Spell

A wizardry constructed to produce a specific result. A spell may be diagrammed out and, when completed, read (the most common method): or it can be composed in the mind and then either spoken aloud or silently, in the mind (usually with considerably more effort required). Working a spell always requires the use of the wizardly Speech to a greater or lesser extent, depending on the formality and complexity of the spell.

Considered less concretely, every spell is a request to the Universe or one of its components to behave in a particular way. Ideally, a certain amount of persuasion is involved: best results are not achieved by ordering the Universe around. The effective wizard considers the fabric of physical existence to be a partner in any given wizardry, rather than an object or obstacle.

The equation, though, is rarely one-sided, and never without a price. Every spell transaction requires a payment of some kind, whether merely in the wizard's concentration or personal energy, or in some more complex and valuable energy construct. This rule goes to the heart of the basic principle embodied in the Wizard's Oath and many other places in the corpus of magical ethics: that there is a limited amount of energy available to life in the Universe, that it must not be wasted, and that interventions must be fairly paid for.

See also the associated topics:

• Spell locus
• Spell circle

and

• Spells, basic organization and structure
• Spells, power management of
• Spells, psychotropic
• Spells, stasis