Parts of a Spell
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This public article was written by [Deactivated User], and last updated on 22 Sep 2015, 03:41.
[comments] mgn
1. List of Spells
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2. Parts of a Spell
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5. Word Classes
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This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
This article is a work in progress! Check back later in case any changes have occurred.
Each spell may have any number of parts. Each word falls into one of these categories:
- Components
- Elements
- Shapes
- Specifiers
- Tokens
- Joiners
- Utilities
- Components are they are akin to ditransitive verbs in most cases, but may request additional information.
- Elements are basic to many spells; generally speaking, the other categories manipulate this element in some way.
- Shapes indicate geometric organization of things; in many cases it modifies the element, but in others it is used as an argument, which are covered later.
- Specifiers have two forms -- nominal, and pronominal. The nominal form is used when it is being identified, and the pronominal form refers to that identity later in the spell. Sólach, or 'user,' may never be defined, and is defined as the thing casting the spell.
- Tokens are flags or variables that modify what came before it with what immediately follows.
- Joiners behave somewhat like conjunctions, but are similar to monotransitive verbs -- the difference is joiners tend to take arguments in the same way tokens do.
- Utilities are verbal markers that indicate something about the structure of the spell itself. They can represent open or closed parentheses, punctuation, and more.
Many of the above categories may be joined together to make one word, which takes one of these roles:
- Function
- Argument
- Descriptor
- A function is any word that takes one or more arguments; that is, it has a degree of transitivity. They are solely components, currently.
- An argument is a word or grouping of words that fill a requirement of a function. There is no limit on what the argument can include.
- A descriptor is a special kind of functional phrase or token found at the beginning of a spell. Descriptors are entirely optional, but must be used for some advanced manipulations. They take the form of a specifier's nominal form, followed by what the caster wants that specifier to refer to later on in the spell. Descriptors are somewhat unique as their structure will always be the same.
A spell is made up of three key parts: the pre-cast, the main loop, and conditionals.
The pre-cast portion of a spell is where specifiers are identified through descriptors. Mana only runs through this stage once, so anything that need only be run once can go in it as well, such as the costly taru component. Components and even functions can be used to define a specifier; this will run it once, doing whatever action is given, and then apply the specifier to this new object. From then on, the spell can use that specifier to refer to it. This stage is not optional, but may be empty, in which case the spell will "start" with dere.
The main loop is the meat of the spell. Much of the action of a spell goes in here. Mana runs through this spell continuously until a conditional ends it; otherwise, it will continue as long as the caster has the mana to support it. Magic possesses some inherent end conditions, but if a spell includes an end condition and never reaches it, mana will be continuously expended even if the spell is apparently over. This is called a mana leak. A mana leak will not occur in these situations when the functions of a spell are permanent changes, such as moctal, dácht, nach, scur, bhoge, and taru, as their affects are completed immediately. Spells that use flút -- the timing component -- will expend a very small amount of mana until the given amount of time has passed; this is not a mana leak, as the timing is intentional and the expense is so minor as to be essentially meaningless barring an extreme number of continuous spells.
The conditionals are just as important as the main loop, but may be optionally left out. They must begin with a conditional token or phrase, but everything afterward has no restrictions. There may be any number of conditionals, as many as there are conditional tokens. The caster may specify custom flags, manually set and defined in the pre-cast stage, to be used for more unique or complex spells.
Conditions may end with faroch, or 'end.' This will trigger the ending of the spell. Another condition may use facoch as it's conditional token, in which case mana will run through the conditional before ending the spell. This is usually more useful with a timing function using flút, or with custom flags.
A spell's mana cost is generally speaking dependent on the number of words, but several components are high-cost, such as taru, and some are very low cost, like hó...de...och. If a spell's mana cost is greater than the caster's pool, the spell will fail to cast, and nothing will happen. If a caster runs out of mana before a spell properly ends, the spell will end prematurely but will still run any end conditional.
There is no limit on how long each block or stage can be. They could be a paragraph long, pages long, or books long. A sentence may end at any point, and usually for organizational purposes only. Dere and other utilities work to connect the sentence to others. ✎ Edit Article ✖ Delete Article
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