Script

A script is a magical artifact that can exist only in the spiral and achieves a specific purpose. Unlike runes, which must be planted and grown, scripts can be invoked by runes as soon as they are written. Scripts individually do not have a unique growth time. Instead, it is every specific combination of scripts in a rune that determines growth and effect.

## Properties

Scripts have six properties:

1. **Permanent**: once written correctly in the spiral, a script cannot be destroyed.
2. **Immutable**: once written, scripts cannot be edited or changed.
3. **Public**: all scripts can be viewed and used by anyone with access to the spiral.
4. **Functional**: scripts must have a function; to store simple data in the spiral requires a printing or other simple computational aspect in addition to the data.
5. **Syntactical**: scripts must be written in a scripting language using proper syntax. Improper scripts will not be stored in the spiral.
6. **Named**: each script has a name, often a symbol, that allows the script to be invoked.

## Scripting Languages

Scripts must be written in one of a few scripting languages. The one used by almost everyone in the Spiral Empire is called Élix and consists of thirty-six unique characters. Diao spiromancers often wrote in Luó, which was a syllabic language with thousands of possible characters, each composed of up to thirty-six unique parts, though the language fell out of use after invasion by the Kuan Empire.

### History

Because all scripts are saved in the spiral over time, historians can determine that the region now called the Empire once regularly used five different scripting languages: Élix in Seprum and parts of Kuan, Luó in Diao and Ju, Metek on the Mauzji islands, and Wari and Anzi in Dhi. Even before the unification of the Spiral Empire, all but Élix and Luó had fallen out of use. Some historians credit Deaf spiromancers (see: accessible magic), who met frequently and relied on each other's scripts, with the language consensus. Others argue that since time immemorial, weaker clans and tribes have adopted the languages of stronger neighbors (Diao, Kuan, Seprum) in order to read their scripts and predict likelihood of future attacks or as a form of cultural appeasement.

While scripts written in older languages can still be invoked in modern runes, it is dangerous for mages who cannot read the original to do so. Some common runes rely on ancient scripts, and mage students generally learn these by wrote, as this is simpler than learning to write in an entirely new language.

### Élix

The thirty-six characters in Élix are represented in a simplified form in written text. In the spiral, they have no visual appearance as they are purely subjective, conceptual representations that have different qualitative and sensual aspects to each individual spiromancer. The characters are listed below:

## Most Frequently Used Scripts

### self\_effect

The self\_effect script makes a rune take effect on the person who casts it.

### point\_to

Like self\_effect, point\_to indicates who a rune should effect, this time pointing to someone or something with a specific pointer drawn on them.

### target\_eye\_contact

Places the effect of the rune on whatever the caster is looking at. Notoriously difficult to use correctly.

### target\_touch

Places the effect of the rune on whatever the caster is touching. Misfires without additional guidance are common.

### small\_pain

Causes a pinching sensation in the target.

### find\_direction

Points to an object with a target rune drawn on it.

### dark\_seeing

Reduces the amount of light needed to see.

### script\_name

This poorly named script is the most comprehensive unconsciousness script to date. It takes a target from wakefulness to a deep sleep in three seconds. It is an important part of the common sleeper rune.