated. Activated Mana can be seen as various shades of blue depending on the quality. Lower quality of Mana have a lighter color while higher grades of Mana have a deeper color.
8. Mana can be broken down into one tier lower at a time no lower than Scrap Mana, ending up with more units of the lower quality Mana as a result. Mana toxicity symptoms kick in if the current amount of Mana of a type is greater than the maximum capacity for that same Mana type and the rate that excess amounts of this Mana type exiting through the skin isn't enough to make it at the threshold.
9. Activated Mana without instructions diffuse rapidly into the air back into the form of inactive Mana.
A tier of Mana called Raw Mana exists that is a higher quality than Rich Mana. Regenerates slower than Rich Mana. Can break down Raw Mana into Rich Mana.
Example scenario for Mana breakdown:
Person A maximum capacity for Scrap, Unrefined, and Rich Mana: 2000, 1500, 1000.
Current amount of Mana:
Scrap: 1000 ; Unrefined: 1300 ; Rich: 900
At this point, no excess Mana would leave the body because there is no amount of excess Mana anywhere.
Person A decides to break down some Unrefined Mana (number changes used as illustration but not neccesarily how it would play out in story)
Current amount of Mana:
Scrap: 2050 ; Unrefined: 1100 ; Rich: 900
At this point, newly regenerated Scrap Mana would be excess and excess amounts of Scrap Mana would leave the body through the skin.The exit rate is faster than the regeneration rate. There is some Mana toxicity here, but not that big of a deal. It would not be recommended for an example...to convert all 1100 of Unrefined Mana into Scrap Mana.
Diagram for Mana General: (Shitty drawing placeholder til someone draws me better one)
Magic General
1. Categories of Magic: Evocation, Enhancement, Conjuration, Healing, Alteration, Abjuration, and Runic
Void magic is another category
2. Evocation Types: Fire, Water, Wind, Earth, Lightning, Light, Dark
3. Magic Affinity determines how much of an element (i.e. Fire Affinity, Water Affinity, etc) you can utilize at once. Higher Affinities means that you can utilize larger-scale spells. For an example, low Water Affinity in general would mean that you can't do things like summon huge waves of water because that would be a large amount of Water magic active at the same time.
4. Affinity when talking about bonding to Mana refers to the actual Affinity in the body. Example: Kai bonds his Mana to Fire Affinity forming Fire magic.
5. Must assign instructions to Mana/Magic to use.
Example for Fire Magic(A):
Bond Scrap Mana to Fire Affinity. Instruct them to form a 1 feet diameter ball directly in front of the palm with the heat focused forward and then when it's activated, speed forward in a straight line with every Fire particle going the same speed. Final step is to activate the Mana. The classic Fireball.
After Mana leaves the body, additional instructions can't be assigned, so all of that was done in two steps.
6. Keywords instantly recall a list of programmed instructions that you have defined for it. You still need to prepare the required Mana for the magic as previously defined in the proper location prior to successfully using the keyword.
Keywords suffer up to a 50% effectiveness penalty if the assigned keyword has nothing to do with the magic. When shouting it/assigning it for the first time, the magic is at 100% effectiveness regardless since the instructions were manually assigned.
Example: Hiro assigning the word "Fireball" to a ball of water. Resulted in the ball of water to be slower, smaller, and rugged.
Keywords suffer up to a 50% effectiveness penalty if the assigned keyword has nothing to do with the magic. When shouting it/assigning it for the first time, the magic is at 100% effectiveness regardless since the instructions were manually assigned.
Example: Hiro assigning the word "Fireball" to a ball of water. Resulted in the ball of water to be slower, smaller, and rugged.
Example for Fire Magic(B):
The same steps from above are repeated except with the addition of the keyword 'Fireball!' assigned and shouted at the same time as activation. Shouting "Fireball!" after the intiial definition will allow you to use the exact same fireball every time assuming that you provide the Mana requirement at the location the original instuctions were created at.
Assuming that 50 units of Scrap Mana was used to build that Fireball, the next time you can instantly use the same Fireball as before given that you move 50 units of Scrap Mana at the palm from inside the body.
7. Trigger Words are basically the same thing as a Keyword, except they activate Mana outside the body. You can define the Trigger Word before using the magic. Can combine Trigger Words with Keywords.
Example for Fire Magic(C):
Bond Scrap Mana to Fire Affinity. Instruct the Mana bonded to the Fire Affinity out to form a sphere in some space 20 feet away from you by a straight path and have it be stationary until the trigger word is activated.
Again, it is important to note that the trigger word was defined before the Mana left the body. So if the Trigger Word was "Fireball!" it would activate the instructions that was attached to the Trigger Word, in this case it could be activate the magic and then have all the particles travel in reverse as the same speed in the straight path.
Important Note: Most of the "instructions" specified in the examples above are still simplied. Just going to have to use some of your imagination to fill in the gaps. For an example, if you were inside the story and were going to repeat these steps, there are more smaller steps involved between the ones described. For the sake of reading the story, the above examples should illustrate well enough.
