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MAGIC

Adjacent and opposing Magic Specialities

Each of the five magic specialities, have two adjacent and two opposing specialities. A mage can be sure of casting its own speciality’s spells, but is increasingly less powerful in the adjacent and opposing specialities’ spells. The Book of Magic in the encyclopedia gives an extensive, cryptic overview of all the magic spells that can be used within The Reincarnation. Mages have access to a selection of these spells, depending on their speciality and server settings (apprentice-server has no ultimate spells, the other servers do).

The pentegram above depicts what specialities are opposite and what are adjacent. Plain is the neutral colour in the centre. White is adjacent to Blue and Green, Green is adjacent to White and Red, Red is adjacent to Green and Black, Black is adjacent to Red and Blue, Blue is adjacent to Black and White.

Researching Spells

To be able to cast a spell, you must have researched them (except your simplest spells that you have magically acquired instantaneously during reincarnation). You can research spells of your own speciality and of other specialities, provided that your spell books contain them.

Spell complexity and spell books

Spells come in various levels of complexity, and take progressively more turns to research. These levels are: SIMPLE, AVERAGE, COMPLEX, ULTIMATE and ANCIENT. You can use the TR-wiki to browse the spells in this long list or, alternatively, in this category by category list.

A fine selection of spells is automatically stored in your spell books, which can be researched. ULTIMATE spells only appear in the spell book of your own speciality. SIMPLE and AVERAGE spells occur in all spell books (own, adjacent and opposing speciality). COMPLEX spells occur in the spell books of own and adjacent speciality. Phantasm mages also find the complex spells of their opposing specialities in their spell books. Mages of other specialities have to acquire these spells on the Black Market to use them. ANCIENT spells do not appear in spell books automatically and have to be acquired via the Exotic Mageware section at the Black Market or through the use of some items. The next spell to be researched is displayed in your spell book.

When all spells in your spell book are researched, and you are in a guild that is strong enough, you may research the special spell ARMAGEDDON. Researching this mother of all spells will not boost your spell level, but will give you a chance to force The Reincarnation into a violent climax game phase. The longer the game is ongoing (one month - two months - three months) the lower the guild force requirement for researching Armageddon becomes. If Armageddon is not cast by players on a server within 3 months, admins force the server to reset by triggering Armageddon themselves.

Spell level

The more spells you have learned, the higher your spell level is, the more successful you will be in casting the spells of other specialities and the more powerful the effect of your spell casting will be (more units summoned, stronger enchantments). On the other hand, the effects of most spells are not exactly predictable: sometimes you may summon more creatures using the same spell at the same spell level than other times. A higher spell-level does not have an effect on the amount of turns or magic power it costs to cast a spell or upkeep an enchantment. Your spell level will also aid you in battle: if your spell level is a lot higher then your opponent then you have a chance to reflect your opponents spells.

A player can monitor progress in your spell level in the Status Report and Research pages. While you acquire more difficult spells, your spell level increases more than when you acquire more simple spells (+20 for an ULTIMATE, +7 for a COMPLEX, +3 for an AVERAGE, +1 for each SIMPLE spell). Gods can temporarily boost the spell level of a mage. When a mage has researched all the ULTIMATE spells of its speciality and completed the default spell books from the adjacent and opposite specialities, the mage is fully researched.

Further rising the spell level will demand shopping on the Black Market. Learning an ANCIENT spell will boost spell level (+15) above that of most of the other mages of your speciality. Learning a COMPLEX spell of opposite speciality, will boost spell level (+7). The latter helps , , and mages to approach the spell level of the fully researched mage.

Researching spells

By entering the Research screen, you can see which spell is to be researched next in each of your five spell books. The amount of turns it takes to complete research of a spell depends on the amount of mage guilds maintained on your land.

In the past, you had to allocate turns to research spells specifically. Currently, research is also going on while you spend turns on other actions (explore, war, summoning, gelding, m.p. charge - whatever), but at a slower rate. Later in the game rounds, the rate at which spells can be learned is somewhat faster than early on, to allow late-reincarnating mages to catch up with the rest somewhat faster.

The aspects of research that a mage can control are:

what color spell book to research first (some strategy can be put in here)
the pace at which research will progress in the background (amount of land, number of guilds on your land, enchantments).
you can double the speed of research by dedicating turns to it (enabled/disabled on some servers).

Concentration

A mage is likely to fail casting the more complex spells of adjacent and opposite specialities even when these spells have been successfully researched. When this occurs, the game will notify you that you have lost your ‘concentration’. You can severly change the odds of successfully casting an off-speciality spell, by raising your spell level (research your spell books completely, casting concentration with some spell level speeds up research) and by certain enchantments (browse your spell books). Phantasm mages have the strongest concentration abilities.

M.P. Charging

Charging for magic power allows you to spend turns specifically focussing on your m.p.-income. This doubles amounts that nodes would generate by spending turns normally. M.P. charging is a good way to replenish the m.p. stored in your nodes, provided that other parts of your economy (population, geld) allow you to do so, and your m.p. income does not become too negative. A similar activity exists to boost your geld income (See: Gelding). When you plan to cast expensive spells and enchantments it is a good idea to charge for magic power first. Charging for m.p. while your nodes are fully filled is pointless and may even harm you because of population and geld issues (so don’t charge for too many turns).

Casting Spells

Spell magic arguably is the most important aspect of The Reincarnation. There are various types of spells, all of which will cost an amount of magic power when used, regardless if casting fails or is successful. You may for example use spells to summon units into your army; to enchant your kingdom for better economy or better defence; to offensively enchant another mage and lastly to help you win your battles.

Non-battle spells

You cast non-battle spells by choosing ‘Cast Spell’ and selecting them from your spell book. Casting non-battle spells takes an amount of turns and costs an amount of m.p. (different for each spell, see the Encyclopedia: Book of Magic). You can choose to cast a spell several times in a row (e.g. when summoning units for your army), provided that you have sufficient turns and magic power. You need to have sufficient amounts of turns and m.p. available to be able to cast them. So-called Offensive spells require a target: you should enter a mage number. In some cases, you may choose to put your own mage number as the target. For spells that are self-only, this is not needed. Pay attention when casting spells: be sure you enter the right number of times to cast the spell, and, if applicable, enter the right target mage number.

Summoning units

A large number of spells (so-called Summoning spells) provide access to units for your army. Most of them are instant spells and bring a number of units once. Some of them are Enchantments and bring units turn by turn. On most servers, summoning is restricted by your m.p. income: when your income is negative, you cannot summon (nor recruit, nor buy) more troops. ARCH server is the exception (you can summon with negative m.p. there).

Battle-use spells

Some spells are for use in battles only (see Chapter VI: WAR). For offensive battles, a spell is assigned in the War screens. For defensive battles, a spell can be assigned in the Defence Assignment screen. Casting these spells does not cost turns; they just cost you magic power.

Casting Armageddon

Provided that casting of Armageddon is possible at the time, a mage may cast this spell just as any other non-battle spell (selecting it will take you to a page with a large graphic; click on the graphic to proceed). After casting, the Armageddon enchantment is over your country. It reduces the attack limitations for you and your guild members. Casting Armageddon will make your mage name be mentioned in the Hall of Immortals.

Enchantments

Some spells start an enchantment that will influence the economy and/or defence of either your own or someone else’s kingdom. Some enchantments have positive effects others can be a serious pain.

Upkeep of enchantments

Apart from their casting costs, the resulting enchantments will also require upkeep as long as they are running. Some enchantments run unlimitedly (as long as their upkeep is maintained), other run for a fixed amount of turns. Self-only enchantments can only be targeted on your own kingdom (type your own mage number as target when casting the spell releasing the enchantment, or leave the target blank).

There are also enchantments that target another mage (type a mage number as target when casting the spell that releases the enchantment). For these offensive enchantments, the caster will pay the upkeep, for every turn that the targeted mage spends while under the influence of the enchantment. You can have many different enchantments running on your kingdom at the same time (self-only ones as well as incoming offensive ones). You cannot have the same enchantment over your country twice (self-only nor offensive ones). Exceptions to this are enchantments released on your kingdom by yourself and by the seven gods in The Reincarnation:

a kingdom can have the same enchantment maintained by a god on top of an enchantment maintained by a mage.
Enchanting yourself, will not stop an enemy to cast that offensive enchantment on you too.
while one enemy has you enchanted, no other enemy can cast that enchantment on you.

Dispelling of enchantments

An enchantment that a mage maintains himself can simply be cancelled by selecting it in the Dispel screen and confirming dispelling. Enchantments cast by others are harder to dispel. To be removed, they require the offering of a certain minimum amount of m.p. from your nodes (exact amounts depend on spell levels involved; the percentage chance to dispel is indicated). Dispel attempts cost 1 turn, if successful, the enchantment is dispelled directly after that turn. When the spell 'Dispel Magic' has been researched, dispelling incoming enchantments is more likely to be successful. There are alternative ways to deal with offensive enchantments besides dispelling.

Enchantments over Enemies

Mages that maintain enchantments over enemies, will find the status of these enchantments updated every time a turn is spend (by themselves). The same goes for the mana upkeep for the turns that your enemy runs under this enchantment. The Reincarnation gives no real time information on enemy mages - updating information on the status and whereabouts of your enemies takes turns (enchantment status) or comes in with delay (ranklists).

Tracking Enchantments (supporting guild feature)

Supporting Guilds have access to the Spell Tracker tool: it allows to keep track of enchantments casted on enemies by your guild mates and, if enabled, by allied guilds, and allows you to cast a new spell. Note that the spell tracker updates with the same delaying mechanisms as mentioned above.

See Supporting Guild Features for more details.

Using Magic Items

Using items is similar to using magic spells. Like magic spells, there are different usages of items: ones you use in battles, ones you use in-between battles, and ones that may influence in the background, as long as you possess them. You can determine what type an item is by looking it up in the Encyclopedia’s Book of Items.

Non-battle items

You use non-battle items by choosing “Use Item” and selecting them from your stocks. Using a non-battle item costs one turn. Most items are gone after you have used them (except some unique items). Many items are self-only, but a fine selection of items can be used offensively on other kingdoms. In the latter case, you need to specify the targets mage number when releasing the item.

Battle-use items

Some items are for use in battles only (see Chapter VI: WAR). For offensive battles, an item is assigned in the war screens. For defensive battles, an item can be assigned in the Defence Assignment screen. Used items will be gone after the battle (with exception of some unique items).

Other types of items

Some rare items (a selection of Unique Items) affect your country as long as you possess them: these items work as hidden enchantments. You can only find out about the working of these mysterious items, by inspecting your status report, main screen and battle reports closely.

Groentje Players Manual Ch6