Already 30 seconds staring at the ceiling. Thoughts flash fast from good thing I already have 4 years of disguise and self-control experience! And so I screamed everything I think—in my mind. To the scraps I picked up when I saw epic battles from Fate on YouTube a couple times and out of curiosity listened to a couple 7-minute reviews of this world.
Listened and dropped it, because the world is garbage—haven't seen such a mishmash of nonsense and crippleness in a long time! Straining memory, remembered that I think I watched this anime as a child, but which part? And it was a hell of a long time ago, like… hmm, somewhere 15 years ago from previous life, though not sure—stopped being an anime fan 10 years before that, so spread from 10 to 20 years. And here I'm already 4 years old, so the fact I recognized anything at all—a fucking miracle.
Hmm, let's gather everything I remember about this world—magic is crippled, some mix of faith energy and human mana itself. Seems tied territorially and if for example some Celtic runes work stably in Norway, or wherever Celts are? Doesn't matter, so—in Norway everything's fine, people believe in the runes and there's some historical lore—but in this same Japan runes will glitch and work 1 out of 10 times. Or as an example you're a druid from Siberian forests—in Europe and England your magic will still work, about 50/50. Because legends about hermit druids are still remembered from when Romans conquered Germanic and English tribes.
Remember at least the popular movie in my world about Asterix and Obelix—mostly I rely on those movies and cartoons, because they're popular. And because they conditionally popularized the image of a druid old man, and popularity and fame in this world equals magic. Maybe not exactly, but as an example it works. And suppose in that same India or Africa—such a druid couldn't do anything because they don't even know the word—druid. Which ties magic schools to historical homelands.
Besides that, a fact that once pissed me off pops up—there's little magic in the world and the fewer mages per territory, the stronger they are. Which leads to the interesting point that a single mage family controls a couple cities and kills all outsiders. Because there's little magic—not enough for themselves. Which means any first-generation magus is a potential corpse. And hello family magic from Harry Potter fanfics and magical aristocracy.
Question where a newbie gets any magic knowledge? Fuck knows. The only thing that comes to mind is religion. Seems local Catholicism is a collection of weak mages—though everything's relative, Catholicism is known and exists even in Japan, and for a couple centuries already. Conditionally known worldwide and because of that even if weakly, a Catholic mage can cast everywhere, and remember faith is also tied—and there are a shit ton of Catholics, so it shouldn't bother them much and there should be enough power for everyone.
Rolling the thought about Catholics, even got an idea to try finding a Catholic church in my city and risk begging to join, hoping to touch magic. But experience from previous life and disgust toward religion in general and Christianity in particular, in all its forms—Orthodoxy, Catholicism, Anglicanism, Protestantism and seems even Reformism, or is that a twist of my psyche? Nah, seems it exists too, ahem, so—my entire being just twists at the thought of becoming a conditional acolyte in a church.
A thought flashed about local temples with dubious paper talismans, creepy idols—and though the word monk doesn't cause a storm of emotions in me and I'd go to some Tibet without question—because I don't just believe in reincarnation, I am its proof! But local ones, somehow don't want—starting with it being Japan, and for those in the know—that's enough to end it.
And I don't believe in the power of paper talismans—now if it was some metal ingot with an epic rune carved on it—yes, I'd believe in that. It would inspire reliability in me, but a thin paper with calligraphic crap on it—not serious. Yes I'm biased and most likely in Japan it would work insanely well, but I can't help it—just repulses me.
And that's only about ways to get access to magic knowledge. The thought that I might not be a mage at all, I try not to consider. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg—what about some "True" magic being lost here? If we drop the pompous nonsense, it all boils down to one—you can only use what's already been invented, and only for your conditional Origin.
Oooo, Origin is a separate topic. But back to magic, no matter how you twist and pervert—you won't create a single new spell. Sounds not scary at first glance. But it's not, take an example—the same fireball. Classic from all sides—but there are nuances, somehow changing the spell is already impossible—it's only a ball and period. Turn it into a fire arrow to fly faster—no. Add homing—no. Increase power, most likely again—no.
Surely such spells exist, because fire is the most popular element. But if we take the same lightning? What could a person come up with? Simple Sith-style lightning discharge and maybe chain lightning—that's it, and that's all lightning magic in the entire WORLD. Or say teleportation? If it wasn't invented—means it DOESN'T EXIST and no matter how you strain, you can't create or invent it. And that's not what I want, deep inside me burns the desire to invent something of my own, unique.
And if we add Origin here—it gets really sad. If we greatly generalize—Origin is inclination toward magic. Suppose your Origin is water control, some basic like lighting a spark, fixing a thing or sending an air gust—you might manage if you find it. But as you can guess water-related spells will come easier, stronger, faster to you. Which is logical, but remembering everything I made up earlier—nuances appear, you have to find a magic school where these spells EXIST. A school that has at least some historical context in the territory where you live—or move.
If suppose you went to a local temple and became an acolyte there, and they specialize in conditional earth magic and their paper talismans, and from water magic there's only some water jet—then that's it, congrats—you're a shitty earth mage who can throw a couple stones, you can draw talismans—which I count as conditionally neutral-territorial magic, and they'll be average—because people here believe in talismans insanely. And from your inclination to magic in this school you only have the water jet that exists in this temple, but in it you're a genius.
And that's only taking water as an example—what if something exotic? Say the same mercury manipulation that one mage had in the recent Holy Grail War—straight-up cool power, both defense and attack and conditional movement on different surfaces. But that's a hereditary magus—all that is his conditional family magic and all spells he uses were created by his family when creating spells was still possible. But a conditional newbie who never even heard of such a family—his limit is making a thermometer vibrate. And possibly just trying words and gestures, straining and hoping for a result—chance everything matches and something works… well, it's about the same as my chance in the previous world to roll a fireball—meaning zero.
Having thought all this up, I realized—local magic is not the limit of my dreams at all. Not at all. Emerging features of this world worsen my already spoiled mood—what about all sorts of mysticism? Hmm? There seem to be vampires here, also with their nuances, but still. And for some reason the thought of the apocalypse flashes. Something related to the Holy Grail War and the apocalypse. Mmm… seems there's a demon in the Grail? Or no, can't remember—but definitely something about the apocalypse there. And that there's some unpleasant catch in this very war. Or is that not in this reality? What reality am I in anyway?
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