A Deep Dive into Magic
Where Magic Comes From
Within the world of Iota, magic in itself stems from a series of chemical reactions within an organ! Much like how digestion or your heart works to pump blood! Up until a couple hundred years ago, scientists and doctors alike had no idea of the existence of the bladder. Science has not been able to fully understand exactly how this process works, as it's been a theory for many years that magic is similar to sending out electrical or radio waves to manipulate the space around a person. But nothing could be exactly, proven consistently.
But in general, magic has been an interictal part of life in Iota for as long as the history books can fully record. Going from being claimed a gift from a god, witchcraft, a curse, etc. Up until you get to the modern day where the technology is advanced enough to break down the biological reasoning.
As stated, magic in itself has an organ, called a manabladder or otherwise called a 'magic sac' or 'magic bean' by those who don't care to use its actual name! It is a small bean-esc shaped organ that nestles itself right under the right lung, sitting just above that of the liver in any given being! This organ can be anywhere from the size of a grape upwards to that of a fist. In rare cases, this bladder can be entirely absent from a person's body. Beyond this, the bladder is connected to a series of vein-like structures that travel through every limb a body possess. This is what regulates magic away from the bladder and allows a caster to use magic from any part of themselves. If the body were to be lacking this 'magic' system to their body, then their bladder has a high likelihood of imploding or exploding. There are also speculations to a trend in which the size and health of the bladder impacts the strength and stability of one's magic, so it is believed that they are linked to one another. This isn't the only property of the bladder that has been studied & explored however!
As morbid as it may be, the manabladder plays a very interesting role in death & decay of a body. The manabladder has a property to it that once a person has passed, the magic stored within it begins to seep into the tissues and organs of the person. This effectively makes the body perfectly frozen in time and preserved for 48 hours. Past this point you often have an additional 24 hours before the full decomposition cycle begins! The bladder gives a unique property of allowing a full survivable revival if the person has only been dead for 48 hrs. and all parts of themselves can be recovered if, um, separated. Past this time frame, revival is not guaranteed and could only last for a short time or none at all without the help of some forbidden magic.
Beyond this, the last widely known property of the manabladder relates to a cannibal transmitted disease. This being that of the Kuru disease, an always fatal neurodegenerative disease. See, the bladder contains the same abnormally folded proteins in a concentration just below that of the brain. Meaning if someone were to consume a bladder due to religious, societal or personal beliefs or general psychosis or starvation, what have you, they would have a much higher chance to contract this disease than eating other parts of the body. In older eras of Iota, eating another to try and consume their magic was a common practice in many parts of the world! Many recorded deaths and wards have stated effects which are now correlated and recognized as symptoms of the Kuru disease. With the discovery of the bladder and more in-depth research into records and some testing, the discovery was made that the bladder was most likely responsible for many of these bursts in their past for 'plagues'.
Magic Strength, Stability & Classification
Moving on from that of what causes magic in Iota, you have what the effects of magic are & how classification works within this world! See every person has a different sized sac, its in different ranges of health as well which all plays into how strong, stable and when your magic begins to occur! It's a mix of physical and mental that play a role into how well the sac works and the magic that is produced! |
With the current mix and match of the different sections, you have a total of 64 possible combinations for specifying a character's magic type!
Strength
You have three basic types of strength: Weak, Moderate/Regular, & Strong. While a user can fall anywhere between these three, the more prevalent will be listed upon identification cards, medical and other records a person may have! So, if you are a 'Moderately Strong' Magic user, you could be listed as Moderate or Strong, depending on the region of the world you are coming from. It's based off local laws and regulations! So, for example, your identification would either have it fully listed out before your classification or it would be listed as an abbreviation such as 'M, S, MI' to label Strength, Stability and Classification! Not all forms of identification will include things like the strength or stability, however. It once again depends on the laws of any given area of residence.
This specific section covers how potent one's magic is, this relates to how much magic you have in your veins! Since magic can't form solidified pockets in the body in normal circumstances, this is the best way to test the strength. So, someone with weak magic has a very slow metabolism for breaking down the minerals and such that give magic its properties, while someone with strong magic goes through this reaction rather quickly & frequently! This has nothing to do with the physical shape of a person, much like your normal metabolism. But rather its tied to the genetics of the user! The more magic you have in your system, the more likely you are to be able to perform multiple straining tasks at once or you will be able to perform magic related sports & more difficult spells and such much easier!
Stability
The next area of classification is that of one's stability. This directly relates to the shape and health of the manabladder and the surrounding veins in the magic system. If any of these areas are damaged or weak, you are more likely to be subjected to things such as controlled or wild surges! But this can also cause a user to have a blockage will result in a bursting bladder if not properly taken care of. Unfortunately, this is another aspect related to general genetics but can be helped with medical devices and medication or even surgery. Stability in particular can be fiddled with to be effectively improved or destroyed due to outside sources.
Stability's classification is broken down into 7 different specifications, which are as follows: 'Extremely Unstable, Very Unstable, Unstable, Balanced, Stable, Very Stable, & Extremely Stable.'As they sound, it ranges quite a lot with very little overlap between the different specifications! The weaker or more messed up your magic system is, the more likely your magic will be unstable! And the same can go for, the thicker the walls and the more the system is stretched out and in top tier health, the more stable your magic can be! Though there are outliers in this system. Someone can have a magic system in wonderful condition but still have very unstable magic! This is where the next classification comes in, the actual class most people fall under and what is widely used as identification in magic studies.
Class
The class of magic is what most identification documents focus on, this is essentially like your listed gender or date of birth in importance on these documents! This is broken down into 4 specific specifications and is often not classified until a child's 10th birthday due to how magic develops in growing children and its puberty! Doctors and other medical professionals may try to predict this by the health, shape and condition of the manabladder before the allotted time but it's hard to exactly pinpoint this. This is based off when this magical puberty hits as when it does, it can severely impact the health, magic strength, stability & the mental state of the kid! But enough of my pre-rambling junk, lets break down the separate types and what exactly they mean & what causes them.
Mananeurotic || Early Bloom || MN
Prefix. [Mana] 'Pervasive supernatural or magical power.'
Suffix. [Neurotic] 'Abnormally sensitive, obsessive, or anxious.'
Mananuerotic is the first of the classifications that will be covered! This classification is used to describe folks who's manabladder activated before the age of 10 years old. The youngest record of this ever happening is at the very young age of 3, this unfortunately resulted in the death of the toddler.
Their manabladder can be large or very small; it is rarely the correct size for the body of the person who is under this classification. You are much more likely to have very strong & very unstable magic if you are under this class. The still growing bodies of the kids who have their bladder begin working this early cannot properly adjust and handle the sheer volume of magic they now have access too.
Often times they will have very strong surges that can land them in the hospital or obtain some wounds. It's not very fun. These people are also classified as a danger to those around them. So most who show signs of a clearly strong & unstable magic are legally mandated to see a professional regulator and get suppressant medication. This suppressant medicine can cause the magic to have a physical manifestation [Do not this can occur even without the medication, will be explained further down].
As for what can actually cause this to occur, there's a pretty vast range of reasons! One of the most common reasons, much like manaimpede or manavoid, this is a hereditary thing! Folks can be carriers for the gene that causes this to kickstart earlier than it should. It works much the same as colorblind-ness! So Mananuerotic is most common in AMAB folks! On the other end of this, there can be physical reasons as to why this has kick started early. Being in a home situation or general situation where a child is put in high-intensity magical fields [Controlled or Wild Surges], can kick start the production of mana much like how you can kickstart a heart after it stopped! Another cause is also related to a magical surge; this is a side effect of a AFAB person going through intense or multiple surges throughout pregnancy, which in itself can cause the stunting of the fetus's growth & development. Beyond this, theres so many more reasons ranging from mental, to physical and genetics!
Manatypical || Regular Bloom || MT
Prefix. [Mana] 'Pervasive supernatural or magical power.'
Suffix. [Typical] 'Having the distinctive qualities of a particular type of person or thing.'
Manatypical is the second classification & is what a good majority of the population falls under! This is when a person is born with a decently sized, well-functioning & healthy manabladder! When you fall under this classification, you fall in the normal range for 'Magic Puberty' going from the ages of 10 to 15 at the very latest! Folks with this classification are more likely to be accepted for magic-based jobs as their magic is often more stabilized and decently moderate in strength. Not having the same gamble that a Mananeurotic or Manaimpede person is with the stability of their magic.
Due to this being what most consider the 'default' there's actually not a whole lot to cover on this classification! You are often in good health; you shouldn't ever have surges beyond that of the first surge that essentially 'Kickstarts' the bladder into regulating itself. Beyond this they have the same risks as everyone else when it comes to cancer in the manabladder, having scent blindness, casters wrist, etc!
Manaimpede || Late Bloom || MI
Prefix. [Mana] 'Pervasive supernatural or magical power.'
Suffix. [Impede] 'Delay or prevent (someone or something) by obstructing them; hinder.'
Manaimpede is the third of the classifications and can be described as the direct opposite to mananuerotic in some cases! This classification is considered when a person has gone through their 10th & 15th birthday without any sort of sign that the magic puberty has begun. Often at the age of 16+ they will be considered for Manaimpede. The oldest case for this classification was a 70-year-old woman, she had gone majority of her life with a manavoid classification, while her magic wasn't very strong - she was delighted to have some at the very least. Often times the manabladder can be very small or in the very very rare circumstance; it can be rather large. The veins in the magic system can also be affected by this classification; meaning part of the system can be missing or they can be rather shriveled or very thin so it's quite difficult to actually use magic once they have access to it! A person can only be labeled as a Manaimpede person if they obtain and use magic later on within their lives, otherwise Manavoid would be the more fitting term for the classification. It's quite often that the magic of these users is very weak and very unstable. They very rarely have issue with surges. HOWEVER, they are VERY prone to cancer in the manabladder, as well as their manabladder bursting. Having the bladder burst can seriously damage the surrounding organs, such as your heart, liver and lungs.
This condition is also hereditary at its base, the health issues that often occur alongside this classification also can be hereditary. This goes from migraines to being infertile. However, the most common occurrence for the bladder to not activate at the proper time can be due to a hormonal imbalance, they can very well lack the hormone and enzymes that are required in the process of creating magic. This imbalance can be medically helped via the aid of magic enhancers & enzyme medications. The manabladder can also be formed incomplete, which can cause the child to need surgery to get the bladder closed so the magic does not seep into the flesh and tissue of the kid. As that very much is exactly how the body becomes preserved after death and can cause the child to become paralyzed. Another cause of this can be that of a blockage of some sort. This can be a cancerous or noncancerous tumor. Often times it's a blockage that winds up causing the bladder to swell and try to either implode or burst. Characters who are manaimpede often have many medical issues & folks who have this are legally considered partially disabled.
Manavoid || Never Bloom || MV
Prefix. [Mana] 'Pervasive supernatural or magical power.'
Suffix. [Void] 'Completely empty.'
Manavoid is the fourth and last of the classifications and probably one of the rarest. Manavoid, much like it sounds is the lack of mana. People under this classification have no magic or have the inability to use their magic for one reason or another. These people are considered legally disabled and are taken care of by the state. This care includes everything from receiving money to food stamps and even housing aid. This is due to how many jobs require even the simplest of magic to perform work duties. This can make finding jobs rather difficult for these people! However, under the Anti-discrimination & the Disability Laws, jobs are required to have jobs within their place of work that are accessible for folks without magic. A minimum of 1 job per pay tier is required.
A person is considered Manavoid one of a few different ways! The most common of which is they have a manabladder & their 16th birthday has passed with no sign of their magic activating anytime soon. Another is when they have to physically get the manabladder removed. The last of the bunch is the most obvious for why they would be under this classification; They either lack the manabladder in its entirety or they lack the magic system entirely or both. This can cause other health related issues such as scent-blindness or having an imploding or bursting manabladder! While they are working to create an implant to mimic the functions of a manabladder; they still don't have the reaction down to a science, causing most attempts to fail and leaves the person unable to use magic for the rest of their lives. Not even medications can help these people use magic. The closest thing they will ever have is, most often, scam products that claim to be enchanted but really do next to nothing.
Magics Issues & Ailments
The Magic system within itself is another part of your body and thusly can become strained or have its own line of medicinal issues that it can cause! Magic related ailments or growths are a pretty common thing within the world of Iota & thus a lot of the various and unique aspects people have, are considered pretty normal!
Everyone has a set limit that they are able to create & use before they start straining the bladder, this works much like how your body will have more energy when you are working out or training for long marathons & such.
For example, when someone is just discovering and learning to use their magic, they have very little before they physically feel a tightness in their chest & a pain in the area of their body they tried to cast with- it's often a low tingling feeling, much like after you accidently get a sock from a power cord, or you got shocked with static electricity! It doesn't hurt, just is mildly uncomfortable.
Generally, Magic based ailments range from easily fixed to something that can be chronic or even lethal. Let's go down the list and I'll explain some of the more frequently seen ailments and ways that magic can manifest itself if it's not properly used or a person produces too much of it. Note that this is just a general list that is MAGIC related! other ailments exist within this world; get creative >:3c
Magic Strain - Magic strain is one of the most common issues people who have the ability to cast experience and most experience it a few times within their life. This is a general feeling of tightness in your chest along with a dull ache coming from wherever you are trying to force a cast or have been casting. To fix this, do not use magic until the ache has gone away and do not overexert yourself. This can lead to Casters Wrist if not taken seriously.
Magic Fatigue - Magic fatigue is another common issue folks are ailed with. This is when you overuse your magic cap but do not go past the point you start feeling a bit of a pain. This will often be a period of 12 to 42 hours in which you feel physically lethargic, have a headache and feel dehydrated and/or as if you've been starved. The best course of action is to rest, keep yourself hydrated and eat filling but simple meals. Once the fatigue has gone, you will be able to cast magic with no issue again. Please note that training your body to use excess amounts of magic that you will not use is not a good idea. If for some reason you suddenly stop using to that threshold, you could be at risk to develop more serious issues.
Magic Surge - Magic surges are one of the MOST known ailments. As EVERYONE who has working magic has experienced at least one to kick their manabladder into regulating itself properly. A surge is when the manabladder produces twice or even triple as much magic than it can hold due to a misfired synapse that has prevented the user from well using their mana for a day or so. So, it begins to force the mana out of the body at a rapid pace, causing both pain and nausea to the user as it feels like their veins are on fire, this starts as a crackling of what feels like static electricity off the persons skin. This can build to a point the users mana begins interacting with objects and begins to pose a threat to the user and bystanders. A foot radius around them begins to smell very heavily of their magics scent and stepping into the bubble will make you feel what they feel; a physical touch that is unique to their magic. Often this will go until the bladder has expelled all the built-up mana and the user will have residual pain for days. For most, they require a doctor checkup to make sure there's no lasting damage & then will have bedrest for upwards of 4 days.
Controlled Surges - Controlled surges are medically induced surges. These can be mandated for people who have a manabladder that cannot regulate itself properly. So, they induce the patient to have a surge while unconscious to prevent them from being a danger to themself or their peers. These are biweekly or monthly occurrences for people who have manabladders that cannot regulate & they can usually rarely use magic if at all. Often times, they will be on suppressants to prevent the accumulation of mana or even the production of it so they can live healthily without pain. If controlled surges do not work to alleviate the user from any pain, shortness of breath or general pressure they may feel, the removal of the manabladder is often suggested.
Wild Surges - Wild Surges are uncontrolled and usually unstoppable surges that have a trigger of some sort. These surges are when a user in general produces more magic than their body can hold on to a day-to-day basis. While they are able to use magic and often have powerful magic, their manabladder and system is underdeveloped so this can make it very difficult for the user. Often times these users will discover their triggers and attend therapy to work through these or will avoid situations that will cause a surge. They are usually also on magic suppressants for the rest of their lives.
When a surge occurs, they will experience mind numbing pain and nausea when a trigger causes all their mana to be forced violently out of their body in a short burst of time. Users who experience wild surges will feel the same electric shock feeling ripple off their skin & will expand into small bits of visible electricity as their mana is forced out. Items around the person who is now locked in whatever position they were in, will begin to fly about and cause a posable threat to the user and others nearby. Their magics scent becomes overwhelming as the field around them begins to grow to a max of 5 feet around them. If they have a magic linked touch sensation, this can become dangerous or even lethal to themselves or the people around them.
If the user stays conscious for too long, their mana being forced out can start tearing their skin [This often leaves scars the color of their mana] or even reopen old wounds and scars they may have. These surges can also cause other ailments such as a blockage of the mana bladder, scent blindness, manatactile CIPA, Milk Eye Blindness, blindness, deafness, scent loss, CIPA and many other issues. Often times, medics will put the patient under and if the surge is bad enough to rupture the bladder, it will be removed. Often times, manabladder removal is essential for these people to survive and live without lifelong issues.
Casters Wrist - Casters wrist is your Carpal tunnel equivalent for magic. This occurs with overuse of the wrist area for casting! This can be aided by surgery, medication or even extremely long periods of rest in which the person cannot use magic for a verY long time. Upwards of 2 years or more. Users who get to this point have frequently ignored their bodies pleas to stop using magic.
Physical Manifestation - Physical manifestation occurs when a user has too much magic in their body as an infant. Though these traits can also show themselves later in the users' life as well. Physical manifestations are often lingering effects of the mother having surges while carrying the child or during childbirth. it causes no pain or issue to the user usually. Though this is not always the case as the magic can manifest itself as a liquid in the lungs or stomach that needs to be coughed up frequently. Or it can manifest itself as extra limbs. The possibilities are truthfully endless with this. often times these manifestations have nothing to do with the users' magic, but what happened while they were in the womb. This is why a lot of the folks in Iota have interesting looks to them. This is a very common thing, and some can be prevented from happening by being put on strong suppressants.
Protrusions + Growths - The Growths & Protrusions that may occur can actually help aid a user with their magic and even amplify their skill with it! While magic is more of a lowkey element within iotas day to day life, this can genuinely help these children with a lot more difficult career paths such as the medical field. Things such as horns can amplify their magic for example! These growths are often keratin, so horns or spikes. But they can also be flesh and bone as well!
Visual Manifestation - Visual manifestation on the other hand is something that is caused by the user's magic! This can be triggered by an emotion or just generally by the body naturally. Physical manifestation often is things such as bubbles that are usually the color of the user's magic coming from their skin, and when they pop, they smell of the users' magic scent. This can also show itself as physically changing the colors on the person's body much like a chameleon. This is usually very harmless and honestly more of a cool visual effect people can have with little pain. Though this only occurs when the user produces more magic than their body can get rid of so instead of forcing it out violently, the body will instead peacefully diffuse the magic out in another form that is harmless! Unlike the physical manifestation, this form of physical magic cannot be harvested for production of enhancers and suppressants.
Scent Blindness - Scent blindness is unfortunately something that can be devastating to be born with or to gain later in life. Every person gives of a distinctly unique scent whenever they use their magic & if you are up close and personal, they give this scent off passively through their skin. This is how everyone in Iota recognizes people so quickly, even the Manavoid are recognized by their dew scent, its clean but lacks distinction. Scent blindness is when a person keeps their base sense of smell, but they can no longer detect the unique scent that others or their own magic gives. This can severe someone's connection to the world and life they have known and can be incredibly disorienting as others around them no longer smell familiar and can no longer be easily distinguished.
Milk Eye Blindness - Milk Eye Blindness is often caused by surges but can also occur if a baby was developing its eyes when a mother had a surge. This is often more of a general hinderance than something that truly effects the persons day to day lives. This illness is when mana seeps into the conjunctiva of the eyeball and obtains a white tint to it. Things will look lighter and a bit milky, but their vision otherwise is not damaged. This even adds a little bit of spice by allowing the user to see faint traces of people's mana color, which is not a common thing as mana light wavelengths are not a part of the spectrum their eyes can see.
Manacode Vision - This is when a caster is born with adjusted rods and cones within their retina that can pick up the frequency in which mana lightwaves are broadcasted in. This genetic mutation is INCREDIBLY rare, less than 0.00001% of the population has it. This allows the caster to be able to see the color of peoples Mana as they exist and cast their magic !
Manatactile CIPA - Like general CIPA or Congenital insensitivity to pain with anhidrosis, this is an inability to feel pain. However, this connects with the magic touch everyone has; which is an additional sense much like being able to detect magical scent, where a user can physically feel what the others magic would feel like. I.e being choked out or being hugged. This can cause damage to the user because they lack nerves in their magic system, which can make them not realize they are surging or if they are caught in another user's surge, they can't tell if they are being hurt at all. This can be life threatening,
Manabladoma -This is quite simply the cancer and or tumors of the manabladder. The causes for these aren't fully known or fully researched yet, however chemo and surgery to remove the bladder or the tumor are the most effective options for battling this often-fatal issue. Many who have this opt to remove their bladder all together as to avoid it reoccurring or getting worse down the line.
Manabladicitis - This is quite similar to that of Appendicitis, in which the manabladder will swell and get close to or will actually burst. Causing severe chest pains for the user and they will have to seek out medical assistance asap so they do not become subject to very early-onset Rigor Manais. This can be a life-threatening issue and if anyone ever mentions pain on the right side of their chest, they are often quickly taken to be checked out.
Rigor Managenic -This is an offset of Rigor Manais, but this can occur while the person is alive. This can happen at any point in someone's life, and they can even be born with this. This is often caused by the manabladder not being fully formed or having a tear in its tissue so there is an internal 'bleeding' of mana into the tissues very slowly. This will cause the tissues to harden and become paralyzed. In some ways this can be life threatening. However, this can also be prevented by removing a manabladder that looks deformed or unclosed at birth or later in life. though it can take many years if even at all for the effects and paralysis to end.
Glass Veins - Glass veins is one pathway you can have for the above. This goes for all the below as well. As you can have all four, a few or just one! This refers to where the veins in your cardiac and magic system become so brittle, they are like glass. This can fracture the veins, and this can be fatal very quickly!
Glass Bones - Much like the one above. This is when the bones of your skeleton become very brittle due to the magic seeping into them. This causes people to fracture, sprain or even break their bones more easily. This is not fatal, but it can rack you up a ton in debt if you are not careful with how you move.
Stone Skin - In some cases this can be helpful, in most cases however, this is paralysis of your skin and muscles. These people often have no control over the effected limbs that have mana soaked into them. Their skin and muscles become very hard to break to where it would probably take a VERY sharp knife just to get through the epithelial layer. They also have damaged nerves due to this, but it's not fatal.
Stone Organs -This is Fatal in majority of its cases. This is when the organs surrounding the mana bladder become paralyzed. This includes that of your lungs, heart and diaphragm. If your heart becomes paralyzed, it is safe to say it will no longer beat. These people often spend their last weeks in the hospital as their lungs go first and their heart last.
Rigor Manais - This is technically a stage of death, coming before the rest! When a person is no longer living, the mana bladder will open and release its contents of stored mana into the body's tissues at a very rapid pace. This will effectively petrify the body and make it hard as stone. This is something that has developed over the centuries to prevent predators and scavengers from eating the body. You cannot easily move or get rid of a body in this state, not until after 24 to 48 hours when the mana dissipates from the tissue and the other stages of death begin. This stage is what allows for people's lifespans to expand a few years due to revival.
Institutions Related
Magic within itself is used in everyone's day to day lives, its more or less a 'don't really think about it' kind of skill for most! But for those who don't have experienced magic users in their life to teach them how to use it, they don't learn more than the very basics from other or online! This is why some institutions include magic education within their curriculum or even their training!
Magic does have practical and academic usages and is frequently used in bigger ways in areas you may not have even expected! Magic within itself is important for just about every job you could have! From the very basics like lifting an item off the ground or writing on paper to performing invasive surgeries or even reviving someone from the dead! There's rules and regulations for it all, hence the reason the government and other areas have licenses!
Government
The government uses magic both responsibly and irresponsibly. This is the body of power that controls and regulates what is and what isn't forbidden or allowed magics after all. The government is most notably known for being what gives specific lines of work magic requirements as well as official licenses that grant permission for a set of people or a single person to use a specific type of restricted or illegal/forbidden magics. These licenses have alternatives which are permits for the same field. These must be issued by schools that are teaching said part of magic and the teacher must be a valid license holder & preferably a master of the subject being taught. These licenses are not just for teachers however, these can extend to that of scientists, medical professionals and there's even illegal counterfeits for those outside of those professions. However, the government is also known for revoking the rights for these licenses at any given moment, especially when in regards to research teams.
The government also regulates the enchantments put on items; this is to make sure there are no curses being distributed as well as to make sure a product is not falsely advertising what it says it can do. There is an Enchantment Safety and Regulation Administration or the E.S.R.A, that puts these regulations and guidelines in place for companies and small businesses to follow. Many companies will get around these guidelines with loopholes, as it is in our modern day as well. When it comes to all government owned buildings, there is a permanent magic canceling field. This makes it to where no magic may be casted within the building. This can prevent surges and other dangerous forms of magic. When it comes to, say courtrooms, this magic barrier still exists, however the actual law book they use to have the speaker swear to say the truth and only the truth is indeed enchanted with a truth spell. This aids a fair bit in the courtroom but does occasionally put the life of a testimony speakers at risk if the case revolved putting gang members, criminals, murders or other folks behind bars.
Many of the public spaces that have had threats to public safety or acts of terrorism enacted, have special enchantments on them. For example, Airports, while they have metal detectors, they also have magic nullifiers and enchantments that repel bombs, weapons and other dangerous or smuggled materials. You have to work in incredibly roundabout ways to either disable these enchantments or find other ways to cause mayhem. The same goes for airplanes, malls, public busses, government buildings, court houses, schoolhouses, colleges and so much more. Granted these enchantments and precautions can only help so much, the government does what it can to keep the people on this continent safe to the best of their ability even if they are not entirely great.
School Systems
Most Schools are funded well enough that teachers and the like don't have to have secondary jobs, they also have retirement savings along with insurance as well! Schools are also incredibly safe thanks to magic enchantments on all public and private school buildings that repel weapons! Because they are taken care of by the government and its funding, many families from all types of income will seek to send their child to get an education to better their lives in the future. One of the services that schools provide more than educating and feeding children, is teaching them how to hone and safely use their magic, along with generally being able to cast, identify others and how to use the very basics of spells! Many Middle schools stop at this point as it is not very common for more advanced magic teachers to be there. It is more of a common practice for students to advance their magic when it comes to Highschool and college, where they should be done with puberty and able to actually work better with their magic capabilities. Generally, magic is the main reason high school is started usually at the age of 17! As their middle school years are extended by 3 more years due to needing to cram in a lot of education and courses regarding the usage, safety, history, science and the like of magic! It opens up a huge can of worms that they cannot successfully cram into just one year.
In Middle school, around the age of 10, students will start gaining access to their body creating mana, this causes surges, and most teachers are unphased at this point when a student has one. Those who get them too early are sent to special classes where they have an extra period for early-onset magic classes, those who don't get them the year they turn 10, are sent to their own classroom where magic education isn't being taught and the student will be moved back when they do eventually get their surge and magic. Magic puberty is not something that is fun unfortunately so middle school is a bunch of really uncomfortable, weirdly smelling & socially anxious kids and teens with magic. Which let's be fair; that's normal, minus the whole magic thing. The actual magic classes themselves are pretty basic! As mentioned above, students will learn how to distinguish each other's magical scents and touch, how to summon their magic at will and control it, how to levitate items and how to write with it, along with simple spells for things!
More advanced schooling will get into spells, for example, the medical field students will be taught how to heal. To stop wounds from bleeding or to repair wounds rapidly, they'll know how to control items with precision using their magic & will often get licenses so they can perform revivals if the person has no 'Do not Revive' note on their charts. Those who go into science or research fields will mess with darker magic with the government's permission to learn more about them! All in all magic can get really specialized based on the type of job you are looking for! From being able to work with others to construct buildings from natural materials as to not harm the environment to creating natural fuel sources from different elements that usually wouldn't work together or have explosive repercussions! Magic playfully bends what people can and cannot do with science.
More advanced schooling will also teach students about the wild magic fauna and flora that are VERY dangerous or very helpful for their day to day lives! For example, sleeping willow trees will lure people into a slumber and the tree will consume them whole! Or, take an elderbeast, these massive creatures hunt things like whales and can cause dangerous waters! These are important things to know
Research Facilities
Research Facilities have a field day when it comes to magic! There is a TON of fields in which magic is used to further experiments and theories. From subjects of Physics all the way to Psychology and even Medicinal use. Researchers and Scientists have to jump through hundreds of legal hoops just to get licensed and approved for their research, not even to mention the funding and backing that would be needed to further along with the thing they were wanting to put to the test. While magic is not always the subject matter for research, every day new spells and theories are established, all of which are wanted to be put to the test! These research teams all in all are the reason magic is well documented and explored.
For some examples of where this would be useful, There's a research team that goes around the different wilds of the unexplored smaller continents of Iota that have been long dominated by Magic Fauna and Flora that technology and magic have not been advanced enough to take care of until recent years. These fearless research teams may give up their lives into documenting more and more about these creatures and plants so the rest of the world is more able to expand and settle. These teams are very well beloved and taught about in the history books and are the reason the current generations are being taught magical education for the flora and fauna. The world as it is, about 60% of it, land and sea is dominated by the worlds population. The other 40% is dominated by The Wilds.
On the other end of this, you have the brave folks who are willing to sacrifice themselves to further medicinal magic and information for how magic interacts with the body. There's been those who have willingly signed up for the risky trials to try and cure themselves of terminally illness. These trials would test the effected area or areas with different types of spells and magic, to see what would happen and how it would effect and even potentially heal the ill. These are the more extreme experiments. There's other trials in which the research teams will find better ways to heal bone and tissue, how to get the body to accept rather than reject different blood types so there would be no 'Universal donor' anymore. The research facilities in Iota expands into just about every field and can cover a TON of different things. From the insignificant to making a breakthrough into how to heal cancer.
Medical Institutes
Medicine, Surgeries, And Practices in the Medical Field are SO much more advanced in iota even though it is not technology that they are advanced with. They have the same tech we do when it comes to machines for the medical field. It's the Magic that causes them to be able to do SO MUCH more!! Along with needing to get an education in Anatomy and general practical skills for the medical field, doctors, nurses, lab techs and such all now need to also be skilled and trained in magic related to the health field. These magics span from being able to create drugs from consecrated magic [This being physically manifested magic!] Being able to mend bones and tissue, to being able to restart someones hearth or bodily functions to wake them from a coma or even bring them back from death! The licensing exam for this is raTHER difficult, but those who manage to get it are almost golden when it comes to being a very useful member of society.
Beyond those who are in this field needing a license, lets get into how magic actually effects the field in a practical sense. Healing Magic is the most basic, it allows for the user to be able to take torn tissue & mend it by applying healthy and newly created tissue as a binder. The same goes for repairing sprained, fractured and broken bones. While you may still be in a cast for upwards of a week, its only to make sure the new bone matter settles properly and hardens as it should. Magic repairing muscle and bone like this does actually make the muscle and bone a LOT stronger! With this regeneration of tissue, it is possible for the brain, heart and lungs to be repaired! They have tried this with mana bladders as well but the bladder itself is repellant toward magic. Another big thing with this is being able to revive someone! Those in the medical field are able to revive someone up to 48 hours after their death; with little to no decay on the cadaver. This is as LONG as there is no dismemberment involved, you would have to stitch the body back together.
On the end of Trans healthcare, the field is also expanded and further ahead. While magic doesn't do much in regards to hormones on the trans side of things, it does make it much easier for them to feel periods of body euphoria! If a child expresses that they feel like they are in the wrong body, their pediatrician will set them up with a gender therapist who will help them work through their thoughts & also teach them spells for being able to get a chest or remove their chest as well as to change what sex they have for a short period of time, no longer than 2-3 hours at a time! This can help validate the kids identity and make them more comfortable in their skin! There is also medication that is magically enchanted which boosts the effects of these spells; having the same effect for upwards of 6 to 8 hours instead! Beyond this; HRT does still exist, Hormonal therapy exists as well and so does shaping surgeries and gender reassignment surgeries! Gender reassignment surgery now allows you to actually get a donor organ that will function properly with your new parts and can be reversed if needed for whatever reason. So trans folk in Iota are able to have children that are biologically theirs in the sense of being able to get pregnant or get their partner pregnant if that makes sense!
On The end of Surgeries, they are able to do much more invasive surgeries with the aid of magic and robots; being able to steadily repair organs and tight spaces! This allows for much safer surgeries that have higher success rates! If it comes to repairing bone or joints, that can be done with magic! So things such as arthritis or even carpal tunnel are actually curable and the person doesn't have to live with chronic pain! When it comes to reshaping; being able to remove & shape the bone with magic is amazing, as if they mess up- it can be fixed by reapplying material! This allows for INSANE body modification but also for plastic surgeries to rarely ever be botched! There's very little risk of dying in surgeries as revival is now a thing as well; usually this gives the team upwards of 48 hours to repair damage before bringing the person back to life. This allows for patients to, often times, be healthier than they were before.
Within Sports
Funnily enough but probably not surprising, magic is indeed used in sports & there are even non magic alternative to some sports! For starters, the usage of magic in sports, you have the standard sport and then you have a non magical variety that's more physical for that of Manaimpede or Manavoid individuals! There's even some sports that just have magic as an additional category as the, at a base level, don't need magic for the sport to function properly! Things such as Football [Soccer] & American Football, there's more magical obstacles they have to worry about more than the actual players as the offensive teams and defending teams can use the terrain around them to essentially fuck with the other team! The biggest ground rules for Sports is that there is no foulplay magic, nothing to stunt the other team, nothing that breaks bones [such as literal bone breaking spells lol], nothing that will cause serious injuries or death, No cheating, No touching the actual ball or goal, etc. These regulations are in place to make sure the game is fun and fair to everyone!
Manaimpede and manavoid students and athletes excel in non magical sports the most, such as marathons, track & field, baseball and softball, and other stick based sports with the exception of things like Hockey and such! There is often accommodations met so magically-void players can still play in the magic variations of the games as they are a lot more rough and fun! The main one being that the magical players can not single out and focus on the magic-void players! When it comes to the sports that are not magical, there are strict no-magic enchantments in the stadiums and practice areas that will nullify any magic-enhanced performance boosters, any sabotages and anything that would give one team an edge over the other. With all of this being said, sports are a lot more dangerous in Iota than they are in our real world, but there's also a lot more adrenaline junkies who thrive for this kind of environment! It also must be noted that anyone with wings will have them taped down so they can not be used for an upper advantage unless everyone has wings, thus making the playing field even
One of the most popular and single-handedly the most dangerous sport the world has its attention on is something known as MOCR, or Magic Obstacle course racing. These courses are often created in the safest parts of the nearby wilds as to make it dangerous without bringing the magic fauna and flora into their safe cities and towns; so these players are often going to other parts of the world to compete! These are very intense parkour courses that require a lot of flexibility and often teamwork & trust to get through. These courses your main enemy is the opponents & that of the environment! As there are plants to dodge and be able to identify, there's offensive spells being thrown your way and above all, you need to watch where you are going and what your feet are doing! Dangers range from being hit with a paralysis spell, being lifted off the ground to throw you off your pace, Sleeping willow spores [which causes the player to get very sleepy], Acidic Vinas pollen [which causes hallucinations and eye irritation], sinking sands, amongst many other threats. There's always expert defensive and healer casters ready to swoop in and save anyone who's lives may be in danger, its an edge of the seat kind of thrilling game to watch!
Magic in Iota
As it has been well established at this point, Magic is something that is highly integrated into life within Iota. Everyone, with the exception of a few, have the ability to cast magic and use it in their day to day lives even if it's not that much. Magic, despite how much it is used in daily life- Is not a primary focus in the slightest though! It's more or less a skill that's like walking or writing, once you learn it - you don't put too much thought behind the simple stuff! When it comes to the more complex spells and such, that's when people need to start training their body to get more output of magical energy & put in a lot of concertation so they manage to get the result they desire! As magic comes from an organ; they could in theory train it like competitive eaters can their stomachs!
Magic is mostly used in day to day for multi-tasking. Folks can respond to items on their phone without even having to lift it, or for example, they can lift a mug or drink with a straw to their face while they type or write! Hell they can even write with magic by levitating a pen or pencil, as to avoid causing pain to their wrist or arm by overuse [though this is more or less redundant if they give themselves something like casters wrist due to overuse of their magic lol] Their magic can be used for more than just multitasking as well! Some know basic healing spells that heal first-degree burns or cuts and scrapes. Others know spells that change their hair color or eye color on a whim, Others use illusions to give themselves appearances they enjoy [Though these are just illusions, if you felt the person, they'd feel as they actually look without illusion]. Some folks will use magic to cook their food without having to dirty pots and pans, such as heating up a metal can long enough to heat up their ravioli, they can cause carbonation to their drinks or even flavor their drinks by concentrating hard enough! Some will use their magic to lift off the ground a bit and hover or float while they read or chill, or they'll use their magic to open and close annoying garage doors. Honestly the little mundane things they can do that make life easier are expansive! This just covers some general ideas.
Their world also accounts for this day to day usage of magic! Some electronics are made compatible with magic so they can charge their items, or some companies prevent it, making a user buy extra chargers or portable ones! Homes and cars have enchantments on them that act like a 'whitelist', meaning anyone who has approved magic is able to unlock or lock said doors, cars or homes with their magic! The mechanic behind it checks for the person's specific shade of color, frequency and strength of their magic. This type of 'magic lock' has been integrated in a lot of things, from phone security to more complex things like vaults! The windows on most standard things have been made to be bullet-proof thanks to magic as well, there was way too many store break-ins in the early days. With school systems and such, testing classrooms often have enchantments that prevent students from cheating; such as a muting spell that makes the room completely silent even if someone tries to speak- or they have something that automatically shuts down phones & erases any ink temporarily on the persons limbs! Its creative in the ways it does so! If someone does break into a magic set lock, there is often loud blaring sound that emits from it! So theft is frequently prevented through the usage of these more expensive locks.
Throughout Life
Mostly Everyone gets magic within their lifetime, however nobody is born being able to use magic right off the bat. When brought into the world, the manabladder doesn't fully develop or begin working until someone gets to the age of 10, where their magic puberty will begin! This is often a very uncomfortable six to twelve month period in which kids are undergoing the different stages of blooming into being magic users! Even with magic not being accessible until the age of 10, children are well aware of it by watching their family members & are comforted by being able to identify who's who by scent even if they don't understand it just yet. There's a lot of educational children's programs and cartoons that show magic puberty and what to expect of it!
Even once the puberty has ended, it gets into the business of getting use to your magic, learning how strong and stable your magic is and what you want to do with your life now that you have it! As magic is very much used in just about every job a teenager and adult would have! Those who don't have magic will be met with government aids to be monitored every year and checked up to see if they have received their magic yet, but if they never do- they are considered legally disabled and will receive rather good government benefits and aid for the rest of their lives.
Those with magic will seek out schooling opportunities to learn how to use it more than how their family can teach the very basics, like levitating items, bringing them to you or writing with magic! The very simple 'I don't need to think about this' sort of stuff! Some families are very harsh on their children and will hire private magic tutors to give them an edge in school because they want them to do important things like be a doctor. This can cause stress in a kids life and can actually do more harm than good for the child as they develop and grow into mastering their own magic.
As you get older, your magic does start to fade and get weaker, a lot of elderly folk are seen being taken care of as they get their 'Disabled by age' cards. Like every organ in your body, the manabladder, does start to get weaker and at one point or another, does struggle to produce magic at the same frequency, strength and rate as it could when the user was younger! They never fully lose their magic but it gets to a point where they struggle with things that children the age of 10 are able to do with ease! Most will look into caring for their elderly or send them to homes to be taken care of by a dedicated staff. But all in all, Magic is something almost everyone has from the time they turn 10 to the time they die. Their magic will be what effectively petrifies their corpse when they die as well, so it plays a role in almost every stage of life.
Magic Puberty
Magic Puberty is always a fun topic amongst children who are about to turn 10 and their parents. Often times it starts a few days after they turn 10 to upwards of a few months after if they are someone who is manatypical! Those who are mananuerotic often get their magic very early on in life when their bladder isn't fully developed, usually around the ages of 6 to 9 years old. This often happens when a child is subject to multiple surges while in the womb or during birth; or they just got unlucky with the genetic lottery. This often makes their puberty a LOT more violent and they frequently have surges past their first one. The opposite can be said for manaimpede folk, who don't get their magic puberty until they hit past 12 or 13 or even not until they are in their 20s!
The stages of Magic puberty are more or less the same for everyone who goes through this cycle and thusly a lot of people can empathize with these kids. The puberty starts when a child gets a specific dream, even if they don't get dreams often; this phenomenon is very deeply recorded in Iota history. They usually dream about a soft white field of grass, the sky has a different color for everyone [This is believed and has been proven to be a persons magic color by those who can see the color]. There's often a gentle breeze and the dripping of water, a white figure will approach and reach their hand through the chest of the person. The child often awakens with a start and has a white star on their chest right where their manabladder is. This star goes away within 3 days of the dream.
Following the dream is often the Magic Sweats as many family members call it. The kids will start producing a viscous sweat when they sleep and when they get nervous, it smells very potently of their magic scent and this can cause a lot of gross discomfort for the growing kid, during this time they can still be dreaming about the white grass fields, though most never dream about that place again. The sweats can be quite annoying as it can make things stick more aggressively to the kid, like paper and such. It is a really gross mucus like sweat anyhow. These sweats often last anywhere from a week to six months.
Following the sweats you often get to that of the emotion swings, extreme emotions and skin breakouts. The breakouts can be anything from getting zits and pimples to getting rashes and large itchy bug-bite like hives. Its a very irritating part of the puberty no less but there's luckily a lot of care products to help avoid and lessen the effects of this part of the puberty. The emotional swings and emotional outbursts show that the kid is getting closer and closer to their first surge, the one that puts their manabladder on a regular schedule & can maintain itself better. They cannot control these outbursts that cause items to shoot away from them, nor can they help how they feel. Some argue this is the most miserable stage of this.
And Finally, to end the puberty, the child will have their first surge during a highly emotional period for them, where they feel they cant hold anymore emotion. This can happen at any point for the kid and often the surge will knock them out anywhere from a minute to 3 after it starts. It feels like static electricity rippling off their skin and then items will begin to shoot about their vicinity. Once the terrifying experience is over, the kid will often awaken within a clinic. Parents will bring their kids in for a free 'After-surge' checkup at their local hospital or clinic to make sure their kids are in perfectly good health after this event and wont have any more surges, the end result varies on the person but past this point, they shouldn't experience any of the puberty symptoms anymore.
There are other symptoms that are not very common and are often signs that something could be wrong with the kids manabladder. This ranges from breaking out into rashes or parts of their body swelling. This could also be the kid hitting fevers over 120 F or 48.5 C, if their temperature gets any higher, they need to be taken to a hospital. Other concerning things to look out for is a start that doesn't disappear, the swelling of the right side of the chest cavity, Discoloration or hives forming over the right side of the chest cavity, any complaints of tightness or pain in their chest cavity, shortness of breathe, white film over the eyes or generally unnatural coloration of the sclera, gums and fingernails of the kid.
Casting & Usage
Casting has been covered throughout this Deep Dive into Iotas magic system, but this section will get more into the mechanics of casting, give more information on what 'magic scent' and what 'magic touch' are exactly! Getting right into it, 'Casting' means whenever a person is actively using a spell, spoken, written or mentally thought. This is not a visual process unless you have the genetic mutation that allows for being able to pick up the visual sight of magic color. However this does activate other senses, the main one being that of smell. its very subtle unless you are within a foot of the person casting, but their scent comes off a lot stronger, especially in the limb they are using. The person will focus on what it is they are wanting to do, the bladder will release mana into the veins of the magic system and that will travel to the nearest extremity, be it the hand, finger or what have you! The person will feel a bit of static electricity where the magic leaves their skin, and it will be a very light tingling sensation that numbs to nothing after a few seconds of casting. When the spell has ended or they run out of mana or energy for the spell, the spell will drop and the feeling of tingling will return with any aches if there was overuse. Casting within itself is very straightforward!
Magic Scent - Magic scent is the thing that everyone is familiar with, this essentially replaces a persons BO and general scent of their skin! Everyone has a unique tone to them, this can be a mixture of their families scents or their own unique one. For example, someone could smell like baby powder, or they could be unfortunate and end up smelling like the back end of a skunk. This is how folks of Iota tell eachother apart without having to see one another.
If the person has a strong magic or is currently casting, their scent can be picked up within a foot radius. Those with weak magic or are not casting, you'd have to get up close and personal to be able to pick up their scent. Being able to pick this up is very comforting and this sense is not very strong until magic puberty hits, but they still can pick up very faint notes or pieces of their families scents before the sense fully begins to function!
This is why scent blindness is so devastating, these people are use to smelling unique scents on everyone, it connects them to the world, and losing that is so disconnecting
Magic Touch - Magic touch is another thing most are familiar with, though not frequently experienced! Some folks go their entire lives without experiencing this sense. This is a unique phantom touch that a person's magic may give the feeling of. This occurs if a spell is directed at someone, if someone is concentrating very hard on a spell or if there is a surge occuring! These phantom touches can be dangerous if its something like choking out, this can make someone pass out if intense enough! The same can for any painful feeling touches. These touches can range from a hand squeezing your shoulder, stroking your face, holding your hand or something like a warm hug! The possibilities are endless and this can be used maliciously or on purpose!
Magic Sight - Magic Sight is locked behind Manacode Vision & Milk Eye Blindness. This is when the cones and rods of your retina are mutated to where they can pick up the frequency at which the magic lightwaves are typically, as the normal eye can NOT see the mana color. Milk eye sees it very blurry and faintly, it can be missed or mistaken. Manacode is very vivid and clear. its like a smoke or glow that surrounds the area of effect & the limb in which the person is casting from. Its very cool but very distracting! But you can see exactly the unique shades, hues and tints of colors those around you have for their magic. Even manavoid have indicators, they completely lack the mist/glow, because it exists around the usual casting limb passively even if magic is not being used.
Regulating & Usage In Medication
This section mostly covers that of Manaimpede, mananeurotic and those who physically manifest magic! Magic is frequently used to create Mana suppressants and Mana enhancers! It is also occasionally used to make drugs stronger as well as give them an enchanted effect! But on the note of Suppressants and Enhancers, these are used to treat hormonal imbalances in Manaimpede and Mananeurotic folks. As their magic can be unstable and can be dangerous or they may be struggling to use it at all! These people are required by law to be on these pills so they are not dangers to themselves or orthers, at least on the end of Mananeurotic
Suppressants are prescribed to unstable, strong magic users who are prone to wild surges or controlled surges, this inhibits the activity of the manabladder and can even completely stop production of mana for short bursts of time! This can give these people some peace of mind that they wont randomly have a surge out of nowhere. However the downside of this is they can very well have a surge when quitting these cold turkey, running out of them or the bladder can get a resistance to the drug. This can also cause visual and physical manifestation of magic which can and will cause its own issues for the user of these drugs.
Enhancers on the other end are used to up the production of mana and get the manabladder regulated into working more frequently and daily. This can cause issues in the fact it can very well cause the manabladder to short circuit and stop working or it can cause it to overwork and cause a surge if there's a build up. All in all there's no real good ways to regulate the magic of folks who gained it too early or too late within their lives as their magic system often has many issues by itself.
When it comes to the production of these drugs, they often will harvest a solidified or physical manifestation of magic from those who produce it. These are often folks with very strong magic and usually these manifestations cause pain for the individual. Labs will take the physical mana and break it down into base components, creating inhibitors and excitatory drugs. There are cases where folks will disassemble these pills and create weaker or even stronger versions to sell within black markets which can do serious damage to those who take them.
Forbidden & Restricted Magic
It shouldn't come as a surprise that there are indeed forbidden and restricted types of magic within the world of Iota. Of course people are going to look into the ways they can cause harm to others or how to try and become a villain or even just cause simple mayhem. There's reasons laws and regulations are in place and why specific areas of life are locked behind licenses. If you can think of something that would possibly hurt someone, destroy something, cause an explosion or fire or any natural disaster, theres a VERY good chance its restricted or forbidden. Those who break magic regulation laws often are faced with some serious jail time and in some cases a forced removal of the manabladder. Some of these do fall into the 'Crimes against humanity' section of crime as they are very unethical to perform.
These spells range from things such as controlling someone's blood flow, restricting breathing, using magic to crush bone and organs, using magic to tear out another person's manabladder. They can also be illegal if its under the usage of forcing someone to do something against their will so this covers any magic related to sexual or physical assault or abuse, any hypnotic or psychosis enduring sorts of magic. This can also cover general unethical things such as performing untested spells that are suppose to be for medicine use that have not gone through the proper clearances and that could do more damage than good. The forbidden magic can also be apart of grave robbing as to raise the dead with necromancy, any sort of necromancy is very frowned upon and can cause some jail time. Anything related to time fuckery will also be something that falls under this category. More or less think 'What is something someone could do that could maim, dismember, kill, harm or just be unethical against another person or the general world' and you probably just discovered something you need a license for or is just straight up illegal