Magic Shard

COLOUR

Legend

“The newfound gem was strangely coloured with a warm feeling, and as she turned away from the oozing rocks, a god emerged and reached out. Sensing it reached not just for the gem but also for her spirit, she flung up the gem-holding hand and her protection spell. Tenfold energised, it blasted the wide-eyed God backwards into the Astral.”

—Skjald Sejrik

Description

Shards are fragments of the ever-swirling mana sea. Tiny glimpses of its experiences and memories crystallised as they—as first thought—left the astral and entered the void. Since it has become clear that it’s the separation process that does the crystallisation. Just as with written-down thoughts reviewed years later, without the original ties, the sparse words become frozen fragments of a forgotten place or situation. The knowledge regarding shards as memories is why some practitioners are against merging them and merely aid in describing what a shard is to them. This documenting is done utilising Aetherial Script.

Aetherial Script is a script language that offers a direct interpretation of the astral realm’s fundamental truths. It utilises Chromo-Glyphics, a symbol set describing main colour with “glyphics”. It’s a technical set that emphasises the visual, symbolic nature of the language. Manaic Notation, a sort of sub- and superscript, is a more practical subset, focusing on the “notation” or documentation of mana-related phenomena.

Magic Shards are also used as fuel for utilising Magic Paths, or casting spells, as some call the act of spelling out the magic path’s intent and feeding the manipulation with mana—either in its raw form or from added ingredients such as magic shards. As ingredients, they also serve as enchantments, adding various effects.

Even though Magic Shards drop in various purities, perceptive minds have learnt to merge them; at first it was the divines, then some selected amongst the Archaic and N-Erectus, and then eventually all races have learnt it.

“It’s possible to… merge shards into higher purity… although one must be aware… that their purity will depend… if at all… or fail!”

—Skjald Kazumix

History

Since the dawn of time, energies have leaked from the Astral into the Void and our world, either tainting and altering what they touched or crystallising into magic shards of varying purity.

When Mana leaked into the Void and later into our world, it either tainted existing matter and altered it or crystallised in a form adhering to its situation. Making its size, shape and purity in accordance with not only the lashing swirls of memories but also the exact situation in which it crystallised. The more chaotic, the greater the chance of either a polluted shard of low purity or one without a dominant aura hue – a multicoloured one.

As shards at first were believed to be fluid mana crystallising as it leaked, the elder divines of the astral, Vornir and Boriac, came to realise it was something different. The mana sea seemingly was a living organism, and they came to believe it was its tainting that instilled the urge to observe, collect, and create. The elder divines of the void, Stoicheian and Wickeryadi, both kept their distance from the mana sea but worked tirelessly studying the crystallised shards. And their legends tell of changes – both to the astral divines and also to the mana sea and its crystals.

The shards seemingly began to have messages embedded alongside their frozen impression patterns. As if it tried to preserve its impressions and hide them through leaks, to prevent the Vornir from spinning everything according to their limited capabilities. As a certain mortal Kobold proved mentally capable of seeing and deciphering this, Stoicheians helped it understand it further.

Through time, every Mana Manipulator, Alchemist, and Enchanter has been seeking to find and use the most pure and thus potent of these.

—Skjald Ulrich

Cartography

Both single-coloured and multi-coloured shards of any generation can be found across the world. The most recent of shard generations does, though, drop somewhat unevenly. Some say it’s primarily because of The Rim, with multi-coloured dropping more near it, while single-coloured drops more in the northern lands. As if the Rim influences the ability for the Mana Sea to manifest single memories.

Pure-coloured mostly at the northern lands
Multicoloured mostly at the rim.

Oddly enough, there’s no difference in the purity that might drop at either end of the cartographical sphere, but it has led to, due to the timely and costly transportation of shards, a majority of crystal academies in the northern lands. This is due to the fact that since the Dark Ages single-colour shards have been used the most by Mana Manipulators, Enhancers, and Crafters alike—creating far bigger markets for shard circulation.

“The Rim, a divine circlet holding the veil in place, fogging the mind!”

—Skjald Sejrik

Organisation

Magic Shards crystallise in a thousand different degrees of purity; the purer, the more valuable they are due to their ability to store and unleash energy. They generally materialise in one of the eight aura colours. But there are also rare cases where a multicoloured one may form, and even rarer amongst the rare are the living ones, with both crystallised and swirling fog at opposite ends and somewhat liquid-like in between. Here is the list of groups:

Shards can span into adjacent purities, but structure, surface, and main-colour dominance are the guidelines for a shard’s purity.

Crude: (1-49) – a porous, crumbling structure, which cannot merge.
Fractured: (50-174) – a chaotic, broken structure.
Rough: (175-299) – a coarse, uneven surface.
Jagged: (300-424) – sharp, pointed edges.
Smooth: (425-549) – a polished, even surface.
Pristine: (550-674) – a perfect, unspoiled surface and glow.
Exquisite: (675-799) – an exceptional quality and radiance.
Radiant: (800-924) – a glowing, luminous appearance.
Celestial: (925-1000) – a divine wholeness and glow.

“The higher the purity, the harder it is to interpret its main colour’s swirling pattern.”

—Skjald Vinotis

Shards of a certain main colour are also heralded by certain gods. There are so many in each colour realm that we don’t even think they themselves know their number. So, let me name but their leader, the colour realm’s major contender, and the one who seems to be the mightiest of the lesser ones.

Colour: Cyan
Gods: Mumra, Avandii, and Flokil