Spell Words and Steles

Spell Words.

Magic is chaos, raw entropic force that bends the very laws of the universe to its whims. Thus is why alchemists hate magic. Science breaks down in the presence of magic. The fundamental laws break down. It is only near a spell that 1+1=3.

The raw chaos of magic is written into words. These words are illegible, barely more than a random assortment of lines and squiggles in the vague shape of something that might be readable if you squinted and tried very hard. Most find these spell words to be the nonsense that they are. It is only those who are magically inclined who can look upon the words of magic and understand that there is some hidden meaning. It is only they who can read the words, and it is they who can become mage.

When a mage speaks a spell word, a welling of magical energy is created in them, which is then usually channeled out through a tool such as a staff. The word is then forgotten. It is only in rare circumstances of the truly magically gifted that spell words can be remembered after use, and those with such power are often poisoned by an overabundance of magic. 

Spell words are divided into arcana. Each arcana contains a dozen or so spells, though no arcana has been completed. Doing so would allow the spell words to be combined into an immensely powerful ur-spell. The most common arcana is the prismatic arcana, which contains such spells as magic missile, multicolor armor, and color spray. The arcana of prayer, mostly used by clerics, contains spells like heal, flash of light, and turn undead. The number of arcana is unknown.

Steles.

Spell words exist on steles. Steles are quartz gems, somewhere between 3 and 10 feet tall, with a single flat face with a softly rounded side and back. A single spell word is carved into the flat face. The type of quartz varies based on the arcana of the spell (for example, spells of the prayer arcana are found on citrine while spells of the leaf arcana are found on moss agate).

Reality breaks down around steles. Those that hold weaker spells might only destabilize the rules of the universe within a few feet around them. Powerful ones can destabilize entire regions. Gravity reverses. Suddenly a square has 5 sides. Technology breaks near them. The more complex it is, the faster it breaks. 

It is lucky, perhaps, that such powerful steles no longer exist on Neurim. They have long since been destroyed. In ancient days, empires attempted to transport the most powerful of Neurim's steles. Doing so nearly destroyed the world. It did destroy much of the lands of the North, now referred to only as the Wastes.

There have been attempts to make more steles, but doing so has proven difficult. The only steles made in recorded history are the 17 teleportation words (the words of teleportation are all modified forms of the base teleportation spell word, thus they do not belong to an arcana).

Scrolls and Spellbooks.

As steles cannot be moved (not without consequence at least) the easiest way to access their knowledge at a difference is through the power of a scroll, a recreation of the spell word of a stele. Scrolls can be copied from each other, and it is through this method that spells spread. Spell words can be read off of a scroll, but doing so will destroy the scroll with magical energy. It is more common to memorize a spell word off a scroll so that it might be reused time and time again.

Scrolls are made using special parchment designed to hold magical energy This parchment is more resilient than other forms of paper to the general wear and tear of the world. Such is why scrolls tend to last centuries rather than years. Copying the word from a stele is an easy process, taking no more than a minute. Copying a spell word from a scroll requires copying the illegible scratch of the language of chaos perfectly. It is a difficult process that can take days or weeks.

Multiple scrolls bound together is a spellbook.

Steles as Reward.

Stele are an attempt at solving two issues: making magic feel stranger than the norm found in most DnD adjaecent settings, and to encourage mages to explore more. I find that mages don't have a lot of reasons to explore. Gold loses its luster after a while and mage find most magic items to be of less use than those of fighters. Steles solve that. Now a mage explore to find new spells, sometimes brand new spells that haven't seen the light of Neurim in millennia..

A stele can exist in a dungeon or other dangerous place much like any magic item or pile of treasure. A mage can learn of it and then adventure to it to add a new spell to their book. Outside of more common spells, where one might be able to procure a scroll, this is the only way to gain new spells. This provides an active reason to explore, even for experienced mages, as there is no way to research a new spell into existence. You either buy it off another mage, steal it off another mage, or go find it. Some steles, the powerful ones, can even warp dungeons into chaotic realms where reality works weird and is extra interesting to explore.