We’ve had some inquiries into the nature of anti-magic, and it’s an interesting question which can also explain Skärva’s instability while in jail. So I sat down with magic expert Victor and here’s what he had to say!
In ancient Idenau, a metallic element was discovered which has profound effects on magic-users and spells. Like gold or silver, it can be mined from deposits in nature; however, it is even rarer than either of those elements. It has been called various things throughout the ages, the most common being simply “anti-magic.”
Anti-magic has the effect of attracting, absorbing and then dispelling magic in the area. Casting a spell while in the presence of anti-magic can be compared to trying to blow up a balloon with a hole in it. No matter the spellcaster’s efforts, the magic drains before anything can be accomplished.
Because spirits are essentially made of magic, prolonged exposure to anti-magic can have psychological consequences, especially to those with strong spirits who are particularly sensitive to magic in the world around them. For this reason, the use of anti-magic has long been considered cruel and inhumane. In the past century, the royal family ordered most anti-magic throughout the kingdom to be destroyed through physical processes, and it is now exceedingly hard to come by.
These days, underfeeding or strong protection spells are usually employed in an attempt to keep prisoners from using magic, but some old prisons can still be found to have special cells designed with anti-magic in the walls and bars. Older police forces can even have some anti-magic cuffs, which concentrate a small amount of anti-magic at the point of most magical output – the hands.
(An illustration from a dated police handbook.)
More rare than gold and silver? Even if there isn’t a demand, it must be expensive.
Yeah. Of course, if not for its magical properties, it wouldn’t be very desirable (and most people wouldn’t want it around anyway due to its dangerous nature). Also, it usually only takes a little bit to do the trick. For instance, anti-magic cuffs aren’t made purely of the stuff; an alloy or plating would do.
Ah, I didn’t think a coating would have it work. I thought it would take more to dissipate more.
Yeah, a little bit goes a long way, especially when directly around the wrists.
Oh wow…
If it’s THAT rare, how would you even go about finding it? Countless hours in a mine? Makes me think of Harvest Moon-
If it was more common, I suppose life would be a lot more complicated and dangerous for the living creatures of Idenau, especially the magic-wielders! Although I do wonder the effects that might be generated by a big deposit of anti-magic, even if it was deep underground. It might take some cleverness and machinery to get it out without exposing oneself to those effects, although I imagine a lot of it was mined by non-magicians before it was really realized that it was dangerous to everyone. Kind of like people in our world used to eat off of lead plates before we realized that lead can poison you…
That also answers why everyone uses their hands to cast!
Would it be possible to cast from something OTHER than the hands? Like, say Skærva transformed himself into a dragon; would he be able to Cast Fire from his mouth?
Possible, but difficult. Like you can sign your name by grasping a pen in your mouth or between your toes, but it would be so hard for most people (to do it well, anyway) as to render the effort quite useless. Humans, demons, and Lurkins are just designed to release magic through the hands, which are a deft, sensitive and quite amazing part of the body for all of us.
I would say dragons have a biological capacity for creating and breathing fire, and perhaps other elements (there was an ice dragon in Frostbite Fortress!) much like flish can float. Such a capacity may naturally harness the magic in the world around them, but it’s something they just do without making a conscious effort at casting. So if Skaerva could manage to completely transform himself into a dragon (which I don’t think even he could manage) and not just create the illusion that he was one, he could do all that.
Perhaps with a lot of concentration and practice, he could learn to shoot magic from his mouth or nose in his regular form! But unless he tragically lost his hands, it’s not really worth the effort. I suppose he’s always been too cocky to assume he’d ever find himself in anti-magic cuffs. But imagine the navy’s surprise if he had started shooting beams out of his sharky nose-tip…
Loving the worldbuilding, Courtney! Though my favourite part of your reply was undoubtedly the image of Skaerva shooting purple bolts of energy out of his nostrils…. and your creative description of the shape of said nose.
Captcha says: comfort loerned. Who is this Loerned and what has happened to them that warrants the comforting?
Thank you! It might be worth drawing, huh?
That also reminds me of the fact that, well, I’ll just let wikipedia take it: “Some sharks, if inverted or stroked on the nose, enter a natural state of tonic immobility. Researchers use this condition to handle sharks safely.” This fact MUST be put to good use by us at some point. (Why hasn’t Blank ever just… ok, never mind, I can hazard a few guesses.)
So clarify for me: is this metal a sort of magic conductor, like copper to electricity? Is this the stuff magi-technology is made out of?
Quite the opposite, actually. Consider this: magic exists everywhere in the world on the magical plane, but very scattered and unorganized, like air. A spell requires a lot of magic to come together and be condensed, but anti-magic creates a field that prevents magic in a given area from doing just that. Anti-magic pulls in magic and dissipates it back out constantly, so any spell in the area is foiled- like our metaphor of the inflatable with a hole in it. Or, perhaps more aptly, it’s like trying to build a sand castle while someone is walking around your work with a vacuum sucking up the sand (I’ve been playing too much Luigi’s Mansion). Let’s say the vacuum has no bag, and the sand just gets spewed right back out onto the beach, but it’s still not going to help you much.
So anti-magic wouldn’t work very well as a conductor, because things wouldn’t move THROUGH it, but rather out of it in all directions. Sort of like heat energy.
A spirit is also a highly concentrated form of magic, the most powerful there is, really. But enough anti-magic for a long enough time can start to unravel and fray a person’s consciousness too.
Metal with Dangerous properties makes me think of uranium or something, lol!
I love this. i like the thought put into this! It’s way cool.
Thanks! World-building is fun!
The more you know
DID YOU KNOW THAT…?
(long lecture about metaphysics of a fictional world)
NOW YOU KNOW