In my travel through many hundreds of worlds, I came across an Ancient Necromancer who was willing to have a chat and share not only in knowledge, but fix my understanding of Magic.

These are a transcription of those lessons:

The first lesson any student of the art is ever taught or discovers is that they possess an energy that others do not. This energy, mana or magical power as you might understand it, is required of everything to remain in existence. Everything that exists is made of this energy, but it is in constant use to maintain that existence on the physical plane of space. How then is it possible to have “extra” or “more” than the minimum necessary to hold on to your existence?

I suppose it can be from excess being trapped, back ground radiation, or consumption.

In some cases it is due to the world they live on having an excess of very basic elements. A more detailed proposition is that the basic elements that makes up the structure of physical reality is more concentrated but not compounded on that world allowing the first steps to creating what becomes the fuel for greater structures. Like having more water than blood in the veins so to speak. In most cases, it has been discovered that the individual has a supplementary organ that is inherited from these earlier conditions that eases this collection and retention of these base elements.

How are these greater structures involved? What structure or system of magic is most superior?

In the Qi philosophy concerning this phenomenon they refer to this as a Dantian, and the meridians like a vascular structure. The Magus or Wizardry structures usually assume a more cross utilization of the different organs; brains, hearts, or more whole body containment. These two philosophies are both correct and incorrect. These structures are just the areas that over hundreds, thousands, millions, and billions of years in some cases that are created by an initial master to student process. Imagine a primal energy holder, no structure or training, manipulating something inside. Then eventually finds a way to operate it outside by moving it certain ways. You then have a Primal Magician of the Art.

I don’t quite understand, how can these Primal Magicians as you call them function without these foundations?

On many primal or primitive worlds, this energy is typically used first not in Magic as far as the true art is concerned. They first instead use it for internal changes to give them an extra edge over others that compete with them to survive. As the races that acquire this energy advance, so too does their ability to capably use this energy outside of internal structures. It takes even longer to develop the closest thing to the art, where the weights and measure of the energy come into play.

So they use brute force applications of power to operate before they can even start using a structure, like a claw or a tooth nothing more. Then they make it into something more?

Exactly, where the art is concerned, energy is energy. Call it whatever you please but that doesn’t change what it fundamentally is in practice. Whether it is cultivated or consumed from the outside, everything runs on energy at the base level.

So the best system is whichever holds or generates the most energy?

It does not particularly matter one way or another which system is used. All the structures use the same basic components of energy, no matter how much the partisans like to argue about it.

So how do these systems come into existence then?

Back to our primal magician for the moment; they can hold and move this energy around but how do they regain it after spending it? In some cases there is an external abundance of the energy available to them. In most however, it takes some energy to make more energy. There is energy in every particle of matter, we break these things down to get energy. This is true in both systems, whether it be breakthroughs of cultivations or levels of mana capacity. Eventually this leads to a crossroads in development; some will continue this legacy of internal-to-external magic and others develop purely external systems that you might know better as Alchemy.

Then you could break down any source of physical matter to gain energy?

Generating raw energy is difficult. You are breaking down structures of existence down into the most basic parts, which if you have ever manually isolated a single particle of water, broken it down into its constituent particles, then tried to break those particles down another two layers you can understand the difficulty of that generation.

The easiest way to break them down is start with those pure particles from the first breakdown. Taking the smallest two particles and sublimating them together slowly under pressure of mana you already have to break them. This structure lets you generate mana indefinitely provided you maintain a minimum threshold. This method can be used on more complex substances but takes considerably longer the bigger and more complex the source and requires a bigger pool to draw from.

Sounds kind of like the forces of chaos rending the world asunder to gain power rather than Mana regen.

Speaking of the partisan crowd of systems, the measure of energy is also so vastly different between every structure I’ve encountered. The mess it makes in cross comparison of raw power becomes almost impossible. Of course this is due to the trappings of the earliest magicians. The measure is usually very crude, making a flame, light, or some other minor manifestation either directly or through an apparatus of some kind. This is made doubly worse when applied to the calculation of energy required for a manifestation or spell.

So kind of hard to really say who even is stronger between a cultivator and a wizard?

The only hard solution to this problem requires a very advanced internal analysis system or the most primitive means for absolute accuracy. Judge a magic system not on its effects, spells, or performance; but on its measurements. Like drawing a line with a ruler compared to a systematic layering of graphite with a controlled algorithm; when the scope of the system increases so does its efficiency. As magic advances on most worlds, the base amount of primal energy decreases steadily overtime. This forces the adaptation towards systems that generate it.

So as more mages come along using the easy mana, how do you even measure the pool of mana someone has then?

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

Speaking of pools, the most accurate system for rudimentary power measurement requires three things; a complete drain of energy, consistent external holding vessels, and a regeneration blockage. You start the process by temporarily blocking the recovery system for mana, then drain the tester’s mana completely into a fixed vessel. The energy dissipates or, if your container is good enough, condenses to a more stable form at a consistent rate that is measurable. The less base energy you have, the faster the mana condenses completely. Larger amounts of mana can condense quickly, but not all of it.

I can barely make sense of that.

Like freezing water, you might have a layer of ice, but the lake isn’t frozen all the way through that fast compared to a puddle in the road.

One also is a lot easier to step on and break.

This is why growing your structures to hold energy are vital to growth as a practitioner of the art. Efficient spells and minimalism can only go so far, you’re not going to boil water with less than 373.15 base units of energy. Yes I am aware about the air pressure and removing air pressure requires even more energy than that so don’t waste the effort arguing it. As a rule it costs more to remove something by force than it does to encourage it on its own.

Path of least resistance, got it. So how do you go from kiddie pool to a small lake?

There are two main practices for increasing the energy resources you have as a practitioner, increased size or number of containers. In the beginning, increasing size is easier than building more containers. As you start needing more and more volume, more containers beats out larger ones just from pure stability concerns. The best structure I’ve seen for energy containment is a sphere, most elementary practitioners start with a cube or triangle formation with most masters of the art being twenty or more sided figures.

What exactly is your internal container for energy?

As I’ve said base mana, is tiny, we move and store it not too differently than our fingers holding water. Using larger structures to influence smaller ones, which then in turn influence tiny ones. It starts with using a lot of the base elements and forcing them into a particular shape and making it stay that way. This is why the novice typically has a master guide their initial containers formation and learns the solidifying process.

So you get to cheat basically if your teacher makes the bucket for mana instead of you?

It takes ten thousand units to hold a million units of useable mana, but this efficiency goes down significantly as the structure grows larger. This is even more important when the formation structure isn’t efficient like a sphere.

So to solidify our hold on mana, we need to have the ability to manipulate at a minimum 5 units of mana. This is just to be able to form a pyramid out of 4 to hold 1 unit. To build more containers we need more on the order of 12 to create a networked hive that we might see in fungus that aggregately collects mana such as the crystals made in caves or pocket dimensions for mana refineries. To actually use external magic, we need trillions of base units to do anything more than a static shock level of external influence with mana.

I think I’m getting lost again, you’re talking about very small numbers and fucking huge ones at the same time?

That is of course, talking about base units. When we condense mana into compound structures it makes it much easier to manipulate. It becomes easier still when we utilize external structures holding these base units reducing drastically the amount of our own energy needed to perform a task.

So when you “use” magic we’re building these compounds and manipulating them?

These compounds are the basis for manipulating the mana, package them correctly and it does something when you string them together for release.

So this packaging determines the type of magic, like fire spells or whatever?

That leads us to the unfortunate misconception about there being different “types” of mana or “affinities” which is such a poorly understood phenomenon that it warrants correction. Going back to our primal magicians, they started with primitive structures, the smallest structure that can hold a single unit of mana requires 4 units just to hold it. As you start learning to manipulate it more, wedging it between larger natural structures of the body you can start creating a repository and grow a structure of mana further with ease.

So plugging the gaps of the bricks to keep the cold out so to speak? You’re saying there are a lot of different structures though, what’s the difference?

These most basic of structures lend themselves towards certain larger structures. The simplest of which, requires strands that can trap and filter the creation of more base components that won’t collapse or break. Triangular and prismatic are stable and easy to grow on structures. Mana is like string, some string favors tight knots, but big enough strings become ropes that are not as flexible in how you tie them.

So what’s the deal with magic schools or specializations?

As time goes on, some enterprising mages figured out they could skip the bases and form the entire base structures themselves. Leading to what most refer to as schools or types of mana today. This builds whole structures of base compounds together, as well as change the speed and efficiency of spells. A prime example of this is the ritual of “magic words” and movements, these behaviors were designed to change the refined mana’s orientation and positions internally making it easier to execute more naturally.

So how does that explain specializations?

Just like with the rituals getting easier as the structures developed to make them in the first place, this leads to entire structure types being more common in particular individuals over others. When all your ancestors practice nothing but squares it’s pretty likely you’re going to be working towards cubes as you advance in the art. What that does not mean, is that you are locked in to only making squares. Like an old broken house, you just need to tear down those inherited structures and build from an external process long enough to put a new system in place.

So why bother changing the structure? Wouldn’t you have to start all over again to do that?

As you start reaching different thresholds of capacity this becomes easier. When you need to make a second container as an example. It is fairly trivial to add a facing taking a cube or pyramid into a diamond’s shape, then a diamond into something even more until you reach a sphere.

So Sir Mix-a-lot was right, big and round is best?

While I would not suggest or impose upon anyone the requirement that their structure be a sphere to be considered at the pinnacle of the art; not having reached the sphere structure in a container is a fairly solid indicator that they have not truly mastered the art.

That sounds fairly non-commital.

When you’re a necromancer it pays to stay out of politics and their reaches.

So let me be sure I got this:

Energy is Mana, and all mater built off of said energy. Doesn’t matter the flavor since it’s all the same pool more or less?

Correct, though I would caution mixing the compounds directly, they can sometimes react poorly.

Fair enough, the different magic systems are just how the energy is stored and unpackaged?

The biggest fundamental difference is the packaging and where it gets unpackaged, subtle but critically important for successful execution.

Then it’s just a matter of wrapping paper and round vs rectangles for the box of mana?

If you can figure out how to perfectly wrap paper over a sphere without excess sticking out it shouldn’t be too difficult to form a master vessel of mana.

So then how do I package it and make it go boom?

Well it starts first with where you want it to go boom.

Spoiler: Spoiler

 So that covers the basic synopsis on Mana and Energy systems and how they functionally work, Next chapter is going to be focused around spells, formations, and the use of magic in the general sense.

Do let me know in the comments if this doesn't make sense or if you need to scree about the content and if you have your own correction of the Necromancer's understanding of magic.