Named Spells, Spell Alchemy, Magic in General

Magic in General

"Spells" as organic life forms know them are something slightly more. They're similar to germs or viruses; things we share the world with, but cannot see with our naked eye. To "cast" these "spells" is to capture and dominate these life forms, to take them into your mind and then later exerting your will over them to force them to manifest their power back into the organic world.

Spells are as intelligent as you or I and the process of dominating one may be as unique or as mundane the conversation you make with a stranger on the street. This confrontation might be as simple as fighting the spell and besting it in combat, or a contest of intellect like a game of Chess or a riddle, or something more abstract. Whatever form this battle of wills takes, the DM should take care to ensure that it is a worthy contest - the character will gain a new spell if they win, after all, so it shouldn't be trivial.

Those who cannot cast magic have little knowledge of spell organisms, but among the Learned spell casting is widely regarded as evil - the act of dominating a sentient organism, imprisoning it in your own mind and forcing your will upon it is inherently immoral and cruel.

Spells proliferate asexually, splitting off into copies of themselves and can be found congregating in colonies together, which is why some spells may prove extremely difficult to master. Conquering one "Sleep" spell is no great feat compared to conquering a whole gathering of "Fireball" spells.

Spell Alchemy and the creation of Named Spells are no less evil in that they involve the destruction and recombination of multiple spells and the forcible injection of arcane energy into a spell, in excess of what they're naturally capable of living with. This mixing of spells and energy injection are the cause of the stronger and unpredictable nature of "man made" spells.

While Named and alchemically born spells can be learned, this increased strength and erratic behavior makes them much more dangerous than standard spells.

Named Spells

A spell caster that wishes to create a named spell must first gain access to a magical laboratory. Generally, the exorbitant cost of a magical laboratory will be prohibitive and the Practitioner in question will need to beg, borrow or steal access to one in order to create their first Named spell. Once the Practitioner in question has created the Named spell, they'll have the additional power necessary to begin amassing the wealth and resources required to build their own laboratory. This isn't always the case and a Practitioner could gain an altogether different kind of power by focusing on building their laboratory and loaning it out to other Practitioners before creating any of their own named spells.

Once a suitable laboratory has been found, the Practitioner will need a containment chamber and they may also require secondary sources of magical energy, depending on how strong they'd like their Named spell to be. The Practitioner will cast their spell into the containment chamber and then force more magical energy into the spell, by permanently giving up one or more of their MD, itself while inside the containment chamber. It's similar to casting a spell normally, except there's no focus - the Practitioner is just forcing raw magical energy into the spell. Once the magical energy has been sacrificed and forced into the spell, it becomes something new. Each MD invested into the spell adds a word to the name and a further condition or power to the spell; “Gwendolyn’s Conflagration” is potent, but not so much as “Flick’s Hateful Flame” which is overshadowed by “Cleale’s Agonizing Maelstrom of Ethereal Fire”.

All that is left at this point is for the Practitioner to assert their will over the new spell and master is as their own. When that is done, the containment chamber may be opened, the spell removed and assimilated into the mind of the spell caster and the chamber cleaned so as to prevent too large a colony of this new and powerful spell from escaping into the natural world.

When the new spell has been mastered, the Practitioner will need to quest after new sources of arcane energy to replenish that which they have permanently sacrificed in order to create their named spell. Theoretically, they may do this indefinitely, but in reality there are diminishing returns - if you sacrificed 1 MD to create your Named spell, you'll need 2 MD to bring yourself back to baseline. 

Casting a Named spell is just like casting any other spell, except that each time it is cast it is done so with the additional MD that were used in its creation; these MD do not count towards Mishaps or Dooms, but do increase the potency of the spell.

Alchemically Born Spells

Alchemical spells are the product of two or more other spells being combined together into one spell. As a rule of thumb, the more spells used to produce the new spell the more dangerous the process is and the more powerful the result is. To combine multiple spells, first they must be killed. As a Practitioner who has mastered the spell, this is no more difficult then deciding these spells are no longer alive and extracting them from your brain. Then the target spells are placed into a containment chamber filled with liquid mercury or some other magical substance; liquid mercury is the most stable, but there is a fringe belief that other substances more tailored to the type of spell you're using or wish to create have more focused or stronger results. Once the two spells have been killed and placed into the containment chamber, they must be pressurized with arcane energy; one MD for each spell in the mixture. These MD are lost for the day, but not permanently. After the ingredients have been thoroughly pressurized a new spell will form within 24 hours. While it will be more powerful than its constituent parts were, it should be easy enough to dominate as it is effectively an infant.