chalk

[alicornucopia]

In Paraasilan, Esmaar, a pair of roommates are about to break a rule that, compared to the one about running in the corridors or even the one about unlicensed teleportation, is there for a good reason.

In unison, they complete their shared spell.

~~~

with Adarin (Aestrix)

with Ekador (kappa)

with Brilliance (kappa)

with the admin (kappa)

with Teah (kappa)

with Katran (lambda)

with Hall (kappa)

with Joy (kappa)

with Kalinda (Christy Hotwater)

Comments

[alicornucopia]

"This is completely unlike any kind of magic I've studied before," says the dragonish person with absolute fascination.

[or_coincidence]

"What are the kinds of magic you've studied like?"

[alicornucopia]

"I'm in school for wizardry, I have academic familiarity with witchcraft and lightcraft and magery and sorcery, and I am a dragon and I'm studying what there's been done on native dragon magic - I know less about the other species-specific stuff."

[or_coincidence]

"And what are the things about them that are very different from how unicorn spells work?"

[alicornucopia]

"Wizardry is gestures and words and in most cases also intentions and occasionally diagrams. Witchcraft's potions. Lights do healing, among other details, and mages do elemental control one per, and sorcerers do telekinesis but nothing else."

[or_coincidence]

"Oh, we have potions, but you don't have to be a unicorn to make them unless they need a spell cast on them at some point to work. Some of them aren't magical at all. You could say unicorn spells involve intentions, but I think it might be more accurate to say they involve... ideas. A compass spell uses the idea of a compass."

[alicornucopia]

"Witches don't have to be anybody in particular either, it's just a skill. And the intentional components are most often along the lines of, 'this is who I am aiming the spell at', or 'this is the color I intend to turn that object' or whatever."

[or_coincidence]

"Oh. Yes, I see what you mean. Unicorn magic has that sort of thing too, but only incidentally. Like when I was casting the spell to try to get Joy from wherever he went, I specified in my head that wherever Joy went is where I wanted the spell to look and dragons were what I wanted it to bring back. And all the safety stuff on top of that. It's a hard spell and it's not very good, but I didn't want to wait a week while I figured out how to invent a better one."

[alicornucopia]

"How long does it take to cast unicorn spells, by and large?"

[or_coincidence]

"It depends. Mostly it's a few seconds or less, depending how big and complicated the spell is. Some spells you don't just cast once and have done with, you have to actively keep them going, and those need your concentration and oomph for as long as you want them to go on, but that's not really the same thing as casting time; they still don't take all that long to start."

[alicornucopia]

"Oomph, right - is there a unit you can measure oomph in? And if so how much do most unicorns have?"

[or_coincidence]

"It's hard to measure oomph very precisely because of small variations in the amount of oomph a particular spell takes across different castings and the amount of oomph a particular unicorn has from day to day, and of course any two unicorns you pick probably don't have exactly the same baseline power level. But it's generally accepted that most unicorns replenish oomph faster than they can use it up by simple telekinesis on objects that don't weigh any more than themselves, and making your horn glow at an ordinary brightness takes even less oomph than that, and small continuous spells like the compass drain oomph a little bit faster than simple telekinesis but not enough that I'd worry about holding a compass spell all day if I had to do that for some reason."

She scuffs a hoof on the floor and adds, "I could look up some unit systems if you'd rather talk in those, but I don't like them because they imply much more accuracy than they really represent. And offhoof I don't remember how most unicorns' total oomph carrying capacity compares with their rate of replenishment, but I think it might be complicated, like different unicorns have different ratios and casting big one-off spells has effects on replenishment rate that aren't consistent enough between unicorns or between castings for anypony to have figured them out completely yet. It would be lovely if there was a spell that let you just tell how much oomph a unicorn has, but I don't think anypony's invented one yet. Or if they have, it takes too much oomph for most ponies to want to bother with it."

[alicornucopia]

"Well, it doesn't sound hard to make a wizard spell that'd do it, but those can only be cast in Elcenia," muses Kaylo, "and maybe there's a wrinkle I'm not seeing and it'd take a few experimental iterations."

[or_coincidence]

"I think I'd like to travel to Elcenia," she says.

[alicornucopia]

"That can be arranged," he says. "I can do it myself, even, from there, I'll have to get a teacher on board but if there's somebody from here already free to wander the library I don't imagine that'll be too hard."

[or_coincidence]

"That would be nice of you! How would your magic do it?"

[alicornucopia]

"I'd draw a fiddly little circle specifying the spell I want to use - which matters not only because different spells do different things but also because you can't have the exact same spell active twice per caster simultaneously - and then I'd wave my hand like so," he waves his hand like so, "or something, I'd have to look up the exact power pull for whichever spell I settled on, and then I'd say the magic word, while concentrating on aiming at you in particular, and then there you'd be."

[or_coincidence]

"Interesting! What are the fiddly little circles like?"

[alicornucopia]

"Two concentric circles, enough room for whatever you're summoning in the middle, various symbols in between - I'd draw you one but I don't have enough of the stuff memorized."

[or_coincidence]

"And the symbols specify which spell, or do they specify other things too?"

[alicornucopia]

"The symbols don't fully specify which spell - they and the word do, together. Words never duplicate, gestures often do, circles technically can although they usually don't."

[or_coincidence]

"I think I want to learn all about Elcenian magic."

[alicornucopia]

"Trade you."

[or_coincidence]

"It's a deal." She holds up a hoof.

[alicornucopia]

"I have no idea what to do with that," he says of her hoof. "If it were a hand I'd shake it. Do you shake hooves?"