Magic Circles

At a very basic level, magic circles could be defined as a ring of runes formed within one's own body; therefore, the fundamental element for forming one was access to willpower; fortunately, at that time, this was something that was within reach of most players.

If one didn't have access to willpower, one could always ask a true mage to imprint the circle, although the effectiveness and speed of the energy transfer would decline so much that it would be a somewhat pointless effort.

Maintaining them required mana, which would be drawn directly from the mage's mana cores. This ongoing expense in itself was a limit, as one could never have a circle of a level higher than the subject's own capacity to regenerate mana. Raising the maintenance cost to too high a level would be counterproductive, as it would be impossible to feed the circle's own reserves and would become a burden on the mage.