Magic Theory

## Preparations for Attunement

When going through the Vitae, a mancer aspirant meditates on the ambient around them, feeling with their senses every single thing around them. For instance, if someone chooses to perform their attunement at a beach, during their meditation, their senses would be able to feel everything around them; the mild breeze coming from the ocean, the water just in front of them, the light from the sun or moon(s) hitting their skin, the plant life around them, as well as the animal life around them, minds, bodies, everything that the universe has to offer.

This is only achievable through a specific kind of meditation, which must be practiced for someone to even attempt to attune themselves into a mancy of their choosing. However, after one learns this specific kind of “mancer meditation”, they are ready to focus their mind even further.

Once someone is in the state of mind required for the Vitae, feeling every single thing around them, the mancer aspirant must then force any other influences out of their mind. For instance, if that same person wishes to become a Hydromancer, they must make it so their own minds don’t feel the wind hitting their skin again, they must neglect the light of the sun that they are able to feel, the sounds of life around them and so on, until only the water remains, and once that happens, they finally enter the so called void.

## Entering the Void

As someone begins their Vitae, their mind wanders off their body and into a parallel dimension known as “**The Void**”, and this place is where their knowledge, wits and creativity will be tested alongside their will and mental strength. Someone who wishes to perform their Vitae and ends up in the void, is then presented with a series of visions, challenges, and metaphors which they must traverse to reach their goal.

These challenges appear throughout the person’s attunement, being used to guide them along a path towards their goal, which is becoming a mancer. Once inside the void, an aspirant feels what they must achieve, and knows where to go, but they must overcome any obstacles in order to reach their goal, and if they can’t solve one of the obstacles, and get stuck somewhere, their mind will be forever lost to the void, while their body is bound to wither away in the mortal realm.

It is said that these puzzles and visions are crafted by the person’s own mind, as a way to assure their mental dominance over themselves. This is true due to the fact that only those who aren’t strong willed enough, or don’t believe in their success get their minds stuck in the void forever. Once the attunement is complete however, the person who succeeded in it becomes open to the Vitor flow of the world, and gain their Vitor pools, to use when casting spells.

## Vitor and its Flow

Even though it originates on another plane of existence, Vitor permeates reality itself, flowing into the world and filling it with its magical energy. This invisible energy flows through the world like enormous nets of magical power all around everything, and the larger this flow of Vitor, the more energy it carries.

Sometimes, Vitor may accumulate into some spots, where the flow brings vitor in, but doesn’t pull it anywhere else. In such places, the very essence of things may become infused with Vitor itself, originating new and magical things into the world, such as but not limited to: the metal Kinoro, that only forms where a great concentration of Vitor is also found.

This mystical energy that permeates our universe is also an energy that permeates the body of mancers, restoring their own pools of Vitor, which they gain during attunement, and allowing them to directly interact with this fundamental Mystical Energy of the universe.

The streams of Vitor that compose this gigantic net surrounding everything are something that Mancers learn to interact with as they grow in strength. At first, just after Vitae, a mancer barely has a Vitor pool, as their attunement serves to force a permanent vitor pool into their body, and only through training that someone may have these pools of vitor increase in size.

When a mancer casts a spell, what they are really doing is drawing Vitor from their own pools, making it flow through their body and then out of it using their will to shape said vitor into the desired effect. The way someone’s vitor flows through their body is determined during the attunement, and in every single person is slightly different, sort of like a fingerprint, but similar in the way they flow if two people with the same mancy are examined.

   The graphic above describes the relationship between the different types of Mancy under the same school, as well as indicate “which way” a mancer’s vitor flows. As stated before, the way in which a Mancer’s vitor flows depends on what kind of mancy they practice, a Necromancer for instance has a constant flow of Vitor through their body that moves down and slightly to their right, for Animo mancers, that flow is down and to the left. Pyromancer’s Vitor flows to the left, Motus to the right, Caelum flows up and slightly to the right, and Vita is also up, but slightly to the left.

## Casting a Spell

The very thing that mancers are known for is their ability to shape reality itself to act as they will it, their mancy carrying their will, and their Vitor being the energy spent alongside the user’s stamina, as well as the means to achieve such change to reality.

The process of casting itself begins when one focuses their mind, for the task to draw Vitor away from their reserves is a complicated one, which requires a great deal of practice to properly conduct in a battle or even out of it. Once one’s mind is focused, they must use that focus and willpower to guide their Vitor through their body, making it so their Vitor finds a way out of their pools, and out of their body. Outside the mancer’s body, this vitor is then shaped by the person’s will, an Aeromancer for instance could make it so that vitor interacts with the air surrounding them, pushing it out of the way hastily, creating an air blast.

One could also project their vitor over a distance as to cast far away from themselves, or into someone else’s mind, as Psychomancer would do it. This takes a little bit more energy, so it is not a widely used technique most of the time. A more well known mancer technique are touch based spells, these are much stronger due to the proximity of the mancer to the desired object, as Vitor leaving the body doesn’t have the time to lose energy, since the target is right at the user’s reach.

Vitor can be made to interact with itself too, however this is extremely hard to achieve, and it's unknown if there is a use to it.

## Effects on the Body

It is common knowledge that mancers tend to be physically weaker than non-mancers, but the reason this happens is mostly due to the way Mancy itself taxes the body. For when someone uses their mancy, the very action of moving their Vitor around their body and out is tiresome, requiring a great deal of focus and actual body exertion. The more someone uses their mancy, the more their body uses its own reserves of energy, and as always, that starts with fatty tissues, and when those are gone, it starts to take its toll on the muscles of a person.

This is why for someone to be a good mancer, not only they must practice their mancy daily, meditate and study, but also keep a proper diet with lots of carbohydrates, sugars and fats, as well as keep up with physical exercises so that their muscles don’t atrophy away. This however doesn’t completely counteract the effects of mancy on the body, for as when skill level increases, so does the vitor pools, and those are balanced with the body’s mass, the more vitor someone has, the less body mass they have.

Mancy use is also connected to one’s mental capacity. Brighter people have an easier time casting, as well as strong willed people. As someone gets to higher levels of their own mancy, their understanding of not only magic but the world and reality itself increases, usually causing people to grow wiser, and have an even stronger willpower than they had before. However, people are not made out of steel, and having a depressed or anxious mind can actually hinder someone’s casting. As for emotions, depending on what the user is feeling and with what intensity, that may either intensify their spells a little, or cause them to be slightly weaker.

## Effect of and on Metals

Many people know that most metals tend to inhibit the casting of mancy through it, however nobody really knows how or why, but the reason is quite simple: Metals have a tendency of absorbing energy, and that is no different with Vitor, the difference being that metals not only absorb Vitor, but draws it in when its surface area is high enough.

One then could think that because metals are able to absorb Vitor, there would be a threshold where the metal could be caused to overload with Vitor flow, however for that to happen the amount of Vitor going through the metal would need to be stupidly high, but to indulge the question of “What would happen if a metal were to be overloaded by Vitor” the answer is a deadly explosion, as the metal would at first nullify magic, but then as it takes more Vitor at once than it can nullify, it would absorb it all at once, and then release this energy by quite literally breaking the metal’s molecular bonds to one another, disintegrating said metal piece to a very fine powder with a powerful explosion.

Metals however can be made to interact with Vitor rather than simply nullify or absorb it, take for instance runesmiths, who can infuse weapons made out of Iron or Steel with powerful magic, or the metal called Kinoro, which when properly crafted can either be used as a powerful mancy catalyst.

## Other Applications of Metals

Many may say that most metals are the enemy of every mancer ever, and that would indeed be correct, for any metal is able to disrupt the flow of Vitor on a mancer’s body. Take for instance a mancer wearing plate armor: They cannot cast due to the metal quite simply locking their Vitor into place, and if they do try to cast, their Vitor would be absorbed by the armor’s metal, thus, rendering any spell almost or completely useless.

This however does not mean a mancer cannot have weapons made out of steel, for the shape the weapons take do not block the flow of Vitor through the body, allowing it to move freely, unless the weapon is inside said mancer’s body.

Another way a Mancer’s vitor flow can be interrupted is via internal injuries caused by iron, for instance, being struck with an arrow, and having its iron tip stuck inside the flesh, or if someone is stabbed with a metal dagger, but doesn’t take the dagger out.

## Mancer Restrainment

Long gone are the days of cutting off someone’s hands in a misguided attempt of preventing them to cast. Not only cutting someone’s hands doesn’t work to prevent them from ever casting again, but it is simply brutish and ineffective. The best way to deal with a mancer’s ability to cast is through a combination of a special handcuff and chains all around the person’s forearms, to prevent any vitor flow around the place.

The special handcuffs and chains are made out of lead, which is cheap, dense and heavy, and due to all of that it is the best metal to craft this anti mancer apparatus. The cuffs themselves have spikes on each side that digs a bit into the mancer’s skin, further preventing casting, and the chains are wrapped around their arms all the way up to their elbows, completely inhibiting them from casting.