No. It could be anyone who has magic power and not everybody can use magic power. You have a book that reproduces a whole spell by saying just one word, but you need to have magic power in order to use it. The more difficult the spell, the more power and training you need. You have the book, then you use your own magic power to insuflate the book with magic, which applies and simplify the formula so you can reproduce the whole spell by saying “Elfire”.
Could that work with the concept of writing the contents of the whole book in your body while being able to use such magic?
If you so badly wanna know, here’s my headcannon:
Tomes are printed on a regular printing press, and the ink is imbued with magic beforehand. Other than the ink, the book itself is pretty normal. Also, the text is the incantation. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just readable. It’s the words that matter.
A magic user could also imbue non-magic tomes after printing, but that would be more cumbersome. Magic ink is just more convenient.
This is mainly for anima magic. The process of giving magic to the tome may be slightly different for Dark and Light. And for staves… I have no clue. Staves seem to be rooted in faith, so ask their god.
Also, if someone is versed enough in magic studies, they may also write their own personal tome. Because they desciphered a rare/unique incantation.
In universe, printing tomes is seen as just slighly less common than smithing. Nothing out of the ordinary.
When casting, the surge of power through the tome consumes the pages. More powerful tomes consume more pages at a time. Thus, less uses. That’s why it’s best to print on paper. Other objects wouldn’t work as well. And writing on your skin would result in injury, most likely.
Also. Tome weight isn’t LITERALLY weight, but rather represents the complexity of the incantation, and having to focus on it slows the user down on the battlefield. Constitution just means higher bodily capability to dodge attacks while casting.
This also plays into weapon ranks. You need more experience in magic use to cast more complex incantations.
Again, this is just my headcannon for my hack. So don’t take it at face value for the rest of FE.
Quite honestly, I didn’t think of it that much when making the cutscene in the first place. I just thought it would be a funny gag for a village conversation.
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The words are just the vocal (or physical, in case of books) manifestation of the formula. That way you won’t need to write them all over your own body, just say them. That is, if you have the mana to do so, because if not reproducing the formula won’t have any effect. We could say the book has a formula that has been “cracked” by a scholar so anyone with enough control over mana can use it without all the thinking that “cracking” the formula would need.
I’d personally go with this one, this way it makes sense that not everyone can use magic, as not everyone can manipulate mana particles.
It is quite funny.
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Would these unique incantations be locked to themselves, could they make them some sort of inheritable teaching/weapon for select individuals, or would they be free use once somebody snatches it?
On that thought, just got the mental image of kamikaze mages. All for the price of a magic tattoo.
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This is also quite funny, and Alice could get this and put it into the game. “To fade without leaving a body, that’s the way of the (insert the enermy party’s name here)”.
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I mean, but if such book has the “cracked” formula, and you copied it to your body and then drew magic from yourself to cast it, rather than infusing it on the book to make it happen, wouldn’t you essentially be the book?
You would still say the words to activate its magic, but you wouldn’t be bound to a book.
Technically, anyone could use it. But they would have to decipher the incantation, or have it tought by someone who knows; as it wouldn’t be a well-known one. Think of it like a combination lock. If you know the combination, you can get to the contents.
For example, Merric in FE11 can use Excalibur without a high weapon rank. Perhaps he was tough how to use Excalibur specifically early in his training. But others have to get to a high rank by their own merits before being able to use Excalibur.
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You know I think this is the crux of this mess most just don’t think that hard about how magic works, but others do, maybe too much.
Magic is magic, regardless of how it is done it can be anything you want.
In the end I do feel it appropriate to say I may have been too mean to LeskLyfeld, and, for that, I apologize.
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-Casts Bolganone
-Suddenly, entire arm descintegrates
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Bad example. Excalibur is one of those weapons that chooses its wielder, said in Marth games. It was Excalibur who chose Merric. It is true that others can use it with enough training though.
“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic ”
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Eh, no mods have come to rain on my parade yet, so you haven’t been too mean. We’re chill though.
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That sad guy wasn’t built different. Invest in Res, train your body against the elements so you can be the element.
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Glad to know my fears were only paranoia.
Well, as a better example, take any personal weapon that isn’t regalia. Such as the Vouge, or the Wo Dao.
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I would rather not have to suffer through that. Having the convenience of a tome with paper pages is just better.
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Out of context, but remind me to ask you for insight before the impending doom of a bad plot made by comes by 2047.
Sure, I’ll take it.
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Nothing like a bit of [Thunder] sparking my bones and harming my nerves each morning. If it doesn’t kill me today, it will tomorrow.
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