Majutsugo (魔術語)

Majutsugo is the language of magic in Alfheim as depicted in the fanfic Fairy Dance of Death. It is a simplified constructed language that combines five parts of speech to define the characteristics of a spell produced by a given incantation.

Grammar

Incantation Syntax

Element - [Magnitude] - [Effect] - [Target] - Manifestation

All incantations must begin with an Element and end with a Manifestation. The other parts of speech are optional, but must occur in the order specified.

Parts of speech

Element

Required phrase defining the elements (schools of magic) used in the incantation.
Must be the first phrase in the incantation.
More than one element can be involved, and are joined using the conjunction pa.
Each element beyond the first doubles the mana cost of the spell.
Not all combinations will produce a valid incantation.

Magnitude

Optional phrase specifying a single Magnitude for the spell.
If omitted, magnitude is considered to be base.
If an incantation contains a Magnitude Phrase, it must be preceded by the conjunction to.

Effect

Optional phrase specifying one or more verbs. If omitted, spell is considered to be direct damage (the verb zuru) from each of the elements involved, or Direct Healing (the verb chaz for the Recovery manifestation yasun).
If an incantation contains an Effect Phrase, it must be preceded by the conjunction ke.
An Effect Phrase can contain more than one verb, but they must be inflected correctly.
Effects will be applied in the order incanted.

Target

Optional phrase indicating the method by which the spell effects are targeted.
If omitted, targeting method will default differently depending on the Manifestation that concludes the incantation.
The Target Phrase may contain more than one spellword, but not all combinations are valid.
The AOE spellword tepnaga can be combined with any other targeting method using the following rules:
It must be the last spellword in the phrase.
It will cause the spell to affect an area around the specified target once it takes effect.
The size of the AOE is proportionate to the tier of the spell.

Manifestation

One of two required phrases; must come at the end of the incantation.
The Manifestation Phrase may contain only one spellword.
Indicates the form taken by the spell effects, the way in which they manifest themselves in the world.
Manifestations are the only spellwords with a moraic n in the coda position, which the magic system recognizes as concluding an incantation.

Conjunction

Elemental Conjunction: pa or ppa
Magnitude Conjunction: to or tto
Effect Conjunction: ke or kke
Gemination: If the word preceding a conjunction either ends with a a vowel or has in its coda position the same consonant sound (after devoicing) as the initial consonant of the conjunction, gemination (doubling) of the consonant occurs as if the consonant had been affected by a sokuon, following Japanese phonetic rules.

Example: hi + (to) kachi + rakun = hitto kachi rakun

Geminate Phrase Shifting: If a conjunction undergoes gemination, it becomes the last syllable of the previous phrase.

Example: zu + (to) mezal + (ke) yavaz + yasun = zutto mezal keyavaz yasun

Geminate Devoicing: If the previous phrase has in its coda position the voiced counterpart of the initial consonant of a geminated conjunction, the voiced consonant becomes devoiced.

Example: ya + (to) famudrog + (ke) juminu + jan= yatto famudrokke juminu jan

Verb Inflection

Effect Verbs are inflected as follows:

Invocative: the "dictionary" form of the verb, used either at the end of an Effect Phrase or when the verb is the only one in the Effect Phrase.
Concatenative: a form used to combine effects, indicating that the inflected verb should take effect simultaneously with the one that follows.
Sequential: a form used to combine effects, indicating that the effect or effects immediately following the inflected verb should only trigger once the first effect has completed.
Conditional: a form indicating that only if and after the inflected verb successfully applies its effect and runs for its full duration should anything following it take effect.
Negative Conditional: a form indicating that only if and after the inflected verb fails to successfully apply its effect or run its full duration should anything following it take effect.

Malign:

Effects which are explicitly harmful in nature, including negative status (debuffs) and damage.

Invocative -u
- Example: yakke juminu jan
- Applies Blindness status to target.
Concatenative: -e
- Example: yatto zabukke jumine nushlavu jan
- Applies both Blindness and Silence statuses to the target.
Sequential: -i
- Example: yappa futto yojikke navgojiki zuru jan
- Applies Paralysis status to the target and then deals direct Dark damage.
Conditional: -o
- Example: yappa futto yojikke navgojiko zuru jan
- Deals direct Dark damage only if and after the Paralysis is successfully applied.
Negative Conditional: -aso
- Example: yatto zabukke nushlavaso zuru jan
- Attempts to apply Silence, and deals direct Dark damage if that is resisted or fails.

Benign:

Effects which are explicitly beneficial in nature but not classed as restorative, particularly buffs and defensive effects.

Invocative: -ul
- Example: futto tsutakke tamzul shippura dweren
- Applies a defensive shield buff to the focused target.
Concatenative: -ule
- Example: futto tsutakke tamzule plorthul shippura dweren
- Applies a defensive shield buff and a haste buff to the focused target.
Sequential: -uli
- Example: futto tsutakke tamzuli plorthul shippura dweren
- Applies a defensive shield buff to the focused target, followed by a haste buff once the shield drops.
Conditional: -ulo
- Example: futto tsutakke tamzulo plorthul shippura dweren
- Applies a defensive shield buff to the focused target, followed by a haste buff only if the shield takes effect and runs for its full duration.
Negative Conditional: -ulaso
- Example: futto tsutakke tamzulaso plorthul shippura dweren
- Applies a defensive shield buff to the focused target, followed by a haste buff only if the shield does not take effect or run for its full duration.

Recovery:

Beneficial effects which heal or restore targets in some way.

Invocative: -az
- Example: zutto mezal kevuchaz yasun
- Applies a regenerative heal to the caster.
Concatenative: -aze
- Example: zutto mezal kevuchaze chaz yasun
- Applies a regenerative heal to the caster, combined with an immediate direct heal.
Sequential: -aji
- Example: zutto mezal kevuchaji chaz yasun
- Applies a regenerative heal to the caster, followed by a direct heal when the regen ends.
Conditional: -azo
- Example: zutto mezal kevuchazo chaz yasun
- Applies a regenerative heal to the caster, followed by a direct heal only if the regen takes effect and runs for its full duration.
Negative Conditional: -ajazo
- Example: zutto mezal kevuchajazo chaz yasun
- Applies a regenerative heal to the caster, followed by a direct heal only if the regen does not take effect or run for its full duration.

Utility:

A "catchall" category of effects which do not clearly fall into the previous categories. The inflection and usage of Utility verbs can vary somewhat based on their role.

Invocative: -lth
- Example: setto yojikke wejilth shaja min
- Applies a Dispel effect to the first target touched with the caster's empty hand.
Concatenative: -lthe
- Example: setto yojikke wejilthe zuru shaja min
- Applies a Dispel effect and direct Holy damage to the first target touched with the caster's empty hand.
Sequential: -lthi
- Example: setto yojikke wejilthi mejuru shaja min
- Applies a Dispel effect to the first target touched with the caster's empty hand, immediately followed by a Holy DOT.
Conditional: -ltho
- Example: setto yojikke wejiltho mejuru shaja min
- Applies a Dispel effect to the first target touched with the caster's empty hand, immediately followed by a Holy DOT only if the Dispel effect succeeds.
Negative Conditional: -lthazo
- Example: setto yojikke wejilthazo wejilth shaja min
- Applies a Dispel effect to the first target touched with the caster's empty hand, immediately followed by another attempted Dispel only if the first does not succeed.

Auxiliary Verbs

Verbs which in some way modify the behavior of another verb. An auxiliary verb is typicall suffixed to the Concatenative form of the verb it modifies, becomes the new ending of that verb, and should be inflected appropriately. Most auxiliary verbs are classed as Utility effects.

Example: zutto zabukke chaze frelth yasun
Forces a Heal spell to apply to a Hostile target.

Vocabulary

Numbers

For certain advanced spells, it can be necessary to specify a number as part of the incantation. The numbering system used in Majutsugo is base 10, and the following numbers are known:

1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
ka	tsu	za	yo	me	fa	wi	nya	sla	thi
11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20
thika	thitsu	thiza	thiyo	thime	thifa	thiwi	thinya	thisla	tsuchi
21	22	23	24	25	30	40	50	100	1000
tsuchika	tsuchitsu	tsuchiza	tsuchiyo	tsuchime	zachi	yochi	mechi	chima	chimawu

Elements

There are seven known arcane elements in Alfheim. While any race can use a skill slot to learn any type of magic, certain races have an affinity with certain elements that grant them advantages when learning or using that element.

Fire: hi

Salamander affinity: -1 to minimum Magnitudes
Base MP cost: 25
Base cooldown: 3 seconds
Base elemental effect: 45-75

Water: zu

Undine affinity: -1 to minimum Magnitudes
Base MP cost: 20
Base cooldown: 2 seconds
Base elemental effect: 15-50

Earth: do

Gnome affinity: -1 to minimum Magnitudes
Base MP cost: 15
Base cooldown: 2 seconds
Base elemental effect: 30-60

Wind: fu

Sylph affinity: -1 to minimum Magnitudes
Base MP cost: 20
Base cooldown: 3 seconds
Base elemental effect: 15-60

Dark: ya

Imp affinity: -1 to minimum Magnitudes
Base MP cost: 25
Base cooldown: 3 seconds
Base elemental effect: 15-65

Holy: se

No racial affinity
Base MP cost: 20
Base cooldown: 3 seconds
Base elemental effect: 20-55

Illusion: ma

Spriggan affinity: -1 to minimum Magnitudes
Base MP cost: 15
Base cooldown: 2 seconds
Base elemental effect: 5-60

Magnitudes

Each incantation has a Magnitude, which determines the spellwords that can be used in that incantation, the scale of the effects and their cost.

None: (Magnitude Phrase omitted)
- Minimum skill: 0
- MP cost: base
- Cooldown: base
- Effect and Duration: base
1: kachi
- Minimum skill: 100
- MP cost: x1.5
- Cooldown: x1.5
- Effect: x2
- Duration: x1.5
2: tsuta
- Minimum skill: 200
- MP cost: x2.5
- Cooldown: x2
- Effect/Duration bonus: x5
- Duration: x2
3: zabu
- Minimum skill: 300
- MP cost: x4
- Cooldown: x2.5
- Effect/Duration bonus: x8
- Duration: x3
4: yoji
- Minimum skill: 400
- MP cost: x6
- Cooldown: x3
- Effect/Duration bonus: x12
- Duration: x4
5: mezal
- Minimum skill: 500
- MP cost: x10
- Cooldown: x3.5
- Effect/Duration bonus: x16
- Duration: x6
6: famudrog
- Minimum skill: 600
- MP cost: x15
- Cooldown: x4
- Effect/Duration bonus: x25
- Duration: x8
7: wilnachik
- Minimum skill: 700
- MP cost: x20
- Cooldown: x5
- Effect/Duration bonus: x35
- Duration: x10
8: nyafe jezut
- Minimum skill: 800
- MP cost: x25
- Cooldown: x6
- Effect/Duration bonus: x60
- Duration: x12
9: slalo kweld
- Minimum skill: 900
- MP cost: x35
- Cooldown: x8
- Effect/Duration bonus: x75
- Duration: x15
Mastery: thimawu vethuk
- Minimum skill: 1000 (Mastery)
- MP cost: x50
- Cooldown: x10
- Effect/Duration bonus: x100
- Duration: x20

Effect Verbs

Most, but not all, spell effects are bound to one or more elements. These pages are not a complete list of all effects in the game, and the information may occasionally become outdated as I tweak values.

Requirements, Costs and Effects

Minimum Magnitude

A basic Direct Damage spell has no Minimum Magnitude value. For more complex spells, most Effect Verbs, Targets and Manifestations have a Minimum Magnitude value associated with them. The Minimum Magnitude of an incantation is equal to the highest Minimum Magnitude associated with any of its phrases.

Minimum Skill

The base skill requirement for a spell is determined by the spell's Magnitude. Each increase in Magnitude increases the base skill level requirement by 100. If the Magnitude Phrase is omitted from the incantation, the spell has a base skill requirement of zero, meaning that anyone who possesses the requisite school of magic and the base skill level for the effects and manifestations is capable of casting it.

Most Effect Verbs, Targets and Manifestations have a Skill Mod associated with them. The value of all such mods are added to the base skill level to derive the spell's total Minimum Skill.

The Minimum Skill cannot be reduced below zero, and is capped at 1000--any incantation that would result in a Minimum Skill greater than 1000 will fail, as a player cannot normally attain a skill level higher than this.

MP Cost

Each Element has a different base MP cost. This is added to the MP Mod(s) associated with any Effects, Targets and Manifestations in the incantation. Finally, the resulting sum is multiplied by the modifier for the spell's Magnitude.

Maintained and Spray spells work slightly differently. The caster pays half of the total MP cost for the spell up front, and then additionally pays 10% of the total MP cost per second as long as the spell is maintained. This is usually less efficient in terms of MP cost than a Persistent manifestation, and the tradeoff for this inefficiency is that Maintained spells do not incur a cooldown time.

Cooldown

As with MP Cost, each Element has an associated base Cooldown value. This is added to the Cooldown Mod(s) associated with any Effects, Targets and Manifestations in the incantation. Finally, the resulting sum is multiplied by the modifier for the spell's Magnitude.

What the cooldown then affects is not necessarily as obvious. The total cooldown for a given incantation is the time that a character must wait before using each verb in the incantation in combination with the Element(s) and Manifestation used in the incantation--for the Magnitude of the incantation and any Magnitude below it. This includes any verbs assumed present by ellipsis. Consider the following examples:

Incantation	Cooldown Affects
hi jan	Any base Magnitude Fire incantation containing the verb zuru in combination with the Manifestation jan.
hitto kachi rakun	Any Fire incantation of Magnitude 1 or below containing the verb zuru in combination with the Manifestation rakun.
hitto tsutakke zure mejuru vethleka jan	Any Fire incantation of Magnitude 2 or below containing either the verbs zuru or mejuru in combination with the Manifestation jan.
hippa yatto yojikke zure juminu vethleka jan	Any Fire or Dark incantation of Magnitude 4 or below containing either the verbs zuru or juminu in combination with the Manifestation jan.

As a general rule: the more complex and powerful an incantation, the broader the range of spells the cooldown affects. The principle behind this is to discourage mages from simply opening up with their most powerful nukes, stacking a large number of effects into a single spell, or always using the maximum Magnitude they're capable of casting. They still have the option of doing so, but it will result in most of their spellbook being on a long cooldown.

When DPSing (dealing steady damage), smart mages will start with their lower-magnitude damage spells in order to avoid pulling early aggro and putting their ability to deal damage on cooldown, and work their way up to higher magnitudes.

Duration

Some spell effects have a base duration associated with them. This is multiplied by the Duration multiplier of the incantation's Magnitude. Spell effects without a duration are considered to take effect instantly upon being applied to a target.

Damage Calculation

Damage is calculated using the following formula:

DMG = Base * SpellMod * (1 + SLVL / 1000 + PLVL / 100) * MagMult

Base: the base elemental effect
SpellMod: the damage modifier from the spell effect
SLVL: the relevant skill level of the caster
PLVL: the player level of the caster
MagMult: the effect multiplier for the incantation's Magnitude

As an example, let's take a level 40 player with 650 Fire Magic skill casting a Magnitude 6 spell (effect multiplier of x8) using direct elemental damage (100% of the base Fire elemental effect of 30-50).

30 to 50 * 1 * (1 + 650 / 1000 + 40 / 100) * 8 = 492 to 820 DMG