What is the Spell System and how does it work?

1. Introduction

In my stories and mind game, spells are always being casted one way or another going off in every which direction. Yet, the system on how it works is very easy to understand. A typical view of one spell, thunder14, is shown in the animation above.

This report isn't all that important, but very important if you are to understand my script and my mind game in general.

2. Spell basics

Spells have a series name and some have multiple levels of the same series. You've seen fire36, ice36, ultima6, normalize2, you name it, it's found in my stories and scattered throughout my site. What do they all mean? The answer is simple. Let's take thunder14:

Thunder14
^^^^^^^**

The area marked by ^'s is the name of the spell series. The number is the level. Thunder14 is an attacking spell using thunder elemental properties. Damage done is calculated by this seemingly long formula:

( MAG ^ ( 1 / 3 ) × MAP × 2 ^ ( MLVL ÷ 2 - 1 ) × EDEF × .95 × CSC ) - DEF ^ 1.5 <= DMG <= MAG ^ ( 1 / 3 ) × MAP × 2 ^ ( MLVL ÷ 2 - 1 ) × EDEF × 1.05 × CSC ) - DEF ^ 1.5

( MAG ^ ( 1 / 3 ) × MAP × 2 ^ ( MLVL ÷ 2 - 1 ) × EDEF × .95 × CSC ) - DEF ^ 1.5 <= DMG <= MAG ^ ( 1 / 3 ) × MAP × 2 ^ ( MLVL ÷ 2 - 1 ) × EDEF × 1.05 × CSC ) - DEF ^ 1.5

In this wacky, very long range formula with lots of variables, MAG is what your magic stat is^*, MAP is your magic attack power [which varies among spells; see the individual spell series report for the info], MLVL is the level of the spell used [For fire29, the level is 29; does not apply to the ultima series and nonattacking spells], EDEF is the elemental defense^** for the target [value is 1 if nonelemental attack is used], CSC stands for "criticals and supercriticals"^***, which are hits that deal more damage than normal, depending on how you hit the target. DEF is the target's defense, and DMG is the damage caused. This formula relates to the damage done in the target area. To find the net damage, just multiply your result by the percentage of the area of the target covered. That is, if you only affect 70% of the target, the net damage is 70% lower than the base damage. That's a lot of variables involved. To learn how to work out this formula either by hand or by calculator, refer to the FAQ page.

There are numerous spells and in my script, I mentioned something like a few trillion. The actual amount is kept secret until the new version of my script has been successfully registered to copyright. This table below describes all the spell's main basics, and the spell's names are a link for a good reason: you can actually watch the spell's effects in short AVI videos I've created [now to be animated GIFs as many frames are identical to one another, if only I can compress it a bit better....] [All videos are 160x120 in size and play at 10 frames per second and are of very low quality to help with compression to seriously shorten the download time. All videos, created from drawing a series of bitmap images with small changes in each, exactly as the image shown at the top, only with a slightly different effect with the target being a cubic rock.]. Also, you can learn a lot more about each spell including each individual level's effects in words, average damage they cause, the root value, and more.

3. Note about the animations

Though there are many videos to download in the future and available now, you might encounter a problem when trying to view it. It's often because you don't do the full process. Here's how you view the videos, if you wish to see them:

First, find the spells series you're interested in and click the link. Then, in the table, select the appropriate spell level group to download the video. Save it to your hard drive, otherwise, you can't view it. Most videos are no more than 25 KB, but when fully uncompressed, they become 10 MB, which wouldn't be that big of an issue given that most modern hard drives can store 80 gigs of disk space (meaning you can have nearly 8000 of these 10 meg videos). Second, open up your directory listing [i.e. the "My Documents" directory], and go to the location in which you saved your file. Unzip the zip file. After you unzip it, open up the new folder that appears. Inside is another zip file often about double to triple the download size. Unzip that zip file. Doing so will reveal the AVI file which is the video. Double-click it and it'll start playing. If you can't unzip the zip files, you'll need to download a program that'll do so and Winzip is the best program to doing so. You can download the 21-day trial program here.

Instead of huge AVI files, and that the process to viewing them is very complicated, as well as the fact that quite a few frames are identical. Although the AVI files are smaller when dual compressed, the GIF files may be about the same size (though, strangely enough, they compress about 60%, which, easily, would put the animated GIF's file size smaller than even the dual-compressed AVI).

4. A small list some spell series

There's also a complete list of as many spell failures that I can think of ranging from having insufficient spell power and forgetting to set your target location to rare ones like the lack of sources and more. The complete list is located here with what causes them and how to fix it, or prevent it.

Spell series name	Use(s)	Levels	Animations made^*
Fire	Fire elemental attack on target	36	All available!^{ and *}
Ice	Ice elemental attack on target	36	Ice 1-9 available
Thunder	Thunder elemental attack on target	36	Need to be redone
Quake	Earth elemental attack on target	36	Need to be redone
Poison	Poison elemental attack on target	36	No
Windstorm	Weak wind elemental attack on target	9	No special spell effects
Tornado	Strong wind elemental attack on target	9	No
Water	Water elemental attack on target	6	Need to be redone
Holy	Holy elemental attack on target	6	All that's needed
Gravitate	Gravity elemental attack on target	6	No spell effects
Dark	Dark elemental attack on target	6	No
Ultima	Annihilating the target by antimatter collisions^†	6	ultima 1-6
Cure	Restoring hit points to target	1	Needs to be slightly redone
Heal	Removing weak bad status effects level 192 to 1	1	No
Normalize(2)	Removes all bad status effects/Removes all status effects, good and bad.	2	Normalize needs to be redone for more accuracy as it's quite inaccurate
Delete	Remove non-living things and convert them to the medium that surrounds them	1	Needs to be redone
Create	Create something of the caster's choice	1	Effects vary
Edit	Edits the existing target to something else [does not include stats]	1	Effects vary
Move	Target moves however the caster wishes	1	Effects vary
Haste	Doubles the target's speed of motion by making the target's time go by half as fast	1	No
Life	Raising the dead	1	Needs to be redone
Life-cure	Raising the dead and getting them in good condition	1	No
Slow	Cuts the target's speed in half by making their time go by twice as fast	1	No
Stop	Stops the target's actions for 1 hour	1	No
Mute	Makes a sound-proof barrier around the target so no sounds emit from it	1	No spell effects
Scan(2, 3)	scans target's current and max hit points, current and max spell power, and elemental defenses/same as scan, but gets the entire primary status as well/same as scan2 but gets all stats except 5th, 7th, and 9th status bars.^‡	3	No spell effects

Table footnotes:
* This column lets you know what spell effects animations, if any, have been created that you can see. Some spells, however, have no spell effects, so there will be no video for that spell. Others have effects that vary with each use. Also, because there's a serious bug with everyone of them except ultima6, these videos that were done need to all be redone, however, one video at 100 frames only takes an hour [except holy and dark as they might be three hours or so].
** Because the spell's effects are identical for some spells, the level range is given.
*** Some videos have something that has either been changed, or is too inaccurate. If the text becomes white, then the video has been redone and has been uploaded for you to download.
^† Ultima6's nature involves using extreme force to shatter the atomic makeup completely. Read the spell's information for more on this.
^‡ This involves a lot of Status System terms. To learn about the Status System, read all of this report for lots of details. If you don't feel like reading that huge report, read the summarized version instead.

5. The basic nature of spells

The physics behind almost all of the spells is in the effects of the shockwaves that are used for changing atoms around. Do note that this is untested and may or may not be physically possible. This is just a concept on how these spells likely work. Understanding the concept of having shockwaves changing atoms is quite complicated, but somewhat easy to understand. They are very related to sound waves. If you combine two identical sound waves where the high points match the high points of the identical wave, you'll get a louder sound. If you were to combine the same two, but having the high points as the low points on the other wave, you'll cancel out the sounds making them almost inaudible. This same concept works for these shockwaves. Also, another thing you'll need to understand is the effect of distortion caused from speed. If the sound source was coming toward you, the waves "compress" and you hear a higher frequency. If the sound source was headed away, the waves "expand" and you hear a lower frequency. This same pricipal works with the shockwaves, only with an added twist. The first wave is sent at a given speed, then the second wave is sent at a slightly faster speed [typically of a much lesser degree as distance increases] with the "wave" somewhat expanded, just enough so that when the front of the second wave meets up with the front of the first wave that the two waves greatly amplify each other as the concept of blending two identical soundwaves with highs to highs. This sudden amplification causes a burst in the targetted area and forces atoms to change around. How this is done is by special encoding in the shockwave.

Each spell has it's own special effects. If the shockwaves, as described above, are sent out toward the targetted area, Like sound waves, if all were identical, you couldn't hear a piano or cello [nor tell the difference]. Sound waves have their own unique patterns. The same goes for the shockwaves. Only shockwaves are far more sophisticated than sound and light waves. Shockwaves must be quite precise, otherwise certain failures can occur, especially the distorted failure as explained on number 14 here. Describing the encoding of a shockwave is trying to imagine the sound produced when visually seeing the sound wave. It's next to impossible without some very good thinking skills and strong knowledge with sound. When a shockwave for fire18 is sent out, it has it's own encoding. Like sound, items that are nearly identical have small differences. The same goes for a shockwave. The shockwave for fire18 is almost the same as level 10 to 17 fire. There is a much greater difference, but still with a lot of similarity between fire 18 and fire 9, which have somewhat different spell effects, but the principal of changing atoms to hydrogen atoms and giving the hydrogen atoms a small spark to make the fire remains the same. The shockwaves, however, are quite a bit different for a fire spell to an ice or thunder spell, though fire has more similarities to thunder than does ice as thunder is one great big spark and fire has a miniature spark. Ice has no sparks at all. For complicated spells, like the ultima series, the shockwaves are sent out so finely tuned for nearly 1.8 seconds [estimated, have no source to judge on, so accuracy is very weak]!

Because of the nature of these shockwaves, spells have an odd disadvantage to other methods of attacking. Spells are far more effective at long range than short range whereas it's the opposite with other methods [more effective at short range than long]. You couldn't get a bullet to reach the moon, but the shockwaves can reach it in about 1.4 seconds, which is somewhat slower than the speed of light [Light takes 1.3 seconds to reach the Moon from Earth.]. Yet, spells don't work in locations in space from the insufficiency of a source, which causes a unique failure notice not possible elsewhere. Through an AP-costly ability to convert light particles [photons] into matter, spells can then work anywhere, though they take much longer to juice up, increasing in length as you get more distant from light sources, especially in the intergalactic regions of the universe.

6. About the failure notices

This concept is much harder to understand. First, it takes an ability costing in the high nonillions of ability points to learn^{† and ‡}. After something goes wrong, typically a failure in the name of immunity to an effect due to defenses of the target and/or the type of target, some of those shockwaves, in a far weaker version return to the caster and, with the special "view failures" ability, you can see that the spell failed because the target is immune to the effect you're trying to place on it. Sometimes, immunity has a special reflector on that type of attack, which is why some of the shockwaves get returned to the caster. There are cases in which the shockwaves never get sent out, usually due to insufficient spell power or the lack of a specified destination where the shockwaves intersect. The special ability of "view failures" is not required for these occasions.

7. How to cast a spell

First, nothing will happen with you as you seriously lack the supernatural abilities required to even cast any spell, but the process is quite simple. This image below shows you graphical representation of the four steps involved.

First, make a fist like the first part shows while standing in a very upright position. Then move this fist up to your forehead in tact [without getting it unhooked].
When the fist touches the forehead, a greenish glow [color code 70C040^††] appears around you standing no more than 1/32 of your height for 2 seconds [that is, if you're 64 inches tall, the glow's spikes will be no more than 2 inches tall]. After the greenish glow fades away, undo your fist and drop your left hand to the side hanging down.
With your right hand, move it back then jerk it forward quickly with the palm facing directly in front of you [step 4], even if the target is behind you. After the spell’s effects end, continue as normal [unless the spell is repeated from casting it multiple times consecutively]. It should take about 4 seconds to do this entire process before the spell’s effects start. Sometimes, a message saying "spell failed: reason for failure" appears after the spell’s effects end in a 404040-colored 3/4 transparent box with white [FFFFFF in color] text staying there for 3 seconds. For more details on this, refer to the spell failures list for the complete list and how to resolve the error. For mass-selecting [selecting multiple targets], the process is exactly the same, but the spell’s effects are played on the targets individually for some spells, but once for others. What I mean by this is the life spell would make only one angel appear, but when the cure spell follows, the effect is played on all targets.

8. Obtaining a spell yourself

Could you get one of these spells yourself? Indeed, you can, however, it'll take several millenia due to the high ability-point costs required. Humans, on average, gain about 4.1 million ability points a year, spells, weak ones even, take in the trillions of ability points just to learn. A typical example is that of fire, which takes 1.2 trillion ability points to learn. Worse yet, you need to meet other prerequesists before it can even be used, let alone be able to start learning. A key ability is being able to convert spell power into shockwaves, which takes a costly 900 billion ability points right there alone. Yet, you'll need to be able to harness energy far more than what a light bulb goes through in just a year! 1 unit of spell power is approximately 2 billion Joules! The others, by the time you'd gain the 900 billion ability points after two hundred years learning it, would practically already be met.

The ability could also be transferred from one living thing to another, but the transferrer has to have a copy of the ability learned and have learned an ability costing several sexdecillion [1E51] ability points to get. By the time a normal human would get the ability to transfer abilities, the Sun would have long gone exploded, yet, no star you see today would no longer exist plus countless decillions [1E33] more star life-cycles past that! In other words, unless a human could live to about 350 years minimum, being able to cast these spells is impossible.

Machines would be our best bet, though, first, humans need to figure out how to create these powerful shockwaves that force atoms to change around. Next, you'll need a machine that can send these shockwaves in very high precision, let alone finding the exact combination, frequency patterns and correct amplitudes. It's possible though, though it may be a century or two in the future.

9. How much spell power?

Spells consume spell power, plenty of it, some far more than others, sometimes, the spell power consumption can be mysteriously higher or lower than normal, but there's reasons for it. Most spells don't fall much below a billion spell power for a root value, however, if you have a high SPR stat, this is of minimal worry as it'll take quite little. If you want to know how much spell power a spell takes, first, find the spell series in the table above and click the link to bring up the spell's level-specific and general spell series details. Find the spell level you want to know about and look for it's root value. Then, identify what your SPR would be when you want to cast that spell. Given those two variables, you can find out exactly how much spell power you'd consume given this newly found formula:

SPC = RV × ( ( 1,000,000,000 - SPR ) ÷ 1,000,000,000) ^ .9

SPC = RV × ( ( 1,000,000,000 - SPR ) ÷ 1,000,000,000) ^ .9

This formula has two variables. RV is the root value, the spell power used when SPR is 0. SPR is, of course, your spirit stat. For certain spells, like move, edit, etc., another variable is required. Just multiply your answer in this formula by what is said about the spell's information [see level-specific details table]. A high SPR reduces the spell power cost. At the max, 999,999,999, spell power consumption is almost zero, only a very slight bit is used, even on something costing in the trillions [or quadrillions as ultima6 takes]. Note: the closer spirit gets to the max, the much more effective the spells become, even with a 1% difference, high SPR values can be extremely helpful, but when the SPR is low, that same 1% increase [even if it was a single unit instead of a percentage] would have practically no effect on it. If the spirit reaches 100,000,000, focus on increasing it as fast as you can.

That's all there basically is to the Spell System. Just click the name to learn more about that spell. If you'd like to know how I make these videos and what I do to make these videos behind the scenes, go here.

10. Pros and cons about spells

Like a cannon over a bow and arrow, there are pros and cons between them. The same goes with spells and today's most common weapons (usually guns). Here are the pros and cons between the two:

Key:
!+ A very positive feature
+ A positive feature
0 A neutral feature
- A negative feature
!- A very negative feature

Feature	Spells	Guns	Other conventional weapons
Range	!+ almost unlimited, depending on your vision	- a few miles at best	- a few thousand miles
Accuracy	0 Good, but very risky (beginners could have their target spot a few hundred miles with ease from where they intended)	+ strong	+ strong
Damage capabilities	!+ extreme on entire target and only that target	- high, but in a small area	0 extreme, but also effects other nearby objects
Armor penetration	++ you cannot defend yourself through armor with spells no matter how good it is	- weak	0 moderate
Usage requirements	!- a phenomenal amount of energy	!+ Just gunpowder, a bullet, and the gun itself	0 just the casing, a lot of explosive, and something to carry the massive object
Effects	!+ comes in many kinds of effects, though sometimes time stops	!- just a loud bang and not much else	+ Big explosions and sometimes shockwaves
Effectiveness in war	!+ can wipe out an entire army in just 4 seconds	!- takes one bullet per enemy, but sometimes it takes more	0 can take out an entire army in a given area, but it's not always effective
Effectiveness for the public	!+ can allow instant restoration of diseases and injuries; can also be used to put on shows	- only useful for a limited number of applications	!- not useful at all
In rescue operations	!+ can be used to eliminate the dangers completely	!- rarely of any use	!- rarely of any use
In the scientific community	0 may or may not be useful	+ can be useful for studies for developing better versions	+ can be useful for studies for developing better versions
Space exploration	!+ can supply ones needs indefinitely as long as you have atoms, but not useful in the space ship (teleport spells are better than a spaceship anyway, much faster)	!- almost no use	!- almost no use
In the business world	- super fast mass production, but extremely high energy costs, often higher than it takes to produce something the normal way	0 good for sales and businesses can make a decent profit, but only affects a small number of businesses	- not at all useful
If in evil hands	!- can be extremely devistating to anyone, anything, anywhere	0 not all that devistating	- can be very devistating to a particular place

Footnotes:
* Magic is the power of using special abilities. To learn more, go to section 2 here.
** The 10 elements are explained in detail on This page.
*** Critical hits and supercritical hits are explained in the Status System report on under the damage estimation formula in section 5 here.
^† A nonillion is a one followed by 30 zeros. To see this and other large number names from the millions and billions you know to the centillions and beyond, refer to the FAQ page.
^‡ Ability points are ability-learning "points" that are rewarded from clearing events. To learn more, read section 1 here.
^†† This is one of those hexadecimal color names I use frequently. To find this exact color, refer to this small, detailed report.