Magic is present everywhere in the world. It is in every living thing. Natural sources of energy are also natural sources for magic. For example, running rivers, wind, and volcanoes and other natural sources of high heat are all reservoirs of magic. For many years, humans didn’t know how to perform magic, only knew of its existence from natural magical phenomena and from seeing magical creatures use it. However, this changed with the discovery of Runes. About 500 years ago, the original Rune Tablet was found. This tablet had all 500 Runes, and 5 lines of what appeared to be sentences. It was discovered that by focusing and channeling your energy into these sentences, a spell could be performed. The five spells on the tablet were levitation, summoning an element, shield, heal, and disease. This was how humans learned that they too, were capable of magic.

After discovering the Rune Tablet, humans began studying and experimenting with different combinations of runes to create new spells. At first, the Runes were a closely guarded secret. However King Orion Alston from the Kingdom of Yoendra made the decision to make the runes public knowledge. He would also go one to create Isunia, the world’s first magic university, which became the leader in magical studies. During their studies, they continually ran into an issue that hindered their progress. Written runes could only be used to cast a spell once. After one use, the runes would disappear. The tablet appeared to have been made of a special stone that could retain the runes. In addition, the “Rune code” was incredibly complex and difficult to decipher. With 500 runes, the amount of combinations seemed endless. However, they did find that certain kinds of spells tended to use the same set of runes. For 200 years, research on magic runes progressed slowly due to the complexity of Runes. Then Mana, the first Runecrafter was born.


Mana would go down in history as the greatest mage that ever lived and none before or after have been her equal. Mana was born to farmers and from a very young age showed an incredible talent for magic. More importantly though, she had a never before seen understanding of runes. She would later be known as the first Runecrafter. At the age of 13 she became the youngest person ever admitted to Isunia. Over the next 30 years her work would directly contribute to the largest boom in new spells and the organization of a collection of base spells for every magic affinity. Mana discovered that Runes should not be treated like learning a new language. Instead, the use of runes was more comparable to math. Creating spells required complex calculations, and with her help, magical researchers were able to come to a basic understanding of how these calculations worked. In addition, she would make three important discoveries that would change the face of magic forever: a way to quantify and measure magical energy (which was eventually named mana, in honor of her), how to store that energy (in the form of magic gems), and the magic circle.

The magic circle is considered the single most important invention in all magical history and is used in almost every magic spell. However, when it was first invented, it was only useful for allowing larger spell casts using less mana and Mana was the only one able to use them. This is because the first version of the magic circle required complex calculations to be made each time it was used. It made her nearly unbeatable in battle. After all, how could you beat someone who could create bigger spells, while using less mana?

Although there were those who were jealous and feared her power, her achievements outshined any fear surrounding her for many years, Mana was beloved, not only by those in Yoendra, but all around the continent. Statues were erected in her honor. People held festivals to celebrate all the advancements she had made in magical research.

However this all changed when Mana met and Bonded with a young dragon. Although Mana had unparalleled spell casting ability, she had a relatively small natural mana pool, and she tired quickly when casting spells. With the dragon’s near infinite stores of mana at her disposal, she became strong enough to defeat an army on her own. There had already been a growing number of people who believed Mana should be on the throne, and now that she had the power to face his armies, the king began to fear that she would either overthrow him or ally herself with an enemy country. The king gave Mana a choice. Either swear absolute loyalty to him and allow herself to be marked with a spell of obedience, or die. Mana refused and fled the capitol. After being on the run for two months, she was offered shelter at Isunia, a place she once called home.

When Mana arrived at the university after months of being on the run nonstop, she was immediately caught in a trap and met with the full force of the king’s armies, Isunia’s best mages, and armies and mages from the neighboring countries. In the ensuing battle, Mana managed to escape, but not before but not before both her and her dragon were wounded. After the battle, an extensive search was carried out but she was never found. Many assumed that she had succumbed to her wounds and died.

However, two years later, Mana appeared in the capital, with a draconic appearance. After fleeing, Mana’s dragon had given her his Heartstone, combining their powers together. In less than 2 hours, using both her immense magical prowess and dragonfire, Mana completely decimated Yoendra’s capital. There were no survivors. She was never seen again.

Feelings about Mana remain mixed. Some hail her as the greatest mage of all time who was driven to madness by those who desired and feared her power. Others only remember her as the murderer who killed tens of thousands and nearly destroyed a kingdom. Following the destruction of the Capital, it became illegal to bond with high ranked magical creatures and consume Heartstones across the continent.

Humans are only capable of using magic through runes. It is possible for a person to be unable to use magic, however this is extremely rare. Creating a spell is like creating and solving a math problem. It requires understanding rune theory and how the runes interact with each other. All classes of magic will have a base set of around 200 runes that are most commonly used for that class. Mages usually only study and gain a basic understanding of how their magic class’s base runes interact. However, runes can interact with each other in very convoluted ways and their meaning can change depending on which runes they are interacting with. It is impossible to completely understand runes unless you are a Runecrafter, and creating new spells is often extremely difficult. Almost all spells in use were created by Runecrafters. Others were made by talented individuals who achieved an advanced understanding of their class’s base runes. Runes do not have to be written before casted; the correct runes simply have to be visualized in the caster’s head, this includes casting with a magic circle. When casting with a magic circle, the magic circle will first appear and then the spell cast from it. Casting without a magic circle is called “direct casting.” It is faster than casting with a magic circle, but much less efficient. A spell can also be cast by channeling mana into written runes, but written runes will disappear immediately upon use, unless a magic circle is used.

Magic can be used to lengthen someone’s life span, with more powerful mages being able to live longer. Some of the most powerful mages were able to live close to 200 years old. When a mage reaches a certain point of mastery in their class, they may be given the mark of a master, which is a permanent facial marking which varies depending on the mage’s class. Becoming a master is extremely difficult and only a few from each country are named masters at a time.


The most important thing when casting magic is efficiency. When casting a spell, some of the mana expended will be lost. This is because it is very difficult to precisely direct mana, and it is not possible to direct 100% of your mana into a spell. Magical efficiency is the percentage of mana expended that is used in the spell. For example, if a spell is 70% efficient, that means that 70% of the mana used when casting the spell goes to casting the spell. The rest is lost. Two spells may have the same end result. However, due to the runes used, one might use less mana than the other due to greater efficiency. The optimal rune combination for casting a spell can also vary from person to person. Almost all of the spells used regularly in the present have been optimized by years of experimentation. The use of magic circles greatly increases magical efficiency, allowing a mage to cast more powerful spells with less mana. A magic circle increases efficiency by around 7%. Casting aides can further increase this by about 3-5%. The difference between using an optimal rune combination can be anywhere from 2-6%. Most mages will cast at around 80%. None (not even Mana) have been able to cast higher than 94%.

A spell cannot be casted at less than around 55% efficiency. Below this, the spell will die out before casting can be completed. Below 30%, the spell may backfire and cause injury to the caster and those around them. The more skilled a mage is, the better they are able to channel their mana properly into runes and keep efficiency at a constant and high rate while casting.


The first version of the magic circle required one to make unique calculations for each spell and could only be used by Mana, a base set of runes that could be used in all magic circles was eventually discovered. After this discovery, magic circles quickly became nearly universal and the preferred method of casting. Magic circles made casting much more stable and efficient, allowing for stronger and more precise spells to be casted. When using a magic circle, the mage must perform the necessary calculations in their head beforehand and envision the correct runes/circle. Then the magic circle will appear and the spell will be cast. Casting with a magic circle is slower than direct casting, but the huge increase in efficiency is well worth the trade off.

It’s most important application though, was that it allowed runes to be written on surfaces and reused indefinitely. Before the magic circle, mages would have to memorize and perform calculations for every spell on the spot. The magic circle allowed mages to write down spells and use them without memorization. This allowed mages to cast faster and have a larger repertoire.

In addition to increasing the power of spells, they are also used in permanent enchantments and creation of magical machinery. They also have many unique properties. Magic circles use a base set of center runes that hold the magic circle together. The spell is written in a circle around the base runes.The base runes differ depending on the material the magic circle is affixed to. When channeling a spell through a magic circle, mana will be channeled through the runes sequentially from the inside out, rather than all at once. This allows sequential and conditional spells to be cast, which was not possible before. For example, the magical elevators in the Academy take advantage of this sequential casting. The first part of the spell is used to detect if there are people inside the elevator. Once a person is detected inside, the second part of the spell is activated and moves the elevator. This sequential casting can also be used to make spells have different effects based on the subject. For example, you could make a spell that has this sequence of events: If X then Y happens. If not, then Z happens. In addition, sequential casting makes it easy to combine multiple spells without having to calculate a new, longer spell because each individual spell can be written and sequentially cast without having to worry about the runes interacting with each other.


Magic can be used by nearly everyone, as long as they know the spell. Only a very small portion of the population has no magical ability (about the same as the number of runecrafters). Each person does have a certain affinity towards a certain class of magic. You will be much more efficient at casting magic in the class of magic you have an affinity for. Your affinity can be determined through what’s called the rock test, which is simply channeling mana into a rock with a special magic circle on it. Once you find your best class of magic, it’s easy to figure out your worst based on the Affinity Circle. Efficiency decreases by about 3% each step you move away from your class on the circle. These are 9 classes of magic, with some of them further divided into different types.

It is possible for mages to create a Bond with a magical beast. Mages that are Bonded to a beast will be able to communicate with them, draw upon their stores of mana, and have them assist in magical calculations. Currently it is illegal to make contracts with legendary beasts in every country except Soria, which allows them under special circumstances. Bonding is a fairly common phenomenon and a bond can form even if you weren’t intending to make one. Approximately 15% of all people will have at least one Bond with a magical creature.

Every magical beast has something called a Heartstone within their bodies. These magical stones are the source of all their magical power. Almost all of the divine and legendary beasts have been hunted to extinction by mages looking for these powerful magical items. Heartstones of mythical beasts are similar to normal mana crystals and thus are not very sought after. Legendary Heartstones hold much more mana and are capable of casting magic possessed by the beast they came from (for example a Heartstone from a basilisk can cast a petrification spell). Heartstones of divine beasts contain some of the consciousness of the original magic beast. They contain essentially infinite amounts of mana, can aid in magical calculations, increase casting efficiency and can cast powerful spells.

In the ancient days, a ritual was discovered that allowed one to consume the Heartstone of a magical beast. This allowed the mage to take complete control of the powers of the magical beast. In addition to having complete access to the beast’s magical stores, they were also able to transform to take on a humanoid appearance with attributes from the magical beast. However, the ritual was very difficult and consuming a Heartstone that was too powerful put you at risk of being unable to contain the power and exploding. Mana is the only person known in history to have consumed the Heartstone of a Divine beast. After Mana destroyed the Capital, this practice was outlawed.