The Tomes: Section I The Elementary Spells: Fire
To the newest practitioner of the magick arts,
Welcome to the world of magick and its applications. I am Ebon, the High Black Mage at Mysidia, one who has had many years of experience with the effects and applications of various spells. I am grateful of this opportunity to introduce you to the world of black magick.
First I must say that simply because the school is known as black magick, that does not imply that the magick users themselves are evil. The term came about due to the classification of the types of effects that our spells produce, more detrimental and dangerous. One should not fear the spells themselves, but the caster because it is just as likely for a good hearted person to wield black magick as it is an evil individual to be skilled with the healing arts and other white magicks.
My colleague Iv, wrote in the previous tome concerning the Cure spell about mana, I wish now to elaborate more on what this is as I know that to the magickal novice, this is vital. Mana is the fuel used in casting spells, the stronger the spell, the more mana there is needed to cast it. All of us have an amount of mana that surrounds us, those who become more skilled with magick have a denser mana field around themselves. As to where mana comes from, many mages have debated that mana is not so much a physical material as the air or water, but rather air, water, fire, and the earth are all physical manifestations of an energy, mana that has been argued to have been a constant energy that cycles through its use to belief that there are conduits that leak mana itself into our world in the form of large crystals. Returning to the subject of one's own mana field, it would be apparent that even after extended spell casting, the mana around the caster will then dwindle, and then comes the matter of replenishing it. Just as one can become physically exhausted, one can become mentally exhausted as well, so the solution in most cases to replenish the field of mana around yourself would be to sleep. There are also some items at shops, although quite expensive, call ethers that allow for miniscule replenishing of mana if one is in the heat of battle, or cannot afford to sleep at the current time.
Now it is time for your instruction on your first spell, Fire. Like Cure, this is a spell that is often taught to all incoming mages of mysidia, black and white alike. This spell helps all students grasp and understanding on the black school of magick. Fire is also the most critical spell in the three "elemental" not to be confused with the term elementary as used for the basic spells of both schools. The other two are Thunder, which I feel is an improper term considering that is the word for the sound, and Blizzard. Fire in a sense is one of the easier spells to cast in that it is easier for the beginning caster to channel their energy into that which is combusted energy itself. To cast fire, one must understand how fire itself occurs and works. Through rapid movements or high friction, one would be able to start an ordinary fire, with this spell, one must channel the energy of the spell into the friction needed to spark a fire. The other component of fire is that it needs fuel to burn. Aside from the target itself, the majority of the fuel needed to create projectile forms of fire would be the energy itself of mana used in the spell casting.
"Magic energies give me a torch, to see clearly or to scorch! Fire!"
Like other spells, this one will take some time to master, and should not be dismayed in how they first cast their spells, one of the problems I have seen with many new mages is that they have trouble figuring out how to form the fire into an attack, which by the way is probably one of the most useful magick attacks in that many monsters in the world are like all living things and are susceptible to being burned unless they happen to have developed defenses against fire. One of the early ways to wield the spell effectively is to form the spell as small flaming streaks that pass by the target. Although the chances of actually setting the target on fire are low, these streaks should be able to have enough heat to scorch the surface of the target.
Once you feel comfortable wielding and shaping fire this way, it may be time for you to try other styles, I would recommend having the fire erupt from the ground underneath the target; not only does it catch them off guard, but it may also allow you to harm them in a much more vulnerable area since many enemies carry shield and thus might be ready to block the spell. After you have mastered this version of the spell, I suggest you return to the fire streak manifestation of fire and work on increasing the intensity and size of the heat into that of fireballs. Fireballs can be quite useful in that not only do they deal fire damage, they also have the propensity to act as a concussive force and sometimes knock targets about.
Finally, when you feel ready, you may be interested in forming fire into an explosion of heat. Think of the eruption style of casting mentioned before in this tome and think of a tremendous expansion of fire from a single area. Although it will take quite a bit of mana to fuel a fire of such intense heat even for a few seconds, I believe it to the most efficient and powerful variant of the spell. Also note that Fire is extremely useful against the rotting bodies of the undead as well as monsters which have been only exposed to cold climates.
In conclusion, I believe this spell to be quite useful and highly recommend learning it if one intends on learning other black magick spells. In the next tome, I will explain of the instruction of the Thunder spell.
-Ebon, High Black Mage