Fulgurai Circuitry

Introduction

Magic circuitry is one of the most common forms of artificing, the creation of magic objects. Magic circuitry comes in multiple permutations. The most common, cost-efficient, and arguably ethical is fulgurai-scribing, also known as lightning-scribing.

Mana is malleable and mostly "alive" in a sense. Though it can take more static forms, the most common sources are from living beings. From within, it's generated from the soul, the psyche. Or from without, it's taken from the environment, the Aether.

Magic is the act of using a medium to manipulate mana. The most common medium is using one's own ethereal body—the soul and spirit. The soul is the brain, and the spirit is its body.

Magical mediums can vary in ethicality. Using one's own spirit is usually ethical. Using foreign spirits, on the other hand, is a grey area. Tyrannically reigning over highly sentient, conscious, and or sentient spirits is morally reprehensible, but not illegal unless murder is involved. But, using bacteria-like spirits is acceptable. Life cannot flourish without the death of another, but if suffering can be mitigated, then such action must be taken.

Most magic is done by using the surface of the spirit, the aura. It is an amorphous mass of living mana that acts as the in-between of gas and liquid. It is a membrane that dissipates excess mana, absorbs ambient mana when needed, and protects from foreign spirits. Mana found in the aura is called auric mana or aurai.

Lightning-scribing is a subset of Magic circuitry. It is a type of ritual magic, a form of magic done by using tools and commands. Organic magic is more of an extension of one's self, whereas ritual magic is binary and tool-like. It's a case of art versus science, body versus tool. Artificers and mages in general may also be called thaumaturges or "miracle-workers" given their ability to influence the natural world through supernatural means.

Magic circuitry is the art of creating circuits that circulate mana to produce various effects. The method of circulating mana varies. It can be circulated as a liquid, using gravity to decrease the mana cost. As a gas, it uses air pressure. And as electrical energy, it is the fastest method and able to be influenced by electromagnetic fields and easily power spirit-constructs.

Lightning Mana - Fulgurai

Fulgurai is mana made into lightning.

Fulgurai - Ful*gur*ai

"Fulgur" is the ancient High-Vitaen word for lightning-bolt. "-ai" is a suffix used to name mana types. It is much easier to write "fulgurai" than it is to use excess ink to write "lightning mana."

Fulgurai, or lightning mana, is usually not as dangerous as a lightning bolt considering it is mostly an etheric "fake" of sorts. When spirits transmute mana into fulgurai, it's in a neutral state in regards to safety. Its energy is mostly emitted as light. It is not real lightning. Fulgurai acts like an amorphous substance that seeks out positively-charged matter. It can be further agitated to focus on becoming lightning in its primordial state found in nature instead of faux-electricity. There are other methods to doing so, but the danger increases exponentially as does the power of the fulgurai.

Runic Languages, Sigil Sets, and Magic Circles

Transmutation is the act of transforming one type of mana into another. Transmutation circles, also known as magic or alchemical circles, are methods of annotation. They record the details of a transmutation. If it is the transmutation of matter, then it is alchemical, and if it is the transmutation of mana then it is magical.

Magic circles are rarely uniform to every mage. They vary, being one's personal view into the art and science of magic. Transmutation circles are sentience frozen in time like any sort of scripture or literature. Transmutation circles can be used as recipes or read and executed by a spirit-construct to perform detailed ritual magic.

Mages can train their spirits to read magic circles. The conditioning of their spirits allows them to perform feats of magic that require precision. They can also become magic circles themselves, uttering incantations and spells in their Mind's Eye. This mix of organic and ritualistic magic triggers by forming a circle with one's arms. The gesture is similar to putting two hands together for a prayer.

Note that gestures are not inherent or entirely required for magic at all. They are simply adaptations to better focus one's magic. One could create a fireball will standing still, but the cost in doing so would be greater than using a somatic component. Both in time needed to perfect the technique and in mana cost as well.

Mages can condition foreign spirits to read magic circles as well. However, this is generally considered a form of slavery. The level of intelligence and sentience required to read and execute a magic circle are dangerously close to sapience. Even if one could walk this fine line, it would only be temporary. The spirit would eventually become sapient through the repeated executing of complex spellforms (magic annotation). Then again, if the spirit is specifically made for or enjoys such task, then the ethically of it is fine. Slavery in the Vitaen Empire is not illegal, but does have some limitations. If an unregistered sapient spirit destroys property or causes damage to another citizen, the mage faces charges of maleficarium—the hurting of another by use of magic. An offense that ranges from slavery and indentured servitude to death.

Runes and sigils are a part of most ritual magic. Runes are similar to words and letters, while sigils are closer to pictograms and symbols. Cultures and societies across the surface of Terra use different runic languages and sigil sets. Some runic languages or sigil sets can be easy to write and execute. They are efficient and quick. Others can be long but precise, designed for enhanced specificity.

Fulgurai Circuitry in Practice

Fulgurai circuitry falls into two main categories. Scribing and etching. Scribing uses vellum harvested from magic beasts. Etching uses amber, also known as electrum, to isolate the circuit. Mediums used in this type of magic circuitry focus on isolating the contraption from the outside. An unproperly made fulgurai circuit could stop someone's heart if there is enough energy conducting through it. Circuit mediums need insulation. Alchemists treat the hides harvested from magical beasts to achieve electrostatic properties. Electrum is a naturally found insulator used in etching. Advanced fulgurai etching can use rubber as a medium as well. Rubber is a chemical substance that is electrostatic. It insulates, stopping the flow of electricity.

Bestia vellum is made from the hides of heat and fire-resistant beasts. Electricity is the flow of negative energy. It is movement and, as such, causes heat. Depending on the amount and speed of electricity in a circuit, it could catch fire. Short-circuits are circuits that are too short. The electricity travels fast in a small circle, generating absurd amounts of heat and damaging the circuit's components.

Vellum can be inlaid with flammable wiring to burn itself after reaching the end of the circuit. Fire-and-forget scrolls use this method because they need to be simple and for combat.

Fulgurai etching is used to form magic circuits into metallic or solid objects - swords, shields, and the like. Fulgurai scribing is used to create magic circuits onto the surface of vellum - magic scrolls.

Scribing allows for more expansive circuits. Etching lacks space but makes it up with convenience. One does not need to open up an enormous scroll to use a magic torch based on fulgurai circuitry. Fulgurai etching is simplistic because it cannot perform complex magic but is, otherwise, extremely convenient to implement in the scrollwork of armor or weapon.

Fulgurai Circuitry Components

Circuits need conductors to disperse energy throughout themselves. Magical ink is used as a conductor for both etching and scribing. The ink is made of mostly oil for etching and water for scribing. Oil allows it congeal and harden, becoming resistant to damage. Water-based ink allows it to seep into the vellum. And though ink is mostly aqueous in nature, it does have some oil and is chemically treated to better entrench itself onto a scroll.

Inks are used to create mana channels. They can use conductive metals to allow for the easy flow of fulgurai. Or use electrostatic materials to create resistors that slow electricity. The staccato symbol used for resistors is how they are actually done. They make fulgurai travel a longer path, slowing it down.

The energy source for fulgurai circuits can be internal and/or external, be it from the spirit or the Aether.

Direct fulgurai is channeled into the circuit to power it, but raw animus can also be used. It depends on the specific model. The use of a converter crystal allows the use of raw mana.

Capacitors store fulgurai for a short time. Capacitors are present in circuits that execute spellforms that run for an extended time or need more complicated components to execute their effects. Short-lived scrolls that are instant fire-and-forget cast may need capacitors for the build-up of fulgurai. Capacitors are made from strokes of different inks. A series of electrostatic and conductive strokes are intersped in a rectangular configuration. Capacitors force fulgurai to make its way through the differing sets of strokes slowly.

Crystals, also known as spirit, elemental, or mana crystals, serve various advanced functions in a circuit. They can store other mana types different from fulgurai, convert between mana types, etc. They refine a fulgurai circuit and give unique functions to it. Mana crystals are ground into particles and mixed in with ink when scribing is involved. Etching may use full crystals with hardened protective laminate over them.

Runic djinni, known simply as runes or djinns, are conscious spirits confined in a spirit crystal. They are trapped in crystal particles and mixed into magic ink, then used to write runes. The actual runic script is not magical in nature, merely being a means to represent the djinn held within.

Djinn come in various degrees of consciousness. The type used in fulgurai circuits are lesser djinn. Their level of consciousness is limited, comparable to bacteria. Djinns metabolize fulgurai, releasing a different mana type as a by-product. They may also emit or sap heat from their surroundings.

Fulgurai scribing hides its circuitry in between two sheets of vellum adhered to each other. Etched circuitry is hidden between bisectional parts of an object - inside the handle of a sword or in-between armor plates. Fulgurai-etched objects need to be adequately insulated or may electrocute their users. Some etched artifacts have runes that glow to indicate the successful trigger of the circuit.