Magical Focus

A Magical Focus turns the magic of the soul contained within a physical being in the Mortal Realm and transforms it into outward magic, usually in the form of spells. For most beings, this focus is mental (dragons and unicorns are the two exceptions).

Note that ones’ magic must be Unlocked before they can use their focus,
but they can figure out what their focus would be before unlocking. In
fact, that’s very recommended.

## Finding a Focus

After unlocking their magic, (if not before, which is heavily recommended) mages have to find a goal, called a focus, that their magic is aimed towards accomplishing if they wish to exert any control over their newfound powers. Mages with a settled focus that is honed to their preferred level will be able to do anything that they truly believe fits within that focus.

 By the way, “I know this is bullshit but it sorta technically fits,” does NOT count as believing. Unless you wholeheartedly believe that what you are trying to do fits within your chosen focus, it won’t work. Therefore, it would be foolish to pick a focus that you will not use often or aren’t passionate about.

Until a mage has chosen a focus, their magic will be almost completely uncontrollable. Most are encouraged to decide on their initial focus before they finish unlocking their magical abilities. Focuses can be- and often are- changed over time as each mage matures and changes their priorities in life.

When learning under a mentor of journeyman status (which is heavily recommended, albeit sometimes not possible), novices are expected to figure out their magical focus on their own. During this phase, the mentor is there to mitigate any damage that the unfocused magic might cause and help guide the novice through the soul-searching process of finding that focus. However, these mentors are expected to never offer suggestions for what the specific focus might be, lest the novice latch onto the outside idea instead of discovering their true focus within
themselves.

Focuses can be- and often are- changed over time as each mage matures and changes their priorities in life.

Until a mage has found their focus, they will never rise above a “Novice” rank of magical ability. Once a focus is found, the magic is considered to be at the “Apprentice” level, and will begin working to hone that ability with a mentor of Journeyman rank or higher.

### No Focus?

Mages who have not figured out the “focus” of their magic (aka the goal or intent behind every spell they cast) have a much wider range of powers, but very little control over them.

This can be both a blessing and a curse. Some ambitious mages have attempted to gain control of this “focus-less” casting ability by attempting to hone their skill without ever choosing a focus, but this would invariably fail. After all, it requires focus to hone any craft, and eventually, whatever reason you wanted to have a wider range of spellcasting abilities in the first place would become your focus, whether you like it or not.

For example, if you didn’t want to choose a focus because you wanted greater power, your focus on power would eventually become your magical focus (aka you’d deal a lot of damage but have few defensive spells). If you didn’t want to choose a focus because you wanted a wide range of abilities, your focus on increasing one’s range of abilities would end up as your magical focus (aka you’d be a support class hahahaha).

### Ideal Focus Structure

The best focuses have a verb, direct object, and possibly an indirect object, if applicable.

For example, Leila Abdi’s focus is, “Reveal that which is hidden.” The verb is “reveal” and that “which is hidden” is the direct object. Another example focus might be, “Bring hope to the hopeless,” where “bring” is the verb, “hope” is the direct object, and “the hopeless” is the indirect object.

Obviously, you don’t HAVE to have a focus like this, but most mages use the “verb, direct object, and optional indirect object” pattern as a rule of thumb for good, clear focuses that still offer a lot of versatility.

Most novice mages start out with a verb-only focus (“helping”) or a focus with a direct object that is much too vague (“helping others”) and their magical precision or consistency suffers as a result. Some mages intentionally accept this lack of control for the benefit of a wider range of powers, but most mages are far more content with their abilities once their focus has at least a verb and direct object.

In addition, most experienced mages suggest not adding more than one preposition to your magical focus. Otherwise, your focus might become too specific. Again, every mage has different preferences on the matter, but these are good rules of thumb.

## Honing Your Focus

Alrighty kiddos, this is the complicated part. Bear with me here; explaining theoretical concepts in a concise way is not my forte. I am expecting to receive questions and critiques on this section because I know it’s hard to understand at times, so do not hesitate to send them my way.

Now that the spellcaster has found their focus, they are well on their way to gaining control of their powers. As a mage practices applying their focus to their abilities, their powers will become much more “focused” themselves. There are two factors that then determine the power of a focus, which a mage has to constantly evaluate and develop (hence the phrase “honing their focus”): specificity and passion.

### Specifity

The more specific their focus is, the more concentrated and controlled their powers will become. If, however, their focus is vague and undefined, their control over their powers will be also. For example, if a mage has no clear focus when they unlock their powers, they will be completely out of their control. A vague focus, such as the desire to help others, might give the mage control over when their powers activate, but not the direction, magnitude, or actual effects. A more specific focus, such as “bringing light to those living in darkness” will allow a mage to use their powers with much greater precision. However, this will limit what they are actually able to do. For the mage in the example, they will be able to light lamps or bring comfort to others with ease and complexity, but will lose their abilities that they might have had when their focus was less specific, such as helping happy, content people.

Bear in mind that magic is based entirely on intent, so if you have a good enough focus (which jen seems to) then she can just do it. Magic isn't built on a system of specific spells, but an individually unique exertion of your very soul to impact yourself or the world around you. It's as natural as walking or talking, once you've learned how. You don't roll a dice to see what words come out of your mouth when you try to talk; you just say what you want to say, unless something like inexperience, disability, or mental injury is hindering you. Meanwhile, to go back to the bike example in learning about magic, messing up is still reliant on that intent. Getting caught on a rock won’t result on a different form of bike riding; you'll just fall or get jerked in a funny direction. Similarly, you might mess up the magic, or cast it in an erratic direction, or possibly tweak the effects of the magic slightly.

Therefore, every mage must find a balance that allows them enough control to use their powers well and responsibly while still being general enough to allow them to be used in many different situations. This has to be an intentional balance that is constantly maintained; it is very common for mages to accidentally hone their focus too much or change it completely during a phase of their lives that is focused on another goal. A common story is that of spellcasters who fell in love and suddenly found their magic unusable. At first, this led to a superstition that love has the power to destroy any magic. In reality, the spellcaster had shifted their focus from their original, magical one to gaining the affections of their loved one. This has led to some… interesting moments, but never anything too creepy (at least, not on accident) for reasons I’ll go over in a moment.

How specific a mage’s focus can become is entirely dependent on their ability to prioritize a single goal. If a mage dedicates their entire lives to justice, their powers might be very focused, even though justice is rather vague, because their entire mind is dedicated to that goal.  If a mage’s focus is the ability to light candles, that will probably not be a very focused power, because- despite how specific that goal is- few people ever spend any length of time thinking about how much they want to light candles and why that’s important to them.

In other words, the focus of one’s powers is not only dependent on how specific their goals are. It’s much more complicated than that.

Imagine a piece of fabric on a bed of nails. You are able to push those nails forward 10 inches total. You could either push one nail forward for ten inches, two nails forward for five inches, or ten nails forward for one inch, creating small peaks in the fabric on top. These peaks will be taller if you push less nails forward, but there will be more peaks if you push more nails forward with less distance. This represents your focus and how powerful your magic will be depending on how vague or specific your focus is.

However, your brain has hundreds of these beds of nails, not just one for magic. There’s one for socializing, one for living, one for schoolwork, one for fighting skills, etc. You have a million inches to spread across all of these nails to create a balanced, healthy mind that is able to allow you to succeed in life. However… if you wanted to take ALLLLLLLL of those inches and dump them straight into the bed of nails for your magic… it wouldn’t matter how many nails you pushed through; the resulting peaks would all be HUGE. Similarly, if you spent most of those inches on other parts of your life and only had a few inches left for magic, even pushing only one nail will result in a tiny peak. Therefore, a mage’s power is also dependent on how much time and effort and priority they place upon their powers from their storage of mental energy for their brain as a whole, not just upon how specific their magical focus is.

I hope that makes sense. I’m not great at describing mental pictures like this, so let me know if you have questions and I’ll try to find a better way to explain it.

### Passion

Okay, so that's it, right? More specific = more power, but less versatility, and vice versa. Easy math, right?

Wrong. Because nothing in life is that simple, and magic least of all.

There’s another variable to the strength of one’s magical abilities; amount of passion (i.e. the more of their soul) that someone puts into what they’re doing with magic.

So for example, if someone is really passionate about construction, they would be able to lift heavier stones with their magic than someone who’s just doing it for a job. This means that, the more passion and enthusiasm that Watchers pour into their duties within The Watch, the stronger that many of their magical talents will become. Stronger wards to keep The Enemy’s forces away, stronger enchantments to detect traces of The Enemy’s magic, stronger firepower in combat, etc.

How specific a mage’s focus can become is entirely dependent on their ability to prioritize a single goal. If a mage dedicates their entire lives to justice, their powers might be very focused, even though justice is rather vague, because their entire mind is dedicated to that goal.  If a mage’s focus is the ability to light candles, that will probably not be a very focused power, because- despite how specific that goal is- few people ever spend any length of time thinking about how much they want to light candles and why that’s important to them.

In
 other words, passion is also an important factor in determining how strong someone’s focus is, not just how specific their goals are. It’s much more complicated than that.

Returning to the bed of nails analogy, your brain has hundreds of these beds of nails, not just one for magic. There’s one for socializing, one for living, one for schoolwork, one for fighting skills, etc. You have a million inches to spread across all of these nails to create a balanced, healthy mind that is able to allow you to succeed in life. However… if you wanted to take ALLLLLLLL of those inches and dump them straight into the bed of nails for your magic… it wouldn’t matter how many nails you pushed through; the resulting peaks would all be HUGE. Similarly, if you spent most of those inches on other parts of your life and only had a few inches left for magic, even pushing only one nail will result in a tiny peak. Therefore, a mage’s power is also dependent on how much time and effort and priority they place upon their powers from their storage of mental energy for their brain as a whole, not just upon how specific their magical focus is.

### Mentor Input

While novice mages must find their focus on their own, mentors and teachers can help their students discover practical applications of said focus once they reach Apprentice status.

For example, say a young novice mage is being mentored by a mage whose focus has something to do with growth. The mentor cannot teach the novice how to develop a focus about growth as well. That choice will ultimately come from within the student.

HOWEVER, say that this student’s focus ends up having something to do with discovery. Maybe the mage uses their focus to help plants grow, and can help the student use their focus to discover things about plants as well.

Alternatively, the pair might just brainstorm together, talking about what the student’s priorities are and what they hope to get out of their magical abilities. The mentor can then focus their lessons on utilizing the student’s new focus to accomplish those things, maybe even with the help of other mages with similar focuses or fields of study.

In short, while a mentor cannot ensure that their student’s focus is similar to their own, they can still use their experience to teach their student practical uses for their magic as they hone their focus.

### How long does this take?

Is there an average or specific amount of time people spend learning magic?

Not really. Some people will take to it like \*that,\* but those people are rare and probably a bit too self-assured for their own good. Most people never stop learning magic. Your goals in life will change and evolve as you grow and mature. Therefore, your focus will also change and evolve over time. In addition, your focus requires constant intentional thought to keep in balance; otherwise, your goals might accidentally become too vague or specific. This means that most mages will always be tweaking and trying to learn a bit more about the possibilities of their powers and focus.

In other words:

Constant thought about your focus + Constant growth as a person = Constant re-evaluation of your focus and magical abilities

Now, take into account how a mage’s greatest strength is their ability to find legitimate and clever ways to apply their magic to a variety of situations… You could spend all day playing word puzzles with yourself trying to figure out where your brain draws the line between “loophole” and “bullshit.”

In conclusion, the best mages never stop learning magic. They will always be attempting to keep their focus in balance, evaluating their new life goals in relation to their focus, and seeking out creative ways to apply their focus to whatever trials they might face.

Now, how long does it take for a mage to unlock their abilities?

How long did it take you to learn to ride a bike?

I’m willing to bet that everyone’s answer to that question would be completely different. Similarly, there isn’t an average time it takes to unlock one’s magic either.

### Changing Focus

Magical Focuses reflect the way people develop and change over time. Throughout your life, you will never stop being you, with your unique personality and experiences. However, the things that make you you can shift and evolve with time, even to the point of making you seem like an entirely different person.

For example, an extremely naive, sheltered person may eventually shift to become someone who is extremely paranoid. An idealist paragon of society can turn into an aggressive fanatic. An angry cynic might eventually grow into a charitable social advocate. The roots of these traits don’t change; only the way they manifest in our thoughts and actions.

Similarly, a magical focus will rarely change completely. It will shift over time as the mage grows in their understanding of themselves and their magic, but it’s extremely rare for a magical focus to take a completely new path. In most cases when a magical focus changes drastically, it’s usually due to a life-changing event that completely changes their perspective. Even then, however, most of these new focuses will be a dramatic reinterpretation of the original focus, but with the same root motivation.

It’s also important to note that your magical signature will never change. No matter the focus, a mage’s magic somehow takes into account every part of your entire brain and what makes them who they are in a way no one fully understands. This means that your magic will always be unique to YOU. Just like a fingerprint, you can be identified by the residual energies left behind by your magic soon after casting it, though these will fade in time unless magically preserved. However, unlike a fingerprint, your magic will constantly change and evolve as time goes on and you develop and change as a person. It will still have that telltale echo that identifies it as your magic, just like you will never stop being YOU no matter how much you change as a person, but it will definitely look, sound, and act differently over the course of your lifetime.

## Physical Focus Aids

Beings that do not have physical focuses (i.e. everyone except unicorns and dragons) cannot use a physical object to better control their magic. However, since maintaining that focus is a constant balance and intentional effort, many mages have an object that reminds them of their focus that they hold when spellcasting.

This object has no magical power or focusing abilities on its own, beyond the personal significance it has for its owner. Some mages struggle to cast spells or keep their focus in balance without it, but not because the object is actually required for their spellcasting. It’s more like a safety blanket than an actual magic wand. The object can be literally anything that reminds the owner of their magical focus, and not all mages need one. Some can cast fine without one, but like having it anyway.

Common items are pendants shaped like a significant symbol, wands or staves carved with symbols or words reflecting their focus, tools, weapons, articles of clothing, or nostalgic childhood belongings, but anything would work so long as it has personal significance to the mage in question. Even living creatures! Since there is no magical power actively residing or flowing through the object (the true conduit is your own mind) there is nothing stopping you from choosing whatever ridiculous or random object you think will help remind you of your focus.

Obviously, you would probably want it to be a practical choice (something bigger than a breadbox would be difficult to carry around) but that's just advice, not a rule. Some people don’t even choose an item intentionally, kinda like how kids don’t set out to have a safety blanket; it just happens. Brains have a funny tendency to attach themselves to random things and make strange connections, and the part that is the true conduit for magic isn’t exempt from this rule.

Many mages would probably have multiple objects, actions, or other items that remind them of their focus. Keeping your focus in balance is such a long-term intentional effort that surrounding yourself with reminders is a common way to ensure you don’t slip up and suddenly lose control of your abilities.

For example, Leila Abdi is mute (AOS), and her magical focus is "to share things that are locked away.” This is mostly used to help her share her inner voice, but she also uses it to help The Watch discover hidden signs of The Enemy. One of the interesting things about Leila and her spellcasting is that she almost ALWAYS either sings a wordless melody or uses her hands to sign whenever she uses her magic. These two things are her “objects” that remind her of her focus. Since her strange and hauntingly beautiful manner of singing is one of the only things Leila can still do with her voice, this and her sign language abilities are the only two keys she possesses outside of magic to unlock the voice inside her own head. Doing one of the two while casting spells is a constant reminder of her focus on sharing other hidden things to the rest of the world.

In addition, many mages get tattoos of something significant to their magical focus. However, there is a chance that your focus will change as you grow and mature, so a permanent thing like a tattoo might not be the best idea. Then again, you could always just find a new item, and the tattoo would be just a nice reminder of that other part of your life! And, in a world filled with magic, I bet there’s someone out there who’s focus would allow them to erase tattoos if it became too much of an issue.

## Magical Limits

When we talk about Magical Focuses, the topic of limits often comes up: how powerful someone can be, exactly what abilities they have, stuff like that.

From a lore perspective, I’ve explained how much of a person’s magical ability depends on passion, application, and precision behind their Magical Focus.

However, from a personal perspective, asking someone to define their limits as a mage would be like asking someone to describe every single precise way they can move their fingers or toes.

Think about it. Just because you can move your fingers does not mean you automatically know exactly how you can and cannot use them.

* Can I type? Yes, extremely quickly and easily, because I do it every day.
* Can I play piano? Yes, but I’m out of practice so I’m not very good.
* Can I draw? No, but that might be because I’ve never taken the time and effort to practice and learn beyond a few maps and sketches.
* Can I play the violin? I don’t know; I’ve never tried!

I have no idea what the full limits of my body actually are, and many of my abilities are built on practice and experience. In the same way, most
 mages are unaware of how much potential is held within their Magical
Focus.

This is part of the reason why finding one’s Magical Focus is not the final step in learning to use magic. Just like shaping a ball of clay into a sculpture isn’t an instantaneous process, shaping a Magical Focus into an intent in the form of a spell is not a
one-and-done thing. You have to practice shaping that Focus into that intent until it becomes second nature.

That’s **not** to say that any Focus can do anything with just a bit of practice. To extend the analogy, just as clay is better suited for creating a sculpture than a box of watercolors would be, a it’s much more intuitive to cast a spell that aligns naturally with your Magical Focus. The greater the “stretch” to fit an intent into your focus (or vice versa), the more difficult a spell will be, if its even possible.

**All of this to say, a fitting Magical Focus does not an instantly skilled spellcaster make.** Mages need practice and will never know their own limits until they try to push them, just like any other mundane ability.

## Detecting Magical Signatures

The ability to detect and identify magical signatures is a *STUDY*, and not something that just anyone can do. At the same time, however, you don’t have to be a mage to learn to detect and identify magical signatures.

To return to an art analogy: The Enemy’s magical signature is sorta like Picasso’s art style. It’s unique and culturally
relevant enough for it to be universally recognized by almost everyone in Duilintinn, although sometimes, an untrained eye might see something
that looks similar and assume it belongs to The Enemy as well.

However, just like how the average person can’t tell the difference between artists with similar artistic styles, most people won’t be able to tell specific magical signatures apart. Before then, you have to:

* Know enough about about magic to pick up on the variations in that signature that make it unique and identifiable
* Already know enough about how these details present themselves in a specific person’s magic in order to identify it correctly as theirs.

The second point is pretty straightforward. It’s like fingerprints; even if they’re found at the scene of a crime, if your prints aren’t in a database somewhere already, the information is practically useless.

The first point, however, is a bit more complex. There’s a whole study under the field of Soul Magic around the elements, variations, effects, persistence, and identification of magical signatures, sorta like magical forensics.

It’s far easier for a mage to pick up thisfield of study, since they already have the context for this information
 thanks to their daily experience with their own magic, though, they’d still need to study extensively in order to gain a deeper understanding and correctly interpret what they notice.

However, these academic resources also allow someone who has never unlocked their magic to make up for their lack of personal experience and succeed in this field of study.

Going back to the art analogies: You don’t have to be an artist to intelligently distinguish between the styles of different artists. Being an artist helps, because you already have personal experience with art that you can relate back to the terminology and details you’re studying, but it’s not required.

Another analogy: Medical Translation. If you can speak a second language, you don’t have to have any prior medical knowledge or training to become a medical translator. However, it’s a lot harder because you also have to learn what most of these words mean in your *native language* before you even begin to have enough context to translate them effectively. Speaking from personal experience, it’s possible, but holy cow it’s intimidating and exhausting.