Refer to the ADML topic; you don't need to carry the ore around to use it. You could be on the opposite side of the world map from your stash of ore and still call upon its power. Kydran's mass-rez plan wouldn't work if the tons of ore in Epsilon's hold had to be physically present for each rez spell to be cast. (The first ADML clause states where you're getting the magic energy from.)

Another thing to think about...

Name: Are we going to keep calling it "ore?" We had the name "Pylocite," but that won't work for a few different reasons. First, it's named after Pylos, which only exists on the Titan Continent, whereas our ore is mostly used by Proteans on Kay Pacha. You'd think Proteans have a unique name for it (which Kydran would know, and probably use that instead of "Pylocite," since Pylos doesn't need a user friendly term for the stuff--as far as the Titan Continent public is concerned, the ore isn't magic and isn't worth anything).

Agh...I feel stupid, how could I have forgotten that. So...would we just leave the ore where we find it and trust that it will stay there? Or should we take it when we find it and transport it to a safe place and keep storage of ore there? Makes a little sense to me...doesn't it? And then we'd have to think of how they'd do so. Carry the ore individually as part of the inventory? I dunno, you guys throw out some concepts.

Hehe, sorry Temp. I guess if I wasn't the one typing all this stuff up, I'd be more confused than you are =).

Ore names...ore names...how about...ore? lol ;). I dunno...I always liked ore. But...yeah, we should probably come up with something different. How about granicites, medjicks, magicubes, or protites? Honestly...just off the top of my head...I doubt you'll like any of these, but it was worth a shot.

Sounds like I've got some explaining to do. ;) I'll try to be as exhaustive of this issue as possible...

I'll start by making a hypothesis on how ore works, and you can accept or reject it. As Temp said, we aren't necessarily following the laws of physics, but I assume we can use at least a roughly similar sort of system to think about magical energy in the world. With that in mind, there's probably a rule regarding conservation of energy (like the conservation of matter) which says that energy cannot be created or destroyed. So how does ore function in this context?

I would describe magic as a manipulation of the available natural energy in the world. When you cast a spell, the ore sort of acts as a conductor, channeling ambient energy from its surroundings and redistributing it to the location of the spell. This could be a ball of fire, an earthquake, a self-morph thing, whatever. So the ore takes existing energy (and I'd even say the phrase "source of energy" is incorrect; energy exists, it's just what happens to it) and funnels it to a new place with a new purpose, per your ADML request. The more ore you have, the more energy you can funnel at one time, thus you can cast more powerful single spells.

Now here's the important part (for Temp, anyway! :P). Since ore draws energy from its surrounding environment, it temporarily creates an imbalance of energy; the area around the ore will be low in energy, the area of the spell will be high in energy. Until the energy levels in the environment balance out (through the process of diffusion) after the spell is over, the ore is temporarily sitting in a virtual void of energy. You won't be able to cast the same spell again until you wait for a sufficient amount of energy to become available again.

Obviously, the more powerful the spell you cast, the more energy will be used from the ore's surroundings, and the longer you will have to wait. What that gives us then, is a Dungeons & Dragons-ish limitation on how many of what level spells you can cast in a given interval of time.

Does this make sense so far? I'll let you guys respond before going off on more details.

But to attempt to answer Mystik's question: The amount of ore you have available would be represented vertically on the glyphic pyramid. The more ore, the higher the glyphs (the more powerful the spells) you can use.

Alright, I think that explanation is going somewhere, but I'm not sure it totally makes sense. However, I don't think it has to. I like that concept though.

But...I'm not sure that answers my question. I'm still wondering if we should have a location where we put all our ore. Because aren't we supposed to use ore by locating it (like "Using the ore in 'blah blah location'...")? And wouldn't it be a problem if we just left the ore where it was, because some random person could find it and take it? ...or were you saying that we have an actual pyramid that we store the ore in? Cuz that would be cool, but kinda hard to carry around, wouldn't it?

It is a pretty good explanation. It still leaves me with one question though. Do your characters have to know the location of the ore? Or could they randomly geuss? Example, "Fire ball at that thingy over there with the ore 500 ft. below me". You get what I'm saying? It just leaves lots open when the source of the magic energy can be on the other side of the world from the characters.

Ooo, ooo, hey! I just thought of a name for our "ore," and I know this isn't quite where this topic was going, but I'd like to know what you guys think:

Eumonite - I thought it might be interesting to attach the prefix "eu-" meaning "good", as if the Proteans considered the ore some sort of benevolent power bestowed upon them. It's ironic because, as the story progresses, we see that the ore is obviously not always "good."

What if we did Eumotite or Eunomite instead of Eumonite? Eumonite is nice and original, but the suffix's "tite" and "mite" can be found in the stalagtite and stalagmite, which are formations that hang from the ceiling and rise out of the floor in caves, they're also some of the oldest and most beatufil natural creations on the planet. But then again teh person could relate the nomite to dynomite, one of the most destructive things in teh old world. I do really like the usage of the "Eu" pre-fix and think that we should keep that.