Mana Source

I'm about to start patching up the Blood Magic article since it's one of the most finished articles in R&D and only needs some simple changes to get it pushed through.

One of the big things I need to worry about is this statement:

Mana is usually taken from one's self, or, rarely, from one's surroundings.

This is the only mention of the source of mana for a mage, I believe, and was written a lot closer to the founding of RoKK. I remember adding that bit in because it was closer to how rpgs do their mana system. If mages take it from the surroundings, then they wouldn't really have a cap on their mana, would they? Drinking mana potions would also be useless.

For our system, we need to decide on where mages draw their mana from.

See, under the current system, if something casting magic takes inherent mana from itself, then that mana causes a lot less feedback (but it will still cause feedback). If something casting magic takes mana from outside itself, then there is no discount there. That's only really been implied by the Enchantment article (which is still in R&D until we figure out what the hell we want runes to do).

Here's my thoughts, and it's mostly a "What mages prefer to do"

Mages prefer to draw from themselves, because there is a feedback discount. This puts a lot more strain on the mage each time they cast, though, and if they try to use all of their mana they will have a lot of physical problems (even if they manage to contain all of the feedback). Alternatively, there's no physical cost to using mana, I just figured there would be one (Life Energy and Mana relationship stuff, would need another article to justify it, but it's just a thought right now).

Mages prefer to draw from the environment. Although there is no feedback discount, the feedback is all external and easier to manage, comparatively. The only strain here is mental from having to deal with the volume of feedback and from managing an external source. There's no real limit on the mage beyond that, allowing them to cast to their heart's content.

I'd rather allow them to draw mana from either source, rather than flat-out decide on or the other. If I had to go with only one source, it'd be external. Mages are already pretty limited, and I don't want them to turn out pathetic. Therefore, I'd just like some thoughts on what we should do about it.

I would be absolutely fine with mages drawing on themselves. It would mean less of an emphasis on feedback ground items and more emphasis on physical limits.

That being said I'm also more interested in making clear divisions in magic types. Blood Magic and Skin-Runes already cause harm to the body in order to cause magic.

So I'd prefer that as a practice we just say that Conclave mages (or most mainland mages that use Elemental Magic) draw from their environment. It would make sense from a lore standpoint. These mages would have had access to more feedback items so they wouldn't be as liable to take the agonizing route to gain the feedback discount.