The Magic System

## Inspiration

The magic system is heavily influenced by With Hat Atelier. WHA describes it as follows:

> ***Magic** is a supernatural force harnessed through runes drawn with conjuring ink. Seals (also known as glyphs) are the means through which magic is performed. The size and cleanliness of a spell have a strong effect on the quality of the seal: larger seals are stronger than smaller ones, and neatly drawn seals last longer than messy ones. Glyphs are composed of three parts: sigils, signs, and rings.*
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The manga describes it primarily as drawings, with heavy focus on different sigils and signs. Rather than drawings, these lean more towards lettering, in my opinion.

Key aspects that would be taking into the AU's system are:

1. The bigger it is drawn, the more powerful it becomes.
2. The neater it is, the longer it lasts

## This AU's system:

**Magic is cast and created by writing it out.**

To create and cast spells, you write them out on any surface. Most commonly, people will carry small notepads with easily rippable paper to either discard failed magic or use it outside of the confines of the booklet.

People write out spells on items—*be they clothes, shoes, cleaning supplies, bags, or whatever*—granting them more permanent magical enhancements. There are even people who might get spells tattooed on them. It's a risky business, but talented magical artists will be able to pull it off after many years of training. Truly, the only limit is the imagination of the person casting the spell.

Either way, depending on how simplistic or complicated the magic has to be, you write out either short key phrases or longer, more elaborate paragraphs. The effectiveness of a spell depends on the quality of the writing.

There are three qualities:

1. Grammar
2. Aesthetics (handwriting)
3. How poetic words might be

Beautiful words earn beautiful results, as if you're appeasing the gods with your words and receiving their magical blessings in return. Bigger words, harsher words, kinder words, lies, and truths—they all carry their own strengths. Some are more intense, some are nefarious, and some are wonderful.

**Magic is fickle**. Spells can go completely haywire if spelling mistakes are made.

### Human enchantment (i.e., tattoos):

During the process of binding Alhaitham to him as a familiar, Kaveh had little to nothing to work with. He needed the words to be etched into his body. He surely couldn't whip up the materials to tattoo himself, especially not in that situation, so he carved the words into his skin using a blade, scarring himself with the permanent reminder of what he did to Alhaitham.

### Item enchantment:

In Kaveh's case, the quill adorning his hair is enchanted. Either he enchanted it himself, or he received it as a gift (I like to believe Alhaitham's grandmother gave it to him). But with the quill, he is able to turn even the air around him into a surface. The item isn't exceptionally rare, similar items exist, but it's uncommon enough to catch people's eye.

### Intent:

The intent of your words is extremely important. It makes it harder for those with flawed hearts to do magic to begin with, *perhaps why Alhaitham has no talent for it; however*, there are always exceptions to the rule.

The simplest part of this is size. A large word will be more effective than a small word.

Then there's the tone. A fire will burn bright, warm, and without its dangerous and destructive nature if the words used to summon it are kind. A fire will burn without remorse, destructive and unyielding, if the words used to summon it are vile.

Lies and truths—they are both the most fickle of all. There's little to no reason to lie within a spell; the results nearly always backfire on the caster. That, or it will simply weaken the spell. Magic only seems interested in hearing your truths. Honest words and intentions strengthen a spell.

### Magic is fickle:

It's a careful practice. Many will train for years under close supervision before they're allowed to practice magic more freely. That's not to say that magic isn't abundant in the world. In every nook and cranny, you'll find traces of magical items and the more basic enchantments being cast.

For the whole catalyst of Kaveh setting the house on fire, I think him making a simple mistake would suffice; however, I also like the idea that he keeps on experimenting with incorporating little doodles between the words he writes.  Either way, he was too ambitious, failed to quality control his work, and was too eager to test it out.

## Using Persian as a means to write spells

We’ve come up with the idea to represent spells using Persian (At least for Kaveh, we might add different languages for others).

We’ve also styled it a certain way to highlight it a bit more. To the side are examples (they’re keyboard smashes).