One of the fundamental building blocks of magic is the process of Bonding a material. Everyone can do this, assuming they have enough mana to fuel the process. This is one of the dividing lines between mages and the average citizen.

All magical or enchanted items have to be bonded before you can use them, excepting the most basic of items, this is because bonding allows you to push your mana into the item with less loss and from a distance at higher bond levels.

Once a bond is established it is stable except in 4 specific cases that we know of. 1) The person who bonded the item breaks the bond. 2) Another person bonds the item, thereby breaking the previous bond. 3) The item itself is broken. If this happens, the pieces of the object can still have some level of weaker bond depending on the size of the original piece and the size of the resulting pieces. 4) The person who bonded the item dies. Of course, the study of magic is always advancing and it is quite possible that there are other ways bonds can be broken, but these are ones that are currently known.

Time Required

The amount of time required to bond an item is directly related to the mass of the object and the material. For some reason that we currently don’t understand, some materials require more or less mana per unit of mass than others. Materials that require less are faster and easier to bond, but are more vulnerable to having the bonds broken. As far as we know, the amount of time or mana involved in the bond doesn’t impact what you can do with the bond, just how easy it is for someone to break.

Bonding ability levels

The ability to create bonds as several different categories and each category has its own proficiency levels which can be increased independently of each other and independently of other more general power or skill levels.

Bond Levels

An object can be bonded at several different levels. Each additional level of bonding takes approximately 10 times more mana to complete the bond.

Level 1

Bonding an item to the first level only requires between 0 and 10 seconds for an experienced mage with typical materials, depending on the material they are working with, silver would bond with barely a thought where as gem stones would actually take much longer than 10, if they could be bonded at all.

We will be discussing the different known materials and bonding them in a future lecture, but for now I will just say that only a handful of bonded rubies or sapphires have been known to exist. No one knows of a diamond that has been bonded successfully, it is thought to be literally impossible, but some scholars dispute this conclusion.

To get back on topic… the first level of bonding allows you to sense where the object is like an extension of your own body if it is within approximately 1-2 meters. Outside of that radius you have a vague sense of the direction and distance.

It also allows you to use mana from the item if it is within the range where it feels like part of your body. The usefulness of this varies highly by the type of magic that the person can use. Mages who work with vision or sound mana can project their senses through an object for instance, but this is next to useless at the first bonding level. Fire mages projecting fire mana through objects that are close to them can be particularly devastating even at this first level.

The downside of projecting mana this way is that it isn’t efficient, especially at the first level. At least 60-70% of the mana is wasted. It is speculated that the mana channels created by a first level bond aren’t strong enough to contain most spells so the mana is lost into the aether. Others think that some of it is being consumed by the bound item, pushing it toward a higher bonding level.

Despite the debate, the best evidence seems to suggest that it is both. Items that are used to channel mana in this manner will slowly increase their bond level with no additional attempt to bond the item, but not at a rate consistent with all of the “missing” mana being used for this purpose. The academic, philosophical, and religious debates about what happens to and or with that mana is its own interesting topic, but for our practical purposes today it just doesn’t matter.

Level 2

The second bonding level is very similar to level 1, but the perceptive range is 4-5 meters and it takes between 1 to 10 minutes for typical materials.

The only additional features at this stage is that if the object is broken, the pieces will typically maintain a first level bond rather than the bond dissolving complete and projecting mana through the object is slightly more efficient.

Level 3

Level 4

Level 5

Level 6

Level 7

Level 8

Level 9

Level 10

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The skill set for my main character is primarily teleportation based at this point. They can create bonds with objects that allow teleportation from remote locations to their current location, the stronger the bond the further away the object can be called from. Weak bonds that only work over distances measured in meters can take several seconds, multiple miles days to weeks, nearly unlimited months to years. The time to bond an object increases exponentially with the size/mass, but bonding doesn’t require constant contact, just proximity and a very small amount of mana. Though larger amounts of mana and direct contact can speed up the process somewhat.

This can also work in reverse, they can transport objects to a location that was previously setup with bonded anchors and other magical constructions, again the strong the bond with the anchors and how long it has been setup influences the range.

They can also transport objects by touch, but if they don’t have a location setup and target it, the transportation is random and short range. Usually with sight. This can be used offensively, but the amount of mana required to do so it extreme as it has to overcome the natural defenses of the target if they are unwilling.

Q/A

1. So teleporting things from further away takes more time right?
   1. The teleportation itself is instant. Just the setup required to do so takes longer.
2. So the item teleports to their exact location or right next to them?
   1. More or less up to the person casting it, but has to be touching some part of them. For instance they could teleport a weapon into their hand, but not into someone across the room.
3. And they cant like teleport inside walls or something right? The offensive teleport is what im referring to btw
   1. No, generally not, the teleportation would fail if the area was too dense, but things like leaves and dust would be shunted aside by the teleportation.
4. Well the powers dont seem op so thats good. Just one little thing tho. Say they bond a coin. And then throw it off a cliff. And teleport it bacj to their hand. Does it shoot off in a direction or not?
   1. Hmm, good question. I was imagining that when it appeared it would be static rather than carrying the momentum it already had, but it could be interesting either way.
5. Wait so the size of the object only affects how long it takes to bond right? Or does it affect teleportation time
   1. Right, and the mana required to transport it
6. So you cant just. Bond a skyscraper. And then drop it from an airship
   1. If you had absolutely crazy mana pools and had spent a decade or two living in the skyscraper, you could probably transport it from one end of a city to the other.
7. Oh, what if a bonded item breaks into pieces? Does it still stay bonded? Or does a strongly bonded item seperate into weakly bonded pieces
   1. I would say each piece would be weakly bonded.
8. Can you move while teleporting a bonded item? Or does it need gestures and stuff
   1. It doesn’t require gestures, and like I said is instant, but the object transports into place without any momentum so if it is heavy and you are moving your are going to have to overcome the mass of the object to get it to match your speed.
9. Does bonding have to be done all at once, or can it be done bits at a time? You said it doesn’t require constant contact, just proximity, but if it was the skyscraper example and they left for groceries or whatever and were out of range, would that completely reset the bonding process, or would it just pick back up when the get back?
   1. Bonding is a process of infusing the material with your mana at a fundamental level. It doesn’t have to be done all in one shot, but before the bond is complete any interruption will cause some loss of progress. Also only one person can had a bond to an item at a time. Bonding an item that is already bonded is possible, but takes much more mana and time than it otherwise would.
10. Huh, interesting. Is bonding just in relation to teleportation or is it a basic magical ability that plays out differently for different magic types? Or is bonding it’s own magic type?
    1. Most, if not all, magic users bond objects in some way, the specific effects differ depending on the type of magic being employed.
11. So technically, you could have a backpack full of armour pieces all bonded to you. And since theyre so close. You can just teleport em to block attacks, right?
    1. Yes, but you couldn’t put them back into your pack. It would generally be impossible to setup something that small as a teleportation destination.
    2. Q: Or teleport your sword to an off hand for a surprise attack
       1. Yes, that would be possible, but again you would have to deal with momentum to get the sword up to speed after transporting it. Could totally see it being used to swap out a sword for a spear and get an instant crazy reach advantage.
12. Generally thinking that it is going to be well known to not duel teleportation specialists unless you know what you are going and have magic types that would help.
13. Can you swap weapons like yhat since it’s instantaneous then? Or would it be a moment as you teleport it away then another one back 1. The time required would be mental on your end. The teleportation itself would be instant.

gildarts — Today at 12:00 PM Part of this character setup is that they are going to have an armory setup in a hidden location that they can teleport stuff to and from. The strength of the bonds with the weapons will be variable so they wouldn’t have access to all of them in every location. Demon ~Void Mimic~ — Today at 12:02 PM Potentially fun thought for a fight style with that: identical swords but with different lengths, weights, and balances to trip up opponents by switching them out mid battle. gildarts — Today at 12:02 PM And all of the above is more of the high end state for a teleportation user, they aren’t going to start there. XD Dr. Taimoor — Today at 12:02 PM A true zero to hero story And as per this servers focus, i do hope most of the weapons are swords gildarts — Today at 12:04 PM Hah, I think their main weapon is going to be a staff with the ability to project mana blades of various configurations out of one end. Swords will be part of their arsenal though. Dr. Taimoor — Today at 12:04 PM One might say, a spear of some kind, eh? The superior medieval weapon Staff is cool though

LanBySea || Analyst — Today at 1:14 PM

So…just reading through this at a skim here are my thoughts on teleportation.

1. Making the bonds more specific. If you make the bonded item/location become: A) a teleport to bond B) a teleport bond to me C) a teleport from paired bond to paired bond This is a great way to limit the power beyond just the bond strength, and makes character growth easier as they learn more bonds in addition to bond strength

2. Making bonding at range an ability. A) Bonding via touch = beginner B) Bonding via sight = advanced C) Bonding via memory = mastery, requires familiarity and previous bond

3. Developing complexity of teleports A) Teleport one-way A to B B) Teleport swaps A swaps with B C) Teleport Dynamically A to B, B to C, C to D, D to A or other recombinations

Costs involved for teleportation in my mind could be:

1. Setting up the bonds, strength, type, static/dynamic location, static/dynamic type.
2. Memory of the bond, the more recently you used a bond the harder it is to recall
3. Spiritual Strain & Interference, in addition to having a harder time re-using a bond, multiple bonds in the same location can cause degradation of all bonds in the vicinity causing interference.