![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ximilia magic info post
Jul. 20th, 2021 09:50 pmTo start with here is a basic introduction from the official website. (using the wayback machine because the site is down at the moment).
"The Charter describes the world, and everything in it. It underlies all things. The mark on my forehead, the marks you saw me use to change some part of the world, to bring fire or deny the Dead, all these are part of the Charter. If you know the marks to call, to draw or describe, then you can order or change almost everything, within the constraints of what the Charter wills. That is Charter Magic"
Terciel and Elinor
Some snippets throughout the books of characters reaching into the Charter, casting spells, or being immersed in it:
In Sabriel
Sabriel felt the familiar swirl of energy, and the feeling of falling into some endless galaxy of stars. But the stars here were Charter symbols, linked in some great dance that had no beginning or end, but contained and described the world in its movement. Sabriel knew only a small fraction of the symbols, but she knew what they danced, and she felt the purity of the Charter wash over her.
In Lirael the titular character casting a spell that's past her skill level and lands her in the hospital.
In the endless flow, she drew out all the marks she knew for breaking and blasting, for fire and destruction, for blocking, barring, and locking. They came into her mind in a flood, brighter and more blinding than any light, so strong that she could barely weave them into a spell. But somehow she ordered them as she wished, and linked them together with a single master mark, one of great power, that she had never before dared to use.
With the spell ready, pent up inside her by will alone, Lirael did the bravest thing she had ever done. She touched the door with one hand, the creature's hook with the other, and spoke the master Charter mark to cast the spell.
As she spoke, heat coursed through Lirael's throat. White fire exploded through her right hand into the creature, and a titanic force was unleashed from her left, slamming the door shut. She was hurled backwards, tumbling over and over till her head struck the stone floor with a terrible crack that sent her instantly into darkness.
In Clariel, to give you an idea of how a less experienced mage with little affinity for the Charter describes it.
It was like falling into deep water. All of a sudden, the world ceased to exist. She was surrounded entirely by Charter marks, brilliant, shining, blinding marks that swirled and swam all around her, through her and inside her, marks that she did not know and felt she could never know, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of Charter marks-
From the same book, the character casting a spell
Clariel nodded, took a breath, and reached out for the Charter once more. It was a little easier this time, because she could kind of sidle into it, rather than being inundated via Kargrin's own immersion. But even so, she found it difficult. Starting with a few very familiar marks, she thought of more, visualizing them as a chain reaching back into the full flow, but all too quickly there were more marks than she could cope with. So many marks they threatened to swamp her, and it took all her concentration to just select the one she needed, a minor mark for light, pull it out of the swim, and coax it to her fingertip.
In To Hold the Bridge, another description of spellcasting.
Instead he took a deep breath and reached out for the Charter, immersing himself in the endless flow of marks, visualizing the two he needed, reaching for them as they swam out of the rush of symbols. He caught them and let them run through him, coursing with his bloodstream to the end of his index finger. He held that finger up, and the marks joined and became what they described, a small yellow flame that did not burn his skin, though if he touched it to wick or paper it would set them ablaze.
In Goldenhand through the eyes of someone who's just received the mark.
"It is like swimming in the high lake," she said, grinning, her teeth white in the darkness. "The shock at first, the sudden cold, then it comes all around and you know what it is to be alive and you go under and it is so smooth and clear and it seems to be forever and it is not cold, but warm..."
And a different character, in the same book that shows what it's like to reach into the Charter deliberately, rather than just touching a mark.
A single Charter Mark blossomed in Lirael's mind. One small mark, an everyday mark, nothing in itself, one used for joining other marks together. But Lirael welcomed it joyfully, and then another followed, and another, and there was a trickle of marks, all ones she knew, and more and more came, until the full flood returned and she felt the ocean of marks, the multitude, more than could possibly be known crash down upon her and flow through every part of her being.
in Terciel and Elinor, describing a character's first immersion, and being entirely overwhelmed by it.
But it wasn't anything like she expected, or could have expected. She didn't feel the touch at all, or Terciel's fingertip against her forehead. Instead, all her senses were overwhelmed. The world disappeared, all sight and sound cut off. She saw only Charter marks, millions and millions of brilliant glowing marks all around her, stretching into infinity, and she heard sounds that did not exist, and she felt an astonishing mixture of excitement, fear, and a sense of contentment all at once, and she knew, knew to the very marrow of her bones, that she was part of this vast, limitless Charter, and so was everything and everyone else, Terciel and Ham and the woman who must be the Abhorsen, and the little fish in the ghyll, and the ghyll itself, the rocks and the water, and the field beyond and the weeds in the garden and the sky above and the stars and everything... everything... everything...
From the same book, discussing what it felt like to touch a less powerful mage's mark:
The other girls' marks were true, and Elinor felt the immensity of the Charter behind each mark. But it was not the intense immersion she'd felt when she touched Terciel's mark. The Charter was there, and uncorrupted, but it was also distant, less all-encompassing. It was like wading in the shallow waters of an immense, wondrously refreshing lake, but being unable to go deeper, or even cup the water up to drink.
There are also some things Charter Magic cannot do. Quoting from my application:
"No space/time manipulation in general, no creation of matter, no unaided flight (although some mages have created magical aircraft, Sabriel does not have the knowledge), no shapeshifting (Again, technically possible, but Sabriel doesn't have access to this knowledge, and doesn't even know it exists). Mental manipulation seems to be restricted to calming people down and either erasing or manipulating recent (like, within a day or so) memories."
So you can't use Charter magic to teleport or violate conservation of mass, and it doesn't make you a telepath. Another important thing to note is that Charter magic is not psychoactive. A spell might flare out of control, but a mage cannot light things on fire or make them explode just because they're scared. Charter magic needs to be deliberately cast, although a sufficiently trained mage may cast on reflex.
Consequences of screwing up or getting overambitious with Charter magic can range from singed fingers or an uncontrollable spell for normal magic to being exhausted for several weeks with a badly burned throat (And if the individual in question wasn't a massively powerful mage to begin with she probably would have died) or being struck blind and dumb for the rest of their life in another case of an attempt at powerful spell going horribly wrong.
Touching a baptismal Charter mark lets the mage touching it determine if it's genuine/uncorrupted (if it is, they can feel the Charter through it), and get a sense of how powerful a mage the person they're touching is. Charter Mages can combine their abilities, if they're touching each other, allowing them to cast a spell with more power than any one of them could handle individually.
Charter mages can sense Charter magic, both while a mage is drawing on the Charter and afterwards (But they're unable to sense if someone is a Charter mage/magic user if they're not casting, beyond spotting their mark). They can get a general sense of the level of power involved, and may also be able to puzzle out what a spell does if they're able to get a look at it and know at least some of the marks. For sensing NPC/player character's magic, please talk to the mods or the mun in question.
I should also note that "The bad guys will sense us using magic and we'll get swarmed" is a problem repeatedly faced by protagonists in the Old Kingdom series, so I tend to run with the assumption that it's metaphysically 'loud' and anything beyond minor magic can be easily detected.
Charter magic drains a character's energy, and beginning mages can easily become exhausted even after casting a few spells in rapid succession. Through practice, characters can increase their endurance. Spells that require focus to maintain will drain a character's energy for as long as they're holding their concentration. This means that characters may find themselves faced with the choice of casting magic now or finding a nonmagical solution so they can conserve their energy.
Also important to note: Charter magic wrecks technology. Guns, cars, radios, and anything electrical are demonstrated to fail when large amounts of magic are around in canon. Charter mages can use technology without issue if they're not casting, and the tech-wrecking effect will not affect the Ximilia, or characters earpieces. The damage is not permanent, and technology will start working again when the magic stops.
Cyborg and robot/AI characters have the option of being affected by this, or can decide that Charter magic treats them as metaphysically 'alive', and thus they're not harmed by it, but can be healed/enchanted/etc.
Excerpt from Terciel and Elinor that discusses the process of learning Charter magic/some of the underlying in-universe theory:
"Since you're new, Elinor," said Hazra brightly, "we had better find out what you know already."
"Dr. Bannow in Bain taught me a dozen marks. She called them 'twig' marks," replied Elinor. "Because they are small and easy to grasp, but they connect to more marks and it helps to visualize how they are connected, as if they are all part of some enormous tree..."
"Yes," said Corinna, "that's one way Charter Magic is taught. I was. Twig, branch, bough, bole- or trunk if you'd like, the so-called master marks- though of course we haven't gotten up past the twig ones."
"And for marks that never stand alone but must be used with others, those are classified as leaf, blossom, flower," said Hazra. "It does make it easier to remember them."
"Sometimes," said Kierce. "My mother doesn't think much of the tree thing. She says the only sure way is to practice finding or calling the mark you need over and over again. The same way with spells, putting marks together and repeating it over and over again. Like cricket. I must have hit a cricket ball a hundred thousand times since I was five."
...
"So let's go through the marks you know first," said Hazra. "Do you draw them roughly to find them in the Charter, or speak their use-names?"
"Um, I don't even know what use-names are," said Elinor, "I visualize the mark I need and reach for the Charter, and if it works I see it and I suppose I sort of feel it, but to get the one I want to come out I have to draw it with my finger or my hand or whatever, and I have to really concentrate so it doesn't slip away or I get the wrong one. Or nothing."
"That's fairly typical," said Hazra. "Some people find the marks they need by speaking or subvocalizing the mark's use-name. It isn't actually their name, the marks don't have names, but some of the ones that get used a lot have been given names that have stuck. The system of symbology used to write down lists of marks and spells is similar. The drawn symbol is not the same as the mark, it isn't how it looks when it manifests. I mean otherwise there'd be the danger of calling the mark when you're simply recording a spell or making a list. But knowing the use-name and sometimes even drawing it in place can make the actual mark easier to bring forth."
...
She drew a breath, steadied herself, and focused her mind on the Charter, willing to become apparent to her, a sea of shining marks with just the one she needed held on the topmost point of a great wave so she could swoop in and pluck it like an osprey taking a fish...
List of Charter spells
Spells may not work as described on missions. If you're unsure, ask the mods in the questions tab of the mission file or mission log.
Conjuring lights: An extremely simple spell. Conjures a light of variable intensity. The mark can be engraved into an object to make a permanent light, or simply used as a temporary flashlight. Make it bright enough, and you could temporarily blind someone with it. This will always be the first spell Sabriel teaches a character.
Lighting a fire: uses two marks. A yellow flame forms on the tip of a character's finger, not burning the skin, but easily setting any flammable materials it touches alight.
Drawing water out of the air: The caster traces the marks for the spell in the air and cups their hands below it as the marks turn into water/water condenses around the marks and drops down into their hands. Most effective/easiest in humid environments (Remember, Charter magic obeys conservation of matter!), and described as a very simple spell. Please note that it only produces about a cup of water.
Battle Magic: Not just fireballs, lightning bolts, and other offensive spells, but also anything you'd cast quickly in a fight- shields, arrow-wards, and spells designed to blind and immobilize opponents are also considered part of this category. Characters will be able to learn how to cast spells involving small to medium sized projectiles, and shields big enough to protect one person.
Some specific spells in this category include:
Spell of the silver blades: Pretty self explanatory! Conjures three silver blades that fly forward with considerable force (enough to put fist-sized holes through an animated corpse and reduce a piece of lumber to wood chips) and vanish once they hit their target. The incantation (often shouted) is "Anet! Calew! Ferhan!"
Blindness What it says on the tin. Length of time may vary-
Mark of immobility Immobilizes the target for a brief period. May be less effective against creatures whose strength vastly exceeds a human's.
Healing: Charter Magic can't heal people completely, or instantly, but it can heal broken bones, close wounds, deal with fever, and pull poison/drugs out of the body, as well as help prevent infection. Charter healing spells linger- with a burst of initial healing followed by a period of slower mending as the spell finishes its work. During the period of slow healing, they can be disrupted by excessive physical activity, causing wounds to reopen, as an example. Injuries inflicted by malevolent magic may be harder to heal. Healing spells available to students are minor ones, able to heal minor injuries inflicted by both magical and mundane sources. Charter Magic cannot regrow severed limbs, or get rid of scars and damage from improperly healed injuries without additional surgical intervention.
Ankle-winding/sticking spell: Makes the target's feet stick to the ground. Lasts somewhat longer than the immobilizing spell, the trade off is that they're still able to move everything but their feet. Can also be used to stick objects (or other body parts, like a hand) to surfaces. Things can be removed with enough force, but it would take a few minutes of intense effort.
Silencing spell: Renders the target unable to make any sound vocally for several minutes. Does not stop them from making noise via other means, like banging on something.
Warming spell: renders the caster comfortably warm and immune from frostbite, no matter what the temperature is. Exhausting if used for longer than a brief period, so it's often better to just dress appropriately. Requires continuous concentration
Compass spell: Know which direction is north.
Butterfly ball spell: Creates a ball of golden light that can be tossed or juggled. Dissolves into a swarm of golden butterflies after about a minute. Please discuss before characters learn this spell.
Advanced spells (Requires characters to have studied magic for at least three months.)
Locking/unlocking spells: Can be used to lock or unlock a nonmagical lock without using a key. Will do nothing about a door or other locked thing that's barred, barricaded or otherwise physically unable to open, like with a rusted hinge/nailed shut. Does not work against magical locks, anything requiring biometrics, or extremely high-tech locks with failsafes that lock things down if tampering is detected. (or anything else the mods say it doesn't work on. For high tech settings where use of a door/lock is tracked, it would definitely be recorded, possibly in a weird, glitched way. (Basically, it might get a character into a normal house, or office, or past a padlock/an office safe... but wouldn't be much use getting into a bank vault or high-security lab. Doesn't disable alarm systems.)
Sleep: A single target sleep spell that forces the target to sleep for at least 15-20 minutes.
Fog: a spell that creates an area of fog/mist with a 15 foot radius. Can either be stationary or move with the caster, lasts for half an hour or until dispersed by wind.
An individual mark may be used in several different spells- for example, both the final rites, the spell to start a fire, and several battle magic spells all use the mark for fire, but it's used in different ways.
Current Students
Yzak
"The Charter describes the world, and everything in it. It underlies all things. The mark on my forehead, the marks you saw me use to change some part of the world, to bring fire or deny the Dead, all these are part of the Charter. If you know the marks to call, to draw or describe, then you can order or change almost everything, within the constraints of what the Charter wills. That is Charter Magic"
Terciel and Elinor
Some snippets throughout the books of characters reaching into the Charter, casting spells, or being immersed in it:
In Sabriel
Sabriel felt the familiar swirl of energy, and the feeling of falling into some endless galaxy of stars. But the stars here were Charter symbols, linked in some great dance that had no beginning or end, but contained and described the world in its movement. Sabriel knew only a small fraction of the symbols, but she knew what they danced, and she felt the purity of the Charter wash over her.
In Lirael the titular character casting a spell that's past her skill level and lands her in the hospital.
In the endless flow, she drew out all the marks she knew for breaking and blasting, for fire and destruction, for blocking, barring, and locking. They came into her mind in a flood, brighter and more blinding than any light, so strong that she could barely weave them into a spell. But somehow she ordered them as she wished, and linked them together with a single master mark, one of great power, that she had never before dared to use.
With the spell ready, pent up inside her by will alone, Lirael did the bravest thing she had ever done. She touched the door with one hand, the creature's hook with the other, and spoke the master Charter mark to cast the spell.
As she spoke, heat coursed through Lirael's throat. White fire exploded through her right hand into the creature, and a titanic force was unleashed from her left, slamming the door shut. She was hurled backwards, tumbling over and over till her head struck the stone floor with a terrible crack that sent her instantly into darkness.
In Clariel, to give you an idea of how a less experienced mage with little affinity for the Charter describes it.
It was like falling into deep water. All of a sudden, the world ceased to exist. She was surrounded entirely by Charter marks, brilliant, shining, blinding marks that swirled and swam all around her, through her and inside her, marks that she did not know and felt she could never know, thousands, tens of thousands, millions of Charter marks-
From the same book, the character casting a spell
Clariel nodded, took a breath, and reached out for the Charter once more. It was a little easier this time, because she could kind of sidle into it, rather than being inundated via Kargrin's own immersion. But even so, she found it difficult. Starting with a few very familiar marks, she thought of more, visualizing them as a chain reaching back into the full flow, but all too quickly there were more marks than she could cope with. So many marks they threatened to swamp her, and it took all her concentration to just select the one she needed, a minor mark for light, pull it out of the swim, and coax it to her fingertip.
In To Hold the Bridge, another description of spellcasting.
Instead he took a deep breath and reached out for the Charter, immersing himself in the endless flow of marks, visualizing the two he needed, reaching for them as they swam out of the rush of symbols. He caught them and let them run through him, coursing with his bloodstream to the end of his index finger. He held that finger up, and the marks joined and became what they described, a small yellow flame that did not burn his skin, though if he touched it to wick or paper it would set them ablaze.
In Goldenhand through the eyes of someone who's just received the mark.
"It is like swimming in the high lake," she said, grinning, her teeth white in the darkness. "The shock at first, the sudden cold, then it comes all around and you know what it is to be alive and you go under and it is so smooth and clear and it seems to be forever and it is not cold, but warm..."
And a different character, in the same book that shows what it's like to reach into the Charter deliberately, rather than just touching a mark.
A single Charter Mark blossomed in Lirael's mind. One small mark, an everyday mark, nothing in itself, one used for joining other marks together. But Lirael welcomed it joyfully, and then another followed, and another, and there was a trickle of marks, all ones she knew, and more and more came, until the full flood returned and she felt the ocean of marks, the multitude, more than could possibly be known crash down upon her and flow through every part of her being.
in Terciel and Elinor, describing a character's first immersion, and being entirely overwhelmed by it.
But it wasn't anything like she expected, or could have expected. She didn't feel the touch at all, or Terciel's fingertip against her forehead. Instead, all her senses were overwhelmed. The world disappeared, all sight and sound cut off. She saw only Charter marks, millions and millions of brilliant glowing marks all around her, stretching into infinity, and she heard sounds that did not exist, and she felt an astonishing mixture of excitement, fear, and a sense of contentment all at once, and she knew, knew to the very marrow of her bones, that she was part of this vast, limitless Charter, and so was everything and everyone else, Terciel and Ham and the woman who must be the Abhorsen, and the little fish in the ghyll, and the ghyll itself, the rocks and the water, and the field beyond and the weeds in the garden and the sky above and the stars and everything... everything... everything...
From the same book, discussing what it felt like to touch a less powerful mage's mark:
The other girls' marks were true, and Elinor felt the immensity of the Charter behind each mark. But it was not the intense immersion she'd felt when she touched Terciel's mark. The Charter was there, and uncorrupted, but it was also distant, less all-encompassing. It was like wading in the shallow waters of an immense, wondrously refreshing lake, but being unable to go deeper, or even cup the water up to drink.
There are also some things Charter Magic cannot do. Quoting from my application:
"No space/time manipulation in general, no creation of matter, no unaided flight (although some mages have created magical aircraft, Sabriel does not have the knowledge), no shapeshifting (Again, technically possible, but Sabriel doesn't have access to this knowledge, and doesn't even know it exists). Mental manipulation seems to be restricted to calming people down and either erasing or manipulating recent (like, within a day or so) memories."
So you can't use Charter magic to teleport or violate conservation of mass, and it doesn't make you a telepath. Another important thing to note is that Charter magic is not psychoactive. A spell might flare out of control, but a mage cannot light things on fire or make them explode just because they're scared. Charter magic needs to be deliberately cast, although a sufficiently trained mage may cast on reflex.
Consequences of screwing up or getting overambitious with Charter magic can range from singed fingers or an uncontrollable spell for normal magic to being exhausted for several weeks with a badly burned throat (And if the individual in question wasn't a massively powerful mage to begin with she probably would have died) or being struck blind and dumb for the rest of their life in another case of an attempt at powerful spell going horribly wrong.
Touching a baptismal Charter mark lets the mage touching it determine if it's genuine/uncorrupted (if it is, they can feel the Charter through it), and get a sense of how powerful a mage the person they're touching is. Charter Mages can combine their abilities, if they're touching each other, allowing them to cast a spell with more power than any one of them could handle individually.
Charter mages can sense Charter magic, both while a mage is drawing on the Charter and afterwards (But they're unable to sense if someone is a Charter mage/magic user if they're not casting, beyond spotting their mark). They can get a general sense of the level of power involved, and may also be able to puzzle out what a spell does if they're able to get a look at it and know at least some of the marks. For sensing NPC/player character's magic, please talk to the mods or the mun in question.
I should also note that "The bad guys will sense us using magic and we'll get swarmed" is a problem repeatedly faced by protagonists in the Old Kingdom series, so I tend to run with the assumption that it's metaphysically 'loud' and anything beyond minor magic can be easily detected.
Charter magic drains a character's energy, and beginning mages can easily become exhausted even after casting a few spells in rapid succession. Through practice, characters can increase their endurance. Spells that require focus to maintain will drain a character's energy for as long as they're holding their concentration. This means that characters may find themselves faced with the choice of casting magic now or finding a nonmagical solution so they can conserve their energy.
Also important to note: Charter magic wrecks technology. Guns, cars, radios, and anything electrical are demonstrated to fail when large amounts of magic are around in canon. Charter mages can use technology without issue if they're not casting, and the tech-wrecking effect will not affect the Ximilia, or characters earpieces. The damage is not permanent, and technology will start working again when the magic stops.
Cyborg and robot/AI characters have the option of being affected by this, or can decide that Charter magic treats them as metaphysically 'alive', and thus they're not harmed by it, but can be healed/enchanted/etc.
Excerpt from Terciel and Elinor that discusses the process of learning Charter magic/some of the underlying in-universe theory:
"Since you're new, Elinor," said Hazra brightly, "we had better find out what you know already."
"Dr. Bannow in Bain taught me a dozen marks. She called them 'twig' marks," replied Elinor. "Because they are small and easy to grasp, but they connect to more marks and it helps to visualize how they are connected, as if they are all part of some enormous tree..."
"Yes," said Corinna, "that's one way Charter Magic is taught. I was. Twig, branch, bough, bole- or trunk if you'd like, the so-called master marks- though of course we haven't gotten up past the twig ones."
"And for marks that never stand alone but must be used with others, those are classified as leaf, blossom, flower," said Hazra. "It does make it easier to remember them."
"Sometimes," said Kierce. "My mother doesn't think much of the tree thing. She says the only sure way is to practice finding or calling the mark you need over and over again. The same way with spells, putting marks together and repeating it over and over again. Like cricket. I must have hit a cricket ball a hundred thousand times since I was five."
...
"So let's go through the marks you know first," said Hazra. "Do you draw them roughly to find them in the Charter, or speak their use-names?"
"Um, I don't even know what use-names are," said Elinor, "I visualize the mark I need and reach for the Charter, and if it works I see it and I suppose I sort of feel it, but to get the one I want to come out I have to draw it with my finger or my hand or whatever, and I have to really concentrate so it doesn't slip away or I get the wrong one. Or nothing."
"That's fairly typical," said Hazra. "Some people find the marks they need by speaking or subvocalizing the mark's use-name. It isn't actually their name, the marks don't have names, but some of the ones that get used a lot have been given names that have stuck. The system of symbology used to write down lists of marks and spells is similar. The drawn symbol is not the same as the mark, it isn't how it looks when it manifests. I mean otherwise there'd be the danger of calling the mark when you're simply recording a spell or making a list. But knowing the use-name and sometimes even drawing it in place can make the actual mark easier to bring forth."
...
She drew a breath, steadied herself, and focused her mind on the Charter, willing to become apparent to her, a sea of shining marks with just the one she needed held on the topmost point of a great wave so she could swoop in and pluck it like an osprey taking a fish...
List of Charter spells
Spells may not work as described on missions. If you're unsure, ask the mods in the questions tab of the mission file or mission log.
Conjuring lights: An extremely simple spell. Conjures a light of variable intensity. The mark can be engraved into an object to make a permanent light, or simply used as a temporary flashlight. Make it bright enough, and you could temporarily blind someone with it. This will always be the first spell Sabriel teaches a character.
Lighting a fire: uses two marks. A yellow flame forms on the tip of a character's finger, not burning the skin, but easily setting any flammable materials it touches alight.
Drawing water out of the air: The caster traces the marks for the spell in the air and cups their hands below it as the marks turn into water/water condenses around the marks and drops down into their hands. Most effective/easiest in humid environments (Remember, Charter magic obeys conservation of matter!), and described as a very simple spell. Please note that it only produces about a cup of water.
Battle Magic: Not just fireballs, lightning bolts, and other offensive spells, but also anything you'd cast quickly in a fight- shields, arrow-wards, and spells designed to blind and immobilize opponents are also considered part of this category. Characters will be able to learn how to cast spells involving small to medium sized projectiles, and shields big enough to protect one person.
Some specific spells in this category include:
Spell of the silver blades: Pretty self explanatory! Conjures three silver blades that fly forward with considerable force (enough to put fist-sized holes through an animated corpse and reduce a piece of lumber to wood chips) and vanish once they hit their target. The incantation (often shouted) is "Anet! Calew! Ferhan!"
Blindness What it says on the tin. Length of time may vary-
Mark of immobility Immobilizes the target for a brief period. May be less effective against creatures whose strength vastly exceeds a human's.
Healing: Charter Magic can't heal people completely, or instantly, but it can heal broken bones, close wounds, deal with fever, and pull poison/drugs out of the body, as well as help prevent infection. Charter healing spells linger- with a burst of initial healing followed by a period of slower mending as the spell finishes its work. During the period of slow healing, they can be disrupted by excessive physical activity, causing wounds to reopen, as an example. Injuries inflicted by malevolent magic may be harder to heal. Healing spells available to students are minor ones, able to heal minor injuries inflicted by both magical and mundane sources. Charter Magic cannot regrow severed limbs, or get rid of scars and damage from improperly healed injuries without additional surgical intervention.
Ankle-winding/sticking spell: Makes the target's feet stick to the ground. Lasts somewhat longer than the immobilizing spell, the trade off is that they're still able to move everything but their feet. Can also be used to stick objects (or other body parts, like a hand) to surfaces. Things can be removed with enough force, but it would take a few minutes of intense effort.
Silencing spell: Renders the target unable to make any sound vocally for several minutes. Does not stop them from making noise via other means, like banging on something.
Warming spell: renders the caster comfortably warm and immune from frostbite, no matter what the temperature is. Exhausting if used for longer than a brief period, so it's often better to just dress appropriately. Requires continuous concentration
Compass spell: Know which direction is north.
Butterfly ball spell: Creates a ball of golden light that can be tossed or juggled. Dissolves into a swarm of golden butterflies after about a minute. Please discuss before characters learn this spell.
Advanced spells (Requires characters to have studied magic for at least three months.)
Locking/unlocking spells: Can be used to lock or unlock a nonmagical lock without using a key. Will do nothing about a door or other locked thing that's barred, barricaded or otherwise physically unable to open, like with a rusted hinge/nailed shut. Does not work against magical locks, anything requiring biometrics, or extremely high-tech locks with failsafes that lock things down if tampering is detected. (or anything else the mods say it doesn't work on. For high tech settings where use of a door/lock is tracked, it would definitely be recorded, possibly in a weird, glitched way. (Basically, it might get a character into a normal house, or office, or past a padlock/an office safe... but wouldn't be much use getting into a bank vault or high-security lab. Doesn't disable alarm systems.)
Sleep: A single target sleep spell that forces the target to sleep for at least 15-20 minutes.
Fog: a spell that creates an area of fog/mist with a 15 foot radius. Can either be stationary or move with the caster, lasts for half an hour or until dispersed by wind.
An individual mark may be used in several different spells- for example, both the final rites, the spell to start a fire, and several battle magic spells all use the mark for fire, but it's used in different ways.
Current Students
Yzak
