I agree Mystik. If people don't do it themselves, expect to see me start a proliferation of new topics here and elsewhere very soon.

Chef: That's a good question, because most people think of the source of magic as some sort of quantity that deplenishes each time you cast a spell. Not so here, as I wrote: "Ore isn't so much a resource like, say, gasoline fuel. Rather, it's a base of energy that has a certain capacity, kind of like RAM." By that, I mean that you need ore to cast magic, but it does not provide the magic energy itself, it merely channels it from its surroundings and makes it available to the magic user. So, no, ore does not "run out."

ohhhhhh kay, this one is also new to me. The original plan was that ore was sort of a container, like a rechargable battery. People who had internal magic energy were able to use it to charge the ore... your internal magic energy recharges gradually, but is capped at a fairly low maximum level, so the only way to gather a large amount of energy was to store it in the ore.

This seemed like a good idea for TW (sorry, Dev) devices since Pylos could then make lots of money off of recharging them (and/or selling ore batteries). Also, if ore provides infinite energy (like in Dev's plan)... well, I know we aren't exactly following the laws of physics here, but where does that energy go? It has to drain out of the universe somehow, otherwise energy would just increase until the planet becomes a firey inferno... that doesn't work. You can't have infinite energy sources. (In my version, magic energy comes from living beings, who generate it like any living being should -- by eating.)

So, um, yeah, I would like to put in a motion to return to the original plan, where ore was simply a container for magic energy, not the actual source...

After rigerous catching up, I have some questions.

• About Proteans not knowing the language:
  they could have found small level spells on scriptures in conquored Protean establishments, way back in time?

• Re: Aetrus. The magic potential/level can be upped every time the player learns extra description additions?

• Antareans would re-generate thier inner source via real-time steps? Not an obvious amount, but a programmed amount that we jus assume...

sorry if I seem out dated, I hate playing catch-up!

Maybe if we altered the magic system, so the ore doesn't run out but the characters that can cast magic can only cast so much with out hurting themselves. Like a magic energy meter thigy. When a spell is completed, energy leaves the player and largly accumulates in the area of the spell, having left that character. It will then slowly return to the character that casted the spell. If the character over casts becoming drained of energy, they will loose HP that will only return through traditional methods. However the character cannot cast if their energy is 0; they will have to wait fo it to advance.

Energy to ore. The amount of ore will influence the magic user's energy level/abilities non-linearly. If they have enough ore to allow them to cast a 25EP (energy points) spell without over casting then their ore stockpile will, through some unexplained method, cahnnel the casters energy internal. If this character has only a max of 30EP and they desire to cast the same spell again but only have the 5EP leftover, then the ore would use the last of their energy and cuase them to use their natural energy instead of their magical energy; multiplying the rest of the EP cost by 2 they would be damaged for 40HP (HP and natural energy could be linearly related).

What do you think? It was something that I kind of thought of while re-reading this thread. I don't think it's to bad but I also think that it might not be what we're looking for in a magic system.

That Spirit Bomb thing is a good explanation of what this is like. Of course it could still be taken the wrong way but if the rest of this thread is read, than given what has been established thats a nice wrap up.

I would guess that theres a limit to how much could be called upon be a certain person. Some have to be more skilled with the workings and can channal more faster. That was the whole reason for my last post, what if they push there limits to the edge? There is some sort of mental thingy that would allow them to get that extra boost or complelely make them void of using magic at that time.