Players Guide/Magic

The magical energy in Yliakum is divided into six ways of arcane: Crystal Way, Azure Way, Red Way, Dark Way, Brown Way and Blue Way.

The Ways of Magic

Each Way has a particular colour and a mental stat associated. The three mental stats linked to magic are: Charisma, Intelligence and Willpower. They give bonuses to the casting of spells that pertain to that way.

Each way is composed of a set of spells and each spell can be casted by a wizard thanks to the combination of a set of runes, called "glyphs". The spells of a particular Way are related to the same energy and the same concepts (Water, Air or Healing, Drain). They produce either a direct damage or a damage over time on the opponent.

The ways are all somewhat linked by relationship of opposition or attraction. A specific way opposes another and is "friendly" with two others (ie. Crystal Way opposes Dark Way and is friendly with Blue and Azure Way). Therefor, each spell giving a buff for a given time will provide at least a small way resistance (ie. Casting a Red Way "Strength" spell on yourself will also protect you slightly againt Blue Way).

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Crystal Way (CW)

Users of this Way, get the pure energy of the Crystal, more directly than all other Ways. Famous for the ability to heal, and cure the most terrible wounds, people have said that if you reach a great knowledge, you can even bring back a person from death. Nonetheless there are many powerful offensive spells, particularly effective against evil and dark creatures. While warriors and farmers with injured animals are more then happy to see these practitioners around; around most towns people feel the appearance of these practitioners is a bad omen of bad times to come.

	Glyph Colour	Focus	Speciality	Mental Stat	Damage Type	Relationships
	White	Energy, Life and Light	-	Charisma	Direct Damage	Opposed to: Dark Way Friendly with: Blue & Azure Way

Dark Way (DW)

This Way is one that conquers more myth then any of the others. Its practitioners have a history of being the most innovative of any practitioners of the Ways of Magic, but with all innovation there is both good and bad. It's well known that many disasters and epidemics were caused by the adepts of this ancient Way. Holding some spells with terrifying effects, things can become even worse if you lose the control of its power. Some spells enable the control of horrific creatures, such as undead, demons and spirits, whilst some enable the caster to control objects and people in a subtle manner at distance.

	Glyph Colour	Focus	Speciality	Mental Stat	Damage Type	Relationships
	Black	Entropy, Death and Darkness	Fear, Drain	Charisma	Direct Damage and Damage Over Time	Opposed to: Crystal Way Friendly with: Brown & Red Way

Azure Way (AW)

Basically a sneaky and insidious energy, the Azure Way can control the will, the perceptions and the intentions of any intelligent being. It's power comes from the deep knowledge of the mind and the way to influence it, but it relies also on the mind's potential to influence the surrounding areas and objects, particularly all that is related to the air element.

	Glyph Colour	Focus	Speciality	Mental Stat	Damage Type	Relationships
	Light Blue	Mind, Illusion and Air element	Charm	Will	Minor Direct Damage and Damage Over Time	Opposed to: Brown Way Friendly with: Crystal & Red Way

Red Way (RW)

The spellcaster is able to invoke the power of Chaos, and to bend to his/her/kra's will the devastating fury of fire, summoning it for its both damaging and purifying qualities. Spells of the Red Way can also instil courage and strength into companions or other creatures. Most spells in this Way are fire related, and the majority of metal workers have knowledge of it.

	Glyph Colour	Focus	Speciality	Mental Stat	Damage Type	Relationships
	Red	Strength, Chaos and Fire element	-	Will	Major Direct Damage	Opposed to: Blue Way Friendly with: Azure & Dark Way

Blue Way (BlW)

Many diseases and poisons would be incurable without the help of the spells of this Way. The offensive and defensive potential of this art reside mainly on the control of the water element, but also of cold and ice that are strictly related to it. Equally inestimable are the divination spells that can provide very useful information on the past, present and future.

	Glyph Colour	Focus	Speciality	Mental Stat	Damage Type	Relationships
	Blue	Divination, Purification and Water element	Polymorph	Intelligence	Major Damage Over Time	Opposed to: Red Way Friendly with: Brown & Crystal Way

Brown Way (BrW)

The glyphs of this Way give to the wizard the ability to cast different protective spells, to summon natural creatures and some monsters and to influence their will. This Way is really close to the element of Earth and can control all that's related to it. Users can call nature spirits for assistance or mark themselves and allies as friends of nature.

	Glyph Colour	Focus	Speciality	Mental Stat	Damage Type	Relationships
	Brown	Nature, Protective magic and Earth element	Summon monsters, Minor Polymorph	Intelligence	Direct Damage	Opposed to: Azure Way Friendly with: Blue & Dark Way

Casting a Spell

The Glyphs

At the beginning of Yliakum History, the god Talad, forged pure magical energy into shapes called "Glyphs". They form the base of Yliakum magic.

• No spell can be casted without a glyph.

They are found in nature with no real explanation, no one knows exactly why they form but when some type of energy is strongly present in one place a glyph can form. Glyphs patterns appear on very different materials from a leaf to the fur of an animal and usually on any type of rock.

During the centuries many glyphs have been found and studied by the wizards. They discovered that each glyph can create a spell effect and that several glyphs can be combined to obtain greater effects. To simplify casting of spells, the glyphs are associated with a concept (ie. "Weight") and wizards combine those concepts to form new spells (ie. "Weight" and "Negate" to become very light).

Nowadays, glyphs can be found rendering services to the people of Yliakum or can be bought to mages like Levrus Dahrenn in the magic shop for the more basic of them. The more rare and powerfull glyphs can be obtained by joining a Way Circle (school of magic) and follow its path to the Mastery of a particular Way.

• The glyphs purchased or rewarded will appear in your Inventory and be visible in the Glyphs Window in your Spell Book.

Purification

To use a glyph, the wizard must apply a process of Purification, which take some time. The Purification establish a strong link in between the wizard and his glyph. If he dies, the glyphs will be taken to the Death Realm with him. A wizard can trade a glyph, but the recipient will need to purify the glyph as well to create a new magic link and be able to use it.

• To purify a glyph, open the Glyph window from your Spell Book.
• Drag the glyph and drop it on the button called: Purify.
• When the Purification is done, you will see a message in your Chat Window > System Tab and your glyph will be surrounded of a white aura.

Researching a Spell

Once you have one or more glyphs, you can start to research spells. To be discovred, a spell can ask one glyph or a combinaison of up to 3 glyphs.

Shown on this pic is the glyph window of your Spell Book. The six main boxes will content the glyphs of the six ways of magic. The small row of boxes at the bottom of the window is where you put glyphs in order to combine or purify them.

• To discover a spell, drag one or several glyphs in the small row of boxes at the bottom of the window and hit the button called: Research.
• When you effectivly discovred a spell, its name and description will appear.
• Once discovred, the spell will automatically be added in your Spell Book. You wont have to research it again to cast it.

In this example, the Blue Way glyph "Cold" has been placed in the box and the wizard has discovred the spell called "Freeze".

• If you fail to discover a spell it might be for several raison : the combinaison of glyphs isn't right; you have not trained that way of magic high enough; or the glyph isn't purified.

Researching a spell is dangerous for the wizard. In effect, it ask a lot of mental focus and the strong magical energy at work may wound an unwary magician.

Casting

(under construction) To cast a spell, you must first target a player or NPC if the spell requires it.

Next, determine the Spell Power to use for the spell.

Next, open your Spell Book, select a spell and click Cast Spell.

A window will appear that counts down the time to cast for the spell. When the count down is finished, the spell will be cast.

Spell Power

(under construction) The spell caster can decide to channel more mana into casting by setting the additional spell power, allowing the caster to cast a more powerful spell.

The additional spell power factor is expressed as a percentage value, from 0% to 100%. If you set an additional spell power factor of 50% then you will channel an additional 50% of the base mana requirement for a spell into the spell.

The more you push the additional spell power, the more you must have affinity with the ways and its associated Mental Stat to control the effects. The power level of the spell is raised by the additional spell power, so the spell will be more powerful.

The use of additional spell power has the side-effect that the spell can fizzle or even produce damages to the caster, depending on how much the spell goes out of control.

To set your additional spell power, use the slider in your Status Window.

In Character References

In game, a couple of books refer to Magic. They can be found in the famous Hydlaa library owned by the Ylian Jayose or in the magic shop of Levrus: History of Magic Vol 1: The Birth History of Magic Vol 2: The Taming History of Magic Vol.3: The Invasions History of Magic Vol.4: The Heresy History of Magic Vol.5: The Ways

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