Decisions of Life and Death Tech-book

What is this?

Well... since I noticed my upcoming chapter being stuffed full of technobabble on how Urano Metria worked and how this disrupted the flow of the story, I thought of putting all the stuff into the author's notes... but that would have resulted in really massive author notes, so I came up with the idea of making this additional document.

Anyone who doesn't really care about how exactly the technicalities of the spells are can just lean back and enjoy the story. But if you are a detail-freak like me... well... here are the details.

If you like those theories, feel free to use them in your own Fanficts, but please be so nice as to give a nod in my direction in your author's notes... or maybe just give a link to this "story" so you can save yourself the trouble of re-explaining the mechanics in detail ;-) .

You can find the story itself at or over my profile: s/9868181/1/Decisions-of-Life-and-Death

Motivation:

Since the chapters in which I explained all this stuff in the middle of the story are already released, I don't really want to rip them out and rewrite the chapters, but in case someone wants a quick look at the mechanics without looking for the appropriate chapter and the parts in it, I think it might be a good idea to put it into this document as well.

Celestial Spirit Magic

I thought we know very little about Celestial Spirit Magic, but now that I type it all out, it's actually quite the list. Perception is a tricky thing. Anyway, lets have a look at what we know about Celestial Spirits form the series (both confirmed and inferred)

What we know (or can infer):

*Summoning Cost: Calling a Spirit requires a certain amount of magic power to open the gate that depends on the Spirit you call. (given information, several times).

*Constant Power-drain: Keeping the Spirit's gate open has a constant power-drain, again dependant on the Spirit. During the GMG Yajima commented on Lucy sending Taurus and Scorpio away to save her magic. To me that means they must constantly use up power, otherwise how would sending them away save power.

*Spirit's strength proportional to Summoner's: Spirits get stronger as the Summoner's power grows. This was mentioned several times, the first time when they returned from Galuna if I remember correctly.

*Coming through on their own will: As Lucy grows stronger, more of her Spirits gain the ability to pass through the gate on their own will. Given information, during the GMG in the fight against the Garou Knights, further confirmed by evidence. First it was only Loke, then Virgo and finally Horologium who came through the gate of their own. Possibly Aquarius too, since I doubt Lucy would call her just to get her ass spanked for losing the keys... but we didn't really see that, so I can't fully count it.

*Power-drain on Gate self-opening: Even when Spirits come through their gate of their own will, they still have the constant power-drain. In the fighting festival arc Lucy is exhausted from using too much magic, even though she only called Sagittarius and he was there for 20 seconds or so. So I inferred that Loke got power from Lucy during the entire fight.

*Using their own power to stay: Some Spirits can come through the gate using only their own power. We've seen Loke do (and explain) it during the Tenroujima arc and when Virgo came to patch-up and re-dress Lucy and Natsu in the Nirvana arc (Lucy thinks that she has 0 magic and that Virgo had come through on her own will and power).
Considering how Loke was also subject to Human Subordination Magic while he was using only his own powers and how he seemed much weaker in that state than after re-connecting with Lucy's power, I'd also infer that Spirits can't use their full power and abilities without the connection to their summoner.

*Incantation: In the series almost always the Celestial Spirit Mage calls out the full incantation to call a Spirit, but in rare cases, it was enough to just call the Spirit's name alone (Angel did it in her fight against Lucy when re-calling Gemini to deal with Taurus for example).

*Closing the Gate: Under normal circumstance both the Mage and Spirit have to agree on closing the Gate to send a Spirit back. If the Spirit is mind-controlled, the Mage can't send it back using this normal method (Taurus in the fight Lucy vs. Shelia Blendy; Galuna arc). Some Spirits have the ability to override this rule with their will and disappear on her own whim (Aquarius... pretty much every time she was ever summoned).

*Forced Gate Closure: A skilled (or powerful) enough Mage can force the Gate of a Spirit closed, without his/her/its assent. This happened several times, but the first time on Galuna Island when Lucy fought Shelia Blendy. Considering how Loke was able to resist Karen's attempts to force his gate closed and Aquarius' comment in the aforementioned fight, this seems to be a battle of wills (or maybe power) between the Spirit and Mage, rather than a sure-fire matter.

*Multi-Summoning: Summoning two Spirits at the same time requires a lot of energy. Likely more than just the sum of the power-drains of the summoned Spirits, otherwise it should be easy to call two low-power spirits like say... Plue and Pyxis in together. From Lucy doing so on two occasions (before the Spirit King and to close the Eclipse Gate) we know that it's possible to call even more Spirits simultaneously, but this drains so much power that the Mage runs dry in a matter of seconds (or tens of seconds in the anime) and could possibly even die from it.
Recently Lucy was able to sustain three Zodiac Gates, but it left her unable to even move. Though I'd like to point out that Lucy was already exhausted from fighting many small-fry soldiers and almost being absorbed by Franmalth earlier. If she did tripple-summoning when she's freshly rested, she might fare better.

*Telepathic communication: In the Tenroujima arc we've seen Loke contact Lucy from the Spirit World through his key and relay the outcome of the fight against
Caprico to her, so we know that at least a one-way communication is possible.

*Awareness of the key's status: Since Aquarius calls Lucy out on losing her keys at least twice, we know that Spirits can somehow feel if their contracted Mage still has their key or not.

*Awareness of the Mage's status: Loke, Horologium and Virgo all come through the gate of their own will in response to Lucy or someone close to her, so they must have some way of perceiving the state of their contract-holder's surroundings. Since they do not show up reliably on their own in dangerous situation, I inferred that this awareness is limited in some way(s).

*Gemini's mind-read ability: Gemini gains access to the memories of the being they are currently imitating. We've seen Gemini use this to retrieve information from the subject's past (like the Allied Forces' plan to take down Oración Seis or what Gray knew and thought about Lucy and Hibiki). Since Gemi and Mini complained about Ichiya having perverted thoughts running through his head all the time, it's clear they can also read the current thoughts of the subject at least some of the time.
Then, during their fight with Lucy, they don't seem to know what Lucy is going to do, which hints at this reading of current thoughts not working all the time.
From these two combined pieces of information I inferred that either there is a time-lag in this mind-read ability, which prevents in-combat use (like Cobra uses his ability to hear thoughts in battle to dodge enemy attacks) or that Mages can somehow prevent Gemini from hearing their current thoughts by unexplained means.

*Blood: As recent chapters (383 and 384) have shown, Celestial Spirits bleed normal blood. But apart from liking my own version better, I also don't want to go back over several chapters and change it there.

What I made up myself:

*Power-drain dependant on activity: The exact amount of energy a Spirit is constantly draining from their summoner depends on what they are doing. Apart from a very amount to keep the gate open, they also use up the Mage's spirit power by using spells.

*How does calling a Spirit usually work:
-Phase 1, Power Drain: The keys are magic items (well... duh). When someone holds them and calls out the correct incantation, they attempt to draw the necessary power required for summoning the Spirit in question from the one that holds the key. For this step it's necessary that the Mage does not resist this draining, which usually requires a few tries when someone uses this kind Magic the fist time, but is more a matter of getting used to, rather than training or talent (Imagine it like getting over the aversion to poking into your own eyes when putting in contact lenses for example). If the Mage does not open up fully, the result is either that no Spirit is called in at all, that it can bring significantly less power to bear than their full potential (in conjunction with the summoner's power of course) or in extreme case the body of the Spirit can even be malformed (Omake Megane-Fairy).
Just whispering the incantation is enough to initiate the spell, but it must be audible.
This power-drain is not constant throughout the entire process, but pulls as much power as is needed at that moment. The exact timing and amount of this power-drain is different for each key.
-Phase 2, shaping the magic: In this step, the key uses the magic power from the mage to automatically mould them through the necessary processes and turns them into something that the Spirit Mage can use again. I called this finished magic-power construct "spell forms". By themselves these spell forms can't do anything, so a last step is required. Up to this point the Mage can still interrupt the process regain the invested power without any losses.
-Phase 3, final connection: In this final phase the Celestial Spirit Mage has to connect the spell-forms with the Celestial Spirit Realm to enable a stable tunnel through the dimensional borders so the Spirit can come in. If something goes wrong in this final phase, some or even all of the invested magic power will be lost.

*Silent Summoning: If a Mage is skilled, talented, trained or lucky enough, they can summon a Spirit without calling out the incantation. The differences are only in phase 1. The Mage has to prepare the correct amount of power and force it into the ring at the correct pacing.
If too little power is used, the spell-forms won't be completed and the power flows back to the mage. Apart from time, nothing is lost.
If too much power is pumped into the ring, three results are possible, depending on how much it was.
-Too much but within tolerance: A little bit too much, but not enough to destabilize the spell-forms will result in the excess power bleeding off and thus being lost. Spell can work and other than higher than necessary power-drain there are no other detrimental effects.
-Slightly out of the tolerance: Pumping in more than the spell-forms can balance out will overcharged them to the degree of losing integrity. In this case the spell-forms fall apart and the spell fails. The summoning fails and a part of the energy bleeds into the surroundings, while the rest goes back to the Mage. The exact amount of lost energy depends on severe the overcharge was.
-Clearly too much power: Overload. The spell-forms practically burst apart and all the invested magic is lost. In extreme cases this can even lead to minor injuries on the part of the body that touched the key at the time.
Just getting the right amount of overall power is not enough. This power also has to be fed into the key at the correct pace. Just pouring everything in at once will overload the spell-form (see "Clearly too much power"). Making mistakes in the timing will result in the same problems as failing to fully open yourself to the key in case of the incantation and will most likely result in a failed summoning, with only partial or no power-loss.
If both power and timing are correct, the second phase goes automatically and the Mage can connect the complete spell-forms with the Spirit World as usual.

*Partial Incantation (i.e. just calling the name): They are easier than silent summoning and harder than calling the incantation, but I haven't made up my mind about the details yet ;-) .

*Summon without a key: Spinning the progression of incantation and silent summoning further, it should theoretically be possible to summon a Spirit without the key, if someone were to learn the spell-forms produced within a key, but those spell-forms are very complex. It would require a lot of time to study the spell-forms in enough detail to be able to recreate them on your own and also require a lot of skill. I doubt I'll ever use this idea in this story, but hey, it's there.

*Telepathic communication - modified: Since Spirits can send messages to the Mage and can receive certain inputs from the Mage's surroundings, I thought it should be possible to establish a two-way communication.
On the Mage's side this consists of concentrating on the Spirit's key and tickle a tiny amount of magic into the key. This will allow the top-most layers of your thoughts to be heard by the Spirit. With a bit of training, this can become as effortless as normal talking, but just in your mind.

*Gemini mind-read - modified: In my story Gemini's mind-read ability of current thoughts is instant, but not assured. There are techniques (like meditation, clearing your mind or thinking about junk like advertisements on the surface) which can prevent this ability from working. In the end trying to read someone's thoughts turns into a battle of wills and power. The more powerful the summoner is, the more likely Gemini is to be able to break through any defensive measure. But a strong will or certain protective spells can diminish the effectiveness of the mind-reading or even block it altogether.

There's also one more possibility with Celestial Spirit Magic that I came up with, but since I have already planed that into an upcoming battle, I don't want to spoil it just yet ;-)

My Theories on Urano Metria

Knowledge from the series and inferences:

When Lucy first cast the spell she was so low on magic power that she couldn't even keep on her feet anymore and yet she managed to pull off a super-powerful spell that was enough to reduce Angel from not hurt one bit to one last attack away from being out of magic, so I think that the energy from the spell came from somewhere else. With it being the "Ultimate Celestial Spirit Magic" it would make sense for the power to come from the Celestial Spirit World.
Since the spell was more powerful when she cast is archive-induced, but out of magic than when she cast it comparatively fresh during and boosted by joining with Gemini in the GMG and still commented how it was less powerful, I also think that the more perfect you cast Urano Metria, the more energy comes from the Spirit World and the less energy it takes from the Mage.

My made up details of it's inner workings:

The spells works by making connections to the 88 constellations that Celestial Spirit Magic are based on.
First you have to speak the incantation correctly, or the spell will simply fall apart, but the incantation is just the beginning. It enables you to form the connections, establishes the protective cocoon and enables you to control the energy balls that the spell creates, but you still need to make the 88 connections yourself in a similar way as the complete spell-forms are connected to the Spirit World in the last phase of calling a Spirit.

*If you make a connection you get an immediate flow of power from the Spirit world that kick-starts the formation of the protective envelope and helps to sustain the rest of the spell.
*If you fail to make a connection, that 1/88th of the spell's power is taken out of your own magic power pool and if you have less power than would be siphoned from the Spirit World, the spell will be weaker accordingly.
*You also have to keep those connections intact, which means that it becomes harder and harder as the spell progresses.
*All connections have to be made in sequence and if you fail to make one or lose one, there's no way to "go back" and re-try or re-establish it. Lost is lost.
*In roughly the first third to half of the spell, it's weave is quite unstable. Failing to make and keep enough connections will result in the spell falling apart and leaves you pretty much out of magic.
*After you get through the critical phase, the spell will only completely fail if you lose all connections. Even a single one will still make the spell fire, but with just that one it will be very weak and take 87/88th out of your own power-reserves, leaving you most likely depleted afterwards, despite not having a strong effect.
*If the spell should be performed absolutely perfectly (all 88 connections made and held), it would vast destructive power and cost next to no magic power to perform, since you only need the little initial costs to make the first connection and from then on out the spell is powered from the Celestial Spirit World.
*Each of the power balls that are created during the spell can be controlled individually and could be shot at different targets if you feel like it.
*After calling out "Urano Metria" you gain magical awareness of the entire range of the spell. You can't really see it with your eyes, but feel it through the magic of the spell. This magical vision is immune to blinding by bright lights (very useful since the spell creates a lot of light) and gives more details and normal Human vision.
*One component of the spell is a protective cocoon of magic power that was intended to protect the caster from the collateral damage that the spell would cause on higher power levels, but also works to protect the caster from enemy attacks. It starts to form from the very start and reaches it's full protection at the word "Hikaru" (inspired by Caelum's shot being dissipated in the anime). Initially this barrier looks like something between clouds and flames in a warm and bright shade of yellow and billows around slowly. As the spell progresses it picks up speed until it's like a miniature tornado around the caster.

Considering how the spell looked completely different in the Nirvana and GMG arcs, I didn't feel a need to stick too closely to either visual representation :-P . Initially the protective cocoon looks like in the Nirvana arc, but changes appearance during the progression of the spell. The energy balls look like the beautiful version in the Nirvana arc, rather than the less impressive visuals of the GMG (I wish the new animation teams could redo the entire GMG arc, or at least a few key episodes, like Lucy vs. Flare among others).

Lamy's Powers

As you probably noticed, I made Lamy into a Succubus in my story and her powers are based all around seduction, though she also sports dangerous claws. While I have worked out how her abilities work, I haven't been able to come up with good names. If you have suggestions, I'd be grateful.

*Pheromones: The caster can use magic/curse power to create pheromones that have limited effect on the same gender and a strong effect on the opposite gender. How strongly the victim is affected depends on their force of will.
These pheromones do not induce lust in the victim's body, but attack the mind itself. They use the capacity for love and honest affection in the target, redirect it at the caster and amplify it greatly, effectively making the victim fall in love with their attacker. Beings incapable of loving others are immune to this effect.

The effects of this power start with slowed reflexes and movement speed, increment to full paralysis and culminate in total domination of the victims mind.
The closer the victim is to the caster, the stronger the effect gets. The caster also has limited control over the direction in which the pheromones are sent out, which enables her to either spread it around herself to affect several targets or concentrate it on few or just one target. The higher the concentration, the stronger the effect.
Since they are airborne, they are affected by wind.

*Red Mist: This is pretty much the same as the pheromones, but in much stronger concentration and has an added aphorismatic effect. The caster has greater control over the mist than over the pheromones, which enables her to keep it from dissipating into the surrounding air and even resist a certain amount of wind, but this added control only works within arms-reach distance. The Red Mist uses up more magic power than the pheromones, both for creating it and controlling it.

*Common effects: Being sexually aroused is making the victim more susceptible to Lamy's powers, which is also why she tried to have sex with Natsu after he resisted her powers and was only immobilized instead of enslaved. If Lucy hadn't stopped her, Natsu would have become her mindless slave.

17.05.2014: Added to multi-summoning and added Blood section.
10.06.2014: Added Lamy's Powers section.