thusia | (no subject)

*glances up*

Not exactly. The usual term is scrivener.

Scrivener? I don't think we have those back home.

Lord Kain didn't know the term either, when I asked. How do you perform magic, if not by using the First Language?

[ slight pause ]

There are a few different ways, I guess. It depends on what kind of magus you are and what you're trying to do. For something like summoning you'd definitely have to draw a circle.

*nods*

A failsafe, you mean? I suppose you'd need one, if you wanted to call something against its will.

[ considers ]

If you were summoning something dangerous, yes. But otherwise the circle has a different function . . . more simply its an aid, even if that's too reductive to say.

*thoughtful*

We don't generally use that kind of magic, at home. It's theoretically possible -- I've read some papers on it, and in theory it's just a rather involved evolution of a gate sigil -- but there's really nothing out there it would be worth the time and effort to call that way. I'm assuming that's not true for you, though?

[ also thoughtful ]

I've only really summoned once. Most of the heavy lifting was done by something else. Most magecraft isn't done like that, it's true.

I have to admit, I'm curious what your methods are like.

I don't suppose you guys have magic circuits . . .?

...I can't say the term's familiar.

To use magic then . . . you said something about a 'First Language'? Do you have to write it out or say something to trigger it? Vocal incantations aren't uncommon for us either . . .

It's usually written; speaking it is difficult if you're not very careful. It's the language the gods use to speak to the universe, and the universe responds to it, so if you mispronounce a word or fail to take the conditions around you into account...

. . .

I can see how that would be a problem.

To say 'magic' for me is a little bit of a misnomer. It's easier to use when speaking with non-magi but what I do isn't the same thing at all. Something that is 'true magic' is a kind of mystery that I don't have access to. Magi use magecraft which is an approximation of something that surpasses nature, more or less.

That's why most scriveners write godwords instead of speaking them. Hence this.

*taps the inkstone*

So 'true magic' is something that can't be approximated by natural processes, and 'magecraft' is something that can? That's definitely not a distinction we make.

I don't know a lot about true magic. I [ . . . herp . . . ] had little interest in it. But magecraft is what I use and it has nothing to do with gods. It's more like taking an amount of energy and having it do what you want it to do.

So it's...exerting force on the universe to transform it, directed by your will?

I've never really thought about it like that. . . . Because a lot of the energy comes from inside of me or what I've stored somewhere.

*nodnod*

It makes sense that you'd have to store energy for something like that...but at the same time, you'd have to worry less about making your intent precise than a scrivener would, because you're communicating it without having to translate.

Knowing the mages I know . . . it's probably better that precision doesn't dominate a lot of our use. [ a bit of a huff ] While it certainly helps and if you're fighting another mage that could be the line between life and death . . . it doesn't sounds as touchy as your system.

*wryly*

Touchy is a good way to describe it.

. . . I'm Tohsaka Rin.

Dekarta Arameri. Pleased to meet you.

Same here. Did you just get here?