Tuning

In the magic community 'tuning' is the name given to the ability possessed by all magic users, known as magi, that let them sense and "tune in" to magical frequencies allowing them to eventually, with training, use magical 'mana', only a very, very small amount of Humans possess this ability and an even smaller amount can use tuning to train in the mystic artes to any degree and even then it takes a particularly gifted magi to safely control magical energy.

While the ability is passed down genetically, is not as easily recognised at an actual genetic level by normal scientific methods, unlike the obvious altered and naturally radical DNA and RNA patterns of neos, alts and cybrids, tuning potential can only be detected with magic or magic-based study; it often takes the presence of other magic users or items for it to activate or failing that another magi to sense the tuning potential in said human.

All magi possess exactly the same tuning potential; it is often said that there is no greater mage than the other and no one is born with any "special" gifts over magic or elements; this is something you are either good at because you learn to be good at it, or you are poor at it. Even powerful, historical magic users such as Merlin, who was considered one of the most experienced of all magic users on the planet, had the same level of tuning potential as someone who has just awakened to their tuning. What makes a magi powerful, or not, is how they follow their path or what is known as the magi's "principles"; their capabilities as a person, their determination, faith, intelligence and seriousness in developing their artes; having tuning potential is *not* like having a neonic power; magic is not for the lazy, nor for the dim, and if even a single one of these principles should fall out of place, it could affect the entirety of their power structure or simply nothing will happen.

Learning magic is hard; that is the point of it and how it works, magic, as a partially-sentient force of the universe, requires a mage to work for their power with a heavy equivalency exchange, from casting to creating foci and developing potions and using rituals, many beginners give up; saying they "put too much energy *in* for very little *out."* And this is true; magic *requires* that commitment and the proof that the user will go further, beyond mental exhaustion and physical tiredness, to keep practicing. It requires years of study, understanding, practice and seriousness, not just in magic itself, but in other fields, such as mathematics, nature and curiously a knowledge of science such as physics and chemistry all aid in the success of a spell. And the mage must keep it up this standard at *all* times; magic takes no prisoners when it comes to using it's power, and it's greatest base of power is knowledge.

Neos, in fact have no potential to tune and some actively repel mana.

Tuning dosn't grant the user the ability to suddenly control magic at will, nor be immune to it's higher-energy states or any of the elements and energies it can create. a mage has to figure out how to avoid getting hurt by mana or said energies, and often this is done by the use of 'foci' such as wands, tools, talismans, jewellery, even clothing such as gloves can be foci, especially if created by that magi personally and properly spelled.

Protection charms are often used in various formats, including in lockets, tattoos or even on the foci itself.

The trade-off for such a commitment and intense fields of study into magic, however, is worth it: a successfully trained mage has access to a vast array of different spells and elements, from creating basic charms and hexes to manipulating matter and energy; A training mage is often told; "*With practice, magic has no limit other than than the human wielding it.*"