List of Spells

From The Heretic Knowledge Vault

Revision as of 01:48, 18 February 2007

There are a number of spells and incantations used in ErrantStory. They are listed here:

Key

In the following, these abbreviations refer to some of the more frequent spellcasters:

• (IS): Ian Samael
• (MH): Meji Hinadori
• (SE): Sarine Elle

Other spellcasters are cited by name as appropriate.

Anti-Spells

Spells that disable or otherwise counter other spells.

• Dispel (MH): used to try to rid Jon of the charm that Meji thinks Sarine has placed on him. However, there's no charm, and the spell simply irritates Jon, both emotionally and (apparently) physically.
• Dispel Trap: All magic is neutralised in the Dispel Trap. It is an area effect.

Assault, Destruction, and General Mayhem

These are Meji's specialty and are cast by her with particular gusto, but she's not the only one that uses them.

• Acid Neuter Arrow (MH): for use on Ellis. Since he's basically indestructible, it's not clear exactly what this one does, if anything.
• Earth Smash (MH): with which she squashes the Pottle boy as the mugging of Chris unfolds. This one really gets the attention of the townsfolk in Saus. A much-scaled-down version of the same spell is another of her devices for tormenting Ellis.
• Fireball (MH): another old stand-by. She uses it to incinerate the posse that's tracking Jon (while saving another to zap Ellis after the usual wisecrack), to try to blast Sarine (who dodges the effect) in the room at Mandi's tavern, and much later, on the portal platform to try (unsuccessfully) to blow it up to prevent Anilis and the Paedagogusi from following the party. Toren also uses this or something like it in his battle with Ian.
• Flame Bolt (IS): to heat up a river(!) so that it's comfortably warm for him to take a bath in
• Flame Volley (IS): used to create a diversion at the library in Emerylon, later for effect versus the elven military force under Toren (whom he eventually dispatches), and later still, to incinerate a group of bandits near Thranel
• Force Bolt (IS, MH, SE): seems like a standard way of blasting those who need a good dose of destructive energy deposited in them; Sara Amraphel and probably Misa cast something similar as well. Apparently distinct from Lightning Bolt, which see.
• Heat Metal (IS): to create a diversion when he's waylaid by bandits, so that he can hit them with something really nasty
• Lightning Bolt (MH): a basic for any would-be mage. Meji is the only one we've seen using this self-descriptive spell for certain, but most of the others can probably do it too. This may (or may not) have been the way the late Kiyan Nizami started the process of destroying Malacia and provoking the Errant War. Ellis absorbed a curiously "anonymous" lightning bolt in this sequence, probably but not certainly cast by Sarine.

Communication

• Telepathy (SE): Mind-to-mind communication. Sarine uses it to communicate with Sarna, and Sara and Warrel also communicate telepathically.
• Translation (MH -- not yet seen in comic, but Poe said so): Allows Meji to understand a spoken language that isn't her native one. Or at least the words, at any rate.

Defense and Stealth Spells

• Barrier : Cast(?) by a Nun in the Heretic Knowledge Vault (Veracia). We haven't seen any of the other spellcasters use it under this name, but it may be about the same thing as Ian's Shield, which see.
• Illusion (SE): to make things look like what they're not; Sarna uses it too. Bani got some use out of it in her flashback sequence, not for defense but to avoid looking like a geek on the way home from school.
• Invisibility (MH): Used by Meji to escape annoying adventurer-wannabe Chris, and later, much less successfully, to try to sneak into the Heretic Knowledge Vault in Emerylon.
• Iron Skin (MH): Used to convert Ellis into a bludgeoning melee weapon. Unfortunately, on the one occasion when she actually uses him as a bludgeoning melee weapon, she neglects to cast the spell first. The melee turns out OK (Meji seems to be a competent hand-to-hand fighter), but as regards Ellis, to quote Meji: "Sorry, my bad."
• Obfuscation (MH): To conceal Ellis when they're in Saus and want to be inconspicuous, although she doesn't mention it until much later.
• Shield (IS): to deflect Toren's offensive spells long enough to allow a counterattack. Toren himself uses one to fend off Ian's fiery blasts. Apparently, there is also some kind of mental shield so the "disruption effects" cast at Ian by Toren don't fry his mind as severely as they did Meji's (this may just have been a side effect of errantry that Meji doesn't share). We don't know whether the mental shield is distinct from the anti-fiery-death one.
• Slow Fall: Used by Warrel on his last day among the living, in his fight with Jon.

Event effectors and Probability Spells

• Deus ex Machina (MH): the first spell we see Meji try to cast in the comic, to try to fend off either working on her class project or facing the consequences for not working on it. It's apparently a real "probability spell" (or so Ellis says), but it doesn't work (or does it?...), and just singes Meji around the edges.

Healing and Health

Spells that fix people. Pretty well every spellcaster around seems able to cast the most basic Healing spell, frequently on themselves. Some more arcane versions:

• Contraceptive: This was mentioned, by Ellis, as the one that Meji's mother failed to use when she got pregnant with Meji. Note that Sarine was not seen to cast it when she had her little night of passion with Jon; whether this will have repercussions is not yet clear.
• Drain (MH): Used to try to suck (sic) some of Ian's magical energy (sic) when he's acting weird/drunk on arrival at the Northern Confederacy. We don't know exactly what it does, but it certainly sounds provocative, as Leah and Riley note.
• Hygiene (MH): she doesn't actually use this one on stage, but was starting toward it at the river, when it dawned on her that immersing her "nubile, pert young body" (sic) in the river might be preferable, for its effect on Ian. Things don't work out exactly as planned, however.
• Omega-Heal (IS): Healing that works by reconstructing damaged or flawed organs at the most basic levels. Not defeated by the half-elven resistance to normal healing.
• Scan (MH): used by Meji to check state of health on Ellis and Sarine. Ellis wants one after Meji blasts him (for the first time of many) in the school library, but she gets distracted by a book and doesn't seem to cast it. Later she uses it(?) to see what's wrong with Sarine following the big fight with Melrin. It's not clear whether Scan penetrates magical disguise (illusion) or it's some other spell that has that effect.

Logistical Spells

• Fly (IS): to drop into Thranel long enough to collect Meji, and again later to whisk her off to Santuariel. While Anilis-enhanced he has enough flypower to lift an entire wagon, although Meji stopped him from doing it.
• Levitation (IS) : To help Meji keep up when they fly off to Santuariel and who-knows-where. According to Meji, it's known in Tsuiraku too, but it's not clear whether she can cast it herself.
• Passwall (IS): to do some short-term construction on the inn in Thranel so that Meji can come out and play
• Pocket Dimension (MH): not clear whether it's a spell or a magical device, but anyway, it allows her to carry all manner of stuff comfortably. First used in Meji's room. As much junk as Ian, Sarine, etc., carry around, there's a pretty good chance that they can use it too, but we haven't seen them do so.

Mind-influencing Spells

The elves are the grand masters of these, and Sarine in particular gets a lot of use out of them.

• Command (SE): With which she bosses people around, first after slaying Derren Felmel to keep the tavern rats from coming after her, later to escape a pesky information source; people just do what she tells them to...
• Disruption: Used by Toren to pacify Meji and Ian, but it doesn't work as well as he'd planned. We don't know exactly what it does, but it flattens Meji for a long time, Ian disastrously (from Toren's perspective) less so.
• Domination (SE): Used to intimidate bandit Jim. Apparently a more powerful version of Command with persistent effects that aren't limited to the single command given.
• Mental Impulse: Used by Korene to clear the battlefield before the elven military unit tries to bag Meji and Ian. It seems to be a telepathic version of the Command spell. Whether it's more or less powerful than Sarine's Domination spell is open to debate.
• Mind Wipe (SE): With which she deletes Jon's memories of a certain one-night stand, although he deduces that his memory has been messed with and doesn't like it. (Sarine's life might be a bit more pleasant if she could use this one on herself, one suspects.)
• Sleep (SE): With which she finds a non-violent way to conclude her interrogation of the Shipping Company Guy (who, we learn, snores)

Shape Changing spells and Polymorphism

Almost anyone can change shapes easier than elves and Half Elves. This is because of the Form persistence inherent in the elven physiotype.

• Polymorph Spell: Cause a form change in others. Basically, turn them into a frog, cat, dog, wolf, whatever. No Polymorph spell works well on elves, however. Never-seen Mika was hospitalized owing to a reaction to what may have been a Polymorph gone wrong.
• Polymorph Self (IS, MH): An alternative to bust-enhancing surgery. When Meji tried it in the past, it didn't last, to her disappointment (and Ellis' continued amusement). Ian uses it a bit more practically.
• Transmutation: Taught at Sashi Mu Academy of Thaumaturgy and Conjuration, but we haven't seen it cast successfully. We do know that when a younger Meji tried to transform a block of ice for one of her classes, things didn't go well.

Special Effects and Entertainment

• Dancing Lights/Fancy Lighting (MH): used to spotlight her "nubile, pert young body" in the river. Ian notices, all right, for all the good it does her. She also uses them to entertain Ellis on the way to Thranel, light the party's way through the forest, and illuminate the trap sensors en route to the Giant Magic Potato so that Jon can pick them off.
• Earthquake (SE): Used in combat by Sarine to throw Melrin off balance so that she can regain the initiative.
• Pyrotechnics (MH): used to create a distraction in the bandit camp, so that Jon can do some shooting. (Of course, Meji could just as easily have blown them all away with a Fireball, but shooting people seems cathartic for Jon.)
• Silence (SE): There seem to be two different but probably related Silence effects. Sarine uses one to muffle the sound of a little conversation she has with Jon and Meji before wiping out the bandit camp. Later, we see a silenced object (a rifle) when Jon tries to assassinate Winston Maurel. Jon not being a spellcaster, we don't know how the rifle got silenced; presumably the Gewehr Wraiths have a spellcaster or two in their employ that we haven't seen yet.

Vision enhancement and Remote Sensing Spells

• Vision Enhancement (MH): used on arrival at the Northern Confederacy, to try to confirm that the specks an impaired Ian is seeing in the distance really are Leah and Riley as he says they are.

See Also

• List of Spells
• List of Magical Gadgets