mana system

1. Magic Tattoos

What They Are

Magic flows through the body along channels, and tattoos act as guides, or "threads," shaping that flow into usable effects healing, shielding, casting, and more.

These tattoos aren't drawn with ink they're made by injecting liquefied mana stone into the body with needles.

Once applied, the tattoo glows faintly, pulses with power, and allows the wearer to cast or activate magic through it.

How They Work Over Time

Tattoos fade with use. The more mana flows through them, the faster they burn out.

When they fade, they become dull scars or vanish entirely but some magic still lingers. The body remembers, though the mana cost is higher and may cause pain

Rare Keeprunes can slow the fade dramatically.

2. Threading – The Application Process

Slow Threading (Safe, Rare)

Essence from mana stones is carefully injected over several sessions with precise mana-thread needles.

Minimal pain, long-lasting, and more stable.

Done by elite spellwrights, healers, or Glyphbound specialists.

Costs more

Fast Threading (Painful, Common)

The mana stone is shattered and flash-injected—burning the tattoo into the body using crude bone or metal needles.

Extremely painful. Some people pass out or suffer permanent nerve damage.

Results in quicker fade and less control, but it's faster and dirt-cheap.

Common in gangs, prisoners, and outlaw mages.

3. Mana Stones

What They Are

Crystallized mana in stone form. Used to power magic, create tattoos, or fuel enchanted objects.

Stones are graded by purity and potency

Low-

flickers, unstable, used in low grade magic and low grade healing

Mid-

Stable, ideal for most threading and powering magic devices

High-

Radiates intense heat, potent and dangerous, used in high grade rituals and Writhelm branding

4. Needles –

Needles are how mana gets inside you. Threaders use them to:

Inject tattoo lines

Heal wounds by stimulating mana points

Needle quality matters.Ancient needles etched with runes are priceless.

Writhelm enforcers also use needles to disrupt magic (person can't be healed anymore)

5. Keeprunes

Some tattoos fade far slower. These are Keeprunes rare, stabilizing symbols in tattoos

Not spells on their own. They regulate mana flow, reducing stress on the tattoo.

Only a few are still known. Most are lost symbols from the old world

Adding a Keeprune doesn't make the spell stronger just last longer.

6. Superstition and False Magic

Not everything called magic in Daggerfall works but people believe it anyway.

blood marks are drawn on doors on certain days for luck.

Copper rings buried at crossroads are said to trap curses.(belief came from someone wearing a real copper artifact and people thought they just had to wear a copper ring)

Fake tattoos are sold in the slums they scars the skin and do nothing.

Some believe eating a mana stone grants power. It usually kills them.

These false beliefs help criminals, frauds, and cultists thrive and sometimes, one of them might accidentally be right.

7. Faction Use of Magic

Writhelm: Use slow-threading, binding tattoos, and high-grade stones to control mages. if branded the mage has to remove the spell with powerful magic or wait until all power dissipates from the tattoo(5-10 years)

Gallows Mercy: use tattoos for brand slaves.

Street Healers: Old-world casters using low grade stones, careful threading seen as old fashioned but respected.

8. Overcasting

When a caster tries to activate a spell beyond their ability to control the body can't handle the surge. This leads to Burnout, a catastrophic overload of mana that destroys the user from the inside out.

What Happens During Burnout

Internal mana pathways collapse, unable to channel the spell's full power. Mana floods the nervous system, boiling blood vessels and searing muscles.

Tattooed skin chars and splits along the threaded lines blackened, torn, or melted flesh.

A rapid spike in body temperature skin flushes deep red, then pale. In extreme cases, the caster's organs literally cook.

Tattoos glow violently from steady pulse to blinding white or deep violet.

Screaming is common. Surviving is rare.

Why Burnout Happens

Skill mismatch. The user has the tattoo, but lacks the control or discipline to manage a mid- or high-grade spell

Simultaneous overload. Activating too many tattoos at once fractures control. Even if each tattoo is manageable alone, together they become lethal.

Unstable fast threading. Rushed or poorly applied tattoos have weak foundations. Under stress, they can crack, misfire, or spike power unpredictably.

How It Looks (and Feels)

Skin grows hot.

Tattoos begin to hum audibly or skin vibrates .

Pain builds before the spell even finishes.