Forgemastering

**Forgemastering** is the art of enchanting items with magic. Forgemastering is the specialization (along with War Mage) that requires the greatest mana capacity, and also requires proficiency in all 6 elements. Forgemastered items can be imprinted by a user so that only they can use it, and a spell exists that can make apparent the link between the magic object and the person it's imprinted with.

Dimensional items are forged using all 6 elements: air and earth magic to control gravity (which controls space/time), fire and water magic to avoid side effects such as overheating, freezing, or vacuums. Golems are complex constructs born from Forgemastering, Warden magic, and sometimes even Alchemy.

A good Forgemaster needs a partner to express their full potential. Without a partner, a Forgemaster can only manifest half of their prowess. Half their energy is needed to keep the circle stable and the other half for the crafting. The more powerful the Forgemaster, the more powerful the partner they need.

Creation Magic is the apex of Forgemastering.

## Basics

Forgemastering requires drawing two magic circles with a special ink, one inscribed into the other, with a series of magical runes between them. The number and type of runes depends on the nature of the enchantment to apply. The circles must be drawn with no imperfections and their radii must be as close as possible to the size of the item being enchanted.

The circles act as a furnace, withholding the stored mana within and saturating the item being enchanted. An imperfect circle will cause the mana to leak, leading to a defective product. The higher the mana density, the better the product, but also the greater mana consumption for the enchantment. If the forgemastering spell used is weaker than the mana accumulated inside the circle, it will have no effect. If the mana density is too low, the item will be useless. If the mana density is too high, the item will cost too much to have a market value. High density mana is also volatile and can cause huge explosions if not properly controlled.

### Mana Crystals

Mana crystals are required to imbue objects with more than one spell (as unanimated matter resists external magic power) in a process called Bonding. The more powerful the crystal, the greater the number and quality of enchantments it can sustain. Trying to infuse an object with more magical force exceeding its capacity will make the object reject the spell or break. Enchanting an object with a great magical force causes a constant erosion; if an artifact sustains too much damage, it loses all its magical properties.

Without a user, artifacts will degrade over time regardless if they have a gemstone embedded or not because all items have passive properties that are always kept active (e.g. weight reduction, self repair, enhanced resistance) - the more powerful the artifact, the more passive abilities it has. Hence, mana crystals alone can't keep up with the mana expenditure - arrays can be used to recharge since they have only a single function that makes them easier to preserve. It's not possible to turn off the passive abilities because most of the spells are needed to preserve the magical item.

#### White Crystal Enhancement

*Main article: White Crystal Enhancement*

A truly powerful Forgemaster can imbue **white crystals** with their own willpower and enhance a single element. The more the element is enhanced, the more it stands out. Changing a crystal's color doesn't weaken it in the least; on the contrary, it gives them incredible powers. An artifact with white crystals (such as the Sword of Saefel), each enhanced with one of the six elements, bestows upon the wielder control over all the elements in the form of Domination. A Forgemaster can make a green gemstone by adding their own life force, but this would make the artifact unusable to anyone but themselves. Adding life force to a crystal is not only incredibly difficult due to its inanimate nature, but it also creates a permanent imprint.

### Forge

A **Forge** is how Forgemasters refer to the tables they use for their work. Fake mages typically use silver while true Forgemasters use Adamant as it is a better mana conductor, much more resilient, and flexible. A Forgemaster can use any magical metal as Orichalcum, Adamant, and Davross all work according to the same principle, but purified Adamant or Davross work the best.

### Mana Conductor

**Mana conductors** can be used to manually forge the runes around the pseudo core by being infused with highly compressed mana and clashing with the mana within the magic circle. Different materials yield different results, as some are better conductors than others and can endure the compressed mana inside them longer (silver > steel > gold). Silver is the best suited element for hosting significant magical forces without the support of a crystal.

## Fake Magic

Non-Awakened can't use Spirit Magic, so they split everything into smaller, more controllable steps. That's why they need the runes and the magic circle. The mana is compressed by the runes into a sphere and then injected inside the vessel; there is no compression nor a pseudo core, just runes.

The runes drawn between the circles form an energy sphere, absorbing and injecting mana from the surrounding space into the item. Every single rune requires its own spell to be engraved into the object (plus another spell to permanently imprint the energies into the item), and each spell must be cast in rapid succession without delay, as mana tries to escape as soon as the magical furnace is loaded. The circle usually destabilizes after 10 seconds, after which mana begins to leak. The forgemastering process cannot be repeated if it fails after the object is saturated by mana, as the energy remnants from the previous failure linger. The runes are used to create and stabilize the mana pathways, but disappear once the process is over.

Embedding a crystal into an item is a delicate and irreversible process. Once one or more crystals are embedded, the Forgemaster no longer channels their magic directly through the object, but through the gemstones instead, which act as magical conductors that widen the time window for enchanting an item from a few seconds to a few days, depending on their strength. Crystals also act as a power source, allowing use of multiple spells in a short time frame with no mana expenditure from the item's user.

### Infusing Elements

Magical objects without elements infused into them are called **neutral items**. Giving an object elemental properties cannot be done without ingredients. This is one of the few cases where Forgemastering overlaps with Alchemy, but unlike in Alchemy, where ingredients are necessary to absorb the element and store it for future uses, Forgemastering does the opposite since it aims to create permanent objects.

Infusing an object with an element requires the Forgemaster to purposely alter the balance of their spell in favour of the chosen element, which causes the final product to be slowly eroded by the energies that empower it until it crumbles or explodes. To prevent this, a counterweight ingredient is needed to restore the balance (i.e. if infusing the fire element, use a water-based ingredient to counter it). The stronger the intended effect, the more powerful and rare the ingredient usually is. Infusing multiple elements has the same requirements as performing multiple enchantments.

However in fake Forgemastering, the ingredients don't restore the balance by simply countering the element energies during the enchanting process, they actually pass their pseudo cores. Due to this, multiple enchantments require multiple pseudo cores coexisting in the same item.

## True Magic

**True Forgemastering** requires not to shape the core, but to build it with the proper set of runes according to one's needs. To overcome the limits of fake mages, one must imbue the runes made out of Spirit Magic with one's willpower, or the mana will fall apart. Tier 4 true Forgemastering is identical to that used by fake mages.

### Pseudo Core

Forgemastering is about creating **pseudo mana cores** that are engraved onto an object, then stabilized by precise mana patterns that feed on world energy for self-sustenance and prevent the core from dissipating. Pseudo-cores have no consciousness, just a purpose, and unlike mana cores have no way of replenishing their energies without the mage that imprinted them.

Forgemastering requires a lot of mana because objects offer tremendous resistance to external energy. The more complex and powerful the artifact, the more complex the pseudo core has to be. Second attempts at forgemastering are useless because every rune leaves a carving, and a wrong pathway for the mana can render the object useless. The more enchantments added, the more complex a core becomes and the more energy it requires until it's more efficient to shape another one as it happens for elemental weapons.

Objects can have multiple pseudo cores embedded in them as well as mana crystals. The only way to prevent destructive desynchronization when accessing them is to imitate the mana signatures of the crystals and inject mana into the pseudo cores every time they go out of phase. Multiple pseudo cores require their user to know how and when to activate one or more of them at the same time whereas a single one once activated follows its program until it is turned off.

#### Mana Pathway

**Mana pathways** are artificial energy conduits that anchor the pseudo core, trapping its wild energies in a loop that prevents them from being dispersed due to a magical item's inanimate nature. The number of necessary mana pathways depends on the pseudo core's strength. Too few and the mana forming the core is dispersed, too many and it crumbles.

### Power Core

*Main article: Power Core*

A **power core** is the sum of multiple pseudo cores, capable of coordinating and mixing them to obtain a number of effects greater than their sum (e.g. a power core with fire and wind makes a flame tornado from the 2 skills).

### Mana Amplifier

A **mana amplifier** is an ingredient that any Forgemaster can use which allows them to amplify their mana to hold one's own energy signature. Amplifiers are typically parts of the body that have been refined. Forgemasters can use their own blood, feathers, or scales to convert foreign energy signatures as well. However, the longer a piece of a body has been infused with mana, the more powerful it becomes. This means that even the amplifiers of someone who has lived several centuries aren't much compared to those of creatures that lived millennia.

Fake mages don't use amplifiers because their short lifespans and inability to refine their bodies prevent them from having decent amplifiers. Awakened have amplifiers, but it is not exclusive to them. Amplifiers use parts of their own bodies (e.g. feathers, scales) because pieces from the others alone will provide the wrong kind of energy otherwise.

## Fake Forgemastering Techniques

### Heisen's Principle

A Forgemaster's work affects matter, so the harder the material to enchant, the harder the process. Heisen suggests that enchanting an item during the last steps of its forging makes the effect stronger despite consuming the same amount of mana. True magic proves this somewhat true as by working on something close to its melting point, it should offer less resistance to the magic flow when carving the runic pathways necessary to keep the pseudo core stable and contain its energy. However, the higher temperatures can also cause instability, resulting in explosions. After blowing up his arms for the 5th time, Heisen declared the principle a failure.

### Gantzwell's Theory

The best way to overcome Forgemastering's limits is to use a second magic circle (the normal enchanting process usually only involves one, powered by the Forgemaster's own mana). By using a second circle instead of their own mana, Forgemasters can team up and produce superior items. However, filling two overlapping magic circles with mana would make them unstable, and the conflicting energies would damage the circles and dissipate too quickly for enchanting to succeed.

## True Forgemastering Techniques

### Necro Forge

One of Lith's methods for creating superior magical items with true Forgemastering without using runes. It requires him to shape the pseudo core outside its future recipient and then merge them together before creating the necessary mana pathways to make it permanent. Its difficulty peaks at the beginning and decreases as the pseudo core merges with the item, but by shaping a complete pseudo core from the outside, it allows Lith to harmonize multiple enchantments. This method was derived from the same pattern Lith uses to create his Lesser Undead, keeping a perfect blood core and corpse at the ready for battle. However, powerful corpses have no need for mana pathways, while inanimate objects reject magic.

While this gives him all the time he wants to shape it with surgical precision and charge it with enough energy to fuel the effects he wants to achieve, injecting such a big energy mass inside inanimate matter will encounter lots of resistance and put a huge strain on its recipient. Most materials would shatter due to the mana flow too strong and sudden for them to handle. The pseudo core is likely to be deformed in the process, and fixing it would require injecting even more mana which adds more stress on the material. Only then can he try to create the mana pathways necessary to stabilize the pseudo core. Too few and the mana would be dispersed, too many and the item would crumble.

When pushing the pseudo core into the item, the resistance the core encounters can be reduced by flooding the item's mana vessels with one's own mana, weakening the opposing flow and improving the affinity the metal has for the Forgemaster's mana.

Later, Lith improves Necro Forge with Runesmithing. It acts as the third step after Bonding and Runesmithing, where the runes create a secondary mana circulatory system to allow the pseudo core's mana to freely flow inside the artifact and stabilizes the pseudo core.

### Bloom Forge

One of Lith's methods for creating superior magical items with true Forgemastering without using runes. It is the polar opposite of Necro Forge as it starts easy and becomes harder with every step. It's slower but allows Lith to enhance the power of single enchantments better. It requires him to both create a small pseudo core and thin mana pathways at once, before infusing both with more energy until they reach the desired size. This method was derived from Lith's studies on the growth of pseudo cores of mana crystals and of the mana core of plants, the difference being that inanimate objects have no core nor room for growth. It supposedly requires less focus and mana than Necro Forge as the mana pathways would mix his energy with the mana crystals' during the process, reducing the resistance the pseudo core experiences when interacting with the mana vessels. Additionally, by starting small, all potential mistakes can be tweaked as the core is shaped. However, it has a threshold past which any mistake would mean an irredeemable failure.

This allows Lith to pile up the mana inside its recipient one bit at the time, giving him the opportunity to not exceed the limits of the chosen material and fix any errors he might make in the early steps during the later stages. The main problem of this method is that any late mistake can't be fixed. Also, developing all of the mana pathways along with the pseudo core at the same time is very demanding in terms of mana and focus. Moreover, taking care of the mana pathways and pseudo core at the same time requires a lot of focus, making him face the most delicate steps when he is at his tiredest.

Developing the core is the easy part. As its energy grows, so does its affinity toward the hammer. The process requires a steady flow of mana, but it does not encounter any resistance. Giving the core the right shape is quite difficult, instead. The lack of resistance makes it so that the slightest slip of the mana creates a bump or a cavity, making the pseudo core defective. If the mana pathways are developed too slowly, the core energy disperses. If they are developed too fast, the mana coming from the crystals flood the core and deform it. To work around this, Lith treats the pseudo core as a developing mana core and the mana pathways as its host body. He first grows the core until it gives signs of instability, then strengthens and enlarges the pathways until the pressure they exert almost compresses the pseudo core. At that point, he would focus on the pseudo core again, rinse and repeat.

### Spirit Anvil

Bytra's Forgemastering technique **Spirit Anvil** makes any material bend to her will as if she is using an Earth Root and bends the mana flow of her creations to her will.

### Twin Forge

Lith and Solus' technique that exploits their perfect mind link and the fact that they have the same energy signature, allowing them to switch their roles at will or to combine their strength when necessary. Lith is responsible for merging the item and the pseudo core while Solus fixes all the imperfections that the process causes in the pseudo core with her finer mana control. The technique allows them to both improve their chance of success and to greatly reduce the time that each Forgemastering process requires. However, wielding such powerful energy takes a great toll on both of them and needs a constant use of Invigoration. The technique exploits their perfect mind link and the fact that they have the same energy signature, allowing them to switch their roles at will or combine their strength when necessary.

With each hit of Lith's hammer, the pseudo core goes deeper inside the object, but the world energy that courses through the metal opposes the process with such strength that it causes deformations in the core, compromising the integrity of the spells it holds. With each hit of Solus' hammer, the bumps and indenture from the previous clash disappear, shaping the pseudo core into a perfect sphere again. She has to make sure to preserve and fix all the pseudo cores at the same time so that they can withstand Lith's working. During that time, Lith replenishes his body with mana and injects part of it through the runes. That way, the energy coming from the armor can't mess with Solus' work due to being temporarily synced with their energy signature.

Lith and Solus complement each other, allowing them to focus solely on their respective task without the fear of any external variable. Their combined Forgemastering technique not only requires the power that only a mage tower can provide, but also for two mages to work as one.

Lith uses Twin Forge to first reforge the Orichalcum Skinwalker Armor, then to craft the Scalewalker Armor.

## Forgemasters

### Ruler of the Flames

**Ruler of the Flames** is a title given to Awakened Forgemasters with outstanding skill and groundbreaking contributions. It is the greatest honor an Awakened Forgemaster can receive and there can only be one per generation.

* 1st Ruler of Flames: Ripha Menadion, inventing runes.
* 2nd Ruler of Flames: Jeron Klavin, inventing communication amulets.
* 3rd Ruler of Flames: Ralen Sarten, inventing Ancient Warp Gates.
* 4th Ruler of Flames: Korgh (the original, formerly known as Bytra), inventing modern runes and her Forgemastering technique **Spirit Anvil** where she performs the Binding of the mana crystals, the Runesmithing, and the Forgemastering at the same time.
* 5th Ruler of Flames: Tavar Sinak, inventing a technique to mimic power cores and applying to same principles to both improve its efficiency and use the energy core as a blueprint for arranging the pseudo cores in an artifact.
	+ *See: Tavar Sinak's Legacy*

### Royal Forgemasters

**Royal Forgemasters** have exclusive access to runes and Runesmithing techniques in the Griffon Kingdom.

* Professor Zogar Vastor
* Headmaster Duke Marth
* Headmaster Linjos
* Headmistress Onia
* Headmistress Linnea
* Professor Lyca Wanemyre
* Orion Ernas
* Professor Yondra Mefaal

### Beast Forgemasters

#### Hydra Forgemasters

Hydras can have up to 7 heads, each capable of independent thought and magic casting, thus allowing hydras to be one of the best Forgemasters.[*Reference needed*]

* Faluel

## References

1. ↑ Chapter 136: Suspicions
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Chapter 65: A Third Specialization (2)
3. ↑ Chapter 659: From Bad to Worse (Part 1)
4. ↑ Chapter 913: Planning Ahead (Part 1)
5. ↑ Chapter 64: New Specializations
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Chapter 289: Bonding (Part 1)
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Chapter 290: Bonding (Part 2)
8. ↑ Chapter 1146: White Cores and Crystals (Part 2)
9. ↑ Chapter 541: The Best Laid Plans... (Part 1)
10. ↑ Chapter 1538: Menadion's Apprentice (Part 2)
11. ↑ Chapter 182: Silver Lining
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 Chapter 1076: Core Principles (Part 2)
13. ↑ Chapter 609: Success and Failure (Part 1)
14. ↑ Chapter 199: Frost Dew
15. ↑ Chapter 194: Frost Dew
16. ↑ Chapter 195: Frost Dew (2)
17. ↑ Chapter 1129: Thinking Ahead (Part 1)
18. ↑ Chapter 128: Contingencies
19. ↑ Chapter 85: Lith’s Surprise
20. ↑ Chapter 226: Mystery Box
21. ↑ Chapter 1275: Craftsman’s Pride (Part 1)
22. ↑ 22.0 22.1 Chapter 922: Runesmithing (Part 2)
23. ↑ Legion on Discord
24. ↑ Chapter 1539: Family Care (Part 1)
25. ↑ Legion on Discord
26. ↑ Chapter 178: Crucible
27. ↑ Chapter 181: Crucible (3)
28. ↑ 28.0 28.1 28.2 28.3 28.4 Chapter 590: Necro Forge (Part 2)
29. ↑ 29.0 29.1 29.2 Chapter 595: Bloom Forge (Part 1)
30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Chapter 589: Necro Forge (Part 1)
31. ↑ Chapter 1573: Growing Power (Part 1)
32. ↑ Chapter 1623: Failure and Success (Part 1)
33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 Chapter 1125: A Forgemaster’s Pride (Part 1)
34. ↑ Chapter 1622: Life and Death (Part 4)
35. ↑ Chapter 986: Struggle for Power (Part 2)
36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 36.2 Chapter 1124: Scalewalker Armor (Part 4)
37. ↑ Chapter 1077: Bytra’s Legacy (Part 1)
38. ↑ Chapter 462: Foul Moon (Part 4)
39. ↑ Chapter 546: Eyes and Wings (Part 2)
40. ↑ Chapter 1596: Waves and Ripples (Part 2)
41. ↑ Chapter 394: Turning the Tide (Part 2)
42. ↑ Chapter 735: Prodigal Daughter (Part 1)
43. ↑ 43.0 43.1 Legion on Discord
44. ↑ Chapter 945: Hostile Takeover (Part 1)
45. ↑ Chapter 1504: Early Rankings (Part 2)