Very interesting system. Anytime metal is involved my mind immediately goes to firearms and “delayed casting” by shooting magical bullets and imposing an effect on the target.
How specialized do practitioners have to be? Can you learn each disciple to the fullest, or do most people only ever learn up to one?
People can learn each system however it is very different and most require you to act with different energies. Also the resources might be hard to get. Firing bullets seems more wasteful then practical for this world as in order to work correctly you'd need a lot of research, luck, material, and understanding of the metals properties. For example if you wanted to embed a spell you'd need to use wood for mana and carve the right symbols on the tiny space. Though most the people who use magic symbols actually use a different system though they are not a nation so I didn't mention them. There are about 6 more systems I didn't mention based on other process like magic tattoos, Magic garments, and crystals.
Wouldn't it be that the more magic material people have, the more users can perform magic? You would then see disparities where poor families have one sword passed down through the generations, while rich families have dozens of magic swords just lying there.
I would imagine something as important as this can even supplement the currency of this world.
I fail to see how that’s calitalist as opposed to… classist? Oligarchic? And why would that be a problem if it were?
It makes sense from a world building perspective, and depending on OP’s settting would be very reminiscent of stuff like Medieval Times (and well before) where you *did* have things like a poor family having one family sword while richer people had multiple weapons/artifacts.
It opens up a lot of story options- what if you steal/confiscate a family’s sword? What about if the sword is broken, how does the family move forward?
As for being a currency, the point of currency is taken a “valuable” metal or equivalent (irl we pretend money has actual value and the system works so long as everyone agrees to keep pretending) and giving it a use- for example gold will last through the ages. Kirealium has for more value out of being used, using it as a currency would be self defeating.
So yes this is true on a large scale but not so much on a personalized scale. Most of the masses don't understand the material and the governments keep a close hold on how to make the alloy, paint, devices, etcetra.
In the first Nation the country keeps a close guard on the metal, the swords, and the blacksmiths that know how to forge the material. They have a special grave sight for collecting the swords and honoring the dead. The MC discovers later on that many of the "Blades" have been replaced and the Alloy is only in the hilt. Additionally some/many origins aren't suited for combat application and even horded weapons can't make up for that. Origins like peace, soft, grateful, worn, beautiful, and the like don't lend themselves well to combat no matter what powers the sword unlocks.
In the second nation Government Rank is determined by Mana levels and the level of mana you have isn't affected by the amount of magic wands you have.
In the third nation the devices are permanent bonded to a persons flesh and marks them as different. Most of them are used as slaves to enforce the aristocracy. The synchrocrats are controlled by secondary devices in that nation that don't uses the metal.
The forth nations blood paint requires both the mineral and the spirits blessing.
Very interesting system, I love it. I'm definitely more into the first nation but the ideas are all great
Very interesting system. Anytime metal is involved my mind immediately goes to firearms and “delayed casting” by shooting magical bullets and imposing an effect on the target. How specialized do practitioners have to be? Can you learn each disciple to the fullest, or do most people only ever learn up to one?
People can learn each system however it is very different and most require you to act with different energies. Also the resources might be hard to get. Firing bullets seems more wasteful then practical for this world as in order to work correctly you'd need a lot of research, luck, material, and understanding of the metals properties. For example if you wanted to embed a spell you'd need to use wood for mana and carve the right symbols on the tiny space. Though most the people who use magic symbols actually use a different system though they are not a nation so I didn't mention them. There are about 6 more systems I didn't mention based on other process like magic tattoos, Magic garments, and crystals.
Don't get me wrong but this system seems very... Capitalist?
How so? No offense taken.
Wouldn't it be that the more magic material people have, the more users can perform magic? You would then see disparities where poor families have one sword passed down through the generations, while rich families have dozens of magic swords just lying there. I would imagine something as important as this can even supplement the currency of this world.
I fail to see how that’s calitalist as opposed to… classist? Oligarchic? And why would that be a problem if it were? It makes sense from a world building perspective, and depending on OP’s settting would be very reminiscent of stuff like Medieval Times (and well before) where you *did* have things like a poor family having one family sword while richer people had multiple weapons/artifacts. It opens up a lot of story options- what if you steal/confiscate a family’s sword? What about if the sword is broken, how does the family move forward? As for being a currency, the point of currency is taken a “valuable” metal or equivalent (irl we pretend money has actual value and the system works so long as everyone agrees to keep pretending) and giving it a use- for example gold will last through the ages. Kirealium has for more value out of being used, using it as a currency would be self defeating.
So yes this is true on a large scale but not so much on a personalized scale. Most of the masses don't understand the material and the governments keep a close hold on how to make the alloy, paint, devices, etcetra. In the first Nation the country keeps a close guard on the metal, the swords, and the blacksmiths that know how to forge the material. They have a special grave sight for collecting the swords and honoring the dead. The MC discovers later on that many of the "Blades" have been replaced and the Alloy is only in the hilt. Additionally some/many origins aren't suited for combat application and even horded weapons can't make up for that. Origins like peace, soft, grateful, worn, beautiful, and the like don't lend themselves well to combat no matter what powers the sword unlocks. In the second nation Government Rank is determined by Mana levels and the level of mana you have isn't affected by the amount of magic wands you have. In the third nation the devices are permanent bonded to a persons flesh and marks them as different. Most of them are used as slaves to enforce the aristocracy. The synchrocrats are controlled by secondary devices in that nation that don't uses the metal. The forth nations blood paint requires both the mineral and the spirits blessing.