Mana

From Manaverse Wiki
Revision as of 20:11, 25 March 2014 by Shadow (Talk | contribs) (Everything about this needs work in these sense it's just a clusterfuck of concepts thrown together in my feeble attempts of creating coherent paragraphs, so please contribute.)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to: navigation, search

Mana Theory, or less commonly Manalogy, is the official study pertaining to the properties, phenomena, behavior and function of Mana. Modern Mana Theory recognizes the practical application of Mana, or Magiology, as its only direct descendant, from which numerous branches and subdisciplines stem from, such as Alchemy, Symbology and Ritualistics, just to name a few.

Definition

Mana is the encompassing name given to the Primordial Energy of the highest order in the Manaverse. Although in reality this is a fact, current Mana Theory only theoretically predicts that the expansive and cyclical behavior of Mana can be attributed to the vaguest semblance of sentience. Mana, in the loosest sense of the word, is a quasi-sentient organism that solely exists to propagate through the Manaverse and condition either itself or its surroundings to achieve an ideal level of symbiosis between both. Since these behaviors quality as nothing more than instinct, it is relatively accurate to compare it to a microorganism in the way both operate.

Mana will, by nature, establish cyclical behaviors when appropriately synchronized with its environment. The scope of these self-sustaining cycles are greatly variable--there is very little functional difference in human beings naturally replenishing Mana by drawing it from their surroundings, and a planet's core acting as a central node of ingoing and outgoing Mana.

Possible States

Mana occurs naturally as an aether, a purely intangible state without material presence whatsoever. Nullshifted (or Elementally-Neutral) Mana in its primary state is indefinitely stable by principle, though it is able to condense and physically manifest in certain circumstances with varying levels of stability: while Mana triggered as plasma is extremely common in nature and in magical processes, it tends to immediately decay without an external system to maintain its energetic equilibrium. Likewise, gaseous and liquid instances of Mana can only be produced in specialized, isolated environments to prevent it from decaying or elementalizing with the medium.

Curiously, Mana can naturally manifest as crystalline solid. Crystallized Mana is highly stable and is only subject to decaying or breaking down by external factors such as the environment, rather than by instability. Crystallized Mana occurs when Mana harmonizes with crystalline structures of any kind, and outputs a predetermined arrangement of particles while cannibalizing most of the original material's composition: this causes most instances to be identical, even if transmuted from different compounds. Furthermore, the energetic component of the resulting crystal is then plasmatized, which results in characteristic luminescence refracted from inside the crystal; this also allows for Mana to be easily assimilated into Crystallized Mana.

Elemental Mana

Mana has a perfect resonance with the Elemental Spectrum.

Function

Universal Laws

The Mana Cycle

All Mana is absolutely and unconditionally subject to a transdimensional phenomenon known as the Mana Cycle. Mana itself does not cease to exist after being given a purpose--it is not "consumed" or "depleted" from the casting body, but rather instantly transmuted into a practically undetectable residuum that Mana Theory distinguishes as Ley. Ley is widely considered to be effectively nonexistent in practical reality, as apart from being nigh-imperceptible and untappable, it is also exempt from primary temporal-spatial laws that govern the Manaverse (e.g. it is not affected by the concept of time, nor it is possible to dimensionally displace it unlike Mana). Nothing, even in principle, is capable of interacting with Ley.

Like Mana, Ley can be considered an aether, but it follows a much more straightforward behavior: instead of propagating, it establishes itself to flow into a complex network of streams known as Ley Lines. Though Ley as a fundamental energy possesses an abysmally low potential, Ley Lines can be predicted and mapped based on larger-scale analysis--they are fundamental to some branches of Magiology by merely existing, despite not being a direct source of power.

Since Ley Lines are not affected by even the most encompassing concepts of the Manaverse, they essentially flow through the fabric of reality the longer the span: Ley Lines will effectively disappear and reappear at completely random intervals as they constantly escape and reenter perceivable reality throughout different planes. Ley Lines will ultimately converge into an isolated reality, where Ley begins to condense into material form. This creates an exotic element known as Manacium, composed entirely of metalloid Mana. These localized Manacium instances will eventually decay into Pure Mana and flow back into the Manaverse to complete the Mana Cycle.