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 are all somewhat linked by 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. Crystal Way is also neutral to the Red and Brown Ways.). The spells of a particular Way are related to the same energy and the same concepts (Water, Air or Healing, Drain).
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.
Yliakum Magic : The Ways
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".
Crystal Way
Users of this way gets the pure energy of the Crystal, more directly than all other Ways. It is famous for the ability to heal and cure the most terrible wounds. Some say that if you gain great knowledge in the Crystal Way, you can even bring back the dead. Nonetheless, there are many powerful offensive spells which are 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 | Relationships | Focus | Mental Stat | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| White | Opposed to Dark Way, friendly with Blue Way and Azure Way | Energy, Life and Light | Charisma | Direct Damage |
Dark Way
The Dark Way is one that conjures 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 known that many disasters and epidemics were caused by the adepts of this ancient Way, that holds some spells with terrifying effects. Things can become even worst if you lose the control of its power. Some spells enables the control of horrific creatures, such as undead, demons, spirits. Some enable the caster to control objects and people in a subtle manner, at distance.
|
Glyph Colour | Relationships | Focus | Mental Stat | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black | Opposed to Crystal Way and friendly with Brown Way and Red Way | Entropy, Darkness and Death | Charisma | Direct Damage and Damage Over Time |
Azure Way
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 mind potentials to influence the surrounding areas and objects, mainly all that is related to the air element.
|
Glyph Colour | Relationships | Focus | Mental Stat | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Light Blue | Opposed to Brown Way and friendly with Red Way and Crystal Way | Mind, Illusion and Air element | Will | Minor Direct Damage and Damage Over Time |
Red Way
The spell caster is able to invoke the power of Chaos, and to bend to his 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 | Relationships | Focus | Mental Stat | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red | Opposed to Blue Way and friendly with Dark Way and Azure Way | Strength, Chaos and Fire element | Will | Major Direct Damage |
Blue Way
Many diseases and poisons would be incurable without the help of the spells of this Way. The offensive and defensive potential of this art, resides 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 | Relationships | Focus | Mental Stat | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Blue | Opposed to Red Way and friendly with Crystal Way and Brown Way | Divination, Purification and Water element | Intelligence | Major Damage Over Time |
Brown Way
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 well all that's related to it. Call nature spirits for assistance, mark themselves and allies as friends of nature.
|
Glyph Colour | Relationships | Focus | Mental Stat | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Brown | Opposed to Azure Way and friendly with Blue Way and Dark Way | Nature, protective magic (Armor?) and Earth element | Intelligence |
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
Before your character can use a glyph, he or she must purify it.
There is a strong magic link between the wizard and his glyphs. That requires a process of purification when the wizard gains a new glyph that may take some time (hours or one day). After that purification process the link is established and if the wizard dies the glyphs will be destroyed with him (or taken to the Death Realm with him).
A wizard can trade a glyph, but in this case the glyph can be used by the other wizard only after purifying it and after creating a new magic link with it.
To purify a glyph, open the Glyph window from your Spell Book. Pick up the glyph to be purified and drop it on the Purify Glyph icon. You will see a message in your Chat Window indicating that purification has begun.
Once the purification process has finished, you may use the glyph in combinations to create spells.
Combining Glyphs
Once you have one or more glyphs, you can start to create spells. To combine glyphs into spells, open your Spell Book and click Combine Glyphs.
Shown above is a glyph screen with three glyphs. The six main boxes represent the glyphs for each path of magic. The small box at the bottom is where you put glyphs in order to combine them.
In this example, the Freeze glyph has been placed in the combination box and has formed a valid combination.
When you have a valid combination of glyphs in the bottom box, a description of the spell you have created will appear. You can then click Save Spell to add it to your Spell Book.
Casting Spells
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
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.
- Go to Player Guide