Oblivion Mod:Stirk/The Spectrum Study

Preface

his paper covers the subject of bodily attributes affected by magicka, and its derived forms. Only "health" is covered in extensively in this paper, or to be more accurate, the life force of a being flowing amidst nine mana channels. From now on, these channels will be addressed as daedron ports for the sake of clarity.

Initial setting

he major points of the magicka's own attributes are covered in several pieces, such as "An introduction to elementary magicka". These attributes are not in the scope of this paper.

The research was set up first in a traditional way of Mages Guild and Imperial Academy - prewritten scrolls of a specified spell under watch were tested on the subjects; kwama, rats and a guar. Then, several casters attempted to cast the very same spells on the same subjects, and finally, the magicians commenced to fluctuate all their mana reservoirs to a specified daedron port for complete control of the effect.

Between each of the three phases, extensive condition checks were made on the environment and subjects' states. These were done without magicka, but instead through Dwemer inventions: a device that displays the warmth on a scale, perhaps better known as Arkngthand Device, with respect to the Dwemer citadel such a tool was first encountered in.

Another tool, Mundus Spectrum crafted by Linithrel, was used to measure the amount of magicka flowing through a specific point in the Mortal Plane. Its results were not the most accurate for reasons explained later. Still, we managed to achieve believable results through vigorous repeating of the tests.

The Experiments

I Scrolls

riting spell scrolls is a theoretical subject that is thoroughly analyzed in the higher courses of the Academy. The only detail we need to consider here is that their effects are always as accurate as its author is in focusing his mind to write the scroll. The scrolls used by this experiment were written by Hasederian, one of the Academy stewards, whose area of expertise is exactly the static magicka, so very adequate precision was expected.

Helbrog gra-Shorob, our visitor from Orsinium, began using the scrolls on a common specimen of a kwama forager, which was trapped inside a deep anti-magicka ebony box. As expected, the spell hit only the kwama in a non-lethal way. The amount of magicka measured with Mundus Spectrum was four standard units. Helbrog and two assistants repeated the experiment with identical scrolls on both an ebony box and a simple wooden box, ending up with the same results.

II Traditional spellcasting

vorina Claudie then initiated the dynamic magicka part of the study. The material for casting a Minor Pinprick were supplied by the Cyrodiil Academy Library. There was a discussion on making more suitable spells for the purpose, but to have comparable results, traditional methods were used.

When Avorina Claudie cast the spell, Spectrum gave the result of four units. With three other casters, the value ranged between four and five units - Helbrog managed to achieve three, Nieca Jahavie and Ianos Capare had to spend more mana on the spell.

III. Mana flow control

III.I Background

n the great study of magicka by Vanus Galerion himself, an important discovery about certain properties on mana flow were made. At the time, however, necessary information was not available in order to experiment with the knowledge. Recently, however, a total of eight primary daedron ports have been found in Aetherius, the discovery of whom has made it possible to enhance the magickal properties in the exact way the revered master prophesied. There is a multitude of other ports, too, but that is not of concern in this study - they all behave in the very same way these basic ports do.

As mentioned in Preface, the life force is flowing through nine ports. This ninth port is called the Salhia and is so far seems to be redundant, having the same results as Deima and Lewenta combined. It was nevertheless useful in estimating the amount of inaccuracies in the spells.

Magicka, in principle, is a unique form of energy as is the life force of a being, Nirn elements and the Oblivion matter that is yet to be determined on a more deep level. These basic forces all interact through each other as they seemingly contain all the known matter and forces on Nirn. For purists, it should be noted that while magicka contains Aetherius, other sets of the Wheel are understood to interact through Oblivion matter, which, admittedly, has found little use in magician's studies yet.

The phenomenon of Elvyr fields was first noticed by Amion, but he never lived to see Elvyr, his student, to actually witness one without equipment. The field was a first sign of magicka beyond conventional approach of mantras and gestures.

III.II Theory

he concept of threads are essential for understanding the higher principiums of spellcasting. Threads are links between points in Oblivion, Mundus and Autherius, through which life force and mana flow. A being's birth determines which threads are the most effective ones for that man or mer - one's firmament has been found to be rather effective as a thread, but has been debated to be much harder for people to fully spellbind than easily conceived threads such as Secunda or Massar. Do not confuse these threads with the objects of the night sky, though - most of the known threads don't have a visual pair in Nirn or Aetherius, for that matter. Instead, they join up with each other in Aurbis in circular paths to interconnect each of the stars, moons and Magnus through many more threads than there is for an eye to see. Alas, there are no threads for the eye to see, but since every object forms a thread from itself to Mundus, the expression is valid as a descriptive one.

Daedron ports are perhaps another less-known term used in our research. So far, they have been all found in conjunction with threads and especially their ending points. The perceptions so far have proven that in fact, there are always two ports at the end of each thread, with each port having at least one thread connected to it. The ports seem to be capable of adjusting the amount of mana flow to the port conveyed by the caster and direct it to the appropriate thread.

Perhaps a remark for less adequate in the terminology should be made here - magicka units and daedrons are considered the same, but they exist in different planes and thus should be used with respect to the plane under discussion.

Some discussion is going on about whether the ports change the magicka to other form of energy too, called daedrons. This debate has initiated from the thought that the boundaries of magic are inside Aetherius, thus threads going through Aurbis. The term daedron port was first introduced by a Nord mage Veljeked to make a clear distinction between portals, threads and flow mechanisms.

The final piece of theory covered here are flow mechanisms. Being the most crucial part in the way of controllability it gives to the caster. Mana flow begins from the surrounding field of the caster, determined by the location, alignment to Magnus and other visible magickal sources. The location, however, is not of great importance, since the daedron ports equalize the effect for the output port and not too exciting variations have been found in casting at specific points in common spellcasting. Magicka does not seem to be altered by any physical structures, only matter with equally powerful anti-magickal properties. This is why deep caverns are not mana-blocking by their nature. Of course, when a spell is complete and ready to be released, a part of it will turn into matter and be stopped by all and any physical elements. This transformation is called a Galeric Planar Conversion and is often referenced as one of the most important theoretical concepts of magicka along with Elvyr fields, which are derived from Gaplac, as some choose to call it.

Hand gestures are the most important part in directing mana flow. They are covered in depth on several Academy courses, so here we will simply address the properties of rings. They are considered as ethereal ports to Oblivion, and thus hold great magical properties in spite of their size, even more so because hands are a common mage's most important tools due to their ability to redirect mana. The reason of hands suiting to all common spellbinding is the relation between fingers and ports - only few effects use more ports than eight, and even those don't require a single gesture for cast order to be complete, although effects could be arguably better if one had sixteen fingers for spells such as Astral Ideology, but after all, there are no known successful executions of that spell, so that direction is not really worth exploring.

III.III Execution

s with previous two experiments, the mana flow control part was started with the very same kwama and the Mundus Spectrum. As with all experiments so far, the Arkngthand Device was used to keep track of the room's status. Avorina Claudie begun by redirecting mana to Deima and Magnus. There was no difference in results - there were still four units of magicka, no less. Then, the experiment was continued with Lewenta and Magnus. Still, no variation. Even different casters did not have any success in bettering their own results from (II), and neither both Deima and Lewenta redirection, to which only Avorina was capable of, yielded any results.

The spell was changed to a common Pinprick spell, courtesy of the Academy Library. The previous steps were taken, but this time the kwama were wounded so severely that they couldn't be used in any further experiments. The latter weren't needed anyway, because no results were achieved with any of the three redirection methods.

With rats on full health and a Major Pinprick, Nieca Jahavie was finally able to lower her use of magicka to four units, with Ianos Capare still staying behind. The first thought was that she had actually learned something during the experiment, but further studies revealed that the reason was Deima's changed alignment to Magnus during the day. This part of the experiment was repeated next day at an earlier hour, and no success was made in the attempt by her part. This must not be confused with the relation of common casting and location - it is not affected by Aetherius' objects' alignment, but elaborate flow control seems to be.

One of the most important aspects in Galerion's theory was the remark of mana being fully independent from Mundus. Thus, he envisioned that the properties of magickal units could allow multiple casters to prepare the same spell and direct all the mana to a single mage, opening enormous possibilities in the field of enchanting, in which massive amounts of mana and skill fortification is required. However, ordinary spells can be cast in the very same way, so Helbrog and Avorina proceeded to attempt casting Minor Pinprick in unison. The attempts were a failure at first few tries, for two different spells were cast at first. The same was tried with all the other variations of Pinprick, but no to end. As a standard procedure, other pairs of magicians were formed as well, but two similar and simultaneous spells were the only gained result.

Later on, a possibly groundbreaking discovery was made. If there are enough daedrons in threads to form two similar spells, it will happen and the excess daedrons remain ungaplaced. This is also why the Spectrum never displayed any more than the exact double of a Pinprick spell's mana cost. In other words, if a spell being cast is too demanding in mana for a single person, a multitude of people can join in the binding process by casting the same spell, using all the mana their reservoirs have, and redirect it to the same destination simultaneously. The amount of people must be determined beforehand unless accidental multiple spells are in fact a desired effect and it has to be remembered that not anyone can join in the process - they must be able to grasp the spell's aspects fully, with only lack being the mana reservoir.

The test with massively mana-draining spells was made with the Minor Windwalker, a classic example of any mage's dreams. After several days of timing practice, Avorina and Helbrog succeeded in completing the ritual to Helbrog, who then, according to her own words, just flied around the room. It was hard to determine where she was though, being invisible. All the effects were included and thus the experiment was declared a success.

Last in schedule was testing the target object's size to the end result. The guar was trapped in a small lair and rendered effectively immobile by lack of space. All three spells were tested on it, both Nieca Jahavie and Ianos Capare succeeded at the first try to use only four points. The situation stayed the same through all spells except Major Pinprick, which Ianos was still unable to grasp with flow control.

At no point of the tests was room temperature changed in any direction during the tests. This only shows that magicka is indeed fully independent of environment as long as non-elemental effects are exercised.

Errors in the study

ssuming that daedrons exist and the theory is solid, our results required only little adjusting. The Mundus Spectrum, as previously mentioned, sees only changes of mana fields on specific locations. This could have caused errors on the results, had the device been placed incorrectly. Yet, it never occurred that the spell would've been cast without Spectrum reflecting the change in magical balance nor was the shown result completely off scale. While most mages can't detect the lost mana to one-unit accuracy, both Avorina and Helbrog are capable of this, otherwise they would not have succeeded in redirecting mana with relative ease. Both of the less-adept researchers failed in their flow control attempts, so much analysis of their results cannot be extracted. Typographical errors might be present too, but since the essential data was checked by the Academy stewards, this has not usually been considered possible. If in doubt, feel free to repeat the experiment with the numerical data provided in the appendices.

Conclusion

ll in all, the experiment was a success. Having in mind that magic research is empirical by its nature, failures were expected at first steps of the subject under evaluation. The most important discovery of this study, in fact, was found through trial and error. This property of simultaneous additive daedron effect can be summed up as a breakthrough on enchanting and devastating spell effects. However, with fellow mages realizing this, and having only a handful of powerful enough mages in Tamriel to attempt doing anything more than simple trinkets with the help of this knowledge, one can rest assured that it won't be misused.

The size of the target object is an interesting property to be researched further. One could claim that casting powerful destruction spells on large monsters like the Storm Atronach, but the health of such powerful beings is far greater than the effect of a spell a common mage is able to thread properly. When targets get larger and possibly even static, the required mana to make any variation to the object's, such as a rock's, state are futile with thread approach. In these cases, it is simply easier to let the mana thread itself.

To note that Ianos is only a Warlock by rank, the result of failing in all stages of mana redirection was not unexpected. Still, because this proves that adequate control of mana flows is dependent on the caster's intelligence, and that even very simple spells like the Pinprick, doing only the minimal amount of damage by minimal amount of magicka, are very demanding to cast, only very few men or mer will ever be capable of such an accuracy-requiring art.