Chapter 23
A Comprehensive Introduction (Mana 5)
What is mana?
Many people across the world and throughout the ages have asked this question.
Many of these individuals were human mages, seekers of knowledge and power; a few of them were even the famed otherworldly heroes, that mysterious group of mighty and knowledgeable people who have been called to the world countless times.
But while many have strived to find a definitive answer, not even the most elderly of elves or ancient dragons have fully succeeded.
If they have, neither of those secretive species has told us what they found.
With that preface out of the way, we return to the question at hand: what is mana?
Mana, often referred to as 'magical energy', is typically an invisible force that primarily flows through the world in underground rivers commonly known as 'leylines'.
Sharper-eyed readers will notice the two important qualifiers in that sentence, usually invisible and mostly flowing.
The exact nature of leylines is uncertain; as far as any investigation has been able to tell, there is nothing about leylines that forces mana to flow through them.
There are no metaphysical or physical boundaries that guide mana to flow to them; they have no apparent limit to the amount of mana that can enter them. Never in recorded history has a ‘leyline’ been seen to burst in the way that a normal river might.
Importantly, no investigation of the leylines has ever been able to discover why mana moves faster while flowing within the completely invisible boundaries of a leyline.
And this is shown by the fact that, while most of the magical energy of the world does indeed flow through leylines, acting in a way that those summoned from Earth compare to highways or railways, there is also a vast amount of mana that moves in a slower and more local manner.
This is a problem for those who are interested, because the difference of speed between locally flowing mana and mana that moves away using the leylines is tremendous.
The speed that mana can move at can generally be calculated once you know the qualities of the mana in question. The most significant impact on the speed of a mana flow comes from the density and quality of the energy in question, whereas the type or elements of the mana a mage is working with might have minimal impact in some cases or be very impactful in others.
Why is any of this relevant at all?
It is because while the speed of mana outside of a leyline can vary depending on the mana in question, within a leyline the speed of all mana is identical.
And very, very fast.
Mana flowing quickly is commonly observed in nature.
Low-density, high-quality mana, especially of water or wind natures, moves very quickly indeed, often flowing up into the atmosphere in a mirror of the leylines or the natural weather-based phenomenon that those from Earth call 'slipstream'.
And yet, earth-natured mana, or high-density mana, moves by comparison at an almost glacial pace; in fact, mana of a high enough density changes its nature from a largely invisible and difficult to physically interact with energy into a physically solid object.
Not only does high-density mana become visible, but it also stops moving altogether, solidifying into mana crystals.
Mana crystals will be discussed in greater detail during a later chapter.
And yet, no matter the density of the mana, no matter its nature, all mana that successfully enters a leyline begins to move at an extremely high speed, far higher than the observed top speeds of the fastest mana types when it is outside of a leyline.
Why does any of this matter?
Your local mana, whatever its nature might be, will flow into the leylines and disappear to somewhere else in the world.
This is why deserts occasionally have ice and water mana, which ultimately leads to the formation of oases.
This is why the frozen tundra, which is submerged in ice mana, occasionally melts, allowing its occupants to farm for short periods each year as fire-based mana from the leylines arrives to facilitate the melting.
In the end, the leylines are why our world is not a massive block of crystallised mana, because the mana that is generated by dungeons, which somehow create vast amounts of mana even as they consume it; by mana springs whose numbers only ever seem to increase; and by the people who generate their mana as well, flows into the leylines and goes elsewhere.
Some of it flows around the world, seemingly forever.
Some of it gets used up or consumed by magic spells, enchantments and the rare Manavore.
Some of it even finds those rare places in the world where mana crystals always seem to grow.
But if there is a single basic fact about mana that everyone should be aware of, it is that it moves, and by moving it creates the world we live in.
“I hadn’t expected the first chapter to be about leylines.”
Said Sylvia bashfully.
Mary turns her eyes away from the book to stare at her maid and thinks, ‘You don’t say?’
Seeing her princess's deadpan look, Sylvia quickly moves to explain further.
“Well, book learning has never really been my thing.” Sylvia explains, her cheeks reddening.
“How are your mana reserves? Can we do another chapter?” Sylvia asks.
Mary turns her attention inward, having almost forgotten that she was running a passive spell, and notices that her reserves have decreased by roughly a third.
Mary blinks in mild surprise. ‘Easily another chapter then, maybe even two.’
But had the spell been working correctly?
Mary turns her attention away from how much mana she has left and checks to see how much her reserves have expanded.
Mary frowns as she gauges her progress.
‘By the looks of it, a single meal from Sylvia is worth more than my full reserves.’
Mary’s frown deepens, and she corrects herself.
‘Maybe even three meals. That’s not going to change unless I can improve the ambient mana rune or the formula logic that I’m using.’
Mary nods to herself. ‘Some increase is better than none. And Sylvia did say that her milk would lose effectiveness eventually.’
She turns her eyes to meet Sylvia's and nods firmly, ‘I can go on.’
“Well then, let's read the next chapter, shall we? Looks like this one is about natural mana."
The nature of an area’s mana is highly dependent on the environment.
Why does this mean exactly?
This means that in isolation, a highly populated city may exhibit a diverse mix of mana natures, but it will typically lean towards a neutral type. This phenomenon occurs because even specialist mages still output a mix of mana types, the nature they specialise in (such as fire) and a largely neutral mana with very little nature.
Such neutral mana has also been called “human” mana; the reader will note that a specific species has been used to describe this mana. Of course, this book was written by humans for humans, so that is unsurprising.
However, the distinction is important because there are other races living on Terra.
Perhaps the most famed of those races are the Dwarfs and Elves; the neutral mana that these two races emanate is subtly different from Humans.
Perhaps unsurprisingly a “dwarf” natured mana trends towards being earthy, while an “elf” natured mana trends towards life and nature.
Is this important?
Partially.
The population density required for this to become a significant factor is extremely rare on Terra, and even if it is possible to gather the millions of people needed to influence the ambient mana of a location, such an action is considered dangerous and foolish.
A handful of the largest dwarf holds have richer mineral veins; these mineral veins also slowly but visibly regenerate, something that many dwarf kingdoms covet, but so do many other races.
Some human cities possess such abnormal amounts of ambient mana that they can positively impact enchantments and item creation. However, such conditions can also lead to unusually severe weather and other effects, making cities prime targets for monsters.
Elves don't usually gather in large enough numbers to impact the environment, partly because there are fewer of them than other races, but also intentionally so that they don’t negatively impact the nature that they cherish.
That is what happens in massive cities, but what about the environment in general?
Environmental mana tends to match the environment; this sounds obvious, but many people don’t truly understand what this means.
It means that if you live in a fire-blasted desert, then the ambient mana will match that desert.
The mana generated by any local mana springs will be a mix of fire- and wind-based.
This is worse than it sounds, as we know from otherworlders that Earth has no mana, yet extreme environments like deserts exist.
On Terra, where we have mana and an environment will produce mana that matches the environment, it means that an already extreme location becomes even more extreme.
In a Terran desert, the closer you are to a mana spring, the more likely you are to encounter firestorms or even fire pools, which are pools of fire-aspect mana that essentially act like liquid fire.
This is a problem because it means that normal water, which is already rare and precious, becomes even more so.
The saving grace of such locations is the ‘leylines’ that the previous chapter has mentioned.
While firepools are also created due to the leylines bringing water-aspected mana to the desert, so are the vanishingly rare oases that allow people to live in those blisteringly hot locations.
The environmental effects of mana are extreme; this is the unvarnished truth.
In a land of mountains, the already cold weather becomes colder; a land that without mana would be farmable becomes permanently frozen due to the ice mana flowing down from the mountains.
In a fertile plain, the natural mana makes the land even more fertile and productive.
The benefits vary, but we know from otherworlders that even relatively unproductive land on Terra would be considered somewhat fertile by the non-mana-enhanced standards of Earth.
One of our truly fertile lands, the lands that are naturally fertile and are enhanced twice over by the ambient nature mana, those places that can feed a dozen kingdoms so long as they are worked? By the standards of Earth, they are unironically magical.
Forested areas also grow faster, with far larger yields due to the vast quantities of nature mana.
Mana causes extreme affects to happen over wide areas. Some of these effects are extremely beneficial, such as with farmlands and forestry.
But many of the effects of mana are extremely harmful, dangerous environmental effects, such as permanent winters, fire and windstorms.
And of course, monsters.
Terra is filled with monsters; some are natural, while others have been created by the dungeons for reasons known only to those mysterious entities. Some of them have been created by foolish and ambitious mages that should have known better.
The invading demons have also brought a few of the more dangerous monsters into the world.
Many of the world’s so-called monsters are simply regular animals that have been enhanced or mutated by ambient mana; this is especially true in mana springs, where aspected mana can be found in massive quantities.
The truth is that, just as mana enhances the races of the world, it also improves the animals.
This is not always a detrimental thing, as there are several types of farm animals that benefit from this effect. Compared to their less enhanced cousins, such farm animals create more and higher quality produce.
Unfortunately, most mana-enhanced animals tend to be far less peaceful and cooperative than farm animals. This is why they are given the distinction of being called monsters.
Mary lets out a yawn.
“Getting tired are we, princess?”
Sylvia asks with a smile.
“From the feel of it, your mana has almost run out too. Do you want a meal and a nap?”
Mary frowns in dismay, realising that her infant body is once again betraying her.
She lets out a sigh, looks sadly at her maid and nods in agreement.